Influential Entrepreneurs with Mike Saunders, MBA - Interview with Terry Wheeler Founder & CEO of WE Alliance Wealth Advisors Discussing The Investment Blind Spot

Episode Date: August 26, 2026

WE Alliance Wealth Advisors if founded on the belief that an integrated Family Office style approach to wealth planning is the best way to protect and maximize the wealth client families work so hard to accumulate. Combine powerful proactive tax strategies, a powerful system of investing called Defined Outcome Investing, and a Family Centered approach to estate planning to deliver uncommon results while reducing risk for each client family. Founder Terry Wheeler’s book “Laugh When the Market Crashes” is a must read book outlining this investment approach.The firm and its founder traces its roots back over 35 years with its origins beginning at Dean Witter Reynolds. In the 1990s the founder added a law degree focused on tax and estate planning advocacy. The integrated wealth, tax, and estate planning approach now truly sets them apart in a crowded financial planning space.Learn more: https://weriaadvisors.com/Buy the book at www.LaughWhenTheMarketCrashes.comAdvisor Coaching at www.StrategicWealthLegal.comAny opinions, projections, or forward-looking statements expressed herein are solely those of the author, may differ from the views or opinions expressed by WE Alliance Wealth Advisors, and are only for general informational purposes as of the date indicated.All investments involve risk; please consult with a financial advisor prior to investing.Influential Entrepreneurs with Mike Saundershttps://businessinnovatorsradio.com/influential-entrepreneurs-with-mike-saunders/Source: https://businessinnovatorsradio.com/interview-with-terry-wheeler-founder-ceo-of-we-alliance-wealth-advisors-discussing-the-investment-blind-spot

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 Terry Wheeler, who's founder and CEO of We Alliance Wealth Advisors and will be talking about the investment blindspot. Terry, welcome to the program. Thank you, Mike. Good to see you.

Hey, it's interesting that I think that a lot of times people, you know, that old saying, you don't know what you don't know. And it's like, oh, yeah, man, I learned this thing. And I never realized, well, I always loved when I hear a blind spot. That's something like when you're driving, you want to be aware of that blind spot. But an investment blind spot, I want to hear all about what that is and how you are serving your clients, helping them to understand how to identify and, you know, succeed with this investment. My Blind Spot.

But before we dive into that, give us a little bit of your background and story. How did you get into investment industry? Sure. So I was one of these Monopoly kids growing up that loved the game and parlayed that into a career where I became a financial advisor. And that was actually my undergraduate degree. Along the way, I think I looked like I was about 15 when I was working for Dean Witter back in the days when they were called Dean Witter.

And ultimately went to law school and added tax planning. retirement planning concepts that had to do with estate planning, asset protection. And then we've been doing integrated planning now for almost 35 years. Wow. Yeah, you know, it is, I like that word integrated, because it really is not a standalone thing. You can't just do one of those that you mentioned and go, I'm good. And even though if you had another person for this and this and this, what if it doesn't all fit together? So that integration is huge. And I know that a lot of times people think in terms of, you I want to retire at age X, so I need to have Y amount of money to get to retirement, but they don't really think about the fact that you need to get through retirement.

You know, they think retirement is hitting a certain age, but how long are you going to be living past that? We don't know that, but we're living longer, longer these days. So you need to make sure you've got that amount of money providing what you need for the time that it gets you through retirement. So what does that look like to you when you're explaining that to close? clients because I feel like that's a common misconception too, right? Yeah, one of the one of the key things is what what got you to retirement, that portfolio.

It should be different when you're in retirement. And people look at retirement. They always fear out living their money. And they should if they're not doing it right. If they're doing it right, they don't have to fear this. But the typical 60, 40 stock bond portfolio, if you're withdrawing wrong, you've got just barely over a 50-50 chance of survival. living 30 years if you're taking out 5% a year. So the key thing is to adjust the way that you

manage the money as you get into that sprint to retirement and then retirement. And it's, you got to add defense. So we have a book called Laugh when the market crashes. And this book isn't about literally laughing when the market crashes. It's about the quiet smile that kind of comes to your face because when we add defense, you get out up here. So you get out near the top of the market, maybe not at the tippy top, but near the top, and you get to buy the dip systematically without market timing. So that quiet smile, because you know you're about to make a lot of money instead of being part of the rest of the crowd that was just there for maybe a 50% stock market crash. So adding that defense will take away that fear about living your money. And it's

really important to secure certain parts of your portfolio so that you don't have that fear. Yeah, I mean, we could talk for hours on and on, hey, what does fear do to us? It increases stress, which causes disease. And when you can provide peace of mind, wow, what a gift that is. And I think that a lot of times with that concept of getting to retirement versus through retirement, people spend 30, 40 years striving and grinding and growing and building and accumulating money. What is the difference between that on the front end of building and growing? What is the change in their strategy once they get closer? You mentioned that sprint zone.

