Happy holidays, Karen, everyone. You’ve known her before. We’ve been together a couple of times on some podcasts, but this one is special, right? This is the 12 days of giving. And I’m really excited to hear about one of her client stories as well as how that relates to you, because this whole series is about you and being able to hear this and say, Hey, that’s me. I should go hire one of those awesome planners that I’m listening to. So without further ado, Karen, what. Is your client story? What is the background? Give us the client profile.

Karen Coyne, CFP®:
0:29

And you mean client profile on like the typically the type of person that I work with? Or what’s my story that brought me into this field?

Stoy Hall, CFP®:
0:36

The story specifically about clients working with you, what their makeup is who they are, where they come from type of thing.

Karen Coyne, CFP®:
0:44

Okay, gotcha. So first of all, thank you for having me. Love this idea. Hope that it spreads lots of cheer and Yeah, I’d say, you know over the years I’ve observed one particular common denominator and that is the people who call are typically They’re very intelligent, they’re already very successful, they’re doing a lot of the right things. But somehow when it comes to money, either they feel stupid they hate this stuff, they don’t like math or they just don’t want to deal with it or any, combination of the above. And so it’s not that there’s not education. Or awareness, but I feel like a lot of times there’s a particular, I should say there’s two camps. There is one camp that maybe they are more comfortable, but they just want to delegate. But there is another camp that’s saying, I’ve had this life event or I’m at a point in my life or the pandemic really made me go, man, I need to get my stuff together. And. I don’t know what I’m doing, help. And then they’ll say, I don’t know what I’m doing. But then when we’ll sit down for our first meeting, they’ll say I’ve got this, I’ve been doing that. And with this extra money that I have here, I’m thinking about doing this. And I’m always sitting back and going, oh, this is so interesting because, I love what I’m hearing. They’re already. They’re already swirling and they already have this great idea of what they want and need to do. And I feel like really what they’re just looking for is that extra assurance. It’s just a, being that sounding board and being able to say, no, like you’ve those are great. Maybe consider these, points that maybe you haven’t considered. Here’s some thin ice that might be waiting for you around the corner. I want to make sure that we shore this up. And so there’s an acknowledgement of here’s some things that you’ve been doing really well. I think in general finances or otherwise, it’s not often that we pause to give ourselves credit for things that we’re doing well. We only see the faults. We only see the deficiencies. It’s very rare that we sit back and go, Oh yeah, Karen, nice work on that. Good job.

Stoy Hall, CFP®:
2:44

Yeah, that’s so right. We really do. And I talked a lot, I talk sometimes about there’s not really a huge emergency when it comes to finances that people think of, right? They put so much weight and emotional weight into every decision that like they start to feel like there’s an emergency or it’s life or death, no matter what the financial decision I make is. And I want everyone to just breathe a little bit. It’s serious, but it’s not that serious. Like you can overcome it. You can adapt. All right. So this, these clients that come to you are unorganized feeling like something had happened, but are still doing the right things. What and how do you think they. They took that step to reach out to you. Is it a life?

Karen Coyne, CFP®:
3:32

Yeah, that’s a good question. And I always ask that, what prompted you to take action at this point? Because obviously at some point they were there doing it by themselves or maybe working with someone else. I will say it’s, it has been interesting in the past couple of years because you’ve probably seen this as well, but definitely the pandemic stirred a little something in those people that were, it was in the, I’ll get around to it. Where they, if they were in that, I’ll get around to at camp, the pandemic really made them go. Oh, my gosh. What if I died tomorrow? I just lost this friend. I just lost this family member. I recently met with a couple. They’ve lost 6 close friends and family over the past year. And so that is what prompted them to just, Schedule a meeting schedule a call and in their case, they were pretty organized, but just scattered. They’ve got stuff everywhere, right? They’ve got this account here and they’ve got some money stashed here and oh, they’ve got this chunk of cash that they never did make a decision on. And so there’s just this sense of. Life is happening and life is happening to people around me and I don’t want to leave my family with a mess. I want to get started on working with someone for a couple reasons, to get organized and get better situated now, but also to have an easier handoff if and when, I do leave if that’s sooner rather than later.

Stoy Hall, CFP®:
4:51

So let’s take that client that you just talked about that lost six people, which is I don’t have that experience, right? I could, I don’t even fathom going through. No, exactly. When they came to you, what, talk me through that, like that first meeting with them, right? Cause that’s heavy. That’s a lot, right? To learn that they have lost this much. Now it puts a little more pressure on you to make sure everything’s organized. Talk us through that first meeting and then what came out of that.

