[fusebox_track_player url=\”https://soundcloud.com/livewiththrive/5-ways-to-jumpstart-your-ira-401k-now\” social_linkedin=\”true\” social_email=\”true\” ]

 

Joe Krause:
Hello, Delaware Valley, and welcome into Roadmap to Retirement, the radio show, here on Talk Radio 1210 WPHT. It\’s the final weekend of the month of May. Oh my God, can you believe we are five full months into 2020? The last two months, so memorable because of the pandemic, lives have been lost, tens of millions of people are unemployed. I would say with conviction, it brought the strongest economic upturn right to its knees overnight so quickly, and because of that, the devastating impact is there, and exist on your IRA and 401(k)s. We\’ve been talking about that. Some people shrug, some people are confused. Last week, we talked about people being just overwhelmed by the reality around them. Welcome in everyone to Roadmap to Retirement, the radio show.

Joe Krause:
David we\’ve talked a lot over the last few weeks. We\’ve had some very defined conversations. We\’ve talked about taxes, minimum distributions. Today, we\’re going to reference sequence of returns risk. That\’s a topic that we\’ve talked about in the past, and on that, I turn it over to you.

David Bezar:
Thanks, Joe. Good morning, everybody. Glad to be here today. We\’ve got a great show lined up. If you want to reap the benefits, we talk … sometimes, some of what we go over is a little redundant, but again, it\’s the fundamentals of what it takes to have a successful retirement. We\’ll talk a little bit … Karen\’s going to cover sequence of returns. We\’re going to talk a lot about taxes today, again, because we want to make sure people understand these things. Coming up today, we\’ve got five proactive strategies to jumpstart your IRA 401(k). We\’ll talk about sequence of return risk. It\’s real. You got to understand it. The defensive tax planning strategies that could save you a fortune, and how you could minimize excessive investment fees, expenses, things related to stuff like that. Karen\’s going to jump in and talk about sequence of return risks.

Karen Bezar:
Sequence of return risk. One of my favorite subjects to bring up. When we meet with people for the first and second time, when we meet with people, look, you\’re out there right now. If you\’re near retirement or retired, this is so important. We bring this to light to people when we meet with them the first time, and everybody has their own retirement plan. It\’s all individual. When we sit down with people, we like to get to know you and understand certain things about you. One thing we look at is what is your really, your risk tolerance and your understanding of how your investments can be affected during retirement.

Karen Bezar:
I ask a lot of times, are you concerned with market corrections? I get the whole gamut. I get some people who are terrified of market corrections and other people who say, \”Ah, market goes up and the market goes down. I\’ve been through the financial crisis, and I\’ve been fine.\” Okay. Yes, you have, but that is when you\’re working. When you are going to retire soon or in retirement, the sequence of return risk is real, and you really need to protect your IRA, your 401(k), every type of investment you have. First, I\’m going to be a teacher here and give you the definition of what actually is sequence of return risk. Really, what it is, it\’s the risk of retiring during a downturn in the stock market.

Karen Bezar:
If the stock market\’s falling during the first few years of your retirement, the combination of stock market loss, and then needing to withdraw from those monies that are in the stock market to pay for retirement could literally just decimate your nest egg, what you work so hard to save for retirement. It\’s just so important. So when you\’re planning and you\’re saving for retirement, it\’s not always understood in the beginning, but it\’s something that you should definitely be aware of once you\’re in that stage of your life. But good news is there is a way to mitigate that risk. How do you do that? You need to have proper diversification and you also need to have rebalancing of your investments.

Karen Bezar:
Look, right now, it\’s crazy, and diversification is the key. This market is crazy, up and down, and you just don\’t know which way to turn, but you don\’t want to obsess about your accounts either. If you have a plan in place, it\’s much better and easier and more effective, not to mention healthier and financially, mentally healthier. If you have your portfolio well-researched, carefully tailored and you need to have a wide range of investments, that\’s something we can do for our clients. Remember, retirement isn\’t static. Rebalancing is also very, very important. That\’s why, if you\’re a do it yourselfer, it might be time to take a look at having somebody help you, and if you don\’t understand investments at all, it\’s really, really important to have an advisor to help you and hold your hand through this.

