Legacy & Long-Term Care: A Strategic Guide to Planning for the Future (Ep. 23)

Well, what does coal mining, legacy planning, life insurance, and long-term care have in common? And what does my past have to do with the growth that we're having at Ideas by Mike? On today's show, I'm going to introduce you to Scotty, a great Italian from just a little north of West Virginia, who in his job, in his day-to-day job, listens to people and helps them get through the toughest things they need to face in life. Do I have enough life insurance? How do I prep my legacy? And then, how do I take care of myself at the end of the life? That's today on the Ideas by Mike podcast.

Welcome to Ideas by Mike, the podcast with Mike Milligan, where you will find one-of-a-kind financial planning advice for your one-of-a-kind life. With over 22 years of experience as a Certified Financial Planner, Mike shares experiences and advice on crafting simple, easy-to-understand financial plans based on your values and Priorities. He believes that taking a personalized approach is the best way to prepare for the future and give meaning to your finances. So follow along as Mike, and from time to time his guests, explore different strategies and tools that could help you secure your financial future in retirement. Now on to the show. Hello and welcome to the Ideas by Mike podcast with your host, Mike Milligan. I'm Wendy McConnell. Hey there, Mike, how are you today?

I'm, I'm doing great today, Wendy. I cannot wait to introduce, like I've already done in the intro, a little more about who Scotty is on our team and, uh, just open up the talent depth that's on our team even more to our listeners. So, uh, so Scotty, um, I, I, I've already, already told your story about how we got introduced, but I want to, I want to dive a little bit deeper into who you are, right? We know that you're the legacy specialist that focuses on long-term care, life insurance, disability, and legacy with us. But, but, but Scotty, who are you really? Let's, uh, let's talk about your story.

Appreciate that, Mike, and I thank you for this opportunity. Um, I'll just dive right in. So I grew up on the border of Ohio and West Virginia in a place called Dilly's Bottom, Ohio. Spending most of the time with my grandparents, my pap and my mom. From a young age, I learned to love and value you know people and the hard work that you know we offer. I was going to be a coal miner or a carpenter before someone changed my direction completely. I always liked this girl in my school who had a full ride academic scholarship to the highest state university. You can see where this is going. One day I told my memo that I was going to marry that girl. I only knew her from passing in the hall. I put a pop can on her car antenna one day at lunch, you know, to allow me to introduce a conversation to her. I've talked to her every day since. From there, you know, I needed to understand my purpose and where I was going to go. Um, she basically encouraged me to give it the old college try. So when it was time for her to go to Ohio State, I followed her and I enrolled in Columbus State Community College. From there, my mom was there at the orientation with me to schedule my classes. I didn't have a clue what I wanted to study. I remember her reading Uh, a major or a description, personal finance. And I, you know, perked up and she basically said, you've always been good with your money and you've always loved to help people. So from there, I, I just knew that was my calling and that was my passion. So after graduation from Columbus State, uh, I needed to further my education and I got accepted to Ohio State. From there, I was able to find The CFP track in my major, Consumer and Family Financial Services. Just further validation of that's what I'm supposed to do and where I'm supposed to go. From there, I was able to get a minor in business as well. And there's kind of a funny correlation, you know, with the story. But as I said, I was going to be a coal miner or a pipeliner, you know, carpenter tradesman, if you will. In my free time, I get to own and operate my own handyman business. So that's, that's a full circle moment for me. Um, I always say, I don't care if I'm helping you with your financial plan, a screwdriver, you know, I'll get your groceries, wash your car. I'm, I'm just here to help people. From there, I've spent over a decade in the financial services industry, um, you know, starting anything from customer service, um, Advisor, you know, roles and, you know, just climbing the ladder and blessed to have found Ideas by Mike. And, you know, in my current role, I get to make connections. I hear stories and I get to share mine when appropriate. From the information that's given to me, I get to provide recommendations and put protection in place. I always call my first introduction meeting to our people an intro to legacy conversation. And I get, I, I take pride in being a good listener. I'll ask people, where are you from? What's your family situation? What do you do for work? What do you do for fun? Tell me about your favorite family recipe, et cetera. Ultimately, I be— I get to become your friend for life because that is who I am and what I love to do.

