Commonwealth Financial Network 2019 National Conference

Business Week on iTunes, SoundCloud, or Bloomberg dot Com. You can also listen to our radio show weekdays at two pm Eastern only on Bloomberg Radio. A little bb king here. I'm gonna say it's been an interesting week Jason so far. One of the things that we kind of kicked off the week was the zero fee band aid was kind of ripped off in terms of online trading. Charles Schwab t d amor trade eliminating commissions on trade. The investment

world continues to evolve and get up ended. So here were some thoughts on what's going on in the field. Only advisory business is Greg Gore. He's senior vice president of Wealth Management, a Commonwealth financial network on site with us. I come about financial networks twenty nineteen National Conference. The world continues to change and change very quickly. What are some of the major themes that you guys are hoping

to really get into at the conference this year. Yeah, I think the continued evolution UM to feel only away from commission business. I mean, that's sort of you know, old news at this point, but it continues to accelerate. UM. It's amazing that there's even I feel like that everybody isn't feel only at this point considering the environment. Yeah, and it's you know, it's not something that we necessarily

want to push advisors to move to UM. It's something that I think, you know, advisors need to move with their own pace. And while everybody i think recognizes that ultimately that's where most of the industry is going to end up UM, it takes time to get there. You know, you have a very entrenched UM product manufacturing and distribution system that people have you know, used over decades, and you don't just restructure that, you know, overnight or even

over the space of a couple of years. So, you know, one of the one of the approaches we take is working with advisors to lay out a timeline and a path basically to get them there in a very structured and measured way that sort of minimizes the disruption to their business and their clients. Yeah. Well, and as you walk around and talk to people here, you know, a couple of thousand people here, as we noted at the at the top of the show, what's top of mind?

And you know, to sort of go down the level what's top of mind that they're saying to you, sort of filtering up from there from their clients and customers. Yeah, I think, you know, in two days into this conference, if there was one theme that's that's really obvious to me, as I think advisors are really um gravitating towards the planning and starting to sort of de emphasize a little

bit the investment management interesting side of their business. And you know, I think Common Wilson is a firm has

always been very planning centric. But you know, Carol, you mentioned um sort of the price wars that are going on all around investment costs, and I think, um, you know, the extent to which advisors are able to really pin their value to the planning and not the cost of investments becomes a real differentiator as this whole thing plays out going forward, you know, as long as clients look at their advisor UM and really recognize the value they're

bringing apart from just investment management. UM. I think that's

a very strong tide advince. I gotta think, I gotta say in terms of planning, and I know one of our guests is going to talk about this little bit later on in terms of financial education, but I do think are we getting closer to, you know, having people out of college really start with a financial plan because I think the earlier you start, the better you're going to be, especially since you're not going to have a lot of you know, retirement pensions from companies that just

is going away. So I'm just curious are we getting better about that, because I think it's important. I think there's a number, um, a number of developments there. You know, there there's a lot of firms that are trying to figure out, I think, how to cater and scale millennial planning. UM. You know, the student debt that's a huge story and and helping recent grads deal with that. UM. Obviously it's an area that you know, sort of traditional financial services

hasn't paid a lot of attention to. It's very much better an asset based model. UM. But but I think is this continues to play out in the shift from investment management to a more planning centric You're gonna see a lot more flat fee arrangements, You're gonna see subscription based services. Um. And I think even you know, established

successful financial advisors are going to look to that market. Um. You know, is their business matures, and they've got to do a generational shift, right they have to, Right, they have to. And the subscription based element is so interesting too because you think about how, especially like our kids, you know, how they sort of consume content, how they

consume information, the way that they expect to engage. I feel like if you had said to me twenty years ago, this is going to be subscription basically, like what, that doesn't make any sense. Whereas for the it's incredibly natural. And if they can roll that into the way they live the rest of their lives, it does field more

not just holistic, but comfortable in a lot of ways. Yeah, I think it's just very consistent with you know, you've got a whole generation of folks now or grown up with Netflix and grown up with Amazon Prime, and you know, everything functions the sharing economy, right, you're doing everything on a monthly basis. Yeah, so it's a great entry point. Um. And then I think is, you know, these folks progress in their careers and they have more income, and their

their situations get more complex. You know, maybe they migrate to a more traditional model over time. UM, but there's no shortage of participants that are going to figure out, um, how to participate in that market right in in a scalable, profitable way. How much do you guys also talk about the disruptors, whether it's Facebook, whether it's Google. You know, was it Jamie Diamond at the Bloomberg Global Business form they were asked. He was asked about like who do

you keep an eye on? Are you worried about Facebook and liber and all that Stuffitely goes, Oh yeah, I watch all these guys. How about your community? UM, I think you gotta watch every every everyone and everything. Right, UM, you know you never really see the one that's going to get you, um, no matter how much you watch. UM, you know it really UM, fintech all the efforts in those spaces, and I think right now, what fintech is really focused on is trying to figure out can you

really scale the financial planning, the investment management. I think that's sort of done deal that has a human element. It has a human element, and I don't know what well you can scale certain aspects of that. Um I think ultimately the human interface is always going to have a value that people are willing to pay up for. And I think especially when it comes to figure out the kind of risk somebody can deal with, and I think the nuances of that. Thank you, my pleasure. Great.