Karen Bezar:
Because things change quickly in today\’s world. As we all know, look at us. I can\’t believe we\’re still in quarantine. When we were talking about this, I was like, there\’s no way that we\’re going to be in quarantine until June, but look, we\’re almost there. If you aren\’t updating your plan or setting yourself up, you\’re setting yourself up for a major fall. You definitely want to have money in it diversified. You want to have safe money. You want to have money that can go with the stock market up and downs, and you want to take into account that adjustments have to be made along the way. Your retirement plan is not static.

Karen Bezar:
It needs to be looked at, at all times. You definitely want to focus on annual rebalancing, and that\’s something that you need to look at and your advisor needs to look at. You want to reestablish target allocations. You want to consolidate accounts sometimes. Sometimes we meet with people and they have so many accounts I have never seen, and they\’re all redundant. You want to reevaluate fund selections. You want to adjust maybe your contributions, and you always want to look your tolerance rebalancing. Things change in retirement. As you get older, your appetite for risk, I would say, disappears. Look, retiring successfully is extremely important. It may be not as easy as you thought. Right now, the significant financial impact this pandemic could have on your nest egg could make it even more challenging.

Karen Bezar:
Will the trillions of dollars in government stimulus trigger higher taxes? We think so, and they\’re going to leave you with a fraction of your savings if you\’re not smart. Social security benefits going to be affected. How will you generate income with interest rates next to zero? If you have any questions about your IRA, 401(k), pension, or other tax deferred accounts, if you have questions about taxes, RMDs, social security, generating income, whatever it is, we\’re here to help. Give us a call. Our number is (215) 987-2430. Again, the number to reach us(215) 987-2430. If we don\’t answer, please just leave a voicemail, and we will certainly get back to you within one business day.

Joe Krause:
All right, good stuff. Thank you very much, Karen. Welcome in, and thank everybody for tuning in to Roadmap to Retirement, the radio show. We are social distancing every week when we bring you Roadmap to Retirement. The expansion of social distancing has now reached the state of Georgia where Bret Elam will join us when we come back after the break. How many times have we said this? Tax preparation versus tax planning. Bret Elam will be along and answer the question back in a moment.

Joe Krause:
Back here on Roadmap to Retirement, the radio show. Thank you so much for tuning in on Talk Radio 1210 WPHT. One more time, that phone number (215) 987-2430 as we move into our next segment of the radio show. As we mentioned, when we first came on, the stock market crashed, the troubles on Wall Street have had a devastating impact on your IRAs and your 401(k). Shocking. But as we\’ve discovered, and I put me in this conversation, it\’s very, very, very confusing. With that statement, I welcome everybody back in to Roadmap to Retirement, the radio show. Taxes required, minimum distributions, what are the strategies, and how do you manage that conversation? Bret Elam now joining us here on the show. Bret, take it from there, sir.

Bret Elam:
Yeah, Krause. Again, when we talk about the topic of today\’s show again, how do we jumpstart those 401(k)s and IRAs? What becomes a big part of when we talk about those plans is the tax implications of those. What people don\’t realize is that your 401(k)s and IRAs, we call them profit sharing plans, and it\’s a private, a silent partner, if you will. His name\’s the government. When we understand that and know that and talk about, hey, now that we have to have that game plan of getting back into the 401(k) and IRA, we\’ve got to understand the tax implications of them. Over the past couple of weeks, we\’ve been talking about Roth and traditional of the sorts, but we also need to know that these IRAs, 401(k)s, and again, just the climate that we\’re in today with increased taxation is that, while we all may feel warm and fuzzy about what we\’ve saved thus far, again, that\’s how much we\’ve grown it to.