Well, Scotty, that, I mean, that story there, we gotta dive, we gotta break that down just a little bit here. Right. Not only for— really just for me, because you said some things in there that I just don't know what in the heck they are. What is a plop can?

Sorry, pop can. Soda can.

Oh, you put a soda can on her antenna to generate interest from her. That is clever, man. That is how you— so that is how you knew who your future wife was. But you put a soda can, a pop can on her car to get the conversation started. Boy, was she, was she receptive to that?

She was. I think she was blindsided, but you know, that's just kind of how I do business. So basically it was one of those situations where, you know, she had it all figured out and I was just, you know, a tumbleweed. You know, I told my friends, you know, family, everybody that, you know, she, You know, was who I ultimately wanted to marry. And I even got some of that feedback of, you know, don't do that. You, you know, you'll embarrass yourself. You know, some of the this and that. But I never gave up. And yeah, she was very receptive. Um, I did have one class with her. Um, it was a history class, a government class. And this is funny with the pop can story. She had a, we had a mutual friend and I asked him for her number. And he wouldn't give it to me. So that, you know, it was kind of hindering my, you know, your plan all along. Yeah. So he went into the gas station. I can't lie. I, I got the number out of his phone and, uh, that's how I texted her. But the, you know, of course I said, hey, this is Scotty. You know, I put that lemonade can on your car. And, uh, ultimately I asked her about our government test and She knew me enough to know that I wasn't really interested in the government test. It was just, you know, something I needed to say.

So the other thing that we gotta dissect, and, you know, I don't know if this is gonna, I don't know which way this is gonna go, but we gotta talk about The Ohio State University. You are, you are, you're still a huge fan of Ohio State, aren't you?

Oh yeah. Big Buckeye. Still associated with them. I'm a member of their Financial Planning Association. I still have a lot of contacts there, and, you know, I do what I can to make it to a game or two.

So today I am on this podcast with the fans of champions because Ohio State was the college football champions this year, and Wendy and her Philadelphia Eagles were the NFL champions this year. So man, what an honor to be around champions, fans of champions today.

I love it.

You have to say it right though.

The Ohio State. The Ohio State. Right.

I feel like, I feel like we should pause right there and play a clip of like that band member like dotting the I like they do before every game. It's one of the best traditions in football is when their band comes out before the game on their home field and they dot the I. Boy, it is something else.

It's awesome. It's a great tradition.

And Scotty, you're still living in Ohio, correct?

Yep.

Yeah. That's the beautiful thing about the Ideas by Mike team is we are a virtual financial planning firm that is all around the country. And Scotty represents the Midwest for us very well, him and Joseph up in Detroit. So Scotty, let's talk a little bit about the role. And I'm going to talk about the one-of-a-kind financial plan a little bit because that's what we do, right? one-of-a-kind financial plans because our clients are living a one-of-a-kind life. But the tax planning and investment planning and retirement income planning, which is like the front, that's really like what the one-size-fits-all companies around the country do. The Fisher Investments, the Edward Jones. I mean, that's what they do, right? One of the things that differentiates us is legacy planning. It's that whole chance to Be the person who takes care of your older self, because really the only person you can count on to take care of your older self is your younger self. And then it's that legacy plan where we can say, I love you, when we're gone because of the detailed and organization. So let's talk about— and you said when you meet with somebody for the first time who's either already a client or a prospect with us, You have a meeting with him. So you've already given some of the questions, but let's talk about that. Let's talk about some of the stories you've had come out of that, about that first meeting and about how important it is to have the legacy conversation now.

Yeah, absolutely. It's powerful because at the end of the day, I can't provide any service or recommendations unless I know who you are, where you're from, and where we're going to go. It's the conversation of this. You know, and bridging that gap. So at the end of the day, I, I mean that it's truly a conversation, you know, just like this. It's, it's allowing me to ask you questions, to give me a piece of you to, that way we can collaborate and come up with a solution for you. I don't take it for granted. Like you said, everybody's one of a kind. Everybody's, you know, has a unique story to tell.

Yeah.

The other day this week, I spoke to a lady for 2 and a half hours. First time I ever got to talk to her. And we had just such a good conversation. We talked about everything from health, gardening, handyman, life, family. I mean, you name it, just everything. And by the end of the call, you know, she let me know that she wants to introduce me to some of her family and her friends. And it's, it's just that powerful to be able to talk to somebody as a human and let them know that somebody has their back.

