Retirement Planning - Redefined

John Teixeira and Nick McDevitt

Financial and retirement planning guidance from Certified Financial Planner John Teixeira and Nick McDevitt of PFG Private Wealth Management in the Tampa Bay, FL area. On this show, you'll learn about how the financial and retirement world has evolved over the past several decades, how to properly plan for your own future, and some of the important pitfalls to avoid. PFG Private Wealth Management, LLC is a registered investment adviser. All statements and opinions expressed are based upon information considered reliable although it should not be relied upon as such. Any statements or opinions are subject to change without notice. Information presented is for educational purposes only and does not intend to make an offer or solicitation for the sale or purchase of any specific securities, investments, or investment strategies. Investment involve risk and, unless otherwise stated, are not guaranteed. Information expressed does not take into account your specific situation or objectives and is not intended as recommendations appropriate for any individual. Listeners are encouraged to seek advice from a qualified tax, legal, or investment adviser to determine whether any information presented may be suitable for their specific situation. Past performance is not indicative of future performance.

  1. 1d ago

    Florida Probate Q&A: Wills, Property, Costs & More with Nicole Bell Cleland

    Nicole Bell Cleland of Legacy Protection Lawyers returns to answer some of the most common questions that come up around Florida probate and estate administration. She and John discuss what happens when someone dies without a will, special considerations for blended families and inherited property, when an attorney is required, and what the probate process may cost. Legacy Protection Lawyers: https://www.legacyprotectionlawyers.com/   Helpful Information: PFG Website: https://www.pfgprivatewealth.com/ Contact: 813-286-7776 Email: info@pfgprivatewealth.com   Disclaimer: PFG Private Wealth Management, LLC is an SEC Registered Investment Advisor. Information presented is for educational purposes only and does not intend to make an offer or solicitation for the sale or purchase of any specific securities, investments, or investment strategies. The topics and information discussed during this podcast are not intended to provide tax or legal advice. Investments involve risk, and unless otherwise stated, are not guaranteed. Be sure to first consult with a qualified financial advisor and/or tax professional before implementing any strategy discussed on this podcast. Past performance is not indicative of future performance. Insurance products and services are offered and sold through individually licensed and appointed insurance agents.   Speaker 1: Welcome into another edition of Retirement Planning Redefined with John and Nick, financial advisors at PFG Private Wealth.   And Nick is off again on this episode as we have Nicole Cleland joining us again to follow up with a Q&A conversation, some questions and answers about the probate conversation we just had on our prior podcast.   So John's going to jump in and toss out some of the most frequently asked questions that these guys get when dealing with this. And of course, if you need some help, go and check them out online at legacyprotectionlawyers.com.   That's legacyprotectionlawyers.com. We'll have a link in the show descriptions along with John and Nick at pfgprivatewealth.com. But first, Nicole, welcome back.   Nicole Cleland: Thanks for having me.   Speaker 1: Absolutely. Great stuff last time, so thanks for being here. And of course, John, thanks for being here, buddy.   John: Yeah, yeah. Having a good time here. School year started for the kids, which has been fun. So kids are excited to go back to school. I'm sure parents are a little excited too to have their own little break, but all is good.   Speaker 1: For sure. Well, we had some good response to the prior podcast episode, and so you guys deal with this stuff a lot. Obviously you guys work as a team as well. And so what are some of those top questions, John? I know you got a couple we want to cover on this episode, so take it away.   John: Yeah. So one question I get from clients and some stuff I'm curious on. So one is, and we try to avoid this by doing proper planning upfront, but Nicole, what happens if someone doesn't have a will, or there's no beneficiary listed on an account, or it's not listed correctly?   Nicole Cleland: Yeah, so if someone dies what we call intestate, so they had not signed a will prior to their passing, then we have to look to Florida law, Florida's intestacy statutes to find who their intestate heirs are.   And the idea behind the law is to reflect what most people would naturally want. And if you think about it under Florida intestacy laws, if you're survived by a spouse, then usually 100% goes to the spouse. If no spouse then to your children, if no children are descendants, then it goes back up to parents and then out to siblings.   Obviously with blended families, stepchildren, half siblings, that can vary a little bit, but Florida law tries to reflect what most people would had intended had they created a will themselves.   John: Okay. So in essence, the courts try to make their best effort to do who gets what?   Nicole Cleland: Well, not the courts so much as the law.   John: Oh, okay.   Nicole Cleland: And what I mean by that is, if you passed away tomorrow and you had three children and you were estranged from one of them, but you had not signed a will disinheriting that child, then under Florida law, that child's going to take an equal third.   