Bret Elam:
That\’s not necessarily how much we\’re going to keep. Again, it\’s not how much we make. It\’s inevitably how much we keep at the end of the day, and realizing it\’s uncle Sam, the IRS, who\’s controlling what profits they keep by changes into the tax system. It\’s understanding we put money away into our 401(k)s and IRAs. We\’re not paying any taxes on those contributions, again, in today\’s tax rates, but it\’s also knowing that we\’re going to be paying taxes a later date. Again, sometimes it\’s that conventional wisdom that teaches us all put money away, put money away, put money away in a higher tax climate today, knowing that we\’re going to be in a lower tax climate in the future, which obviously is not always the case, and with everything going on right now, we need to be more conscious of it than ever. Another big deal, and we talked about over the last couple of weeks as well, not playing the tax game right with your 401(k)s and IRAs can screw up taxation as it relates to social security.

Bret Elam:
When you\’re starting to see both Democrats and Republicans starting to agree that, oh my gosh, with everything that\’s going on, millions and millions of people being laid off every week, we need to start connecting some of those dominoes. We all of a sudden have that many lesson people not playing in the social security yet anymore. We\’re talking about people not contributing to social security taxation for the rest of the year. When you start to hear about the dramatic changes that needs to happen from social security, it means that we have to be proactive, not reactive in everything that we\’re talking about here because of all the dominoes being put together.

Bret Elam:
What\’s a great opportunity that we have right now? Again, when we talk about these 401(k)s and IRAs is required minimum distributions, they\’ve been waived for calendar year 2020 with the pandemic that\’s going on. Whether you\’ve already reached the age of 72, which is now requirement distribution age, or maybe you\’re younger and you\’ve inherited some money from somebody that is requiring you to pull that money out each and every year. Well, 2020 is a year that we don\’t have to worry about that because the government is trying to give us an opportunity to let those balances come back that we don\’t necessarily have to pull that money out, but we need to understand how those required minimum distributions work and the calculations that go with it. Because if we screw it up, it can be a 50% tax. For instance, if we had the pull out $40,000 and we didn\’t, the government\’s going to take 20,000 of that, again, 50% from a taxation standpoint.

Bret Elam:
It\’s all about putting those puzzle pieces together and starting to formulate what we call as a strategy, because we need to see, everything I just spoke about. We\’re talking about now, some of the social security numbers are coming out, instead of 2034, now you\’re in 2029. Hearing similar things from Medicare, 2026. Now we need to start orchestrating that plan. Today, more than ever, that planning needs to become more present. This is not a time to take that ostrich approach. Recently, a long time client of Thrive, mister, had recently passed away, and missus had come in, and obviously emotional, but she hadn\’t … said, \”Hey, you know what, Bret? Given everything that I just heard related to Secure Act, and we appreciate the education related to that, at least I don\’t have to take any more money out of our IRAs this year.\”

Bret Elam:
I just paused for a moment, and I said, what do you mean by that? And be like, \”Hey, with everything going on, I\’m not going to have to pay as much in taxation because we\’re not going to have to pull that money out.\” What that led to, Krause, which was important, is when somebody becomes a widow or widower, we always say, take a deep breath, stop, pause. Don\’t make any big financial decisions. Somebody may be trying to take advantage of you while you\’re very emotional, but there\’s one thing that you absolutely need to be proactive on when we talk about taxes and retirement plans, etc.

Bret Elam:
This is absolutely, positively, the last year that you are going to file a joint tax return. When we talk about the tax brackets, 12%, 22%, etc, when we talk about a single individual, that 12% tax bracket stops at somewhere in the low 50 thousands. But when you\’re a joint tax payer, that 12% tax bracket is almost $108,000. What that conversation led to Krause was, instead of doing nothing, we said, we\’re absolutely going to do something. David\’s going to talk about Roth conversion here a little later in the show, but that\’s what part of that conversation begun. Be proactive, understanding the higher taxes that are going to be coming, understanding the issues that we\’re facing today, with what I just shared with social security, Medicare.

