What is a CFP?

This is Amy Thomas from the masculine journey podcast where we discover what it means to be a wholehearted man your chosen Truth Network podcast of starting in just seconds. Enjoy it, share it, but most of all, thank you for listening and for choosing The Truth Podcast Network. This is the Truth Network welcome to finishing well brought to you by Cardinal guy.com certified financial planner longs child, best-selling author and financial planner helping families finish well for over 40 years of finishing well will examine both biblical and practical knowledge to assist families in finishing well, including discussions on managing Medicare IRA long-term care life insurance and investments and taxes. Now let's get started with finishing well. Have fun today on finishing well certified planner which will say is a CFP child. My good friend and so today show is what is a CFP which for me to save certified financial planner, but along those lines, I thought a great question in our spiritual level is what is a disciple right because Jesus described that in what we know as the great commission in any salesman worth his salt is always been interested in the great commission.

That's good. Yeah, I've always thought that but so with the great commission was Matthew 28 right is Jesus ago ye therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the father the son and the Holy Spirit. It's beautiful policy, but it's also beautiful Scripture and I love that word disciple when you look at the Greek version of that. It means an enthusiastic learner. When you look at it in Hebrew. It has to do with this concept of being a scholar is very similar and and when you look at that word scholar in Hebrew. One of the main letters and it is this heart letter.

It's called a lament and it means in your heart and so if you're an understatement you love to learn you were born like is a little kid unite asked 40 billing questions that he would assess what is that because you love to learn. Unfortunately, sometimes school takes that out of us. But one of the joys of life altogether in my opinion is that loving to learn and as you begin to read the Bible and the reason you get fed by reading the Bible is that you love to learn and when you are around a true disciple.

It's been my experience that is they begin this talk about God, their eyes light up and they begin to tell you. Look how cool this is. Look how neat they don't appreciate what they do is they show you something that just absolutely wound them about God and and they'd love their enthusiastic learners and they can't get enough. So, where they find themselves always going back to the Bible, looking at this in a new way and and learning learning learning learning well beautifully. In my experience that when you find discipleship in any field you're in a find people that really have fun with that and interestingly the greatest car salesman I ever knew that were true disciples of selling cars. Those people had a big smile on their face because they had fun in the learning process of what they were doing with every single customer. Learning about them learning about how their situation would fit what was going on in the same is very much true from what I've experienced in what I would call the discipleship of the man sitting next because this man has studied and studied and studied certified financial planning, and so as we get into the show today of what is a certified financial planner.

I don't want anybody to miss that.

In my opinion the heart the heart of what this is. Is this God-given love of learning and oh by the way, if you don't think God must learn is the reason why he's with you every single day because you change every single day and every day.

Your little bit different person than you were the day before and God loves to learn about you and that's part of the beauty of of what how we made us with that same desire to learn about our customers to learn about our products and to learn about ways that we can best you know create an abundance letter that sin finishing well or written at the beginning so we just been straight with their audiences. If we do we do a little recording over in our offices we do a video which we shoot shorter than the length of the show just going over the topic which Robbie gets to look at before we prepare for the show and the one where we decided during the investment segment to talk about a CFP and why a CFP in what is a CFP. Frankly, what we sent Robbie was a little flat. He called me on so we just had a discussion and prepared for the show and that's what I love about him is just eat it.

I told him I said I didn't feel it was doing and I just felt was kind of flat. So we really just had a discussion and we talked about. So why is CFP why why is this important enough to talk about and take up 30 minutes of your time listening. Why would a person that needs to do some business in the financial services area. Why would they choose to do business with a CFP whether they can get out of it what is this me and so when we began to really talk about that Robbie really can append it on me is is that I guess I have a little bit of difficulty just talking about myself. It's very self-serving. I even said that on the video to talk about how great it is in all these wonderful things you get with a CFP given the fact that I'm a CFP and I've influenced several others that work in my agency.

So were to have him just cannot pull it out of me today, which is fun because you to me when I'm around and I am around Hans what you get to see any further time on the show a few times I think we may have had, but he wants okay but but here are some people that from my perspective.

Not only in a level what they do that they've studied it in such a way that it brings a smile to your face to see their scholarship right and so I think a great story but you know we talked as we are preparing for the show if you had this client that had a very intricate toxic step stock part portfolio in is on this talk ESOP. There is really tailored for the executives right. This guy isn't one of the big big big executives. He's just a big executive you and have three biggest before this thing is really tailored for the big big big executives.

