Make It Last – Ep 165 – Big Things Have Small Beginnings

February 26, 2022

This week on Make It Last Victor and Mark kick-off the show discussing seniors, retirees, and the challenges they face with inflation.

How can you retire from a non-corporate job without a 401k? Preparing and saving for retirement is a challenge for everyone, but small business owners face some unique challenges… Listen to learn how to make the most out of retiring from your small business!

Finally, they’ll wrap up the show with a game of “Yay or Nay?”

Are You Paying Too Much In Taxes In Retirement? Click here.

Also available on SpotifyApple Podcasts, & Google Podcasts

Make It Last with Victor Medina is hosted by Victor J. Medina, an estate planning and Certified Elder Law Attorney (CELA) and Certified Financial Planner professional (CFP). Through his law firm and independent registered investment advisory company, Victor provides 360º Wealth Protection Strategies for individuals in or nearing retirement.

For more information, visit Medina Law Group or Palante Wealth Advisors.

Full Transcript Below

Mark Elliot:  How about that? Welcome to the show. This is “Make It Last” with Victor Medina of Medina Law Group & Palante Wealth. I’m Mark Elliot. Glad you’re with us. Victor, do you realize that was Gloria Gaynor “I Will Survive” in 1980?

This is the first and only best disco recording ever handed out. Gloria Gaynor got it for I Will Survive because then they moved it into different Grammys for the disco world was ending at that point. Do you miss the disco world? Are you OK with that?

Victor Medina:  I did. First of all, I thought that we had gotten preempted there for a second for just the DJ coming into a play, but no, I had no idea that that was the only disco song to win a Grammy. I’m OK with that. I wasn’t a big disco fan. Even though we didn’t grow up during the disco times, I listened to the…

Mark:  Well, it wasn’t necessarily the only disco song to win a Grammy. It was the only one to win Best Disco Recording because it was the only time they gave that award.

Victor:  They probably knew what they were doing. Yeah, I had no idea that was what, 1980, sir?

Mark:  1980.

Victor:  Oh, my goodness. Oh, my goodness. Well, no I had no clue and I was after unfortunately the disco time, born 1975.

Mark:  Well, you missed it. You missed the bell bottoms, the silk shirts, and my eighth grade graduation. I graduated high school in ’77, eighth grade graduation I had the powder blue suit with black. My heels were probably two or three inches tall. Man, you missed all that. It’s coming back. It’s coming back.

Victor:  I’m sure it is. I’m curious whether or not they had any photos of you available or whether or not you spent every last dime o have them destroyed because I’d pay for that. I’d be honest.

Mark:  It was fantastic. My powder blue…what were they called? There was some kind of leisure suit, my powder blue leisure suit with the silk shirt of course, underneath it. No tie, no tie needed at all. That’s not what we’re talking about today, though. Glad you’re with us today for Make it Last with Victor Medina.

If you have any questions about where you are on your road to retirement, you can always call the team, there’s no cost, 856‑506‑8300. Glad you’re with us. We’re going to talk about a lot of things as we always do. We’re going to start though with seniors and retirees and the challenges with inflation. I don’t know. There’s some crazy stats about seniors and inflation.

This is a survey, Victor, from the Senior Citizens League that says inflation is having a major impact on seniors. Half, 50 percent have spent down their emergency savings, 48 percent have had to visit a food pantry or apply for food stamps, 44 percent of run up credit card debt, 23 percent need help with energy bills.

What’s going on? Are you seeing this? Inflation so quickly within a year has caused all these issues?

Victor:  It does not surprise me. Can I say that we’re not seeing with our clients mostly because we’ve designed plans that helps then navigate this, even ones that we didn’t expect to see these numbers. It’s been 40 years since we’ve seen numbers this high, but our plans always incorporated catastrophic circumstances, 100‑year floods, kind of things.

I wouldn’t say our clients are seeing it, but it doesn’t surprise me. The reason why it doesn’t surprise me is that a lot of people tend to follow the trends about what’s going on with respect to investment, finances, economics. The trends for the last 40 years has suggested that inflation is nothing that they needed to worry about.

I’m not at all surprised that people are being caught off guard from that. It is a significant impact because it happens very quickly as we were observing. The first inflation numbers come out towards the fall then more recent ones and the number keeps increasing. It happened very, very quickly.

Now the other thing that happens, of course, through retirees that is different is that they don’t get any of the benefits of inflation in their wages. They only get the downside in terms of their expenses, so they’re only seeing on one side.

You can imagine that there are people out there working and between the great resignation driving up the salaries generally and people being able to benefit from the fact that things being more expensive means there’s more revenue to the company which means they may be getting a salary bumps.

Here are the retirees, they don’t have that backend of it, just stuff is getting more expensive. It doesn’t at all surprise me that they’re having issues dealing with short‑term cash flow things. I think that leads more to sometimes some struggles with some decisions about what to do in response.

People tend to sell early to try to replenish that and of course, in the beginning of this year we’ve had one of our very expected and normal slow‑downs of the stock market growth in January and into February. It hasn’t still recovered. NASDAQ, as of today’s recording, it may be down 12‑14 percent for the year.

The selling from that losing position would only compound that problem. It’s going to be a struggle, for sure.

Mark:  Of course, the nice thing is the government program, Social Security, is always here to help you keep up with inflation once you start it. Not so much, but if you go back to 2020, it was a 1.6 percent bump in Social Security, inflation was really low. In 2021, it was 1.3 percent, but in 2022, this year, Social Security has got a 5.9 percent bump.

You remember we were talking about this probably late in the fall or early fall when the numbers were coming out. I think Medicare premiums Part B were $148.50 at the time. They were projecting it would probably go to $158.50. You are getting a 5.9 percent bump on your Social security so we are going to bump up Medicare a little bit.

Well, that number ended up being a little over $171, I think, for just the average premium for Part B in Medicare, right?

Victor:  Yeah, that bottom number jumped almost $30 per month, which in a household of married people, we’re going to see them spending an upwards of $800 over the course of the year extra. Not really spending, but it being withheld. They do not have a choice. [laughs] They don’t get to spend it or not spend it. The federal government just keeps that number instead.

Mark:  When you’re talking inflation, I would say in the last decade, maybe even a little bit longer, healthcare has…our inflation typically to go to the grocery store, go to the gas pump was not too bad for a decade basically, but healthcare was always up five or six percent every year, it seemed like, in medical costs and all of that.

Now they give you a bump in Social Security but they take some of that away with a Medicare premium jacked up a little bit. Healthcare is showing no signs of slowing down at all in regards to cost. How do you help people figure out that equation when it comes to their retirement?