Bret Elam:
Knowing that, hey, we don\’t have any RMDs this year. Hey, just don\’t look at that. Look at it as the opportunity. What can I do if the government\’s not forcing my hand for once of not pulling that money out? Again, these are profit sharing plans and understanding every day, every year that goes by, and with the growing amount that is devastated … Every single day you see some of these debt clocks that are out there, and we\’re going to be pushing $30 trillion before we know it. These are all the reasons in the world. Again, today, this year, 2020, if I became a widow, widower, there\’s something I need to do today. I need to take advantage of those higher increased thresholds to allow me to be a little bit more proactive.

Bret Elam:
What we had done by doing just that transaction this year, as opposed to kicking the can down the road, the ostrich approach. We didn\’t make any decisions, we didn\’t buy, or we didn\’t sell anything. We just did a little bit of tax planning, knowing that this was going to be the last year of a joint tax return. That savings right there on just the transaction that we had done was $5,500 by doing it this year while we still had a joint tax return, versus waiting till next year when she was now filing as a single tax return. Obviously, if she got married again, it\’s a whole different animal, but just talking about, Hey, we need to live in the present, what just happened, and how do we pre proactive with that? That\’s what just becomes important over and over and over again, is what the world gives us.

Bret Elam:
There\’s always two choices. You can be negative and say, \”Oh my gosh, there\’s nothing we can … Or we can say, hey, opportunity is staring at me in the face. Remember, the definition of an opportunity, be at the right place, be at the right time, but you got to take advantage of it. It\’s why we talk about on this show, we educate, we try to advocate week in, week out, and talking about life. What could happen? It doesn\’t matter which stock, which bond, which annuity, which mutual fund, all those things absolutely matter, but when you start putting all the different puzzle pieces together, they don\’t make it easy. Again, there\’s a whole another set of rules to navigate down, again, the road successfully in retirement, the navigating the road up to retirement.

Bret Elam:
That\’s the purpose of this show. Navigating the road to retirement. The retirement roadmap, is understanding, and today more than ever, with everything that we face out there, hey, market\’s going back up. We can put our guard down. There\’s nothing we can do. Absolutely not. When you see the amount of money that\’s taking today to keep this economy propped up, it\’s now time to do something saying, oh my gosh, what\’s this going to look like when we head into retirement? Here\’s my question. What would you do with $264,815 in retirement? That\’s how much money a Delaware Valley couple could save in taxes with their IRA and 401(k) with our defensive tax planning strategies, an extra $264,000 could go a long way in retirement.

Bret Elam:
Do you have an IRA? Do you have a 401(k)? Learn exactly how much money you could save with our free retirement tax analysis. This free analysis can be done over the phone or video conference, and takes no time at all. You\’ll discover the defensive tax planning strategies that could save tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxes with your 401(k)s, IRAs, pensions, your other tax deferred accounts. Now, you might expect us to pay hundreds of dollars for this customized analysis, but we\’re going to underwrite 100% of the cost to our first 10 callers who are going to reach out to us today. Call to schedule your free analysis now at (215) 987-2430. Learn exactly how much money you could save in taxes and retirement by calling (215) 987-2430. Again, you can call us and leave a message right now at (215) 987-2430.

Joe Krause:
Great stuff from Bret Elam. We\’re off to a great start here on Roadmap to Retirement, the radio show. We\’re halfway through on Talk Radio 1210 WPHT. As we go to the commercial break, a couple of bullet points to remember from Bret\’s conversation, be proactive, tax planning, and live in the present, and of course the reference to opportunities around your IRA and your 401(k). Great stuff. Bret will talk with you on the other side in segment four. We\’ll get to a commercial break here on Roadmap to Retirement, the radio show when we come back. What are the opportunities that exist in front of us because of the downturn in the stock market? David bazar, along with that conversation. Back in a moment.

