Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
Welcome to Wealth Intelligence with Dominic d', Andrea, where I help you rethink, rebuild and grow wealth from the inside out, not just with numbers, but with beliefs and decisions behind them. I'm Dominick D'. Andrea.
Today I'm joined by Terry Evervold, a 34 year veteran of the insurance industry, including 14 years as a financial advisor and two decades helping advisors and families protect lives and ensure dreams. He's also held senior insurance leadership roles inside the Cetera ecosystem.
This episode is about conversations people avoid until the cost is irreversible. I'm setting the foundation.
Insurance isn't morbid planning, it's risk management, the part of a wealth plan that keeps one event from wiping out years of progress. If I'm building wealth without protection, I'm building on a fault line.
Terry, when you hear people say I'm investing so I'm good, what protection gaps do you see most often hiding underneath that confidence?
[00:01:17] Speaker B: You know, it's really funny that you say that because when people say that I'm investing so I'm good, it really triggers something in my mind that says what are we good about? And what feels responsible to them.
But here's what I see. The undermath of the confidence is investing builds wealth, insurance protects it.
What usually is missing is not the effort, it's the protection.
Income protection, life protection, even liability safeguards. Because sometimes unexpected things happen. Investments don't protect you, they will get liquidated.
[00:02:07] Speaker A: That's a great answer. Thank you very much, Terry.
After 34 years in the business, what's the biggest misunderstanding people have about what insurance is actually for
[00:02:20] Speaker B: sure, when I see people really stretching their finances, they start to think about what happens to me in my lifetime or in my, in, in my investment portfolio. It's not what's going to happen if everything else does happen, it's really what's going to happen to me if something does happen. Like for instance, a family staying in their own home, or do they lose it?
A child continuing their education, or do they have to put it on hold?
Insurance just doesn't cover the events, it protects the lives and ensures the dreams.
Now, there's a fine line between fear and strategy.
The fear based insurance says what if everything goes wrong?
And the strategic insurance says, what can I afford to lose?
Meaning, look at your life, look at the things that you've accomplished and the things that you've accumulated in your life and ask yourself, what do I really, really need to do?
So if losing something would financially derail your family, that is a strategy and if not, you might be overinsured. Working with a financial professional will help you answer those two questions. First, let's look at for a strategy, but then let's look at what you have presently in place to find out. Is it covering what you absolutely have to have?
[00:04:05] Speaker A: So basically it's not just having money to have money or something that's potentially replaceable in a quick manner. It's a way of making sure that life can stay as is after you lost a loved one.
[00:04:20] Speaker B: Yeah. You know, a mentor of mine once told me this, and it may sound really cliche, but if every wife knew what, what every widow knows, there's going to be plenty of insurance to protect that family.
My life story is no different than anybody else's life story. You know, now that I'm retired, things have shifted a little bit in my life from protecting my income, which is now fixed, to protecting my income against fixed costs that are going to happen to me in the future.
So as we all know, we're continuing to get older and older and older and in my life today. Dominic, I look at it and say, how do I protect my portfolio against something that's going to happen to, to it during my lifetime? That means that health is going to change.
And when health changes, your financial pressure on your portfolio also changes.
[00:05:20] Speaker A: Great. Thank you very much. Terry, where do you draw the line between insurance as fear versus insurance as strategy?
[00:05:29] Speaker B: Well, you know, I think we talked a little bit about that. You know, when you look at insurance as, as fear baiting, as we call it in the industry where advisors, young advisors tend to lay real heavy on, well, what happens to me if I don't come home tonight?
What happens to my family over the next 90 days? What will we be able to handle?
What's going to derail my family when we take a look at that fear side of things? I tend to take a look at it a little bit differently. I want to take a look at it through the lens of someone that is looking at it from the perspective of the things that need to be protected.
Does the family need a home?
If the family needs a home, then we need your income in order to pay for that. So when you're looking at a solution and you're sitting around talking about things, you know, let's take a look at it and say, what are the things that we need to do? And let's keep things real simple.
