Influential Entrepreneurs with Mike Saunders, MBA - Interview with Laurene Breitkreutz, Founder of Your Wealth Refined Discussing Guaranteed Income in Retirement

Episode Date: April 10, 2026

Laurene didn’t take the traditional path into financial planning. She took the real one.She started working at 16 to help her family make ends meet after her stepfather had an industrial accident. He went from bringing home $600 a week to $35. So she got a job, stayed in school, and figured out how to navigate a world that doesn’t wait for people to be ready.She spent 31 years with AT&T — starting as a junior in high school, working her way up, and eventually retiring at 48 when they laid me off. She had a pension. I had time. And she was not going to spend it babysitting.So Laurene went back to work. She has now had four careers. The one that shaped me most — before financial planning — was 13 years as a business consultant, walking into family-owned businesses and asking every uncomfortable question until people understood what they actually needed. She wasn’t the one with all the answers. She was the one who asked until the right answers surfaced.That’s exactly what she does now.For the past 13 years, she has been helping people build financial plans that actually hold up — through unexpected illnesses, market downturns, career changes, and the hard questions most advisors never ask. She started in mortgage protection, helping families make sure a mortgage wouldn’t become a crisis if someone got hurt or died. Now she works primarily with doctors and high-income professionals who are earning well but haven’t had time to build a real plan around what they’re earning.Laurene’s philosophy is simple: Mission before commission. She doesn’t care how much she makes on a plan. She cares whether the plan is right for them. It took me three years to even notice how little she was getting paid by certain carriers — that’s how little she was focused on the money. What she focuses on is the outcome.Laurene asks hard questions. she holds her clients accountable. And she show up every year at their anniversary to make sure they’re still on track — because a financial plan isn’t a one-time event. It’s a relationship.Philosophy: Security Over ReturnsHere’s what makes her different: she doesn’t chase returns. She builds security. Especially for doctors, people already have a high income. What they need isn’t more risk. They need a plan that protects what they’ve built, reduces what they owe to the IRS, and makes sure their family is never left scrambling. That’s what they build together.Her primary focus is on doctors and high-income professionals between ages 30 and 50 — people who are earning well, living well, and haven’t sat down to build a real plan yet. Whether they’re worried about taxes, what happens if they can’t work, or just the creeping feeling that they’re missing something — I’m probably a good fit.Learn more: https://www.yourwealthrefined.com/Influential Entrepreneurs with Mike Saundershttps://businessinnovatorsradio.com/influential-entrepreneurs-with-mike-saunders/Source: https://businessinnovatorsradio.com/interview-with-laurene-breitkreutz-founder-of-your-wealth-refined-discussing-guaranteed-income-in-retirement

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 with us Lorraine Breitkreutz, who's the founder of your wealth refined, and we'll be talking about guaranteed income. in retirement.

Lorene, welcome to the program. Thank you, Mike. Hey, I'm excited to talk with you because I know that you've got some great experience in the industry. And I always love when I hear the name of a company or the name of someone's program. And it's like, oh, your wealth refined. Because when you think about something that got refined is something that got polished and perfected.

And so I'm excited to hear about your wealth refined. work with your clients. Give us a little bit of your background and story. How did you get into the industry? Well, it's a long story, but I'll try to shorten it. So thanks for asking. So I started my working career as a junior in high school. And that first corporate career took 31 years, but allowed me to retire at a pretty young age. So that doesn't work out too well because you get board. Everybody works. So I've had now four many careers trying to find the right one. And I finally landed on financial services and a combination of, you know, life experience and what I've gone through and how I could blend that with helping people avoid what I went

through. You know, I think that when I hear someone say something just like what you did, you are putting other people's interest before yours. When you just said helping other people avoid what I went through, you could have taken the approach like, okay, I learned it, but everyone else better buck up and figure it out on their own. You're looking to help people. You're looking to bring extra value. I think that is spectacular. Well, thank you. Thank you. And so let's dive into the topic here talking about guaranteed income. Explain what guaranteed income actually is because I think that obviously the word guarantee is wonderful, but what does that actually look like?