Speaker 1:
Are you a member of the Thrive army? If not, it\’s okay. You can still get a sample, RMD tax report at no charge. All you have to do is go to thrivefinancialservices.tyl16lnm-liquidwebsites.com.

Joe Krause:
Back here on Roadmap to Retirement, the radio show. Thank you so much, everyone, for tuning in. As you always do, we\’re glad to be able to be the advocate for you every Saturday on Talk Radio 1210 WPHT. If you want to realize the benefits of having an IRA and a 401(k), there\’s a lot more to it than just the automated contributions, David. Sometimes I feel like that\’s where everybody stops. One stave started the automated contributions. Okay, good, they checked the box and that\’s where they stop.

David Bezar:
Yeah. Life goes on, right?

Joe Krause:
Life goes on.

David Bezar:
It becomes automatic, becomes a habit. We don\’t necessarily, I talked about this last week, we don\’t remember that we have to shift the game a little bit. I\’m not going to say get defensive versus getting offensive, but you got to start thinking a little bit differently. Look, everybody makes mistakes. Just in general, everybody makes mistakes. But you have a choice of whether you want to make big mistakes or little mistakes. When it comes to our personal finances, and then obviously our retirement, because we don\’t get a do over in retirement, we want to make the least amount of little mistakes as possible. The one thing I really want to stress to everybody, again, I hope people don\’t get numb to our conversation because when these opportunities do present themselves, there\’s two types of people.

David Bezar:
There\’s the group of people that open up the front door, welcome the opportunity in and take advantage of it, or there is the folks that are out in the backyard, kind of picked them through the weeds to see if they can find a four leaf clover. I know our audience are people who take a proactive approach to life so they\’re going to be the folks when the door opens, let the opportunity in and take advantage of it. Here\’s the opportunity, Joe. Roth conversions are on sale. Roth conversions are on sale. Now, there\’s a lot of between contributions into Roths, and then the conversions of traditional IRAs 401(k)s into Roth type accounts. This really could be a once in a lifetime opportunity for the potential retirees and retirees who are listening today to convert some or even all of their savings over to a Roth account.

David Bezar:
Because of the current tax rates and the depressed market, you really could end up saving a small fortune in taxes. As a matter of fact, Forbes was talking and they had a comment where it said, there\’s one opportunity staring many people in the face, and it can solve two financial problems. This is a good time to consider converting a traditional IRA to a Roth IRA. This is especially an attractive opportunity with people with large IRAs that they primarily intend to be leaving to children or grandchildren, and because of the Secure Act and the depressed market and the potential, even of further depression in the market, again, once in a lifetime type opportunity.

David Bezar:
Very quickly, let me share, what is a Roth? Some people again, think, I can\’t really get to a Roth because I make too much money. That may be true while you\’re in your accumulation phase, but what I want to make sure people understand is there\’s no limitation of income when you want to convert from a traditional IRA to a Roth type account. Roth, like an IRA or 401(k) allows tax-free contributions, but when you would draw that money in a traditional IRA in retirement, you have to pay the taxes on that money, but you could avoid paying those taxes by converting again, some or all of that traditional IRA or 401(k) into Roth accounts. Now, here\’s how a Roth works. A Roth doesn\’t allow for that tax-free contributions that\’s kind of a little bit of a catch, but you pay, and this is important, you pay, with emphasis, zero tax when you withdraw the money in retirement.

David Bezar:
That means you get a tax-free growth, which could add up to tens of thousands of dollars in retirement, if not more. That could be really a financial game changer for you and your family. Here\’s the other thing. With the Trump tax plan that we had, and combining it with this depressed market, even though we\’ve rebounded, we\’re still depressed, we\’re still down in the value. Again, we, here at Thrive, believe that we\’ll probably see a second stage of the downturn. Again, get yourself prepared for that. With the tax rules that Trump put in place, the depressed market, this could have a once in a lifetime opportunity right now that you really just can\’t afford to ignore. Taxes may never be this low again.