Start with life insurance. That's tied to your income because your income is the engine that pays for everything. Your home, your lifestyle, and your future. So ask yourself one question. If I'm not here tomorrow, how long would everything stay intact?
That answer tells you exactly where you need to start, Dominic. And that answer will be something that between zero and hero. As I like to say, if they're really, really interested in taking care of each other, then they're going to put forth some action. Insurance isn't about fear, it's about making sure that life that you're building actually stays protected.
[00:07:22] Speaker A: Well, that was a great answer, Terry. I absolutely love that. I love that we're not scaring, we're explaining a strategy and how it's going to help keep a plan in force. Not if you're, you know, scaring the person. I think that's a better way of educating and explaining to the public. Great answer. Thank you.
When a family says we'll handle it later, what's the real world consequence you've watched show up?
[00:07:49] Speaker B: Well, sometimes that's denial, right? They're, they're looking at it through really the lens of can we financially afford to, and I like to say when we're doing planning, can you financially afford to die?
And that's the biggest question that we have and it's a very, very deep question that people have to take a look at and say what is it that is going to move us to making sure that we have adequate amounts of insurance? I'm not talking about creating wealth through insurance today for young people.
I'm talking about being able to. Even looking at my own family and I see a son who's 34, he's got a wife who's 30 and they've got a two year old and you look at it and go, how much money do they physically need? Dominic?
You know, if we're going to do the income planning, it's super easy. You just take your income times the number of years that you're going to need that, that income for the spouse. And if you're making 200 grand a year and you need it for 20 years, well, math isn't my strong suit, but you come up with a number around $4 million. Now that sounds like a huge number and it is, but that's going to be your income over 20 year time period.
And if you died today, that's exactly what you would need as far as income to make sure the family can stay in the house, the kids can get educated and you can continue the lifestyle that you both structured when you started your family unit. Again, this isn't fear, this is really about what their needs are. And you and I, we're facilitators of those needs.
[00:09:36] Speaker A: Great. That was fantastic. And I love that you're on a needs base, not a wants base. Not.
We want to leave your family, billionaires, we want to leave your family in a similar situation to what you were before your time passed. I think that's a great way of explaining it and helping the public understand that there is a need, there is an importance to having life insurance.
If I'm a viewer and I want a simple starting point, what's the one protection category I should evaluate first and what why?
[00:10:12] Speaker B: Question first. I would like you to find a financial advisor and sit down with them and make sure that you are doing goals based planning.
Really have a financial plan.
Don't start investing unless you've got a plan for your future. What are the things that you want to accomplish? Do I want to rent or do I want to own? Do I want a lease or do I want to buy? Do I might want my kids to go to public school or private school? What are the things that you want to do? You have to vocalize that as a client. So sitting down with someone like yourself, I would want you to ask me questions about what are the goals that you have, Terry? What are the things that you want to accomplish? If I didn't tell you that I wanted to retire early and then I showed up at your doorstep and said I'm retiring tomorrow, that's kind of a difficult situation for you, the financial advisor, to make sure that you have adequate amounts of capital in order to do that. And the same thing with young families, Dominic, you sit down with them, you put forward a plan. That plan is a financial plan and it starts day one. Before $1 goes into the investment account, put together a financial plan, work with a financial planner and make sure that you're staying on your goals based planning.
[00:11:30] Speaker A: I love it. Planning, planning, planning and making sure that the plan will accomplish what we need to accomplish.
Great session. Thank you very much, Terry.
Coming up next, I'm going straight into the questions people postpone and what waiting really costs.
Foreign.
Stay connected to this show and every NOW Media TV favorite live or on demand anytime you like. Download the free Now Media TV app on Roku or iOS and unlock non stop bilingual programming in English and Spanish on the move. Catch the podcast version at www. Now Media TV.
Welcome back to Wealth Intelligence with Dominic DeAndrea. In this segment, I'm getting specific because avoidance has a price tag. I want to bring the unspoken protection conversation to the surface before life Forces them out at the worst possible time.