Victor:  I know. It’s enough to make your head explode, smoke coming out your ears when you’re trying to put it all together. Thankfully, we’re professionals at this and our smoke is well contained when we have to process it for clients. [laughs]

Mark:  Absolutely.

Victor:  I will tell you, a few things are interesting about the whole math around what’s in there. You were quoting some of the numbers that were the increase of 5.9 percent that was going up in Social Security. Inflation itself, it has to be…they were higher number currently, it’s seven percent.

It’s interesting that even the increases aren’t keeping pace and that Social Security was never in these days of retirement a viable strategy for people to make it through retirement and have enough money. In a nutshell, what we’re doing for folks is, we are constructing an income plan that allows them to generate income in retirement in a very consistent way.

We were always projecting inflation higher than average numbers back when we were doing planning before, let’s say, the beginning of the report of the inflation being at seven percent.

We were modeling inflation at three, three and a half percent, which seemed a little bit wacky at that time, with an average inflation number you were reporting with the Social Security increases prior to this last year, much lower to two percent, sometimes lower than two percent.

We always had projected them higher than that. We’re adjusting some of our planning now. The goal was to put together an income plan so that people had a very consistent paycheck over time. That was part and parcel of every plan that we put together.

By the way, if you’re listening, and you’re interested in learning how you can create an income plan of your own in retirement, I’ll give you access to a white paper that we have written that will give you a guide on doing that. It’s an easy free download. You can actually get it at 920income.com. It will help you learn how to make your money last as long as you do. It’s 920income.com.

In the response to what’s going on the inflation, Mark, what we’ve been doing is adjusting the amount of cash that we have available to people to spend while simultaneously reducing the amount of cash that we’re holding as a liquid fund. The reason why we’re lowering that, by the way, is very consistent, very rational is that that cash is actually losing money for us.

As inflation goes up, we don’t want our emergency fund to be in something that is losing purchasing power. We’ve been talking with a lot of our clients about using very specific investment product with 100 percent liquidity in it that will allow people to have some guaranteed gains more than they can get into a bank, but also with access to it completely principle protected.

That has some requirements to get into it and we’ve been working through with our clients how they’re going to access some of these things. If you’re listening and you’re not sure whether or not cash is a position that you should be in with respect to an inflation, the best thing you can do is reach out to us.

We can talk about whether or not your plan makes sense the way it is or if there’s something else that we ought to be doing. You can do that just by reaching out to us directly by phone. You can give us a call at 856‑506‑8300. Give a call, get on our calendar, we’d love to have a conversation with you about whether or not you have an inflation‑ready plan.

Mark:  Glad you’re with us today for Make It Last with Victor Medina of Medina Law Group & Palante Wealth. I am Mark Elliot. The Make It Last plan has an income strategy, investment strategies, taxes, estate planning, it’s all in there. As Victor said, just give him a call, 856‑506‑8300. I don’t want this to always be a downer, some of the challenges that we all face.

Let’s go a little more uplifting. I didn’t watch a lot of the Winter Olympics this year. I’m surprised. I typically do. There were crazy shows on Netflix I had to watch. I had to watch a golf tournament, I was busy. US snowboarder, Nick Baumgartner, finally wins gold at the 2022 Winter Games in Beijing at the age of 40.

He didn’t do it with curling. This was his fourth Olympic appearance. He never made the podium before in the previous three tries. Baumgartner and his race partner, Lindsey Jacobellis, who’s 36 competed against athletes nearly 20 years younger in the mixed snowboard cross event. Here is what he had to say.

Nick Baumgartner:  As you get older, it’s tough to watch the young kids kind of take over and try to push you out of the sport. So, that hunger, it’s strong. As long as you’re willing to put in the work and you still have the dedication for the hard work, you can really push yourself to a new level.

Mark:  He was super excited. Who wouldn’t be? Your fourth Olympics at the age of 40 and you’re in mixed snowboard cross event. You’re actually not curling. [laughs] There’s no more physical effort needed there.

Do you see this much with your clients at Medina Law Group and Palante Wealth where they feel like, “Hey, I’m older now. I don’t know if they really want me here anymore. I feel like they’re kind of squeezing me out.” Do you see any of that?

Victor:  It’s interesting because we did have a conversation with a client earlier in the week where we were talking to them ‑‑ I’m going to keep the gender neutral and the details of the client confidential ‑‑ about the third phase that they were going into around their working life.

What was interesting about their situation is that they had gone in and secured a part‑time job, similar industry that they were in, but using a lot of the skills.

When I was talking with this client about what they were getting from this arrangement, it was similar to what Nick was sharing, which is that it continued to push this client in a direction that made them feel valuable, made them feel like they still had purpose.

There was quasi‑health related but rather than working with humans, they were then working with a veterinarian. They were still expanding their skill set. They were still driving themselves to new levels.

In the conversation that we were having, one of the things that we discussed was how important it was that they were doing this because it would allow them to keep driving forward and not feel like they were being putting out to pasture. That their time had passed already, that somehow, they had resigned themselves into some life that was less than what they had before.

This person still at age 70 was viable in the workplace, viable in the work that they were doing, and it was so rewarding for them to be engaged like this.

I do see it from time to time where people are feeling like they can continue going. They can continue to grow. They can continue to keep pushing themselves to new levels and new heights. As long as they remain committed to doing that, they don’t have to accept the mentality that retirement equals just being put out to pasture and not having anything else to do afterwards.

Mark:  All right. Let’s give you one more clip from the snowboarder, the 40‑year‑old gold‑medal winner in Beijing this year at the Winter Olympics ‑‑ Nick Baumgartner ‑‑ and this is your dose of daily inspirational saviors struggling with the daily grind.

Nick:  You get one shot at life. You should live the life you want, and don’t let anything stop you. It doesn’t matter how old you are. Hard work is the answer. Go out there and get it.

Mark:  Victor, I’m too old. I’m 62. I’m too tired for hard, hard work.

Victor:  Listen. Sometimes, you’re not going to have a choice about whether or not you’re going to get to do that, and you should live the retirement life that you want and not let anything stop you. It doesn’t matter if you’re five years into retirement, five years from retirement. Making sure that you have a great plan together is the answer, and you don’t have to go out and get there on your own.

We can help you if you’re really interested in making sure that you’ve got a great plan, a great plan around your income, a great plan around your investments and your tax planning and you want a partner with you in retirement. We can do that for you at Medina Law Group and Palante Wealth.

The only thing is that you’ve got to take that first step in reaching out to us, and the easiest way to do that is to give us a call. You can give us a call at 856‑506‑8300. That’s 856‑506‑8300.

