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As financial professionals, we\\u2019re often asked one simple question: \\u201cdo you know what I should buy right now?\\u201d In truth, we don\\u2019t believe it\\u2019s possible to successfully predict market behaviors most of the time. But, we do believe that a qualified financial advisor can help you devise a plan for long-term success. In this episode of Unfiltered Finance, our own Tom Romano, Head of Strategic Relationships and Product Development, is joined by Symmetry\\u2019s Michael Storer, Senior Regional Director, and a financial advisor from our sister firm, Apella Wealth, Peter Leppones, CFP\\xae, to answer a more important question: \\u201cwhat should you consider when choosing a financial advisor?\\u201d
If you have any questions or would like more information, reach out to us at https://symmetrypartners.com/contact-us/
You can also find us on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and LinkedIn. As always, we remain invested in your goals.
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Hello and
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\\xa0welcome to unfiltered Finance. I\'m your host Tom romano.
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\\xa0And thank you for joining us this episode today. We
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\\xa0are talking about choosing the right financial advisor and
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\\xa0I have the perfect guests for this topic
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\\xa0joining us here today first and foremost Mike
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\\xa0store who is a senior Regional director
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\\xa0at symmetry Partners. I asked Mike to be
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\\xa0on the podcast because he works with thousands of financial advisors across
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\\xa0the country. He knows which ones
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\\xa0are doing the appropriate job and due diligence and
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\\xa0planning for their clients and the others who might be dare. I
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\\xa0say fake it Mike faking it and of
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\\xa0course a long time friend of mine Mr. Peter loponis
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\\xa0who\'s a certified financial planner and financial advisor
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\\xa0with Apollo wealth and happens to be
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\\xa0my personal financial planner. So gentlemen, thank you both for joining
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\\xa0us here today. You\'re welcome, Tom. Thanks Tom. Great to be here. I thought
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\\xa0this was appropriate topic for us to discuss.
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you know coming out of the pandemic I travel a
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\\xa0lot for business and I\'ve been on many planes
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\\xa0over the last few months and you know, whether it\'s an
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\\xa0airport or
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Are sitting next to someone on a plane and just bring
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\\xa0up some small talk and people understand
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\\xa0that I\'m working in the financial services a business.
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\\xa0And the first question. I always get is got any
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\\xa0tips. What should I be buying? What
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\\xa0should I be selling? Right? It\'s a very common question and for
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\\xa0years, my response has always been and I\'m
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\\xa0a firm believer of this is the best advice I can give anyone in
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\\xa0that moment is to work with
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\\xa0someone you trust financial planner financial
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\\xa0advisor that\'s working in a fiduciary capacity. I
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\\xa0have a number of reasons why I say that but
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\\xa0Mike I\'d love to hear it from your perspective. Why should
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\\xa0investors people planning for
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\\xa0retirement or for any other Financial need be working
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\\xa0with a financial professional? That\'s a great question.
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\\xa0I think you hit on it at the in your opening
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\\xa0remarks Tom is that
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You know.
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Having traveled the country for many
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\\xa0years working with a number of different types of advisors and meeting
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\\xa0with clients at the same time, you know clients have
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\\xa0different desperate needs in terms of when it
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\\xa0comes to financial Financial advice so they can
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\\xa0certainly learn about it on on a website if they
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\\xa0want to but I found that especially the
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\\xa0best advisors are working working with
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\\xa0clients and from that
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\\xa0perspective. I know who these advisors are.
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And I know they\'re doing a great job for their clients. And for me,
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\\xa0the one thing that comes to mind besides everything
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\\xa0else at a financial advisor does because I think about it in
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\\xa0my own world is comfort and peace of mind, right? There\'s lots
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\\xa0of different moving Parts when it comes to planning.
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And and what you\'re going to do with your money for the long term and even myself
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\\xa0being in this business, I worry about am I making
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\\xa0the right decisions? So I think a lot of it comes down
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\\xa0to peace of mind and comfort. I think that that\'s high
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\\xa0level. There\'s a lot of you can drill down from there
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\\xa0but I think for most clients if you think about it, it\'s getting that
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\\xa0pressure off of you and bringing a
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\\xa0professional and to make sure that you\'re meeting your life goals, whatever those might
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\\xa0be sure. No, absolutely. I think what I\'m hearing you say, I
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\\xa0hear things like planning and long-term and Peter
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\\xa0I\'ll shift over to you. So
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\\xa0what I\'m hearing Mike say and I loved for you to plan
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\\xa0on this when someone asks me got any tips,
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\\xa0why is that the wrong question?