I'm framing this as an urgency without panic segment. The real risk is delay. The goal isn't to buy something, it's to remove uncertainty and protect family.
Sorry, let me start down from over.
I'm framing this as an urgency without panic segment. The real risk is delay. The goal isn't to buy something, it's to remove uncertainty and protect income, family stability and long term plans. Terry, thank you again for being here. After decades in this space, what kind of protection conversations do people avoid the most and what are they afraid it will mean if they face them?
[00:13:33] Speaker B: It's a great question, Dominic. And I can tell you that it's not the people, that they don't care about protection, it's that they avoid the conversation because it's really deep and heavy and it's real.
They want to avoid things like what happens if you're not here, what if I can't work anymore?
Or what if I lose my independence later in life?
And it's not really about insurance, as you said. It's about facing these questions, which means for people, the people, for people, it feels like that they're admitting some sort of risk, that they're admitting some sort of uncertainty, and they're admitting that they're not in control. And that truly, I think, is the underlying pressure for families when they don't want to take action as to protecting their futures is that they're feeling like they're out of control.
So they wait.
[00:14:41] Speaker A: I absolutely love that answer. And, and I've heard those similar conversations in my 30 some odd years in the industry.
You know, I'm gonna live a long life. I exercise, I do this, I do that. And it, you know, nobody wants to think about that. They could die or they could die accidentally. So it's definitely a conversation that we all should have with the prospects and clients that we meet.
So again, thank you very much for that answer.
Now, what stage.
Sorry? So what life stage flips the switch where people suddenly become open to talking about protection? Marriage, kids, mortgages, aging parents, business ownership.
[00:15:26] Speaker B: Well, it's suddenly a mindset change, isn't it? It's something that talks about. I'll, I'll deal with it later too. It's not just about me anymore.
It's when protection becomes real for that family.
So when you sit down with that family and you start taking a look at the things that they want to accomplish, they want to accomplish.
You know, I wanted to get married, so I did. I wanted to have children, so I Did buying a home?
They do.
And soon taking care of aging parents is something that we all are faced with. And those things change for you. And when you take a look at it as we were, you know, we're talking about younger families, you know, that young couple that's just getting married and they're in their middle to late 30s, they have parents that are in their 60s.
And as they continue to age, those. That young couple, that older couple is aging too. And sooner or later, you're com. You're looking at it going, how do I take care of these things? These things are my parents.
This is a. This is a really interesting thing that happened to me, is that My dad was 82 when he died, but my dad lived in Mesa, Arizona.
He didn't live with me, but I was forced on a weekly basis to help him with things like finances, checking his balances, online banking. Have you ever been able to help somebody who is not computer.
Computer savvy to be able to use the computer as we want them to do today?
So things just are very taxing for people as we continue to age.
Where my life had to change, I spent two and a half hours a week, Dominic, with my dad, just updating passwords, social media accounts, newspapers, publications, banks, credit cards.
And, you know, he didn't want to have it written down. And so I was always there having to help them. Taking care of aging parents is one of the heaviest things that young people are going to be faced with in our future. Because the fact that I was just listening to a podcast yesterday that talked about 70 million boomers in the working system. And now today, you look at the average family has one child, and that one child is supposed to take care of services for you for dental, doctoring, groceries, restaurants, salons, for getting your hair and nails done. It's a lot of pressure when you take a look at that. But all of a sudden, at some point in time, as you said, the light switch turns on and there becomes a bright light on their financial presence. And again, that's why I lean on always coming back to working with your financial professional in setting forth that plan. Because all of the things that you talked about, Dominic, can be addressed in that plan. What about getting married? Who's going to pay for the wedding?
What about kids? And who's going to pay for those kids and how much of those kids are going to cost?
Remember that first home, the down payment that you had to have in order to do that?
So those are some real, real heavy things that a financial planner and Clients can address.
[00:19:05] Speaker A: Great. Wow. That was a great answer.
If every family had to ask five protection questions tonight, what would your top five be? No fluff, just the essentials.
