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49 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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Introduction
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"What I'd like to do now is share with you the kind of work that I do for my clients, and
also show you the unique tool that I use called The Living Balance Sheet. I'd like you to feel free to stop me to ask questions at any time so that when we're finished here today we can decide whether or not it will make sense for us to continue. In a minute I'll show you how it works, but as I do, I want you to understand that one of the things that makes The Living Balance Sheet unique is that it will benefit both of us for as long as we decide to work together. |
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The Challenge
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My experience in working with clients has made a few things very clear.
We've found that people are faced with some difficult challenges in their pursuit of financial security and success. Individually, these challenges can create major obstacles for people to overcome, but when combined they create an absolute barrier. As a result, when we first meet with them, many of our clients feels as though their life's work and earnings to date should have gotten them farther than where they currently are, which puts pressure on them to make more, save more and earn higher returns on their investments. So let’s talk about wealth building. We have a keen and unique understanding of what causes many people to experience financial disappointment |
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The Challenge [cont’d]
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while others seem to enjoy financial success. It's very clear to us. It's not a
mystery. It's not a specific product. If there was one "magical” product that could make a difference in people's lives, everybody would already own it. It would be on the front page of The Wall Street Journal and we probably couldn't get in the door to buy it because we'd be so far back in line. So it's not one product. It boils down to an understanding of what people are trying to achieve in their financial world, and the impact of a few major challenge areas that affect the financial decisions they make and the strategies they employ. My ability to help clients see these issues clearly has a great impact on how they approach their finances going forward, and dramatically enhances the amount, protection and spendability of their wealth |
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Financial Disorganization
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For example, most people we meet are financially disorganized. That doesn't necessarily mean that they don't have their financial affairs in order or that they don't keep good records. While that is often the case and it presents yet another barrier to success, the financial disorganization I'm referring to has to do with the interdependent nature of their financial strategies. You see, when people make a financial decision, they tend to make it with a focus on one particular area. For example when they look to put money away for children's education they look for a good college savings vehicle. When they are buying a house they look for a low-rate mortgage that they can afford the monthly payments on. When they buy things on payment plans they look at their monthly cash flow to see if they can afford it.
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Financial Disorganization cont...
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But every financial decision they make not only impacts the
one area they're looking at, but it affects every other area of their finances as well because each decision made affects other decisions yet to be made. Sometimes, these interdependent impacts are positive and sometimes they are not, but they are always present and often un-noticed. Being disorganized financially can increase one’s costs and risks, and lower the chances of achieving real success. |
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Financial Disorganization cont...
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Only by studying financial strategies across all areas of a person's finances
can we structure strategies to have a positive impact across the board. But people lack the tools necessary to do such a study. By using The Living Balance Sheet, we are able to help our clients get organized in a way that they had never seen before, and even more important, we help them stay organized all the time without lifting a finger. In addition, I have learned that change occurs continually in our lives. So, what may have been “in order” or appropriate at one point in time, may become outdated and inappropriate as changes occur in the economy, tax laws, products, and especially what’s most important to my clients. Because of the interdependent nature of their finances, a change that occurs in one area of their lives affects their financial condition in all areas. But without a tool to identify and measure these impacts, they are unlikely to see them, much less properly address them. FOR EXAMPLE… |
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Cost of Living Factor
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One of the biggest challenges that people I work with have is that they've been miscalculating what their real cost of living is. They have tried, often with advice from friends, family or other professionals, to estimate their
future needs for wealth and cash flow based upon an unrealistic expectation of future cost of living increases. For example, if I were to ask you whether you thought that inflation was high or low over the last decade what would you say? Most people would say low and I would agree with that. You can hear it on the radio or read it in the paper that it's been running around two or three percent. That's a lot better than it was in the late 70's and early 80's when we had double-digit inflation. Some countries have runaway inflation, but clearly, we benefit from having low inflation, and that sort of lulls us into thinking that we also have low cost of living increases. But let me ask you another question - have you had pay raises over the past ten years? Have they |