Yeah, it is. Um, you know, the industry neglects— the, the general industry, not us, because we're, you know, we're one-of-a-kind firm— but the general industry kind of neglects and puts off, you know, what legacy really means. I mean, so let's break down a couple things, right? And so Legacy is, a legacy can be dollars you leave behind as a wealth transfer. It can be structuring it correctly with a will, a trust, power of attorney, documents that take care. But there's more to a legacy, right? It's the stories of, like, for me, it's like my grandmother taking a potato after I came home from elementary school and slicing it up and making homemade potato with it, right? It's the conversations, like the walks through the neighborhoods. It's the trips that we all get together. And one of the things that people don't realize about legacy is that there are some stats out there about how people are dealing with their legacy, right? And I want to give a couple, and I want you to share how we solve some of these problems, okay? So out in the United States, Let's talk about life insurance. Approximately 52% of Americans have life insurance coverage, but that leaves a significant portion without protection. I always say when I hear that stat that GoFundMe is not a good life insurance plan because that's what we also see on Facebook, right? Can you talk about some of the solutions we have to help people with life insurance for when the unexpected really wrecks Your plans.

Yeah. And, and my opinion is, you know, this is the easiest way to protect your family when one of the worst things in life's gonna happen. And ultimately we'll all be there one day. Again, in my opinion, it's the most selfless thing that you could ever do in your life, you know, and it sets your family up for an ease, a little bit of an ease when something, you know, is taken away from them. Uh, you know, some of the things that I do here in my role is, like you said, you know, life insurance planning, estate planning, you know, document planning, you know, with the wills, with the trust, and just the full, you know, embodiment of your legacy plan, you know, and just wrapping that all together.

Uh, let's say I'm a client, Scotty, and, you know, I'm not Mike from Ideas by Mike, but I, but I come to you and we've had a, you know, a 30-minute conversation. I was like, yes, Scotty, I mean, I I am part of the minority. I'm part of the 48% of Americans who don't have life insurance. What do you do to help them? How do you determine what coverage I would need? And then how do you, you know, see it through to completion?

Yeah. So basically I'd ask you a series of questions regarding, you know, potential debts, income replacement, you know, whether it's something you think it's, you know, term to perm is the solution. You know, if it's something where we're trying to overfund an IUL to grow money, you know, just really trying to understand what you see as a vision. And from there, you know, it's a continued conversation.

And so, um, this is, uh, this is another stat. So that's great. So you would actually, you know, go through the process, hold my hand, and make sure that I get what I need, right?

Absolutely.

This is another industry stat. And so I'm not Mike the client now, I'm back to I'm back to Mike, the podcast host. There's always this underinsurance concern, right? So we have over 100 million Americans feel they need more life insurance coverage, including— this indicates that there is a substantial underinsurance issue. Based off what you see in the conversations you have, do you feel like people are underinsured?

I do. And what I'm, what I hear a lot of times is, well, I have life insurance through work. Well, at the end of the day, you know, that's tied to your employment. You know, depending on the type of insurance, it could go away. It can increase. You know, there's a lot of, you know, kind of negatives. It's great, you know, that they offer that as, you know, part of your benefits package, but we got to think outside the box a little bit. And I think it's worth, you know, having supplement insurance, you know, in place while we're the youngest we'll ever be. It's a weird thing to think about where the oldest we'll ever be at the same time we're the youngest, not the oldest we'll ever be at that point in time, you know, for underwriting purposes, you know, you're not getting any younger. So it's just important to try to, you know, dive into it as soon as you can.

The One of a Kind Financial Plan is here to help you address issues with taxes, retirement income, investment management, long-term care, and legacy. If you want to have a one-of-a-kind financial plan built for you, reach out to us. You can go to our website, email us, reach out to our phone at 757-909-7151, or visit us on the socials because you deserve a one-of-a-kind financial plan because you're living a one-of-a-kind life. We've got a lot of life insurance in place on our clients because I've had this legacy this legacy part of being a comprehensive financial planner for all of these years. But one of the things that I often find when people have this legacy conversation, and right now it's become such a huge issue because of what I call TikTok insurance. TikTok, the social media platform, is where people have said, You know, indexed universal life is the way for retirement, right? Gives you all of these benefits. And the TikTokers are talking about all the pros and cons, or they're talking about all the pros in that there's no cons to TikTok insurance or indexed universal life. Are there some negatives of indexed universal life, Scotty?

