Retirement Planning - Redefined

Hosted by John Teixeira and Nick McDevitt

Business NewsExplicit

Website RSS feed

Episodes

100

Latest episode

Sep 2026

Language

About the show

Financial and retirement planning guidance from Certified Financial Planner John Teixeira and Nick McDevitt of PFG Private Wealth Management in the Tampa Bay, FL area. On this show, you'll learn about how the financial and retirement world has evolved over the past several decades, how to properly plan for your own future, and some of the important pitfalls to avoid. PFG Private Wealth Management, LLC is a registered investment adviser. All statements and opinions expressed are based upon information considered reliable although it should not be relied upon as such. Any statements or opinions are subject to change without notice. Information presented is for educational purposes only and does not intend to make an offer or solicitation for the sale or purchase of any specific securities, investments, or investment strategies. Investment involve risk and, unless otherwise stated, are not guaranteed. Information expressed does not take into account your specific situation or objectives and is not intended as recommendations appropriate for any individual. Listeners are encouraged to seek advice from a qualified tax, legal, or investment adviser to determine whether any information presented may be suitable for their specific situation. Past performance is not indicative of future performance.

Listen to episodes

60 recent

November 5, 2026Episode 9922 min

QCDs in 2026: Don't Miss These Charitable Giving Tax Breaks

What if the way you're donating to charity is costing you more in taxes than necessary? John and Nick explain how qualified charitable distributions (QCDs) work under the 2026 tax rules and why they can be a valuable strategy for retirees age 70½ and older. From reducing taxable income and satisfying required minimum distributions to avoiding costly mistakes, they'll help you understand how to make your charitable giving more tax-efficient before the year-end deadline. Helpful Information: PFG Website: https://www.pfgprivatewealth.com/ Contact: 813-286-7776 Email: info@pfgprivatewealth.com Disclaimer: PFG Private Wealth Management, LLC is an SEC Registered Investment Advisor. Information presented is for educational purposes only and does not intend to make an offer or solicitation for the sale or purchase of any specific securities, investments, or investment strategies. The topics and information discussed during this podcast are not intended to provide tax or legal advice. Investments involve risk, and unless otherwise stated, are not guaranteed. Be sure to first consult with a qualified financial advisor and/or tax professional before implementing any strategy discussed on this podcast. Past performance is not indicative of future performance. Insurance products and services are offered and sold through individually licensed and appointed insurance agents. Marc Killian: Time once again for another edition of Retirement Planning redefined with John and Nick, financial advisors at PFG Private Wealth. You got some questions, need some help, reach out to the guys at pfgprivatewealth.com. That's pfgprivatewealth.com and you may have some on this week's show. We're going to talk a little bit about QCDs, guys, in 2026 as the year is winding down here. So, kind of an overview for folks, is dealing with the breakdown of how this works with qualified charitable distributions. The cleanest way for donors 70 1/2 and older is to give under the 2026 tax rules. So, let's kind of talk about that from that standpoint. You guys give us some details and data and what matters and all that good jazz. So, since we got a lot to get into, I'll suspend the pleasantries. We'll just dive right in with the first point here, fellas. Why QCDs matter more in 2026? Whoever wants to start, take it away. John: So yeah, so with the new 2026 deduction for non-itemizing's limits, starting in 2026, people who take the standard deduction can deduct up to 1,000 for charitable gifts and 2,000 if married. So, that does allow for some additional deductions if you are taking the standard deduction. So, this is something that is nice for people that, you couldn't do before, because this isn't just for itemizers. You can deduct a little bit above the standard deduction limits. Marc Killian: Gotcha. And itemizers, that's a tough word. They get squeezed as well? John: They do because you can only deduct anything that's half percent of your adjusted gross income is deductible. Okay? So, it really leaves little room for actually what you can deduct if you are itemizing. Marc Killian: Gotcha. Okay. So, what's kind of the takeaway or the talking point for folks to think about when it comes to just the 2026 numbers? John: Yes. So, when you're looking at it, it's, the benefit of the QCD, it works no matter what and which deduction you're taking, because it never counts as income when you take the money out. And you can do up to 111,000 per person for 2026, of withdrawal from your IRA to do a charitable gift, versus the 1,000 or $2,000 deduction if you're single or married filing jointly. Marc Killian: Gotcha. Okay. So, it's not so much whether or not you can deduct the gift, it's whether the gift actually hits your tax return the way, as income. John: Yeah. Ultimately, when you're doing any type of deduction, it's, Hey, how does this affect my taxes? Marc Killian: Right. John: So, if you're gifting and the goal is to have some type of tax deduction, the goal is, does this result in me paying lower taxes overall? And if it doesn't, how can I make it do so? Marc Killian: Yeah. I mean, if you're charitably minded, you're not gifting because, ideally, I mean you're