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well, I think
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the answer they\'re looking for everyone wants something
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\\xa0that\'s exciting and and sexy that
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\\xa0they can tell.
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Their friends. I think you\'ve used the term water cooler alpha or
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\\xa0Golf Course Alpha everyone thinks somehow because we\'re
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\\xa0sitting here on the inside. We\'re insiders. We\'ve
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\\xa0got more information than than they do
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\\xa0as as retail investors, but
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\\xa0that\'s just not the case and and it\'s not about
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\\xa0hitting that home run with the stock because
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\\xa0if you\'re gonna be picking individual stocks, there\'s gonna
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\\xa0be some home runs in there, but there\'s got to be some singles and
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\\xa0doubles there\'s gonna be some losers too. It just
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\\xa0it\'s gonna happen statistically, but when
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\\xa0we talk about a plan and what
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\\xa0it can do for you long term the sense of confidence
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\\xa0that it\'s going to give you. That\'s what you really need. Hey, it\'s
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\\xa0great to be able to say Jesus I bought in at this stock when when it
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\\xa0was at 10 and it went to a hundred and in two years. It\'s a
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\\xa0great story, but
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Is better to have a sense of confidence and comfort with your
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\\xa0plan and with your financial outcomes, and that\'s why
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\\xa0sitting down and taking the time to go through a plan with a
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\\xa0cfp with someone who\'s a fiduciary is really in your
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\\xa0best interest versus getting that that hot stock tip.
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\\xa0Yeah, I would agree. The one thing that
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\\xa0I always comes to mind when someone says got any tips the first
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\\xa0thing I\'m thinking well if I had some I wouldn\'t tell you I\'d keep
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\\xa0it all for myself, right? There\'s wildly more Capital
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\\xa0to be to be earned when you keep those secrets to yourself right quick
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\\xa0short story. Tom and
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\\xa0Peter. My son is out in gainfully employed
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\\xa0in the Working World now and he has a little bit of money and he
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\\xa0asked me about a year ago a year and a half ago to Dad what
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\\xa0stocks should I pick? And so I immediately opened
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\\xa0up the Barron\'s journal and
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\\xa0I just looked at the stocks to pick now I said, hey, you
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\\xa0know, if you want to buy some technology, here\'s a bunch of Technology names. I said,
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\\xa0you know, the market has been involved, but if you want to buy stocks, here\'s a
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\\xa0couple of names that you can just
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Your portfolio. So of course he did that on my advice and
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\\xa0then about a year later. He
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\\xa0was blaming me because I\'m the one that picked the stocks from in the
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\\xa0stocks were Downs.
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I just thought that was kind of interesting because it I did
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\\xa0exactly the opposite of what I should have said to him right in terms
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\\xa0of how we should be approaching these but you know, this was play
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\\xa0money for him. So I let him learn a little bit about what it
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\\xa0really means to invest in those types of questions of the wrong questions,
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\\xa0right as you just mentioned Peter and so I thought it was
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\\xa0a really good it was a it was a learning moment for him to understand that
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\\xa0you don\'t just pick stocks and they go up. Oh, absolutely and like
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\\xa0I I actually I do that with with clients. I\'ll
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\\xa0say to them.
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If you want to open up a small account and I
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\\xa0use the term your Casino money. Hey, you got to go to
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\\xa0the casino and sit there and maybe go out to dinner have a drink play the
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\\xa0slot sit at a table if you lose a hundred or 200
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\\xa0or $300.
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It was a night of entertainment you had a good time.
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I see take your Casino money and put it into an account and
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\\xa0buy a couple of stocks and just it\'s it\'s
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\\xa0good education for you. You might learn some valuable
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\\xa0lessons, but you\'re gonna pay really close attention. Even
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\\xa0if it\'s only five or 10 shares of a
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\\xa0company and you\'ll you\'ll learn a lot for it. So I think there is certainly a
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\\xa0value in that but with large sums of Money Retirement accounts
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\\xa0brokerage accounts. Absolutely not none of
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\\xa0this stock picking. It\'s got to be a low cost. Well Diversified portfolio.
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\\xa0So I\'m hearing you say it\'s okay to sit in a
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\\xa0little bit.