What should change there? Because I would venture to say you can take a little bit more risk in your 30s than in your 60s or 70s. So there's got to be a little bit of a strategic change there, right? Absolutely. So we do a process called defined outcome investing. And it applies to both your fixed income. So I would say step one is you got to start with the boring, secure your income so that there is an amount that you cannot outlive. Now, we all used to have pensions when you retired. So you'd work for a company 30 years. Get that thank you for your service, the gold watch, and a nice pension to supplement your social security. Well, years ago, they switched that over to the 401k and now you're responsible for your own future. And a lot of people need to incorporate.

the pension concept. So we do what's called a private pension if somebody doesn't have one very often to make sure at least their needs are covered. So if they live till they're 105, they're not going to run out of money and they're not going to be living at the poverty level that Social Security provides. So we want to secure that. Then you want to go to your growth side because you've got to keep up with inflation. You can't be too conservative or your fixed income will be worth 50 cents on the dollar before you know it in 10 or 15 years. So, here you need growth, but the stock market is too volatile if you just buy stocks and hold on for the roller coaster ride. So here we do three strategies that are part of defined outcome equity investing. One is your traditional, what we call naked in the market investing. So that's what most people do exclusively and that's it. And naked in the market investing is the roller coaster ride. Now the challenge here is your only defense for naked in the market investing. is diversification. And people have been falsely led to believe that that's going to protect you.

It doesn't protect you. It just means you have a lot of company when the market crashes 50%. Everybody has lost their money. So at least you're not alone. All diversification protects you from is made off and Enron, meaning made off, private crook and Ron. Made off with a lot of money. Yeah.

So the key thing is diversification is important, but it doesn't. really provide the defense that the other two strategies can do. So we, we complement the naked in the market equity position with a target position and what's called a Captain Buffford position. So the target position may only give you 80 or 90 percent of the upside of the market, but in a down year, maybe you're completely protecting and getting a zero when the market crashes and you get to buy the dip. And this is done through a concept called market lock ladder and where you lock in gains and then you're going to have some plateaus where the market's down so you get a zero but we often say zero is your hero in a down market and you systematically

buy the dip so if the market crashes 50 percent it then has to make a hundred percent to get back to break even and you're participating maybe at an 80 percent clip and then captain buffered is similar except it's it's almost exactly what it sounds you got to capture your earnings so you get 100% of the market performance, let's say, of the S&P, 100% up to the cap. So if your cap is 14%, then you can get a maximum of 14% return. Anything above that you don't get. But in return, maybe you're eliminating the first 30% of losses. And there's different ways that we can do that. So long-winded answer to your question, but that's adding defense is what you have to do in a portfolio. And then when you're withdrawing, it increases your chances that you're not going to run out of

mining. So 50, 50 isn't good. And I heard the words a couple times protection and safe. And I think that when you also have that plan in place where you've got that and you're ready and nimble and liquid enough to take advantage of some of those dips you mentioned, it puts you in that position. And it's very similar to just like not taking. It's like the tortoise and the hair. You're like you want to be the tortoise and just make steady plotting. And yeah, you might have a cap of this, but at least if the market crash, you didn't lose it. You'll hear zero is your hero. I love that approach. When, and not if, but when markets dip or crash or whatever the concept we want to talk about, what is that hidden blind spot, hidden danger of that market decline right before retirement? Because I would venture to say there's some people that go, hey, I'm retiring in nine months. Yahoo, everything's dialed in.

And then the market takes a big dump and that could really derail things. Talk a little bit about that and the hidden blind spot dangers of that decline shortly before someone retires. Yeah, I think that the biggest danger for a person retiring is if they retire near the top of the market. So if you go back to the dot-com era, so think 1999 to 2000, if you just retired, the market began a slump that was 50% for the overall market and almost 80% for tech stocks. Now, if you were withdrawing at 5% from a portfolio like that, you ended up having a great bull market into 2008 and then another crash. Your portfolio would have imploded and you'd be living on Social Security. So the blind spot, I would say, is if you are fortunate to retire, but the market happens to be high, so near the upward, upper end of a good market, and then you get a crash and then another crash within the same decade, which often happens. that is what it takes to implode your portfolio.

Now, this blind spot, just like when you're driving, it's easy. You got to know that it's there and protect yourself from it. Check your mirror, look over your shoulder. In portfolio management, that just means you add some defense so that you're ready. And part of your portfolio is not only going to be protected from that blind spot, but when that market crash happens, you're going to thrive. So it's no longer a blind spot. It's an opportunity.

So that's what defense can do. do for the equity side of your portfolio. Yeah, that's huge. And it's kind of like, I always love, you know, men like to use analogies and, and it's like reminds me what you just described there reminds me of, you don't want to go shopping for the grocery store when you're just having eaten in, you know, hours and hours because you just grabbing anything. You know what I'm saying?