[00:19:18] Speaker B: Let's just say that if I came home tonight and I was sitting down at the table with my wife, I would want to talk about things like if income stopped tomorrow, how long could we function as a family?
If one of us were to die, who's going to be financially impacted and for how long?
If I couldn't go to work because of an injury or illness, what's our plan if one of us were to need care, health care, long term care, who pays for it and who provides it?
And what risks could force us to drain everything that we've built?
These are simple questions that help prepare clients when they come to your office to sit down and start having these conversations. Because these are all things that are going to happen to them in their lifetime and we just have to start talking about it.
[00:20:25] Speaker A: Fantastic. I love that.
Why do smart, responsible people still delay decisions around life insurance, long term care or income protection, even when they know better?
[00:20:38] Speaker B: Funny, you look at it and go, they're the people usually that have the wealth. They're the people that have the means to do this. So why do they still do this? They still are going to put these decisions on delay because nothing feels urgent to them right now. They have wealth. So, you know, you can afford to pay for the wedding, you can afford to pay for the house, you can afford to do that because it's a complex problem using simple solutions like life, long term care and disability, it becomes a little bit more taxing to them. Okay. And because it's easier to believe the big question in the room, and that is, it won't happen to me.
And because protection is invisible, there's no immediate reward. Right? You can't touch it, you can't hold it. I'm not buying gold or silver or stocks or bonds. I don't get a statement like I normally do with my investments from my advisor. So there's really no excitement. I'm not watching the values of my accounts go up and down.
But the big thing here, Dominic, is it's just quiet.
Security is all it is.
[00:21:55] Speaker A: You're, you couldn't be, that, couldn't be any more true.
And, and usually, especially with long term care, it's usually when, you know, in my experience that when people had an experience with long term care issue that they think, oh my God, do we have it? Do I need it? Should I get it prior to that it's, well, I heard it's expensive.
So it's really again, like Terry has said numerous times, sitting down with somebody and looking at the numbers and seeing how it's going to benefit you, not just hearing that it might be expensive.
When families wait until a health issue crisis or job change forces the conversation, what's the most common financial fallout you've seen?
[00:22:36] Speaker B: Well, what I see most happen is they lose control.
Instead of planning, they start reacting.
They drain everything. Savings accounts drained, debt increases and their options shrink. And what I mean by that is their health changes. And sometimes when that happens, coverage isn't even a solution for them anymore.
So you know when you were talking there just a minute ago about the long term care situation, the average cost of care today in the United states is approaching $180,000 a year. And when people say, well, I can't afford the solution, how am I going to afford the problem? And you have to look at the person across the table from you, the person that is counting on there being assets that are to take care of them. And yes, the cost is going to be a little heavy, but the problem is going to be heavier.
[00:23:41] Speaker A: Thank you, Terry. That was great.
Next, I'm going beneath the math because protection decisions are rarely logical first, they're emotional first.
Welcome back. I've seen it over and over. Money decisions don't happen in spreadsheets first. They happen in the nervous system first. So in this segment, I am talking about the emotions that quietly steer protection choices.
Fear, denial, optimism and family history.
I'm connecting the show's wealth, intelligence promise to protection planning. If I don't address the emotional drivers, I can't get consistent action.
This is where I turn discomfort into empowerment.
Terry, thank you again for being here. In your years working with advisors and clients, what emotions show up most often when protection planning got real?
[00:24:59] Speaker B: Well, let's first take the big, the big question. It's not panic that shows up first.
It's a much quieter one.
It's discomfort, it's reasonability and sometimes even guilt. Like, we should have handled this a lot sooner than what we did.
But increasingly, once people actually put a plan in place, there's a sense of relief and real relief.
And again, if you've heard me in other segments, I talk about making sure that you have a plan. And I'm talking about putting together a financial plan that allows you to take advantage of protecting the, the assets that you're accumulating.
[00:25:53] Speaker A: That was fantastic. And yes, it's always planning, planning, planning and making sure. You're working with somebody that can help you build those plans.