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Any bit tiny bit? Absolutely. No, I didn\'t. You
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\\xa0know, I like to play the market myself, but I\'m only doing
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\\xa0that with my my entertainment dollars not my
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\\xa0long-term assets that that my family
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\\xa0and I are going to need at some point in time. Right? So Peter
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\\xa0you\'ve been talking a lot about planning right and and
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\\xa0I\'ve been in this business for a long time as with you
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\\xa0you and I\'ve worked together for many many years. I\'ve noticed
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\\xa0the value proposition of financial advisor
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\\xa0has changed right at one point. It was that
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\\xa0stock picker many many years ago. So this
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\\xa0day and age what what do
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\\xa0you see as the value proposition to a financial advisor?
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In my opinion, it has to be the plan because that\'s
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\\xa0where we\'ve had success as a firm. I\'ve
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\\xa0had success as an advisor clients have had success
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\\xa0following that advice and and really
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\\xa0it\'s about the planning and that\'s the most
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\\xa0valuable advice. I give to my clients. Hey, we\'re with
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\\xa0a low cost. Well Diversified portfolio. We\'re going
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\\xa0to get a market return the market for us
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\\xa0taking risk. We will get a market return and my
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\\xa0return will be no different than my clients because we invest in very similar
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\\xa0similarly constructed portfolios, but
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\\xa0really
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Whether we get an 8% return 9% 10%
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\\xa0return long-term. It\'s really
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\\xa0the plan.
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That is is going to drive all that and just because
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\\xa0their portfolio is up a certain year that that\'s
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\\xa0great and they like to see that.
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But again, the plan is going to say well geez, I
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\\xa0know now I can retire at age 62. I\'m
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\\xa0going to take Social Security at 67 when
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\\xa0I retire at 62.
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I\'m going to be able to pay for my own health insurance until
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\\xa0I hit MediCare at age 65. I mean, those are questions
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\\xa0that aren\'t even related to a rate
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\\xa0of return or a stock pick or any of that. They\'re planning
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\\xa0questions, but they\'re extremely important to people the very
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\\xa0comprehensive list of questions versus should you be in a
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\\xa060% stock 40% bomb for far beyond that
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\\xa0correct? Correct, but it\'s it\'s about the the layers and
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\\xa0the investment management risk reward asset
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\\xa0allocation being allocated appropriately.
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According to your risk tolerance that\'s all part of it. But you
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\\xa0do when I sit down with clients we talk about the
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\\xa0performance we talk about what the markets have been doing and we really start
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\\xa0to get into those those items Healthcare Medicare long
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\\xa0term care gifting money to people grandchildren
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\\xa0setting up a 529
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\\xa0accounts. All those types of things. These
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\\xa0are the goals and the things that are important to clients and they come
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\\xa0through the planning process. Yeah, that\'s extremely valuable right life
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\\xa0comes at you fast, and there\'s a number of instances in
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\\xa0my personal life where I\'ve leaned on you for things that
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\\xa0are fun far beyond investable assets.
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So that\'s that\'s good. So what so far listeners out there.
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\\xa0I mean you\'re looking for a financial professional that
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\\xa0is planning focused.
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But also from a very comprehensive standpoint Beyond
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\\xa0stocks bonds mutual funds Exchange Trade
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\\xa0funds Etc.
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So let\'s one of the things that\'s a
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\\xa0change gears a little bit.
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You know, there\'s over 300,000 financial advisors in
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\\xa0the United States, right? The term
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\\xa0fiduciary comes up quite a bit and I\'m
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\\xa0always surprised maybe I\'m not as surprised
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\\xa0as I once was that investors are don\'t
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\\xa0necessarily understand that sometimes advisors are
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\\xa0acting any fiduciary capacity and sometimes
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\\xa0they are not before we
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\\xa0jump into that.
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Explain to us Peter. What is a fiduciary? Well, it\'s
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\\xa0it\'s the highest standard of care in in
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\\xa0our industry. And I\'ve sort of I\'ve been on both
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\\xa0sides of it. So I have to act in my
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\\xa0clients best interest not only being affiliated with with a
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\\xa0palette but also being a cfp and really
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\\xa0what that comes down to at the end of the day
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\\xa0is the type of
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Investment product. I\'m going to refer to
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\\xa0everything as a product that we put our clients into and
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I\'ve got a really focus on the cost the level
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\\xa0of care below a fiduciary. It\'s
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\\xa0referred to as the suitability standard. Does that mean if I\'m
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\\xa0not a fiduciary? I\'m doing something unethical absolutely not
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\\xa0the last thing I want to do because I again I was there I\'ve worked
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\\xa0with clients where I was just doing by this suitability standard. I
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\\xa0was not a fiduciary at the end of the
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\\xa0day. I\'m putting my clients into something that is putting more money back
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\\xa0into their pocket meaning the fees
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\\xa0and the costs associated with those products are
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\\xa0much lower. We have
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\\xa0no Front End Sales charges. We have no backend sales charges.
