Influential Entrepreneurs with Mike Saunders, MBA - Interview with Edwin Mays with MaysGroup Advisors Discussing Longevity Risk

Episode Date: November 25, 2025

Edwin Mays is a Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor-CRPC™ – Maysgroup Advisors is an independent financial services firm, specializing in helping individuals and families prepare for, plan, and live in retirement. Their approach focuses on tailored retirement planning strategies and insurance solutions to provide our clients with guaranteed lifetime income, asset protection, and achieve tax efficiencies in support of a holistic approach to their finances.With over 30 years in the financial services industry—including leadership roles at firms like Thomson Reuters, Merrill Lynch, Smith Barney, and Transamerica—Edwin Mays brings deep institutional experience and unmatched insight to every client engagement. As a Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor™ (CRPC), Edwin specializes in designing retirement strategies that guarantee lifetime cash flow and protect against the most serious threats retirees face today: market risk, longevity, and rising costs.At MaysGroup Advisors, Edwin’s mission is simple: replace uncertainty with strategy and give clients the confidence to retire on their terms—with income they can count on, no matter what the market does.Learn more: https://maysgroupadvisors.com/The content is developed from sources believed to be providing accurate information. The information in this material is not intended as tax or legal advice. Please consult legal or tax professionals for specific information regarding your individual situation. The opinions expressed and material provided are for general information, and should not be considered a solicitation for the purchase or sale of any security. We take protecting your data and privacy very seriously. As of January 1, 2020 the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) suggests the following link as an extra measure to safeguard your data: Do not sell my personal information.Influential Entrepreneurs with Mike Saundershttps://businessinnovatorsradio.com/influential-entrepreneurs-with-mike-saunders/Source: https://businessinnovatorsradio.com/interview-with-edwin-mays-with-maysgroup-advisors-discussing-longevity-risk

Welcome to Influential Entrepreneurs, bringing you interviews with elite business leaders and experts, sharing tips and strategies for elevating your business to the next level. Here's your host, Mike Saunders. Hello and welcome to this episode of Influential Entrepreneurs. This is Mike Saunders, the authority positioning coach. Today we have back with his Edwin Mays with Mays Group advisors, and we'll be talking about longevity risk, never out. living your money. Edwin, welcome back to the program. Thanks for having me, Mike. You know, I think that if you were to pull 100 people off the street and say, what's your greatest fear in life? Many people would say fear of, you know, public speaking, fear of dying.

But one of the top ones I've heard is I don't know whether I'm going to have enough money to outlive my, you know, my retirement savings. And I think that that becomes a huge documented fear for people is outliving their money so where do you start with working with your clients in helping them understand that you need to have a certain amount of money and one of the risks in life is we're taking better care of ourselves we've got better health care we're exercising more eating better and the tables have changed from back in the day when the life expectancy was in the 50s and 60s. And now life expectancy tables run in the 90s to 100, right? So where do you start that conversation with your clients? Well, first thing, I will explain to him that since I've been

in financial services the last 35 years, the two things I've learned over the years is that you will get older fashion you thought you would, and you will live longer than you thought you would. Yeah. And so we call longevity risk the risk multiplier because the longer you live, the more better markets, more inflation cycles and health care costs you'll face. So it's the one risk that magnifies every other risk. So where I compare it to a newly retired couple driving across the desert, they've got the top down, the road ahead, and all the time in the world.

But instead of enjoying their view, they're staring at the gas gauge, wondering if they're going to make it to the next station. That's what longevity risk feels like. You can't relax and enjoy retirement if you're constantly worrying about running out of fuel. Wow. And, you know, you would think that it would be like a high five. Yahoo. I feel great. My doctor says I'm in great shape.

I'm living longer. But that does bring with them the other risks out there of, did I save enough? and is health care going to cost me more or do I need to have some of these things? What are some of those other risks that pop up the longer that we live? Well, there's a number of them. And I put them into three stages because in retirement, you have what's called the go-go years. You know, you can't wait to get back to the golf course or go to the happy hour. Then you have the slow-go years where you're not.

not golfing and partying quite so much. But then you have the no-go years. You just, you know, things are shut down. You're waiting for the next stage. And so, you know, people have to understand that their major, major cost as they get older, will be health care cost. And so even if they can't qualify for a long-term care policy, or traditional policy, for example, they're going to have to pay for their care some kind of way or their care of their spouse. And that's another part of retirement planning that often goes overlooked. Yes, we are living longer, but women are living much longer. And unfortunately, most most of the caretakers are loved ones of people who are ill and those loved

those the caretakers are women yeah wow yeah that's a really good point and you don't think about that and let's let's even factor in the fact that research shows that women live longer than men which then means okay the longevity is kicking in and men are living longer but if the wife lives longer than the husband, doesn't that bring some extra factors into the retirement plan? Oh, when should we claim that social security? Or do we have enough money for the wife to live if the husband pre-deceases? So there's some factors there that crop up too, right?