Is you grabbing anything off the shelf. So when you have that, yes. Oh, yeah, you walk in, uh, with $400 later and you, and you bought everything. here's something that I heard you say there, which is if you are not looking for quick wins and big hits and you are systematically ready for when these dips happen and you're protected, you're working from that position of confidence versus, oh, the market dip, I got to make it back, make it back because the calculation you gave before. A lot of people don't pick this up. Oh, the market hit 30%. So this year we have to hit another 30 to make it back. Nope. You got to make a whole lot. more than 30 to make it back. So it's that whole mindset of trust the process. We've got it dialed in and just make steady progress, right? Yeah. And your tortoise and the hair analogy is perfect because in a crazy roaring up market, which is we're in the longest bull market in history going in through 2006 and then we'll see what's happening as we progress. But when you have that kind of

a bull market, you forget what down markets are like. And, And the key thing with the tortoise and hair approach is you might only be getting in a well-designed to find outcome portfolio, maybe only about 90% of the upside. But boy, you go through one crash where you're getting a good, typically about two-thirds of the portfolio as protections where you're buying the dips systematically. You will typically overcome the vanguards of the world, surpass them by so much they will never catch up. So just like in sports, defense wins championships. It's the same in your portfolio. You've got to have a solid defense and be ready for what is going to happen. Markets crash.

So it's not like it should be a surprise. You just have to have to be prepared for it. Yeah. And I would even venture to say the concept, trust the process would be part of what you're talking about. Because when you can show success from decades past and say to a client, hey, we've got this dialed in. We put this plan together. I told you this headwind was coming and here it is. We're going to trust the process.

We're going to. And then when they, you know, it's kind of like I forget what the Tom Cruise race car movie was, but it was when they had to teach him to keep the pedal to the metal through the smoke when there was a crash ahead. But yet if you hesitate or put the brakes on, you're, it's dangerous. So when you see those headwinds and you've got that process dialed in and people have that faith that I'm going to trust the process and they look back, you know, a quarter later and go, hey, Terry was right.

that bolsters their confidence. And then, yeah, to your point, if you're not taking big losses because zero is your hero, then all of a sudden, everyone else is starting under, you're picking up where you left off. So is there a way that you can kind of talk a little bit about that philosophy behind combining the traditional equity exposure, meaning I think a lot of people think, you know, 6040 and 5%, 4% a year? Some of those things that people have heard for decades and decades, it might not. be applicable today or in a certain client's, you know, portfolio. But talk a little bit about that philosophy of combining traditional equity with some of these strategies you're talking about

with, you know, fixed and guaranteed and all that kind of thing. Yeah. So a colleague of mine always says systems work, people fail. You need to be very systematic about how you do this. And the key is the 6040 stock bond portfolio. The research shows that that approach is dead. So if somebody is using that, that's an advisor that isn't keeping up on research. So you have to bring in things that will be what we call volatility buffers for when things are going bad and maybe the bond market is crashing, the stock market is crashing, real estate is down. You got to be able to survive those times. And it's got to be systematic because behavioral finance teaches us our emotions will cause people to do the wrong things at exactly the wrong time. So when you have a system that you

trust, similar to the race car movie where you got to put the gas on through the, through the smoke. It's going to, it's going to work for you. You just let the system flow. So fixed income is a big part of it. I know we haven't talked a lot about it, but it's a very important way to protect your portfolio. And you have to go beyond just bonds. So you have to have things, we call them volatility buffers for part of your portfolio that will thrive even when other things are down.

and you've got to do things that can get you a little more yield when the interest rate environment is low. And probably that fixed aspect is probably covering some of those fixed expenses that you have. Like if you need X number of dollars to turn the lights on, put food on the table every month, you're going to probably try to align that fixed portion to hit most of that so that then there's an extra layer of comfort there, right? Yeah, we talk about needs, wants, and wishes. And for most people, when they retire, we've got to have enough in your needs that you cannot outlive. And for many of us, Social Security isn't enough just for the needs. You want more than that.

So needs and wants for a lot of our clients are mandatory. So we want to make sure that the portfolio is structure where you cannot outlive your money, even if we do end up living to 100, 105. And health care is getting much better with artificial intelligence and things. So life expectancies are expected to increase. So the key here is how do we get that part of the safety there, but then also be ready for inflation. Be ready for if Social Security isn't keeping up with inflation because it increases, but it's a funny number for inflation, not a real inflation number. So we optimize Social Security. We create income that you can outlive through private pension and protective strategies.

And then the fun part of your portfolio, the growth, the three strategies for equities combined. over the long run, you should not just have a safer portfolio, but a better performing portfolio that should beat all the vanguards of the world. Yeah. Yeah. Huge. You know, we mentioned about trusting the process. And that sounds cliche and fine and good.