When. When people made a choice you knew wasn't optimal, what story did you usually tell themselves to justify it afterwards?
Well, let me reread that question because I said you instead of they want to reread that question.
When people made a choice you knew wasn't optimal, what story did they usually tell themselves to justify it afterwards?
[00:26:32] Speaker B: Well, the, the big story usually sounds like this.
We'll revisit it.
Not next year.
We're really healthy, so we've got a lot of time.
At least we did something today.
And on the surface these sound reasonable, but underneath it's usually just this.
It feels uncomfortable. So I'm going to take it the easier path right now. And again, this is the conversation that we have to have with our clients is making sure that they're comfortable with the idea of protection planning.
Life, long term care and disability are non tangible protection products that we have in our portfolio. And to help them understand that it's not a bill that they're paying. Right, because that's what they see. I paid a premium and I didn't die.
That's a good thing. Or I didn't need long term care, that's a good thing. Or I didn't need disability income. Again, another good thing.
But it's more than just paying the bill. It's protecting the family against things that are going to happen to them.
So insightfully, you know, when we sit down and we talk about this, what's interesting is, is that fear doesn't usually show up as panic. It shows up really as a delay.
So are we just waiting until things settle down or let's look at a few more options or endless comparison shopping that will never lead to a decision for the clients. It feels productive, but it isn't protective.
But really it's just a way of avoiding those hard questions.
So what happens is things don't go as planned.
[00:28:45] Speaker A: Terry, Great answer. Life never goes as planned. If it did, everything would be simple. But we know that's not the case.
I mean, you just made me think of a story.
I had a client many years ago that had bought life insurance and had to cancel it right away because they had to help family out with some, some bills. And that was felt. They felt that was more important. But they had gotten approved.
And then less than a year later, their health deteriorated extremely fast to the point where now they are completely uninsurable. And I wasn't able to get them insurance again. And they were a younger person.
So, you know, even if it means getting maybe not the right type, it makes sense to have something in place to know that if the God forbid happens that you're still alive, but your health isn't there and you're not insurable. At least you know you have and you can take care of your loved ones.
That's what I heard.
I know this next question you've already addressed a little bit in the previous answer, Terry, but let's see how we might be able to go a little further there.
How do you do? How. Sorry, how do fear and denial show up subtly, not as panic, but as procrastination, minimization, or endless comparison shopping?
[00:30:05] Speaker B: Yeah. You know, again, I think that when we sit down and we start talking about protection planning with clients, we need to have, again, a goal of how much of our income are we willing to set aside to take care of the things that are going to happen to you?
We all have heard the numbers that are out there as far as mortality. Men live to age 84, women to age 87. We know that, you know, you're twice as likely to have a disability that that lasts more than two years than you are to have your house burned to the ground. And you have homeowners insurance. Why?
Because it's required. But, you know, I really find it ironic, isn't it, that they don't require you to have income protection when you're getting a mortgage?
That's kind of crazy that the financial institutions don't want to make sure that if you become disabled that you're able to stay in that house during that time that you're rehabilitating.
So again, panic only starts to show up when we can't get things, when we're uninsurable.
And many of us have, as financial advisors, have sat across the table from clients that are uninsurable.
And then we have to put together a financial plan where we put buckets of money together to actually help those achieve those goals. So panic is going to happen.
And that's, again, like I said, it happens because we're not willing to take action. At the time that it was suggested. And now I went to the doctor, I might have had high blood pressure, my cholesterol levels might be high, I might be overweight.
You know, all of these things that we don't want to hear when we go to the doctor and then we start thinking about, well, if all of these things happen to me, then my financial plan is going to come tumbling down again. That's why it's so important to be working with financial professionals that can help you achieve these things. And I'm not talking about any type of product here as we haven't even got into those types of things. We're talking about financial advisors today have very simple products for very complex solutions. And a lot of them can be even minimal, underwritten to take care of that. So let's get away from the fear and the panic and let's get to planning and protecting.
[00:32:50] Speaker A: Fantastic. Thank you very much for that answer.