There can be. You know, while life insurance Can't solve every financial problem. When it's structured properly, it can do a lot of good. I agree, Mike, because a lot of those times we see those IULs, you know, put money into an IUL, you can buy a house, you know, and that's, there's some truth there, but at the same time, you know, it takes proper guidance and proper funding and proper strategy to see that through. So to answer your question, yes, it can be a useful tool and You know, as far as the, the TikTokers, it, it can have some cons with, you know, how it's addressed and how it's, uh, introduced, in my opinion.

Yeah. One of the things I see on the TikTok or Instagram, right? Because, you know, um, the, the Instagram IUL champions, right? Who say this is the only solution is, you know, the reality is, Cotty, it's their only solution. Um, you know, they see, uh, uh, I'll, I'll put on your handyman hat for a minute. They see, uh, They see a hole in the wall, right, when they're going in to fix somebody's problem. Like, there's a hole in the wall, right? So they, uh, uh, their solution is to cover the hole. But, but, you know, why is the hole there? Is there because there's a pipe leaking behind there? And, uh, you know, you got to fix it or just the hole's going to come back, right? But the TikTok IUL folks, or they're just selling IULs for every solution, right? And, uh, and we don't, uh, you know, taking your role as a legacy specialist or your outside work as a handyman helping those in your community who need, right? You got to find what the root cause is or what the root problem is, and then don't fix the surface issue, right? Fix the main cause. And IULs, if structured properly, just like guaranteed universal life or term life or some other form of whole life, you know, They all could solve a problem, but you just got to figure out which one is right for you. There's 2 other stats here that I just want to get your opinions on, right? So, 38% of Americans say their household would face financial hardship within 6 months should a primary wage earner pass away. Have you noticed that in the conversations you've had?

Absolutely. And, you know, I'll kind of speak to my demographic and, you know, my age group. You know, to buy a house in this world, in this market, it's tough. And it takes, you know, 2 sometimes to make that happen. So, you know, in my specific situation, you know, having life insurance, if something were to happen to me, my wife can use that money to pay off our house and vice versa. You know, it's just the facts. You know, people do want to be homeowners. People do want to provide a legacy, you know, provide a plan, you know, be structured properly. But at the same time, yeah, there's a chance that, you know, if a primary earner passes away, that yeah, something, you know, could be taken away from them, not only their family. Yeah.

And then more than half of Americans overestimate the cost of life insurance by threefold. Which, uh, that deters them from attaining adequate coverage. What can you say about like the affordability of life insurance?

Yeah, so there's, there's, I think there's truly a solution, you know, for everybody and, uh, it's worth looking at. So the way I see it is there's a process, right? We start our conversation, we, we kind of come up with a strategy or a goal, and then at the end of the day, we have to submit an application. And I always say, we're never going to know exactly what it's going to cost until we submit an application because it's based off of your health report card. So, you know, there's really no right or wrong with submitting an application. It doesn't have any negative impacts on you. If anything, it just provides you some clarity of, you know, what it's actually going to cost.

The other part of your job is you also, we spend a lot of time talking about life insurance here. One of the great things about life insurance is it can solve a lot of issues, a lot of A lot of problems. Like you said, people have kind of this, uh, they know where they are now, but they also know where they want to get to. They just don't know how to face the problems and the challenges to go from here to there. Uh, one of the things about life insurance is it has a lot of benefits, both, uh, you know, they don't call it death insurance, right? They call it life insurance. What are some benefits that life insurance have? While you're living.

So again, a properly structured IUL can provide you an income stream down the road. So it can, you know, provide cash accumulation. There's riders in place, you know, that you can provide long-term care benefits. Um, there's so many things that you can do with life insurance and it's just, it always goes back to what you said. What, what's our goal? What's the root cause? What's the problem?

Other than, other than life insurance, you solve People's long-term care and their legacy problems, right? And so, long-term care, we're not going to spend as much time talking about the stats of long-term care. It'll probably be something that you and I will come back on in an episode, maybe in the summer, and we'll talk just about long-term care insurance. Maybe bring one of our partners on, like John Broyles. And the 3 of us just talk about the growing need for long-term care insurance. But maybe in just like 30 seconds or so, um, talk about, uh, talk about the need for long-term care insurance and, uh, and, and, and some of the solutions that we have for that.

