Latest / Financial Planner Search / Offense, Defense & Coach with Jeremy Self | Financial Planner Search
Transcript
- Gregory Wilnau: Jeremy, how you doing today, sir? Jeremy Self: Hey, Gregory, I'm great and thanks for having me on today. Gregory Wilnau: Yeah, my pleasure. I've been looking forward to talking to you. to get started, why don't you just take a second to maybe tell us about your practice and what you specialize in. Jeremy Self: Yeah. so my practice is really a service-based practice where we provide holistic wealth management services. we obviously most people come to us because of the investment consulting side of things that we provide, whether that's looking at portfolio construction, analyzing fees and cost. two clients or working with them on developing retirement income plan. That's where most people come to us. the second piece to that holistic strategy is our advanced planning team. And we will provide any kind of advanced planning, whether that's some type of legacy plan that someone is wanting to do through donor advise funds. We will evaluate someone's trust or their will through our advanced planning team. There are several attorneys or former attorneys that are on that team. And then we'll also work with our insurance and annuities team to look at any kind of protection strategies. Oftentimes we say our investment consulting is the offense and our advanced planning is the defense. So we want to make sure we have both. And then the relationship side of things is where we kind of play the role of coach. And the coach pulls all the key players together to help guide the client toward their goals. with that, that means I try to play the role of coach with CPAs and attorneys and any other professionals that. interact with our clients' lives. So all of that comes together to f to provide a a holistic wealth management strategy. Gregory Wilnau: Awesome. I'm loving the the sports analogies here. We've got offense, defense, and and coach. That's that's pretty cool. Could you explain a little bit more about maybe that offense d defense dynamic? You you touched on that and it was interesting, but maybe you could explain that a little bit more. Why do you call those each of those offense and and defense? Help me understand. Jeremy Self: Yeah. Yeah, good question. So when it comes to your your strategy and really we say everyone is ultimately working to find a work optional lifestyle. And once they get to that place, they need to know that their money is not going to run out at the end of the day. And that if something were to happen to them that their family would be taken care of. So when it comes to thinking about the offense, you know, we're always thinking your investment strategy needs to be able to keep pace with inflation or exceed inflation. Cause we want your money to never be running out. on the defense side, again, if something were to happen to you, It could derail your offensive strategy. If you were to get sick and not be able to do your job anymore and you lose your income, having some type of disability insurance could play a role in that. if you were to go into some type of long-term care, some type of need that you have for long-term care, that is several hundred thousand dollars on average. So that could deplete your savings in a big way if you don't have the proper coverage for it. So they play very intermingled together, you know, on what what needs people may have. Gregory Wilnau: Yeah, I love that analogy. I think it makes a lot of sense. So maybe we could let's talk a little bit more about the types of of people that that you serve, that that you work with and your clients. maybe you could describe the type of person who comes to you. What's a typical situation that they need you to help lead them through? Jeremy Self: Yeah, that's a good question. they vary, obviously, you know, because I am not a person that only serves one group of people. I I think I you know have a background where I care about everybody and I wanna help everyone that I can. there's a couple of groups of people that I think maybe all maybe unique to me in the sense that I have some entrepreneurial business owners who I service and they have built their wealth through their business. And we provide a concierge kind of service to them. And they really appreciate that because they're focused on building their business. They're not wanting to worry about what their money does. So we help business owners sleep better at night. the second group of people that maybe are disconnected in some ways are single women. I was having a conversation with my best friend a couple of years ago and I said hey you know I have found that about 10% of my business is made up of single women. And I've kind of been trying to process through that. Why is that? And he pointed out, he said, well, you know, number one, he's like, you were raised by a single mom. And so you probably have some empathy that other people may not have. and he said number two, he said, Jeremy, you Are an advocate for people. And