The court has no discretion on that. So the estrangement of the child has no bearing. It's just a matter of what Florida law states.   John: Gotcha. And then you mentioned blended families, something that does come up every once in a while, and I think most people miss it. Tell us about elective share.   Nicole Cleland: Yeah, so in Florida you can, and actually most states, all but one, I think, have a similar law that states that you can leave your assets to whomever you want. You can disinherit your children, you can disinherit parents, but the one person you cannot disinherit is your spouse.   So in Florida law, your spouse is entitled to a minimum of 30% of your overall estate, not just your probate estate. So that would include real estate, bank accounts, life insurance. Well, depending on the life insurance, but it can vary.   But essentially, if you had any desires to leave your spouse with nothing, then they're going to be a little bit more trickier than you may have thought.   John: And I think maybe this could be a deep dive session, but if you own assets 50/50 with your spouse, how much is considered theirs and yours in this, if it were to come up?   Nicole Cleland: Oh, that's a good one too. Hard-hitting questions, John. So that's where we can sometimes go a little bit beyond ownership and we look at the character of the asset.   And what I mean by character, I mean, is it separate property? Is it community property? How is the ownership on that jointly owned property? And really digging into the facts.   So this is why in the very first, the last session we had, I mentioned why that due diligence period prior to opening a probate is so important is you can look and ask these types of questions.   So I would say for a lot of blended families, for a lot of married couples, actually, most married couples own things in joint name. And sometimes when you have blended families, if there's not proper planning, I've seen unintentional disinheritances.   So you leave everything to your spouse, but then your spouse leaves everything to their children from their first marriage. Is that what the first today spouse wanted? Probably not.   John: Yeah, unfortunately I've seen that happen as well. So definitely do your planning whether-   Nicole Cleland: Yes, especially with blended families, for sure.   John: Yeah, agreed. All right, another question. Something you mentioned last week, we were talking about homes, and I think you mentioned where someone might want to keep the asset. So let's say someone passes away, the kids say, "Hey, I want to keep this house." How does that pass to the beneficiaries? Is there any specific documentation?   Nicole Cleland: So it again might boil down to how did it pass to these beneficiaries? Are we going through a probate proceeding where a personal representative is in charge and has the final say-so? If that is the case, then that personal representative decides.   They've got the ultimate decision on whether or not a piece of real estate or any asset is liquidated or transferred what I call in kind. Meaning if it was received as a piece of real estate, it'll be distributed as a piece of real estate.   So it can depend on the situation. Now, if you've got maybe a mom who added her two kids to the deed before she died, and now these two kids own the property 50/50 and one of them wants to keep it, one of them wants to sell it, how do you force the hand of the one that wants to keep it? And sometimes it requires court action if they can't agree.   So it very much can depend on how the property was inherited and really who has the legal authority over that asset. Does that answer that question there?   John: It does. So it depends on how it was titled initially and did it go through probate officially or putting it on the deed bypass probate.   Nicole Cleland: Right, right.   John: Okay, got it. And then what about some question some people will ask is, do you need an attorney to help you with the probate process?   Nicole Cleland: So in Florida-   John: And what is the cost?   Nicole Cleland: Yeah, always the bigger question there. So with a formal administration in Florida, you do have to have an attorney. And I understand why, and it's because there are so many rules regarding probate and those administrations that you really do need not just an attorney, but an attorney that does administrations to do it well.   And that being said, with a summary administration, you can do it on your own in the sense that you don't have to have a lawyer. Oftentimes though, if I'm getting a call that someone who's started the summary administration proceeding and they can't get across the finish line, it takes a lot more work for an attorney to clean it up.   So unless you feel very confident in your abilities and maybe even gone to a legal aid center to help you fill out the summary administration paperwork, it can be tricky to do, especially if there's creditors involved.   But in terms of costs, it definitely can depend on the scenario. And for the most part, when it comes to formal administrations, there is a statute that outlines what is reasonable compensation for an attorney for a personal representative.   And it roughly falls a percentage schedule where on the first million, it's about 3% of the probate assets. And then as the millions go up, the percentage typically goes down. And that attorney fee schedule actually is comparable to a personal representative's presumed reasonable fee schedule.   But that being said, there's a