This will be the first step that you will take to knowing that you are going to be on the best path to retirement and have a plan that gets you to rest easy and just like Nick Baumgartner, be out there winning your gold medal in retirement. Again, give us a call so that you can get that conversation started. The number’s 856‑506‑8300.

Mark:  We’re just getting started today with Make It Last with Victor Medina of Medina Law Group and Palante Wealth. We’ve got a lot to get through. Stay with us. We’re back with more. We’re going to talk small business owners in the next two segments. Stay with us. More right after this.

Mark:  Glad you’re with us today for Make It Last with Victor Medina of the Medina Law Group and Palante Wealth. Victor focuses on traditional estate planning, asset protection, retirement distribution, proactive income tax planning.

He’s been featured on national television, “The Wall Street Journal,” “The Huffington Post,” ‘US News,” and “World Report.” I’m not worthy of even being on the same radio show with Victor Medina. I’m Mark Elliot. Glad you’re with us.

You want to find out more, you can always go to the website medinalawgroup.com. Certainly, we’re talking about estate planning, and Victor is a practicing estate planning and certified elder law attorney, but the team’s here to help you come up with those plans you need ‑‑ trust, wills, powers of attorney and the like, medinalawgroup.com, M‑E‑D‑I‑N‑A, medinalawgroup.com.

Victor also has Palante Wealth, which is about holistic planning for your retirement. Victor’s a certified financial planner professional, registered investment advisor. You can find out more at palantewealth.com, P‑A‑L‑A‑N‑T‑E, palantewealth.com.

Then, the two teams come together to create your Make It Last plan. You have an income strategy, investment strategies, tax‑efficient strategies, estate planning. All of that is rolled into the Make It Last plan. If you’d like to call and find out more where are you on your road to retirement? 856‑506‑5300. 856‑506‑8300.

I think we all get it, Victor, that preparing and saving for retirement can really be a challenge for all of us. Do we have enough? Can we retire? When can we retire? Are we going to be OK?

For small business owners, there’s some unique concerns and challenges. We’re going to spend some time talking about how you can prepare for retirement if you’re not retiring from a corporate job with a 401(k). Now, Medina Law Group, Palante Wealth, we put them together, you’re a huge corporation.

Victor:  [laughs] Big voting block. We’ve got a lot of lobbying power with these two companies, for sure.

Mark:  You really have two small businesses. When you think about it, there’s some alarming numbers, though, to share with you about small business owners out there. These stats, by the way, come from SCORE, which is an organization that supports small business owners. 34 percent do not have a retirement savings plan. 40 percent do not believe they will be able to retire by the age of 65.

There was a report in January of 2022 from the National Federation of Independent Business that says, “Optimism is at an all‑time low as 61 percent of small businesses were forced to increase prices to offset cost.” That’s not to say the third of small businesses that just went under, couldn’t survive the pandemic.

A lot of small business owners might be going, “This has been too much. I need to try to figure out how to retire with all the turmoil that’s been going on with the pandemic and finding workers and all of that.” Any advice?

Victor:  Yeah, I do have some advice, but let’s set the stage real quick before we get to it, which is that those statistics don’t at all surprise me, about 34 percent not having a retirement plan and 40 percent not feeling like they’re going to be able to retire by age 65.

The reason for that is that small business owners, entrepreneurs in that sense are often people that invest everything that they have, including any excess money in their business. When it comes down to whether or not they have cash for retirement, cash to pay their staff members or to increase their inventory, do something around their business, they choose to invest in their business.

The best way that I’ve heard is that their business is their mistress. They’re the people that they are spending all of their time and money on. The result of that, of course, is the numbers that we’ve just been quoting in terms of the statistics. There’s just not a lot that are set aside.

Then we have this mounting pressure on the right‑hand side, which is that the landscape out there for businesses is changing and placing pressures about whether or not they should continue or how they’re going to continue.

In terms of specific advice, I have some for small business owners. The effectiveness is going to change depending on where you are in the cycle of the creation of your business. I think that there first of all needs to be a mass movement for business owners to structure their business around profit first.

That profit first is a way of making sure that for their equity in the position for their investments, in the risk that it takes to grow it, that they are carving out a percentage that they’re putting away for themselves from the beginning and that it’s not the leftover money at the end of the month. It’s actually money up front that’s set aside.

The second thing that they should be doing is they need to be thinking about an exit strategy, whether that is a massive amount of savings or some form of sale from the beginning or somewhere in the midst of their planning. That often means restructuring their business in a way that makes it saleable.

A lot of these businesses are failed to have, for example, systems and processes that a buyer from the outside can look at that as an investment very much by the way we think about franchises. One of the benefits of people buying franchises is that, they’ll have an opportunity to take a proven system.

With time application and support from the headquarters, be able to grow it into something that is giving them generating life income, cash flow, and maybe even something to sell afterwards. That system in that process, reason why it’s so attractive to buy franchises, because those are already been proven.

They will give you numbers off of that other businesses, not as much so, and it looks like it’s very expensive hobbies where people are working for…they’re basically on a job as opposed to an actual business. The advice is to structure the business in a way that can have a potential sale event.

The last one is going to sound transparently self‑serving, but it’s absolutely the case for small business owner, is get involved in the advisor early because the advisor is going to be able to help discipline you on the first two things that we were talking about.

Also, make sure that you’re taking the time to plan around yourself including, by the way, helping to get in touch with maybe business brokers or people that will help you have liquidation events.

Working with an advisor, specifically an advisor that is thinking with retirement in mind is probably one of the best moves that you can do. I have a lot of my clients that work with me because I’m a successful business owner in my own right, multiple businesses. Working with them and their businesses, but on a financial legal side is very attractive to them.

If you’re in that position and you’re interested in learning more about how we might be able to work together, you can certainly reach out to us at 856‑506‑8300. That’s 856‑506‑8300. If you’re a small business owner that wants a little bit of help with the planning for retirement.

Mark:  If you just want help with retirement, you can call the same number. Victor’s teams are here to help you. We’re going to talk more about the exit strategy in the next segment because I think that is a really huge part of being a small business owner. How do you get out of it? Is it family left down to the next generation? Or is it a business you’re trying to sell to fund your retirement?

We’re going to get more into the exit strategy in our next segment. One of the challenges though for small business owners is they’re not working for a big corporation and have the 401(k). The small business owner has to decide, “Are we going to pay healthcare for our employees. Are we going to give them a 401(k) or even give them an option of a Roth 401(k)?”