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Economic Forces
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The reason for this is that the cost of living in our lives is not only impacted
by inflation. It's the result of other economic forces that we have to contend with, but that we never really hear much about |
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New Goods and Services
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Things such as iPods and plasma TVs and golf balls that fly further and
straighter and the fourth computer we just bought because it has more things than the third one had, and DVD players and GPS for the car, or even a car that parks itself. The advancement of technology and the expanding opportunity to purchase new goods and services provides so many more things to say “No” to. Most of us didn't even own a cell phone 20 years ago and now our 10 year olds have them. All of those new and improved gadgets, all of those new things that are purchased and make up part of our lifestyle also work against our ability to build and protect our wealth. |
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Product Wear and Tear
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And it's not just a matter of purchasing a new item once it's available. Not
only are we adding new items to our personal shopping basket of goods and services, but when those goods or any others in our basket break down or wear out we find ourselves replacing them. This too causes a drain on our ability to save and invest for our futures. We don't read statistics about this or hear this on the radio, but silently the requirement of replacing the old with the new takes its toll on wealth building results. |
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Taxation
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In addition, taxes of all types must be considered. Federal income taxes,
state income taxes and sometimes even local income taxes, estate taxes and capital gains taxes, property taxes, excise taxes, sales taxes, social security taxes, Medicare taxes and more, all creep up into our lives and eat away at our ability to live for today and also save for tomorrow. In fact, when you add up all of the taxes we pay, we find that many people are paying nearly 50% of their earned income in total taxes and yet they often use strategies and products that make this problem even worse without even realizing it. |
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Lifestyle Upgrades
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Another area that puts pressure on us financially is this whole idea of a better
life. It's what leads us to buy the new things that come out as well as the things we've always wanted. We may want things like a bigger home, a nicer car, a better country club, a better vacation spot, first class vs. coach, hotels with spas and ocean views. Most of our clients are naturally wired to want more and more, and this fact has a great impact on saving and wealth building. |
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Life Events
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And then there’s just life itself. It's the unexpected bumps in the road that
life throws at us that we have to respond to. It could be that car accident, it could be a handicapped child, it could be the temporary loss of a job, it could be a wedding that's bigger than we planned for, it could be a child that takes 6 years instead of 4 to finish college, it could be Stanford vs. a state university, a downturn in the market, dying too soon, living too long, or any of the other many things in life that are so unpredictable. These things continue to put pressure on our life in a way that can't really be planned for or even imagined. Others may say that you can plan your life, but you really can't. |
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Summary
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We find that it is this miscalculation, or lack of understanding of these economic
based forces that often make the difference between financial success and failure. Because these forces do exist, we must be organized, we must be precise, we must be protected against the unknown, and we must have a tool that monitors our progress. The strategies we share with our clients must be tested and their decisions must take all areas of their financial situation into consideration. Our clients tell us that The Living Balance Sheet experience helps them take their financial blinders off so they are in a better position to make wise and effective financial decisions. As I mentioned before, our help in this area is often the biggest tangible takeaway they get from using The Living Balance Sheet. They say that "for the first time in my life I really feel like I get it - I see what I'm up against and what has been holding me back, and what it will take to be more successful.” |
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Financial Myths
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The third major challenge our clients face is the constant bombardment of
financial myths. They read magazine and newspaper articles, hear financial entertainers on the radio and television, are deluged with advertisements and get advice from people they know, both professional and nonprofessional. Yet what they are told is often out of context with their particular situation. The advice is offered as universal individual instructions which fail to take into consideration a particular client's financial condition |
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Financial Myths
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Some of these myths have little or no merit in reality, while others only
make sense in certain specific circumstances. Yet when we begin to work with new clients, we often find that they have accepted these myths as reality with potentially damaging results. Finally, I have discovered that people are often frustrated, confused, and even overwhelmed by the ongoing task of dealing with numerous financial institutions and advisors. They wonder if all of the pieces to their financial puzzle are arranged correctly. |