The people that are being paid millions he's being paid what he's got in the millions in it but just a couple of millions. And then he's got some other money, but these are still working folks that need to scratch out 100 hundred 50 grand a year to live on for the rest of their lives and in their early 60s and so were looking through this event. Most of the stuff. Like everyone for us. It seems complicated but is not us and we go through and think through and discuss and we come up with a really nice plant, but in this particular guy.

He owns over a million almost $2 million worth of company stock and he is not paid taxes on any to this point so it's wonderful. Look at these large numbers with and and it was all real well plan getting in their tax-free tax-deferred tax postpone whatever it is, but now he's got the problem of getting out of there and paying the tax and turn it into real money that he can spread he's got no problem and then he's got too much of his net worth all in one company stock very stable company dividend aristocrat and a minute just there's every reason to make the case that this money is solid and sound and the others insert this company is his business to the point where he's knocking all those out, but stranger things have happened. So I would like to going to retirement where every day you gotta look at the stock price of the company you quit working for a few years ago, if something bad happens is going to be ugly so so our first goal with this guy is to get out of there then will you to get Morgan into diversify away to get invested in some other stocks or annuities, or just something that isn't auger down at once. If something bad happened. So you know that's one problem.

The other problem is taxes. So if we sell it all at once. You know you with the tax bill looks like, a million or million half dollars and interest which we could do but we gotta make an election now starts in a couple years a romantic at all. Want to take it over 10 years of renting it over 15 years. The longer we leave it there, the more of it stays in there and so you can make all kinds of arguments discredited out from a tax perspective, but then you're not serving the plan before we even learned all of these options were sitting here looking at it and had some now have a number and a name on them. It's like 401(k), but it's not 401(k), 4293C XQ RV W versus I just made those up and there's something that you can read and then we can go into the journals and look that up with these kind of plans with the IRS and look at the rags and figure because we didn't even know our options all refers with the companies telling them and so we could be experts on that we have one of our guys that works with us his nicknames body that just instantly Tom is this is going to send money and body your buddies a CFP and he's a lot more than a CFP having but he learned how to study and he's a student of the game and somebody did all the research and a couple of days. He didn't spend the whole day's he can go through and read things and find it on the Internet and he was an expert on this particular type of executive compensation plan and then specifically an expert. I get that out of their and paying the taxes he had.

I just found it fascinating and there's no school in the world that would teach you how to do that but he really learned the basis of that and see if you have a disciple and you know it's not hard if you don't Hans a new listener want to show that he has studied enough ferments lot. All these different peoples you study because you love the learning process and so when you you know I'm hope that that you're this way with the word of God and everybody listen that when you fall in love with something that you been studying and you go to talk to your friends and your wife. You know, they naturally open up their Bibles and then they begin to smile and soak when God said go make disciples you to make more disciples well is the same way right with study and the financial info with their Psalms working with Tom working with Buddy working with his brother Jim and and and and you can see that these things, they spread because enthusiasm is is a godly spirit and and so here's an example from my standpoint. Not only did they learn these investments.

But they enjoyed the process of it, and the customer doesn't feel like there talk down to because I like like a look what we found in this is really: and Ms. guys know what to do and so we showed him what his options are and then what the tax ramifications and then the risks he runs by having too much of his money and this one stock and then we showed him if he ends up there a strategy that we can protect them. On the downside to that we can.

There's some options that we can buy in some put options and we can consistently minimize or not minimize is a bad word.

I don't like using minimize we could lower his risk is that sound but all of this tracks back not to what we learned how to do that in CFP is the fact we laid out the framework and you do have choices. So when we when we come back were to talk really a little bit more about what it takes to become a CFP but more importantly what you get out of the fact of choosing us.

Now we have fun and don't forget, this is bracketed by Cardinal guided Hans's book if you want to be a disciple study this guide to planning and living in retirement joy. Learning this stuff is contagious so they did and we got more, Hans and I would love to take our show on the road to your church, Sunday school, Christian or civic group. Here's a chance for you to advance the kingdom through financial resources and leveraging Hans expertise and qualified charitable contributions veterans aid and attendance and IRA so security care and long-term care. Just go to car� Common contact time to schedule a live recording of finishing well, your church, Sunday school or civic group. Contact time the Cardinal guide.com that's Cardinal guide.com welcome back to finishing well with certified CFP certified financial planner Hans Schild today show about what is a CFP unit.