David Bezar:
A Roth conversion could be a financial windfall for you in retirement. Here\’s the kicker. We mentioned the Trump tax plan. That is set to expire in 2025. The time is right now. I can\’t stress that strongly enough. The time is right now to consider making that conversion. With all the sky rocketing deficit national debt that Bret talked about, combined with lots of pressure from opposing party, there\’s no doubt in our mind that these Trump tax cuts probably will end up not being permanent, and taxes will rise. I want to stress a couple quick, real life examples of that, Joe. I\’m going to give you two scenarios. I\’m going to give you a scenario of a person, client of ours, no name mentioned.

David Bezar:
They had a smaller amount of money saved for retirement. In the husband\’s IRA account, there was almost $358,000, and the assumed liability, because of income and everything else, and what we do is with the thought that taxes are probably going to rise up, we bump up the marginal tax rate for calculation purposes. About $358,000, an assumed tax liability of 25%. Let\’s say the money that\’s in the account earns at 5%. What does that look like? This is the traditional IRA and what this person will pay in taxes as the required minimum distribution start at age 72, and let\’s assume this person lives to age 90.

David Bezar:
When the money comes out in the RMDs, the taxes due for that $128,741. Then that money can\’t go back into a tax qualified plan, so it\’s got to go into a taxable account. If it earns 5% interest each year, then we\’ve got to pay taxes because we get a 10.99. So, the tax is due from each 72 to 90, $45,483. These are actual numbers. This is a tax analysis report that we offer prospective people as well as our existing clients. Then, because this person had an intention of leaving money to the beneficiaries, which happen to be their kids, and because of the secure act, they got to get all this money out in 10 years, the tax bill on that money, 85,000 bucks. On an overall account, Joe, of $358,000, this is crazy. People don\’t realize this.

Joe Krause:
They definitely don\’t realize it.

David Bezar:
It\’s like this shocker, but $259,786 is what goes to your partner, the IRS. Now, if you do a Roth conversion, now we\’re just making an assumption you\’d do it all at one time. We\’re not recommending that, but if you did, the taxes due at that one time would be $89,478. 259,786 by not doing the Roth, 89,478 by doing the Roth. It\’s a huge savings.

Joe Krause:
Plus the elimination of any taxes moving forward. Is that correct?

David Bezar:
That\’s correct for everybody included. So it\’s not only for the retirees, but also for the children or the grandchildren who ultimately inherit that money.

Karen Bezar:
Again, today\’s tax rates.

David Bezar:
Yeah, and then we bumped them up a little bit, right?

Karen Bezar:
We don\’t know what\’s going to happen.

Joe Krause:
Stupid question.

David Bezar:
Yep.

Joe Krause:
How can you not do this? How could you not look at it? At least consider it.

David Bezar:
What it is, it\’s like anything, Joe. It\’s like we don\’t know. Sometimes it just seems like such a hassle to go through this process. But we at Thrive try to make this as simple as possible. No obligation, free consultation, get you educated, act as an advocate for you, hold you by the hand through the process, answer any possible question you can come up with. What ends up happening is you get empowered, you get educated and then you can make the right decisions. Instead of the big mistake, maybe even instead of the little mistake, you end up with a great situation, Joe, here\’s a quick one. I just want to give it to you real quick. This is now, another client of ours. 3.24 million, $3,243,691 IRA account. He\’s a bigger earner, 32% tax bracket, 5% earning. Same thing.