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Design
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I have found that what they really need is a simple-to-use, single access
point that they can enter to view all of their financial affairs at the same time—something that will put them on track and keep them on track— something that anticipates, warns, reminds, and suggests actions automatically, about all of the ever changing pieces in their financial picture. Previously, this “something” never existed, but it does now, and it’s called The Living Balance Sheet. |
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For You
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So, for you, The Living Balance Sheet represents the opportunity to get complete
financial organization, automatically maintain that organization, adapt immediately to all of the changes in your life and in what’s important to you, and coordinate all of your financial instruments and advisors in a way that brings the most value to all of your decisions and strate |
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For Me
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For me, The Living Balance Sheet is the most amazing and creative tool in
our industry, allowing me to not only identify the best and most efficient strategies for my clients, but to communicate them in a way that is both logical and understandable.gies. |
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Wide-Angle View
Show your prospects a picture of a completed Living Balance Sheet, either on screen or using The Living Balance Sheet Introduction Booklet (PUB4006 is available at no cost for order on Guardian online). |
What makes The Living Balance Sheet so unique is that it is designed with
all four financial Domains that, together, make up a person's complete financial picture. These Domains are Protection, Assets, Liabilities and Cash Flow. This gives us a truly unique view of our clients' finances in a way that has never been available before and enables us to measure all of their financial strategies for maximum efficiency. Let me explain how it works and why it is so beneficial for our clients |
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Traditional Balance Sheet
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At this point, we could probably agree that there is nothing unique about a
simple balance sheet. They've been around for years and are very commonplace. Have you ever used a balance sheet, or do you know how it works? It's simply assets minus liabilities equal net worth. In other words, what someone owns minus what they owe is really what they're worth today. But what this represents is far more than just a snapshot of one moment in time. If this were your Living Balance Sheet it would represent your entire life's work—all that you have accomplished financially from the day you were born until now. Helping our clients understand the numbers of their Living Balance Sheet is important, but helping them understand what it represents is critical. In fact, while the numbers of your balance sheet change constantly, what it represents never changes. It will always be an up-todate measurement of your life's work. |
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Addition of Protection and Cash Flow
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However, what makes The Living Balance Sheet different and very beneficial
to our clients is the addition of Protection and Cash Flow considerations on the same view. That instantly changes what is normally a simple tool called a balance sheet into something that has never existed before. It's a new invention that provides a wide-angle view, a panoramic perspective of our clients' overall financial picture. Everything that they are doing, every product they own, every strategy that they might want to evaluate can be— and should be—viewed with all four financial Domains in mind: Protection, Assets, Liabilities, and of course Cash Flow. |
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Addition of Protection and Cash Flow
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When looking at a balance sheet, it is important to understand how the
money made its way onto the balance sheet in the first place. It came into Cash Flow. Sometimes wealth can also leave the balance sheet from Cash Flow. By understanding the way that financial strategies affect our client's Cash Flow, we can determine the efficiency of any financial strategy. We work with our clients to design strategies that redeploy existing Cash Flows more efficiently in an attempt to not only increase wealth, but also to increase the future Cash Flow that comes from that wealth. |
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Addition of Protection and Cash Flow
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See this last spot on the Cash Flow line? Net Income represents our client's
standard of living. This is what our clients have left over after their Gross Income is deployed to provide Protection, saving some money into Assets and paying for some Liabilities. It represents the part of Cash Flow that is available to support or build a lifestyle. We help our clients who are looking to increase their Assets, decrease their Liabilities and improve their Net Income. This helps provide the funds for tomorrow’s expenses such as Children's college education expenses, funding weddings, vacations or travel, retirement, and estate planning. These are all examples of tomorrow’s expenses. They could be a few years or even decades off into the future. These are all important considerations, and we get to all of them, but our philosophy is that we must first protect what we have today—our life's work —to ensure that our tomorrows will be realized. |
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Addition of Protection and Cash Flow
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At Guardian, the first step in using The Living Balance Sheet is to thoroughly