It comes from a chapter in Tom's book the complete Cardinal guide to planning for living retirement and how to choose an advisor and as were talking about discipleship is is is a hallmark of how you become a CFP but in this segment we will talk more about you know what the requirements are that quickly. I mean, you just used to when I got it. Yeah, take 10 courses. I think it's seven courses now each one of those as an exam there pretty extensive.

Most people to take those exams for the individual courses. Passim.

When you're done with that and you have to sit for a national exam that you have to apply for an over 40% of the people to take the national exam fail pass rate is like in the 57 5859%, and most of these are adult learners.

A lot of people are get into this in their 30s and 40s and maybe some in their 50s, so you gotta be smart goods to contests. That's what that's can say, but you need to be a good student, you need to meet a certain level of just knowledge then next you have a two year or three year depending on how you set up experience requirement.

We need to work under a CFP and you need to actually be practicing as a pair planner system planner and then you also need to pass all their background checks and then you gotta swear into this code of ethics and the practice standards and then the most important thing in there is you are now fiduciary. You hang your shingle out this is I'm a CFP or certified financial planner. I am a fiduciary. So when you engage me I get when when when we have a financial planning arrangement. Then I now need to act in your best interest and that pretty simple, but it's it's it's different than a lot of other people in our business okay but most of them just simply need to do things that are within the law and they need to prove that whatever they recommended to you is suitable for you. We got go much higher than suitability. We needed we need to be able to establish that this was in your best interest if I have any conflicts of interest.

If there was something that I'm getting out of the deal, like a commission or like payment from some third party.

I need to disclose that to you and do everything in my power to mitigate so having a fiduciary and Likert couple examples as I'm helping a couple of older clients get reverse mortgages fundamentally don't like him too much, but I've grown to like him for the right person and so I have the hardest time with these people getting across. I'm not going to sell you the reverse mortgage. I'm gonna be your like buyer's agent, to be your fiduciary.

Some assume the same time the tables you and were going to decide first of all, if one of these would be for the right arena and then once we decide that yeah we want to investigate this work and find somebody and I've already done that for both his client and then I'm in a make nothing off of the reverse mortgage sale and they I'm assuming your side of the table and I would be the tough customer and looking after your interest. It's just that simple.

And then they are paying me a fee to do that in one of these isn't because under pro bono because the lady really needs the money and I just want to help her and she's a good follower and I'll do that for you sounded good and complete disclosure.

She's a good friend of mine that I better call Hans because I knew based on a lifestyle sheet.

She was house rich but very poor, unable to keep the house up. Unable to take care of her health and thanks again Jim miracle for right and this this happened to be something that you can see normally you wouldn't that there are cases whether these products out there. You know it's worth study them in no yeah it's just going to make her situation for the next term in your retirement wonderfully so, but you can have this summing all seven subjects that we cover on the show, Social Security, Medicare, long-term care, IRAs investments, which is the topic of today's shown investments in income, estate planning and life insurance and taxes.

You can have a fiduciary in all seven of those areas because I am one and I employed CFP's have a program in my agency were everybody that's in there is on track to become a CFP less than half of them are, but when I get there love people were in their 20s that work for me and that the point being that the fiduciary is not just limited to investments or insurance. So when you buy life insurance. We have to act in your best interest if we represent a whole bunch of companies we have to because we need to be prepared to defend that the recommendation that we made to you was in your best interest.

We chose from Brian which is one of the reasons I watch the video I sent you a chunk of the video wasn't. It was in a vacuum. And so we heard what a CFP was, but normally if I get a call from a life insurance agent you know how I am� On so with MetLife and and I have this great investment strategy for you and when you do a little checking and will you work for or MetLife or your CFP. Now I'm licensed to sell this product, but you know essentially who's best interest doesn't make him bad, I'm just what I want to point out is the level that we operate and I really needed go out of my own and that's what I did you know that we represent just about everybody that sells insurance in a particular area to be operated with over hundred 50 different insurance companies that each have probably 1015 products. I know I'm the other thing that you can't help but notice her choosing a financial planner or choosing a CFP you know everybody specialties are different and so as I've had a chance to work with you guys out for the last couple years is one thing if your financial planner for somebody that is in their 40s and most of the people you normally work with, but the taxes and in all sorts of things are completely different from people with her from HDL 65. Obviously, as they finish well which when you work this whole part of your life on not just obviously the investment strategies but you also know how that fixes up a long-term care and how it fixes up with you know your Social Security and how that mean all those things figure into what your major course of study is been is important understand that being a CFP is voluntary. It's not something like getting an insurance license will pass in the series 7 exam for securities.