Greg Gore is senior vice president of Wealth Management at Commonwealth Financial Network. What are our hosts here in Aurora, Colorado. It's common Wealth Financial Network the nineteen National Conference. Much more to come from here. We're gonna talk about all aspects of the financial world, rocking that. It was only a matter of time before we heard that. So let's get into the business of skiing. As we said, I was very excited to just think about skiing when we

landed here. Rob Katz as CEO and chairman of Veil Resorts. He joins us on the phone from not too far from here, uh Boulder, Colorado, where it's certainly getting underway in terms of getting ready for the ski season. Rob, great to have you with Carolin myself. Great to be here. Thanks for coming out to Colorado and enjoining us here. I know we're excited to be here. So give us a sense of what we're going to expect, what we should expect from Veil Resorts as we get into this

season in a meaningful way. What's new and different? You just did a big deal. How has the business changed? Yeah, I think, um, you know, in a couple of ways. One, I think the most thing we're most excited about right now is just that, Uh you know, we're starting to turn on the snow guns at Keystone right up the road here on I seventy in Colorado, and everybody's getting excited for another great season. Uh, So we can't wait to get that underway. From the company's perspective, yeah, big

news on a couple of fronts this year. One is the Peak Resorts acquisitions, where we added seventeen new resorts to our company, which really gives skiers and riders a ton of more choices when they buy one of our pass products. The other thing that's big news for us this year is the Epic Day Path. Historically, we sold a season path that really required somebody to ski kind of four or more days and got a fifty percent

off type discount. This year, we actually have introduced a one, two, and three day product so that people can get those same discounts even if they're only going to ski a couple of days for the season. So that's what's got us jazz and and help us understand the economics of that decision. Is that sort of owing to this scale that you have and sort of the volume of people you have coming through, how are you able to make

that work? Um? Well, one of the things is we do tell people that to get this great discount like off, we want them to make that purchase by around Thanksgiving. Uh And and because of that, that gives us right much more certainty, allows us to plan make the right investments for the season, ensure that we keep right the quality at the absolute highest level, and it gives our guests the best discount. Yeah, I do want to rob you know how many of those season past sales? How many?

How much of it do you get to really lock up early so that you do have that clear visibility in terms of spending and what the season is going to be like. Uh, in terms of overall sales, is it is it. Yeah, it's it's around uh in terms of our lip ticket revenue, a little bit under and

a little bit more in terms of visits. Uh. And obviously along with that, right, a big chunk of a ski school and retail and rental lodging, right, A while of people then, because they've made that commitment, they follow through on those plans. And in particular it's because there's so much to do with our resorts, right, It's one of the things we really pride ourselves on. The skiing, of course, is why people come, but it's all those other activities that really round out the vacation. How much

our repeat visitors too as well? And I'm curious, you know, if you're able to kind of hold on to somebody who comes to one of your resorts and a time again year after year, are coming back. Yeah, it's a it's a big percentage of our business. Um. And and we really look at it two ways, right, there are those resorts loyalists, um, and we're very focused on them getting them coming back to the same resort year after year.

Then we have folks though, who what we we kind of call samplers, right, no matter how great of an experience they have at one of our resorts, they want to try something new the next year. And I'm sure you guys know of folks that vacation like that, some people that go back to the same place, some people that always like to try something new. And now with thirty seven resorts and sixty resorts on our path, including our partners, we really have the opportunity to serve both

of those clientele right well. And Rob, one of the things that's notable I think about this latest acquisition of Peak is we're not just talking about sort of the high high end that you know the Veils and and even Keystone, I know is is not quite as fancy as Veil. I've skiped them all, um. But you know, back East, especially, you've got some you know, some names like Hunter uh and some of the names in Pennsylvania

as well. So it feels like you're trying to appeal to a wider variety of consumers who maybe can't afford to hop on a plane and get out to Veil. Yeah. Absolutely, I think it's part partly that. I think it's also partly that even some of the folks who ultimately might take a vacation out west start their skiing experience on some of these smaller resorts. We now the name of our season path, the Epic Path, and we actually talk about a lot of these smaller resorts are where epics begin.

