Latest / Financial Planner Search / Personalized Planning & Special Needs Advocacy with Tom Belding | Financial Planner Search
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- Gregory Wilnau: Tom Belding, how are you doing today, sir? Tom Belding: Good morning, Greg. Nice to see you. I'm doing fine. Living through a rough winter. Gregory Wilnau: It's nice to see you as well. I think it's a little cold where you're at. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think we all have. It's been colder than usual, especially here in Florida, man. Woo, the iguanas are just falling from the trees. But anyway, let's jump into it. So to get started, why don't you just tell us a little about who you are, kind of what you do, and maybe what you specialize in. Tom Belding: ⁓ yeah, right. Great. Thanks, Greg. So I'm a certified financial planner. I work as a fee only fiduciary. That means I represent my clients. I don't sell products on which I get a commission or a financial incentive. I provide services tailored ⁓ to my clients' interests. And I bring to this ⁓ over 35 years of ⁓ professional and entrepreneurial ⁓ and research. ⁓ experience ⁓ as well as a great deal of personal life experience. So I work for my clients. ⁓ I am thrilled to be doing this work as a certified financial planner. I'm a member of the Garrett Planning Network. I'm a part owner of Garrett. I'm also affiliated with CGN Advisors. They are my RIA. I do financial planning as well as investment management. ⁓ Although those two are not, ⁓ it's not mandatory to do both. I work on an hourly basis as well as a fixed price basis and I serve clients around the country. ⁓ Although most of my clients are relatively local ⁓ as I'm one of the few fee only fiduciaries ⁓ in my area. ⁓ And, you know, it's nice to get together with people face to face. ⁓ while we're doing the planning process. Gregory Wilnau: Absolutely. Absolutely. Okay. So that was that's interesting. So I that stood out to me. Well, first of all, you do also sounds like flat fee planning for an hourly rate and also ⁓ based off of ⁓ assets under management. So you have a lot of flexibility in your pricing model, which is great. People who aren't yet ready to jump in to have their assets managed but kind of want help maybe preparing a financial plan or something on an hourly ad hoc basis. ⁓ is something that you offer, which I think is really, really awesome for certain people in certain circumstances. But I want to touch on something that you said, which you said that you bring an entrepreneurial ⁓ kind of angle to this because you're an entrepreneur. So maybe we could ⁓ talk about that for a little bit. How do you think that how? How does that background, that entrepreneurial background benefit your clients? What does that bring to the table in your eyes? Tom Belding: That's a wonderful question, Greg. It's, I think for anybody who has been an entrepreneur, ever started a business, you however small, a lemonade stand when you were a kid or something serious when you were an adult, being an entrepreneur helps you more than many other exercises, certainly more than working in many organizational environments. Helps you learn to focus. and to think things through. When your butt is on the line, when it's your money, your time, your family's livelihood that is depending on ⁓ whether or not you can sink or swim, really is quite a training process. So I've done that on more than one occasion and I've helped others do the same. Gregory Wilnau: Mm-hmm. Tom Belding: And I have had situations where I was very successful and I've had others which were very challenging. But there's nothing like being an entrepreneur to learn to train your mind, to train yourself, to think about, okay, what could happen here? What could happen there? How can I make sure that the way I'm approaching this is going to make sense? It's going to have legs. It's going to generate cashflow. Gregory Wilnau: Hmm. Yeah. Tom Belding: whatever, the financial goals that I've set up for this. Gregory Wilnau: Yeah. So I'd imagine too that when being an entrepreneur, like the buck kind of stops with you. So you'll learn how to think through problems and solve things for your own volition and being able to be the advocate who has that mindset on behalf of your clients is something that's very valuable to them and solving problems and taking also ownership of helping them solve those problems. Yeah. Tom Belding: Right. Totally. Yeah, totally. mean, another thing that it does is it teaches you more than many other things, how interdependent ⁓ you are, what you're doing is with the people who supply your raw materials, the clients that you have. My appreciation for how vitally important. the connections I have with people are as much enhanced because of that process. And I would relate it to the process that many people go through when they're thinking about financial planning. So when you are going to retire, you're planning to retire, which is many times how people reach out to a person like me. ⁓ That's kind of like becoming an entrepreneur. You're going into a... Gregory Wilnau: Absolutely. Tom Belding: an environment where