he said, The reason that you're my financial advisor is because I know if anything were to ever happen to me, you're going to take care of my wife. And that opened my eyes to see that I am an advocate for people and specifically to people that are vulnerable, whether that be widows or people that have just gone through a divorce, I'm gonna come alongside and advocate for them and help them reach their goal. Gregory Wilnau: Yeah. So it sounds like there's y your clients have the belief and that you have the conviction that you'll act in their best best interests. Jeremy Self: Absolutely. I you know, I am a Christ follower. and so I I often say, you know, my ethic is higher than our compliance department. So I am always looking to see how I can best serve my clients and do what's in their best interest. Gregory Wilnau: Yeah, me too. Yeah. So typically at this point I'll ask, you know, what inspired you to do this? and I'd like to ask that question to you. Is there anything in particular that stands out that you feel you could point back to that was a big inspiration for you choosing this path? Jeremy Self: Yeah. So you know, I started I my career prior to this was full time ministry. I was a pastor of a local church. I led I started and led a local church and did that for eleven years. But part of that eleven year leadership experience was that my wife and I went through a financial class that churches offer sometimes called Financial Peace University. And yeah, and we were so transformed by that experience that we said, we want to help other people go through this. So for nine years, we led that class at our church. And as part of leading that class, I became so passionate about helping people Gregory Wilnau: Yeah, Dave Ramsey. Yeah. Yeah. Jeremy Self: live on a budget and start to get out of debt and save a little bit of an emergency fund. And then I got to a point where I really felt this inner calling, like I needed to make a difference in a different way. And so I was able to pivot into financial services to help people do this professionally. And that's what really drove me in this process. Gregory Wilnau: I love it. Yeah, so you had a you had a personal experience that inspired you in transformation in in your own life. How long ago was this? Jeremy Self: Absolutely. This almost seven years ago now. A actually it was eight years ago when I first felt that that inner calling. Gregory Wilnau: I love that. I love it. Okay, so let's talk a little bit more about your clients when the when they first come to you. what are some of the questions that they'll typically ask when they meet with you for the first time? Do you have like top three or four? Most common? Jeremy Self: Yeah. so some of the some of the questions they're asking are will I run out of money? You know, so they want to know, like, based on what I have and how it's invested, will I be able to live and not run out of money? That's the number one question that people are asking. And second is on the defense side, people are asking. Do I have enough coverage? do am I adequately covered when it comes to the protection side of things? I currently working with a a lady who has about six different insurance policies and she feels like she's paying too much in premiums. Well, she very well maybe. We're evaluating that for her right now to find out what does she actually need? And then how can we help her in that space? Gregory Wilnau: Man, that sounds nice 'cause w when you're in that situation, just being able to pass that on to somebody else and say, Hey, you worry about this for me. Tell me what's up and then make some recommendations. Like that would be an enormous weight that would be lifted off your shoulders at that point. Jeremy Self: Yeah. Yeah, for sure. That that's kinda actually what our company we say, you know, you you let us focus on what's important to you and what we can control where that kind of Venn diagram comes together. Gregory Wilnau: Sorry. We'll edit that one out there. I have a a Google Home speaker and my daughter's in the other room and she has to ask it to play music and sometimes it goes into this one, so yeah. Jeremy Self: That's okay. Yeah, that's okay. Yeah. That's right. She just she just turned on goodbye yesterday. I'm living in the light. I I I recognize that song. So yeah. That's good. yeah. So, you know, where that Venn diagram crosses on what's important to you and what we can control is where we kind of center in and focus so that you can go be you and live your life. Gregory Wilnau: Exac yeah. Yeah, exactly. So anyway. Yeah, maybe we won't edit it out. You know, a little bit of entertainment in the episode, you know. Jeremy Self: You delegate those things to us and let us focus on those things. Gregory Wilnau: Yeah, I love that. Okay, so we have will I run out of money? Am I adequately covered? Are there any other big questions that your I clients typically ask when they first meet with you? Jeremy Self: Yeah, I I think the other big question is, you know, how do I pay you? that's a that's a