Episode 590: Unfiltered Advice on Choosing a Financial Advisor

Financial advisor Ryan Isaac is on the podcast once again to give advice on selecting a financial advisor, including whether or not you should even get one. Together with Kiera, Ryan covers the following in this episode:

1. What a financial advisor does

2. How to hire a financial advisor

3. When to hire one

4. And more

About Ryan:

Co-Founder of Dentist Advisors and host of the Dentist Mone Show, Ryan Isaac is a trusted financial advisor to dentists across the country. As a regular speaker at dental events nationwide, Ryan shares his expertise in portfolio management, debt reduction, tax management, retirement plans, profit-sharing plans, and insurance. He is a CFP with deep financial planning expertise and has been a major contributor to the growth of Dentist Advisors, including the development of the Elements financial planning system.

Episode resources:

Check out Dentist Advisors

Tune in to The Dentist Money Show

Listen to episode 544, Stocks & Assets: What is on the Horizon

Reach out to Kiera

Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast

Become Dental A-Team Platinum!

Review the podcast

Transcript:

0:00:05.6 Kiera Dent: Hey, everyone. Welcome to the Dental A Team podcast. I'm your host, Kiera Dent, and I had this crazy idea that maybe I could combine a doctor and a team member's perspective because let's face it, dentistry can be a challenging profession with those two perspectives. I've been a dental assistant, treatment coordinator, scheduler, biller, office manager, regional manager, practice owner. And I have a team of travelling consultants, where we have travelled to over 165 different offices coaching teams. Yep, we don't just understand you; we are you. Our mission is to positively impact the world of dental, and I believe that this podcast is the greatest way I can help elevate teams, grow VIP experiences, reduce stress, and create A teams. Welcome to the Dental A Team podcast.

[music]

0:00:51.6 KD: Hey, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera. And you guys, I am beyond giddy about the fact that we are having a way for you guys to kick off your 2023 in the most epic way. That's right. I want you guys to go into 2023 with direction, with a plan, and to actually get something done, done, and done. If you've been looking at that operations manual, it is time, guys. For three months, every single week, I'm going to be doing a workshop with you and your team in January to get that operations manual done in three months. Guys, this is a value of over $10,000 that I know you're gonna freaking love because you're actually going to get it done.

0:01:30.1 KD: So if you wanna get your Ops manual done in three months and kick off your January ultra strong, head on over to the dentalateam.com/opsmanual, and I will see you January 5th for our kick-off.

0:01:45.4 KD: Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera, and you guys, I am super jazzed. I've got one of my dear friends on the podcast today. He is coming to you because I have a really interesting question coming in from a listener of, "How do you choose a financial advisor?" Well, guys, Ryan Isaac with Dentist Advisors is my personal financial advisor, but let's be real, I 100% used him for about five years of our friendship before he became my actual financial advisor.

[laughter]

0:02:10.9 Ryan Isaac: Yeah. That's fair. It's alright.

0:02:13.4 KD: I thought it'd be a really fun episode to bring Ryan on the podcast, to have him come on in, and just kinda share some ideas, not necessarily for Dentist Advisors, but really just some very unbiased, unfiltered opinions on how do you choose a financial advisor. So Ryan, welcome to the show.

0:02:28.9 RI: Yeah, thank you. And unfiltered is perfect for me. I like that.

0:02:34.7 KD: [chuckle] Good.

0:02:34.8 RI: That's great. I've actually worked very hard in my 42 years of life to have a filter and I do better...

0:02:37.2 KD: 42 years? Man!

0:02:37.9 RI: Yeah, yeah. Very old. My filter's better than it used to be.

