Influential Entrepreneurs with Mike Saunders, MBA - Roma Pithadiya, President and CEO of Affordable Insurance and Financial Services Discussing The Hybrid Approach to Tax-Free Retirement

Episode Date: February 5, 2026

Roma Pithadiya is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Affordable Insurance and Financial Services (AIFS), a financial services and insurance advisory firm based in the Dallas–Fort Worth area of Texas. She is a seasoned financial professional and entrepreneur with extensive experience in insurance, financial planning, and wealth protection.Roma immigrated to the United States with limited resources and has built her career from the ground up, becoming a respected advisor to individuals, families, and small businesses in matters of health insurance, life insurance, auto and home protection, and long-term financial planning. She has been active in the financial services industry for well over a decade and is known for her deep commitment to client education and advocacy.She is also recognized as a Million Dollar Immigrant, a title reflecting her journey from starting penniless in the U.S. to achieving significant success in the insurance and financial advisory business.In addition to her executive role, Roma engages heavily in community service: she is active with the Lions Club, participates in senior citizen organizations, and serves on committees for cultural and religious groups. She frequently speaks on financial literacy and planning topics at national stages, including events hosted by CNN, the Harvard Club of Boston, New York Life, Nasdaq, and the MDRT (Million Dollar Round Table).Her expertise spans health insurance (including Medicare and individual policies), life and annuity products, retirement planning, and strategies for tax-efficient financial growth. Roma also works to empower clients to manage their finances wisely and protect their financial futures with well-structured, personalized solutions.Learn more: https://aifsgroupbyroma.com/Roma Pithadiya is not an attorney or CPA. Affordable Insurance and Financial Services does not provide legal or tax advice. Any discussion of financial strategies is general in nature and not a recommendation. Insurance and financial products involve risk and may not be suitable for all individuals. Licensing and availability vary by state.Influential Entrepreneurs with Mike Saundershttps://businessinnovatorsradio.com/influential-entrepreneurs-with-mike-saunders/Source: https://businessinnovatorsradio.com/roma-pithadiya-president-and-ceo-of-affordable-insurance-and-financial-services-discussing-the-hybrid-approach-to-tax-free-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 Roma Pita Dia, who's the president and CEO of affordable insurance and financial services, and we'll be talking about the hybrid approach to a tax-free retirement. Roma, welcome to the program.

Hey, it's my place to be here, my honor to be here today, Mike. Thank you for having me as your guest. Yeah, you're welcome. And, you know, I really love when we can have a unique approach to a common topic, which I think a lot of times people think retirement is something that's really far away. But as we know, as we get older, time just flies. And so when we're going to talk today about a tax-free retirement, that sounds exciting. And then I'm excited to learn about your hybrid approach to a tax-free retirement.

So before we dive into learning from you, give us a little bit of your story and your background. And how did you get into the financial services industry? Yes. Since last 32 years, I've been in United States. State of America. I flew from direct from my home village town to all the way USA. In 1993, and I started my business as a hotel year, 10-year experience in the hotel-motel operator. After that, I started to come into my own baggage with knowledge I had with the tax and insurance. that baggage is just, it was a piece of certificate, it's piece of paper.

But that piece of paper is turned into a huge skill of the knowledge. That skill of the knowledge is now I'm implementing in my financial future as an insurance and financial advisor. and it's not only the financial insurance agent, but also I'm driving like a rules of the finance and security. Yeah, you know, it really is interesting. It reminds me what you're saying there about. If someone just has knowledge and awareness about a topic, that's the first step, but you need to implement it. You need to understand how to properly put that knowledge into action to achieve that outcome and that comes from working with someone that's an expert and knows how to put those

financial topics into place. And I know that that's what we're talking about here is your hybrid approach to retirement. How does that hybrid approach that you work with your clients on, how does it protect financial futures while managing risk in a portfolio? Yeah, as, you know, like when I learned too much, I learned enough with my financial advisor as my mentors and also attending so many MDRT's meetings and achieved all awards and everything. Help me to understand more in the detail about the financial future. And over there, I find out how the insurance and financial strategy work by the hybrid way. So hybrid strategy works because it diversified tax exposure, income sources, and risk type. And instead of relying on the bucket, like a 401K, that's a fully taxable and tie to market.

Right. what are liability and you're like spending a strategy like multi-tools as a Roth hire account protect against the future tax hikes iULs or whole life it's protects against the market losses and providing tax free access hsays account health savings account is also protecting against the risk, healthcare cost, and municipal bonds and all other stability bonds, predictable tax-free income. But with that, instead of hoping the market behave or taxes stay low, the hybrid approach build certainty into your plan.

You know, you brought up a whole lot of great points there, and I want to unpack a little bit of that. I think that a lot of times people do not fully assess risk. And I think that too many times someone that's spent their career working, striving to grow their money into a retirement account, whatever type of account it is, maybe, you know, an IRA or a 401k or even a, you know, a Roth like what you mentioned there, they're in the mode of growing, but at some point with retirement, you need to start protecting. So what are some of those risks that you will help your clients protect from? Like you mentioned, you know, maybe inflation risk would be one, right?