common question that people ask. And really we have two ways of working with people. One is through a wealth management consulting agreement where it is fee only. They can come up with an agreed upon fee that they are willing to work with us on. and Gregory Wilnau: yeah. Jeremy Self: that's on kind of a retainer type basis. a lot of people are familiar with that model in the legal world. And but also if someone wants to work with us in a more traditional fee based world, which is where they have a percentage of their assets that is allocated to us as a fee, they can do that as well. We use a blended fee schedule when it comes to Gregory Wilnau: Yeah. Jeremy Self: people's assets rather than just a static one percent or one point five percent or whatever, we start at one percent and the more people have with us, the less their fee is. Gregory Wilnau: Okay. Okay, that's interesting. Do you find that different types of clients prefer one fee structure over the other? Help us understand maybe okay, maybe we could break talk about those those maybe we could talk about that for a second. Jeremy Self: Hundred percent. Yeah. So people that maybe feel like they are they're do-it yourselfers. They like looking at analytics, they like studying the markets, they might be more apt to be on a fee only kind of schedule. So we might build a financial plan for them, we might evaluate what they're doing and look at that as a service to them. they would appreciate that. Someone who is where in a position where they don't do all of the things that as I mentioned, business owners, they're focused on their business. They hire professionals to do what they need done. That is what we are focused on on the other side, on the on the feed based model. Gregory Wilnau: So let's dive into a little bit maybe about your your values and your approach, a little bit more about your your philosophy and how you approach working with your clients. how what are some of the ways that you get to know your clients as individuals over time? Obviously I think you know, that's how you make the best recommendations is you truly kind of intimately learn and understand about the clients themselves, their situation, what their values are. So maybe what are some of the ways you get to know them as as individuals? Jeremy Self: Yeah. Yeah. So one of the first things that I do is in a discovery meeting, I'm asking questions about them specifically. We might spend five minutes where I do a little commercial about Cedarwood and who we are and how we work together and some of those things. Then I spend the next forty five minutes asking them questions about them. Tell me about your family. How many kids do you have? How many pets do you have? What are the pets names? What are the you know, family traditions that you have? How often do you get together with extended family? tell me about your family vacations. What are those like? You know, so I'm finding out information about their family. how about work? What, you know, if they're retiring, what would you What would what did your career exist of? You know, what were you good at? What were your strengths in the job for? So if they're currently working, those same kind of questions, you know, what has your career path been like? what about bucket list stuff? You know, what what's it? Yeah, yeah. You know, are you a are you a beaches person? Are you a mountains person? Or both, you know. you're I'm a beaches person. Yeah. So yeah. Gregory Wilnau: Ooh, that's that's the that's the exciting part, man, the bucket list. Yeah. Are you a beaches person or a mountain person, Jeremy? I I I'm both. I'm definitely both. It depends on the time of year. Summer, I'm going to the beach. Winter, there's nothing better than being in the mountains, man. I love being personally, personally. Jeremy Self: I mean yeah. I love Yeah, no, no, no. I I agree. Yeah. So they're they're both very beautiful and relaxing in their own right. so finding out, you know, is there anything that that you find purpose in? You know, we we've done this topic and I think it comes from Hartford Funds. They did a study with MIT Age Lab called 8,000 Days. Are you familiar with this study? Gregory Wilnau: Absolutely. Absolutely. I am not, but it sounds really interesting. Ex explain it to me. Jeremy Self: Okay. Yeah. So the the com the concept is that in our school age years from, you know, five to eighteen or twenty-two, you have your first eight thousand days. And then in your early career, twenty two to let's say forty five, you have eight thousand days. Then in your prime earning years, forty five to sixty-five, you have eight thousand days. And if you retire at sixty five and you live to eighty five, ninety, you have another eight thousand days. So for Gregory Wilnau: Hm. So these are the the three acts basically. Act one, act two, act three. Another way to describe it. Yeah. Jeremy Self: Yeah. That's a that's a good way to describe. I've not heard that. So you you essentially are so full of purpose and focused on a goal and education