0:02:41.4 KD: That's good. That's really good. [chuckle]

0:02:43.8 RI: That's a good question though. So I think there's two parts to it, too. There's, "How do you hire a financial advisor?" And part of that is knowing what on earth a financial advisor does anyway, and there's a lot of misconceptions around that, so we can talk about that. There's also when, because timing's a big thing, so let's start with when. And I actually wanna ask you a question to that point. You're in a similar kind of industry, where you're consulting people over... It's not just a transaction. It's over usually a long period of time, and it's relationship-based, and you get to know people and you collect data, and you're in a consulting role and helping them implement things. It's gotta be similar on your end, when someone asks you, "When is the time to hire a consultant? Do you wait until your practice is big and cranking along or you've been going a while and there's an obviously giant problem, or do you start earlier in your career before you maybe even really need to, so that you start off on the right foot?" How do you... What do you tell people that? I'm sure you get that question.

0:03:43.2 KD: I do get that question and my answer's probably similar to yours.

0:03:45.2 RI: I'm interviewing you now.

0:03:46.3 KD: Excellent. On my podcast. Okay, I like this.

0:03:50.5 RI: We're gonna use this for our podcast. Yeah, okay.

0:03:50.6 KD: Good, I'll send you the audio. [chuckle]

0:03:51.5 RI: Yeah, yeah.

0:03:54.0 KD: But for me, it's always on what that client ultimately wants. Are you somebody who is proactive and you don't want to come back and you'd rather just start it off right, or are you somebody who gets really nervous about cash flow and you'd rather beef up your cash flow a bit more before you're going to invest in it? I think both options are right.

0:04:16.2 RI: Totally, yeah.

0:04:16.3 KD: Of course, I'm going to say if you start earlier than later, you're going to just be able to capitalize on that more long-term than you would if you start later, but both are good. And I'm guessing that ties perfectly into financial advising 'cause the sooner you do it, the better you are. [chuckle]

0:04:30.3 RI: It's similar. Yeah, it's similar. Well, it's like, "When is the best time to implement good habits in your life?" You're like yesterday. It's always earlier than later. But I think you said what's the right thing, or probably the most crucial, which is, are you willing to pay for it. If you're really early in career and you hire a financial advisor or a consultant, you'll probably end up feeling like you're spending money on stuff that might be a little overkill, and that might be true. But you're also spending money to implement systems and habits and processes and accountability in your life earlier than later, which will help you... It will help you avoid mistakes, like no question. So I think the timing's a big deal. When people call us, at Dentist Advisors, we're not salesy people whatsoever, we tell people to call us back late, years later, all the time, send people away with free advice, "Go do this for the next two or three years." But I would say it's a total mixed bag when people begin with a financial advisor, and it kind of just comes down to that. Like "Do you wanna spend money and maybe have a little bit of overkill in your life but you're starting this before any big mistakes or big decisions?" And, you know?

0:05:38.3 KD: Sure. It's actually really helpful.

0:05:41.4 RI: Yeah, I think it is. When is it the right time to spend extra time and money on your health or your fitness or getting a chef in your house and having them make you food.

0:05:51.8 KD: [chuckle] He was not a good chef. That was a...

0:05:53.7 RI: He wasn't good. Ding! A spoiler alert. He was a bad chef?

0:05:56.5 KD: My dad literally said, "Kiera, you pay money... You pay somebody to make this food?"

0:05:58.7 RI: Oh, geez.

0:05:58.8 KD: That was my dad's famous quote. It was not good food, but it was a good idea.

0:06:03.5 RI: Okay. Yeah, it was a good idea. You gotta find the right person.

0:06:05.0 KD: But I think... That's actually a really, really, really good point that I hadn't thought of is, I think consulting, financial advising, getting healthy, I don't feel like those are a must in this world, if that makes sense. Like, you're not going to die...

0:06:19.1 RI: They're not. No, they're not.

0:06:20.6 KD: If you don't hire a consultant. You're not going to die if you don't start investing your money early, so there's not... Like, you're probably not gonna die if you eat kind of like Kiera Dent's diet of... I mean, it's gotten better over the years.

0:06:31.4 RI: It's improved.