Uh-huh. If I say that, you know what, misconception about the tax-free retirement planning, it's need like a real understanding about the misconception to proper understanding about the life. insurance is only the debt benefit. People think was that. And also modern policy also has a living life-based insurance. They have a long-term care and tax-free retirement and all that things. Another things is we'll just like a pay tax later than I am right now lowering the tax bracket. reality, many retirees end up in the higher bracket dues on the RMDs, a social security taxable income and fewer deductions,

very little people has been understanding, waiting, reduced, compounding, increasing cost and limitation of the positions. All the roles has been replacing, confusing with the certainty, clarity, and fear with the strategies. That's a great point about RMDs, which are the required minimum distribution. I think that sometimes people have a misconception about that where they think, you know what, I heard I'm supposed to take out a certain amount this year, but I don't need the money because I sold my RV and I don't need any funds.

So I'm not going to take it out. But that would be a problem, right? Because then you will get penalized. Yes. And the main thing is they are forgetting about the longevity risk. Yeah. That is a huge impact on. Yeah. How does longevity impact the risk? Because people is planning, you know what?

20 years ago, people was dying on age 50, 60, 70s. Yeah. Now is the people is being living along on age 80 and 90 and 100 plus. They plan the retirement up to age 60s. 70 and their living life is 90. So shortage year of the 20 years, did they manage? That's a huge point. And I don't think people fully understand that because we have a better, for the most part,

we have a better health care system. People are taking better care of themselves. They're eating healthy. They're exercising more. And they're living longer like what you just said. Well, it used to be that let's plan our retirement. to retire at a certain age and live to another certain age. So now we need to have enough money to cover that.

But what if your age now is longer and you have to need more money? That becomes a huge risk. Like you said, that longevity. It sounds really strange to say longevity or living longer is a risk. Well, it's not a risk to you because that's good news. You live longer. But the risk is having enough money in retirement. That is true.

And you know, these owners also balancing their time between the daily operations and future planning is also very important. Well, how do you, you know, when I hear that, daily operations and future planning, it seems like those are so totally different. Meaning, here is a business owner that they've got to get in and do the work and roll up their sleeves and do all the work of the day, but at the same time, they need to pop their head out of their day and their tasks and look to the future. How do you recommend that your clients be looking to future planning, but making sure also that the daily operations get done? You know what, Mike? Everybody is celebrating their anniversary. Everybody's celebrating their birthdays and everybody is being

doing all that plan they are doing. But if like a CEO of the business, don't you think they should have their CEO day as well? Quarterly CEO a day. So what is the quarterly CEO day means if they don't plan ahead, the business become their only retirement plan. They have a plan. Automated. they like, you know, automatic Roth contribution or sometimes like policy funding and all that things, that's great. But reviewing financials, updating retirement strategies, checking the tax exposers, adjusting insurance or savings and everything, checking their retirement and estate planning, what is they already perform in the past few years and what can be the future year?

Don't you think they need one day for that entertainment to understand what they made, what they saved, and what the savings is. Like a passive income is also what the generating of income for the tax-free retirement. You know, that's a really great point, the CEO day. And it made me think of something that I've heard many, many times, and I'm sure you have as well. in business, if you're trying to run your business efficiently, if you're not moving forward, you're falling behind. Meaning, I feel like a lot of CEOs just think, I'm just putting my time in, I'm doing the tasks for the day,

and I'm doing fine. But if you're not moving forward and growing, your competitors or the industry is overtaking you and you're actually falling behind. So from an operational standpoint, you should have that CEO day and plan. from a retirement standpoint, you should make sure that you individually as the CEO are taken care of because too many times, like you said, you cannot rely on your business being the only vehicle for your retirement because many things can happen. You need to make sure you're individually taking care of for retirement.

There's go. And building a plan that doesn't require the attention. Hybrid strategy are set and adjust. not set and forget. Yeah. Well, how often do you say that the retirement plan should be evaluated? Do you say quarterly or do you say every six months or once a year? What is the frequency?

Yes, I can say like a CEO day is a quarterly day. Yeah. And other business people, if they are not growing that much, then it's okay to do six month or annually. But not later than annual. Yeah, I agree 100% because at that point, you know, you might have had a big change happen nine, 10 months ago, and it's too late to make a change. And, you know, another thing that I feel like is very important for people to realize, if you've put a plan into place for the business,

for your retirement, and you check it, let's say quarterly, if you determine with your professional, your financial professional that some adjustments need to be made because maybe the tax rates have changed or inflation or whatever changes have happened in the market. That does not mean that the plan was wrong. It just means that there's some outside influences that have adjusted and now you need to keep up with that to make sure the plan is valid. Is that something that you've seen in your practice as well? Daily basis.