  2. Sep 10

    Navigating Florida Probate with Nicole Bell Cleland

    Probate can feel overwhelming, especially when you're trying to understand what happens after a loved one passes away. In this episode, John is joined by Nicole Bell Cleland of Legacy Protection Lawyers to break down the Florida probate process and explain what personal representatives and families should expect along the way. They cover the major stages of probate, including identifying assets and debts, handling creditors and taxes, opening estate accounts, making distributions, and understanding the responsibilities that come with administering an estate. Legacy Protection Lawyers: https://www.legacyprotectionlawyers.com/   Helpful Information: PFG Website: https://www.pfgprivatewealth.com/ Contact: 813-286-7776 Email: info@pfgprivatewealth.com   Disclaimer: PFG Private Wealth Management, LLC is an SEC Registered Investment Advisor. Information presented is for educational purposes only and does not intend to make an offer or solicitation for the sale or purchase of any specific securities, investments, or investment strategies. The topics and information discussed during this podcast are not intended to provide tax or legal advice. Investments involve risk, and unless otherwise stated, are not guaranteed. Be sure to first consult with a qualified financial advisor and/or tax professional before implementing any strategy discussed on this podcast. Past performance is not indicative of future performance. Insurance products and services are offered and sold through individually licensed and appointed insurance agents.   Speaker 1: This week on Retirement Planning - Redefined, let's talk about navigating Florida probate and all that comes with that with John, and Nicole is joining us from Legacy Protection Lawyers. Welcome into the podcast everybody. Thanks for tuning in to Retirement Planning - Redefined with John and Nick. Nick's not here today. We're swapping him out with Nicole, which is going to be fun because Nicole's going to talk to us about navigating Florida probate and she's just peppier than Nick, so we're just going to have fun talking with her. How you doing, Nicole? John Teixeira: Just a little peppier. Nicole Cleland: I'm doing good. Thanks for having me. Excited to be here today. Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely. Thanks for joining us. And of course, John, welcome in buddy. Thanks for being here. John Teixeira: Yeah, yeah. I'm excited to have Nicole back on. She's a wealth of information, so it's always good to have her. Speaker 1: Yeah. And we'll have links in the descriptions if you guys want to reach out if you have some questions to legacyprotectionlawyers.com, we'll have a link in there that you can follow up with, of course, along with the guys as well for the financial side of things. So let's jump in and talk about navigating Florida probate. I know it sounds a little boring and a little worrisome, but it's also important stuff, Nicole. So let's get you rolling in there a little bit with some places to start. What's a good place to start with this? Just the pre-filing diligence, determining what it is that you have and need? Nicole Cleland: Yeah, exactly. So when someone passes away and we're looking at what type of administration might be needed, I usually suggest to clients to really take the time to look at the whole picture. Sometimes you find one asset where you feel like you might need to jump in and go ahead and handle that, but sometimes I think it behooves a lot of people to take a step back, make sure you have your arms around everything before really jumping into one of the options. And the reason why is some people may have gone through experience personally. You might go down one road and find the facts have changed a little bit and now you're leading down a different road. And that can lead to delays and expenses, and it really helps to really take the time to assess everything. Read the estate plan, what are the assets, what are the debts, and then go from there. Speaker 1: Gotcha. And what are some of the administrative type things to think about as far as some bullet point items for folks? Nicole Cleland: Sure. So there's really a handful of different types of administrations. And focusing on probate alone, there are three different types in Florida at least. The first one is very uncommon. It's when the size of the estate costs less or the assets in the estate are less than a funeral bill. So not a very common one and a little bit more difficult to go through. But the big ones are what we call formal administration and a summary administration. And when people think of probate, usually it's the formal administration that they think of, the process that can take a bit longer, be a little bit more expensive, but there's also an abbreviated or an abridged probate process called a summary administration. And those are permitted in estates where a person has been deceased for over two years, or if the size of the estate is less than $150,000. And that's actually a newer statute that just passed in July. So that's a convenient one that we've upped the threshold for a summary administration from $75,000 to $150,000. Speaker 1: Gotcha. Okay. John, what do you think? John Teixeira: Yeah, Nicole, quick question on that. Now, is that the full estate or just what's going through probate? Nicole Cleland: Yes, great question. So it's only the assets that are subject to probate. So what assets are subject to probate? And my rule of thumb is any assets that should go through a probate proceeding are the assets that are in someone's individual name with no joint owners. So assets that are not in a trust, not necessarily in a company, that don't have any other spouses, family members, no joint owners on it, and no beneficiaries listed on those assets or accounts. Speaker 1: Okay. So what's the process, I guess, for opening the estate? What steps are we looking at? Nicole Cleland: Sure. So step number one is really assessing what the estate plan is. And believe it or not, whether or not you've done planning, you have an estate plan. So it's either an estate plan you've created or one that the state of Florida gives you if you're a resident of Florida, and really understanding who our parties are, who are our beneficiaries, what is the estate plan? And then looking at who is the personal representative. That's what we call the executor here in Florida. And that's who typically would be my client, that personal representative, and going through the process of determining if they're eligible, if they were named in a will to serve as that personal representative. So in Florida, you have to be either a blood relative of the decedent or a resident of Florida if you're not a blood relative. And you can't have any felonies, you can't have any allegations of elderly exploitation, and there's a few other caveats in there, but really going through that eligibility process and then making sure that the potential personal representative understands what their fiduciary responsibility is, their responsibility to the estate and to the beneficiaries and walking them through that. But typically, once we've gone through all of that with the client, then it's preparing the paperwork where you essentially are requesting the court to admit that will and/or to appoint that personal representative and to therefore open the estate officially. John Teixeira: So Nicole, is that like doing the petition, assigning that PR once you figure out who it is? Nicole Cleland: Yes. Yes. So in that petition, it would state who's asking to open it, who the beneficiaries are, potentially who creditors could be, and that this is the right venue to open up that probate. And there's a handful of documents with the petition that are filed at the outset, but essentially all the documents that can vary by county, what would be needed to open the estate formally. John Teixeira: And then that's, I know working with it through Jenny, my wife, there's the, I don't want to say the magic, but the letters of administration was what she happened to give to everybody. Nicole Cleland: Yeah. So that's what I call your golden ticket. So once the estate is officially opened, the court will issue, and they vary amongst the states what they're called, but in Florida, they're called letters of administration. And that gives a personal representative the ability to act and do anything essentially that the decedent could do. So again, that golden ticket to step into the shoes of the decedent in terms of legal and financial matters. John Teixeira: I'm just going through, again, personal experience. What about finding all the assets? And that's part of it where you submit, hey, here's what the person had, and this is what's going through probate? Nicole Cleland: Yeah. And that's why I usually recommend going through that due diligence process before we open up a probate, because when it's after you've opened up a probate, now you've got a fiduciary hat on. Your job is a little bit different. So when you do open up the estate, not everyone knows what all of the assets are. Sometimes we discover things six months down the road. But the goal is that whenever someone is serving as personal representative, one of their top jobs is going to be to marshal the assets, to really take the time to determine what is out there and locate all of those assets. They've got that fiduciary obligation. And that can be really hard if the decedent didn't have a list of everything written down, and that personal representative's really having to search and make phone calls and sit on hold and go into the banks and all that stuff. John Teixeira: Yeah, I'll say, I think as people listen to some good tidbits are, getting that tax return will help figure out what investment or bank accounts were open with 1099s issued. Nicole Cleland: Absolutely. Absolutely. Tax returns help, looking through paperwork, requesting a cr