It sure is. You know, so in terms of Social Security, for example, if the main breadwinner passes away, then And the surviving spouse only receives that income from that main breadwinner. In a lot of cases, that's men. But they lose their own Social Security. So maybe a third of their guaranteed income is removed after the death of the first spouse. Now, the surviving spouse, they're still going to have health care issues going forward just because their spouse or like husband, for example,

will pass away. It doesn't mean that they're immune to getting ill. Yeah. And so they're going to need income. Yeah. That's a big, big piece of the equation. Let's also talk statistically. And this is something that I've heard, and so you can verify this, but it just seems staggering regarding the need. You mentioned health care. Well, long-term care becomes a high statistic. probability that many people will need some type of long-term care, not just your Medicare or your health insurance type needs, but define and talk about the big need for long-term care. What statistically is research showing that people will need to have that addressed? Well, if you're a male, for example, who's age 65, you have a 50% chance of living to age

89 and a 25% chance of living to age 94. But if you're married, a couple, those ages grow even higher. So there's going to be some stage in those later stages of life where you need income for care. And the care doesn't have to be anything for catastrophic care. It doesn't have to be for Alzheimer's. It could be just getting up to go to the bathroom. Yeah. The care needs to be there. And it's not like I have to wait to buy my new set of golf clubs. No, I need this money now to help me with my day-to-day living. Yeah. And, you know, regarding that, if there is some type of long-term care, which might mean in-home or nursing home or mental care. I mean, there's varying levels that tends to cost a buck or two.

It does. And it's very expensive. I heard someone recently say that their relative needed the care to the tune of $10,000 a month. Oh, yeah. My family's gone through this recently. I have an aunt and uncle is costing them almost $20,000 a month. Wow. For both a husband and wife.

Husband and wife. good gracious and and I it's kind of like oh I didn't plan for that car repair and it's a thousand dollars I guess I'll take that out of savings 20 grand a month you probably didn't plan on that no they did not plan for that and they had a very healthy portfolio but it it goes quick yeah and you know if I let's use that example of a healthy portfolio in 20,000 a month if you didn't plan for it that money has to come from somewhere so if you start with drawing $20,000 a month, while that portfolio was meant to provide income for their retirement. And now it's dwindling really quickly. So if you're not, if you don't have that healthy portfolio, what are some of the options out there to be ready for potential long-term care expense? Right. There's, there's a number of insurance products because insurance is, is, is the protector

against the unknown. That's why we have insurance. You know, we have, we buy homeowners assurance, not because we know our house is going to burn down, but we buy it because it could just in case it does. And so same thing with long-term care. You know, for those who would qualify or get through underwriting, index universal life policies are a very powerful tool for long-term care. They have what's known as a advanced death benefit. So you have a death benefit of a million dollars, for example. you can access that million dollars if you qualify for long-term care or imminent care.

And so all you need is to satisfy the requirements of the carrier by meeting you can't do certain health-related items. But, yeah, the IUL is a great fit because, first of all, the money normally comes back to you tax-free because it is a life insurance. policy. And for those who don't qualify for life insurance, they're unable to meet the qualification standards, annuities. There's a number of annuities out there that either provide long-term care directly via their annuity, or the income is doubled or increases by 50% in case of a need. So those are two specific, you know, insurances. I mean, let's face it, we buy car insurance in case our car has an accident.

And we buy house insurance, fire insurance, in case something happens. Well, isn't it true that back of the day people, and maybe it still is available, but you can buy a standalone long-term care insurance policy, but those tend to be kind of expensive, right? So those two alternatives you're mentioning might be a more strategic way to be ready for potential long-term care. Yes. There used to be a number of different types of long-term care insurance. You know, you would have the types where you would have to pay for something first and then bring the receipts to the insurance carrier.

And then they would reimburse you, which I always felt was kind of a backwards deal. And then you had others that would just provide you with the cash that you needed in case. But you always have to have a physician to show that you qualify for long-term care need. But one of the issues with all of these products, well, I shouldn't say an issue with the product, the main issue with risk investments is that if you get to a stage of life where you can't remember certain things, you don't have the mental capacity to know what your portfolio is doing or what it should do or how much you need to withdraw each month, now you're totally dependent on an advisor.

Sometimes that advisor is not just, he's not looking after you on a day. daily basis. It doesn't mean that they're bad. It's just they're doing other things. Yeah. You're not their sole responsibility. But when you have an insurance product, then you have those guarantees that money is going to be there, whether it's via annuity or index universal life policy. And also does it use the word dependent and I always love the opposite of that, which is freedom and flexibility, meaning if you had some of the older restrictive type products, you have to get pre-approval and then go to this place and you have to go to that care facility.