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\\xa0So I said to clients that are that are coming on board.
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I will bend over backwards to make sure that you are happy but at some
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\\xa0point if you don\'t realize the value
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\\xa0of our services or you chose to go elsewhere, you
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\\xa0can do that. You\'re going to be able to take what you have here and
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\\xa0move that elsewhere. You\'re not going to be tied up for three or
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\\xa0five or ten years. No surrender charges or big
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\\xa0fees to go acting in their best interest and that helps
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\\xa0to protect them. And I think it\'s extremely important that people
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\\xa0need to ask
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Are you a fiduciary is your firm of fiduciary? And how
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\\xa0do you work? So when?
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Investors are looking for a financial
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\\xa0professional to work with right what I\'m
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\\xa0hearing someone the first things I should look for and they should ask about it potentially
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\\xa0even get it in writing. Are you acting any fiduciary
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\\xa0capacity? Are you acting in my best interest? Correct? They
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\\xa0absolutely should and and interview multiple
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\\xa0people Tom has
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\\xa0been not only a great client. But I\'ve worked
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\\xa0with many of Tom\'s family members. Why because they come to Tom. Jeez
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\\xa0Tom. I\'ve got some questions. Who should I work with? Well talk
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\\xa0to Peter. So if you have a friend or family member who you
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\\xa0know works with an advisor ask for that that person\'s name.
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\\xa0And if they will if you have a friend or family member they\'ll
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\\xa0refer them over if they enjoy working with them. So I think that\'s a
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\\xa0good place to start but interview them there\'s many checklists
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\\xa0online and I think one of the things you want to ask about are
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\\xa0you a fiduciary understand what that means and it\'s
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\\xa0it\'s something important because there\'s
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\\xa0plenty of us out. There aren\'t as many as probably there should
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\\xa0be but there\'s plenty fiduc.
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He\'s out there for you to work with.
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Absolutely. You made a really good point. I was doing a little research.
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Knowing that we were going to have this.
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Talk today the three of us and you know,
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\\xa0the number one way investors find their financial advisors through
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\\xa0through referrals. Right number two is through
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\\xa0you know online searches and things like that. So
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\\xa0I think that\'s that\'s really important
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\\xa0when you\'re looking for financial audience advisor talk to your family
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\\xa0your friends people who have or may have similar Financial
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\\xa0situations as you do but I
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\\xa0think you know, the important thing. Is that the very good question. Are
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\\xa0you acting and a fiduciary capacity at all times, right?
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We talked about the planning process one of the things I want to
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\\xa0touch upon and Mike will turn to you is that sometimes giving
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\\xa0good advice means saying no not giving
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\\xa0the client what they\'re looking for. Right and
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\\xa0I\'ve seen advisors who act
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\\xa0as more of a facilitator
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\\xa0very high service level but whatever the client
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\\xa0wants they they get what are some of the Perils of
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\\xa0that?
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The Perils are that you become all
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\\xa0things to all people and as I think
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\\xa0Thomas you have famously said if everything\'s
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\\xa0important nothing\'s important and
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\\xa0I think from the perspective of advice that we work with
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\\xa0it\'s it\'s you know
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\\xa0when you when you think about that kind of cafeteria style
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\\xa0service.
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It becomes very difficult to.