  3. Jul 2

    What To Sell Before Retirement – YouTube’s Most Watched Retirement Video

    Over the past year, one retirement video on YouTube pulled in 3.7 million views. The title: "Sell These 5 Things Before You Retire." We thought it was worth a conversation — not to tear it apart, but to react honestly. Do we agree? How often do we actually see this play out with real clients? Let's get into it.   Helpful Information: PFG Website: https://www.pfgprivatewealth.com/ Contact: 813-286-7776 Email: info@pfgprivatewealth.com   Disclaimer: PFG Private Wealth Management, LLC is an SEC Registered Investment Advisor. Information presented is for educational purposes only and does not intend to make an offer or solicitation for the sale or purchase of any specific securities, investments, or investment strategies. The topics and information discussed during this podcast are not intended to provide tax or legal advice. Investments involve risk, and unless otherwise stated, are not guaranteed. Be sure to first consult with a qualified financial advisor and/or tax professional before implementing any strategy discussed on this podcast. Past performance is not indicative of future performance. Insurance products and services are offered and sold through individually licensed and appointed insurance agents.   Marc: Do a little reaction conversation this week here on the podcast. Over the past year, one retirement video on YouTube pulled in 3.7 million views. The title was Sell These Five Things Before You Retire, so we thought it was worth a conversation, not necessarily to tear it apart, but just to react to it honestly. Do we agree? Do we not? Let's dive in this week here on Retirement Planning Redefined with John and Nick.   Welcome in once again to the podcast. This is Retirement Planning Redefined with John and Nick from PFG Private Wealth. Find them online at pfgprivatewealth.com, that's pfgprivatewealth.com, and we're going to talk about this video this week, guys. I want to kind of break down these couple of sections here. Now, we can throw a link into the descriptions for folks if they want to go check it out, but this video, as I said in the teaser, got just under four million views last year for the five things you should sell before you retire. I wanted to get your guys' take on this. First of all, how are you doing this week, John?   John: I'm doing good. I'm doing good. I was telling Nick earlier, I started trying to give my kids something to do this summer, and I have them working out, because they want to get better at gymnastics, so I put together a program and told them it was time they learn a language. We started doing some Portuguese, so it's interesting listening to them try to pronunciate the words, but it's been fun.   Marc: Nice. Nice. That's very cool. Very good. Good job parenting there, sir. Absolutely. What about you, Nick, buddy? You doing all right this week?   Nick: Yeah. Yeah. I have visitors in from out of town for a bit, so that's always fun, but they're easy. We've been having a good time enjoying the new house.   Marc: Well, you're a good guy in that regard. You were saying it's going to be a bit that they're staying. See, I was brought up with the rule and I live by the rule of, house guests and fish, same timeline, three days. After three days, they've got to go.   John: Nick is having home-cooked meals I think daily, and I think they're just helping out around the house, so he's probably very comfortable right now.   Marc: Okay. Nice. Nice.   Nick: Yeah. There is a net gain in the scheme of things for me.   Marc: Okay. All right. Fair enough.   Nick: Yeah.   Marc: That adds to the equation, right?   Nick: It definitely helps. It definitely helps.   Marc: Look, you're always planning, right? You're always doing the math on the situation, right? Well, let's talk about this video this week. 3.7 million views on this, so let's start with the first one. I'm going to get your guys' reaction to it. The oversized house. The house that was perfect for raising a family isn't always the right house for retirement. Certainly, this one's kind of understandable. Selling it can free up some significant equity, especially in today's market, depending on where you're at, right, so what's your thoughts on this being one of the five things you should sell before you retire? Whoever wants to start.   John: I can jump in on this. I think, like we say with everything, it depends, but this could be, depending on the outflows of the house, the maintenance, property taxes, insurance, just how big it is, one of those spots where it could make sense, if you're ready, just to kind of start eliminating some of your to-do lists and outgoing cashflow and stuff like that, where this is definitely a spot where we see a lot of people say, "Hey, is it time to downsize, and what does that look like for me? If I downsize, what else can I do with the extra cash flow I now have? Maybe I pocket a lump sum balance, that I could do something else with it."   Marc: Yeah. I mean, especially again, depending on where you're at, you could make some good cheddar on that, right? Unless you were going to buy another house, Nick, right? Because then it might cost you more.   Nick: Yeah. Yeah, it's tricky too, because for example, right now Florida's in the news quite a bit from the perspective of property tax and potential property tax reform, but one thing that does happen here is a homestead exemption, and property taxes can only go up by a certain percentage each year. We will see instances of somebody maybe looking to downsize the house locally and maybe move out of state, so there are opportunities to essentially kind of carry over. There's some portability in the state of Florida on property taxes, but if you shift to another state, that isn't necessarily the case, and if somebody, especially the way that taxes have, or, I'm sorry, values on homes have gone up here in the area, if you've been in your house for 15, 20 years locally and are looking to sell and shift elsewhere and maybe go to a state that has a state income tax, and then you start to factor in ... If you're selling your home for ... There's something to downsizing size, but what we also have found is that people that are, if they're selling their house for 800,000 to a million dollars, they don't want to buy a 200,000 dollar condo. They want to buy a 600 or 700,000 dollar condo. That's just easier to handle and maintain, and then when you start to tack on some of those other expenses, a lot of times in can end up being actually pretty close.   Marc: Got you.   John: Yeah, and to jump in with that, you definitely want the downsize to be worth it. It's not worth it if it's 100,000 or something like that. You really want to make sure, if you're downsizing to either free up some cashflow or get some type of lump sum balance to do something else with, you want to model it to make sure it makes sense, because Nick mentioned the pitfalls, property taxes. You've got realtor fees, things like that. You want to really itemize, "Hey, what is this expense going to be, and what is the benefit of it?"   Marc: Okay, that's a great point, so that's the first one. The second one, second point on here, guys, of this video, was financially supporting adult children. I kind of roll with this one too, right? This is the hardest one for every parent because everybody's going to be a little bit different. The argument is, some people feel like they've got to help their grown kids out, and others say, "Heck no," right, so how do you feel about that, first of all, and second of all, how do you approach that with clients?   John: Yeah, I'll let Nick take this one so he can be the bad guy.   Nick: Yeah, I'll go first, and I'm not a parent, so that's my disclaimer. We see this more and more, and one of the things that we hear about this quite a bit are that, and we agree to a certain extent, is that the barriers to entry on certain assets or kind of landmark acquisitions in the lives of people that are in their late 20s, early 30s, dependent upon where you are, and this area is one of them, they are harder to achieve. Granted, and people that have had assets or substantial assets over the last 10 years have gotten some massive appreciation and have really benefited, where people that don't have assets haven't been able to participate. Dependent upon what it is, as long as it's not having a material negative impact on the plan of our clients, we do tend to be pushing them in the way of, "Hey, let's kind of cut some of this stuff off," especially if it's an ongoing monthly sort of support, if there's not any sort of major medical or whatever and it's just like a failure to launch scenario. Up north we used to have basements. It's like, if somebody's kid is in the prototypical, in the basement for the last 10 years and they need to get out, then we may have some gentle nudging related to that.   For example, one instance I've seen is people helping with IVF, for example, which can be really expensive, and their kids want to start a family and they don't have the money to start a family, and that's been a gift that, giving some money to help that sort of thing. Something like that makes a ton of sense, if they can afford it. For them to buy a motorcycle or something, that maybe if they were just kind of ... The kid maybe worked more or had some sort of plan or was making good income, and it wasn't just to make them happier because they felt guilty, that's a different sort of conversation.   Marc: All right. John, you want to stay away from being the bad guy on this one, or are you good with that?   John: No, I can jump in here with some thoughts. No, we see it a lot more often recently. I'll tell you that home purchases, home prices have skyrocketed, so I've seen a lot of clients where it's like, "Hey, I'm going to help them with a down payment." It goes back to everyth

  4. Jun 25

    She Didn't Plan to Retire at 62. Here's How It Happened.