But in reality, don't you want the freedom and flexibility to have access to X amount of dollars? And if you want to age in place, you get the money for a caregiver to come in and you don't need all of those pre-approvals. And it kind of gives you a little bit more autonomy and your family as well. That's totally true. You want to have the freedom to do what you want to do. You may not want to have a caretaker.

You may want to just go to France for the remaining years. You know, you can do that. You might have a niece or a nephew that is willing to come by and keep an eye on you and you want to pay them. And you just don't want to have those restrictions. Yeah, that's a good point. And also, I think another practical sense is on those other standalone policies if you pay those higher premiums for a year, two, three, four years, or whatever.

and you never needed it, well, that money's gone. You can't, it's like your car insurance, hey, I didn't wreck my car this year. Give me my premiums back. That's not how it works. No, that's not how it works. And fortunately, these products such as the IUL or fixed index annuities or other types of annuities as well, that money is yours. It's not going anywhere.

If you set it up properly, the payments like from an annuity continue to, continue to, your spouse after you pass on. And of course, with the life insurance product, once you pass on, the money goes to your beneficiaries tax-free. You know, you brought up something that my ears perked up on, and I want to dive in deeper if it's set up properly. So people should not hear this and go, oh, I heard him mention something about an annuity and something about an index universal life.

I'm going to go with Google, click, click, set it up. Okay, I'm covered. I'm taking care of. These things are very intricate in and of themselves, but also to make sure that they are set up to fully cover you the right way. You can't just willy-nilly set it up. You've got to have someone that knows the system, knows you, knows how to properly structure with the right things,

writers, addendums, or whatever the case is, right? That's correct. Yeah, you must have a specialist. Someone who is trained in both of these tools, these financial tools, because there are a number of different ways they can be utilized. Like I said, with a fixed index annuity, for example, we can set it up whereby your spouse continues to get your payments, receive payments long after you pass on. And in some cases, you could have like a grandchild be the beneficiary.

And so if a 70-year-old grandfather passes on, has an annuity that pays them $1,000 a month, He can set it up where that grandchild, his granddaughter, can receive that $1,000 a month for the rest of her life. She can be the beneficiary. There's a lot of different ways you can structure these tools. That's pretty huge. You know, I think we've been talking about here longevity risk and never outliving your money. What is the biggest misconception of retirees have regarding that longevity risk and we've been talking about long-term care when they think, oh, Medicare will cover all that.

Medicare is not the end-all-be-all blanket that covers and does everything, right? I mean, there's some pretty big gaps there that people need to be aware of. It is. It comes back to what the biggest mistake I see retirees make in planning, and that's planning for the average, you know, the average lifespan, the average market return, and everyone assumes that they'll fit neatly along those curves. But the problem is that half of retirees live longer than the averages they planned around. And so it just doesn't work.

They end up losing money quickly. So we always think of it like building a bridge halfway across the river. It might look solid. It might even cost a fortune. But if it doesn't reach the other side, it failed at its one job. And that's getting you across safely. you're only as strong as the weakest link that's it and that's why we focus on income planning in retirement you know i think that is you know i was going to say well if you could only do one thing

to to make sure you take care of longevity risk what would that be well that's what you just said is you focus on income of retirement you focus on guaranteed safe money all of these things so that when you are putting the pencil to paper and and calculating some of these unknown potentials, then you're set. And I think one thing that makes me think of is this, if you plan for having some of these unexpected things like long-term care, and it doesn't happen, you don't need it, great, the money's there. If you did need it, you plan for it. Yep. What we suggest every client do is provide us with their expected expenses for retirement, and if they have the assets, we can utilize an annuity to cover those.

Just cover their expenses with an annuity. That way, they have the freedom of not worrying so much because they now know that the mortgage is going to be paid or rent or they're going to have money for food because they know exactly how much money is coming in on a monthly basis. In fact, you know, the Wall Street Journal did a study a few years ago, and the headline was the secret to a happy retirement is friends, neighbors, and a fixed annuity. Oh, wow. You know, that kind of covers it all, doesn't it? Like, hey, you need to have people watching out for you.

You need to have some fun in life and get a fixed annuity. Because it's safe. It's guaranteed. I think that's a really, that's a great. great way to drop the mic and end the conversation, Evan. That's really, really good. So if someone is interested in just making sure some of those longevity risk are taken care of, what's the best way that they can learn a little bit more and also reach out and connect with you? Well, they can always call me directly at 917-940-5835, and they can reach out to my website, maizegroupadvisors.com.

Excellent. Well, thank you so much for coming back on. As been a real pleasure chatting with you today. And you too, Mike. I appreciate it. You've been listening to Influential Entrepreneurs with Mike Saunders. To learn more about the resources mentioned on today's show or listen to past episodes, visit www. www.

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