I had my first experience at Hunter Mountain uh, and so we want to make sure that that first key experience that people have is a positive one, make it accessible UH, and then absolutely start getting them to try some of the other resorts. I feel like so many people I said, you know, growing up in the East Coast or on the East Coast, had their first experience

at Hunter. Oh totally, yeah, absolutely. I mean I remember skiing as at Hunter as a kid, and it was lucky enough to come out to Keystone and Veil as well. Rob Cats, thank you so much, CEO and Chairman's Board. Come see us in New York for sure. Maybe we'll come see you at one of your resorts. That they are beautiful, I can attest to that. I do want to mention SunTrust, by the way, raising its price target on Veil resorts today to eight from two forty seven

to reflect the company's acquisition of Peak Resources. That deal, of course closing this week. I got ma months months, all right, Well, as we delve deeper into the world of investing and really taking care of your money. We're delighted to have Sharbri More with us. She is president of more Wealth based on the other side of the country in Frederick, Maryland, back closer to our home, but she's here with us on site at Commonwealth the Nancial

Network twenty nineteen National Conference. Should very great to have you with us. Thank you glad to be here. One of the reasons I think Carolin and I were both so excited to talk with you is that we spend a lot of time on this show and in other parts of our lives sort of trying to think holistically about our lives. And I think we're at this interesting moment even societally culturally, where people are taking a beat and saying, Okay, where do I want to be? What

do I want to do? You know, we're sitting here in beautiful Aurora, Colorado, where it's a lot easier to have some of those big thoughts, and yet when it comes to money, people tend to be very parochial and tend to be very um limited maybe in their thinking. How do you break people out of that mindset? Yeah, that's a great question. So you know, usually when people come to speak with us, they think we're going to talk about numbers and analysis and research, and certainly we do.

But a big part of our conversation is about what do you want to do, who do you want to be? What is important to you? And we like to call that research based with a heart, and that heart petis is so critical. Right, Like I remember talking to my own brother and his wife, and they have their own little whiteboard of their financial goals. And sometimes it's a new car, sometimes it's a beach house, or sometimes it's

of course getting the kids to school. It's good to kind of have an idea of what someone's priorities are, take that into account, and then shape it, help them shape what they need to do. Yes, absolutely so it's having those tough conversations sometimes during their working years and also is their approaching retirement. One of the things we found is people don't know how to put their emotions in words. Uh. They may say this is what I want, but we don't know how important that is until we

dig deeper. What's the toughest conversation or what are the toughest issues that you have to deal with? With some of your clients, it's usually when they're approaching retirement. So we want them to think about not just the money. We've got the money figured out. What we want to think about is who do you want to be in retirement? What is retirement? What's important? Who's important? What are you going to do? But don't you have to do that earlier?

But I was just saying that to make sure that if what they want to be in retirement, they've done the planning ten twenty years before, well then that's the money part. The emotional pieces more of five to seven years before retirement, because that's when they start thinking about it. In fact, they haven't thought about it, or they're so terrified about it that they put it on the back burner. You know. We had a workshop a few years ago.

Joni Youngworth, one of the managing principles from Commonwealth, came out, spoke about forty five of our clients and she ran this whole workshop by asking them those tough questions and running them through exercises individually and then also as couples to help them define what that is. And so the response was phenomenal and we still use a lot of the questions and exercises that she put them through with our clients on an individual basis, and it's been wonderful.

We learned so much about that. What comes out, aren't you I'm like curious, like, what's the kind of conversation is it? Like? Uh, like, what does it come down to? Boiled out too? So it's again, they can't talk about the emotions. So we rephrase this question and we'll ask them, Okay, draw a picture for me and show me what life looks like five years into retirement, what does life look like? Ten years? What does life look like? You're not here,

And so it's interesting themes come through. They draw pictures, they write words, and here's what's common. They care about the family, they care about certain causes. I never hear about possessions. It's all about time and experiences with the people they love. So you have brought your sons into

your business, I believe, And it's interesting from a personal perspective. Um, the gentleman who has helped my wife and me sort of manage our money over the years has recently brought his son into the business over the past couple of years. And it's amazing to me how the perspective changes in

a lot of ways. How our conversations change tell us about sort of bringing your sons in and the perspective that that that has brought because obviously, by their nature they are younger, and then they're coming at it from a slightly different perspective. What have you learned from them? Yeah, so it's really interesting. So my sons are Eric and Sean and their twenty six and thirty one respectively. They come in and they bring an energy to the practice

that I think is wonderful. But they also bring fresher ideas in different ways of looking at things. So sometimes if we're stuck and saying where are we going from here? Well why not here? And just because we'll think about it, baby boomers, we've redefined everything, right, we don't follow the rules, We've changed them. I'm a baby boomer. I don't look at retirement the same way my parents did. My sons don't look at that retirement the same way we do.

