The Financial Advocate

Listen in for a quick 10 minute breakdown of why there's only 1 type of annuity we use in the financial plans we do for our clients.  

This video is about Teaching Financial Literacy to Children. Sam and I are both financial literacy advocates and we both agree that you can't start early enough. Sam has some great ideas for teaching financial literacy and competency at an early age. It is important to remain positive and keep it simple when starting out. I hope you enjoy! Check out Sammy Rabbit below: https://sammyrabbit.com/

I decided to do something a little different and talk to a marketer about how financial planners should acquire new business. I enjoy being different and getting rid of the suite and sales stigma that comes with financial planning. The days of seminars and dinners are long gone. This interview is with Corey Keating. He is the founder of the Marketers Company and has many years of experience market...

The big question: "Where are we headed?" A very educational 30 minute back and forth about the current state of the economy and possible factors to affect a continuing recovery. Here are some questions we discuss: Why do stocks continue to improve as corporate earnings remain lower than normal & almost 40 M people unemployed? Will the affects of the coronavirus eventually catch up with the stock m...

Sid and I talk about getting started as financial advisors. We also discuss life outside of the office and how we met on LinkedIn. This episode has some fun stories mixed in with business strategy for young advisors. 

Stephen has an extensive background in sales. We met as professionals on LinkedIn where he shares a lot of great content around sales and mindset. I have gotten a lot of value out of following along so I was excited when he agree to do this podcast. It is about 40 minutes but well worth it as you will learn about his story in sales and his nuggets of wisdom to stay mentally strong during such a to...

Recently I was lucky enough to do a podcast interview with one of them - Christine Teh: 🎙"Building Your Relationship with Money" Christine is well known on LinkedIn, but if you haven't had a chance to connect with her - I recommend it. You will learn a lot just by following her. She is a financial coach, tax strategist and LinkedIn coach. I always appreciate her positive attitude and spiritual vie...

'PARENTING PROFESSIONALS OF LINKEDIN' I met Lisa Goldkuhl on #linkedin during the lockdown. I noticed one of her posts speaking about what it was like to be a mother and I told a story about an experience I had as a parent. Long story short, I walked in and out of a grocery store multiple times holding my daughter looking for my car keys...which were around my neck the whole time. Lisa is a real b...

This is about the side hustle of a high schooler collecting and selling sports cards on the side. The guest is non other than Connor Meeks, the son of podcast host, Colin Meeks. Connor has been collecting cards for a while now and has started to get good at selling them. Listen to his story as he just started high school and this is a really interesting way to make money. 

The importance of protecting your income in this episode where we discuss the basics and importance of disability insurance. Insurance is never a fun thing to think about - you either have to think about yourself getting hurt or dying. It is important to plan properly and to protect yourself and your family. This coronavirus is a good reminder that most of the time we use disability insurance is b...

Have you even wondered how you would work with an advisor in another state? We have a few clients out of state that take advantage of our process and find it is just as personal as face to face meetings. We use Skype & Zoom for our 'screen to screen' meetings. We have formulated this process over the last few years to make sure it feels just as personal as sitting in front of us with the convenien...

Kids should be learning about investing in school but rarely do they get any real life information to use. It is up to the parents, guardians, brothers, sisters, and everyone else with any knowledge to pass it on to the younger generation. Teach them how to save and teach them what investing can do for them.  Email ryan.stark@lpl.com if you have any questions! Thanks for listening.

Here we talk about the new bill that was passed making a few notable changes to investors of all ages, and especially those getting ready to hit the big 7-0. The RMD age was changed to 72 and Stretch IRAs now have a limit of 10 years. These are two of the biggest changes for us and our planning but there we plenty more. Listen to the podcast to here a few extra changes. 

We go over an article we found and talk about some of the important things to get done before the year is over. We also talk about some of the not so important things! Let us know what you think and if you need anything you can reach us @ ryan.stark@lpl.com

Here we discuss bad financial information on social media. There is bad information everywhere, but we notice it the most on social media over the past few years due to its popularity and ability to reach millions of individuals. Articles with crypto currency experts and ads titled "This stock could be the next ___ (ex. Apple, Amazon)" are too common. A lot of big platforms are doing their best to...

Happy Thanksgiving! We (Colin and Ryan) share their key advice that they would give to anyone they meet. There is not much cookie cutter advice out there, as everyone has their own personal financial situation, but there are a few pieces of advice we think everyone can benefit from. We talk about online savings accounts and getting started planning early. Thanks to Lori, our main compliance review...

We are back after a hiatus of a few months. Sorry for the lagging of content. We were helping a lot of clients and working hard but we are back and making the time to bring back the podcast as strong as ever. Stick around because we have a lot of new cases and topics to talk about. 

This podcast discussion is about the difference between financial planning and investment planning. Financial planning is looking at the big picture : a collaboration of estate planning, tax planning, investment planning, insurance planning, healthcare, etc. Multiple professionals working together to help an individual reach their goals. It takes a team to make a financial plan come to life. E: ry...

This episode is a conversation between Colin Meeks and myself, Ryan Stark, about our experiences helping people undo some of their financial decisions. We also tell a few stories about when we couldn't undo something, unfortunately; not everything can be undone.  

There are more than 3 things, but these are important and a good place to start for things to look out for. Remember to set a plan and stick to it. We routinely suggest not changing the plan unless your life changes. Investing is a long term game. 

This podcast is about insurance in general. It describes some of the different kinds and how we use them to plan, especially for special needs planning. We use both cash value/permanent and term insurance depending on the situation. We may even use Universal Life, which is a combination of whole life and term. It all depends on your situation! 

What is Adult Prep? Check out this blurb directly from their website: https://adult-prep.com/about-us/   "Adult Prep teaches life skills to high schoolers, enabling them to be able to stand on their own two feet when they leave home. Imparting the skills needed to successfully transition to adulthood, Adult Prep creates a mindset empowering young adults to thrive in their brave new world. Curricul...

This is just a little insight about common financial products that are often misunderstood. There are bad products; however, most of the time the product isn't bad but its use was bad. Products work best in certain situations and are never one size fits all answers. It is important to make sure you always understand what you are investing in. It is the advisors job to educate you to make sure you...

This is another case study where we review the basics of a new case. We can't share too many details but we are able to share enough to give you a good view or how we work and the common situations we run in to.