the variables are now all kind of under your ⁓ purview. not in a safe, you're not in a box of safety. You're wading into the deep water and ⁓ it's really, well, it isn't really, hopefully it's not sink or swim, but. Gregory Wilnau: Yeah, that could be scary, especially if you feel like you're doing that for the first time, right? That could be a little, little scary. Yeah. Yeah. Tom Belding: ⁓ But it's an environment where there's a lot of uncertainty ⁓ and it's important to leverage connections such as with a good financial advisor. Gregory Wilnau: Mm Yeah. Yeah, OK, so let's talk a little bit more about the people that you work with. So maybe you could describe the type of person who comes to you and what makes them reach out. Tom Belding: The kind of common thread that goes between the folks who reach out to me ⁓ is that they have made a decision. They've come to an awareness that whether they're early in their career or late in their career, whether they're planning for retirement or maybe there is a terminal illness ⁓ or a child with a disability. Whatever the initiative, whatever is in sending them, they come with a goal, with a need to plan for an environment that they're not sure about. They may have some good ideas. I think I've saved up quite a bit of money in my 401k or whatever, and I've got a social security and maybe I got a pension or, yeah, we put a trust together. But they realize that, whoops, there are... things going on here that I don't maybe fully understand. How are these taxes going to work? You know, once I start having to take required minimum distributions, you know, geez, I've been told for years and years, I should put everything I can into my, my 403 B or my 401 K. But now I'm finding out that everything that I've got is tech, all this tax deferred money is, is a huge, you know, issue. because it's all taxable income and tax rates may be increasing, likely will be increasing in the future. And, you know, I could have been putting this money into a Roth and maybe if I was really smart, I did when they first became available in the late nineties, but my HR department never told us about that. You know, all they said was, you know, it's a good idea to save for retirement and they need to know how to approach this. So. Gregory Wilnau: Mm-hmm. Yeah. So they're getting close. The things that they've been working towards that were in the background are starting to come into their awareness and they're starting to think about it. And they probably wake up one day and they're like, ⁓ Dan, damn, I've been doing this for 30 years. And I was like, ⁓ it's never gonna get here. And then, ⁓ my gosh, one day they wake up and it's here. So they have all these questions. Okay, so let's do this. Let's maybe talk a little bit about some specifics around like industry. ⁓ Tom Belding: Could be Gregory Wilnau: where your clients kind of come from. Can we get a little bit more specific about perhaps, I know that you work with a lot of different people, but are there any specific industries that you find that your clients are in that you serve? ⁓ Anything stand out to you? Tom Belding: I have quite a few clients from the healthcare industry. So I've spent quite a bit of time in the health related fields during my career. My wife is a nurse practitioner. ⁓ We have a lot of connections in the healthcare community. So we do get some leads that way. ⁓ I have a number of clients who are widows ⁓ and they kind of talk to each other. ⁓ and, ⁓ so, ⁓ so that, you know, references are, are, are, are invariably a good, a good connection. far as industries go, my clients come from all kinds of different places, you know, from, ⁓ from a, from a stock room clerk in a, a, in a long-term stock room clerk in a grocery, a large grocery store to. Gregory Wilnau: Yeah. Tom Belding: ⁓ to people doing international market and ⁓ source development for ⁓ a major ⁓ consumer products company, to ⁓ people retiring from the insurance industry or the banking industry. ⁓ One of my first clients ⁓ was a client who was a long-term professional in the banking industry, ⁓ but realized that he didn't necessarily have the skills and or the time to put together a financial plan for he and his wife. And we worked together, we built their plan. It was a wonderful experience. She had a career as a nurse. And, you know, a couple of months, I mean, he was prescient. A couple of months after we finished the plan, he died all of a sudden from COVID. Gregory Wilnau: Hmm. Tom Belding: And so his wife had to face the very distinctive challenges of being a widow. anyways, planning. Gregory Wilnau: Yeah. Man, she was blessed to have you to help her through that for the financials. My father died a couple of years ago. My mom had to do all that by herself. It was terrible. So that's good that you were there. Tom Belding: Yeah, yeah. So anyways, a decision to plan and this affects all of us when we get to certain points in our lives. You know, the good thing is if you, well, the important thing is if you realize that you can't do it all yourself or you shouldn't really try, even if it's just get a second opinion. So I have a lot of folks that manage