How are they looking at it? What have you learned from them in that perspective? Yeah, they're so young, it's kind of tough, and they think they're going to work forever. Course they've got fourty year careers ahead of them. So

that's a tough picture for them. But it's interesting that you say that this idea of working forever, because I do think for baby boomers in general, there was this idea of like, I will work until age X, you know, and usually it's sixty or sixty five or whatever it's going to be, and then there's like something that happens and then I am retired, and it's a very strong move from A to B. I feel like even for folks at our age, like that's changed in terms of

certainly how we think about what retirement broadly defined looks like. It feels like, yeah, absolutely, so instead of defining it is I'm retiring at sixty two or sixty five or whatever that magic number is, it's more about reinventing yourself. What am I going to do next? And it may be a career that pays money, it may just be something that you really enjoy doing. Um, it may just be volunteering. So it's changed. There isn't a defined retirement.

Retirement is just that's another part of life. This is the next stage. Yeah, because I think about, you know, going back to school, you could in your retirement because you do see education changing where you can come in and pop in and maybe take a course. Well, we were talking about this with the president of Penn State. Once you go to school there, you now essentially have an idea college I d for life, and you can just pick up a course whenever you want, right, and

I think you appreciate it more later. So what's your advice to somebody? So client comes to you, and you know, in terms of planning for their retirement, thinking about it holistically, what's your advice. Wow, that's going to be so dependent upon them. So really it's more not so much advice, but it's more about asking questions. So what are the questions somebody should ask themselves and kind of thinking about

what they need for retirement. So sometimes it's just about writing down what your goals are and writing down I enjoy doing this, I enjoy traveling, I enjoy volunteering with this organization. I enjoy spending time with my family. I enjoy spending time with my kids. So start writing those things down and thinking about all right, this is important. Now let's prioritize it and figure out when you're going

to do that, because let's be realistic. At some point in your life you're physically not capable of doing some things that you are when you're younger, So maybe we'll prioritize them and help you figure out I'm going to do this when I'm younger. I'll go climb much a peach you now, and I'll go on a cruise when I made so exactly. Yeah, So it's getting to the core of what's important. Yeah, I love it, and I love the idea of this continued move towards more experiences

and things that really matter versus stuff. Right, we have this conversation about too much stuff out there already great stuff. She be More is president of More Well. She's based back in Frederick, Maryland. Here with us in Aurora, Colorado at the Commonwealth Financial Networks twenty nineteen National Conference. We're gonna have more conversations ahead about money, private and public.

I was gonna say, I love that you brought her sons, and because we keep talking about the importance of a company, you know, bringing in different voices, diversity of thought. Um, those are the companies that are going to be positioning themselves for a longer future. Are you going to throw me aside so that you have Aggie as your co host going forward, were ready to do that with the teenager, that would be quite a different show, would be quite

a different show. Well, it's a lot less private than it used to be, and nothing private about the cover story of Bloomberg business Week this week a tour diforce. I believe it's what they call it. Joel Webber conceived it. He's the editor of Business Week, and Heather Pearlberg was one of the key people pulling it off. They're both back in our Bloomberg Interactive Broker's studio. So Joel set this up. I did not conceive this. It was a

team effort. It was incepted. Uh. They they had. They got me though, because they said, uh, something that you and I have talked about a lot, which is, do you just understand exactly how much private equity is touching you Torolheber or you know, average American or not average.

But and that's sort of like really resonated with me because the more that we started thinking about it, it was like, Wow, this is an industry that historically has meant leveraged buyouts, but in the ten years since the financial crisis has no one, no one won the last decade quite as much as private equity. So we really wanted to kind of like dive into what that meant and what's changed. And one of the things that really stuck out was a story that Heather Proberb brought to

us about the influence in Washington. So, Heather, what what did you find? Well, these guys are definitely winning in Washington. Wouldn't make anyone happy really right now, Elizabeth Warren's ready to clip their wings. Uh, she is increasingly getting louder and louder. And in the past decade, they've built up

their lobbying groups, They've they've really mobilized. They've become sort of a mature industry, and they have all the key people in the right places, Beltway insiders who know how to play, and they're doing everything they need to do to get their way. And I think one of the things that really stuck out with me on this was carried interest is one of the places that the private equity,

private equity industry it makes its money. Right, it's an incredibly lucrative loophole effectively, and it's one that's totally legal, and uh, it's it's whenever it comes up in d c it seems like everyone, even Trump will well you know, for a while, was like, yeah, let's let's do away with this, and yet that quietly, you know, seems to dissipate all the time exactly. So what what did you

find out on that front? Well, there's such a lot of backdoor efforts negotiating private equity on both sides of the carried interest on both sides of the aisle, and in this case, it was a lot of people, a lot of figures who were becoming increasingly more powerful people in Trump's orbit. You have Blackstone heads meeting with important people.

John Gray number two orchestrated the whole Hilton hotel deal, meeting with the nuition, all kinds of top economic advisors and talking about what this means to private equity, which is a lot of money. So Jason, you know, you you you know about private equity as much as anything, and you were involved in this package. What what did you learn from working on it? You know, I thought the Washington piece was was really an eye opener for me for all the reasons that you guys have just discussed.

