May 2023
Beau says while ultra-high-net-worth clients are the typical demographic served by wealth management firms, the financial services industry is overlooking a crucial segment of prospects: NextGen individuals who are still building their wealth, careers, and families. Modearn is here to bridge this gap.
Regularly, Modearn clients will be in touch with their advisor to review a specific topic like tax planning, debt management, maximizing credit card benefits, estate planning, company benefit planning, etc., so every aspect of one’s financial picture is analyzed in a digestible way. Modearn clients will also be introduced to our network of experts, coaches, lawyers, and accountants to ensure access to a wide range of knowledge and advice. Beau and Chris are excited for our team of advisors to help Modearn clients enjoy the present, save for the future, make the best financial decisions for themselves and their families, and improve their financial literacy.
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Hello, everybody, and thank you for joining us for another episode of THE FINANCIAL COMMUTE. I'm your host, Chris Galeski, joined by Wealth Advisor Beau Wirick. Beau, thanks for joining us.
Thanks for having me, Chris.
We're here to talk about a new service offering that we are launching as an organization. It's called Modearn. Anything you'd like to share real quick before we go in the details?
I'm bursting with excitement about this, mostly because I see myself in Modearn. So Modearn is essentially our solution to a problem that we see that is all around the wealth advising industry, and that is we have high net worth clients right, ultra high net worth clients, people who have made it already in their careers and we manage their wealth.
But what about the people out there who are building their wealth, who are building their careers, who are building their families, building their homes? They don't necessarily have access to high quality financial advice in the same way that our high net worth clients have. So how do we bridge that gap? And the answer is, Modearn.
I'm excited about it too, for that very same reason. I mean, typically our industry will give advice, but you have to meet certain minimum fees or minimum asset sizes to get access to somebody like us. And you know, we're very much guilty of that. And that's the core of our business. We have a one and a half million dollar minimum and if you're a kid of a client, you've had access to us.
You know, we'll be glad to give advice and take on those conversations. But if you're not a kid of the client or you or a family member or, you know, you are looking for advice and you're growing, we need to be able to make ourselves available.
That's right. That was me. I mean, I had a 20 year long acting career that started at the age of 12. And what I didn't know is that I was starting a business as a 12 year old right.
Nobody told you.
Nobody told me that I was starting a business and no one was there to help me manage. You know, my parents were just typical middle class, you know, employees, they had a 401k, they didn't know anything beyond that. And at the time, I so wish that someone had been able to come alongside me and help me manage my financial decisions at such a young age.
Just I think about it, Roth IRAs were brand new at the time. Yeah. So I didn't know about them. Nobody knew about them. No.
Not at 12.
Not at 12, no. And so if I had just taken a little bit of money and maxed out a Roth IRA from age 12 to 18, yeah, I would have probably had $2 million of after tax retirement savings by the time I retire. Yeah. In addition to what I have now, if someone had just give me a little piece of good advice.
And so that's what makes me so passionate about this, because when someone's building their business, building their careers, building their families, one slight change of trajectory can amount to an enormous change in your destination. Right. And so for someone who's, you know, building their business, they're an entertainer. They're an influencer, you know, a small business owner.
You know, we want to come alongside them and make sure that they avoid bad decisions and make good decisions. And that's what they're paying us to do. Because again, like in my circumstance, I don't know how much I would pay someone to go back in time and have them give me good advice.
It's so easy to look back like hindsight's 2020 and a lot of us just weren't aware of that opportunity cost. And that's, you know, the problem with our with our society like we don't do enough to create financial literacy and help people understand, you know, the decisions that they're making and budgeting and debt and saving and investing and insurance and all of these, you know, life decisions that we make.
You know, some people call it adulting. Right, right, right. And I work in this industry. I make decisions every single day. But there are times throughout the year where I will grab another advisor and say, hey, what do you think about this? I just want to make sure I'm making the right decision and not giving up too much for the long term because the Modearn offering, yes, we're there to help people with their spending plans.
That way they can live their life and make the best decisions long term. But that's also so that they can enjoy today as well. Right. It's not a trade off completely.
And I like what you said. One of the aspects of Modearn is that it's actually a team of advisors that are creating the curriculum, the content and the just like the body of work of advice. And so, you know, I’ll have Modearn clients, but at the same time, if they come to me with a question that I need to run by, you know, Bryce or Jon or Kevin, like I have a whole team of people around me.
And then beyond that, what we're doing for Modearn clients is introducing them to our network of experts and coaches and lawyers and accountants that are going to help them curate their particular, you know, realm of influence to maximize their results. And so I'm really excited about that. They're not just hiring, Beau Wirick, they're hiring a team of experts to help them out.
And so how does Modearn work is the next question. Right? And what we've done is we understand that people in these situations are so busy and they're so submerged in the, you know, the chaos of life. We basically piecemeal out financial advice throughout the year. Once a month, they're going to be reached out to by their Modearn advisor and we’re going to say, hey, this month we're specializing our focus on tax planning.
And so like, let's look under the hood and see what your tax planning needs are, where you're at and how we can help. Next month is going to be debt planning. Next month is going to be credit card spending, next month is going to be estate planning and so on and so forth. So that usually when you go and you have your annual or quarterly review with a financial advisor, it's so overwhelming.
All the different topics that have to be addressed. And so we're taking care of that too, by just extending the advice over, you know, a systematic period of time.
I just know how busy I am with, you know, a three year old and a four month old at home. So I would appreciate if I was to be a Modearn client, you know, taking it in bite sized pieces, You know, the core of our business is still working with clients with north of $1,000,000 and that million and a half of assets and giving advice around retirement income planning and investments and estate planning and financial planning and all of that stuff.
But, you know, there's a real need that we're trying to fill because we're having more of these conversations with kids of clients. And then those kids of clients, they have friends and, you know, they might sit there and say, hey, you know, can Morton be somebody that's available to other people? Because it's not so much that you're hiring an advisor.
You have an entire company of resources to help you make the best decisions possible around tax, estate, spending, insurance, all of those different things. So I love the fact that you brought that up.
Yeah, it makes me happier being a giver of advice, knowing that I have a team around me that's helping me do my best job.
So Modearn is a fee for advice service. So it's got a flat fee for the advice. And then if there are assets that you want us to kind of oversee and manage and leverage some of our alternatives or whatever, we can do that.
We do that very well.
Yeah, we can still do that. But this is, the intention of this is to help those millennial and Gen Xers that are growing and saving in their life, in their careers. Maybe want to start a business and they want access to really good advice to help give them confidence to grow, protect and manage their life's decisions.
That's right. That's exactly right. We're super excited about it. And we hope that we're able to help as many people as possible. That's the heart behind it.
I agree. Thank you so much for joining us, Beau. And if you're interested in Modearn, please go to our website and check out the Modearn service offering, we're excited to to help.
Disclosure:
Information presented herein is for discussion and illustrative purposes only. The views and opinions expressed by the speakers are as of the date of the recording and are subject to change. These views are not intended as a recommendation to buy or sell any securities, and should not be relied on as financial, tax or legal advice. You should consult with your financial, legal, and tax professionals before implementing any transactions and/or strategies concerning your finances.