What are some of the options for retirement savings, I guess you could say, for people who do not work for a big employer?

Victor:  You named a couple of them. There is certainly, by the way, an opportunity for smaller employers to create savings programs that are usually attributed for larger employers like a full‑on 401(k) or a Roth 401(k). Those tend to have some operational costs and some embedded fees and obligations that makes it a little bit more strenuous or more of a hurdle for people to take it on for small businesses.

Thankfully, there are a couple programs that are available for smaller businesses if they want to contribute money into savings. That is, first of all, you can create a SEP IRA. That’s basically a self‑employment plan.

It’s really for self‑employed individuals who have at least one employee that’s in there. Or you can have a SIMPLE IRA, which is for anybody that has less than 100 employees. The nice thing about that is those are IRA‑based plans. They’re really very super low forms that need to be filed on a regular basis. Gives you an opportunity to get right into it.

The other thing you can do is get in a self‑employed 401(k). This is for folks that are self‑employed with no employees. It’s funded with your own money. They’re basically run like a 401k. You can’t take money out until 59 and a half or you have some other life event.

The benefit of that 401(k) that’s self‑employed, self‑employed are a solo 401(k) is that you can increase your contribution limits. With the IRA‑based plans, you may be limited to how much you can contribute. In the 401(k), you might be able to get up to those higher numbers with maybe 19,000 plus some cash contributions.

There’s next‑level planning for that, for folks with very significant revenue, that in tax problems we’ve created in the past for folks, defined benefit plans for them, which allows them to change their corporate structure to a C corporation, allows them to bank a lot of money as an operating cost that then allows to reduce their taxes.

The point is, you ought to get advice that is specific to your situation. There are retirement plans that will give you the opportunity to start to put away money for your own retirement and do it in a tax‑deferred or tax‑beneficial fashion.

Mark:  If that’s you, and you’d like to learn more, Victor and the teams are here to help. 856‑506‑8300. 856‑506‑8300. There’s no cost, no‑obligation, to chat with the team. They’re here to help. What are some things, Victor, that business owners, anyone heading into retirement should consider when it comes to their lifestyle in retirement?

Victor:  I’m always a fan about discussing the soft topics in retirement beyond the financial considerations. We can do that. We help that as our professional day to day. I have seen the most successful people in retirement who handle the non‑financial aspects of it.

For example, a small business owner, typically, defines themselves by the business that they’ve run. It’s their identity. It’s what they’ve invested so much time, blood, sweat, and tears into doing. It’s how they’ve established their worth within the family.

Let’s say is that they were successful in their business. Their definition to their family is still wrapped up in the business. One of the most important things that people can do is thinking about how to establish a different purpose or a new definition of what their purpose is going to be in retirement. Once that’s set up…

What ends up happening, is that they quit their job and they’re miserable, or they quit their business and they’re not happy. They may have made all the money in the world, but because they don’t have a reason for that, that money has no purpose, their life feels like they have no purpose, they’re miserable in retirement.

We don’t want clients that are miserable in retirement. We don’t want anybody miserable in retirement. We certainly don’t want clients that are going to be miserable in retirement.

Mark:  If you’re not a client of Medina Law Group and Palante Wealth, you might be miserable. Where are here to help. [laughs]

Victor:  Exactly right. If you are, we know that you’re not going to be miserable. We’re going to talk to you about that. Then, there are also other things that are part of the way that you think about retirement in general, which is what are some of the details of what your retirement picture is going to look like.

Where are you going to live? What budget do you want to be on? What do you want to do? Where’s the income going to be coming from? How are you going to generate the paycheck in retirement?

Thankfully, we have a way of helping people get to that point in time. We’ve given them a roadmap to know whether or not they’re ready for retirement. We call that our checklist challenge.

If you’d like a copy of that, there’s about 30 things to go through to see if you’re on your way. By the way, there are some things in there for business owners. I can give it to you absolutely free.

All you have to do is go to 920checklist.com. That’s 920checklist.com. Give us your name and email. We’ll send you off a checklist and you can start to assess where you are on the road to retirement.

Mark:  All right. Let’s finish this segment. We’re going to get into exit strategies for small business owners and maybe borrowing from your retirement accounts to try to get things through to another month or another year. There’s certainly some challenges in that area.

Let’s finish this up with the planning process that you and your clients at Medina Law Group and Palante Wealth go through, as the Make It Last plan. What all goes into creating that comprehensive retirement strategy?

Victor:  That is a great tool for people who are going through retirement to know that they’re going to be OK. We focus on four areas that impact somebody’s retirement picture and how successful they’re going to be.

In the beginning, of course, we have a conversation with you about what’s your life right now, what’s your investment experience been, the accounts for sure, but what’s going on with you and your picture for retirement. We’re trying to do what’s important to you.

We work on a fiduciary standard, which is to suggest that we put our clients’ best interests out of our own. Each one of our plans is custom to the client that we’re meeting with. There’s not a cookie‑cutter about our solutions. They are tailored for every client that walks through.

Of course, we have to get to know the client. That’s one of the first steps. Once we’ve gotten to know the clients and their goals, then, we’ve taken their information. They’ve given us things like their tax returns and Social Security, award statement, and where their investments are, what’s going on with their family and their legal documents.

We’re looking at all that. We start to come up with some planning for different areas. We look at planning with respect to income, specifically, how does an income check that we can generate in retirement compare to your budget, what can you sustain, and understanding how that works.

Then, we start to work out your investments. Basically, where are they positioned? What should we be doing with them to make sure that you can have a successful retirement? The third area is one of my favorites. I know it’s like saying that going to the dentist is your favorite. We spent all that time in taxes, specifically tax planning, and not tax preparation.

That’s not what we’re doing. We’re doing proactive tax planning to help manage income taxes as well as estate inheritance taxes, and giving you the overall best roadmap and picture to limit how much the federal government gets out of your money.

Then, finally, the last panel, it talks about estate planning and legacy planning, making sure that you are well protected if you have a long‑term care event. Making sure what you leave behind to your kids is protected from divorce and creditors and that you’ve got a good solid plan there.

In each one of those areas, we’re running through a diagnostic, Mark. We’re looking at what’s working for you. What’s in good order. I start to identify areas that need addressing, and then we give our recommendations.

In the creation of that plan, you get all three things together for those five separate areas. You can see what’s working for you, where you need to spend some time attention, and the fact what the recommendations are in each of income, investments, tax, and estate planning. That’s what makes up a Make It Last plan.

Mark:  Remember this when you come in and sit down with Victor and the teams, you’re the CEO. It’s your retirement, your hopes, and dreams. You don’t understand, maybe all of the moving parts that go in with retirement planning.

