Influential Entrepreneurs with Mike Saunders, MBA - Interview with Shawn Mercer Founder of Mercer Financial Group Discussing Longevity Risk — Outliving Your Savings

Episode Date: January 28, 2026

Mercer Financial Group is a full-service financial services firm committed to helping individuals, families, and business owners build confident, sustainable financial futures. Based in the Wichita Metro Area and proudly serving clients nationwide, we specialize in personalized retirement planning and long-term investment strategies designed to balance growth with safety.With a comprehensive suite of services—including retirement plan design, portfolio management, and access to a wide range of investment options such as stocks, bonds, and other diversified assets—Mercer Financial Group provides the guidance clients need to navigate every stage of their financial journey. Our approach centers on understanding each client’s goals, risk tolerance, and vision for retirement, allowing us to create tailored strategies that support both wealth accumulation and preservation.At Mercer Financial Group, they believe retirement should be lived with confidence. Their mission is to empower clients with clarity, thoughtful planning, and trusted expertise so they can enjoy the financial security they’ve worked hard to achieve.Learn More: http://www.mercerfg.com/Copyright 2025 – Wealth Watch Advisors (WWA) is an SEC registered investment advisory firm and only transacts business in states where it is licensed to do so or exempt from registration. Please note that registration with the SEC does not denote a particular level of skill of the advisor or imply an endorsement by the SEC. All information provided is intended to be general in nature and does not represent personal financial advice. This site is not a solicitation or an offer to invest or purchase any specific product or service. All investments involve risk of loss and are not FDIC insured or guaranteed by any governmental agency or organization. You can view and download our Privacy Policy, Disclosures, ADV Part 2A, and ADV Part 3 CRS. Shawn Mercer is an Investment Advisor Representative of Wealth Watch Advisors and Mercer Financial Group is not affiliated with Wealth Watch Advisors.Influential Entrepreneurs with Mike Saundershttps://businessinnovatorsradio.com/influential-entrepreneurs-with-mike-saunders/Source: https://businessinnovatorsradio.com/interview-with-shawn-mercer-founder-of-mercer-financial-group-discussing-longevity-risk-outliving-your-savings

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 the Sean Mercer, who's the founder of Mercer Financial Group, and we'll be talking about longevity risk, how to not. outlive your savings. Sean, welcome back to the program. Hey, thanks a lot, Mike. I hope everything is well with you and your family. It's really great to be back on the program. Really excited to chat with you today. And just really feel blessed that you've invited me back to be on the program and share with some of the listeners today. You are welcome. And you know, it's interesting.

When I hear about the fear of outliving savings, it reminds me of that research stat that I've heard. and I know you're familiar with it, but there are more people afraid of speaking in public than, you know, outlive, or no, they would rather, they're more afraid of dying than speaking in public. So it's like, wait a minute here.

I can get up and talk in front of people, but outliving savings, dying, all of that stuff is such a huge, huge concern for people. So how do we know that we have enough put aside for retirement? And I think that's where we want to focus on our conversation. because these days people are living so much longer than back in the 40s or 50s because we've got better

health care, better nutrition, better ways we're taking care of ourselves and maybe some of the actuarial tables that, you know, we used to go off of years ago, decades ago, where, you know, oh, let's show your retirement until age, whatever it was. Now it's 15, 20 years longer. So we've got to make some of those adjustments in the calculations. Where do you see? start off when you're talking with clients, when you're talking about how to deal with some of these risks of longevity? I think more importantly, Mike, the reason we're living longer is because of better air conditioning and we're not working in the salt mines. There's that. Yep. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you HVAC industry. Yes. Yes. Absolutely. You know, I sit there and just think about

that of like the pioneers that came across the west and this that and the other. And it's like there is, I'd be a pansy, you know, trying to go across in a covered wagon and try to get through all that. You know, so I'm, I'm thankful for living here in the 2000s with nice air conditioning, nice houses, great grocery stores and everything else. But, you know, just to kind of circle, circle back around and sort of get to the serious points here. Um, longevity risk is a problem and it really is a problem because of most people are probably going to spend 20 to 30 years in retirement at a minimum. And so really trying to stretch out those dollars, uh, is, you know, an issue for some people.

