Influential Entrepreneurs with Mike Saunders, MBA - Interview with Marc Hernandez, Founder of MAH Financial Services -How AI Displacements May Impact Retirement

Episode Date: March 23, 2026

Integrity and precision are the cornerstones of MAH Financial. Our philosophy is “Serving the Underserved”. Whether you’re starting to save for retirement or nearing the end, we provide comprehensive financial consulting designed to protect and grow your assets in an ever-changing economy. By leveraging data-driven insights and a client-first approach, we help people cut through the noise to achieve long-term stability. At MAH Financial, your success is our primary benchmark.Learn more: http://mahfinancial.biz/Investment advisory and financial planning services are offered through Simplicity Wealth, LLC, an SEC-registered investment adviser. SEC registration does not constitute an endorsement of the firm nor does it indicate that the adviser has attained a particular level of skill or ability. Insurance, Consulting and Education services offered through MAH Financial. MAH Financial is an unaffiliated entity from Simplicity Wealth. Clicking the “Like” button does not constitute a testimonial for or endorsement of our investment advisory firm, any associated person, or our services. Clicking the “Like” button is merely a mechanism to circulate our page. “Like” is not meant in the traditional sense. In addition, postings to our page must refrain from recommending us or providing testimonials for our investment advisory firm. Because the SEC and state securities regulators generally prohibit testimonials, any such postings are subject to swift removal.Based on the current video frame, here is the full transcription of the legal disclaimer:This podcast is for informational purposes only and does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any financial product. All examples are hypothetical and intended to illustrate potential outcomes under specific assumptions. Actual results will vary. Indexed universal life insurance policies are subject to fees, caps, and charges. Loans and withdrawals may reduce the death benefit and could result in a taxable event. Please consult a licensed financial advisor and tax professional before implementing any strategy discussed. Roth conversions may not be appropriate for everyone and should be evaluated based on your specific tax situation.Influential Entrepreneurs with Mike Saundershttps://businessinnovatorsradio.com/influential-entrepreneurs-with-mike-saunders/Source: https://businessinnovatorsradio.com/interview-with-marc-hernandez-founder-of-mah-financial-services-how-ai-displacements-may-impact-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 this Mark Hernandez, who's the founder of MAHF Financial, and we'll be talking about how AI displacements may impact your, retirement. Mark, welcome to the program. Well, Mike, how are you today? Hey, doing awesome. And I think this is

going to be quite the interesting topic because every two seconds, it seems like we've got updates with the world of AI. And I think that a lot of times people are, you know, running for the hills unnecessarily or not understanding some of the things that may impact areas of our life. So I'm excited to get your perspectives on this. But before we dive in, give us a little bit of your story and background and how did you get into the financial services industry? Well, I was raised by a great mom and dad. They're both professionals. But dad had a, when I was going to school and he put me through school because he had a farmer's insurance agency, property, property and casualty and helping the public. And I would, you know, watch how you work with the public and watch how he service his clients.

And he said, you know what? I want to do that. Well, the first thing he says is, no, you don't want to do this. You want to do something different. So I went to school, got my education out of the way. Then I thought I might want to be an attorney. Found out that wasn't for me. So I went back into looking at financial services, started working in 1986 with MetLife Insurance Agency, learned the insurance business. And then in 2001, I founded MH Financial Services, fully holistic financial service company. You know, we manage money, we help people with all types of financial planning, and basically started doing that.

But my dad was a big influence in watching the way he worked with people, and I gravitated towards that. So now in founding our business, I'm excited about where we're at now, but I'm also excited about the future and how we'd be able to help the public in the future. I thought it was interesting that you mentioned your dad was in the industry as a, you know, P&C farmers. And he was like, hey, look, it's great industry. Just don't do this particular part of it. He was probably in so far that it was just like, I better finish out my career.

But he guided you down that path. You found your way. That's spectacular. And it's all about relationships. I think that's one of the big takeaways that most people don't realize. I heard a statistic once that most jobs are not gotten on Monster.com or Indeed.com. Most jobs are because of personal connections and networking. And it's all about those relationships.

