- Change your financial advisor
if yours only focuses on selling products or charging fees.
By the end of this video episode,
you will understand that if you find an advisor
that is sincerely interested in you and your future,
they will focus on eliminating the dangers
that will prevent you
from accomplishing your financial goals,
helping you seize the greatest opportunities,
and also harnessing your best strengths.
So get ready,
I'm gonna show you what I'm talking about,
and how you can determine if you have the right advisor.
(upbeat bright music)
So, I'm Doug Andrew.
I've been a financial strategist
and retirement planning specialist for north of 48 years.
And in this episode,
I want you to understand
how to see if you've got the right financial advisor.
If you don't, you ought to look for another one.
So I'm gonna use a couple of metaphors,
and I'm going to utilize sort of a Draw Shop
video type of an explanation
as we go through it like a whiteboard.
So this first one is a golf metaphor,
but if you're not a golfer, like, I'm really not,
you will still understand this, okay?
So follow with me.
If you are gonna be playing in a golf tournament, let's say,
and you have the choice of using a professional golfer
like Phil Mickelson's swing
or you could use his clubs,
what would you choose?
(chuckles) I'd rather have his swing, not his clubs.
Well, I've noticed that most financial advisors
focus on the clubs or the commodity.
You know, buy this stock or bond or mutual fund,
or gold, or silver.
It's not in the commodity, folks,
it's in the strategy,
it's in the swing.
I've noticed that many estate planning attorneys
seem to focus on dividing up the golf clubs
and the trophies, so to speak,
among your kids and grandkids when you die.
Huh, I'd rather leave behind how to fish
to my kids and grandkids
than dumping a bunch of fish in their lap.
I want them to be self-reliant,
to never be unemployed,
because unemployment is a mental condition,
not a physical condition.
Securities in the individual,
not in somebody giving you a job to do.
So at 3 Dimensional Wealth
where I educate thousands of people on this channel,
I focus on the swing.
Now, this involved learning true principles.
You know, a truth is just a belief until you experience it.
When you experience a truth,
it becomes a truth to you.
And all of the principles that I teach,
like liquidity, safety, ready, return, tax benefits,
and so forth,
I have experienced,
and I continue to do so.
And so it's really in the strategies
that I have used for years.
And I use proven strategies and concepts, okay?
Now, it is very predictable in that process,
but sometimes,
I've invested, you know, over 3 million bucks in my life,
and I marry concepts together,
and I get credited,
"Wow, nobody's ever thought of it like that before."
Well, yeah, but I marry concepts together.
But metaphorically speaking,
I don't really focus on the clubs,
except generally, when to use a seven iron, let's say,
or a driver, or a sandwich.
I don't get into any of the brands
'cause I have, you know, professionals who do that
that I point my students to.
I focus on the swing.
Teaching true principles,
sharing strategies and concepts,
and showing you the general features of the tools.
Do you know that from 2003 to 2007,
I trained over 3,000 financial advisors,
CPAs and tax attorneys?
And they paid 6,000 bucks in tuition, do the math.
Do you know the only 200 could could pass a proficiency exam
and only 20 of them do I really trust
to point my students to?
Yeah, what happened is,
back then, there were a lot of them
that did not understand or apply it.
If you don't use it, you lose it.
So I created this proficiency exam.
Now, folks, when 2008 hit,
a lot of Americans,
as Warren Buffet put it,
in 2008, when the tide went out,
he said it revealed who was swimming naked.
They weren't protected.
I taught a lot of these advisors
how to protect their clients from losing money,
but many of them said,
"Doug, we don't have time to educate people like you do."
Oh really?
And so they had their clients' money in the market
following the herd,
because they didn't wanna try to take the time
to educate their clients better.
And so that's what motivated me
to create this proficiency exam.
Now, this exam is not an easy exam,
I've continued to update it.
But back in 2008,
it was 100 questions that were like multiple choice
and true and false
and 30 additional questions that were essay, okay?
Now, out of these advisors that came through
and paid 6,000 bucks to learn it,
only 200 could pass that exam.
Because if you don't use it, you lose it.
Now, I'm just gonna be honest with you.
Most advisors that you hear on the radio or on TV,
a lot of the advisors that are out there helping the masses,
you know, act your wage, cut up your credit card,
all this kind of stuff,
they're helping the masses
that are in their vernacular,
behind closed doors, they say,
"Oh, my audience are the financial jellyfish,
that's why I have to tell 'em to act their wage."
And so, yeah, that's their market.
But see, I don't wanna talk to people
who will always have too much month left
at the end of their money, so to speak.
I want disciplined people who understand
how to live on less than what they earn.
That's my ideal client.
And those are the ones who are open to learning.
Those are the ones who are receptive.
They don't claim to know it all or what have you.