Victor and the teams do. They’re here to help. They’re sitting alongside of you on the same side of the table. They can help you in the investment world. They can help you in the insurance world. They can certainly help you in the legal world with Medina Law Group.

It’s about you. What do you need to make your retirement maybe better or at least have more confidence moving forward that you’re going to be OK. That’s what it’s all about.

The Make It Last plan is about you, not the clients that just left the office. Everyone is built specifically around whomever they’re sitting down and talking with. 856‑506‑8300, again, is the number. There’s no cost. There’s no obligation. There’s no pressure. There’s no judgment either. 856‑506‑8300. 856‑506‑8300.

Mark:  We’re talking small business owners today. We’re going to talk more about the business exit strategy. It’s an important part. Victor’s got some more insight on that when we come back. This is Make It Last with Victor Medina of Medina Law Group and Palante Wealth.

Mark: Welcome back to Make It Last with Victor Medina of Medina Law Group and Palante Wealth. Victor is a practicing estate planning and certified elder law attorney. He’s also a certified financial planner professional registered investment advisor.

He’s also the author of five books on retirement planning known as the  Make It Last series. If you have any questions, you want to learn more, you can go to the websites, medinalawgroup.com, palantewealth.com. Medina, M‑E‑D‑I‑N‑A, medinalawgroup.com. Palante, P‑A‑L‑A‑N‑T‑E, palantewealth.com.

Questions you can always call, 856‑506‑8300. Last segment, this time we’re talking small business owners. We’ve got another fun segment in our final one as well ready to go today.

Small business owners, there’s no doubt about it, face some unique challenges in preparing for retirement. If you’re your own boss, things might look a little different for you as you prepare for retirement. You don’t just set a retirement date and then walk away from the job because you built your own company.

You brought this up in the last segment, and it’s one of the biggest things that small business owners would be concerned about, I would think, is how do they get out? How do they retire? Do they ever get out? The exit strategy is so important.

You listed a lot of important things earlier. This is something that’s super important, is coming up with that exit strategy. Your boys, Aiden is 17, Lucas 14, Dylan 8. They’re not taking over anytime soon. They’ve got to live their life a little bit before they’re ready to step in and take over.

You’re not in any hurry at all to retire. Do you think you will retire or will always have your hand in your two companies?

Victor:  It’s a loaded set of questions, Mark.

Mark:  That was a loaded question. There was a lot of questions there. Good luck.

Victor:  [laughs] I was going to say I got to sit down with the therapist and figure out. Unfortunately, Dylan ‑‑ since our last time together ‑‑ is now turned nine. One more year closer to kicking me out of my chair.

Let’s take them all in order, maybe in reverse order. Do I think that I’m going to stay involved? What’s interesting is when I think about the boys, I’m pulled in different directions.

On the one hand, I want them to know that there is a home for them if they want to come and work in the business. That they can make a life for themselves, which for me to the discussion of an exit strategy, I could never imagine them buying me out or having to write a check.

I want them to earn what there’s having there, but I also want them to benefit from all the work that I’ve done. I have to think about this business a little bit differently. I could imagine staying involved.

Let me give you the answer that I’m dancing around, which is, I’m designing the business in a way that can provide an annuity for me in retirement without a liquidation event. What that merely means is, most annuities are structured in a way that pays about six percent of the balance that you’ve given it as a payment over time.

What I want to be able to do, is think about my business as the amount of money that I would give the annuity company, and what do I have to do for it to generate six percent for me doing nothing, shifting all of the risk over to the people that are running the business and continue on with it.

That’s a little bit about the way that I’m designing my plan. The reason why it’s important to think about this is because you often get stuck as a business owner with thinking about the end at the end instead of thinking at it from the beginning, or making decisions in line with the way that would increase your options, increase your flexibility with some form of an exit strategy in the future.

Very few people know this about me unless you’re working with me in this way. I do coach other lawyers as a side gig. I restrict that to about one day a week. I travel every once in a while to a group coaching program down in Florida. I see about 50 to 60 lawyers in there and working them through a particular program.

One of the things that we work on is on how to design your business with an eye towards selling it or being able to create a retirement. That’s so important in the professional services world because it’s not like we’ve got inventory that we can sell here at Medina Law Group or Palante Wealth.

The computers aren’t worth that much. They’re going down in value. My knick‑knacks that are up behind me when on the shelf that are my little collectibles are valuable only to me. We don’t have an inventory. We don’t have equipment. I don’t have trucks that I can sell afterwards or anything like that.

The decisions that we have to make about how we construct a professional services business to sell later about sales in the future are about creating a business that is ongoing. That it has value in the community. That is transferable afterwards.

To your question about what business owners should be thinking about. The first thing is they should be making business decisions with some form of direction with the end in mind. They have to continually be thinking about fair meeting value to the business.

What you’re doing in terms of the growth and the decisions you’re making, are all about creating a measurable value for sales in the future. Then, the last component of it which will bring us now back home, Mark, about your question with my kids and whether the boys will be involved in the future.

You want to think through what will make a smooth transition after you’re gone. That will include all kinds of detail and roles within the business, and how responsibilities will continue on what’s measurable, having all of the people that are involved very well‑informed making the transition smooth.

Don’t worry, Palante Wealth clients, I’m not going anywhere in the near future. As you heard Dylan’s nine, he has at least that they’re nine years plus college that go through before I can think of stopping to work as…that boy, it’s really expensive. That’s not going anywhere in the time.

When that time does come, we’ve got to be clear with our client base for a smooth transition with them. Business owners will have to do the same thing to make sure that they are successful.

Mark:  I would think if, let’s say we have a small business owner that doesn’t have family to leave the business to, now they are in the position of going, “OK, I’m going to sell this. This is going to be my retirement.” Right? “I’m going to sell this business.”

Now we’ve got to appraise the value of the business, the assets, the investments, what’s it worth and because the small business owners put so much heart and soul the entire time of putting that company together, running it, and building and growing the company probably needed outside sources to value it. Because if we just asked them how much it’s worth, may be unaffordable. How do you look at that, Victor? The appraisal?

Victor:  They’re right. It’s two sides of a coin too, right? Because not only is it something that helps establish value to a buyer when you’re saying like no, this is how much it’s worth, and there’s an independent person saying that, but also it brings the business owners back down to reality many times. [laughs] Only they think that it’s worth a lot more than what it is.

The nice thing is that there are evaluation companies that are available for service to just go in and value your business. I really like that as a technique. If you are a business owner listening, actually like that as a technique that you’re doing every year. Not just upon the exit, but it’ll help you mark with the actual value that you’re contributing to your business on an annual basis is.