There's always going to be that segment of the population that has a very, very, very, large portfolio and it really doesn't matter, they can go ahead and bury it in the backyard in a coffee can and it's not going to be something they're going to have to worry about. The normal people that have, you know, a portfolio of $500 to a million, there probably are some concerns or they have some concerns with exactly what you were talking about. And ultimately, really, the biggest monkey wrench that can completely derail a person's retirement plan is extended health care issues. Be it long-term care, assisted living, anything along those lines, or even potentially a cancer about that maybe, for example, I know sort of the, what is it, sort of the Medicare coverage,

the Medicare Advantage plans. Yeah. Medicare Advantage plans, nothing wrong with those. But as you know, those are like an HMO plan for a person that is in their geographical area. And what they're trying to do is, you know, have a health maintenance organization with a Medicare plan. Well, maybe you come down with cancer of some sort and you're wanting to go to MD Anderson or some specialized cancer center and that Medicare Advantage plan that may not be in network. And so therefore that monkey wrench now all of a sudden becomes I'm going to have to

pay for that out of pocket. Okay. The other aspect is, is just long-term care, which you've mentioned. Everybody that is listening has long-term care insurance. It just may not be a very good plan. Okay? So if you don't have long-term care insurance, you are self-insuring. Okay, so your insurance plan is your bank account. And most likely, if you're married, one person is going to need long-term care.

And that is going to be the surviving spouse because typically the first one is going to be the caretaker for the first one to pass away. And then the survivor is the one that is going to need that. And when you are talking, as you stated, numbers that these could be anywhere from probably 8 to 10,000 a month to 20,000 a month, depending on sort of what type of care you're wanting, that can be very, very detrimental. And then once again, as stated, this is the most less uncovered risk of people today. Because you know as well as I do, Mike, that what is pretty much the response from everybody when you talk to them about this? Oh, well, that's not going to happen to me. Oh, just take me back behind the shit and, you know, put one right between the eyes because. That's not going to happen to me.

And the reality is, is yes, maybe it won't happen to you because you have a loving wife that's going to go ahead and see you through. But you better take care of her or make arrangements with your portfolio to make sure that happens. And if you are not going to ensure it with a traditional long-term care policy, there are some other avenues available. You know, and you bring up a good point. It reminds me of like the proverbial bucket with holes in it, you know, our. retirement bucket is filled with water representing money. And then the whole is what can make it drain like taxes, inflation, all of those things, expenses. And health care, you know, we might be living longer, but what's the quality of the life we're living? Do we have health needs? Are there

going to be more doctors visits or hospital or medications? All of that. And that factors in. But then to your point about long-term care, I think I've seen a statistic that says somewhere around 70% of us will need some type of long-term care. It might not be incapacitated, mental needing long-term care facility like that, but it might be some type of long-term care, even if it's, you know, care in your home, but somehow, some way, that will be larger dollars than you would prefer to pay. And to your point about, you know, oh, we'll just take that out of your retirement savings, every little chunk that comes out prevents that compounding from happen,

prevents you from using it for what you would prefer to use it for. So what are some of the things that people should be thinking about to prepare to make sure you're plugging up that hole as much as possible? Well, I think pretty much the majority of the listeners probably do not have a traditional long-term care policy. That's typically what I have experienced. Most people are self-insuring, like I stated to you. And so ultimately what we try to do is just provide leverage for them if by chance a long-term care situation was to happen.

