Category Archives: Uncategorized

25. Tax Planning Solutions Made Easy For Advisors With Kevin Lozer, CFP®



Every advisor wants to find better tax planning solutions for their clients.

Are you one of them?

In this episode, Kevin Lozer, co-founder of Holistiplan, joins Jack Martin to share everything you need to know about Holistiplan. Kevin reveals how this tool allows advisors and clients to develop a comprehensive and efficient tax planning strategy.

Kevin discusses:

  • How his time as a financial advisor helped pave the way for starting Holistiplan
  • How Holistiplan helps advisors better serve their clients
  • Ways to approach the “when should I claim my social security?” question
  • How innovative advisors are increasing the value they offer clients 
  • And more!

Resources:

Connect with Kevin Lozer:

Connect with Jack Martin:

About our Guest:

Kevin Lozer, CFP®, is the co-founder of Holistiplan and has been a CFP® professional and financial planner for 13 years. Kevin co-founded Holistiplan to help financial planners serve more people that need tax planning in all stages of life. In addition to creating Holistiplan, Kevin owns a small, solo financial planning practice in Northern Virginia and is a regional board member for the National Association of Personal Financial Advisors (NAPFA).


24. The Value Behind a Data-Driven Approach to Annuities for Advisors With Tamiko Toland



Advisors, think about your conversations with clients.

Are you looking to tackle those conversations differently? 

Perhaps a data-driven approach can enable you to better serve and meet your clients’ needs.

This week, CANNEX’s Tamiko Toland joins Jack Martin to highlight the disconnect between advisors and consumers around annuities. Tamiko explains how gen X and baby boomers feel about annuities while revealing how advisors can access valuable tools to efficiently serve clients.

Tamiko discusses:

  • The disconnect between what consumers and advisors think about annuities
  • Why advisors should be open to having conversations with their clients using a different approach
  • What she would like to see from a solutions perspective
  • Ways to  access  a wider variety of tools
  • Reasons why consumers are aligning with annuities 
  • And more!

Resources:

Connect with Tamiko Toland: 

Connect with Jack Martin:

About our Guest:

Tamiko Toland is Director, Retirement Markets for Toronto-based CANNEX. CANNEX has long been known as the leading provider of income annuity pricing and now serves the entire scope of annuity products, including the evaluation of annuities with income guarantees. 

Tamiko supports the retirement industry with research, analysis, and writing on the retirement income industry. Her focus is the individual and institutional (defined contribution) annuity market in the U.S. and Canada. She is a thought leader with 20 years of experience tracking trends and key issues on retirement income, synthesizing commentary and analysis for broad audiences and specific clients. 

 In the interest of supporting the development of the industry, Tamiko serves on the board for the National Association for Fixed Annuities (NAFA) and is an advisor member of the Institutional Retirement Income Council (IRIC).


23. How To Achieve Objective Index Ratings and Forecasts with Laurence Black from The Index Standard®



How do you, as an advisor or investment professional, select the best products for your clients?

Have you thought about what makes clients believe that you are always looking out for their best interest?

In this episode, Laurence Black takes a deep dive into everything The Index Standard® is about and how it can help you strengthen your client services. 

Laurence highlights how his organization provides advisor-related unbiased index ratings and forecasts and breaks down how these elements act as resources to support client investment decisions according to their individual goals.

Laurence discusses:

  • Why he created The Index Standard®
  • Benefits of a diverse portfolio that goes beyond the S&P 500
  • Using risk control as a mechanism to deliver stable returns and lower drawdowns
  • Three methods the firm uses to deliver acceptable indices to advisors and their clients 
  • Why Laurence refers to their services as “approachable finance”
  • Best practices for advisors looking to choose and understand indices for their clients 
  • And more!

Resources:

Connect with Laurence Black: 

Connect with Jack Martin:

About our Guest:

Laurence Black is the founder of The Index Standard® and an index advisor to Robert J. Shiller, Sterling Professor of Economics at Yale University.

Before founding The Index Standard®, Laurence was Managing Director and Head of Quantitative Indices and Strategies at Barclays, where he oversaw the development of the Barclays index family. In addition to designing some of the first smart beta/factor indices, Laurence spearheaded Barclays’ index partnerships with Professors Robert Shiller and Nouriel Roubini, as well as Novus Partners.