And then why is that important when you're putting together a retirement plan? So in my estimation, when you look back at history, people went to work for a company and they looked forward to retiring from that. company and drawing a pension. Pretty much those pensions are gone unless you're a government employee. So less and less can be relied on for that. Social Security came into the picture a few days later, years later, rather. But it's not a tremendous amount of money and not anything that you can retire on. So then it goes back to looking at what is it that you develop in your lifetime and so that you know how much cash flow you're going to have coming into your bank account each month when you retire because that's the amount that you get to spend

without running out of money. So if you don't know what that guarantee is, you're up a creek without a paddle. Yeah. And also doesn't that mean that you need to know how much money you actually need in retirement, right? So there's one point of, I want to know how much guarantee I have, but what do you actually need? And how do you work with your clients to help them really put a sharp pencil to that? And I would venture to say that many times you sit down with someone and they say, oh, I need X number dollars a month. And then when you really start breaking it down, they go, oh, wow, I kind of need a whole lot more. It actually goes like that. So you really have to, to, to, gain the client's trust so that they're willing to share with you what all they're spending

their money on today and what they're doing with it. Without knowing that, they don't really know where they are. So I can't know where there are and help them with where they're going and develop. You know, I think there's also a lot of aspect of like you become a life coach of sorts. You know, hey, tell me what retirement looks like to you. you and you might get 10 people that have 10 different retirement pictures like, oh, well, retirement means to me. And then I think that, you know, you've kind of confirmed that sometimes people,

their perception of how much money they'll need in retirement changes, sometimes because you go to work, you know, 40 hours a week and you don't really have as much time to spend your money. But now when you're sitting around like to your point about getting bored potentially, well, I got a whole lot more time to go online, spend money, travel, buy things. So you've got to really dial that in. What are you finding people's realization when you walk them through that exercise? Where are some of the areas that they tend to miss out on calculating and planning for?

So the switch to what they're going to do and the realization of, you know, at what point will they be in the aging process plays a part in that to say, okay, am I going to be able to track? to Greece and walk the acropolis. I think it's kind of falling down. You better hurry. So maybe they should move up their timeline or whatever. But it is really making them see the reality of what is in their head and then applying that to, I mean, the dream that's in their head and then the reality of how that's going to work.

So that plays a part in the whole thing. And it really, you hit the nail on the head when you said it's a life coach. You were really taking them from not necessarily the cradle, but a little after that to how can you get there and get there with assurance that it's going to work for you. Yeah, that's a good point. You know, you said that you're like on your fourth career and you got bored and what are you seeing your clients when they're talking about what age should I retire, when should I claims of security, things like that. But what are you seeing them doing? Are they just kicking back

doing nothing like the typical dream retirement? Or are they, well, you know, I've already thought about starting a nonprofit or starting a little side business. What are you seeing people doing in their retirement phase? It's really a mix of those things. So each one is different. But I have a client who wants to raise bees. Another lady wants to be a life coach and sort of a reverend. And so come to find out from going through this learning process with her, she would like to move that date up, but was foregoing that dream because she didn't think that she would have enough money.

So that was the impetus to allow her to see that used correctly, her money would get her there faster, but it was not something that she knew about. She was, I guess, using the wrong prescription, so to speak. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Neat. Yeah, that's really good. And sometimes what you're bringing is clarity. You know, okay, well, let's try this or let's refine that.

and getting back to your business name, your wealth refined. So let's talk about once you kind of have that, that, you know, picture, that clarity. How are you helping your clients incorporate the guaranteed income side of things into that financial strategy? So a variation of solutions and my early years were geared toward a particular product. but what I've learned is that it's not a product. It's knowing about a variation of products so that you know which ones to choose to solve this client's problem. So not just zeroing in on one. Oh, I can do this.