0:06:32.3 KD: Today it was cheese, nuts, and cranberries, which is much improved compared to about a week ago when it was a full-blown pounded Snickers. Like, someone gave me this jar of Snickers and I ate all of them in one day. [laughter]

0:06:42.0 RI: Oh, a jar? Yeah, a jar. Yeah, that's a reasonable portion size, a jar. That's how I also measure chocolate is like a jar, yeah. Yeah, no, it's true. These are not... Having a financial advisor or a consultant, they're optional services. It's kind of like a CPA is almost less optional than either one of us are. Like, you gotta have a CPA, or you transact something legal, you're gonna have an attorney involved. Yeah, we are optional people in people's lives, so timing is a big one. I think that's big.

0:07:13.7 RI: So the other question is, how to hire a financial advisor, and I think to understand that, people have to understand what a financial advisor does or should be doing. What's the ideal relationship? Unfortunately, there's a lot of stereotypes out there that the job of a financial advisor is to pick stocks, like predict the future of investments. Even more unfortunate, I think, a lot of financial advisors in the industry are just selling stuff, so there's no... Consulting might be similar. You can call yourself a consultant and just go do something shady and be like, "Yeah, I'm consulting."

0:07:52.3 RI: A lot of financial people will say they're advisors or planners, but really they're just selling insurance or selling some kind of product. And products matter. I mean, you have to have insurance and you have to have investments and you gotta buy stuff, but, I mean, the product isn't a plan, which is something we say a lot. Products aren't a plan. So I think it's important to just realize that... Here's the way we define being a financial advisor, and this isn't like the standard of the industry, it doesn't mean it's the right way, but here's how... We've done this for 15 years, it's how we define it. Planning number one should be financial organization. And in our company, we built a system called the elements. It looks like the periodic table of chemistry elements. I hated chemistry, by the way. Loved math and physics, hated chemistry.

0:08:39.0 KD: Same.

0:08:39.5 RI: I don't know how that related, but I just didn't dig it. Anyway, it's 12 areas of a dentist's life that are really important to track and monitor over the years, every single year, and update constantly. It's things like your income and profitability, your investments, where your money goes, spending, savings, debt, taxes, how your net worth is building, how liquid are you, how much of your net worth is in real estate or business or whatever. You have to organize that stuff, so there's a place where you can always go or your advisor can go and know what's going on, because if you don't have the organization and you don't know what's going on, you're gonna make major financial decisions out of context with everything else, and that's when you make mistakes. So number one's organization. Number two is, once it's organized, you have to track that data and see what trends are. And you guys do that too for clients, right?

0:09:25.3 KD: Mm-hmm.

0:09:26.9 RI: You pull data, you get organized in the practice, and then you track trends to see what's actually happening. So organization, tracking, then you have to make decisions with that stuff. So when you see trends and you've got all the data, then you can make decisions with what to do, like with your spending, your savings, or what to do with insurance policies, or your debts, or how to grow your net worth, or how to invest money. Then you can make decisions. And then the fourth piece is accountability. So really all this stuff people can do on their own all the time.

0:09:54.7 RI: There's apps that can track your stuff, keep you organized. Investing is incredibly easy. Investing is a commodity now. Like, building a portfolio, you can do it on an iPhone for super cheap, but people still aren't... Americans aren't saving more money on average. We're not becoming wealthier. We're not more prepared for retirement, and certainly not in the dental industry. So it's not about how easy it is to do this stuff, it's the fourth piece, which is another human in your life to give you accountability to make sure you actually not only implement it but stick to it for long periods of time. That's like the unsexy thing. It's hard to market like, "Hey, you're not gonna stick to this," and "Here we are." No one buys that, but that's the truth, and it's the accountability of another human who's not emotionally invested in your life helping you make decisions and stick to things.

0:10:45.9 RI: And from my experience in doing this for 15 years, that is, hands down, the most important thing, is someone who's there, which means you have... That's another problem with the industry, most financial advisors, like the business model for financial advisors is to gather as many accounts from people as possible, into the hundreds and hundreds, 500, 700 people or more, and then never talk to them. That's the old business model. It's very profitable, and it's pretty chill, actually.

0:11:20.4 KD: Interesting.