What mindset shifts helps.
Sorry? What mindset shift helps people move from I don't want to think about this to I'm doing this because I love my family.
[00:33:10] Speaker B: It's interesting that you say that because I always like to say to clients that I'm working with.
Life, long term care and disability are not purchased because of need, they're purchased because of love.
If you love somebody, you're going to make sure that you're going to be able to transfer the assets that you have as efficiently as possible or protect those assets for your loved one to make sure that on the saddest day of their life that their financial means doesn't have to change as well as their physical means.
Being in a relationship and being married, I've been married to my wife for 31 years and you start to think about those days that are ahead of us to say, what happens when my wife has to put me in a care facility to our portfolio.
I know my financial advisor took care of that for me years ago to make sure that my spouse doesn't have to worry about living impoverished and having to pay those large bills.
So, you know, you really have to look at it and say, stop asking what could go wrong and start asking what do I want to protect and the chain. And there's going to be changes in everything because, you know, it's not about fear, it's about family.
It's about stability and life that you're building together.
[00:34:45] Speaker A: Thank you, Terry, for that answer.
If I'm a spouse trying to start the conversation without triggering shutdown or conflict, what language works and what language backfires?
[00:35:00] Speaker B: For sure, Dominic, I wouldn't start with I've been thinking about life insurance.
That is definitely not the way to start it. But I think that there's really a lot of things that you can have conversations with your spouse to say. I've been thinking a lot about how we protect everything that we've built together.
Could we look at something that would help us plan together or I don't want either one of us to carry all of this pressure alone.
We could put a simple plan in place and now it's not stressful. It's a collaboration for this family.
[00:35:41] Speaker A: I absolutely love that answer and I'm just going to end on this one. My favorite answer I get is sometimes the husband will say, well, she'll get remarried. That does not end well either. So I would definitely not suggest to your spouse they're going to get remarried.
In our final segment, turning this into action, a simple protection blueprint viewers can use this week.
If you want more episodes like this, you can watch now media TV live or on demand, download app on Roku or iOS podcastowmedia TV.
Welcome back to our final segment. I want to leave viewers with a plan, not pressure. If protection is love in action, then clarity is the starting line. I'm going to build a second simple blueprint people can use immediately.
I'm translating insurance conversations into a wealth intelligence checklist. Income liabilities, dependence, business risk, health risk, and legacy intent. Then matching coverage to purpose. I'm also emphasizing review cadence. Protection isn't a one time transaction.
Terry, thanks again for being here.
If I gave you 15 minutes with a family that's been avoiding this, what's the first thing you'd ask to get the truth on the table fast?
[00:37:28] Speaker B: Question is always if your income stopped tomorrow, what happens in the next 90 days?
And you have to pause and you have to allow a family to think about this question.
Because income stops because of either a disability or a death.
And neither one of those are easy for a family to think about.
But neither is what happens to my income if either one of those does happen.
So because the answer and because of that question, the answer becomes very clear for you.
And when figuring out how much coverage that a person might need, you can't really over complicate things.
When you look at the I like to call it bucket strategies, you've got a bucket for your income, you've got a bucket for your debt, you got a bucket for your future goals. And you always need to have a bucket for a cushion.
And that's really all it is.
It doesn't need to be perfect, Dominic.
It just needs a plan to protect what matters most.
[00:38:48] Speaker A: That was fantastic. And we're going to extrapolate a little further on that with the next question.
What's the cleanest way to calculate how much without getting lost in complicated formulas? Income replacement, debt payoff, education goals, final expense, and caregiving risk.
[00:39:08] Speaker B: Again, we're looking at a younger family here and you talk about debts and you got to pour all those debts in there, pour that debt in there and say I've got a mortgage, I've got maybe I still have student loans myself, I've got a car loan, I've got credit card debt. Put all of that in the bucket. Because if you don't put it all in the bucket, we can't come up with a real number.