And you know, I do think one of the things, as we dug into a hma Parmer and I spent some time looking at the returns equation, and you know, I think one of the most important things that came out to me was this notion that returns may not be what they historically have been A and b uh, that not all private equity firms are created equal, and there are some who have done extraordinarily well. That's why the money keeps coming in. You know, that top quartile

that we hear so much about. They've done extraordinarily well and done right by their customers, their clients, big pensions and endowments. I also was reminded how much more pressure those ultimate investors are putting on these firms as well. Carroll, and I have to say one of the things I find really interesting in this coverage and I love it, and I also just want to put kudos out to the whole team who was involved exactly. And Jason has

written two books on this. So we we love to talk about private equity, but I am fascinated by the number of billionaires We're not talking about millionaires, billionaires that have been minted in this space. And perhaps how private equity, you know, for better for worse, has contributed to the inequalities that we talk about number because you put this on a t from the story, there are more private equity managers who make at least a hundred million annually

than investment bankers, top financial executives, and professional athletes combined. Yeah, that's a lot of money. That's a lot of money. Yeah, And I think that is one thing that that really cemented this for me as well, and how they did a great job sort of outlining all of it because she's looking at this day to day, and I do think ultimately it was one of the driving forces of this entire packages. This is why we care. The influence,

I think is especially notable. And while this certainly isn't a valentine to the industry, I think it's a very clear eyed look at how in terms of ownership and in terms of influence, you cannot ignore this industry, right and especially as we move increasingly it feels like to to private markets versus public markets. So well, that's that's why the industry has really thrived in this in this

back decade. You know, everyone's searching for yield, and this industry is outperforms, you know, like that that is the allure, But it comes with some costs sometimes too, and that's ultimately what we tried to talk about. Yeah, it was a lot of fun to work on. Really appreciate both of you joining us today. Joe Webber, editor of Bloomberg Business Weekend, Heather Proburg, private Equity reporter extraordinaire, both back in our Bloomberg Interactive Broker's studio. You have to take

over the finance section of magazine. It's a must read if you want to understand what private equity is all about, how it works. And I'm gonna do a shameless plug because my co host has written two books on it, so check them out, all right. So, one of the things that I've really loved about the conversations we've been having today is we're talking to a group of people who are really truly taking a holistic view of their finances.

And I feel like for so long it was such a parochial system in a lot of ways that you know, you would go in and see somebody and they sort of run you through the numbers, be like okay, and you'll get a statement, uh next quarter. Katherine Loola is here. She's the founder and chief executive offer of Concentric Private Wealth even the name sort of gives you that sense

that there's something new and different. She's here with us in Aurora, Colorado at Commonwealth Financial Networks twenty nineteen National Comments based back east in Virginia. So give us a sense of your approach here, because it does feel a little bit different. We have a very unique approach. So, yes, we are comprehensive wealth management firm, but our focus is

one the lens of behavioral advice. So what's really important for us is to help walk the client through the process of why are they doing what they're doing, ultimately what's important to that and helping them get to the place where they're understanding what's important to them and then aligning their decisions and they're planning and investment strategy with that.

I love and I tease this that the one question, simple question and that people should ask and you say, can change the course of their financial future is why yes, So give us an idea. So you're sitting down with some folks and so what are you specifically kind of what's the conversation? Well, when we first sit down with anyone coming in, it's really important for us to meet the client where they're at because it might be something that they're going through a period of transition. It kid

going after college, maybe a job change. We need to make sure that we're first hackiing, not so that the client feels safe. Once the client can start feeling safe, then we can really help them start exploring. You know, all of us when we were at some point or another for many of us, when we graduated from school, whether it was college or getting our masters, and something that was often when our education and who we were stopped.

There wasn't a coach or a parent or multiple other types of leaders saying consider this, consider that I see that opportunity in you. What we did do is often sign up for a job, and then that job turned into some type of promotion, and then we began having responsibilities and obligations, and all of a sudden, we're on this back and we're subconsciously following this track forward. But often it has nothing to do with what that fire

is inside of us. From a financial perspective, why this is really important is because our decisions are all based on this lifestyle that we've built up. But if that lifestyle isn't about like who we are as a person, then how are we possibly going to have financial independence. And one of the other questions you asked, which I love and you have young kids, is what would your kids do? Exactly tell us what that looks like and how people react. Because I read that and I thought,

oh wow, that's a totally different mindset. Where did that come from and what does it lead to? Well, I'm the mom of three little kids. I have a six year old and almost five year old boy and a daughter who just turned three, and my goodness, those kids have really helped me see myself more clearly. But also to simplify you know, kids often have the answers to everything,

and we adult them so quickly in life. And if you just watch a kid, they go out and play, or they explore, or they want to read or study, because that's what's the side of them. They have that curiosity and we try to get them to fit in this box, but that creativity is slowly taken away and we then don't necessarily to see who we are. So when we're looking at kids, it's really about helping them explore who they are, having fun, enjoying what they're doing.

