Introducing Our Signature Life Concept

If you could have a candid conversation with financial advisors who have decades of experience helping professionals, business owners, and families just like yours plan for their financial future, what questions would you ask? I'm Chip Munn, financial advisor, author, host, and CEO of Signature Wealth Group. For decades, my partners and advisory teams have had the opportunity to answer the tough questions for hundreds of our clients. Now we want to do the same for you. On the Signature Life Show, you'll hear answers to your burning and most perplexing finance, investing, and retirement questions from our Chief Investment Officer, Senior Wealth Advisors, Certified Financial Planners, and more. We aren't just financial advisors. We're parents, children, community leaders, and entrepreneurs with a passion for helping empower our clients to live life intentionally, what we call a Signature Life. Welcome to the Signature Life Show. I'm Chip Munn, one of your hosts. I am the CEO of Signature Wealth Strategies, and I'm joined today by my co-host John Tate. John, what's up, man?

Chip, how are you on this fine Friday?

I am fantastic. Just really quick, John, for anybody who doesn't know you, kind of as we're getting the show started, tell us a little bit about John Tate.

Oh, there are so many people that don't know me, and that can be okay sometimes, but I am a senior wealth advisor with Signature Wealth Strategies and I've been doing this for more than 20 years now. And so there's still new things I learn in this business and learn about people on a daily basis. But you would think with that level of experience, those things would be few and far between. That's just not the case in our industry, is it, Chip?

No, it's interesting to me that, John, we like to tell people that most of the time the things that they are dealing with may be a once in a lifetime thing for them. But you and I both with 20+ years of experience, most things aren't a once in a lifetime thing for us. And so it is awesome. For us to get together every week and to have conversations about the things that go on in life that matter to our clients and the things maybe that we've seen during the week. John, I thought maybe to begin things as we're kicking the show off, be important to talk a little bit about the name of the show, the name of our company. You've done a lot of research, so folks will learn you're the researcher in this crowd. You're the brains, I'm the mouth. That's the way I like to describe our relationship. When you've done your research on signatures, what makes a great signature?

Do you own anything that has an autograph on it, Chip?

As a matter of fact, if we were on video, you could see that behind me I have an autographed jersey, Christian Wilkins. I'm a big Clemson fan. Christian Wilkins is my favorite football player of recent memory. So I've been known to pick up an autograph or two.

Now, what makes that particular autograph or that particular jersey special to you?

Well, that particular autograph and jersey are because I have fond memories of watching this particular person play. My sons and I went to the 2016 Clemson National Championship, and for anybody who saw or paid attention particularly to the after show, I'm a big guy, John, and Christian is a defensive lineman, and Afterward did a toe-touch split And so he's just my kind of guy. I can't do a toe-touch split, but from there on out, he just had the zest for the game that I appreciated. And so it's a fond memory for me.

And so there are some ties to that person, that jersey, that time in your life that makes it special. So it might be from those standpoints more special to you than it might be to somebody else who was looking to maybe pick that out of a lineup or something like that. Chip Munn: But with signatures in general, autographs in general, timing is everything. I mean, you look at what happened at the time that that particular piece of memorabilia, that piece of Americana, that piece of history was autographed and look at what was happening. And that, the timing of it can sometimes make something more valuable than another item signed by the same person, but on a different date. For example, John F. Kennedy happened to sign an issue of the Dallas Morning News on November 22nd, 1963. And I don't know that, you know, something happened to him on that date that was very important. And the fact that he signed that issue of the newspaper made that signature, that piece of memorabilia, more valuable than really any of his other signatures that you can find today. And then also you get good value out of seeing two famous people talk to one another. Correspond with one another. You know, maybe there's an example of Abraham Lincoln writing a letter to Ulysses S. Grant and gives you kind of a window into that time period. Because as you know, things that we can't go back and edit are very important because you get a snapshot of what that person or those people were thinking in that moment in time, and that can never be changed again. And so those types of things can be valuable. I don't know that necessarily you were thinking about those types of signatures when you came up with the name Signature Wealth Strategies and vis-à-vis the Signature Life Plan, what we use to help our clients get from point A to point B. Maybe give our listeners a background of what you were thinking and why that word means something to you that you wanted to use it in the name of your company.

Sure. Well, because my wife spent years in marketing, and one of the things when we were deciding to start our own company, the question that she asked me was, "What's one word that you can think about that really is what you want to be the thing that describes your new company?" And the word that I came up with, or the word that really struck me, was unique. Because for us, we're a big believer that every person, every client that we work with, every team member that we work with, are unique people. And unfortunately, Unique Wealth Advisors or Unique Wealth Strategies seemed a little bit weird. Maybe the URL was taken. I don't remember. But when I thought about it, again, kind of the two thoughts were, what's the most unique thing about a person? It's either their signature or their fingerprint. Again, Fingerprint Wealth, probably not a good name. And so for me, it really centered around the idea that, you know, a signature is a unique thing that each of us have. And I think our lives are very much like that, and our planning for people's lives are based around— you mentioned the Signature Life Plan. The reason that we named it that was because we really want to be able to understand and customize what is most important to someone so that their money and their unique values, their unique wants and goals and wishes are lined up.