not just saying, Hey, what's the best way to do this efficiently, because I only care about the tax deduction. You probably care about what you're being charitable about, but why not be efficient? And so, get that tax deduction as well and get that tax break as well, if it works out. Okay. John: Yeah, it's definitely a combination of both as we see it. Most people, "Hey, you're charitably inclined?" The answer is, if it's yes, then it's, "Hey, I'm doing this. How can I take advantage of my taxes?" Marc Killian: And that doesn't make you a bad person at all. So, it just makes you efficient. All right, so, Nick, so for the second piece here, how does a QCD work for those who qualify? What's some main things here to consider? Nick: Kind of the mechanical part about this and conceptually how people should consider it or think about it. It's a little bit confusing because oftentimes historically people had associated this with RMDs, and RMD age. So, although they delayed RMDs for people now to 73 through age 75, they kept the age at which you can do the QCD at 70 1/2. So, the caveat, to be able to qualify and do this, is that you have to have turned 70 1/2 in the year, the calendar year that you're trying to do this, and you have to execute the QCD the day of your 70 1/2 birthday or after, from that day through the end of the year. So, let's just say you turned 70 1/2 on October 1st of this year, really your window on that is between October 1st and December 31st of this year. And conceptually, somebody might say, Well, why would I want to go ahead and I don't have to take my RMDs yet. Why would I want to go ahead and maybe give excess money before the age at which I need to do my RMDs? So, from a planning standpoint, we may look at somebody's plan and see, well, hey, when you do have to take your RMDs in a few years, it's going to be more than you, quote unquote "Need," and so you're going to be paying excess in taxes. So, you could wait and maybe give more money then, or you could try to get ahead of it a little bit and start giving some of the money and reduce those future RMDs. So the accounts that you would be looking at when you're trying to consider whether or not to do this would be a traditional IRA, whether it's your own or it's inherited. And if it is an inherited IRA, you as the account owner or what we refer to as the beneficiary, that you need to be past that age seven and a half as well. So it's not going to include 401(k)s, technically you could do it from a Roth IRA, but really that doesn't really make sense because it's tax-free. And if you are giving this money, it needs to go to 501(c)(3). So, one thing to consider, that we see most often from a giving perspective is, we have a lot of clients that maybe aren't involved in a lot of charities or they don't necessarily give on a consistent basis to charities, but they give to their church or they tithe or something along those lines. And they maybe at a point in time in the past, they thought that the entire amount that they were giving was deductible, only to maybe find out, once we have the conversation, that because they are standard deduction like John talked about, the most that they could deduct is 2000. So, now this is a way, instead of maybe giving every time they go to church or monthly, they can calculate how much they want to give, give it for the entire year via the QCD and have it be something that doesn't impact their taxes as an example. So, that's kind of a use case of something that oftentimes we see and it's kind of people's first step into using the QCDs to their advantage. Marc Killian: Gotcha. And so, you certainly want to make sure you're talking with your advisor or your custodian about how to do these things too. So, not just writing the check, right? You got to make sure you do this the right way, I'm assuming, in that way you do. Nick: Yeah. So, from an execution standpoint, the reality is, what we tell clients is, send us an email, the name and address of the charity that you want the funds to go to and the amount that you want to go. And then the funds go, there's a check written out from the custodian, which in our case is Charles Schwab, written out to the charity. And then oftentimes we have the check sent directly to the client. Historically, Charles Schwab, as an example, was not tracking these. They have changed that and made it a little bit easier for clients to track, but there are other custodians that also don't track these specifically. So, it's important for the client to keep track of, hey, how much money went to the charity. So, by sending the check directly to them and them giving the check to the charity, it allows them to take a copy of the check, make a copy of the check, make a note about it and notify their accountant about it. Marc Killian: Gotcha. Okay. All right, John. So again, we're talking about these QCDs here and Nick touched on the RMD connection a little bit, so I want you to explain that a little bit more. Because, it's not bad enough that the government throws a bunch of... They change the numbers for the RMDs to the 72 and then 73 and then 75. And you guys have mentioned the 70 1/2 and that might confuse people, because once upon a time, that was the RMD number. So, they left the QCD, you can start that at 70 1/2, but your RMD age is different. So, just run through some of the details there and some of the numbers and things to pay attention to on that connection. John: Yeah, let's say the charity lobby is strong. So, when they changed the RMD age, the charity lobby said, Hey, this might affect our donation, so why don't we keep this the same? Marc Killian: At 70 1/2, right. John: Yeah, pretty much is exactly what happened. So, yeah. So, the benefit is that, what I just said is