I'm seeing that every day because you know what? Every people say that, oh, my business is not doing well. Why? Because you don't know that construction going. right front of your business. So that means you're going to lose your traffic. So if you're losing your traffic, so you should plan for the next, what can be I get, not from this business.

So what can be another business? And that another business is also like our financial future. Make sure that they have a growth. So at least diversifying buckets, we can change the buckets from one buckets, from the other bucket, which is one is doing a business. And another bucket is like the business do for business. Yeah. Let's the money for money.

Yeah. Right. Find out which bucket is performing best and put more water in that bucket. But if something is leaking, plug up the leaks and just assess. But it's kind of like what they say on Shark Tank so many times, know your numbers. And if you don't know your numbers, you're flying blind. Right. And you know what? Tax is always going to be changed.

Income also can change. Life also can change. Health can be changed. Our retirement destinations can be changed. You have to plan in way advance and always on time. Yeah. So when you... The taxis, we cannot predict the taxis. We cannot predict the... Even though hell. Yeah. I wish we could.

I wish we knew the future. But if we if we didn't, because we don't know the future and we don't know if we're going to have a health concern or taxes are going to go up or down or inflation, we need to have a plan. And I feel like sometimes people put things off till it's too late. So if someone is listening to this, what kind of steps should be taken today to make sure that they're starting that security? plan for a tax-free retirement tomorrow. Okay. So that we can say, you know what? There is a three type of retirement.

One is like here is a simple, ex-enable roadmap. You know, we can do with the client. Step one is identify the tax buckets, which is tax defer, like a 401K, IRA and all that things. Another is a taxable, like a brokerage account.

And the third is a tax-free, like a Roth IRA, HSA account, IOL account has life insurance with the cash market. Most people are overexposed to the first two. So their third option is the hybrid way. And shift contributions toward the tax-free tools, the max out the Roth IRA. Or do backdoor rot if needed. Fund in the HSA, if it is eligible. And start overreviewing the tax every year, tax cash value. How much do we have in the life insurance?

Because life insurance also building cash. It's a performing well or not or whatever our prediction. Is that going very well or not? protect against like market volatility. And that is the IOL tool is being created guaranteed income buffers. And that not only the income bucket, but also building a long-term care plan, that is one type of hybrid account. Because people was before that, once, if anybody got a care plan,

Cancer means cancel. Time frame was committed. Three months, six months, and people are going to die. Now, cancer is a common. Now, time comes from the pager to iPhone 15. One bucket, only the life insurance, the small bucket. It doesn't work. Now we have to see the multiple use of the life insurance.

So there is a several different way we can be that is count as a hybrid way to think about. Yeah, that's a really big point that many people don't understand, which is there is so many uses of that tool that ultimately is beyond someone's comprehension because they think, oh, well, you use life insurance when you die, you get a bunch of money. But in reality, you're describing ways that can be used from that hybrid approach to protect, to grow, to create tax benefits, and to also be ready for long-term care. So that's a really powerful way to be prepared in case something comes up where you need it. But if it doesn't, and you didn't have that health need, well, then that tool is still providing you that retirement security there. So that's a really great, powerful point. Right. Also, long-term care instead of I don't, just like, you know what, it's okay if I become a, in turning to long-term care. But I don't want my nursing home at the nursing home. I want my, even though nursing home time also I want at-home nursing home. Yes. You want that flexibility. Luxury, even though treatment also, I want luxury treatment.

Yep. Yes. You know, it gives you options and nobody wants to be told you can only go to this place or do it this way. You want the options to say, I want to have that care in my home. I want to have my relative provide that care. And so having that freedom and flexibility is very powerful. And if I say my mentor, Tom Hagener, he taught me one simple sentence. There is no guaranteed tax-free retirement without. long-term care.

That thing has been sticking my mind. And I think a thousand different way. And I say, oh, wow. Yeah? That is true. Because the nursing home cost can be ruined up our entire plan of the retirement. Yep. Yep.

And a lot of people don't think that they're going to need it. but I think statistically a very large percentage of people will need some type of long-term care. So, you know, this is like two monsters. Let me tell you that way. Two monsters? Yeah. Well, let's go ahead and let's keep that thought here and pick that up on our next conversation because I think that's going to be a nice topic here.

So, Roma, this has been a powerful conversation on the hybrid. approach to tax-free retirement. It brings some great new perspectives for people to consider. And I think this has just been very, very helpful. So if someone is listening to this thinking, I need a little bit of clarity. How can they reach out and connect with you to learn more? That is true. What's the best way that they can connect with you, Roma? My name is Roma Pithadia and my website is wwwAIFS group by ruma.com And phone number is 972-6993-331315

And the best thing is I'm 24-7 available That's awesome You're always there to serve your clients Well Roma thank you so much for coming on We will make sure to have that link to your website In the show notes and we really appreciate your time today.

Very good. Thank you so much. Thank you for having this opportunity. And definitely we will talk something about others. Thank you. 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.influentialentrepreneurs radio.com.