And if we're going to under inflate the numbers, if something bad happens to you, then expect to have an underdeveloped plan for protecting those assets. So you could come out of this having lost your spouse and not being able to pay off the debts that you both accumulated. Go back to that income bucket, put both of your incomes in there. And as I said in an earlier segment, if you're earning $200,000 a year as an individual, how many years do you need that?
And you have to talk to each other about this again. I'm going to use my son and daughter in law. My son is a pharmacist, my daughter in law is a commercial interior designer. They make really good money.
And having to sit down with them, the conversation is to my son, if something happens to your wife, how much money are you going to need? Do you need her income? And he will tell me, no, I don't need her income. But he does need her income. He has young kids.
The average cost of having a nanny come to your house and then you've got to have a car and then you've got to have insurance for that person. This might be a full time person. You might have to have benefits as well for that person. So you have to take all that into consideration when we're looking at that income. And then you flip it around, you say to the wife and you say if the husband doesn't come home, how much of that income are you going to need? And it's based off of age and years for fast. You know, we don't want to get into real deep formulas but you look at it and say income times the number of years that you're going to need that income in life develops the plan for what your income play is. You know, and you brought up earlier Dom too about, about putting in plays for young people who are in business, you know, key employee plans, making sure that you've got a business valuation. If you have any listeners that are out there that have businesses make sure that they come to see you because of the fact that we can do valuations of that business for them and take a look at Again, that's the what if, what if my key employee were to leave me? What if my partnership has to dissolve because of a death of one of the partners? All of these things can be easily, easily addressed through putting together a plan and then funding it accordingly, whether it's term insurance or permanent life insurance. That's totally up to the individuals. But I honestly, I really, really think that, you know, that the idea again starts with just fundamental meeting with clients and having the clients tell their financial advisor, what is the problem that we're having?
You know, none of us like to go to the doctor today. We're, we're, we're kind of phobic about that because we read too much onto the Internet. But when you go to the doctor, the doctor usually asks you what else is ailing you. And when we talk about that in a financial plan, if we don't tell our financial advisor the things that, hey, I'm thinking about buying a second property or a, I'm thinking about taking a second mortgage on my house because my wife got laid off and we need additional income right now. These are things that you have to have a solid financial plan with your financial advisor.
[00:43:16] Speaker A: I absolutely love that. And one thing that came to mind before the next question is the biggest thing I hear is, especially if there's a one family income that the stay at home parent, they're not valued as an income because they are saving money, like you said, with childcare and whatnot. So I always make sure that that's evaluated and understand for long term care and disability income protection. What's the biggest misconception that causes people to underinsure or skip it entirely? Terry?
[00:43:50] Speaker B: Well, again, I think that with long term care and disability income, it's not going to happen to me and it's not going to happen to me. And one of the greatest stories that I have about it's not going to happen to me is many and many of you know who Christopher Reeves is. He was Superman.
And the only thing that was going to take Christopher, Christopher Reeves down was kryptonite in the movies.
But one morning Christopher Reeves got up and he was an equestrian. And he got up and he put on his khaki pants and tucked him into his boots, put on his white shirt and his navy blue blazer and he headed out to the barn to ride his horses.
And when he was jumping a hedge, he was dislodged from the seat and Christopher Reeves broke his neck.
Now, many of you would say, well, he was an actor and probably had lots and lots of money sitting on the sidelines. Yes, he did.
But he also had disability income that allowed him to draw his family's future incomes off of the revenues that Superman had earned over his lifetime. It's going to happen to us, and it's. You just need to be prepared and have a plan.
Have at least have it written down.
You may not fund it, but have it written down with your financial planner. If Terry goes to the nursing home today, Terry wants to liquidate his gold bars.
Terry then wants to liquidate his silver. And then Terry wants to liquidate his portfolio. Have it written down so that the financial planners don't have to guess with the children as to what your goals and dreams were for your family.
[00:45:44] Speaker A: Fantastic.
What, Terry, what's a realistic review rhythm? So coverage stays aligned as life changes annually after major milestones. Both,
[00:45:58] Speaker B: you know, you hit it on the head there. Major milestones. You know, things that, like a marriage, kids, new home, new job, anytime those types of things pop up in our.