You know, I can sell chalk. Well, maybe it's not selling chalk. Maybe it is, you've got to have the easel before you apply the chalk. sort of a simplified explanation, but it's just having the whole gamut of choices to present to someone that you can show them that this is going to work for you. Yeah, that's a really good point. Can you think about an example of a client without mentioning details or name, of course, but where they came to you and kind of had some things scattered around like the typical,

you know, what people have, and then you were able to get that clarified and then put some of the guaranteed income strategies in place and what that looks like? Well, here's a prime one. One case would be a person had a pretty large 401K and had planned to spend that but had not factored in the fact of how much was going to have to be paid in taxes by using that money. and that limitation would have severely impacted their guaranteed income in retirement. So allowing them to recognize that there were ways to convert that money to non-taxable and use it earlier on in the process to grow so that they would have not only guaranteed income,

but it would be tax-free income. Yeah. You know, that's really, I think probably the subject for a weekend seminar right there is tax-free, you know, strategies. So we don't want to get too deep in the weeds there. But don't you recommend when you start talking about putting those types of strategies in place, that needs to be well ahead of retirement because it takes some time to kind of make the switch and then also to have the non-taxable accounts grow. So it can't be like a month before retirement. What do you recommend? time wise there. Exactly. So the best time is when people start thinking about retirement, which in my experience is about the fourth decade of life sometime in that time frame, either from the early 40s to the late 40s. Some people weigh a little bit later than that, which makes it harder. But the earlier they realize that what the penalties are going to be, they knew about them, but they didn't really recognize them, then it's easier to make that transition. So maybe you can recommend different solutions to diversify the input of the monies so that they can grow tax-free

and not have to worry about such a large amount to convert to some other plan. So you make a very good point. Yeah, yeah. And the bottom line is, you know, it's like what you said, start early. And have that, you know, it's much better to start early and know you've got a lot of extra time versus, boy, we don't have many options because we're starting too late. So talk a little bit about once you've clarified that plan, you know, hey, here's your gap. We're going to close the gap by this. Here's the guaranteed income. Talk a little bit about the change to someone's mindset or confidence going into retirement when they see everything put together.

they see that the gap is closed and then they can actually retire they can actually out you know not outlive their money um or outlive them yeah out they can outlive their money their money won't run out but i would venture to say that once you put a nice plan into place that kind of really is a bolster to their confidence uh um and peace of mind right it it makes a tremendous different i mean you can difference you can also you can virtually see a change in their demeanor that they suddenly feel more confident about even how much money they have to spend at the present time. So they're not concerned with using up later money because they can see that the plan that has been put together is going to work. And oftentimes what happens is we exceed those expectations.

Yeah. Yeah, that's a good point. So if someone is, is listening and they're not sure if their current plan is reliable for income for life. What's the first step that they ought to take to find out? Like, yes, of course, call you and work with someone that's reputable. But what is the first step that you're typically answering for new clients that come on that they should be aware of in their own? Where's the kind of the low-hanging fruit, in other words? So I'm not sure it's low-hanging fruit, but the thing that I would recommend is that we, the client and myself, need to make sure that we're a match.

So it is, am I the right person for them? Are they the right person for me? Because not everybody's made to get married, so to speak. The horse level would be so high if it was. But that is the main thing. without trust, you can't go forward. So it's just, you know, booking a short call, 15, 20 minutes so that we can get to know each other and feel that we have the confidence to begin that process. So that's the very start of it. And then to the point where probably the next step would

be sharing information so that we can then see what we have to work with. Yeah. And then, you know, just like I'm sure is the case, you're never going to be. going to force a plan into place. You're just going to present options and just teach and educate. And then when when everyone is on the same page, then you can move forward. But at least get that clarity in place. That's the most important step. Exactly. Well, Lorraine, this has been really helpful in eye-opening. And if someone is interested in reaching out and connecting with you, what's the best way that they can do that? The best way is to go to my website, which is your Wealthrefined.com and book a call.

Excellent. No charge. No expectation. It's just getting to know each other. That's the best kind. Let's just have a chat, get to know each other, and see where that leads. Well, Lorraine, thank you so much for coming on. It's been a real pleasure chatting with you today.

Thank you, Mike. I enjoyed it. You've been listening to influential entrepreneurs with Mike Saunders to learn more about the resources is mentioned on today's show or listen to past episodes. Visit www. www. influential entrepreneursradio.com.