But you’ve get an evaluation not only will you have an opportunity to have some third party on an independent basis talk about how much your business is worth. But you’ll also be able to show the growth of the business if you’ve been doing what I just suggested, which is to get evaluations on a regular basis.

Maybe it’s not every year. Maybe it’s every couple of years, but you’ll get little data points along the way that will show how the business has grown or been stable.

It’s just basic consistent that will help you in negotiating a sale price. This is actually worth what we’re saying that it’s worth because I have all of this data and information. It’s independent third party that helps substantiate that.

Mark:  You think about that. You’re a small business owner. You’ve got questions. You’re not really sure how you are going to exit. How are you going to retire? Do you have enough to do so? What’s going to happen to your company?

Victor’s got gradient side. He’s got two small companies, Medina Law Group and Palante Wealth. Great opportunity to talk with the team. This is something you don’t want to put off until the last minute. As Victor has said, the more time you have to prepare yourself for this evolution of our lives, 856‑506‑8300, the better off you are, 856‑506‑8300.

I think we all get it Victor, that small business owners, it’s personal. It’s their company. You built your companies. They’re growing all the time, you’re trying to make sure they’re going in the direction. You want to make sure they’re going, you’re helping clients with their retirement plans, the Make It Last plans, and all of that.

We do know that small business owners will forfeit a lot to make sure their business survives. If you get in a little pinch, maybe start pulling from some of your retirement savings to help your company out for a while. Got to be careful with that.

Victor:  Oh, my goodness. When you were saying that at the beginning of the segment. I had to mute my microphone, I was going into a panic attack when you were talking about borrowing from retirement savings. There’s so many issues that are involved in that.

It’s probably one of the worst things that you can do, even in the crunch, where you have some cash access. Listen, I think that there are probably exceptions to every straight line rule, like never touch your retirement savings.

Here’s the real reason why you want to avoid that. First of all, there are often penalties to accessing it. If there’s anything that’s not an exempted reason, there’s tax that you have to do that. There are timing issues about getting it back out, and it’s a bad behavior to get used to doing.

Your retirement savings is not your own personal bank, from that. If you are finding that you have to dip into it, there’s probably something else specifically wrong with your business that you need to look at and pay attention to that instead.

I definitely don’t want folks doing that. Here’s what I say to business owners. You ought to have the same financial discipline in your business that you do in your personal life. In all of the personal finance books, I’ll talk to you about having a six to nine‑month bank of savings, cash that’s accessible to you as an emergency fund in case you lose your job and you need to weather an emergency for some period of time.

Guess what, your business is exactly the same way. You need to be cash rich when it comes to being able to weather downturns. Especially when we saw, for example, with the beginning of the pandemic, nobody going out and doing anything. We saw a lot of businesses have to struggle with that.

Thankfully a lot of them got the access to the PPP loans. The idea was that those that needed the PPP loans were often folks that didn’t have good financial discipline ahead of time. What you would do in your personal finance life is probably what you should be doing in your business finance life, which is to keep a good nest egg there available and definitely keep your cash there.

The other thing, that’s a reason to do that which is, not necessarily an answer to the question about how to handle challenges, but overall a benefit to doing this in terms of the growth in the future. I’m fond of saying that your cash flow dictates your vision. You can’t see any further than the next payroll cycle that you can afford.

Getting in a position where you don’t have to be borrowing from your retirement savings, or getting in a position where you don’t have to be dipping into the fund that’s in there, allows you to create a vision that might be two years out, five years out, when you start to think about how your business is going to grow, what you should be investing in.

Those businesses that run paycheck‑to‑paycheck or pay‑cycle to pay‑cycle are going to have a lot more limited of a vision going forward, and that’s not a position I want anybody to be in, and, I’ll tell you, if you start to follow some of these principles, you’ll be a lot healthier.

I saw a lot of this, Mark, in our industry here in terms of talking about financial advisors. There’s a lot of people that set up their business that was all about the dollar that was in and spent it as quickly as it came in.

Boy, were those people caught off guard. Warren Buffet’s, I think, fond of saying, “You never know who’s naked until the tide goes out,” and I think that’s what we really got to see there.

Mark:  Yeah, so let’s finish with where we started, last segment, and that was your advice for small business owners. I think you had three key points, and I thought those were really well said. That’d be a good way to finish this segment, I think, to go back through those three keys to being a small business owner.

Victor:  You’re challenging me. I’m not even sure I remember what I said. [laughs]

Mark:  I know, it was really good, I just know there were three because the second one was exit strategy, I remember that.

Victor:  Yeah, I don’t [laughs] even know if I’m going to get going through there, but a couple of things that I think are important. The first thing is that, as a business owner, when you think about retirement, you should have a purpose for what you’re going to be doing after retirement.

So much of your identity, for the last 4 years, 10 years, no matter what you were doing as a business owner, was wrapped into that. I’d be spending some time thinking about who you’re going to be, what’s your identity going to be, in retirement.

The second one, I think, was about an exit strategy, and definitely focusing on having something that will lead you to having a successful retirement. If you do that at the last minute, if you deal with the end at the end, your choices are not going to be as great as if you’re steadily thinking about that and how you make decisions and how you’re structuring your business to be able to do that.

Whether you’re saving a lot of money, and you’re peeling off 10, 15 cents out of every dollar as part of your retirement, you are disciplined to do that or you set up your business as a great exit strategy. I actually think I’m going to land this, Mark, here we go.

The third one was making sure that you’re working with an advisor. There are a lot of complexities for businesses and specifically, when we think about tax planning, and, for example, if you sell your businesses, are you going to be taxed at capital gains? How can you stretch that out?

There’s a lot of factors into that, and working with somebody who’s an advisor that can actually help you think through retirement at the end of the process as counsel that you have today in the middle of it is going to benefit you so much more than somebody that’s not getting that advice.

If you’re not getting that advice, and you’d like to explore whether or not we’re the right partners for you, you certainly can give us a call to do that. The number is 856‑506‑8300. We love working with business owners, and if you are one and you want help, just give us a call, 856‑506‑8300, and let’s start that conversation.

Mark:  I knew you’d nail it. I knew you’d remember where you were. Great job. All right, we’re going to our final segment of Make It Last with Victor Medina. Stay with us, we’re back, right after this.

Mark:  Welcome back to Make It Last with Victor Medina, Medina Law Group and Palante Wealth. I’m Mark Elliot, glad you’re with us today. We did yay or nay, the RV retirement. We got another yay or nay topic because there are so many big decisions you have to weigh heading into retirement.