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Address clients needs concerns or
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\\xa0fears because you know
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\\xa0in terms of of investment investment advice,
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\\xa0if you\'re if you\'ve got clients that are in individual stocks
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\\xa0and you have clients in Diversified portfolios, or they\'re in a more passive
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\\xa0investment or they\'re in a tactical investment. You\'re constantly
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\\xa0pivoting to try to answer questions to
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\\xa0all these different constituencies within your practice what we
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\\xa0find in our in our work is that you know advisors that
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\\xa0have a philosophy advisors have a way that
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\\xa0they approach the capital markets and how they construct portfolios I
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\\xa0tend to do the best because their clients are like-minded and
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\\xa0it keeps them in their seats even when markets are
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\\xa0difficult. So having a
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Kind of a carte blanche or
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\\xa0I like to say cafeteria style investment or at
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\\xa0least offering makes it more difficult for you to keep your
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\\xa0clients in line. I think over time and I think what I
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\\xa0like like best about being at symmetries, we do have that investment philosophy. That\'s
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\\xa0straightforward. It doesn\'t deviate and most
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\\xa0of the advice that work with us tend to have
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\\xa0that same philosophy. The interesting thing about that too is you notice
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\\xa0when markets are fairly volatile which where this is really important
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\\xa0is that you know investors that
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\\xa0kind of adhere to similar investment
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\\xa0strategy like symmetries is that they tend
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\\xa0to have less gap between What markets are doing and what
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\\xa0their Investments are doing because they tend to stay in their seats. They\'re not
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\\xa0moving around behaviorally moving in and out of the market or moving in and
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\\xa0out of Investments. And I think that\'s sometimes can be the
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the offshoot of having a strategy where
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\\xa0you\'re just trying to be everything to everybody.
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I\'m going to unpack use it a lot of really yeah, I get
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\\xa0there. Sorry, but no. No, I just want to make sure our listeners get it to get
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\\xa0some really really good insight there Mike. So first
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\\xa0and foremost you talk about an investment philosophy
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\\xa0and what I\'m hearing you say is that we\'re talking
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\\xa0about advice, right and if someone wants to
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\\xa0give advice you have to have a stake in the ground.
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You have to have that place where your your view on
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\\xa0how Capital markets work?
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And if you don\'t have that view you might fall into that
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\\xa0facilitator capacity.
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The other thing that she said I\'m glad you
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\\xa0said it as you talked a lot about behavior and what I\'m hearing you
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\\xa0say is the study we\'ve used many times the dial
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\\xa0bar study for our listeners. Could you talk a little bit about what that dial bar
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\\xa0research shows us sure is that it shows that the the investor
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\\xa0over, you know?
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Many time periods. I mean they updated every year but it goes
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\\xa0back a number of years and it looks at what investors
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\\xa0do in terms of investing in
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\\xa0the let\'s say the S&P 500 as an index versus what the
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\\xa0index does and we find year in and year out that investors
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\\xa0tend to underperform the
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\\xa0index and the question always is Peter and you know this why
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\\xa0and it\'s because they\'re holding period is
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\\xa0tends to be I think it\'s less it used to be in the old days three
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\\xa0three plus years now. It\'s three minus here. It\'s less
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\\xa0than three years of holding period of time, which means they\'re
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Behaviorally trying to in some
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\\xa0ways time the market and so what we
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\\xa0try to do at least in as I talk
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\\xa0to advisors is to try to educate them and educate clients as
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\\xa0well that you know, we want to close that Gap we
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\\xa0call that the the performance Gap right?
368
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\\xa0There\'s a gap between what investments do and what the investor
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\\xa0does right? We know this plenty of Dad out
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\\xa0there to show that so how do we do that? Peter had talked about a little
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\\xa0bit earlier is we look at things like, okay, what\'s important? How do
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\\xa0we close that Gap? It comes from financial planning. It comes
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\\xa0from portfolio selection, not necessarily portfolio
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\\xa0management, but portfolio selection in terms
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\\xa0of picking the right model of the right strategy for for clients
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\\xa0education and communication with clients. I
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\\xa0think those are great ways that we see that behavioral Gap
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\\xa0closing through time and that and
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\\xa0ends up being a an experience
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\\xa0that clients will be with their advisors for a long time
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\\xa0because you focus on the things that matter not the investment
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\\xa0itself.
383
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a great computer
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You\'re the the man in the seat here. So talk
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\\xa0to us a little about that. Right? I mean that dial bar study is
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\\xa0pretty telling every year investors are underperforming.
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You focus on planning. How does planning help with the
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\\xa0long-term thinking that is required for
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\\xa0successful experience. It comes into
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Not only the planning but educating clients and
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\\xa0communication and the example I\'ll use and we were
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\\xa0all.
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working from back home during the the pandemic and
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the markets dropped about a
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\\xa0third
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so about 33% in about a month\'s time thinking
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\\xa0the numbers are 33% over 34 days 1/3.
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And we\'re sitting here stuck at home. We think the world is going
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\\xa0to end and my message to my clients because
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\\xa0it\'s the message of our firm message that I truly believe.
401
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And it wasn\'t easy.
402
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No, we\'re not doing anything this too shall
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\\xa0pass.