David Bezar:
I\’ll just give you the bottom line numbers on this one, Joe, the tax bill due for not converting $2,244,048. The tax bill due by doing the Roth, $1,037,981. How would you like to save an extra million dollars in taxes? Your family keeps it instead of going to the IRS. We can impact people with smaller IRAs. We can impact people with huge IRA accounts. My recommendation, Joe, is, this is time to take action. We\’ve got a window of opportunity. We know taxes are going up. Should we convert? If you give us a call at (215) 987-2430, you speak with the person who answers the phone. If the phone goes to voicemail, just leave us a message, and get an appointment. It could be done virtually. It could be done over the telephone where we will do a tax analysis and see if a Roth conversion makes sense for you to do and what the actual dollar savings will be. (215) 987-2430.

Joe Krause:
As we go into the break here on Roadmap to Retirement, the radio show. I got to tell you, I don\’t know how you can at least inquire. I don\’t know how you can at least look at it, when you put into perspective, David, the amount of potential savings. I know wen we come back on the other side, in our final segment, we\’re going to talk about investment fees and expenses and things that fall under that category. You have to call and understand what a Roth conversion means to you, not to everyone else, what it means to you. We\’ll get to a commercial break on Roadmap to Retirement, the radio show back in a moment.

Joe Krause:
Back here on Roadmap to Retirement, the radio show. Thank you so much for listening here on talk radio 1210 WPHT. Aside from contributing money to your IRA and 401(k), what\’s your plan to reduce taxes? On this segment, reduce your investment fees and expenses, big opportunities, trap doors, thousands of dollars every year. Those are things that we\’ve hinted about during this show. With that, Karen, I\’ll throw it over to you.

Karen Bezar:
Thank you. One thing that is sometimes surprising to people when we have our complimentary consultations are the fees that they\’re not aware that they\’re paying for their investments. Why is it important? Well, it\’s important because if you think you\’re getting 8%, 7%, 6%, 5%, 4% return on your money. You\’re actually not. You need to deduct some fees in there that you\’re not even aware of. When we meet with our future, maybe clients, or just people that come in and we meet with them or virtually now, one question we ask is, do you have an advisor, and what is your fee? We get at the gamut of answers, some people know exactly what they\’re paying for their financial advisor and some people really aren\’t 100% sure, or they say, \”Oh, I\’m not paying anything. He\’s just managing.\”

Karen Bezar:
That\’s really not true unless it\’s your brother or your spouse, maybe they\’re managing it for free. But just really quick, we do a report called Riskalyze and we go in depth in your assets. Surprisingly enough, sometimes you\’re paying, I have seen 1% to 1.5% not including what you\’re paying your advisor for certain investments. That\’s important to understand your fees. Another thing is, what are you getting for your fee? Again, we do more than advising. We help with Roth conversions. We help with planning, help you pick out social security. So really, really important, what are you getting for that fee? Another thing that\’s affecting people nowadays is the Secure Act, and I\’m going to toss it over to Bret. I know he\’s chomping at the bit. This is something that he really loves to talk about.

Bret Elam:
Yeah. When we talk about the secure act again, there\’s opportunities and there\’s trapped doors. When we talk about again, this was just passed back at the end of the year, so literally less than six months ago. When we talk about the Secure Act, some of the advantages and opportunities that are brought to us is, for example, before once we achieve required minimum distribution age, and remember, from 70 and a half, which is now 72, we can now start to contribute to an IRA. Previously, we were not able to do so. Part of the Secure Act also made annuities, part of 401(k) plans, making it more available to people. They gave some more flexibilities for childbirth and adoptions. Again, all part of the Secure Act, again, some of the good things that came with it.

Bret Elam:
But there is also, and we talked about the trap doors and also being aware of a lot of the negativity that came with that Secure Act as well. Remember, the Secure Act attacks three things. Number one, it\’s yielding to inheritance is going down, number one. Number two is it gives us less control of these 401(k)s and IRAs, because the government\’s forcing those tax rates, the government\’s forcing at what rate we have to pull all those monies out. The last thing, which obviously that we spoke about as well is increased taxation. Between inheritances going down, less control of our money and taxes going up, not only are there opportunities within the Secure Act, but we got to be conscious of what\’s common our way because of the Secure Act, because it\’s staring at us straight in the face that we need to be proactive with these things.