    Today we're trying something a little different. We're going to walk through a real retirement story in chapters — and as each new detail comes in, we're going to react to it the way a financial advisor would. Fran is 62, she figured a lot of this out on her own, and she's only now sitting down with a professional for the first time. Let's see what we find and what we might do differently from here.   Helpful Information: PFG Website: https://www.pfgprivatewealth.com/ Contact: 813-286-7776 Email: info@pfgprivatewealth.com   Disclaimer: PFG Private Wealth Management, LLC is an SEC Registered Investment Advisor. Information presented is for educational purposes only and does not intend to make an offer or solicitation for the sale or purchase of any specific securities, investments, or investment strategies. The topics and information discussed during this podcast are not intended to provide tax or legal advice. Investments involve risk, and unless otherwise stated, are not guaranteed. Be sure to first consult with a qualified financial advisor and/or tax professional before implementing any strategy discussed on this podcast. Past performance is not indicative of future performance. Insurance products and services are offered and sold through individually licensed and appointed insurance agents.   Marc: Today we're trying something a little different. We're going to walk through a real retirement story in chapters. As each new detail comes in, we're going to react to the way a financial advisor would for Fran. She didn't plan to retire at 62, and here's what happened. So let's talk about Fran's story.   Hey everybody, welcome into the podcast. This is another edition of Retirement Planning Redefined with John and Nick from PFG Private Wealth. And if you need some help, got some questions, want to reach out to the fellows, give them a jingle, or I guess not a jingle, but find them online at pfgprivatewealth.com. That's pfgprivatewealth.com. Of course, you can call them at 813-286-7776. We'll have details in the show description below if you'd like to get ahold of them. And we're going to talk about this kind of a retirement story here today, guys. Kind of break this down a little bit, so we'll get started in just a second. But Nick, how are you my friend? You doing all right?   Nick: Yeah, doing pretty well. Thanks.   Marc: Good, good. Good to have you here. Good to chat with you as always. And John, how are you, my friend?   John: I'm doing okay. Summertime started for the kiddos, which means I get to sleep in an extra 30 minutes.   Marc: Oh, there you go. Little extra sleep is always good. Exactly.   John: So it's good, yeah.   Marc: Well, let's dive in. Let's start with this chapter breakdown. So guys, we've got this story again, kind of a real case study here. So who is Fran? Whoever wants to do the setup here. Tell us a little bit about the story here.   Nick: Yeah, so I'll go ahead and start. So Fran, 62 and single, spent 30 years teaching in public schools kind of up north and decided wanted a change. So about five years ago, she moved south, rented a home, picked up a full-time admin job at a local office, and kind of did it from the standpoint in the sense of it wasn't something that she loved or had always wanted to do. It was just kind of stabilize, get a job, earn some income, and be able to cover bills and figure out what she wants to do.   Marc: Gotcha. And that's fairly normal, right? A lot of people are going down to Florida, doing this snow bird thing. And so for a first time situation, somebody walking in, like you're reviewing this case for somebody who's coming in saying, "Hey, I'd like to talk to you about getting some help." What's a couple of things from just the story setup that stands out to you?   Nick: Yeah. As somebody who kind of helps people plan for a living, I start to twitch a little bit just from the standpoint of it seems like the decisions being made are a bit on a whim and there's not necessarily kind of a broad based strategy put in place. So for example, seeing somebody that had retired as a public school teacher, most likely there's a pension involved. And we'll learn that she had waited on the pension a little bit, but was there an opportunity to take something sooner or not? Obviously with her being under the age of 65, then there's going to be costs associated and probably substantial costs associated with healthcare. So that's something that would factor into the job opportunity that she was looking for.   In this case, she had rented a home, which in situations like this oftentimes does make sense dependent upon where she's coming from, but we don't know if she had sold a previous house or had rented before and then came down to rent as well. So we've got kind of variability and costs associated with a home. And then just getting a better understanding of what other sort of assets are in play and/or what's the game plan, maybe like post 65 are all things that would help us from a planning perspective.   Marc: All right. So let me jump in and do the next piece for you. Kind of a turning point here in the story. A few months ago, guy's, Fran's office restructured. She was offered a new role, more training, longer hours, not much more pay as a single person whose paycheck covers everything, taking on more of roughly the same didn't make a lot of sense so she walked away and unfortunately she got let go, not exactly by choice but not exactly against her will either. So I guess when somebody lands in Fran's position, retired before they planned as well, Nick, as you mentioned, what's the most important thing to get some clarity on? How do you proceed in a situation like that? Now you find yourself without a job.   Nick: Yeah, this tends to be a tricky one and we've kind of run into this where, and it seems like it's happening more. We've seen this more in the last 12 months where people in their early 60s with the expectation of working a few more years and are sub 65, so have to deal with cost of healthcare and that sort of thing have been downsized, and there's substantial difficulty whether they're like a quote unquote highly trained or more specialized position, or in like France position, somebody that had done that previously and had shifted into a role that was maybe not as dynamic as had been and the other way. And so again, kind of having to adjust to whatever's going on and the situation being dictated to her versus maybe being in the driver's seat and having more options on what to do as she moves forward.   Marc: Yeah, that's the risk I think, to your point about not planning, is you're not in the driver's seat, or the catbird seat, right? You're kind of reacting to things on how they go. To that point, what she did next is started drawing Social Security right away at 62, right? So locked that in that early. So you're taking that what, 30% haircut right off the bat there?   Nick: I believe so.   Marc: Yeah. So she also picked up a part-time job at a gym she goes to. Nothing too demanding, keeps a little extra money coming in. So her monthly picture is now looking like 1,450 in social security, about 800 from the gym job, but 1,600 going out in rent before anything else. So how do you react now?   Nick: Yeah, see that's kind of the tough thing at that point, what do we have? 2,250 in income coming in from the social security and the job and a huge percentage of that is just going out just to cover rent.   Marc: Yeah, not utilities, just rent. Yeah.   Nick: Right. Not utilities, not food, not car insurance, not gas, a lot of different things.   John: No vacations.   Nick: Yeah, no vacations, not doing the things that maybe she wanted to do. And so this makes us rewind a little bit even further back, and in retrospect kind of look at as an example. So a conversation with somebody like Fran that we would have probably had if we had met her early on, knowing how dynamically an extra few years of working at a job that has a pension related to it, like a teacher.   So we might have had discussions and kind of doing some projections on maybe even a couple extra years as a teacher and then spending summers in the south, what that could have done to kind of ease her way into it and maybe break up the monotony of what she had been doing over a period of time, making sure that she really understood the impact of taking Social Security at 62 would have.   It's like in this scenario, she doesn't really have a whole lot of other options unless she would have found another full-time job. And what we start to kind of see is that if at that point in life, if somebody's kind of let go and after a few months they haven't had an opportunity to find another position, the freak-out factor really starts to kick in and they want to have something coming in no matter what and ... Go ahead.   Marc: No, I was going to say to that point, you mentioned the Social Security, right, or excuse me, the pension earlier, she's just basically getting by with what she has. What she hasn't touched, and I guess that's where it gets more interesting and I wanted to kind of tee that up since you mentioned that earlier. She hasn't touched that teacher's pension, which she hasn't started yet. 1,100 a month is going to be available but at 65, so you still got a three-year window there, right? But also the 403B with about 210 grand in it that she hasn't touched. So now you can kind of start to factor some of that stuff in. So I guess right now she's basically living paycheck to paycheck. So now you get a bit more of the fuller picture. How does that start to shift some things?   Nick: Yeah. And one of the things that we will see is that people, their normal reaction will oftentimes be to avoid using any sort of investments just because they like the idea, or there's like a psychological aspe