0:11:21.8 RI: Yeah, but you're not helping anyone by doing that. So really what... Your financial advisor should have the type of availability to have conversations throughout the year multiple times, and that's really the key to everything. And nothing will ever be perfect. There will always be problems in the data or... But as long as you can talk to that human a lot, especially when you need to to make a decision, that's what a real financial advisor should do. So hiring that... Okay, well, that's what an advisor should be doing, and in our industry, that's something called like a fiduciary. A fiduciary describes the legal responsibility someone has to not sell your products and actually be your advisor or planner. So that's kind of like the what of it. I'll stop there for a second. Any questions about the what of a financial planner, like what someone does?

0:12:09.4 KD: I just think it was really, really interesting, one, to see how close your business and my business are. That was fun. Like, I knew that's why I hired you as a financial advisor.

0:12:19.2 RI: They're really similar.

0:12:20.4 KD: Super similar.

0:12:21.6 RI: We're both consultants.

0:12:23.4 KD: Mm-hmm. But I just love that you said the accountability piece, which equally on consulting side, you guys can do everything that we do in your practice without me. You don't need us.

0:12:32.6 RI: Well, you can download manuals, you can download all the... Half the trainings that you guys probably do are sitting for free on your website or your podcast, I'm sure.

0:12:39.8 KD: A hundred per cent. And so, very similar models in the fact like you can do this without us, but are you? That's why there's so many dang workout apps out there, because the reality is it's easy to do, it's actually hard to implement and to actually stay consistent with.

0:12:57.8 RI: Yeah, stick to. Yeah.

0:13:00.0 KD: So, I feel like that was probably the biggest piece. And I remember, like I said, Ryan and I have known each other for several years. I am pretty confident we are siblings in another life, and...

0:13:05.1 RI: Yeah. [chuckle]

0:13:06.5 KD: Ryan, I have already talked to you about investing. So I'm like, "When am I supposed to do this?" and you said, like, "Kiera, just keep putting in your SAP," or do these things. Like, you told me so many times I didn't actually need to hire you, but I will say after hiring a financial advisor...

0:13:21.4 RI: Then you've done it, yeah.

0:13:22.1 KD: I actually...

0:13:22.4 RI: You do.

0:13:23.6 KD: 'Cause I wanna send you the email and tell you that I've invested this amount and get your positive feedback to me, but more than that, you do a good job of feeding my endorphins 'cause I like positive reinforcement.

0:13:34.0 RI: That's actually good to know. So you're saying... 'Cause I try to do that when someone sends us a request like, "Hey, saved some money," and I just say, "Good job. You're doing a good job." That actually... That's cool to know that means something 'cause I mean that, I mean that.

0:13:44.7 KD: Well, I was wanting gold stars, and I want you to be proud of me that I'm saving all this money even though the stocks are down, 'cause I'm like, "This feels stupid."

0:13:53.3 RI: Well, especially, it feels bad.

0:13:56.0 KD: It does feel bad.

0:13:57.2 RI: It feels bad for the money that's sitting in there, but it feels really good for the money that's about to go in, because when markets go down and the money that goes in, you're buying more shares with the same amount of money, so when it goes back up, you have more stuff that'll grow, but for the money that's sitting there, it never feels good. So that's the point though, right? Yes, it's like you were just saying, you've known this stuff for a long time, but you weren't doing it consistently, and you've done it consistently, even during... And this is a really great point. I'm sure you've seen this with consulting. You've been consistent, even during tough times in the business or in the economy, or there's fear, there's uncertainty, which there always is, but you've been consistent during even tough times, which is...

0:14:41.2 RI: That's exactly what accountability does. That's like why a fitness app is different than a trainer that is standing over you asking you to do another sit-up, because when it gets hard, another person will... Your likelihood of doing it is just so much higher, it's off the charts higher. So, good example.

0:14:57.9 KD: Well, amen. And I hear so many offices, like, "Kiera, it's just inconvenient timing right now, and we've got so many fires," and I'm like, "That's when you need a consultant."

0:15:05.8 RI: And that won't change.