that, at 70 1/2, you can still make charitable distribution from your IRA, the QCD, and it's not tied to your RMD age, because if the RMD age does go up to 75, you're still here at 70 1/2 where you can go ahead and take advantage of it. So, we do have some people now where it's, Hey, you're not forced to take out of your IRA, but you're doing charitable gifting, so let's go ahead and do it this way regardless. And then once we hit RMD age, it turns into, Hey, I don't need this money. I want to go ahead and donate it. And we adjust at that time depending. But it is nice that you can make the QCD prior to your RMD age and benefits all, benefits the charity, benefits the individuals. It's nice that they kept it that way. And just kind of recapping what I said earlier, in 2026, the limit is $111,000 per person. So, married, you can go ahead and double that up. Marc Killian: Okay. So, 222. Okay. John: Yeah. And one of the benefits of the QCDs is that, it's a dollar for dollar towards your RMD once you hit that age. So, if your RMD is, let's say you're requiring a distribution for whatever year is 30,000, you in essence could do a $30,000 charitable donation and it covers all your RMD for that year. So, you're not forced to pull it out, which makes it nice. And when Nick said where it doesn't make sense to do it from the Roth, it's because number one, the Roth is tax-free anyways and there's no RMD on the Roth IRAs. So, it really would be pointless to go ahead and do that. Nick: And on top of that, charities don't have to pay taxes. John: Yeah. And the big thing is, yeah, as Nick said here, charities with any, at least for this type of donation, don't have to pay taxes. So, it's a win-win for all parties. Marc Killian: And John, a piece that I think people may not think about, well, I'm sure they don't think about, is one of the reasons is also lowering that AGI, because of the whole two-year lookback thing with IRMAA. Talk to us a little bit about that. John: Yeah. So what we'll do, and we'll run some tax reports for clients to figure out, hey, what's the best place to take income from in given years? And this becomes part of it of, how do I do donations to avoid unnecessary penalties or unnecessary taxes? And part of that is, hey, let's lower your adjusted gross income to get you below that IRMAA Medicare, basically increase in payment on your Medicare premiums. Marc Killian: Right. John: So, that's part of it. And then also, what we'll do with some clients where they hit 70 1/2 and we'll look at it and say, Hey, let's try to reduce your IRA balances, so it lowers your RMDs down the road. So, this is also a good strategy for that. Marc Killian: Okay. All right. So again, a lot of stuff we're covering today here on QCDs and how they work. If you need some help, reach out to the guys at pfgprivatewealth.com. That's pfgprivatewealth.com. Nick, you're up, my friend. So, I mentioned the writing of the check thing versus the QCD. So, the point here, the same gift can cost a retiree hundreds of thousands if they move it through their checking account. Can you give us a better breakdown on how to not screw this up? Nick: Yeah. So, let's just say for example, oftentimes people learn better by examples, but let's say we have a single retiree, they're 73 years old. When they file their taxes, they typically have a standard deduction and they are at a point where really they're at a 22%. They're in the 22% bracket and their big charity that they give to is their church. So, if they were to, let's say as an example, just to make the numbers round, let's say they had an RMD from their IRA of $10,000. So, they take that RMD and that $10,000 is taxable income to them. So, just to keep it square, if they're 22% bracket, 10,000 of income, that's a federal tax of 2,200 bucks. So it does count towards their RMD, they satisfy their RMD, but because they took receipt of those dollars directly and then they wrote the check to their church, they're going to pay the federal income tax on that $10,000 withdrawal. If they executed it in the way that we kind of described earlier, where they reach out to their advisor, their custodian, whatever, and they have the check made payable directly to their church, so it's written, made payable to the church directly from the custodian, they don't have to track it from a deduction standpoint, and it's not considered taxable income to them because they didn't receive it directly, but it also does satisfy their RMD. So, it's kind of like a check, check, check. They were able to give to their church, because they didn't take it directly via RMD, directly from their account into their bank account and then write the check, they were able to avoid having to pay that extra taxable income. And again, I think the emphasis on this is that, this is something that they were doing anyways. They were giving the money before anyways, they just avoided paying the taxes, which is kind of the key. John: To add, kind of what Nick said with the church, we have some clients that, it's not a one-time thing. You could do multiple charitable distributions per year. We'll have meetings in January where we kind of iron out, okay, what am I doing for the year? We'll set it all up. And we do have some that will get monthly checks because they like to physically go in and hand it to the church where they'll get every whatever, 15th of the month, check goes out right out of the church, goes to their house, they grab it, and then when they go in, they actually hand it. So, there's different ways you can do it. Marc Killian: Okay, that's good to know as well. Yeah, so if you want a little bit more of that personal feel, that's available to you too. So, John, talk about some common mistakes. That's one little extra tidbit there. What