Karen Coyne, CFP®:
5:16

Yeah, the first meeting was just a lot of intake, a lot of generally my first meeting is I’m just asking a lot of questions and I’m covering all the moving parts, not just financially, health wise how, what’s the situation health wise? What are the key family relationships or other relationships? What’s on the horizon, whether you’re 30, 50 years, 70 years old. In this case, they’re like late 60s, early 70s, and one of them is in very poor health. So again, you combine that with this person is in poor health, we’ve just lost six people, and we have stuff, but it’s not cohesive, and there’s a previous, there’s a previous marriage, it’s, it’s all the life stuff. And it’s okay, we have stuff, but is it set up that, if 1 person pre deceases the other that it’s going to be cohesive, is it going to be problematic? What’s going to happen? To this business to this property with these assets that are just titled in my name, because, we maintain assets separately. And then, of course, there was a lot of talk just about. What they’ve been through this past year and just the devastation of just seeing and, losing people close to them one after another. Yeah, I feel like that 1st. meeting was just, it was a lot of, it took a lot of energy on their part to show up and share. And so I would say probably the bulk of that meeting wasn’t even about the money, probably less than 50 percent of it was about money and accounts. And more just about understanding the different dynamics. Here’s our relationship. Here are some other relationships that are in play. Here are the people that are important in our lives. And here’s what we want to do in our next chapter. Here’s what we don’t want. I’d say that was the bulk of the conversation. And that’s pretty typical.

Stoy Hall, CFP®:
7:08

It is the theme of this series so far with everyone with all 12 of us, technically it has been the same. It’s not about the numbers. It’s not about the money. It’s about where you’re at, your relationships in your life. And that’s what we’re coming to find out. And really what I want everyone listening to this to, to drive home is it really has little to do with that as much as it does. Are you good? Are you squared away? Is everything where you want it to be? Then we can filter in the numbers. We can plug and play with those and mix those bags. So they came to you with things everywhere. Emotional one, having poor, more poor health than the other, right? There’s a lot of going variables. There’s a lot of moving parts there. How did you speak to them and get them to hone that in? Or what was your step in doing so?

Karen Coyne, CFP®:
8:01

Yeah, so my M. O. is generally let’s do one thing at a time, right? Because this can be so overwhelming. And honestly, I think just to pick up the phone and call someone like you or me, some people will never even take that step because it’s just, there’s a total avoidance to deal with it. I always recognize. How much energy it took just to pick up the phone or, schedule that online and and then once we take through, walk through, take that inventory, get the big picture view of what the key planning priorities are. My M. O. is say, okay. What’s most important to you. What do you want to tackle? And let’s just work through those one at a time. Sometimes it might make sense to do things in tandem, but sometimes it does not. It’s just too much. So yeah, so for them, their first step is just get everything, getting everything corralled and organized so that they don’t have to work with six different institutions and do, six different sets of beneficiary paperwork and TOD paperwork and all that good stuff. It’s just That’s the first step. And unfortunately, one of them has been in poor health. And so that’s, we’re at a pause right now, but but that’s the objective is just to, to work through, the first step is just corralling everything, like I said and streamlining for them so that again, if the health does not improve hopefully hopefully someone won’t be having to fill out, six plus sets of paperwork to, to, direct and designate accounts, et cetera, because that’s we all know that’s just a giant pain.

Stoy Hall, CFP®:
9:32

It really is. And it takes way

Karen Coyne, CFP®:
9:34

longer. Yeah. And it’s really at a time too, when you don’t have the extra energy, if you’ve just lost someone, you’re mourning you’re not in the frame of mind to complete pages and pages of documents and paperwork. And literally, sometimes it is physical paperwork. It’s not, whether it’s physical or digital, but it’s just feels like it’s coming at you in every direction. Very overwhelming.

Stoy Hall, CFP®:
9:53

Nonstop. How long have you been working with this client?

Karen Coyne, CFP®:
9:57

It’s been, that’s been maybe less than a year.

Stoy Hall, CFP®:
10:02

And and I’m leading to this, so we’ll get there. Don’t worry. I’ll get to my point. But so you’re talking about getting things organized still and just getting their hands wrapped around all of it before you can really start to make sure it’s all in the right. Right spot. Now, one has poor health, so that definitely takes some time, but does it take time to get things organized correctly is my question.

Karen Coyne, CFP®:
10:24

Oh, yes. I always say that it’s, it might seem like it’s painful now. But it’s front loading, because if you think it’s painful now, you’re really gonna think it’s painful later. Take it up front. Just take it, the pain in the butt factor, the PETA factor. You want that, you want to deal with it now, because if you hate it now, you’re really gonna hate it later.