review and update our clients' Protection Domain. I would never make the mistake of planning my client's tomorrows while leaving him/her and his/her family exposed to what might happen today. That’s because anytime loss occurs, whether it’s from fire, theft, liability, medical problems, disability or death, the full value of that loss penetrates into our client's financial condition. The loss always goes somewhere—it may decrease Assets, increase Liabilities, reduce Net Income or perhaps some combination of all three. That's the exact opposite of what our clients are trying to accomplish. The Protection Domain is there to make sure that losses never affect The Living Balance Sheet, leaving our client's strategies intact so that their plans for all of those tomorrow items we just discussed can remain untouched by loss. |
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Addition of Protection and Cash Flow
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So we always start with protection—always. We have to protect what we
already have before we try to move forward or we run the risk of moving backward. I want you to buy into that Mr. Prospect. I want you to have a good feel for how right that is so that it sets up a foundation such that if my phone rings one day and something unexpected has happened, I don't just |
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Addition of Protection and Cash Flow [cont’d]
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say ,"Sorry we didn't address that protection issue, but hey, your mutual
funds are doing OK." When you've been involved in a lawsuit, a car accident, your home is destroyed by fire, you have a beach house in Florida that was washed away by a hurricane, you became disabled and can never work again, or you die prematurely, I have to know, if we're going to work together over the long haul, that we've addressed those things. If we work together, we will build wealth for your future, but we need to do so with the knowledge that your life's work—your Living Balance Sheet—is protected. Is this something that makes sense to you? |
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Four Domains Working Together
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As I mentioned earlier, we often find people working in just one financial
Domain at a time—only focusing on their asset allocation for example— and we find that they are completely unaware of how the absence of Protection, or Liabilities like taxes or credit card debt, or even the Cash Flow strategies on that asset affect the potential for building wealth. So what The Living Balance Sheet demonstrates is the whole notion of interdependence between the four financial Domains: Protection, Assets, Liabilities, and Cash Flow |
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Each Living Balance Sheet Domain Affects the
Other Three |
What people do or don't do in any one of the four Domains affects what
happens in the other three. FOR EXAMPLE… Select one or two of the examples below… • How would your Assets, Liabilities and Cash Flow be affected if you were involved in a lawsuit that you were not properly protected against? DISCUSS… • What would happen to your family's cash flow if you died prematurely without your human life value fully insured? DISCUSS… • What about the embedded income tax liability that must be paid before enjoying your 401(k) assets? DISCUSS… • What cash flow would be required, after tax and after interest, to buy your partner’s stock from his estate? DISCUSS… • What affect does the way you manage your insurance portfolio have on your ultimate retirement cash flow? DISCUSS… • How would a 50% estate tax affect the real rate of return on your assets? DISCUSS… You see, if we pay attention to the interdependence of the four financial Domains of The Living Balance Sheet, we can increase the output f |
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Each Living Balance Sheet Domain Affects the
Other Three [cont’d] |
Assets, and minimize the impact of debt and taxes, which will lead to
improved ultimate Cash Flow. All the while, we will maintain Protection in the event that the unexpected occurs. This approach helps our clients achieve and maintain a new level of “financial balance,” which is one of the tangible benefits of using The Living Balance Sheet. With this wide angle view, we're able to test anything that our clients are doing or anything that they might want to do with these four domains speaking to us to see if we're making progress towards the ultimate goal, which is to build net worth and improve lifestyle. |
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Each Living Balance Sheet Domain Affects the
Other Three [cont’d] |
We are immediately able to address the issues of inadequate and/or inappropriate
Protection while at the same time enhancing Asset performance. By viewing financial strategies across all four domains of The Living Balance Sheet at one time, we can also reduce unnecessary expenses and risks and improve savings and cash flow decisions. |
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Each Living Balance Sheet Domain Affects the
Other Three [cont’d] |
But here's what doesn't happen. I don't say to my clients, "Here's where you
are and here's where you need to be, so how much are you willing to pay to get there?" That's amateurish; anybody can do that. What I'm trained to do is to say, "You told me you want to accomplish this, but you're currently not on track to succeed. Let me show you how we can use your existing current cash flows and resources more efficiently to accomplish what is really important to you.” So I don't want you to be thinking of this right now as something that takes money out of lifestyle. We always begin by working with our clients' existing Assets, Liabilities and Cash Flow to create a more efficient result overall. |
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Automatic
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Once we begin working with a client, The Living Balance Sheet helps them