404
00:20:00.600 --> 00:20:03.600
You know, this is the.com bubble. This
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\\xa0is 911. This is the
406
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\\xa0great financial crisis of 2008.
407
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It doesn\'t necessarily matter what the event
408
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\\xa0is because everyone know Peter is a pandemic. It\'s different like you\'re
409
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\\xa0right, but you\'re not it\'s the uncertainty and what
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\\xa0lo and behold what happens after the
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\\xa0market drops a third.
412
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In March February and to March it
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\\xa0shoots back up. It comes roaring back why we
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\\xa0had no vaccine. We still were unemployment had
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\\xa0still not hit its peak because of
416
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\\xa0all the you know, retail and entertainment losses
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\\xa0that that took place in in this country and around the
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\\xa0world. We still have this crazy election in front
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\\xa0of us. There was still uncertainty but why why did it happen and I
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\\xa0don\'t think there\'s necessarily an answer but the lesson learned
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\\xa0is we stay in our seats regardless of what\'s going on because
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\\xa0the markets have they\'ve always come back and I
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\\xa0believe any time we hit something.
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They\'ll come back again. We just don\'t know when so that
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\\xa0experience because I I think
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\\xa0you use the term staking in the stand or stake in the ground. That was my
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\\xa0stake in the ground. And now as we went through all of this in
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\\xa02022 with all of the uncertainty and inflation and
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\\xa0gas prices and all of that impacting
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\\xa0the markets interest rates being increased.
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People said yeah, I remember what you said back during the
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\\xa0pandemic. So yeah, okay that that makes sense. It\'s the
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\\xa0messaging my messages consistent.
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And when people hear that, there\'s a sense of confidence like, you know what he was
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\\xa0right last time. He\'ll probably be right this time, too.
436
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Fantastic, and I remember that Panda right that
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\\xa0first quarter of 2020 was one of the top 10 worst
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\\xa0quarters in the United States history going back to 1926. The
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\\xa0second quarter of 2020 was one of the top 10
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\\xa0best quarters the United States ever experienced going
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\\xa0back. And and the funny thing is if we had
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\\xa0been if we had moved our money out of we did
443
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\\xa0not stay calm and we moved money out
444
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\\xa0of the market in March. What would
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\\xa0we have missed? When do we get back in? It\'s it\'s
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\\xa0difficult. It\'s difficult to sit there
447
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\\xa0when the market is dropping and say my gosh we have to do
448
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\\xa0something but you\'re also playing the same game when you get out. It\'s like
449
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\\xa0well if you get out, okay well, but then the market will eventually
450
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\\xa0come back. Well, when do you get back in?
451
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And and and we just see long-term what the
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\\xa0results are you\'re better off.
453
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Staying going dealing with the rollercoaster ride
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\\xa0staying in your seat versus making rash decisions based
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\\xa0upon fear and emotion Peter Michael. Thank you so much
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\\xa0for joining us here today that concludes part one of our discussion
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\\xa0on choosing the right financial advisor. I look
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\\xa0forward to continuing the conversation at part two, and if you want to
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\\xa0look at any of our previous unfiltered Finance podcasts, they\'re
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\\xa0available wherever you might be getting your podcast today. So,
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\\xa0thank you till next time bye-bye.
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Symmetry Partners LLC is an
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\\xa0investment advisor firm registered with the Securities and
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\\xa0Exchange Commission The Firm only transacts business
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\\xa0in states where it is properly registered or excluded
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\\xa0or Exempted from registration requirements registration
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\\xa0of an investment advisor does
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00:23:11.700 --> 00:23:14.900
\\xa0not imply any specific level of skill or training and
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00:23:14.900 --> 00:23:17.400
\\xa0does not constitute an endorsement of the firm
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\\xa0by the commission. No one should assume that future performance
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\\xa0of any specific investment investment strategy
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\\xa0product or non-investment related content
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\\xa0made reference to directly or indirectly in
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\\xa0this material will be profitable.
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As with any investment strategy there is the possibility of
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\\xa0profitability as well as loss due to
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\\xa0various factors including changing market conditions.
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\\xa0And/or applicable laws the content
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\\xa0may not be reflective of current opinions or
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\\xa0positions. Please note the material
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\\xa0is provided for educational and background use only moreover.
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\\xa0You should not assume that any discussion or information
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\\xa0contained in this material Services the
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\\xa0receipt of or as a substitute for personalized
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\\xa0investment advice.