and career, and now we're moving into retirement. If we pull out that purpose piece, if we pull out the fulfillment piece, then we're gonna be so empty and we're not gonna know what to do with ourselves. But if we will be intentional about thinking through what is it that's gonna bring fulfillment, what is it that's gonna bring purpose, meaning in your in your life in retirement, then we're gonna be much further ahead. So really under want to understand that. And then finally, let's talk about money, you know, but not just about dollars and cents. What is it about money that makes you fearful? What is it that worries you? What is it that makes you hopeful? Think about your first memory of money and tell me about that. those are the kind of questions we want to know because when we start to hear the stories around money, we start to understand the values. Gregory Wilnau: So I wanna I wanna dive into that a little bit. And if this is something that you prefer not to to to talk about in confidence, you know, that's just just let me know. Are there any common money stories for like people's first memories that you've noticed that or any patterns that sh kind of shape the way your clients kind of view it? Just any like maybe top two? Jeremy Self: Sure, yeah. Yeah, that that's a good question. I think that, you know, the common stories that you hear are are on the extremes of the spectrum. So it's either my family didn't have anything and I determined that I never wanted to be in that boat again. So that's why they are in the position that they're in sitting in front of me. The other extreme is that my family had everything I ever needed and I wanted to continue that trend. So the the two extremes as really where people seem to live, obviously stories are as diverse as any spectrum you can find, but but broadly speaking, yeah. Gregory Wilnau: Sure. But broadly, those are the two categories. Seems like the pattern is they're both centered around escaping s and staying out of scarcity. Jeremy Self: I think that's a very good way of saying it. Some maybe motivated from the perspective of I I'm running from scarcity and others saying I want to live in abundance. Gregory Wilnau: Yeah, I love that. Okay, so let's talk a little bit more about your practice or the practice that you are a part of. you know, when in business and you have a lot of entrepreneurial clients, you know, it's never static. It's it's it's always dynamic. It's kinda like an organism, right? Always changing. And to direct it, you want to have a vision for where where it's going. So Maybe you could take a moment and help us understand when it comes to your practice, where is it going in the next one to three years? What's what's the vision? are there any goals you and your team are are working on together? Jeremy Self: Yeah, I mean I think especially as it relates to serving clients, you know, we we talk about how we wanna provide a incredible client experience that has Amazon efficiency and Ritz-Carlton service. Gregory Wilnau: I love that. That's great. Jeremy Self: So in the next three years, we want to be providing that level of service for every client that we come in contact with. and I think, you know, we've talked about this. Cedarwood Financial Partners is something that we call an enterprise firm. We're an independent financial services firm, wealth management firm. We have nine offices. in seven cities in the United States. we service many, many states as a result of that. And because we have clients who live here, I I personally have clients in eight states. so when we work with folks, regardless of whether they're local or virtual, we want to provide that same level of client experience for them. Gregory Wilnau: Love that analogy. Amazon efficiency and Ritz-Carlton service, right? Yeah. Wow. That's like the ultimate dream of any business, any service-based business, I think. If you could achieve those two things, obviously, I don't think you ever will completely. That's a pretty tough order, but you can always shoot for that and in that process become it for sure. But that's that's an awesome goal, man. That's that's really cool. Did you didn't did you come up with that? Jeremy Self: Service. Yes. That's right. Yes. Yeah. it's actually our CEO who says that and I'm just mirroring that what he's he said and I I believe in that vision. Gregory Wilnau: Yeah. I think that's w one of the great the qualities of a great CEO is a can paint a picture and get everybody on board to believe in the pursuit of that as something worth fighting for, you know. So that's great. I'd love to talk to him to him and interview him sometime if that's something that an idea you want to float or or her if you want to float by him. Jeremy Self: That's right. Yeah. Yeah, sure. Gregory Wilnau: Alright, so okay, what I want to do now is I want to talk more about the experience of what it's like to start working with you. So we've gone into some of the questions you've asked, the type of scenarios that you lead your clients through. Maybe you could