Yeah, something, something while you were asking me that came to mind specifically. Um, so right now in my family, uh, my father is basically taking care of My grandmother. She has dementia and he is, he's a nurse, you know, he, he is truly her nurse right now. And, you know, taking a step back from all the education and, you know, my journey and my legacy, I often think, you know, it's not blame, it's just education and, and understanding. But I really wish that, you know, I could have been on the forefront of maybe Getting some type of long-term care in place for my grandmother. So my dad, you know, didn't, you know, doesn't have to do, you know, what he's currently doing. And even though he doesn't mind, and it's something where, you know, I know he would do it either way. I know how hard it is. I see it, you know, I, I, it's, it's just, it's powerful stuff. And at the end of the day, if something were to be set up or something was set up for her, You know, before all this, there would've been a little bit of an easier strain and peace of mind. And, uh, it's, it's just, it's sad to see. Um, love them both dearly, but I, I know how hard it is and I know the struggle that they're going through. And to think that long-term care could alleviate some of that, I just, I wish I could have been involved a little sooner with that process.

Well, that's a perfect answer to long-term care because it's a, it's the real answer, right? The long-term care dilemma facing Americans today is that we are living longer, but we are not living healthier longer. And there's a period of time— I mean, you could listen to episode 14 of our podcast for those who want more details on long-term care. Go back and listen to episode 14 where we had the president of Halo on and talked about the whole The whole situation that's going on in long-term care and healthcare planning. And then, if you want to hear more about legacy, like how we do like our wills and trust solution, if you guys remember Ben from Snug, he and I nerded out on episode 15 of our podcast where we talked about like how Ben and his partners were working at Uber and he went to get documents done. And when he got a copy back, Well, those documents had somebody else's name on them. He realized it was templated. And so, Scotty on our team actually not only does all of our legacy planning with life insurance and disability insurance, but long-term care, but he also leads people through the guided approach of getting wills and trusts in place. And so, Scotty, in a few minutes here, I'd love to just talk about a couple of the pitfalls in legacy planning and how our listeners can avoid them.

Absolutely. What I'm finding in my work is in my role, people don't know what they want. You know, they don't know, you know, they don't have these conversations with their family or their, you know, who they are leaving their legacy to. So as we dive into the documents and, you know, the prep work of, you know, starting the process, I find a lot of times that they need to go back and have a conversation with their family. Um, you know, so my, my whole advice to them, or excuse me, my plan to them is bring them back, you know, together. Let's have a comprehensive conversation. You know, don't feel like you're in this alone, even though, you know, it's something that we have to look at, we have to dissect, and you have to have conversations. I'm here to make it easier and I'm here to, um, guide through that process and, and just have that conversation as well as a whole.

Yeah, Scotty, you are a valuable member of the Ideas by Mike team. Like, um, uh, I, um, Wendy, I've been dreading this podcast for a little bit. I'll be honest with you. And, uh, I'll be, I'll be, I've been vulnerable on the podcast before. Uh, but if you have listened to the podcast, you know that there are 2 people in my life that are, um, that are my heroes. You know, we all have a Mount Rushmore in our life. Right? And those people are the people who guide you and shape you and change who you are. Everybody knows about my granny, right? My granny is, you know, she guided me into getting in this business. She— I heard Scotty, right? I heard Granny and Scotty when he talked a minute ago, when he talked about the whole idea of like what's going on with his grandmother. But the other person, one of the other people in my Mount Rushmore is my brother. Who, uh, who, if people remember from episode 3, I shared the story about him where I was sitting on the beach with my wife, uh, 3 summers ago now, and I got a call from my mom and my brother had died in a car accident. And, uh, so Scotty is here to serve our clients and our prospects because of my granny and my brother, and he doesn't, he doesn't know that. He is, um— The other thing about Scotty, and I saved this to the last, and this is the one I don't know if I can get through, As much as when we were interviewing Scotty, Caitlin, Tiffany, Liz all met with Scotty ahead of time. And they told me, we have found the person. And I kind of knew that from the beginning, right? Because I was in Birmingham, Alabama, visiting my daughter Grace. And while I was down there, I get this call. We had posted this job out on LinkedIn, and I get this call from this guy. Up in Ohio, and he just was so excited about the posting, right? And he sounded just like my brother. Scotty, you sound just like my brother, man.