We’re going to call today’s yay or nay, “Working in Retirement.” Victor, I’m retired, I don’t want to work.

[laughter]

Victor:  Wasn’t the whole definition of retirement that you didn’t have to work? When you think back, the concept of retirement was actually hoisted on folks who couldn’t work any longer. The definition of retirement, back in the day, was that you were physically unable to work any longer, so you go retired. Basically, you were done.

The nature of work has changed, and the nature of peoples’ desire for what their life is going to be like where it’s just not going to be work until you’re unable to work any longer has changed as well. By the way, so should the definition of retirement or what a successful retirement should be.

It’s probably for folks that have toiled away, it’s something that they’ve hated. The idea of being a retired and not having to work probably may be very attractive.

If we take a little bit of a more hippy‑dippy view off of it saying, maybe retirement’s really about working at what you want to work at, maybe you get paid for that, maybe you don’t.

For purposes of this segment, we’re going to think about you getting a check in exchange for you working. What would that look like if you were going to be a situation where you were still working for money, and you were doing something you liked and what we can typically think of as retirement or retirement years, what would it look like? It’s probably a great topic to go into.

Mark:  Here’s what we’re going to talk about today. There was a survey by Express Employment Professionals staffing agency. They indicated 79 percent of workers between the ages of 57 and 75 years old say they would rather be semi‑retired than fully retired.

You think about it. You have some clients, I’m sure…Palante Wealth, you make the Make It Last plan, Victor, “I still like to do something.” Maybe it’s a hobby‑type thing, or maybe it’s actually another job. It’s maybe a little bit more positive for them. Give me some of the pros of working in retirement.

Victor:  I do have folks that go through that. Especially when we can start to illustrate for them, maybe a way that they can take a different kind of job. Still work at something they want to do, but be successful in their retirement, or Make It Last plan said, “Well, you may not be able to get fully retired, but you don’t have to work at the job that you’re at.

“If you work on something aside, here’s the way your plan will help you be successful in retirement.” There are some pros to that. The first is, and I mentioned to you, you can go from what would consider to be a full‑time position to a part‑time position.

Maybe you’re doing that at your current job. Maybe you’re still doing your work. It’s still getting the benefit like being with your friends and having the social aspect of it but you’ve got more flexibility in your schedule.

Mark:  It’d be like me going, “You know what, today it’s 75 degrees. I think I would rather play golf today, but I’ll be back tomorrow when it’s 40.”

[laughter]

Victor:  If it’s partial, you’ll say, “Victor, I’ll join you for segments one and two, but you’re on your own for three and four, because I do have that tee time down that’s in there.”

I do see this by the way, especially with higher‑level executives where the business values them, not disappearing entirely, but they don’t want the grind to full‑time work. What they want instead is some deal that they work out with the company says, “Listen, I’ll come in two days a week, three days a week for a fraction, some percentage of what I was doing before.”

They feel like they’re still engaged. They still have something to contribute. They’re really high‑level employees and they’re doing great work, but they don’t have to be working full time.

Another benefit could be that you can leave your job entirely, find a different job, but maybe you would get health benefits as part of it. You don’t have to go through Medicare if you’re too young, if you’re before age 65. You don’t have to worry about paying for COBRA, which might be too expensive. Maybe there’s a benefit in bridging your healthcare situation off of it.

You might have a benefit financially on Social Security. How much are you earning towards your record? Are you increasing that number? Are you delaying your needs to elect Social Security or potentially offsetting it. If they had to delay it, and then it started to working, so you have some financial aspects of it.

My favorite one by the way, is that you can do something that’s completely different. You can define yourself in a completely different way. I have some people that have gotten really great into technology. They love Apple computers.

Apple will be more than happy to give you a part‑time job in their retail establishments. They love older folks because they can talk to other older folks that might be having trouble with their computers.

Getting one of these Genius Bar gigs that can be part time, it’ll allow you to do something that’s fun that follows an application without having to necessarily give up on work altogether. You’re not doing the job that you had before, and you’re doing something that you like, lots of pros there.

Mark:  That is, because you think about it. I’m 62. If I go in, I don’t understand. I don’t even understand my phone half the time. I don’t need iPhone 13, iPhone 1 was plenty for me.

I do agree that having somebody older, instead of some youngster looking at me like I’m a total idiot. I’m like, “Hey, you know, I didn’t get a cell phone until I was 35. We didn’t have computers back in the day.” That’s a good point. What about some of the possible cons for working in retirement?

Victor:  Let’s take one that’s related to the specifics of your planning. If your plan for you to be successful in retirement was, one where you had to continue to work in order to make enough money to last or to have it be on the budget that you want. There’s a commitment level that’s in there that can put you into a lot of anxiety.

You could feel almost like it’s a second prison sentence, where you have to continue to work in order for it to be successful. I never like introducing anxiety into the plan. Whole purpose of our plan is really for people to choose to work if they want to but to come out of it with peace of mind.

When we go through their income, investments, tax, and estate planning and our Make It Last plan what we’re doing there is, we’re giving them a roadmap to peace of mind.

Sometimes we have conversation about how much they can spend and what’ll be successful. If that plan includes, “Boy, you got to work for the next five years on a part‑time basis,” that can introduce a lot of stress and anxiety, feel like they have to keep the job. That’s a negative, especially if it’s a component of your job.

The other negative is that you’re going to have a lot more complexity with your tax planning because you’re going to be getting wages. That’s going to be tax, like ordinary income. You’re going to have investment income. Then you’re going to be limited on some of the tax planning that you can do off of that.

There are also elements to Social Security. If you’re claiming it, and you’re starting to work afterwards, you can have a negative offsets to that. There’s a lot of moving parts to that. You really want to make sure that you understand what the impact of it is. That’s where the help of an advisor becomes so instrumental, because you have all of these moving parts.

When we deal with clients we put these plans together. There’s one element where we’re putting a plan together, and we do that in the beginning and say, “Hey, here’s your plan.” Then there’s an element of our ongoing service to them, which is to work with them as circumstances change.

If you’re in a situation where you may have been retired, but now you are thinking about going back to work. You want to know what the impacts to a plan might have been. That you had, by somebody else or whatever else, your own plan.

This would be a good time to reach out to us because we can help you assess what the impact of that plan is and see how it changes your retirement picture. All you have to do is just reach out to us. We’re at 856‑506‑8300. That’s 856‑506‑8300.

Just start the conversation with us. We can tell you the creation of this plan about how successful you’re going to be with these change in circumstances including the tax projections and what’s going to happen. You have to take that first step. Then we can help you with that. Again, 856‑506‑8300.