Before Barclays, Laurence was Head of Indices at ABN AMRO in London and worked at Lehman Brothers, Deutsche Bank, and Credit Suisse.


22. Viewing Retirement As Personal Preferences Rather Than Behavioral Finance with Wade Pfau, Ph.D., CFA, RICP®



While it’s common for advisors to approach their clients with retirement income questions and predetermined answers, Retirement Researcher also focuses on a wide range of possibilities based on the unique needs of retirees and pre-retirees. 

In this episode, the firm’s founder and The American College of Financial Services’ retirement income professor, Wade Pfau, discusses how the company helps advisors like you approach client retirement. Wade also reveals why the best approach to building a retirement income strategy involves remaining open to all the possibilities.

Wade discusses:

  • Using the Retirement Income Style Awareness Profile (RISA) to determine how to source your client retirement income 
  • The four main retirement income strategies and how to help your clients select the one that suits them best 
  • Annuity puzzle considerations for retirees and pre-retirees 
  • How advisors can use Retirement Researcher’s retirement comprehensive assessment questionnaire for clients 
  • Why there isn’t just one way to approach retirement 
  • And more!

Resources:

Connect with Wade Pfau: 

Connect with Jack Martin:

About our Guest:

Wade Pfau is Retirement Researcher’s founder, a firm all about guiding people along the path to a successful and sustainable retirement by providing modern, sound academic research. Wade is also a retirement income professor at The American College of Financial Services, a higher education institution for financial planners. He earned a Ph.D. in economics from Princeton University in 2003 with a dissertation about Social Security reform and became a CFA charter holder in 2011.


21. Social Security & Medicare Summed Up In 35 Minutes with Mary Beth Franklin, CFP®



Are you an advisor looking to better serve your clients around their Social Security and Medicare needs?

If so, this week’s episode of The Breakthrough Advisor with Social Security expert Mary Beth Franklin is for you!

Join today’s conversation and learn valuable tips and tricks to enhance your clients’ Social Security and Medicare planning. Master some of the best-suited strategies and discover must-know considerations for guiding clients down the path of retirement income planning.

Mary Beth discusses:

  • Helping rather than selling: Tackling conversations around Social Security and Medicare 
  • Using a restricted application to maximize Social Security benefits 
  • What advisors’ top priorities should be with Medicare planning 
  • The role of Income Related Monthly Adjustment Amounts (IRMAA) in Medicare-related taxes and premiums 
  • The truth about using qualified distributions and annuity income to bridge Medicare gaps  
  • And more!

Resources:

Connect with Mary Beth Franklin:

Connect with Jack Martin:

About our Guest:

InvestmentNews contributing editor, and foremost Social Security expert, Mary Beth Franklin, CFP®, provides up-to-date information on Social Security claiming strategies.

She has been a financial journalist for more than 40 years, covering everything from the federal budget and tax policies to consumer finances as a writer and editor at Kiplinger’s Personal Finance magazine. Mary Beth is a former Capitol Hill reporter at United Press International and retirement and tax editor at Kiplinger Personal Finance.


20. Retirement-Related Considerations from Retirement Expert Tom Hegna, CLU, ChFC, CASL



While June is annuity awareness month, this week’s conversation goes beyond just annuities to encapsulate many other retirement-related components.

In this episode, economist, author, and retirement expert Tom Hegna joins Jack Martin to break down valuable retirement considerations. Covering everything from retirement income and taxes to life insurance, healthcare, and more, Tom shares his best advice so that you, too, can become a retirement expert like him.

Tom discusses:

  • Why retirement doesn’t have to be difficult nor complicated 
  • Reasons advisors should talk about tax diversification with clients
  • Considerations for the 4% rule
  • The three levels of a fiduciary and how to tackle misinformation around them 
  • Why you might want to leave your children life insurance rather than money
  • And more!

Resources:

Connect with Tom Hegna:

Check out Tom’s books:

Connect with Jack Martin:

About our Guest:

Tom Hegna is an economist, author, and retirement expert. He has been an incredibly popular industry speaker for many years and is considered by many to be THE Retirement Income Expert.

As a former First Vice President at New York Life, retired Lieutenant Colonel, and economist, Tom has delivered over 5,000 seminars and has condensed his knowledge into five different books. 