But they still get to maintain control of their money. So for example, you know, people get really caught up in, well, I don't want to pay for long-term care because it's expensive and I'm buying insurance and, you know, what if I don't ever use it? and that really tends to be the hang up for most people. So a better way to help solve a bit of that issue is to utilize and lay off some of that liability with an insurance company either through a long-term care annuity that can provide additional benefits if long-term care is. needed and it will sometimes double or triple the benefit if a person is in need of that. And that can also be utilized through life insurance structures as well with long-term care riders. So that really is the solution for the quote unquote rebel out there that says it's not going to

happen to them. And you can leverage your existing money, not lose control of it. And if by chance, you're the unfortunate one that has that situation happen to them, you at least have something that is better than sitting there with just your portfolio because you are getting extra leverage and laying off that liability on the insurance carriers. And if you prepared that way and did not need the expense, then it's sitting right there in those accounts doing what it needed to be to be done. It's not wasted money. Kind of like the old school long-term care policies act similar to like your car insurance.

Hey, I didn't wreck my car this year. Give me my premiums back. And your, you know, state farm laughs at you because no, that's what insurance is. is. Well, what you're describing is it's there if you need it. It's working away. If you didn't need it, great. If you do need it, it's right there. You know, I want to dive into outliving your savings because I think, like we said at the top of the conversation, that's a big fear for people. And I think if you were to say, okay, well, tell me what you're afraid of and how does that look. Well, I know that I'm going to retire at this age and I need to have my money last until that age. Tell me what day you're going to die.

Nobody knows that, right? So what do you do to help your client determine how long are you going to plan to need your money to last 10 years in retirement? 20, 30? Where does that conversation go? And how are you guiding that process? Because I think that if people decided, I'm going to retire at age, whatever, it'd be simple if you needed your money to last 10 years, a little bit harder 20. Now we're starting to get, you know, a little bit tentative if it's 30 or more years. but there are some people that if they retired 62, you might live to 9095 and you might have a long time to factor in those numbers.

Where do you begin in working with their clients in that? Well, first, if a person just did a simple Google search and said, what is the number one concern for retirees today, correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the statistic was somewhere around about 65 to 67 percent. said that this is the number one concern is outliving their money. Yeah. And so you are exactly correct in the fact that if you're married in 65, there's a very high probability you both are going to live into your 90s. And I'm in a classic example right now with my wife's parents. and, you know, they were in the, in the, what is it, the lost generation or the,

trying to think which generation is in between the, the silent generation is what they're in, in between the World War II and then the baby boomers. They're the silent generation. So, you know, and her dad was a home builder, worked outside his whole life, built tons of houses around here in the Wichita area, and multifamily and extremely successful and was outside. And, you know, you wouldn't expect that he'd be in his 90s, you know, with doing manual labor. And as you know, that generation all smoked.

So he smoked up until he was like 30. And, you know, he's still plugging right along, living in his house with her mom. So there's a classy example of even. that generation, okay, that isn't living as healthy of a lifestyle as our generations, and they're making it into their 90s. All right? So you look at some baby boomers in Generation X that are coming up the pipeline. The majority of us aren't smokers. The majority of us have been a little bit better as far as exercise. We've been a little bit better in, eating organic food and so on and so forth.

So that timetable that you're talking about, if you're in your 60s and retiring, you better plan a 30 to 40 year retirement and utilize a strategy that can make sure that money lasts. And as we had sort of previously discussed, where people get hurt is, and longevity equations that I've seen is they tend to potentially be a little too conservative because they are thinking about it like you just described.

Well, yeah, maybe about 10 years or 15. And the truth of the matter is they really need to double or triple that number. So creating, and this is pretty much what everybody says to put it into a visual concept. but it's it's really just a bucket of different asset classes that are set and designed to specifically perform over a set period of time over your retirement career. And then each bucket is going to pour into itself and come down to the most conservative bucket to the most aggressive bucket. and you are going to constantly be mitigating between all of those asset classes over a 30 to 40 year timeframe. That's what we do for clients.

And it brings a lot of peace of mind to know that once again, my equity side of my money is really a 30-year bucket. So why am I really concerned about it? You know, it makes me think, too, once you get that dialed in and you, you know, you're monitoring it, making sure each year that it's working the way it needs to work, the plan is. What happens if a retiree goes, hey, you know, we wanted to do this with their money. Like, we wanted to buy an RV or we wanted to go take a cruise around the world with the whole family. And it was a substantial chunk, but it was something that they wanted to do.

