00:04 Brooke
Retirees are rethinking their financial game plan, now turning to professional guidance. Here to scan through what’s top of mind for retirement. Let’s welcome in Yahoo Finance’s own Kerry Hannon. Kerry, thanks so much for joining us because you wrote this great story on Yahoo Finance. Uh what exactly did you find was the main sort of reason that they’re suddenly shifting this perspective on things.
00:32 Kerry Hannon
Yeah, Brooke, great to be here. This is, you know, an interesting time to retire, right? The economy’s been a little uncertain, markets have been a bit volatile. You know, and I think people are kind of having this angst about inflation and the cost of living and they’re just like saying, am I going to be okay? They really want some clarity about, okay, this is what I’ve saved. Is it going to be enough? And it’s the million dollar question, of course, but they’re they’re finally realized they’ve been do it yourselfers for years as they’ve been socking away their savings, but suddenly they go, you know what, I need somebody to take, get up on that balcony and really look at everything from my retirement accounts, outside savings, my home, what what does my picture look like? So that’s kind of the impetus for getting people to pick up the phone or what have you to connect with a professional that can really give that unbiased look and let them see what they have.
01:23 Brooke
All right, so Carrie, you finally pick up that phone. What are some of the top questions that retirees are asking, maybe what should they be asking?
01:31 Kerry Hannon
Right, Brooke. I think the number one thing is people want to know, they want guidance on saving and investing because just because you retire doesn’t mean you stop investing. You continue to build your your um assets. So, they want to know what they should be doing. So the number one thing would be, what should I do with the money in my workplace retirement plan? Do I keep it in my employer plan? Do I roll it over to an individual retirement account? And so these this is a big decision and you have to do it just right. It has to be, you know, directly, so you don’t get stuck with the taxes on it. So a financial advisor can walk you through that. But there’s plenty of other things. They’re asking them, you know, how much can I withdraw from these accounts? How much can I take 4% a year of my, you know, initial stash and and keep that, you know, increase that as time goes on. How much how should I evaluate the proper amount to take and that can range some people say 4%, some people even say 6%, but how much should it be of your total retirement savings account? But Brooke, they also want to know about taxes, they want about long-term care planning, you know? What is it? Should I be thinking about estate planning? I have some debt. Can you help me figure out how to pair down the debt? So there’s a real smorgas board of of topics, but it is really great that people are saying, okay, I really want to make sure I’m on track here.
02:55 Brooke
Now, Carrie, you mentioned that for the most part, these sort of retirees have been DIY, they’ve been doing it themselves. And now, I mean this can be a quite significant investment. We’re talking upwards of 5 grand. So what makes this a significant investment that’s not only worth it, but also how do you make sure that you’re not necessarily getting the short end of the stick? How do you justify this price, make sure you’re teaming up with the right financial advisor here.
03:17 Kerry Hannon
That’s right. I mean, you can get a plan a financial advisor to work with you for as little as 1500 to run just to do an overlook for you and maybe do a a simple uh plan moving forward of things you need to do. They’re not going to execute that for you. up to it can be as much as 5,000. It really depends on the complexity and the amount of time they’re going to put into it. I think a lot of advisors also hope that you’ll do this one shot deal for that amount of money, but you’ll decide to continue to work with them as your as their wealth manager. and then that allows them to shift into a different model of you paying, which is typically a percentage of the assets under management. So that becomes more ongoing relationship. But if you do a once a year annual checkup, that’s probably what it’s going to cost you. And and my best advice here is talk to people you know, you trust your friends, your family, your colleagues who your former colleagues, I should say, who do they work with and and interview a couple of these planners to see if you jive with them and that you you have that good feeling and and really approach it as you would hiring anyone to do a job for you.