And, okay, that's wonderful. But I would venture to say that it's like, okay, client leads your office with this plan and everything's wonderful. But when that headwind happens, talk a little bit about that emotional. you know, like come to Jesus moment, so to speak, when it's like, okay, Terry told me this, but here it is here. And now the emotions and the frustration and the anxiety. And I know I need to trust the process, but look at what's coming up.

What's that emotional benefit of knowing that this is dialed in before that storm arrives? And then how do you make sure that people stay the course because it is that, you know, properly put together plan? Yeah, well, we study history a lot. So we show them kind of how the different portfolios would work in different markets. And one of the most enjoyable, ironic things that I experience is when the market crashes, so let's say just had a 20% pullback, which happened a few years back, my cell phone often blows up with texts that are something like, we're okay, right? Question mark. And I just give them the thumbs

up emoji back and then I actually talk to them. But I let them know we're not just okay. We're about ready to have some of our money mature and by the dip, and we are going to thrive. So ultimately, the satisfaction of a patient approach is once you go through a full market cycle, which typically you're going to get that happening once to twice a decade in a typical traditional market, you're never going to look back. So you'll enjoy this way of investing so much, you will never do it differently. And I grew up a stock picker, a stock broker. And my portfolio is the same as my clients because I know that to think you're going to be a top 1% stock picker is not realistic. And this system is going to put you in that top percentiles very, very consistently over a market cycle and over 20-year periods, the consistency is insane.

I think there's only one period that it isn't the best approach. So we really try to teach them and educate them so that they're feeling good about it. Perfect. And we reveal the blind spots. Well, yeah, that's the, you know, blind spots, you know, analogy of that would be, here's the bucket. Here's all these holes. I'm pointing out that blind spot, that hole. Now can we fully fill it and prevent anything from leaking out?

No, but we can mitigate it. We can tighten it up as much as possible. Is there an example you can think of of a client that maybe came in for the first time? to work with you and they thought everything was pretty dialed in pretty good. But then when you dug in a little bit deeper, you found some of these blind spots and then once you identified what their outcome future, you know, what retirement looks like. And then you showed them, hey, look, your portfolio looks adequate, but to achieve what you're looking for, we've got to make these changes. Here's this gap. What's an example of that in your past? Yeah. So in

in Laugh when the market crashes, we give a number of a number of examples. of where things can go wrong. So a typical scenario is that 60, 40 stock bond portfolio that you always hear about, where we had a client come in with a few million dollars in their portfolio, and they had almost exactly 60, 40 stock bond portfolio. So we look at three phases. One, you're looking at the portfolio itself and what kind of returns and what the road is going to look like, meaning how volatile is it.

But we also look at how much do you get to keep of your gain? meaning we've got to be proactive in tax planning. And then, of course, we look at how it's going to play out for the next generation through your estate planning. So in this scenario, they had their assets almost exactly in the wrong places. So they were turning things that should have been lower capital gains income into ordinary income by having it in their IRA. And then they're non-qualified income. They had these bonds and investments that were creating ordinary income sitting in their non-qualified to a degree that it was actually really. causing about a 1% drag on their portfolio.

So in this case, we showed them what it would look like if this was 1999 and what their portfolio would do if they were taking out their withdrawal rate, which they were at just about 5%. And their portfolio literally would have imploded. And we just showed them statistically, just going year by year, how it would have worked. And they're looking at each other going, oh, my gosh, what are we going to do? And then we show them the same portfolio with a defined outcome. approach and the portfolio didn't just survive, it grew with a 5% withdrawal rate.

So a 60, 40 stock bond portfolio, we've declared a dead years ago. There's study after study now that have all declared it dead by BlackRock and other groups. So just taking where they are, analyzing their current portfolio, showing them the dangers, showing them the inefficiencies because they're typically paying too much in taxes, and then showing them the solutions using history as an example, it was really eye-opening for them. And it's fun to help people bring them on to the life raft, so to speak, protect them from those what-ifs so that they now feel secure and they can just go off and enjoy that retirement. They work so hard to build. They don't have to worry about a crash.

Crash happens. They actually should be smiling. They're about to make a lot of money. Love it, Terry. This has been so enlightening. And if anyone is interested in kind of reaching out of a couple of. connecting with you and saying, hey, show me where some of these blind spots in my investment portfolio may be. What's the best way that they can reach out and connect with you?

Yeah, I mean, they can just reach out to us on our website. So it's www.weiriaadvisors.com. And then they can also just call us. So all of our information will be in the show notes, and we'll have links where you can learn more about this and be happy to talk over this stuff. It's a passion of ours. So, um, Thank you so much, Terry. Yeah, you're welcome. Fun topic. I've been great.

Yeah, awesome. 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.com.