Stoy Hall, CFP®:
10:45

And everyone listening, This isn’t where you can hire us for one or two sessions and you have the answers to everything. Everything’s good to go for a few reasons. One, it just, it’s emotional and it takes a lot of toll out of you as the client. Two, there’s a lot of moving parts. If there’s six different firms involved or accounts somewhere else, that’s six different sets of paperwork that you have to make sure is right. That’s six different timeframes of them to even process it. And that’s just if you have it all up front, right? And the third is that. Everyone has lives, right? Life is still going on. This isn’t like where we all just sit down for a week and we can nail all of this out. It is. Things come up, health comes up, kids come up, weather comes up, name it. And so this journey that I like to call it takes time. So when you’re hiring someone, it is a, it is not necessarily a lifelong journey. We hope it is, but it is a journey and it takes time to get all of what you have, even to the point of where you can see it all cleanly. Let alone get it organized to what’s best for your family. So when you get into these relationships, everyone out there, it takes time. This isn’t a very quick fix and nor should it be. Cause if it is again, you’re going to feel pain later that you don’t really want to go through.

Karen Coyne, CFP®:
12:00

And that’s why I think it’s important to work with someone, not just I know you could go online and search, what to look for in a financial advisor. And some of those suggestions are, of course, legit. But I think there’s a lot of intangibles that are very difficult to put in a checklist. And one is you’ve Got to feel comfortable. And I don’t just mean trust. Like I trust this person. They seem like they know what they’re doing. When you see their phone, you see their phone number on your caller ID, are you going, or are you like, Oh, cool. Story is calling me. I love this guy. It needs to be someone that you look forward to, that you enjoy talking and spending time with. Cause it’s I say, it’s like adding a family member. This is someone who knows more about you than. Pretty much almost anyone in your life. If you’re avoiding going to a meeting because you really don’t like them, ultimately, that’s not good. That’s not good. It’s going to impede your progress. Yeah, I just think it’s so important to really work with someone that you not just trust, but you enjoy because you will be hopefully, yeah, hopefully it will be a long term relationship. It’s a lot of, time and energy to invest in usually, especially up front. And hopefully that’s not an exercise that you’re going to do and then have to lather rinse repeat in two years because you realize I really just dread going to these appointments because I, don’t enjoy spending time with this person.

Stoy Hall, CFP®:
13:23

Yeah, you’re right. You’re a hundred percent right on that. So make sure you, those people fit you, you’re comfortable and you’re having fun with them. Now you might not want to show up to a meeting because you’ve made some poor financial decisions, but we’re not here to judge. So just show up. We’ll work through it all. So back to that client makeup. Now, once you get everything organized and you have a grasp of it and their goals. Walk us through what like implementation looks like from a time perspective or asset gathering perspective. Just walk us through once everything’s in hand and we have a plan, what happens next?

Karen Coyne, CFP®:
13:58

Yeah. So interestingly, I usually don’t start with asset gathering. I start with the first step is the inventory again, not just financial, but the life inventory basically what’s happening and what do you have working for you? What are the challenges? I’ve shifted to doing like a SWOT analysis, so just like you might do in your business instead of going through, different categories like income and charitable planning, et cetera, I just do a broad, here’s what’s, here’s what you’re doing really well. Here’s what I think you’re doing great at. Here are some areas where, eh, yellow light, we want to maybe shore up. Here’s some great planning opportunities to put on the radar. It might not even necessarily be applicable. Or necessary this year, but let’s put these on the radar for these are some planning opportunities to take advantage of. And then here are definite threats. These are priorities that we need to, button up ASAP and I think, even the way that I just recently presented that it was. To me, it was so much clearer and cleaner and I just thought hopefully it is to the client as well. Instead of, from our lens, I think we tend to break things down like this applies to income, this applies to taxes, this applies to your, your business, this applies to your legacy and estate planning. And I, for most people, I don’t know that they see it the same way that we do. They just see it as, you just tell me what I need to do. What’s working what’s problematic. Shifted that process a little bit to again, the inventory. And then here’s what I heard during that meeting. Here’s what I’m seeing as the SWOT. And then, is there anything that we missed? Do we need to make any edits adjustments? Okay, great. What do you want to identify as priority number 1? Boom. That is usually what will lead us into, asset gathering in most cases. And so yeah, so we’re not even opening up accounts or moving assets. It could be, weeks, months after that initial conversation, usually months. And then and then. Yes, and then, of course, the asset gathering comes in and comes into play. That usually is yeah, so it’s not one of the top priorities. It’s in terms of the planning priorities of or the timeline, I should say priorities, right? We’re looking at, there may be another, a number of other planning priorities. Then we’re looking at assets and still working through those other planning priorities. The asset gathering process might be simple, or it might be, that might be another endeavor that takes months. Again, just depending on how many accounts are we talking about? How many establishments are we talking about? Do we have, just straight up regular joint accounts? Do we have, half a dozen old 401ks and beneficiary IRAs that we haven’t, addressed yet? And as it’s every situation is a blank slate, totally different. Some are cleaner than others. Some are just, it’s it’s all, it’s always very interesting. And every situation is a little unique.