David Bezar:
Yeah. So Joe, you know what … look, ladies and gentlemen, we know that we do a lot of information in a very short period of time on this show. Sometimes it is overwhelming. We get it, but we want to … Two things. Number one, we love what we do. We really do. To the point that we geek out on it. I think people recognize that with us, but it\’s a conversation that needs to be had. We want to cover the little things. I\’ll give a quick example, Joe. As part of the Care Act, now that\’s different than the Secure Act, but part of the Care Act had an impact on required minimum distributions. The big change was that the Care Act made was suspending all required minimum distributions from retirement accounts for 2020. Now, these accounts include 401(k)s, inherited retirement accounts, 403(b)s, 457(b)s so on and so forth.

David Bezar:
The provision is very broad and it is not a push off to 2021. You will not have to take two RMDs next year. In essence, you do not owe any RMDs for 2020 inherited or otherwise. Again, Joe, great opportunity because that\’s not going to show up on your income. It may give us an opportunity with the depressed market and the Roth conversion strategy. Again, see, what trying to get folks to understand and think multilayer versus just linear. There\’s a lot of aspects to your retirement. Let me ask this question. What would an extra $173,417 do for you in retirement? On average, Joe, that\’s what we typically save people in taxes with their IRA, 401(k)s, using all these defensive tax strategies that we talk about. An extra hundred and $74,000 really could go a long way in retirement.

David Bezar:
Again, I don\’t think sometimes people realize that that can happen. You can learn from us exactly how much you could save with our free retirement tax analysis. It could be done over the phone, it could be done via video conference, and hopefully, we can be able to meet you in person at some particular day. You\’re going to discover that these tax planning strategies could literally save you tens of thousands of dollars, Joe. As I just shared earlier, possibly hundreds of thousands of dollars. A lot of times people are paying for these analysis, whether it\’s with the CPA or their financial planner, but we\’re going to underwrite 100% of the cost for the first 10 qualified listeners. Now, last week, Joe, when we offered this, phone\’s rang off the hook, people actually said, did I make it into the first 10?

David Bezar:
Last week we extended it to the first 20 people. I would say we\’re trying to do all we can, but be one of the first 10 callers. If you\’ve saved more than $250,000 in retirement, call to schedule this free analysis, and you can reach us at (215) 987-2430. What it will do for you is teach you exactly how much money you can save in taxes in retirement. It\’s so simple. Just give us a call (215) 987-2430. Be one of the first 10 callers. If the phones are off the hook, leave a message. We will get back to you as soon as possible and maybe make an exception.

Joe Krause:
Can I make a plea to the audience?

David Bezar:
Of course.

Joe Krause:
You have to call and learn about a Roth conversion.

David Bezar:
It\’s just the time.

Joe Krause:
It\’s just an absolute necessity for you.

David Bezar:
Yeah. How many people would have said, gee, I wish I would have bought Microsoft or Amazon or Chipotle when the market went down in March? Those stocks that I just mentioned didn\’t come back. They came roaring back. It\’s what we don\’t know. Some people just don\’t know what the impact of that potential conversion or any of these defensive tax strategies, Joe. That\’s why I think it\’s important to call us.

Joe Krause:
No doubt about it. The number (215) 987-2430. I\’m making the plea. You could see the expression on my face. You have to do it, and you have nothing to lose.

David Bezar:
Who else is having the conversation with you? If you have not been prompted to have this conversation after we just shared all the benefit of doing it and trying to find it out, man, just give us a call.

Joe Krause:
No doubt about that. That\’s going to bring an end to the show, Roadmap to Retirement, the radio show on this weekend. We thank you so much for being a part of today\’s broadcast. Special thanks to David Bezar, Karen Bezar, and Bret Elam, and of course, all of our listeners from around the Delaware Valley, until we join you one week from today, be safe, everyone.