are some mistakes that people step into? John: Yeah, so Nick gave that example of basically taking it out of your, let's call it just checking your cash account and making the deduction, but it came from your IRA in essence. So, that's one thing itself where it's like, Hey, I'm just going to take it out of my IRA. It's going to go to my checking account and my name, and then I'm going to write the check from there. It has to be direct to the charity written out to them. So, that's a big one to avoid. We talked about... Well, we haven't talked about it actually, but we are going to dive into one episode, donor-advised funds. It cannot go to a donor-advised fund or a private foundation. Has to be the 501(c)(3), has to be a church. Yeah, 501(c)(3) and a church. Nick: Direct to the institution. Marc Killian: Yeah, got to be qualified, right. Yeah. John: And then you can't get anything in return, so it can't be, Hey, I'm going to sponsor this gala and get some type of table or some type of marketing benefit or tickets to an event. Nick: Yeah, I want to jump in there real quick, just because, charities know that, from the perspective of getting a benefit in return. And so, oftentimes they have, if you do want to go to a gala or something like that and participate that way, they have a cash raise or what they call a cash call. And giving during that period of time is when you can have it qualify for this sort of thing. So, if it's something where you are consistently giving to a charity and you're attending an event with them, have a conversation with their team, so that you can be strategic, because there is a way to be able to give them cash and have it qualify. Marc Killian: Okay. All right. Yeah, so a lot of good stuff there. Any reporting stuff that folks need to know or is that stuff you guys handle or is there still something we should be aware of here on the user side? John: Yeah. So, now Schwab is showing it on the 1099, but as we discussed previously, they did not. I can't speak for other institutions. So, I'd say from a 1099 perspective, some institutions will show it, some will not. So, it ultimately comes down to the individual, to make sure they keep track of it. And it's always best when you do make the donation to the charity, that you get some type of written acknowledgement. The more records you have, the better off you'll be is what it comes down to. Marc Killian: Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. All right, guys, well, as we wrap this up, and again, we're going to do a multipart here on some stuff as John alluded to, so we'll talk a little bit here in just a second about what the next episode will be. But Nick, give us a few year-end checklist items as we are now into the fourth quarter. Nick: Sure. So, just as a reminder for people, this needs to be executed by December 31st. We highly- Marc Killian: Let's be honest, Nick, before that please, because who's working, right? Nick: Yeah, I was going to say that we highly recommend to not try and wait until that last week or even the last couple of weeks. Really, with our clients, what we try to do is, kind of tag this in our system to reach out and discuss around November 1st. So, that gives us at least enough information to really understand what's happened in the past year. We can reasonably project anything that's going to come up in the next couple of months, and then we can get it executed in time for before the rush of the holidays and everything else. So, the deadline is the 31st of December. However, we recommend not to wait that long. You want to make sure that you're 70 1/2 or older on the transfer date. Have a understanding of what your required minimum distribution is from all of your pre-tax retirement accounts for that year, and that can factor into the decision. Again, if it is before in that period of time between 70 1/2 and 73, which may be your RMD age, it's something that could still make sense for you, especially if you're already giving. Make sure that you reach out and talk with the custodian. Sometimes there are documents that have to be put or approvals that have to be done electronically. So for example, to be able to move money to a third party institution, sometimes a client needs to sign off and there's forms that need to be signed. So, reach out, get that done ahead of time, confirm that the company, the charity is a public charity, and make sure they understand how to process these QCDs. If you're really involved and they're not doing it, then that could be something you can have a conversation about helping them about, but that's kind of a separate thing. Make sure you get a written acknowledgement from the charity and make sure you explain to your tax preparer what you've done, so that they're familiar and they tag it properly from a tax perspective on your return. Marc Killian: All right, so a lot of content there. If you got some questions, need some help, if you'd like a tax report for any of the listeners, just email john@pfgprivatewealth.com. That's john@pfgprivatewealth.com or just go to the website, get some time on the calendar, but definitely reach out to the guys. And don't forget to subscribe to us on Apple or Spotify. Next episode, we're going to continue on with this conversation and it's going to be around gifting appreciated stock and the new itemizing rules. So therefore, if that kind of fits into your wheelhouse, make sure you tune in for all of that. So, guys, a lot of good stuff here, lot of stuff for folks to digest and break down. Again, if you need help, if you've got questions around QCDs in 2026, again, reach out to the team, pfgprivatewealth.com. That's pfgprivatewealth.com. For John and Nick, I'm your host, Marc Killian. We'll see you next time here on the show.