Stoy Hall, CFP®:
16:52

I love the SWOT analysis idea in running Your personal like a business and looking at it from that perspective and as we’re in holiday season I always let everyone know. Hey, you should be doing that for yourself Obviously, we’re going to do it for you If you’re a client of mine, and that’s what we speak about in february for our semi annual meetings But for you as a person who doesn’t have somebody This, these next, month and a half is really when you should try to be doing that yourselves. So over the holidays, what are some good things for people to think about? Or what are some things that people should be doing in regards to getting a grasp of everything that they have?

Karen Coyne, CFP®:
17:27

That’s a good question. I’m a big fan of reflection. So like we were just talking about a minute ago, we don’t often pause to give ourselves a pat on the back, whether it’s as business owners and entrepreneurs as parents as teammates, as, investors, whatever it is. So I am a big fan, especially at this time of year. I think step number one is reflect. What worked well? This year, what did I do? What have I improved on? If I looked back five years ago, how much have I grown? And I’m not talking about the dollars and the zeros in the account. I’m talking about wow, if this, if we would have been in this market five years ago, I think I really would have hit the panic button. And this year, wow, look at me. I was so calm, cool and collected. I didn’t even think about hitting that button. I think that’s a really important place to start. And I’d mentioned to you that I was just at a Tennis camp this weekend with some girlfriends girls tennis weekend. And so I was doing this myself just with tennis, I was just reflecting on, this has been a year of growth and it sounds silly, but there’s some things that I’ve really been struggling with, and this year I felt like, wow, I’m like actually starting to make progress and breakthrough. We can do this in so many different aspects of our lives and we can certainly do it with our money. And again when I first sit down with people. I’d say it’s rare that they sit down and say, I’m great at this. No one says that. No one ever says that. It’s rare. It’s rare, I should say. Usually it’s, oh, I’m struggling with this. I really want to do better at that. And they’re totally missing all the things that they’re really good at. So So to answer your question, I think step one is reflect, give yourself a, give yourself credit for the growth the progress that you’ve made, the things that you’re, you’ve done well. And then the next thing is think about, looking to next year, what are some things that you want to do better? Maybe this year you didn’t. Save as much as you wanted to, or you didn’t get that five to nine set up that you swear you’ve been, wanting to get around to, or you didn’t call that a state planning attorney. Whatever it is, think about what are those things that I didn’t get around to, but that I know are important to me and not just important to me, but is it a disservice to my family if I don’t get these things done? So what are those things? And again, don’t make it 10, 10 items long. Don’t make it 10 items deep. This list. I’m talking like one, two, three things max. So look back, give yourself credit, look ahead and what do you want to put on your list, your Christmas list so that next year at this time you’re reflecting back and going, yeah. Yeah. A year ago, I listened to this podcast with Stoy, I thought about the things I did well, I thought about the things I wanted to do in 2024 and here I am. I actually knocked these things off my list. That’s amazing.

Stoy Hall, CFP®:
20:11

It is simply amazing. And when you’re ready, we’re here for you. So when you’re ready to take that step, maybe you don’t want to do it and have us do it. We are here for you always. Both Karen, both Stoy and everyone else that’s involved with the series. We have a great background of financial planners here for you. So happy holidays and be merry, but also eat a lot of food, please. That’s what I love to do. So everyone eat a lot, please.

Black Mammoth:
20:47

The proceeding program was sponsored by Black Mammoth. Any awards, rankings, or recognition by unaffiliated third parties or publications are in no way indicative of the advisor’s future performance or any individual client’s investment success. No award ranking or recognition should be construed as a current or past endorsement of black mammoth. Information regarding specific awards, rankings, or recognitions is available on the Black Mammoth website, www.black mammoth.com. All investment strategies have the potential for profit or loss. Investment strategies such as asset allocation, diversification, or rebalancing do not assure or guarantee better performance and cannot eliminate the risk of investment losses. There are no guarantees that a portfolio employing these or any other strategy will outperform a portfolio that does not engage in such strategies. This broadcast should not be construed by any client or prospective client as a solicitation to affect or attempt to affect transactions and securities or the rendering of personalized investment advice due to various factors including changing market conditions. The information discussed in this broadcast may no longer be reflective of current positions or recommendations. While information presented is believed to be factual and up to date, Black Mammoth do not guarantee its accuracy and it should not be regarded as a complete analysis of the subjects discussed. The tax and the state planning information discussed is general in nature and is provided for informational purposes only and should not be construed as legal or tax advice. Listeners should consult an attorney or tax professional regarding their specific legal or tax situation. Past performance is not indicative of future results.