their own money and they're very confident about that, but they're not too sure about what's going to happen with taxes. if they were going to do a Roth conversion, what's the optimal way to do that? In what timeframe or so forth? If they were going to put together a special need trust, what kind of ⁓ assessment should they do about what the needs are going to be of their dependent child or relative? Gregory Wilnau: Yeah. So you have many clients from a very and with very diverse backgrounds. So maybe we could bring this all together. Do you know why do you think they end up choosing you? Like somebody's thinking about calling you or working with you. They're in a situation that you've described. They realize it's kind of time. And maybe they're talking to you or maybe some other advisors. And in hindsight, any insight on why they might choose you or want to go with you over others. Tom Belding: Sure. Good question. So I'm pretty analytical and I'm also a teacher. I've been a teacher. ⁓ I like to work with my clients and I engage with them. one of my goals is to teach them, to help them feel empowered ⁓ in this really fairly complicated process of of assessing all the variables that go into a life, a 20 year timeframe of retirement, for example. And so from the first get acquainted meeting, which is a 15 minute, you know, usually a video call with clients. ⁓ I try to convey that I'm expecting them to fully participate in this process and to... engage with it in a way that they might not have been thinking about, but which I assure them, and they usually do find this to be the case, ⁓ is very enlightening ⁓ and, as I mentioned, empowering for them. And that comes through. I really get into details. I ⁓ pull my clients into an environment which is very digital. we do some things and... Gregory Wilnau: Mmm. Tom Belding: in a non-digital format, but everything's pretty digital. It's very efficient and ⁓ it's a lasting kind of a connection. So once we build a plan, clients can continue to engage with that plan and see how changes in interest rates, changes in the stock market, changes in their own financial goals will impact that plan. And I'm happy to work with them. Gregory Wilnau: So do they like that you're, you find that they like that you're analytical and you get into the details with them, but you also, it sounds like you lead them through, go ahead. Tom Belding: ⁓ most clients do that. Yeah. I think most clients do. and, and, but not everybody is looking for, know, for analytical, but if you're not, if you're not, if you don't want to get into the, you, need to see what is your cashflow projection look like for the next 10 or 15 years. If you're, if you're living in pre social security, pre RMD world, now you're in your late fifties, your early sixties, whatever. a pre-Medicare, you know, that world and the cashflow that's involved there is quite different than what it's going to be if you haven't converted your tax deferred ⁓ assets to Roth by the time you're 73. There is a ⁓ significant difference there, not only for your cashflow and your tax obligations, but also for your estate planning. So. estate planning is a vital aspect of financial planning. That is, thinking through what kind of an estate do you want to leave? What forms do you want that in? ⁓ And do you want to pass long assets which don't have significant tax obligations? Have you thought that through? ⁓ I didn't really think about that. Inheriting a regular IRA, a traditional IRA with RMDs. with fully taxable ordinary income for 10 years is a very different bequest than ⁓ leaving Roth IRAs to your children, which are tax-free, still have to be ⁓ pulled out within 10 years, but can be invested with that growth being tax-free during that 10-year period. That's a very different scenario than, ⁓ okay, my kids are gonna get my IRAs. ⁓ anyway, things like that. Gregory Wilnau: Yeah. Yeah, let's talk about more. Let's talk more about your clients. I know something that you do is you work with ⁓ special needs, right? That's a niche that you serve, which is very interesting to me. So what does that kind of look like for you? What are some of the things that would be specific to a person who needed financial planning regarding special needs? Tom Belding: Mm-hmm. Yeah. ⁓ This could be, I mean, this ⁓ is a ⁓ world unto itself almost in certain respects. this can range from, do I, ⁓ can I use ⁓ some legal means to get a quality education for my ⁓ learning disabled child? My public school district. has done what they can do, but the resource room or the integration process they have isn't really working for my child. I want to get my child into a ⁓ private special ed school, ⁓ but I can't afford it myself. I need the school district to pay for it. How can I make that happen? Well, I spent many years in that world and I know very well how to work with a client to help them. engage due process and use unilateral placements and other means to get that job done with appropriate. Gregory Wilnau: Sounds like there are a lot of things that there are a lot of different paths or opportunities that they don't know about and that you do. Right. So I'd imagine