I'm a big believer that if we can follow what our strengths are if we can follow what's important to us, then the finances come with that, because often we are going to be simplifying the things that we have in our life. Now, we still might want to have that big house, but if we want that big house, great that's where we should be spending our money. Or if we really want to travel, then great, let's go spend a ton of money there, or a ton of money

on travel. But what we don't want to be doing is spending money and investing money and purposes that have nothing to do with actually what's fulfilling us, because at the end of the day, happiness comes from fulfillment. It's something that's more fleeting. We can't just search for financial independence. We can't just search for happiness because at the end of the day doesn't have any type of foundation. So we really need to build on that foundation, and the

finance has come with that. It sounds so obvious and I love it, but I bet there's so many people you sit down with and you've got to kind of get them to that position, right like, Okay, this is what makes you happy, so then this is where you should focus on or what you should focus on. It's super hard, and honestly, being a mom now has helped me become much more empathetic to how long this process takes.

This is not something that we can just Okay, turn on the switch and everything is going to be perfect. It's really about taking step after step after step. So it might be first in terms of how you're blocking out your schedule. It might not have anything to do with your finances, but beginning to find places in your

day to day that are more you. Maybe it's a place to journal, maybe it's trying a new activity, and then slowly but surely, it might be taking that bigger step of saying, all right, maybe we're going to actually take this type of vacation, or maybe I'm going to actually consider something like a career pivot, or maybe move out of the neighborhood that I thought was so important

to me. But at the end of the day, that was just what I thought I was supposed to be doing, because I'm making a certain amount of money where I have a certain type of position and I've made it and that's where I'm supposed to be. So it's a long process, but at the end of the day, really focusing on taking each small step and recognizing the same thing happens with kids. Well, and I love the fact that you sort of try to get to people sort

of where they are, because we all show up. I would imagine when we speak to someone like you with these sort of hang ups about money or these sort of conceptions about money that we grew up with, you know, either based on our parents, the way we grew up our financial situation, or as you say, like maybe things you even learned in college must be hard though to sort of we only have about thirty seconds left, but to break people maybe and to get them to think

in a different way. So yes, we think of it more is about pulling someone out, building the fire inside of them, rekindling. Interesting, so it's not about so much breaking someone down as it's about lighting that fire. And when you start lighting fire, we've all seen a fire making smores or whatever. It builds if you give it attention. And what we're trying to do is give people the opportunity to give themselves attention, and then the finances will

align with that. It's like a yoga financial likely that I mean that time totally. Um, thank you so much, what a pleasure Kathine Leola. She's founder and chief executive officer of Concentric Cost Concentric excuse me, Private Wealth, based in Virginia. On site at Combe Financial Networks twenty nine National Conference in Colmar bad You are listening to Bloomberg Radio. So financial literacy, financial inclusion. It is a topic we've

been talking about a lot here on Bloomberg Radio. At Bloomberg Global Business Forum, that was one of the topics that got highlighted. Chuck Olsen has been working with companies and others to provide financial education for employees. I love this topic. I think it should be everywhere. Chuck is CEO and wealth advisor at Calm Water Financial Group based in Norfolk, Nebraska. Right, that's Nebraska. I know, I know,

I know, I know. I haven't written down. I'm like, wait a minute, he's outside with us at Commonweal Financial Networks twenty nineteen National Conference. I have to say this is near and dear to me because I think we really dropped the ball in t teaching people about what they need to know in terms of kind of financially getting themselves set. I think we really have a big gap. Tell us about specifically what your company is up to we've got a lot of different things. Obviously we have

just personal wealth management with personal clients and things. But you know, we did the four oh one case. We were the advisors on four one ks for many, many years, and and over time we just felt that there was this literacy need that was out there, and so we would go out and we would what was missing specifically, you know, specifically it was um just connecting basic information.

At first, it was basic information about how to invest, how to have your money invested in a four oh one K, the idea of having an emergency fund, you know, not relying on the credit card. And there's a lot of people who are really good at sales who think that if you can afford a five a month car payment, you should buy the five all month car, And just the whole idea of staying away from debt, saving for the rainy day with an emergency fund, and understanding short

term savings versus long term savings. And for many of us it seems very natural and and fairly simple, but for many many people it was just very difficult from

them put all of that stuff together. And so the literal the literacy that we saw went from literacy needs went from just educating that, hey, you should be putting money to your four oh one K, to hey, you need to understand all of your company's benefits and you to have consultants in there that actually go back to the companies and say, hey, this is gonna cost you anymore to add this benefit, that benefit, or for a little bit more help your teammates or help your employees

out by offering these types of benefits. Now, we don't want to be in there, our our company doesn't want to be in there and be the four oh n K provider, be the insurance representing insurance company, because I believe there's a conflict of interest. So we come in ask consultants, and then we have a lot of meetings that we make mandatory. We will we will not come on to some of these companies unless they make our meetings mandatory to introduce the program because we've all been

there before. Hey, come to this financial planning seminar and learn about how to get into a budget. You know, may people show up to that deal zero. So companies have to buy into this deal and they have to come in and be willing to pay for our services. Uh and and and our advisors to come on site so our advisors are not trying to sell anything as a way of being compensated, the companies pay our advisors bills.