  5. Jun 17

    What Is The Mega Backdoor Roth?

    In this episode, John and Nick explain the Mega Backdoor Roth strategy and how high-income savers may be able to contribute significantly more to Roth accounts through their workplace retirement plans. They break down the rules, requirements, and potential tax benefits, while highlighting who may benefit most from this advanced retirement planning strategy.   Helpful Information: PFG Website: https://www.pfgprivatewealth.com/ Contact: 813-286-7776 Email: info@pfgprivatewealth.com   Disclaimer: PFG Private Wealth Management, LLC is an SEC Registered Investment Advisor. Information presented is for educational purposes only and does not intend to make an offer or solicitation for the sale or purchase of any specific securities, investments, or investment strategies. The topics and information discussed during this podcast are not intended to provide tax or legal advice. Investments involve risk, and unless otherwise stated, are not guaranteed. Be sure to first consult with a qualified financial advisor and/or tax professional before implementing any strategy discussed on this podcast. Past performance is not indicative of future performance. Insurance products and services are offered and sold through individually licensed and appointed insurance agents.   Marc: This week on Retirement Planning Redefined, part two of our conversation about the backdoor Roth IRA. This is the mega backdoor Roth. Let's get into that conversation with John and Nick.   Hey, everybody. Welcome into the podcast. This is Retirement Planning Redefined with John and Nick from PFG Private Wealth. Find the guys online at pfgprivatewealth.com. That's pfgprivatewealth.com. And it sounds like something, guys, out of a, I don't know, out of a superhero story or something. It's the mega backdoor Roth. And that's the topic of the conversation this week. So we're just going to dive right in because there's a lot to cover anyway. So we'll just jump in and get going.   I guess, Nick, if you want, why don't you talk to us, give us a really, really short recap of what we talked about last week for those who may have not listened to that podcast. And then what's to understand what to do if you want more than the IRA limits and just kind of set us up here a little bit for understanding the mega backdoor Roth.   Nick: Sure. So just a quick recap on a Roth IRA and the benefits of it. So contributions typically are with after tax dollars. So income that has already been taxed. The account grows tax deferred, so you don't receive a 1099 each year. And then the withdrawals are tax-free after 59 and a half. The Roth IRAs do not require required minimum distributions, which are nice. And they're a great place to have more of your growth oriented assets because of the tax-free upside and the fact that you can leave a tax-free account to your beneficiaries.   Marc: Gotcha. And I guess some confusion here, guys, and help me out to understand this a little bit, is that we've been thinking about the Roth. We typically just, I've been saying just the Roth, that's the IRA. But because they have now created the Roth 401Ks, that adds a little confusion to the conversation as well. It's always funny because the word contribution and contribution, excuse me, and conversion confuse people. So it just confused me right now. But also 401, the Roth 401k and then the Roth IRA is now confusing people as well too. So are we talking a little bit more about on this episode, that mega backdoor Roth being from the workplace plan? Is that what we're looking at here?   John: Yeah. So we'll have to leave the IRA world and jump into the 401k plans where they have much larger contribution limits, which is where we get our superhero work.   Marc: The mega term. Okay. Yeah.   John: Exactly. We could do a lot more of what we discussed last week. So if you like the benefits Nick went over, this is a great way to really maximize those benefits.   Marc: Okay. Well, let's start with the limits. What are the limits? I guess again, we're in the 401k plan now.   John: Yeah. So for 2026, under the age of 50, standard contribution limit is 24,500. There is a catch-up, and for today's purpose, we'll just talk about the standard contribution. When you are talking catch-ups, just whatever we're discussing, add the catch-up to it. But for today's purpose, to keep it simple because we are going to do a deep dive into some of these numbers, let's just assume standard contribution limit, which for this year, 24,500. And what a lot of people aren't aware of because it typically doesn't apply is your total limit to the 401k contributions. Now this is employee and employer is actually 72,000 for 2026, and that gets adjusted up every year similar to the standard contribution limits.   Marc: Oh, okay. Wow, that is a big number.   John: Yeah, it's mega.   Marc: Yeah, it's mega. Yeah. So why would the IRS build a $72,000 ceiling if they cap the personal down so low? So I guess what's the other 47,500?   John: Yeah. So one of the things that we focus on is 401ks, which comes with employee benefits, perks, things like that. And some people hear the term matches quite a bit.   Marc: Sure.   John: Another one is profit sharings. So that $72,000 limit is basically the IRS saying, hey, the employee can do this amount, and if the employer's going to give X amount of benefits, it really can't go over this $72,000 threshold. So that's pretty much what it is. The IRS basically said, hey, let's put some limits to this so we can't over commit to people or do ... They want to be able to provide a benefit, but not go crazy with it. So that's where we get the number.   Nick: And to kind of summarize that, a away to think about it is that there are standard limits for the employee contributions. And sometimes as an example, we've seen clients say, we've told them, especially new clients, like, "Oh, well, I'm maxing it out when you include the employer match." And it's like, no, those contributions are for your dollars. And then this overall maximum amount that John's referring to is a combination of employee and employee dollars. So it's like two separate tranches within the same year of the same plan.   John: To confuse everyone a little bit more, part of that 72,000 is, if your plan allows it, and we'll dive into this, is what they call the after tax contribution to a 401k. And I know we hit it last week, but that is something that goes into this feature, which is actually older than a Roth 401k, but it's not used very often or not many people are very aware of it, but we'll jump into it today.   Marc: Okay. So the mega backdoor strategy is the employee kind of hacking, if you will, this potentially unused space. So can one of you guys maybe do a numbers example where it maybe will make a little bit more sense for folks?   Nick: Sure. I'll kind of break it down and give an example. So let's say that there's a 40-year-old and because they're under age 50, their standard contribution into their retirement plan is going to be 24,500, so around two grand a month. In this case, their employer matches and the total amount of the match throughout the year is 10,500. So when you combine those two amounts, the total balance for the year, not including any gains or growth is going to be the total amount contributed is $35,000 for the year. So when we go back to that aggregate ceiling that John mentioned, the 72,000. So with our basic math, and if you're not good at basic math, now we have AI that helps us.   Marc: You got 37 grand basically, right?   Nick: Yep. So 72 minus 35 is $37,000. That is the gap or kind of the unused space below the IRS guideline. So that's the number that we can target should the plan allow it to build in or if you have ... All this is dependent upon cash flow, of course, but if you have the cash flow to be able to save additional money into the plan.   Marc: Gotcha. Okay. So that makes a little bit more sense, right? So you've got that space. It's almost kind of like filling up your tax brackets before you move to the next tax bracket, if you want to think about it that way, not to add more confusion to it.   John: Yeah. It's like filling up your gas in your tank here. I got this gap here. Let me, with the rest of this, like we said, Nick said, I said, if the plan allows it, I can do some after tax contribution up to that ceiling.   Marc: So all right, with the Roth 401k existing now, and those contribution numbers are higher, because part of the reason for this hybrid guys, when they made the Roth 401k is you get the income limits of a traditional 401k, but you get the Roth benefits of the Roth IRA. That's why they kind of merged these two together because people often say, "Hey, I make too much money to use a Roth IRA." But the Roth 401k is higher. Isn't this just what this is, just a contribution to a 401k? It kind of feels like it.   John: It’s not because the Roth 401k is a formal tax designation that falls under that standard contribution limit, that 24,500.   Marc: Okay. All right. Back to the standard 24. Okay. Yeah.   John: Yeah. Yeah. So kind of think about it that way. It's that, hey, your pre-tax 401k contribution and the Roth 401k contribution are subject to that standard contribution limit, which in 2026 it's 24,500. And with the Roth 401k, it's after tax money and growth is tax deferred and tax-free distribution. Where the after tax, and we talked about that in detail, it's after tax contribution, but the growth is tax deferred, but the growth if pulled out will be taxed, the earnings on that. So again, kind of caveat to understand the difference between those two contribution types.   Marc: Gotcha.   Nick: Yeah. And in general, a lot of the podcasts that we do are focused on broader base impacts a lot of people. This is definitely a niche sort of strategy. Th