Well, that's very interesting. I had never really thought about that before. I'd always wondered that myself. Our branches here in Leland and in New Bern have been part of the Signature Wealth Strategies Group since 2018. So it's been a few years. I can't believe that I've never actually asked you that question, or if I have asked you that question, I didn't remember the answer. So you can see me taking notes. So I've written it down now. I won't have to ask you what that is about again, but that is very interesting. And I would say that That is probably one of the items that I think draws a lot of our advisors together, because when we're all in the same room and we're all talking about different strategies that we use, it does all come down to the strategy that we're using for a given client is specific to them. It's unique to them. And we have customized it in some way that it only fits them. And each client is a little bit different. Their needs are a little bit different. Every time we meet with them, I think you and I both look at it in, yes, there are going to be some things that are similar. There's some similar vein between nearly all of our clients, but that line has branches to it, and those branches make everything that we do for each of our clients a little bit different. I do like that about the company. I like that about our advisors, and that's what we hope this show is, as well, a little bit unique, a little bit different. You know, I think we'll try to go out of our way to find different ways to talk about how we plan with folks and for folks. And I like that. I think that's a good show to start on, don't you? Yeah.

And I think it's important to point out life's made up of moments. You mentioned earlier that certain moments just mean more, certain days just mean more. And I think that a big part of our business is not really just helping people plan for things, helping people live that life. And if you look at the Signature Life Plan, one of the reasons that we call it that is because the money is the vehicle for funding the life, not the other way around. And so by designing a plan and a life that works, then we can align our money with that. And I think that's really important because I don't know about you, John, but I know that in my day-to-day, I think I'm probably one of the few advisors, at least where we live, that talks to people about spending money, not just investing and saving, but getting to a point where you actually enjoy and/or share, whether it's with charity or with family. That's all part of what makes life worth living. And so I think that for us and the way that we plan, that's a big part of it, is really building out life plans that are funded by money and taking a deeper dive than just the investments.

And when you say life plan, those two words together can sometimes make people hesitate about even getting started because it's such a big topic to cover, a life plan. One of the things that we come back to in our business is, "A good plan today is better than a perfect plan tomorrow." And I don't necessarily remember who said that first, but it is something that we use and we look at because the strategic plans that we create for folks, I mean, everybody knows this is a living document that we're creating. It is going to change over time, but unless you have a plan today, you're not going to be able to live the life that you want to tomorrow. And so Getting some of those pieces in place, we can help with taking such a big notion, a life plan, and breaking it down into smaller, more easily digestible pieces and get you from point A to point B, the planning for your life to the living your life part. And I don't know that there's a better way to put it, but that's kind of how I think about it anyway.

Chip Munn: Yeah. The key is just to start. The old journey of 1,000 miles begins with one step. I would say we just want to be intentional. Everything that we do is about being intentional in how we live our lives and how we deal with our investments. It's just a process, so it's never going to necessarily end. It's just one of those things that for me, I would just say we don't want folks to feel intimidated. The key is just to start and to start with what you have. And we'll talk next time in our next episode, we'll get into kind of what it's like to do one of these plans and kind of what goes into it. But I think really at the end of the day, John, for this first episode, I think the point that we want to make first is just to embrace the fact that you're unique, that you are who you are and you want what you want. And that's completely okay. I deal with so many folks who have a hard time with that. And so part of this process is to understand what you can do if you want to. And I think there are a lot of folks— again, one of the things that I like to be able to do is help unlock extra life for people by showing them what's possible. And I think that's a big part. And again, to your point, John, that's what this show's for. So in these episodes, we're going to bring in other advisors to talk about experiences that they have with clients. We're going to bring in experts or folks who— when I say expert, I just mean at living. Folks who've experienced some things and that we think will bring value to our listeners to understand some of the different— there are so many ways you look at retirement. That means so many different things to different people, and there are so many different ways that people do retirement. And I think that one of the coolest things is to be able to expose folks to other ways of doing things. And so we're going to be doing that from both angles, from the professional side, but also bringing in folks who've done it and letting you listen to or share with people on how their actual experience has been. And I think that's one of the most valuable things, John, that we can do.

Yep. That's why we're doing this show. That's why we get together and have these conversations, not only with you and I, but with other folks, like you said. And I now have a good goal for today., and it's not going to be a toe-touch split, but just to be able to touch my toes. That's going to be my goal for today, Chip. Start with small, manageable goals.

I think it's a good one. Baby steps, John. Not everybody can run a Spartan race every weekend.

This is correct.

But for those of you listening, we just want to take a minute to say thank you. We look forward to bringing you the show every week. And John, let's do it again next week.

Next Friday.

Thank you for sitting in on this candid conversation with our team. This show aims to inform, inspire, educate, and sometimes entertain you, our listener. If you enjoy the show, please subscribe, share it with a friend, and help us empower others to plan their future with confidence. If you're interested in evaluating your own financial and retirement plan, go to signaturewealth.com/scorecard to download a copy of our Signature Life Scorecard now. If you'd like to speak with an advisor, Go to cinjurwealth.com and choose the location nearest you to schedule the meeting at your convenience. Our advisors are always expecting your call.