We go in there um and we do what we call the six key areas of wealth management, and we teach everything from tax planning to saving for the rainy day and budgeting, and also providing attorneys on site to get everybody's legal documents done at discounted prices, and then the attorneys reach back out UH to HR with or they actually provide the the employee a list of how they should have their beneficiaries designated based on their wills

and things. So a lot of this stemmed from just basic let's get into your four oh one K to all of a sudden, you need to understand all your benefits that everybody has available to you, and let's get out of this debt issue and living paycheck to paycheck

and let's dream big. And I had tons of stories about how these people have living paycheck to paycheck, never ever thought they could be a millionaire yea, and that whole concept and showing them how to do it and showing the time value of money and being able to get them from living paycheck to paycheck and all of this and having arguments at home to having this dream together for a husband and wife, for partners out there to dream about how they can be independently wealthy. And

so we've only got about a minute left. But our companies buying into this because I feel like we are huge beneficiaries of a company that is very forward thinking about all of this. But for a smaller company, you know, they may be thinking, look, I can't afford this. I I want to do this, but but I really can't.

How do you get them over the hump? The companies themselves, Yeah, we we've always talked about the costs are going to be less than one halftime FDA and roughly that's kind of what it's so, so you bring on an entire team to help out and less than one half of a full time employee and you're not paying us you know, benefits and things like that. But our advertising is really

word of mouth. Our company has boomed in the last eight years because one company talked to another and goes, you, guys aren't doing the calm water program, And they go, what's the calm water program? And they start looking up and then we get phone calls and that's how we've been we have You know, we're in northeast Nebraska. That's not New England as Nebraska for people. A second time I had to explain that to somebody today an he is not in New England, but she doesn't get out

of New York. Right, that's unfair. But the whole idea of we've boomed to work with fifty different companies outside of Nebraska in the last eight years, and some of them Fortune five companies, and we bring on other commonwealth advisors around the area to help us out in those areas. Come back in the future because I would let to continue this conversation. I love to do that. Yeah, thanks for having really really interesting chuckles and CEO and wealth

advisor for Calm Water Financial Group. The even just love the name calm Water. I'm a sailor. We like Calm Water a journal. Yeah, but you me drive Oh no, no, no, no home all night please, I'll do the right rivel. Excuse me, I want to drive. Just drive. The questions get drying. This is the drive to the globe community. Thanks.

We'll try us down on Bluebird Radio. All right, everybody, time for the drive to the clothes, the name familiar to our audience and nice to be on his home away ter Brad McMillan is with US Chief Investment Officer, Managing Principal at Commonwealth Financial Network one point excuse me, hundred sixty one billion in assets under management based in Waltham, Massachusetts, on site with us at Commonwealth Financial So we're like national conference. It's like we just walked into your living room.

We're expecting like a cheese plate or something. One point six billion in assets? Wait, what happened? What happen here? Bad day in the market. Actually it's a pretty good day of the markets. But what a week, What a couple of weeks it's been, uh in terms of volatility, concerns about macroeconomic growth. What's a smart conversation we should be having right now with investors? I think the real conversation is this is kind of a wake up call.

You know, maybe we're getting to the end of the cycle. I still think we've got a little ways to go, but now as a wake up call to look at this risk and say does this upset you? And if it does, we should talk about your portfolio because we might have some more stormy weather coming on. And so as you sort of talked to the couple of thousand folks that are here, is their mood optimistic, cautious? They're obviously hearing from their clients, uh every day. How did

they arrive here in Colorado? What what was their state of mind? I think everybody still feels good for the most part. Everybody still sees growth, everybody still sees good things ahead. But at the same time, there's no doubt that there are more and more clouds. And that's what I think we're talking about, is what are these clouds mean? Is it just a squall that's gonna blow over or is it going to get into something worse? And that's really the question I always wondered too, Brad. Here we are,

what ten years out, longest economic expansion on record. We still continue to see financial markets, certainly on the equity side, move higher, other asset classes as well, bond market, you know, rates still very very low. How do the clouds of today compare with what we've seen post financial crisis, because we've had kind of mini crises along the way, and that's a that's a great, great way to phrase the question, Carol, I mean, the question you're asking when you will could