So as you are building your relationships with your clients and guiding them toward retirement, we're talking here about AI. We want to lead into how AI might displace, you know, jobs or retirement. So let's get started with talking a little bit about who actually is at risk of losing their jobs as it relates to AI. Well, let me just talk about what I've seen already with, clients. It's more of, you might say, people that may be in the software business, people that tech is just advancing so fast that it's eliminating the need for certain type of people. It could be coders. It could be support people. The problem is that we just had a recent

situation with a client that was told that their position, if they wanted to maintain their position, they could stay there, but at one-tenth, their past salary. Whoa. Which is crazy. So, I mean, basically, they're just saying you're out the door. But the thing is that that's very concerning is that AI, people think, oh, AI is coming. It's coming. No, it's here.

It's already here. And the thing is that, you know, we thought that, you know, I go back to watching the old Terminator movies and seeing, seeing, you know, the AI take over everything. build the robots and try to eliminate the humans. I said, well, you know, I don't know if that could happen in the future. But the thing is that there are people and what I'm seeing and the possibilities are your CPA. I have a good friend's CPA. Matter of fact, I ran office space from him.

Well, the fact is that we're hearing that basically accounts and CPAs could become obsolete because AI has programs. that somebody can use and basically eliminate them and eliminate that cost. So I'm just using that as an example, but the thing is concerning to me is that every single person should look at their situation and say, is this situation, am I in a situation where that I could be replaced by technology, not just AI, but by technology? So, you know, I'm looking, and we're not talking about, we're talking about, we're talking about white color professional positions. You know, we're not talking, I'm, you know, I can't see

the guy, the carpenter, the plumber, the electrician at this time be replaced because I even think that their positions could even become more valuable, okay, because people are going to want to keep what they, everything is so expensive. They're not going to want to go buy the, you know, the new product that, or the new car or the, or the, or the, or the, or the, or the, new property, it's going to cost them an arm and a leg. They're going to say, you know what, let me stick with what I got, let me repair it, let me do that. Well, then they're going to need those key professionals and skilled workmen to do that. So the fact is that, and also I look at health care, you know, hands on health care. I can't see how that's going to be replaced. But as,

you know, I saw Jim Farley, CEO of Ford, went to China. He saw a factory producing cars, that was producing him in the dark because the robots work in 24-7, and they were spilling out these cars. And he just came back saying, hey, you know, we're way behind. And this could displace a lot of skilled workers that are highly paid workers. And I just used that one example as the example. But the fact is that every single person needs to look at their current situation to see, could I eventually be replaced?

Now, how does that apply to their financial planning or retirement planning? Well, the fact is that if, in fact, they could look at, hey, I'm 55 years old or 52 years old, and what if I could be replaced in the next year or two? I wanted to retire at 65. Well, they might have to be looking at either changing careers, changing professions, or saying, I may need to make plans to, if I have to retire early, I need to make adjustments to what I feel my retirement's going to be. be. Yeah, I think all of these uncertainties adds another level of risk in retirement planning

because it used to be, well, the uncertainty is inflation. The uncertainty is taxes. The uncertainty is market volatility. And all those are still there. But now we're adding in this that we're talking about here. And yeah, I mean, like you said, the plumber, the HVAC contractor, they still have to drive out to your house, touch your furnace, touch your hot water heater, fix it, have that knowledge. Probably AI is not going to replace. positions like that. But to your point, the white collar type positions, I've even heard it said this way, AI is not going to take your job. What's going to take your job is someone that knows how to fully use AI because then they're in the background pulling the strings and taking

tens of thousands of jobs because they know how to logically use and deploy AI. So I think that this should be a moment for us to pause and go, what industry am I in? How many more years? of work, am I going to be working before I look at that retirement picture? And what if things do get derailed? So let's talk about that. What if your position is eliminated? Like the example you gave, you know, like, oh, we're not going to eliminate your position. You can feel free to work, but we're going to pay you 90% less. That's pretty much your position being eliminated. What do you do when that happens because that definitely has an impact on your retirement decisions? Well, the first thing is, is hopefully they're going to get with a competent advisor, okay, someone that is fully capable of handing all their needs.

And what I mean is there's so many people that I run into or pick up as clients and they said, you know, oh, I bought a life insurance. Oh, who's your advisor? I'll ask who's your advisor? Oh, this is so-and-so. Well, how does he advise you? Oh, he sold me a life insurance policy. Or I have this guy. Oh, I'm dealing with the bank.