19. Using Genivity to Measure Your Clients’ Wealth and Health With Heather Holmes



Did you know that only 11% of clients feel like they can have health and longevity planning discussions with their financial advisors?

Discover how you can encourage your clients to broach this subject with you as their trusted advisor in this week’s conversation with Genivity’s founder and CEO, Heather Holmes. Heather explains how Genevity uses a scientific and health approach to develop personalized financial and longevity projections for advisors based on clients’ lifestyle and goals.

Heather discusses:

  • The tools and techniques used to create financial and longevity projections for clients 
  • How advisors and their clients can benefit from Genivity as a technological, data-driven, and digital platform 
  • Ways Genivity can help you optimize and be in control of your health and lifestyle 
  • How the InsurMark team integrates Genivity within their longevity conversations with clients 
  • And more!

Resources:

Hear Heather talk about how to use HALO to grow your business at InsurMark’s Ultimate Social Security Biz Builder event on June 22 at 11 AM CT.

Connect with Heather Holmes:

Connect with InsurMark:

About our Guest:

Heather Holmes is Genivity’s founder and CEO. Heather leads the firm’s vision and focuses on product design, business development, and fundraising. She brings a decade of sales, marketing, and market development experience to Genivity from her time in the medical device industry working for Medtronic & Abbott Vascular.


Episode 18: How To Develop Your Client Experience Comeback Plan — With Julie Littlechild



As an advisor, client experience is a crucial piece of your practice. But what does it mean to deliver a great client experience and how do we evolve client experience going forward?

Explore this and more in today’s episode with Absolute Engagement’s CEO and founder, Julie Littlechild. Julie explains how she helps advisors craft a plan according to their needs to enhance client input, communication, and the overall client experience. 

In this episode, you will learn:

  • Why advisors need to make sure clients are communicating their needs and expectations 
  • Julie’s advice for enhancing the advisor-client relationship 
  • How often an advisor should be interacting with clients
  • How client needs have changed over time 
  • And more!

Listen in and learn how you as an advisor can use Absolute Engagement as a resource to discover the needs and expectations of your clients! 

Resources: InsurMark | Julie Littlechild | Absolute Engagement | Resources | Blog


Episode 17: Protecting Clients’ Retirement Savings with Tax Planning — With Ed Slott, CPA



Advisors, how are you helping your clients protect their retirement savings from unnecessary taxation?

In today’s episode of The Breakthrough Advisor, join Ed Slott as he reveals ways he’s helping advisors lower their clients’ tax bill and protect what is likely clients’ biggest savings area. Ed highlights how his education and training programs enhance the planning experience for financial advisors, their practice, and clients alike.   

In this episode, you will learn:

  • What advisors need to know about taxes right now 
  • Communication and knowledge as two main client-advisor relationship components 
  • How Ed’s training programs have helped advisors and clients
  • Ed’s advice for advisors seeking new business opportunities  
  • Reasons why you should never forget about prospective clients 
  • And more!

Listen in today and learn everything you need to know about protecting your clients’ retirement plan from taxes!

Resources:  InsurMark | IRA Help | Ed Slott | Twitter 

To hear more from Ed, check out our Ultimate Roth IRA Conversion Biz Builder where he leads a fast-paced one-hour training on Roth Conversions.
The Ultimate Roth Conversion Biz Builder |   InsurMark


Episode 16: How to Step Up Your Online Marketing Game — With Robert Sofia



As an advisor, how can you better incorporate marketing and business technology solutions into your practice?

Find out in this episode of The Breakthrough Advisor with Snappy Kraken CEO and chairman, Robert Sofia! 

Robert details Snappy Kraken’s marketing automation and online advertising approach, which is specifically designed to help financial advisors create meaningful connections and attain better prospects.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

  • About Snappy Kraken’s automated marketing growth program for advisors
  • How the firm’s Catalyst program helps financial professionals kick-start their marketing process and presence 
  • Why advisors should always quantify (and be patient) with their marketing results 
  • The importance of diversifying your marketing strategy 
  • And more!

Listen in and learn how Snappy Kraken’s marketing and outsourcing technique can help you and your practice grow!  

Resources:

InsurMark | Snappy Kraken | Snappy Kraken on LinkedIn | Robert Sofia | Snappy Kraken on YouTube