say is it going to get bad? The lurking question is do we have another two thousand and eight coming? And I don't think we do because we simply don't have the kind of imbalances that we had then. That wasn't just a market downturn, It wasn't just a recession. It was a crisis. It was a potential collapse of the financial system, and that's not in the cards right now. So if you're looking for a comparison, it might be

more like two thousand. We'll have a recession, a medium recession, maybe a mild recession, and markets will react, But even there, I don't think we're going to see the same kind of pullback we did then. With interest rates where we are right now, there's a lot of support for valuation levels, so it doesn't Yes, it won't be fun, but we're not looking at away unless you're an uber or we

work or exactly right. Well, I want to take you a step further on that, because I do wonder with the financial crisis, you know, still relatively freshened people's memories and and having a lot of wealth that just evaporated, you know, back in uh oh eight and oh nine, do you feel like your colleagues here are having different sorts of conversations about sort of battening down the hatches to sort of make it through even if it's milder

on a relative basis. Are they making different decisions given that that's still in the back of their minds, even knowing what you just said about the the lack of severity, Maybe this time around they are making different decisions because, first of all, you know it can be worse, even if you don't think it will be, you know that

possibility can happen. Second of all, clients are ten years older, you know, so somebody who was thirty five or forty five ten years ago, now they're forty five to fifty five, and that's a very different place to be looking at these kind of draw downs. You know, maybe you could legitimately say I don't care ten years on, it's harder

to say that. I mean, in general, I think there's a greater appreciation for risk and avoiding the downturn, right So, I think, you know, acid preservation is a conversation and topic we don't talk enough about. Totally agree. In fact, I wrote a book on just that, because I think that's the thing we really need to be talking about right now. People are getting older boomers. They don't have the time right they don't have the time right. Well,

and I do what what what? I also want to ask you, because you know you come to this it really is a scientist in a lot of ways, Like you understand the numbers underneath it, a lot of where we're going from a tech Yeah. I mean you've got an M. I. T. Background here among your your several degrees. And I do wonder how you look at the world of advice right now with that sort of scientists hat on,

because I feel like we're having this discussion. We've been having it all day today, we have it seemingly every day, that balance between using technology to your advantage but also not forgetting the human How do you balance that as you look across the Commonwealth universe. I think technology is a tool, and I think to the extent that we treated is more than that, we're doing ourselves a disservice.

I mean, this this business is all about people. It doesn't the investing is there to serve somebody's ability to retire, to pay with their grandchildren and but likewise with markets, I look at markets as a human endeavor. There's a want to talk about how things are different this time. It's still people buying and selling. Yes, there may be automated tools, but it's still people programming those tools. I don't think things change for everybody. Things people saying it's

different this time, I don't think it is. Yeah. One of the things I want to ask you because in the magazine this week we have a deep dive into the world of private equity, and the private equity world is looking to kind of open up its investment world to more retail investors. I think you know down the road, Brad, what do you think are the asset classes that some of the investment advisors would like to open up more freely to some of their clients, and you think would

be a good thing. Well, I think there is a lot of There is a lot of advisor interest in private equity, and I think the argument there is you're going to get healthy returns. People. People aren't saying, oh, we're gonna get returns. They figure we'll be able to match public market returns with less volatility. And I think that's a very attractive idea. And that's actually what's behind a lot of products coming out. You know, it's very much the risk aversion that you were talking about, Carol.

We're gonna give you the returns you need, but we're going to do it with less risk. The problem is this, if you look at some of the assets, and I'm going to pick on private equity because you mentioned it, it's very hard to value those assets to the lack of volatility if you you can't look behind the curt to what extent is that an illusion and if you

assume everything is going to come back right? But I do wonder about investors, you know, individual investors missing out on the opportunities in those more private markets, you know, versus what we're seeing in the public markets. Just got about forty seconds left, and I think that's a legitimate concern. But when you look at well, just to take a step back, where the private markets the valued. We work to go back to your earlier thing at whatever it was valued at. Now it's valued at a third of

that or West or those private markets. So smart correct. Ditto with Luber. I don't think you can assume private markets are more efficient. I think we're seeing a lot of the efficiency of the public markets right now as these uh as these names come public peloton. I think you're really interesting and think about whether it was Steve Schwartzman and some others right in terms of the private equity world saying that the capital markets the public market.

James Gorman made that point to us from Morgan Stanley as well. What a treat to catch up with you, Brad McMillan, Chief Investment Officer, Managing Principle of Commonwealth Financial Network. This is his party, cozy and a sweater out here. I don't know, very comfortable. It's like he's going to go on a hike and then come back and maybe sit by the fire, you know, you know, pour out some bromides for people about the about the market. All right, great,

catch up with the exactly. I hope you'll hope you'll join me for whiskey and bromides. Absolutely, This is Bloomberg. Thanks for listening to Bloomberg Business Week. You can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, SoundCloud, or Bloomberg dot com. You can also listen to our radio show every weekday at two pm Eastern only on Bloomberg Radio