0:15:06.9 KD: You don't want life to be perfectly smooth to implement a consultant, just like you don't want it to be perfectly smooth to implement a financial advisor.

0:15:10.6 RI: No, or you'll never get there. Kiera, is there ever a time you've ever seen a practice that is perfectly smooth with no fires for years and years on end? That doesn't exist. It's not a thing.

0:15:21.2 KD: No, and so people, it's like... Actually, that's just fear. Jump in because you know you need the accountability, and that's really what you're paying for, is accountability to get results. And so with a financial advisor, I will say the second piece on my side has been, like you said, having somebody there when crises hit, which equally is on a consultant side. But I have called you. Ryan, this year, you know my personal life, I have had a very odd personal life this year with lots of big decisions, and yet I think if you wouldn't have been my financial advisor... One, I also don't feel bad calling you for big decisions anymore. It's not like you're doing a friend thing. It's like legit, you're watching out for my investments and helping me see just a better point of view. But I have called you on so many... We're talking like buying a house in Florida, buying a house in Arizona...

0:16:09.3 RI: Yeah, life stuff.

0:16:11.3 KD: Huge things that I just needed guidance on. It was super helpful as well, so I feel like, like you said, there's the accountability piece, the consistency piece, but also having somebody there to talk through these bigger decisions like, "Do we buy this extra equipment? Do I buy a second practice?" And you really talked me through, what do I want my life to look like to help me decide those decisions as well.

0:16:32.3 RI: Yeah, I'm sure you do the same thing. Most of my conversations, very little of it has to do with technical aspects of... We're not spending a lot of time explaining the technicalities of an IRA or profit sharing or stock market stuff. Usually we're talking about, "I threw my back out and now I'm really scared I can't practice dentistry," and, "I'm really sad," or "I'm worried about me providing for my children in the future." Most of the time, it's just personal life stuff, and having someone you can call and talk to, it makes everything so much better. That's everything. Totally.

0:17:11.0 KD: Absolutely.

0:17:11.3 RI: My pleasure.

0:17:11.4 KD: Thank you, it's been very helpful. So I think you've kind of gone through the pieces of what is a financial advisor, how do you choose them, and then I would say the piece for me that I actually picked up from a conference... So, when I told you I was going to this conference and you then had me come back and tell you all the things, which was super helpful 'cause I could bounce them off of you, but I had quite a few friends in a financial group tell me, and they said the number one thing is, "Do you gel and jive with your financial advisor? Like, do you trust them?"

0:17:39.3 KD: And I will say, I trust Ryan Isaac implicitly with my personal life. Like, I know you always have my best interests at heart, and so therefore, I know the decisions and the recommendations financially that you're recommending for me are true. Because like my friend told me, he's a really... He's a bougie CPA. Like, we're talking people who have really, really, really high incomes, into the... They start with the letter B incomes. He's just this bougie CPA, and he said, "Kiera, most financial advisors are all pretty much the same. There's some who are ethically driven, others who aren't, but overall, they're going to pretty much give you the same advice. None of them really know better stock portfolios. None of them really know it. It's just do you trust that person and does that person motivate you to make decisions, and if so, move forward with them and do it sooner than later."

0:18:29.1 KD: Just because, like you said, the sooner you get into the game, the better off you are. The longer you have in the game, the more decisions you have later on in life. And I thought those are really, really important pieces when it comes to how to select a financial advisor as well.

0:18:40.6 RI: Good advice. That's awesome. Yeah, does your financial advisor wear your company's T-shirt?

0:18:46.9 KD: He is right now, guys, on the podcast. [laughter]

0:18:49.3 RI: Yeah, it's a very comfortable Dental A Team T-shirt. Yeah, so thank you very much. Yes, I do love it.

0:18:54.5 KD: So true. So that's why I wanted Ryan on 'cause I figured Ryan is a financial advisor. I feel that Dentist Advisors are advocating for dentists. They are only really working with dentists. People ask me all the time, "Why do you work with them as a financial advisor?" Like, well, one, my business is similar to their business, so what Ryan would do is probably what I should do, and, second, if I'm going to recommend a financial advisor, I wanna make sure that I know what their processes are like, what the experience is like, so I can authentically speak about it as well, so...