September 17, 2026Episode 9812 min

Florida Probate Q&A: Wills, Property, Costs & More with Nicole Bell Cleland

Nicole Bell Cleland of Legacy Protection Lawyers returns to answer some of the most common questions that come up around Florida probate and estate administration. She and John discuss what happens when someone dies without a will, special considerations for blended families and inherited property, when an attorney is required, and what the probate process may cost. Legacy Protection Lawyers: https://www.legacyprotectionlawyers.com/ Helpful Information: PFG Website: https://www.pfgprivatewealth.com/ Contact: 813-286-7776 Email: info@pfgprivatewealth.com Disclaimer: PFG Private Wealth Management, LLC is an SEC Registered Investment Advisor. Information presented is for educational purposes only and does not intend to make an offer or solicitation for the sale or purchase of any specific securities, investments, or investment strategies. The topics and information discussed during this podcast are not intended to provide tax or legal advice. Investments involve risk, and unless otherwise stated, are not guaranteed. Be sure to first consult with a qualified financial advisor and/or tax professional before implementing any strategy discussed on this podcast. Past performance is not indicative of future performance. Insurance products and services are offered and sold through individually licensed and appointed insurance agents. Speaker 1: Welcome into another edition of Retirement Planning Redefined with John and Nick, financial advisors at PFG Private Wealth. And Nick is off again on this episode as we have Nicole Cleland joining us again to follow up with a Q&A conversation, some questions and answers about the probate conversation we just had on our prior podcast. So John's going to jump in and toss out some of the most frequently asked questions that these guys get when dealing with this. And of course, if you need some help, go and check them out online at legacyprotectionlawyers.com. That's legacyprotectionlawyers.com. We'll have a link in the show descriptions along with John and Nick at pfgprivatewealth.com. But first, Nicole, welcome back. Nicole Cleland: Thanks for having me. Speaker 1: Absolutely. Great stuff last time, so thanks for being here. And of course, John, thanks for being here, buddy. John: Yeah, yeah. Having a good time here. School year started for the kids, which has been fun. So kids are excited to go back to school. I'm sure parents are a little excited too to have their own little break, but all is good. Speaker 1: For sure. Well, we had some good response to the prior podcast episode, and so you guys deal with this stuff a lot. Obviously you guys work as a team as well. And so what are some of those top questions, John? I know you got a couple we want to cover on this episode, so take it away. John: Yeah. So one question I get from clients and some stuff I'm curious on. So one is, and we try to avoid this by doing proper planning upfront, but Nicole, what happens if someone doesn't have a will, or there's no beneficiary listed on an account, or it's not listed correctly? Nicole Cleland: Yeah, so if someone dies what we call intestate, so they had not signed a will prior to their passing, then we have to look to Florida law, Florida's intestacy statutes to find who their intestate heirs are. And the idea behind the law is to reflect what most people would naturally want. And if you think about it under Florida intestacy laws, if you're survived by a spouse, then usually 100% goes to the spouse. If no spouse then to your children, if no children are descendants, then it goes back up to parents and then out to siblings. Obviously with blended families, stepchildren, half siblings, that can vary a little bit, but Florida law tries to reflect what most people would had intended had they created a will themselves. John: Okay. So in essence, the courts try to make their best effort to do who gets what? Nicole Cleland: Well, not the courts so much as the law. John: Oh, okay. Nicole Cleland: And what I mean by that is, if you passed away tomorrow and you had three children and you were estranged from one of them, but you had not signed a will disinheriting that child, then under Florida law, that child's going to take an equal third. The court has no discretion on that. So the estrangement of the child has no bearing. It's just a matter of what Florida law states. John: Gotcha. And then you mentioned blended families, something that does come up every once in a while, and I think most people miss it. Tell us about elective share. Nicole Cleland: Yeah, so in Florida you can, and actually most states, all but one, I think, have a similar law that states that you can leave your assets to whomever you want. You can disinherit your children, you can disinherit parents, but the one person you cannot disinherit is your spouse. So in Florida law, your spouse is entitled to a minimum of 30% of your overall estate, not just your probate estate. So that would include real estate, bank accounts, life insurance. Well, depending on the life insurance, but it can vary. But