become financially organized in a way never before possible. They not only have a clear understanding of what they have and where it belongs, but they also appreciate the interdependent nature of their financial decisions and strategies and have the ability to know where they stand financially at all times. The system automatically alerts us to important changes or milestones in our client's financial situation and allows us to provide our clients with action steps and reminders to make sure that each strategy is methodically and properly implemented. |
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Tools
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The Living Balance Sheet has two distinct sides to it—the advisor's side and the client's
side. On our side, we have the most powerful and accurate financial tools ever created. The process begins with a simplified data gathering tool that allows us to easily and painlessly gather our client's basic personal and financial information and have it automatically populate his/her own personal Living Balance Sheet. By studying the client's current financial decisions across the four critical domains, we can identify inefficiencies in their current strategies and recommend strategic solutions along with the action steps necessary to implement them. |
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Key Benefits
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On our clients' side, they not only benefit from strategies designed to
increase wealth and the Cash Flow which can be derived from it, but they also get their own personal Living Balance Sheet home page, giving them access to their financial information 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Through the use of automatic account aggregation, the values shown on their Living Balance Sheet will be accurate and up-to-date. |
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Key Benefits
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If you've ever cleaned out and organized your basement or your garage, you
know what a chore that can be. But it's always a great feeling when you're done because now you know what you have and you know right where to find everything. Now imagine if you had an automatic basement or garage —one that once you organize it one last time, it will automatically reorganize itself every day without you lifting your finger. If you apply that concept to your financial world, you're just beginning to see what The Living Balance Sheet can do for you every day from this point forward. And beyond the great feeling of being organized and staying organized, you'll also discover that there is real value in achieving this new level of financial organization that translates into increased net worth, improved lifestyle, and peace of mind. |
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Key Benefits
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Another benefit that my clients really enjoy is the Vault, which is attached to
their Living Balance Sheet. The Vault allows my clients to store copies of all their important documents electronically in organized folders for easy retrieval 24/7. Wills, tax returns, passports, birth certificates and other documents are always available when our clients need them. They can even store pictures, video files and audio files in the Vault. It gives them organization, accessibility and even disaster recovery options they never had before. |
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Additional Features
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In addition, our clients have constant access to dozens of up-to-date observation
reports about all of the areas of their personal finances. These reports help our clients stay on top of the financial strategies they implement and are kept up-to-date as a result of our aggregation system. This makes it easy for our clients to make future financial decisions in a more informed manner. Direct access to CBS MarketWatch allows our clients to check on investment values as they change throughout the day, and they can even set up watch lists of specific securities they would like to see. They also have access to all of their rewards program balances from credit card companies, airlines, hotels and more |
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Imagine, Design, Live
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Is it a battle that can be won? Absolutely! Most of my clients will tell you
that they are better organized, are better protected, have become better savers, and are more confident in their financial futures than ever before. This is accomplished through our continued collaboration and by exploring the interdependent financial strategies available through using The Living Balance Sheet. |
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Imagine
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Think about all of things you would like to accomplish in your lifetime—
education of your children, weddings, trips, a summer home, a boat, retirement— whatever you and your family had always hoped for but were never really sure if you could make it happen the way you've imagined it. Think, too, about your legacy objectives, about how you'd like to leave the ones you love financially. |
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Design
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With the use of The Living Balance Sheet, we can design the strategies to
accomplish all of those dreams, if in fact they are possible. Once we've populated The Living Balance Sheet with your information, we can conduct a strategic analysis of your current plans across all four critical domains of The Living Balance Sheet to identify any inefficiencies or negative impacts from one domain to another. Next, we create new strategies that are designed to have a positive impact on all four critical domains of your Living Balance Sheet. Then we work with you to implement those strategies with a financial efficiency that will produce more wealth and greater Cash Flow from that wealth to help realize your dreams. |
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Live
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Once your strategies have been properly implemented, we'll establish your