that's a very valuable thing where they explain their situation and you're like, oh, you could do this. You could do this. You could also have this option. Tom Belding: Yeah. Yeah. ⁓ yeah. ⁓ yeah. Yeah. Another would be just we have a special needs child. We want to make sure that we have enough resources set aside to do that. What's the proper way to set up a special need trust? What are the considerations in assigning a trustee? ⁓ Well, we've got a number of children ⁓ and we want to treat them all equally, but we have this one child who's got you know, some unusual needs that need to be taken care of. can we do that? Another example would be, ⁓ I've got a special needs relative and that relative had a medical emergency and we had to move him from one state to another state and that person's on Medicaid. Well, Medicaid is run on a state by state basis and the procedures and processes vary. from one location to another. So moving ⁓ relative from state A to state B, ⁓ which makes total sense because where the family is located ⁓ was a non-trivial, ⁓ actually multi-year legal process. So I'm not a lawyer, but I work with lawyers. I work with people's accountants. ⁓ If we do a Roth conversion, ⁓ the... the tax preparer or tax advisor for a client is going to be really involved in that process. But I will be making the recommendation. I'll be doing the tax workup so that we're coming at, you know, any of these situations are one where the financial advisor, a person like myself, would be able to set the stage, do a lot of the homework, and make the whole thing work more efficiently than it would otherwise. Gregory Wilnau: So it sounds like you're almost like a quarterback in these situations. ⁓ You help them with the plan, learn about the situation, and then you can pass them along to other people that you work with who specialize in these different things while also maintaining continuity throughout their situation to work through specific things. Tom Belding: you ⁓ very good observation. Yes. I would say that's, that's quite, quite accurate. Quite accurate. Cause a lot of times sick. See a tax preparer, for example, a tax preparer is, is generally in the business of helping you minimize your taxes this year. Tax preparers don't generally have a long-term perspective. And so when you go to a tax preparer and you say, I'm thinking about doing a huge. Gregory Wilnau: Wow, that is awesome. I can see how that would be really valuable to somebody. Mm. Tom Belding: Not necessarily huge, but I'm thinking about doing a large Roth conversion. You know, it's like, okay, well, why would you want to do that? Cause you're have to pay more taxes this year. But when you look at a 20 or 30 year time horizon and you see what the difference is between having tax deferred assets that are, that continue to accumulate versus shifting them over into the Roth bucket and appreciating tax free. I mean, it's, it makes total sense, but you have to. Gregory Wilnau: Yeah. Tom Belding: be able to step back and look at the bigger picture and all of these things help. Gregory Wilnau: Let's talk about that for a second. I'm really curious to know more about that. How do you get to know your clients in a way where you can have that long-term perspective? Like, what does that look like? Help me understand, help us understand some of the ways you get to know your clients so that you can better understand the long-term perspective and learn about them as individuals. Because without that, I'd imagine you couldn't make these recommendations. You'd kind of just be grasping at straws. Tom Belding: Absolutely. So very good question. So we start with a couple of questionnaires, one of which is very preliminary, another which is very detailed. ⁓ And then once we are in agreement on moving ahead, ⁓ then ⁓ my clients fill out a complete client data ⁓ request, which asks them for statements on all of their financial accounts. most recent tax returns, their social security statements, any ⁓ loan or obligation statements, the ⁓ declaration pages from their insurance policies. I want to know pretty much everything about their assets, liabilities, their cashflow. What is their monthly ⁓ spend ⁓ in general? ⁓ What are the goals that they have? I want to put my two daughters through college. you know, a private college or a public college in state, out of state, I want to, you know, provide enough to, you know, renovate my house next year or to sell. I have a couple of properties. I want to sell one of them and then put that money to work in my investments. What is that maybe going to look like? So I gather a lot of lawyers who would call it discovery process, but we don't call it that. but we gather a lot of information. Then I meet with each client on a number of occasions to go over this. Gregory Wilnau: All right. So it sounds like this is a series of calls that take place over like, course, the course of a year ongoing. Tom Belding: a series of calls and meetings, which initially, most intensely is within the first couple of months, and then periodically during the first year. So usually within a two to three month type of timeframe, we have a base plan. And