That's not optional.

This not voluntary.

You have to pass that that teaches you the law gives you a base level and then when you're in those programs you have to go through training programs to stay certified so not implying that these other people don't like know what I know, I'm just simply saying that the CFP is a purely voluntary thing okay and when you sign up for the CFP Board polices the stuff so I am sure see the commercials where there showing that in summer, funny and they have they have a code of ethics and they're not kidding about the code of ethics and we have to take an exam on that every couple years and sit through a class just to make sure we heard him again and I was take that seriously, because he just it's good to read.

I read him more often than that, that the practice standards so they they tell you within this a lot of room in here to tailor your practice to what you want to be with their standards as to how we operate things that we do and how we keep records and how we advise clients and how we sign off on things that how we answer complaints and just just to hold in were tested on that and then we need to follow that and we need to build approved to them that we monitor ourselves because they can come in and check us so it's a it's a voluntary thing and I really put off talk about this on the radio. Just because it sounds so self-serving and that's probably why didn't sound very good. The other afternoon when we made those and prepping for today but this is this is just something that I'm very does voluntary.

It's not voluntary my business. We all of this is how we operate.

We even take it down a Medicare supplement.

We were in a run a report in order to show you like three or four options every time we sell your Microsoft anybody and then were going to make a recommendation.

It's in your best interest to do a life insurance that would definitely gonna consider three or four options we might only show you one.

The one were recommending we might tell you about the other ones, but we try not to get too confusing and things, but in our notes we've considered three or four to get down to the one were recommending and were prepared to show how this is the best thing for you beautiful things about I heard this one from John Eldridge that the young man came up to him and told him he wanted to be his disciple and goes with your disciple and you need to have a question.

So what's your question and if you think about what nonsense been teaching on the show for a number years is mostly getting at the questions that are necessary in order to put you in a position to have choices right now and so in order to develop what's in Sunday's best interest you. You can ask a lot of questions but we do some of those are about preferences. You know like about risk. We we we we got a lot of ways to try to get people to come out with where they stand on taking risk with their money and how I feel about losses and thereby feels about the same about losses just different levels. You know how tight up. They are gains and whether willing to accept an what's the trade-off he and then so you do a lot of fact-finding and learning about them and then we go do a little bit of just kinda guessing or putting together a model and then we gotta take that all back to a recommendation and we need to be able to prove that we made a recommendation based on something based upon this person's preference to get into needs capacity for losses and there's just there's all kinds of things in the investment world that factor into this but when it's all said and done, we need to be able to prove that we acted as a fiduciary. Just operate that way. From my standpoint and hours as I think about Hans and Tom and Buddy and that these people that I know you know they clearly love people right and they love, understanding their story so that they can figure out what is in their best interest, and so if you look at the questions are asking and think of the things or if you even think back the shows that you listen live Hans as he went into the depth of what was going on in the person story which points to why this decision for their story the best and so the beautiful thing about people that have learned how to learn.

Yeah, or true discipleship is is that it fits well with what God is been planning right in and I no doubt think that it was just no accident at all that you know based on my love for learning is been my whole life that he put us together and we were able to do the show together these years and it's been a complete delight because I can't tell y'all that I learned so I hope you have two we appreciate you learning with us today on finishing well again. The shows brought you by Cardinal guide.com if you go to Cardinal guy there you can get Hans's book the pleat complete Cardinal guide to planning for living in retirement. Today's chapter courses on investments and how to choose an advisor again. Cardinal guide.com thank you so much nonsense. Thank you. We hope you enjoyed finishing well brought you by Cardinal guide.com visit Cardinal guide.com for free downloads of the show previous shows on topics such as Social Security, Medicare and IRAs, long-term care and life insurance, investments and taxes as well as cons best-selling book the complete Cardinal guide to planning for and living in retirement and the workbook once again for dozens of free resources past shows get Hans book go to Cardinal guide.com if you have a question, comment or suggestion for future shows. Click on the finishing well radio show on the website and send us a word. Once again that's Cardinal guide.com Cardinal guide.com this is the Truth Network