How do you then recalibrate then their plan to go, okay, if we take this chunk out, here's what that's going to mean. Is that something that you then have some maybe computer programs? that show if this, then that kind of scenarios? Certainly. And the other thing about it is, the good news about it is, is that you can harvest income, so say it's a bigger purchase. You can harvest income out of all of those buckets,

and some of them are going to be securities. So you can harvest income out of, say, a winning position and a losing position. and then create a non-taxable distribution, which really makes a lot of sense to people. And they don't really think about it until you start showing it to them, that it's just like,

hey, wouldn't it be nice to be able to take $100,000 out of your portfolio and not pay any taxes, particularly out of the non-qualified part? Okay. Now, if it's IRA, then it's not going to matter because all IRA money is going to be taxable. But if a portion of this is in non-qualified money, you can basically liquidate a person's position, create the income that they need, and create a zero tax environment for them on that larger distribution.

So, Sean, let's wrap up the conversation here because I think that we've established that people are living longer. We need to have a plan. We don't want to outlive her savings. What are some immediate steps that retirees should take right now? to make sure that they're not going to outlive their savings? I would think sort of some immediate steps would be most people do not take the time to effectively sit down and go, what is my budget? What effectively is my budget?

What are my hard cost figures? What do I need to cover? That would really be the foundation. And then your Social Security can cover part of that. and then you can create a guaranteed pension plan for yourself to cover the shortfall of that. And then that becomes your foundation. And then from there, you create your separate asset classes into sort of that bucket strategy that we've talked about, and then divvy up the portfolio appropriately into those separate asset classes,

and then allow them to work the way in which they're designed. designed to work. You know, I'm confident that you would, yeah, it sounds complicated to the novice, but for someone that knows where to kind of pull the levers, it's just a matter of putting the right pieces together. And I, I know I'm confident that you would agree with this. There is not one perfect plan for every single person, like a cookie cutter template, you know, here's yours next, come on down and get yours. So it really is a matter of everyone is different. Their needs are different. Let's see what the outlook is. Let's see what you have to work with and putting that plan together with the right equities and the right mix of products

is everyone is going to have a different outcome because of their needs. So that is, I think, is something that people need to realize is you can't do it on your own. You need someone like yourself to sit down and look at your plan and give some good guidance that way. Absolutely. And everything is going to be customized because different people. People have different goals and different lifestyles and different outcomes and different things that they want to achieve. And some people may want to, you know, spend the majority of their retirement.

And other people may want to create more of a legacy with some of it and leave it to children and beneficiaries. I mean, it's different strokes for different folks. Everybody has a different agenda with what they want to do with their wealth. and that's neither good nor bad. It's your wealth. You get to do what you want to do with it. Some people want to leave it to charities or leave it to their church or, you know, leave a legacy that way.

Other people want to leave it to their family. Other people want to make sure the remaining check bounces, basically. Yep. I want to die with zero dollars in the bank. Yeah, exactly. If someone is wanting to kind of check the box in their mind and make sure they're going to have the right plan put into place and not outlive their savings, what's the best way that they can reach out and connect with you and see if they can get some clarity in that

direction? You know, and that is the thing. We try to keep it simple around here. We also want to make sure that people can explain back to us exactly what we're doing for them because there's nothing worse than not being able to explain what is being done for you, particularly when it comes to your retirement dollars. And the best way for people to get a hold of us is they can go straight to our website, which is Mercer, M-E-R-C-E-R-F-G dot com. So that is financial group. So MercerffG.com. And they can get a hold of me directly right through that website or any of our stuff. Perfect. Well, thank you so much for coming back on, Sean. It's been a real pleasure chatting with you. Hey, Mike, it's been great. I really appreciate the opportunity that you've

provided me to share with your listeners and keep up the great work that you're doing. And hopefully you have at least another 10 years of your podcast and much success to you. Greatly appreciate you. Thank you so much. You've been listening to influential entrepreneurs with Mike Saunders to learn more about the resources made. mentioned on today's show or listen to past episodes, visit www. www. influential entrepreneursradio.com.