that base plan is something where the client is also, as I mentioned earlier, ⁓ engaged in that and interacts with the plan. Not hugely complicated, but very informative. and valuable. I get to know them pretty well. And we go back and forth and I help, like my goal is to understand really where they want to go, if any limitations are present and help them think about things. ⁓ well, you have a will from 10 years ago or 15 years ago. Do you also have a healthcare directive? Do you also have durable powers of attorney in place? And are the people Gregory Wilnau: Do you find they often understand what these things are? Or do you have to explain them, those to them? Tom Belding: It's a mix. It's a mix, but most clients actually don't know a lot of fundamentals, you know, a lot of fundamentals about one step at a time, you know, one step at a time. Gregory Wilnau: Yeah. How do you approach that without overwhelming them? Yeah, so it's probably like sounds like greater levels of clarity and this understanding builds upon itself and you kind of lead them through this without them feeling overwhelmed. Yeah. Tom Belding: As we all do, as we all do, you start with basics and you build on that and you build on that and you ask questions and interact. And as you learn more and as your perspective develops, you can appreciate and understand more, you know, more things. know, another part of this conversation is other essentials that are part of the picture. Cybersecurity, personal security. Gregory Wilnau: Yeah. Tom Belding: ⁓ everything that we're doing in a digital world and we all, we all hear about the stories of fraud and so forth. ⁓ so I do spend time with my clients, help me to make sure that they feel comfortable that how they are approaching the digital footprint that they all have, you know, we're going online to the bank. going online to our investment account. We're sharing information. No, you do not want to attach your. Gregory Wilnau: Yeah. Tom Belding: anything with your personal information as an email attachment because email is like a postcard, right? So. ⁓ Gregory Wilnau: Yeah. So it's good to have somebody who's thinking about these things and reminding them so they feel like somebody has their back. So, okay. So we're talking about more long-term horizons, your plan, how you work with your clients on an ongoing basis. It's a process. It's not like a one done, one done thing in many cases. So when you put these plans and you're working on things together, do you like put it on paper, you have checklists that you work through? How do your clients see progression on these things? Do you have meetings every quarter? Walk me through maybe like the timeline of what it looks like to work with you in a year. starting with you, let's say today, a client starts with you, you set them up with the accounts, you get all the data that you need. But where does the rubber hit the road as far as giving the clients clarity, working on a longer term plan? and working on goals together. Like what's the cadence? What's the process? What does that look Tom Belding: ⁓ So once a client uploads to me in a secure digital form ⁓ all of their statements, their financial statements, as I mentioned ⁓ earlier, within 10 days, we'll sit down. So when that happens, I look over those documents. And then I have a group of staff, para planners who will... integrate that information into our model. The model that I use is Orion Planning. It's a very advanced planning tool. Within 10 days at a time that I've received the client's documents, I'll be able to sit down with them, and this can be in person or by Zoom, and review a preliminary model. And in that process, we will say, does your data look reasonable? Is it accurately representing? what you believe your financial statement, your financial position to be. And we're talking ⁓ incomes, expenses, assets, liabilities, cashflow, all that stuff. And so it's gonna be all there, at least in a preliminary form. We're gonna review that. We're gonna review goals. ⁓ Maybe they came into the process thinking, okay, we just want retirement planning, tax planning. ⁓ you know, educational finance planning, whatever they've specified. So they're going to specify their goals, you know, when we get going. And then we're going to... Gregory Wilnau: So there are things that they didn't think about also that were revealed. Tom Belding: Right, things are gonna come, you know, they're gonna become aware of certain things. can do this, I can make a particular, you know, I can set a goal for saving X amount of money for an emergency fund, for example, or for taking the kids on a trip every year for the next five years or whatever it might be. Anyway, so we're gonna have a first meeting within 10 days. We're gonna have a second meeting, and then that meeting is gonna result in... and a number of follow ups, probably some on their part, some on my part. ⁓ And we're going to look in more detail at certain questions and so forth. We'll have a second meeting. Could be within two weeks to three weeks. Depends on scheduling availability and so forth. ⁓ We'll look at that plan again. I'll start ⁓ back