Mark:  Glad you’re with us today for Make It Last, with Victor Medina, Medina Law Group, Palante Wealth. I’m Mark Elliot. You brought up Social Security. There are so many moving parts here. Back in the day, full retirement age for Social Security was 66. I’m 62, which means I was born in 1959. People were born in 1960 are turning 62 this year. You think about it.

The old adage was, if you take Social Security early, and your full retirement age was 66, you’re giving up 25 percent. Your benefit’s going to be cut about 25 percent. Today’s 62‑year‑olds that are turned 62 this year were born in 1960. Their full retirement age is 67. They’re going to get docked 30 percent from their full retirement age, Social Security.

Then you start talking about, “Well, there’s a 50 percent tax on Social Security.” Some of you will be taxed up to 85 percent and you’ll go, “Well, I’m probably not in that category.” The modified adjusted gross income is at $25,000 for 50 percent. Up to 85 percent, if you make over $34,000 as a single. As a married couple, it’s 32,000 is 50 percent, and up to 44,000 is 85 percent.

You have to look at that, don’t you? When you’re going to get a part‑time job if that’s important that you’re going to end up having to pay more taxes from this.

Victor:  Yeah, it is. A lot of people are surprised to learn that how much they get taxed on Social Security is actually a function about their other income. It is not a straight line calculation. There is a schedule laid that does that for you.

Actually, we do that. We have a specialized piece of software that will project out somebody’s income tax returns on a prospective basis, as opposed to doing it for filing this year. That helps us do plan and say, “How much can or should we be taking out of IRAs?”

It also helps us have conversations with people who are in part‑time retirement. Like I just had a conversation with the clients today. She went back to work, and she was wanting to know what the impact was to her $1,000 a month that she was getting.

It was just a few hours a week at a very reasonable amount. She was getting near paid $50 an hour for 25 hours’ worth of work. That generated about $1,000 of income.

Well, that $1,000 of income, then affected her claims on Social Security, how much of it was taxable, and also affected what we could do with the rest of her planning and her IRA. She was complicated even further being single, which means that she had different tax brackets and not as much room in there.

You highlighted a perfect example mark of where part‑time work introduces complexity, and that specifically in the calculations of your Social Security taxes. Now, sometimes the work is just the work, but we can even help for example, like it’s good to do and get paid. We can help figure out what should your withholding be, that you don’t have a tax bill at the end of the ear? What can you do to offset that if you have wages?

People don’t think about doing this, can you somehow contribute to a retirement account that will lower your taxable income, even it’s money that you’re going to take back out in two or three years when you’re fully retired. Maybe that’s worthwhile to again lower the amount of your Social Security taxes, what your overall tax picture is going to be? There might be something worthwhile doing as well.

Mark:  Alright, I’m going to give you the final two minutes to wrap up this show. I’m going to finish with this question. We’re talking about 79 percent of workers 57 to 70. Year was 57 to 75 years of age 79 percent want to be semi retired, not fully retired. Do you think we’re seeing a transition into the retirement world like we’ve seen in years past? Is this people do want to be more engaged than just retired? I don’t know.

Victor:  It’s a great final question to end on. It’s something that’s been a passion of mine, which is how do you find successful retirement? I do believe that we’re going in a direction where the typical retirement is not what most people are looking for.

They’re looking for something that is different. That different can be partially working, that different can be having different stages of retirement. Some people will retire for a little while in their mid‑50s. Work again, they retire again afterwards. It’s sort of multi‑stage retirement. The answer clearly is yes. We’re going to see different forms of retirement, we’re going to see a trend.

There’s a lot of value that people can bring in a work environment that’s no longer in the factory where their physical body isn’t a limitation, where they can continue doing this well into traditional retirement age, well into their 70, 75. Lot of value that folks that have been in a career for a long period of time have to share with the rest of the world. I think that’s going to continue.

Here’s where I think is the important part of how to be successful in doing that, is to figure out who your guide is going to be throughout that period of time. Because as your decisions change, you want to know what the effect of those decisions are going to be on the rest of your picture.

You don’t want to be shooting blind all over the place and saying, “Well, I hope it works out, and I hope that I’m going to be OK, and I hope this doesn’t have a negative impact,” then dealing with it afterward. You want those answers ahead of time. That’s what a partner who helps you with your retirement planning can get for you, specifically, advisors like working with us.

If you know that you don’t have that partner right now, or you know that the person that you’re working with isn’t providing that value, it’d be worth you just reaching out to us to figure out if we’re going to be the right partner for you. The best way to do that is to reach out to us at our phone number. It’s 856‑506‑8300.

If you call over the weekend, we’ll take a message. We’ll give you a callback. If you give us a call at 856‑506‑8300, we’re going to be able to start a conversation to figure out whether or not we’re going to work well together, whether or not we’re going to be the partner for you, the advisor that you’re going to need.

Victor:  Somebody is going to help give you the peace of mind that you do so richly deserve in your retirement whether you’re going to be working part‑time, working no time, or working all of the time. You deserve to have those answers, but you got to take that first step. You should do it now. Call us at 856‑506‑8300.

Announcer:  Taxes are just a fact of life. You can’t avoid it, even in retirement. But what if I told you there are ways to minimize what you pay in taxes? Victor Medina and his team can help. To learn more, visit 920taxes.com to get your free copy of Victor Medina’s tax guide, 920taxes.com. That’s the numbers, 920taxes.com.

Announcer:  Palante Wealth Advisors are an independent financial services firm that utilizes a variety of investment and insurance products. Medina Law Group is an independent estate planning in elder law firm. Investment advisory services offered through Palante Wealth Advisors, LLC, a New Jersey and Pennsylvania‑registered investment advisor.

Registration does not imply a certain level of skill or training. Investing involves risk and potential loss of principal. Any references to protection, safety, or lifetime income generally referred to fixed insurance products, never securities or investments. Insurance guarantees are backed by the financial strength and claims‑paying ability of the issuing carrier.

This radio show is intended for informational purposes only. It is not intended to be used as a sole basis for financial decisions nor should it be construed as advice designed to meet the particular needs of an individual situation.

Medina Law Group and Palante Wealth Advisors are not permitted to offer and no statement made during the show shall constitute tax or legal advice. Our firm is not affiliated with or endorsed by the US government or any governmental agency.

The information and opinions contained herein provided by third parties have been obtained from sources believed to be reliable, but accuracy and completeness cannot be guaranteed by Medina Law Group and Palante Wealth Advisors.

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