  6. May 19

    Replay: Should You Gift Money While You’re Alive or Leave A Legacy?

    You’ve worked hard, saved well, and now you’re thinking about giving back—maybe to your kids, your grandkids, or a cause you care about. But should you wait and pass that wealth on later, or give while you’re still around to enjoy the impact? Let’s talk about how to make that decision with confidence.   Helpful Information: PFG Website: https://www.pfgprivatewealth.com/ Contact: 813-286-7776 Email: info@pfgprivatewealth.com   Disclaimer: PFG Private Wealth Management, LLC is an SEC Registered Investment Advisor. Information presented is for educational purposes only and does not intend to make an offer or solicitation for the sale or purchase of any specific securities, investments, or investment strategies. The topics and information discussed during this podcast are not intended to provide tax or legal advice. Investments involve risk, and unless otherwise stated, are not guaranteed. Be sure to first consult with a qualified financial advisor and/or tax professional before implementing any strategy discussed on this podcast. Past performance is not indicative of future performance. Insurance products and services are offered and sold through individually licensed and appointed insurance agents.     Marc: Welcome in once again to another edition of Retirement Planning, Redefined with John and Nick, and we're going to talk about gifting money while you're alive or leaving a legacy. You work hard, you saved well, so let's talk about how to gift and leave a legacy.   Welcome into the podcast everybody. Thanks for hanging out with John and Nick and myself as we talk about these topics this week. And guys, it's gifting, right? So I want to go over some basics here. It seems like there's been a trend the last couple of years for people to enjoy their retirement legacy with the family versus the old way of you pass and you'll leave a check, right? Here's your inheritance, we're gone, that kind of thing. So let's talk about that a little bit this week on the show and just kind of see what you guys are seeing in your neck of the woods. How you doing this week, Nick?   Nick: Good, good. How about yourself?   Marc: Doing pretty good's. How's the wedding action coming?   Nick: Planning's moving along.   Marc: Nice.   Nick: Did some, hopefully we got the food picked out, so trying to check off all the big things, so.   Marc: That's important. Got to have that good food going on for sure. Well, good. Kudos. Good. Glad to hear that. And John, my friend, how are you this week?   John: I'm good. I'm good. Summer just started for the kids, so getting used to waking up in the morning and they're hanging out with me as I'm getting ready for work-   Marc: And they're ready to go.   John: Versus me just dropping them off. Yeah.   Marc: That's right.   John: It's a lot of fun.   Marc: There you go. Are you guys seeing this trend that I talked about, not necessarily a new trend. It's been going on for a number of years now, but I think where people just want to maybe enjoy some experiences with their loved ones while they're still here versus just leaving that check, so to speak? Are you guys seeing that in your practice as well?   Nick: Yeah, I'd say so. We've had, what are we on now? A 14, 15 year bull run from the standpoint of people have kind of exceeded what their perspective on goals was for the money that they might have in retirement and, so especially I would say, at least from what I've seen, the vacation side of things is kind of the biggest thing that people have been doing where they'll do a large family vacation and pay for the kids and their families to go so that they can all enjoy that together.   Marc: Yeah, that's very cool. And we'll talk about some of the numbers and things in just a few minutes, but John, I'll kick this over to you. I'd say the first step probably still should be, make sure you are covered first, right? We all want to leave and do things for our kids and loved ones, but don't sacrifice your own retirement in order just to do that. Is that a fair place to start?   John: That is 100% where you should start. The last thing you want to do is start gifting and spending money on a vacation, and then you look at it and you're like, "Oh man, I don't have enough money to live anymore." So first thing we do in this situation where it comes up with clients is like most things we say, we look at the plan and we will stress test it and look at different scenarios to make sure, hey, if this were to happen, how does your plan react to it? So we'll throw out some scenarios out there, whether it's healthcare, inflation, social security, things like that. And if the plan looks solid, we will typically give somewhat of a green light of, we think you should budget X amount for this. Or we can also look at scenarios where Nick talked about vacation, but we've seen some others where it's like, "Hey, I want to help my son, daughter with a home purchase." And with the way prices are going now, it's very difficult for first time homeowners to be buying houses. So we've seen a lot of people basically lending, not giving money to their kids for buying homes. So we will put that in the plan and say, "Hey, what does your plan look like if you were to give X amount for a down payment?"   Marc: Gotcha. Okay. And we'll talk about some of those numbers and ways to do that here in a few minutes. So I would say if step number one, as John pointed out is make sure you are covered. The next step number two is maybe just kind of clarify your motivation. He kind of touched on that a little bit, but why are you giving, I mean, again, we all love our kids. We want to help, but what's the purpose? Is that an important kind of factor to decide through?   