Man.

And when I got that call from you when I was in Birmingham, Alabama, and it came up as an undisclosed number, and I was sitting there with my daughter, and my daughter will tell you this one day when you meet her. I said, I felt like I just talked to my brother.

Wow.

And Scotty, you are— you have such the power to make an impact in people's life. I'm already seeing it by what you're doing on our team, but I'm seeing it by what you're doing with our clients. It is a hard job. And this is what I want to listen to here. It is a hard job to think about your legacy, because when you think about your legacy, that means you're thinking about your death. And nobody wants to think about their death. But when you think about your death, you need to think about those you're leaving behind, the people you love, the people you cared about. My brother was thinking about Melissa and Gabe and Bella, his wife and his 2 kids, when he took out that life insurance policy. You know, the clients we have that sign their wills and trusts, they're thinking about their kids. They're thinking about that will and trust is an I love you letter. It's not— it's legal documents, right? But it's really an I love you letter. I love you enough to put my signature on this so that you don't have to deal with a bunch of strangers down at the probate court, or that people can see into our life and see what we really have. Because probate is a public thing. But if you write that will and trust down and you signed it, then our life is private. Nobody gets to see what we have. And Scotty, that's what you do. And so you are going to go forward, not only what you've already done, but in this impact. You're 10 years already in this business working with the big boys, by the way, right? You were inside the belly at Nationwide. We didn't even talk about that. You were in the belly of Nationwide, one of the best insurance companies. You know how it works, and you could bring that experience to us. So, um, so I want to tell everybody how to get in contact with you, if that's okay. So like, uh, on our team, um, if you need If you're one of the people who feel like you're underinsured or feel like you don't have life insurance, or if you, you know, you know that you need to talk about, have the hard conversations about long-term care because you don't want somebody to have to care for you like Scotty's grandmother's now being taken care of by his dad, right? If you want to talk about what that is, you need to reach out to us. ideasbymike.com. @ideasbymike on Instagram. @ideasbymike on YouTube. And you just need to raise your hand and say, I need to have these tough conversations now, and I need to have them with Scotty. Scotty will listen. He told you that today. He will listen to you and find out what excites you. Is it gardening? Is it your grandkids? What excites you? And then he'll lead you down a path to make sure they're taken care of when something happens. So, Scotty, thank you for being a part of the team, buddy. I can't tell you how excited I am. And every time I talk to you, I feel like there's a little bit of Jonathan here, right? And so he had this thing going on here, right? You don't have his dreadlocks, right? Because he grew dreadlocks out. But man, your voice is there. So thank you, buddy, for being a part of our team.

And thank you for this opportunity. I don't take it for granted.

All right. Well, thanks to both of you, and thank you for listening today. Please like, follow, and share this podcast with your friends. Until next time, I'm Wendy McConnell. Thank you for tuning into Ideas by Mike, the podcast, the show where ideas turn into money. If you enjoyed today's episode, make sure to click the follow button to stay up to date on future releases. For additional information on becoming a part of the Ideas by Mike community, check out our website at ideasbymike.com. Don't forget to take a look at the show notes. And for more financial insights, subscribe to the Ideas by Mike YouTube channel or visit the website to find one of the upcoming webinars. Also, connect on Instagram or Facebook @IdeasByMike. Ideas by Mike is an LLC headquartered in Virginia with offices in 42 cities. The company owns an insurance agency registered in all states directly or through affiliate companies. Mike is an investment advisor representative with J.B. Wells Fargo. Any financial planning information shared on the show should not be construed as financial advice for you personally. For your one-page financial plan, please reach out to Ideas by Mike through the website. The information covered and posted represents the views and opinions of the guest and does not necessarily represent the views or opinions of Ideas by Mike. The content has been made available for informational and educational purposes only. The content is not intended to be a substitute for professional financial advice. to be a substitute for professional investment advice. Any financial planning information shared on the show should not be construed as financial advice for you personally. For your one-page financial plan, please reach out to Ideas by Mike through the website.