0:19:23.9 RI: Totally.

0:19:24.0 KD: I interviewed a bunch of them, guys. Ryan knows he wasn't my only one. I wanted to make sure I really had somebody that I trusted, that I knew, but at the end of the day, it really came down to who am I going to feel accountable to, who am I going to follow through with, because that's who I ultimately wanna be with on my financial side.

0:19:40.1 RI: Yeah, and let's give some good advice too. Like you said, there's a lot of good people in the industry. Look for someone who's called a fiduciary. That doesn't weed out all of the bad apples, but that's gonna weed out a lot of them. That's just a different higher legal standard where someone is less likely to be in a business model selling you products and calling it a plan. Don't work with people generally who are considered brokers or earn commissions for any products, and you can ask them straight up, I don't know if you'll get a straight answer. And it's hard to research this stuff too, because people can say fiduciary or independent advisor on their website, but until you go look at some government-filed documents that we have to file every year, that you really wouldn't know... It's hard to find, but that's a good place to start. Find a fiduciary who's not earning commissions. And the only piece I would add to this is find someone who you can talk to frequently. Again, our industry is kind of built on a business model of infrequent communication, and so find someone you are able to talk to as often as you would like to, and I think that's gonna be a good match. Good advice.

0:20:42.4 KD: I like it. So Ryan, as always, I love you guys, I love what Dentist Advisors does. So if someone's interested... What I also like is you guys are not salesy, you're not gonna have someone come in and be like, "Hey, we want you to sign up."

0:20:53.3 RI: I hate when people sell me on stuff. I hate that so much.

0:20:56.5 KD: You guys are just so good. You have your podcast, you have a ton of resources on your website, but if someone just wanting to find out if right now's the right time... Like you told me when I first started like, "Kiera, right now is not the time for you to need a financial advisor," which I loved that you told me I wasn't quite there. And then I'm like, "Ryan, when am I supposed to hire one?" You're like, "Well, like right now, like you're at the spot where you should be hiring somebody." So if they wanna connect with you guys, if they want to just ask questions, how can they get in touch with you?

0:21:23.3 RI: Yeah, easiest thing is the website, dentistadvisors.com, and like you said, we have probably 1000-plus hours of free content on there, so you can go learn all you want at an arm's length for free before you ever commit to anything or even talking to someone. If you wanna chat, then we have a giant button on every page of the website and you can book a free phone call, and all of our advisors... We built this company with the same philosophy and mentality, all of us share it, which is what you said. We, all the time, tell people like, "Hey, now is not the time, go do this, there's free resources. Keep in touch," you know. So, we'll point you in the right direction.

0:22:01.8 KD: Yeah, and to that point, you guys even told me this year, I remember, Ryan, I was making a big decisions, like, "Kiera, don't be investing as much right now, like this is not the time for you to invest. You need more cash flow so you can make smarter decisions," which I valued that so much. You weren't pushing me to invest constantly, you were really looking at me as an individual, so...

0:22:19.9 RI: Yeah, it's good. Cool. Love it.

0:22:22.7 KD: I love it. Thank you, Ryan.

0:22:23.0 RI: Solid. Yes.

0:22:24.0 KD: I appreciate you a ton. Guys, truly...

0:22:25.9 RI: Any time.

0:22:27.1 KD: I also feel like as team members, you don't have to be a dentist to be looking at your finances, so really look to see where do you wanna be, reach out because I feel like the sooner you can get a handle on your financial part of your life, the happier you'll be. So as always, reach out. If Ryan, it's great, if not email us [email protected], but truly, I think Dentist Advisors are one of the top advisors in the dental industry specifically built for you working with people just like you. So as always, guys, thanks for listening. I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team podcast. And that wraps it up for another episode of The Dental A team podcast. Thank you so much for listening and we'll talk to you next time.

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