Nick: Yeah, I've had some recent conversations where maybe there's specific topics like, okay, we're off conversions, and because somebody has read or seen an article or something like that, the thought process is, all right, well let's go ahead and let's convert all of our qualified money to Roth accounts and leave the money to them. And a tricky thing with that can be, as an example, is maybe their kids are not in the same sort of economic space as they are and they're not going to ever make nearly the same amount of money. Them taking a hit right away from a tax perspective maybe doesn't make sense, so try to take them back to the initial point in, Hey, what's your motivation? What are you trying to do? What's most important to you? Is it making sure that your plan is structured well to protect you first and then start to do some giving while you're alive? Or is it more focused on you want to give after you pass away and let's structure your assets accordingly?   So just so many things, making sure that you fully understand what your objectives are because it can be a little bit of the shiny new thing or a shiny new strategy that weren't familiar with at first or initially, and then once you go through and evaluate it in more detail, maybe it doesn't make a whole lot of sense. But yeah, really understanding how account types work, what your goals are and really what your focus is really important.   Marc: And of course, working with a financial professional is going to help you identify that because often we're not going to know what the account types and the rules and the taxation things are going to be, so that's why you want to turn to the pros on that. So let's get into some of the numbers a little bit, guys, because I actually want to point out a couple of things that based on what you've said so far, and just kind of ask you some clarifying questions on that. But let's start with understanding the gifting rules. So John, what's some of the numbers that we need to know if we just want to gift money in general?   John: So you want to look at what is the gifting amount before you trigger having to file a gift tax return or putting that on your return that you gifted money. So this number changes from year to year typically, and in 2025, it's $19,000 per person. So example, let's say you have a mother, father, and they want to gift to a child. They can each give $19,000 apiece.   Marc: So married couples 38 grand, right?   John: Yes. So that's a good starting point. And then if you have grandkids involved or whatever, you can start gifting to that. So it's $19,000 per person per year without triggering the gift tax filing.   Marc: And that's hefty. Now I'm sure somebody listens going, "I love my kids, but I ain't giving them 38 grand."   John: Again, everyone's situation's different.   Marc: And you can do that. And it doesn't matter if it doesn't have to be family either, right? This could be anybody, right? You can give 19,000.   John: It can be anybody. Yeah. If you want to just find a random person in the street, you're more than welcome to-   Marc: Your favorite podcast host. I mean, podcast hosts need love too, so I'm just saying.   John: Yeah. So that's definitely the starting point. If you're going to be gifting money to any particular individual. If you want to help out with tuition and medical expenses, as long as it's paid directly towards those institutions, you don't have to file any type of gift tax return.   Marc: Now, I wanted to ask you about that because a minute ago you guys were talking about helping with school. Now you can't gift the money and pay the loan, right? It's not paying the student loan, it's paying the tuition. There is a difference there, correct?   Nick: Yeah. And you want to pay it directly to the institution.   Marc: Gotcha. Okay. That's important to know too, right? I'm sure from a tax standpoint as well. All right. What about QCDs, John? Can we do that in that arena as well? If you want to do some gifting?   John: Yeah. So let's explain what that is. So it's qualified charitable distr

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Financial and retirement planning guidance from Certified Financial Planner John Teixeira and Nick McDevitt of PFG Private Wealth Management in the Tampa Bay, FL area. On this show, you'll learn about how the financial and retirement world has evolved over the past several decades, how to properly plan for your own future, and some of the important pitfalls to avoid. PFG Private Wealth Management, LLC is a registered investment adviser. All statements and opinions expressed are based upon information considered reliable although it should not be relied upon as such. Any statements or opinions are subject to change without notice. Information presented is for educational purposes only and does not intend to make an offer or solicitation for the sale or purchase of any specific securities, investments, or investment strategies. Investment involve risk and, unless otherwise stated, are not guaranteed. Information expressed does not take into account your specific situation or objectives and is not intended as recommendations appropriate for any individual. Listeners are encouraged to seek advice from a qualified tax, legal, or investment adviser to determine whether any information presented may be suitable for their specific situation. Past performance is not indicative of future performance.

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