walk us through your actual process. Like when someone if someone became a client today, what happens the first four to eight weeks? What does it look like to work with you over the course of a a calendar year? So maybe like onboarding. What does it look like to become a new client? What's the process that they go through? And then as somebody is a client year two, three, four, five, what is what does that calendar year kind of look like in an ongoing capacity? Jeremy Self: Yeah, great question. So I think the first step, you know, that we follow is a is a three-step process. It I talked about discovery and that's very important that we discover everything. We we find out, like, are we even a fit to work with each other? You know, that's the first step. Second step is develop. We have to develop a plan so that ultimately we can deploy. our clients to go and be themselves. They're they're delegating their finances to us so that they can go be themselves, that they can go achieve their goals, that they can go live their dreams, whatever it is for them. So what does then that look like when they're when we've deployed them to go be them? We provide a service based practice. So We ask clients within the first 90 days to gather every piece of mail that they're gonna get from any kind of interaction that we have with them. Because as you know, when you first are onboarded into a financial services firm, you get a ton of mail. And people don't know what they're it's like applying for a loan, exactly. The lot of trees are slaughtered as a result of this, you know. And Gregory Wilnau: Yeah. It's like applying for a loan. Yeah. Yeah. Jeremy Self: So we say, hang on to those and let's in the first quarter, let's get back together and let's look through all of those documents so that you understand what you're looking at when you receive those moving forward. So that's the first 90 days. we also provide a monthly birthday lunch for all of our clients who live in the area. And we do that all From the basis of just getting to know our clients at a deeper level. There's no business. It's just a pure opportunity to get to know people. And it's one of my favorite things that we do all month long. yeah. And then the third thing that clients will experience is we provide a monthly investment lunch. So we might cover a topic like Social Security, where we will Gregory Wilnau: I love it. Jeremy Self: go through all the ins and outs of Social Security. Or we might cover a topic like Medicare and we'll talk about that. Or we might have a luncheon focused on lifetime income and we might have some conversation about how to how to have your own personal pension plan and what does that mean and how did they accomplish that. So different clients may be interested in different topics. And so we might have, you know, 12 to 15 people that will attend a particular luncheon. Last month our luncheon was about AI and how to the the do's and the don'ts of AI when it comes to protecting your personal data. So it it was really well attended and people were very interested in hearing about that. Gregory Wilnau: I bet it was. Wow. I love how you laid out those three things. I I think this is one of the more challenging questions to answer when I have invite people on the podcast because there's often so much that is done, you know, those first couple of months, especially, that it's hard to articulate it in a way where you could easily understand it at a high level. And I love how you clearly communicated it in. communicated it in in those three things. So that's fantastic. I also love the education piece. with we all I think Jeremy Self: Thank you. Yeah, that that's that at the end of the day, I tell people that I'm working with, I never want you to invest in something you don't understand. So education is a huge part of what I do with people. And I want to make sure that they are engaged in a way that that we're moving towards their goal, but that I'm teaching them all along the way. Gregory Wilnau: Yeah, I love that. Okay, so for somebody listening who wants to get in touch with you and is interested in possibly working together, what should they do next? Where should they go? Jeremy Self: Yeah, so people should go to Cedarwood Financial Partners dot com, Cedarwood Financial Partners dot com. That's our website, and on that website there's multiple places where you can complete a contact form and whether you're in New York or in Texas or another state that you'd like to connect with one of those offices, there's a drop down. And obviously I'm here in Austin, Texas, and they could select that Austin, Texas, and we'll get that information. Gregory Wilnau: Perfect. Well, all right, Jeremy. Thank you much. Thank you so much for coming on for the interview. Appreciate ya. And be well. Jeremy Self: Thank you, Greg. My pleasure. Kudos to you for having a podcast. That's a lot of hard work. Gregory Wilnau: it's not too hard. I just gotta ask good questions and let you do all the work, really. Thank you, Jeremy. Jeremy Self: Thank you.