personal financial home page, load all of your important documents into your Vault, work with you to set up the automatic aggregation of your accounts and set up appropriate alerts within the system. From that point on, you can go back to living the lifestyle you've worked so hard to create for your family, comfortable in the knowledge that all of your financial affairs are properly organized and maximally efficient. You'll be able to enjoy the journey and feel the sense of accomplishment as your objectives are realized. |
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Results
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We're going to get better results in protection, your assets are going to perform
better, your debts are going to be paid off sooner and your savings and cash flow management decisions will work more effectively. But it will be done with the same money—not more. These dollars will just be more efficiently allocated and deployed. Our clients achieve greater levels of protection, improved levels of savings, and enjoy better management of their cash flow. Their assets perform better than before, they experience better debt and tax efficiency and they realize a far greater sense of both financial balance and financial success. |
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Closing the Open
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If this is beginning to sound appealing, I want you to understand the obligation part. If we do all
this, what will I expect from you? Most people in my business will tell you that if they do X for you then they expect you to buy from them or give them referrals, and they make that a requirement that stands in the way of the relationship. I'm not comfortable doing that, and I find that it's unnecessary. So I want you to be totally relaxed and confident that there's not some kind of requirement for us to work together. What I'm going to commit to is to show you how The Living Balance Sheet may help you, share with you everything that I know, and everything that my organization can offer—with no strings attached. I'm just going to trust that we're going to work together, and whatever occurs, if it's good for you it'll be good for me. I am licensed to sell you life insurance, disability insurance, and long term care coverage. But I'll never put you under pressure to do that. |
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Closing the Open
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Nor will I ever expect that you refer me to people. I do enjoy a steady flow of referrals because
people think that The Living Balance Sheet and my expertise combine to make a big impact on their financial lives. If you think that others you know and care about would benefit from meeting me and taking advantage of The Living Balance Sheet, you will be referring them to me primarily for their benefit, not mine. So, I'm not going to worry about me, I'm simply going to focus on helping you, your family, and your finances. And we're going to see how The Living Balance Sheet can be made to “come alive” in your life, have you see what your financial opportunities are, and what can be done to create improvements as we follow your living life. |
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Closing the Open
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That's why we named it The Living Balance Sheet. We're going to let it track your life and let it
warn you, let it remind you, let it report back to you as to where you are. That's what it does. It's not static, it's not a book, or a binder filled with a bunch of numbers. It's a living, breathing tool that will help track you throughout your entire lifetime from a financial perspective. It has a sound philosophy that will always keep you protected, and it uses logic based on financial rules that are going to ensure that you're successful. And I'll be the one who navigates through this with you—every step of the way. At this point, I'm not asking you to make a commitment for the future or today, we're just meeting one another for the first time. Let's just take one step. What I'd like you to do is to just step into the water, not jump off the dock. I've got a special Fact Finder which I will use to gather and analyze information from you, and I'll build for you your own Living Balance S |
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Closing the Open [cont’d]
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then say…
The only difference between this and your actual Living Balance Sheet is that your facts are missing. So as I gather your information, I'll use it to confidentially populate your own Living Balance Sheet and let the logic-based rules we just mentioned begin to speak to us about the things you could be considering to make improvements in your financial affairs. Let's just do that for our next meeting, and if you don't want to go any further after that, then at a minimum you've had the benefit of a portion of my expertise and learning what The Living Balance Sheet is all about." |
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What You Can Expect
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So what you can expect from me if we do decide to work together is to gain
an understanding of all four of the financial Domains that make up The Living Balance Sheet, as well as the interdependent relationship between them and why it is so important, so critical to financial success and stability that they be in synch with one another and that strategies be designed and tested on them. You'll be able to see your personal Living Balance Sheet, and we'll be able to see opportunities for improvement, and we'll work together to accomplish that. My experience is that you will be very impressed and want to continue. |
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Web Site—No Cost
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Along the way, you're going to get your own secure, encrypted, financial
home page which will be available to you 24 hours a day, 7 days a week at no cost to you. Your financial world will be privately organized with its own web address onto your own Living Balance Sheet, and will be kept organized and up to date automatically with little effort on your part. |