And so by knowing that,
my proficiency exam,
on the unique niche that I'm in,
those advisors that I just referred to,
would royally flunk this exam.
They might have heard some of the terms,
but they would flunk it
'cause they wouldn't even understand 70% of the questions.
If you don't understand the questions,
how are you gonna get the right answer, okay?
And unfortunately,
that's what's true in the financial services industry.
A lot of times the public doesn't realize that.
But it's more important to focus on the swing
than it is just the clubs.
There's a lot of advisors that just simply tell you
to buy this mutual fund,
or this stock, or gold or silver,
'cause they think it's in the clubs,
and it's not.
Now, what is the other differentiator
between advisors who I would recommend
that you work with
versus those that you ought to maybe get away from?
It's the difference between a battery and a generator, okay?
So let me explain it again using this.
There are a lot of financial advisors
that sort of focus on charging up
a retirement battery, so to speak.
What I do is I teach strategies and concepts.
I don't focus on just the commodity or the clubs,
it's the swing.
And so there's three big dangers that cause most retirees,
or most people accumulated money
to run out of money,
or they lose a lot of money.
And that's taxes.
Because of irresponsible government spending
and the printing of money,
taxes will continue to go up.
Inflation is causing the cost of living to go up
every five to seven years
of the true rate of inflation.
And then the market volatility,
so we got taxes, inflation,
and market volatility.
That crash in 2008,
we're gonna see that happen again and again.
This is like Arnold Schwarzenegger says,
"I'll be back," okay?
I want you to be immune from taxes going up,
have inflation work for you instead of against you,
and not be subject to the market downturns, not lose.
And so a lot of advisors,
they sort of focus on designing
a retirement battery, so to speak,
that hopefully won't go dead before you do.
But unfortunately, that battery is set at about four volts.
It's called the 4% rule in the financial services industry.
Because of the market volatility,
and most Americans only really averaging 3.49%,
according to studies by DALBAR,
the average retiree with money
in IRAs and 401ks in the market
is only averaging about three and a half percent.
That's pretty pathetic.
They only want you to pull out 4%,
which is gonna slowly deplete your nest egg,
but not before you die.
That's called your LE, life expectancy.
So that's pretty pathetic.
I mean, $1 million nest egg,
you only get to pull out 40,000 a year.
You pay tax of 25%, 10,000,
and another 10,000 in fees,
you're only netting 2% or 20 grand.
That's ridiculous, okay?
That's unacceptable.
So I recommend that you get a powerful generator
that generates more income,
and you never outlive your money.
It goes on for generations.
That's where the word comes from, generate, okay?
And so the one I like to use
is max-funded IUL 8, 10, 12 volts.
Those are the rates of return.
Eight, 10, 12% rates of return,
where every million dollars can generate 80,000,
100,000 of tax-free income without depleting principal.
This is a powerful generator
that can generate more income by double or triple,
and when you ultimately die,
why would you leave behind this much money
when you could leave behind this much money to your family
in the three dimensions of authentic wealth?
So this is my passion.
I wanna help you to be able to do that,
and this is the difference.
If your advisor does not understand
how to help you achieve that goal,
if they're just sort of trying to charge up
that retirement battery,
hopefully that it won't go dead before you do,
this is why a lot of people outlived their money.
So the reason why I love max-funded IUL,
and I teach advisors who want to learn,
that will humble themselves,
that they don't know it all,
how to be able to do that.
Now, if this is intriguing you,
this is how you could learn more.
One of the first steps is for you to claim your free copy
of this 300 page book.
This is my 11th book.
It's called "The Laser Fund.
How to Diversify and Create the Foundation
for a Tax-Free Retirement."
And so when you read this,
it's actually two books in one.
This side is 14 chapters,
about 200 pages with all the charts,
and graphs, and explanations
if you're a left brain learner.
if you learn more right brain,
by stories and examples,
you flip it over to this side.
100 pages, 12 chapters with 62 actual client stories
of how a max-funded IUL helps you achieve
all kinds of financial goals,
not just retirement.
College funding for your kids, grandkids,
working capital for your business,
real estate management, emergency funds,
all kinds of uses.
If you wanna use your whole brain, read both, okay?
But you simply go to laserfund.com,
L-A-S-E-R fund.com
or click on the link below.
And you go in
and you contribute a nominal amount
towards the shipping and handling.
I'll cover the rest of that,
and I'll fire out a free copy.
I'll pay for the book.
And then there's options there,
if you wanna listen and learn,
or watch and learn,
there's even master classes.
And you'll see in there that you can attend webinars,
and seminars, and so forth.
But this is going to help you understand,
and there's questions in here
that you can ask your advisor.
And if they don't know the answers to those questions,
I would think twice about staying with that advisor.
(upbeat bright music)