What I Bring To The Table

The Learning Curve: Most people that are planning toward retirement have purchased at least one home, several cars, and often put at least one kid into or through college. With each of these major financial and life events, there is a learning curve of accumulation of knowledge. They learn to have a foundation inspection, a mechanic test drive, and a major that will lead to a real job. This acquired knowledge proves valuable when they buy their next home, the next car, or next college tour.

However, most people only retire once, and do not have the luxury of experience. Even if they have friends, family or work associates of the same age and income, the two people likely have completely different personal circumstances (number of marriages, health issues, longevity probabilities, debt structures, etc). And, they are at the time of their lives that they are trying to simplify their lives, not have to learn the nuances of retirement planning, using their own money as tuition in a pass / fail test.

I can help. In over 30 years of doing this work, I have helped literally hundreds of people accumulate, manage, protect, and distribute retirement dollars. I have accumulated this knowledge base by helping people retire in high interest rates and low interest rates, bear and bull markets, red and blue periods, and working with introverts and extroverts.

How many times will you retire?

The Plan: I have found great similarity in the process of retirement planning and building a house. Both endeavors require a fundamental understanding of what the owner’s intent is for the structure, what the site measurements are, and the expected lifespan of the building.

No one hoping for a dependable product would think of starting without a Plan. For retirement planning, this involves knowing current income and spending levels, retirement date and post retirement cash flow desires, and the probability of success if the current track is continued. If the current practice does not project success, we are able to make hypothetical changes and test for success. These changes can include working longer or shorter, more or less retirement cash flow, the amount of inheritance to pass along, Social Security timing, and more aggressive or conservative investment posture.

The client can also log onto the web-based planning software site and add their current credentials to their other investment holdings (employer retirement plan, bank, investment accounts) so that they see not only where they are with me, but where they are in the total picture. I visualize it as a fly-over drone shot of the completed home.

This Plan also gives us a basis for the Annual Fiscal Physicals, to check real life progress against the projected hypotheticals.

Being a One-Man Shop: I make no apologies for being a one-person operation, as it is that way by deliberate design. By keeping a “keep it small” approach, I can keep my overhead very low compared to those offices with large staffs, which allows me to choose to spend as much time as needed or desired with each client and each Plan. That also allows me to enjoy probably the most liberating professional work environment imaginable – that I choose to only work with nice people. Additionally, it is a rule (to me) that anyone that is involved in the decisions or outcome in the retirement plans have a seat at the table.

Robert Woosley and I have shared office space since 2009. We decided that we wanted a Plan to protect our clients (and families) in the event either of us died or became disabled. We have had an insured buy/sell agreement since 2008. He would purchase Trible Financial from my wife with life insurance proceeds and is the only person on this planet that I have absolute confidence will treat my wife and my clients well. I am lucky to have found that relationship.

While I am the only employee of Trible Financial Company, that does not mean that I am alone in my work. There is a small army of people and entities behind the scenes that work with me but not for me. For more than 25 years, a primary affiliation has been MarketShare of Indianapolis. They are the Branch office for supervision and compliance functions, and may assist with timely form submission, plan design, website, or myriad other functions.

My plan is to continue to work until about 2028, solely because I love what I do, and I only work with people I like. Robert and I are in the stages of our vertical succession plan (meaning nobody dies), but that process is not complete. 

Being the Back-Up Plan:  A topic that most people rarely want to think about is dying, and even less do they want to ponder who will be around to make sure their loved ones are taken care after they die.

While I won’t be there to mow the grass or take out the trash, I (or my successor) will be around to help file insurance claims, realign incomes and beneficiaries, encourage them to move forward but slowly, and help execute the plans laid earlier.

This can only be done with bilateral trust and open communication. I can’t be much help in settling an old life insurance policy if I don’t know it exists, or help the survivor if I haven’t been able to develop a relationship with both people over a period of time.

I won’t take control of the money, but I will help the one in control feel in control.

How I Get Paid: This topic is a mystery to many people that are only beginning to consider working with a financial adviser. There are two main models, and I have no preference for either. I am able to arrange that part of the relationship however feels best to the client.

One way is by a fee-based model, often referred to “assets under management”. The client and adviser enter into an agreement that the adviser will receive a percentage of the assets under their management, normally rounded off to about 1% annually. If a client invests $100,000, the adviser is compensated $1,000 over the course of the year (often debited from the assets on a quarterly basis). As the asset base grows (assumed), the percentage does not change but the adviser compensation grows along with the assets under management. A few advisors work under a “flat hourly” rate, regardless of the money involved. I do not use the hourly rate mode.

The other dominant model is on a commission base. There is a commission paid when funds are placed in the investment or insurance vehicle, and there is no trailing fee to the client. There may be ongoing expenses, depending on the specific vehicle chosen, which are too numerous to be mentioned in an overview.

As mentioned, it makes little difference to me which model the client chooses. I have found in over 30 years of this work that if you do good work for good people, one way or another you get paid. In round numbers, about 20% of my time and compensation is on helping clients quantify goals, crafting a long term plan and putting the plan into place. The other 80% involves coaching clients to continue working the plan through all the cycles of the economy, and all of the fads and fears of the market.