up. once I start working with a client, we have an orientation session. So I. I walk them through the two tools that they'll use. One is called Ignite. That's where we save. It's an encrypted cloud-based system where all our data is saved and the clients have access to that. And then the other is Orion planning, as I mentioned. So we do have an orientation meeting very early on in the process where we go through that. Anyway, so we iterate. We have our first meeting, a second meeting, a third meeting, depending on where we're getting and the clients, you know, development, their understanding and comfort level with what we're doing. Now this may at this point lead to say ⁓ that a client wants to talk about having their assets managed. ⁓ So we'll go into that aspect of how we handle that. If we do that, ⁓ managing assets is integrated with the financial plan. ⁓ Charles Schwab is our lead. ⁓ ⁓ custodian and those accounts are linked as well as accounts. Don and unusual clients have accounts at Fidelity, Vanguard, TIA, other organizations. those are all part of the mix. So, we're able to look at a comprehensive picture of a client's assets, their real estate. Gregory Wilnau: So it sounds like your meeting cadence the first few months is pretty extensive and frequent. And that's kind of to get things rolling. But once things are kind of rolling, how do you, what's the process look like to check in? Do you do like a quarterly mandatory meeting with any calls in between with, things that come, questions that come up ad hoc so they always feel like they have access to you? Explain maybe the high level of what it looks like once the ball's kind of. Tom Belding: my Gregory Wilnau: rolling. Tom Belding: So this is really ⁓ pretty much up to the client. So when I engage with a client, ⁓ it's usually on a fixed price basis. And that gives them one year of access to me for basically whatever they want within the scope of the financial plan and related questions. So this varies from client to client. Some clients like to check in every month or two, depending on what's happening. Maybe their company is going through. some kind of change or acquisition, or maybe they've changed their retirement plan, or maybe they just made available ⁓ a Roth 401k option, you know, or something like that. So all kinds of things can develop, but it's really up to the client. So I like to, I definitely want to meet with a client at least once a year, once a plan is in place. ⁓ Every quarter or six months is also possible. ⁓ If I'm managing your assets, ⁓ then at least a quarterly conversation ⁓ is a good idea. Although we issue monthly and quarterly reports as well. But the client, and to your earlier question, the client does get a ⁓ financial plan, a document. ⁓ It's usually a PDF within their file folder ⁓ in Ignite, but it can be hard copy if they want that. I some older clients that are really not... Gregory Wilnau: Fruit it, yeah. Tom Belding: computer based, know, do that. Gregory Wilnau: Hey man, still like having hard copies of stuff because if it's on the computer, it's out of sight, out of mind, man. It's hard to find, it doesn't exist. But if you got the piece of paper, you know, so I get it and I'm a millennial, know. Tom Belding: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I get it. I do get it. I do get it. you know, these plans are pretty detailed. So I do encourage my clients to work online and to interact with their plan or access their plan within the Orion planning environment online because it's... There's more detailed information there. You can play what ifs. You can look, you can drill down in the categories of expense, taxes, ⁓ RMDs. What is my RMD on this particular account going to be 10 years down the road? It's very, it's exactly, you know, so anyway, so that's highly recommended, but not totally. Gregory Wilnau: Sounds like it makes it more real to them too, like more tangible. I love the flexibility. love that you also you offer these different ways to work with people and stuff with the client. It's up to the client. But I know you make recommendations that are in their best interest, which is which is great. OK, so let's wrap it up here. This has been really good. I know that there's so much that you do. You're probably one of the most eclectic advisors I've ever spoken with. Just being transparent with you. Love that entrepreneurial background. But for somebody who is interested in possibly working with you or learning more about how they can work with you, ⁓ for someone listening who wants to get in touch with you, ⁓ how could they do that? What should they do next? Tom Belding: So just go to my website, buildingfp.com, B-E-L-D-I-N-G-F-P.com. Go to the homepage. ⁓ You'll find an intro to ⁓ me and my services, more information about my background. And at the bottom of the homepage, there's a link where you could schedule a get acquainted meeting. That would be the easiest way to do it. Gregory Wilnau: Awesome. Well, thank you so much, Tom. Appreciate your time. And ⁓ keep serving those clients, man. They need you. Tom Belding: Thank you, Greg. It's been a pleasure. Gregory Wilnau: Pleasure's all mine.