I have a CD at the bank. Those are my advisors. Those aren't your advisors. They don't know your true picture. You need to work with somebody that can look at your full picture, your full finances and your full programs to see how they can help you. So if someone comes to me, because, again, this is happening now, someone comes to me, the first thing we have to do is sit down and take an overall view of all of their assets and see how we can leverage those assets to provide the money. most income we can for them. And so especially if somebody is having to get this position early because they might be too young to even apply for Social Security. Social Security minimum

of age of 62. And they may not be, they may be, their position may be such that they, they don't want to take a huge pay cut to continue working. It's an ego thing. They're not going to, if they're used to make in 150,000 a year, they're not going to work for 50,000 a year. You know? And the thing is that we have to sit down with them, take an overall assessment of where they're at. The next thing is we have to, and I do this all the time, very simple procedure. I tell a prospective client, before we meet for the first time, do me a favor. Make a list on a, on a plain sheet of paper of every bill that you have, that if you don't pay it, they'll take it away or turn it off. You know, that's just that simple explanation.

Those are your fixed expenses. Those are your fixed expenses. So I need to know what their income stream is going to be. So if they stop working, what do we have to work with? Hopefully they have a spouse that's still working. But is that spouse also in a position where their position could be affected by AI? And again, we're not, you know, when I say AI, well, the thing is that a lot of companies are trying to cut expenses. You know, they're, especially public companies, they're trying to cut expenses.

They're trying to cut expenses, trying to appease their stockholders, trying to appease hopefully people that don't want to maybe take over and hostile takeover. We just went through that with Discovery, Paramount. Netflix wanted them, and they got taken over by some of else. There was a big fight for that. But the thing is that we just want to make a true assessment because these companies, they want to save money. And how do they save money? First off, they save money by cutting, you know, workforce. That's the easiest way to do it.

And the thing is, though, that they're, especially technology companies, they need to have money to pay for capital expenditures for more AI. Because, you know, they're all having to spend more money. So the fact is that you could be displaced just because the fact is that it's just for these companies trying to become more profitable. and they see that as the easiest way to do it. Now, again, they come. The first thing is to get an assessment of all of the debt, all the bills that have to be paid, and from there, look at their income streams,

what they're going to be, and if they have, hopefully they have some retirement plans. Hopefully they have 401K, through savings plan, 457 plan. Hopefully they have some brokerage money. Hopefully they have some savings. Hopefully they have some other assets. that also could be, you know, if necessary, could be converted to something that could provide income.

So the key is going to be looking and come up with income strategies. These income strategies... You're the land. Yeah, exactly. Just get the strategy, come up with an idea, and then go from there. Now, hopefully, if they've done proper planning, they've proper saving, this displacement may not be, extremely critical because maybe we can come up with with a plan and an income plan and they're going to be able to stay in their financial world. But if that's not the case, then we have to

pull out all the stops to make sure, because we can't assume that we hope that they'll be able to get another position, that they'll feel it's fair remuneration. But if that's not the case, we need to do everything in our power to take a survey of these assets, leverage them to the point where they're going to be able to make a proper living and hopefully have a successful retirement. Yeah. And once you, it's kind of like, here's what could happen. And then they don't make a decision.

They put it off. Oh, it's not going to happen to me. And then when it does, then they make knee-jerk reactions. And many times those are the wrong decision. So what you're describing here is very similar to like when people are going, oh, yeah, I've heard about long-term care. And yeah, it's probably not going to happen to me. But then when it does, it's a big, big expense.

that can derail a lot of your retirement plans. So in this world of AI displacement potential, you need to realize if it's going to happen to you, could it happen to you? You know, it's like, if this, then that. If this happens, then I'm going to do that. Have a few of those plans in place so that if it does happen,

you calmly make decisions that way. If it doesn't happen, you're in good shape. What do you feel that you've seen people make, whether it's AI displacement or any kind of job displacement? because guess what? People can get displaced these days with or without AI being at the factor. But when that happens, what have you seen some of the financial mistakes people make after losing a job? Well, the biggest thing is they feel that maybe they had money in a 401k and they don't know the rules, the basic rules. You know, I've been doing this 40 years and these things are so, you know, easy and we do it every day.