In our life, those are things that I have to pick up the phone and call my financial advisor and inform my financial advisor, hey, I had a. I just had a new baby yesterday. His name is Dominic, and here's his date of birth. And we're getting a Social Security number. Why is that important?
Your financial advisor wants to put that on all contingent beneficiaries for all of the assets that they're managing to make sure we don't disinherit that child.
You know, a new home pops up. Well, we got to make sure that we have adequate amounts of income protection in order to take care of that home.
Again, the family needs a place to call home. And if it's, we need to increase coverage on disability and we need to increase coverage on life insurance to make sure that that happens. And then obviously a new job. You know, your financial advisors play such a pivotal role in when you change employment to make sure that the benefits that you have in your new job align with the financial plans that you put together with your advisors. Again, a great place to take a look at some of these ancillary products that we talked about today. Disability income can easily be obtained at work. Work with your financial advisor to make sure that you're getting the right type of disability income from your employer and the correct amount of disability income. And, you know, we've talked all day long in all of our segments about how do you come up with an adequate number. Also, make sure that you're buying five times.
Most employers will offer five times annual income for your long term, for your life insurance needs, opt into that because it's pennies for dollars with group life insurance. And some, Dominic, some employers are even taking into consideration into their employee benefit books long term care insurance. Again, do not go on this journey alone without your financial advisor helping you protect the assets that they're working hard to grow for you. They can't do this if something bad happens to somebody.
[00:48:22] Speaker A: Real quickly, if someone is watching and feels behind, what's the most empowering first step they can take in the next 48 hours, Terry?
[00:48:31] Speaker B: Well, one is figure out what your household needs on a monthly basis and two, identify your biggest risks.
And then the last thing, Dominic, is just start one conversation. Not all conversations start in one area with your financial advisor. If it's income protection for debt and mortgage, then talk about that life insurance risk. Make sure you've got that covered. If it's income protection for disability income, that question can be answered. Secondly, and in the long term care arena today, Dominic, as we all know, things are changing in that area as well. There are actually riders that can be added to life insurance policies that could cover those expenses for long term care. And I would be remiss if I didn't say this, those of you that are listening that already have life insurance already in place, congratulations by doing that. But make sure that you're having those policies reviewed at least every two to three years by a financial professional. And maybe some of these things that we're talking about with long term care can be discovered in the policy that you presently have that that risk might be covered. So in the next 48 months, I would say you're not late to the party, you are definitely not late to the party. But you gotta take control and you gotta get going because life, life takes away options. It doesn't provide you new options.
[00:50:09] Speaker A: Thank you, Terry. Those were great answers.
Terry, if, if viewers want to connect or continue the conversation, where should they reach you?
[00:50:19] Speaker B: Well, they certainly could reach me, obviously working with you as I am newly retired.
I'm a consultant that can answer some of the questions that you have.
And as easy as checking my email address@terence t e r e n c e.evafold e v as in Victor A V as in Victor O L d as in davidmail.com and I'll be more than happy to answer any of the questions that the viewers have.
But also, again, please let's connect with your financial professionals to make sure that you're working with somebody that can help you take care of the needs that we might uncover.
The best thing that you can do is to make sure that you're working with somebody local, somebody like Dominic who cares a lot about his clients and there's a reason why he's putting on these educational events for all of you is to make sure that you can learn when you need to learn. And that might not be from 8 to 5, but that might be from 5 till 8 in the evening time. And you want to do it on your own time. But Dominic, I'm always available to you to help you answer any of the questions that you might have.
[00:51:45] Speaker A: Great, Terry ever. Thank you for bringing both truth and clarity to a conversation most people avoid.
Today, I'm walking away with one big takeaway. Wealth isn't just what I build. It's what I protect.
To everyone watching, don't wait for life to force the conversation.
Start it while you still have choices. I'm Dominic DeAndrea and this is Wealth Intelligence. I'll see you next week.