But they don't not know the rules. and the next thing you know, they're cashing out the 401k, paying taxes on all of those funds, and possibly it could be even paying a penalty if they're under $15.5. So one thing I've seen, and then they'll come to me. So the next thing I do, I'll get a referral, because we work in financial institutions, I'll get a referral, and they'll say, Mark, this person needs to talk to you. I go see them. The first thing they say is, oh, I, you know, I separate service, or I left six,

months ago or eight months ago, and I took my 401k out. I made a mistake, had the money sent to me, have to pay all the taxes. How can I pay the taxes? Well, the counts out of the barn. So now, you know, this is a critical situation. So that's one thing that I've seen pretty common when somebody leaves employment. The second thing is that they, I hate to say it, they're ignorant to the fact that we exist. The competent financial planners exist. That they can call someone that can walk them through the process and make sure that everything gets done correctly.

We're fiduciaries. We have an obligation to make sure that we act on a client's best behalf. But that's not only best behalf of what we recommend to them, but on their best behalf on how we walk them through the process and help them. I mean, we, you know, and that's, that's a big part of it. And so I would say that's one mistake, because I can't tell you, I had a nickel for every time somebody said, Mark, I wish I'd have known about you years ago. Yeah. You know, I wish I had to be a millionaire to work with a financial advisor.

See, that's a big misconception. So I think that's another big mistake. Or third thing is they listen to their friends who don't, who think they know what they're doing. and they, they just say, oh, do this and do that and do that. And they may feel that this person knows what he's doing or this person has, you know, and that person may just be talking because he wants to sound like a big shot. Like he knows what he's going to. Because they listen to the talking heads on TV or radio or saw, you know,

a talk show host poo-pooing on some ideas. So they become the expert, pass it along to you. And it's like that game when we were going up telephone. By the time it got down three, four, five levels, it's like, What in the world advice is that? And when you try to disseminate, it's like, that's way off the mark. So it's like, get with someone that stays in touch with the industry. You know, Mark, I want to go back to that 401K scenario.

Are there ever decisions that can be walked backwards, meaning, you know, hey, I took that 401k and I cashed it out and I think I have to pay taxes on this, but it was done X number of days ago. Is there a way to go? They've got 60. They've got 60 days to do it. but it's also got to be complete. So a lot of times what I see is a client, when the funds are sent to them,

the trustee has an obligation to withhold 20% and send it to the IRS as a credit. Okay. So what happens is they come to me, if it's within the 60 days, said, okay, you know, you took out 450,000, we need to roll over, we need to put the 450,000. They go, oh, well, I only have 410,000 because they withhold some. Well, we got to come up with the rest, you know. So, again, it all comes down. It all comes down to getting the word out that you do not have to be a millionaire.

You don't have to have a lot of money to work with a competent financial advisor. You just need to inquire. And I always recommend people talk to several advisors. He had a conversation yesterday with a prospective client. And she goes, oh, you know, that's a big decision. I go, yes, feel free. I recommend you talk to as many advisors as you need to get all the information. you you need to make a proper decision and then go with the person you feel that you know you feel

your gut will tell you this is the person I think would do the best job for me and trust me I won't be hurt in any way if you said hey I didn't choose you I'm not going to be hurt in any way I'll be happy that they found someone that they're going to be able to work with also I'm always happy when I hear of someone I'll say hey you know who handles who manages your money who does that oh so-and-so oh i love them they do a great job for me i love hearing that so i just immediately back off and say i'm so glad you have someone because 95% of people i talk to if they if they set up an account haven't seen the guy since they set it up personally either the guy is out of the business no longer in the business anymore or the person uh i guess doesn't care you know so

the main the main thing is like mike is the developing relationships knowing your clients and servicing your clients because for me the biggest the way I get a lot of my business through referrals and the referrals because we're doing a good job taking care of our clients and you're not going to get those referrals if you're ignoring people so it stands to reason and I love your approach like you mentioned about that person you spoke to hey do what you feel is best here's what I can do here's some educational tips that I'm guiding you on if you want me to work with you wonderful if not wonderful but you've got to figure it out. And to your point, realizing that a lot of people don't understand that working with an advisor

doesn't take a lot of money, doesn't cost a lot of fees, but talked with some people. So, Mark, this has been really enlightening to realize that maybe possibly AI could disrupt your retirement, be prepared, have some plans in place. If someone is interested in learning a little bit more and reaching out and connecting with you, what's the best way they can do that? they can reach out to us at MAH financial.biz, B-I-Z. Excellent. Well, I will also have the link right below the show notes

so that people can click and go right there. So thank you so much for coming on. It's been a real pleasure chatting with you today. Thank you, Mike. 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.

influential entrepreneurs radio.com.