essentially, if you had any desires to leave your spouse with nothing, then they're going to be a little bit more trickier than you may have thought. John: And I think maybe this could be a deep dive session, but if you own assets 50/50 with your spouse, how much is considered theirs and yours in this, if it were to come up? Nicole Cleland: Oh, that's a good one too. Hard-hitting questions, John. So that's where we can sometimes go a little bit beyond ownership and we look at the character of the asset. And what I mean by character, I mean, is it separate property? Is it community property? How is the ownership on that jointly owned property? And really digging into the facts. So this is why in the very first, the last session we had, I mentioned why that due diligence period prior to opening a probate is so important is you can look and ask these types of questions. So I would say for a lot of blended families, for a lot of married couples, actually, most married couples own things in joint name. And sometimes when you have blended families, if there's not proper planning, I've seen unintentional disinheritances. So you leave everything to your spouse, but then your spouse leaves everything to their children from their first marriage. Is that what the first today spouse wanted? Probably not. John: Yeah, unfortunately I've seen that happen as well. So definitely do your planning whether- Nicole Cleland: Yes, especially with blended families, for sure. John: Yeah, agreed. All right, another question. Something you mentioned last week, we were talking about homes, and I think you mentioned where someone might want to keep the asset. So let's say someone passes away, the kids say, "Hey, I want to keep this house." How does that pass to the beneficiaries? Is there any specific documentation? Nicole Cleland: So it again might boil down to how did it pass to these beneficiaries? Are we going through a probate proceeding where a personal representative is in charge and has the final say-so? If that is the case, then that personal representative decides. They've got the ultimate decision on whether or not a piece of real estate or any asset is liquidated or transferred what I call in kind. Meaning if it was received as a piece of real estate, it'll be distributed as a piece of real estate. So it can depend on the situation. Now, if you've got maybe a mom who added her two kids to the deed before she died, and now these two kids own the property 50/50 and one of them wants to keep it, one of them wants to sell it, how do you force the hand of the one that wants to keep it? And sometimes it requires court action if they can't agree. So it very much can depend on how the property was inherited and really who has the legal authority over that asset. Does that answer that question there? John: It does. So it depends on how it was titled initially and did it go through probate officially or putting it on the deed bypass probate. Nicole Cleland: Right, right. John: Okay, got it. And then what about some question some people will ask is, do you need an attorney to help you with the probate process? Nicole Cleland: So in Florida- John: And what is the cost? Nicole Cleland: Yeah, always the bigger question there. So with a formal administration in Florida, you do have to have an attorney. And I understand why, and it's because there are so many rules regarding probate and those administrations that you really do need not just an attorney, but an attorney that does administrations to do it well. And that being said, with a summary administration, you can do it on your own in the sense that you don't have to have a lawyer. Oftentimes though, if I'm getting a call that someone who's started the summary administration proceeding and they can't get across the finish line, it takes a lot more work for an attorney to clean it up. So unless you feel very confident in your abilities and maybe even gone to a legal aid center to help you fill out the summary administration paperwork, it can be tricky to do, especially if there's creditors involved. But in terms of costs, it definitely can depend on the scenario. And for the most part, when it comes to formal administrations, there is a statute that outlines what is reasonable compensation for an attorney for a personal representative. And it roughly falls a percentage schedule where on the first million, it's about 3% of the probate assets. And then as the millions go up, the percentage typically goes down. And that attorney fee schedule actually is comparable to a personal representative's presumed reasonable fee schedule. But that being said, there's a lot of talk about that in the trust and estates world in the sense that even though it's presumed reasonable to charge that type of fee schedule, attorneys don't have to charge it. They can charge hourly or some other type of flat rate fee, as long as of course the client and the personal representative, or excuse me, the personal representative and the attorney agree to it. And then for summary administrations, it can depend, but it's typically a couple thousand dollars to get the final order on those. John: Yeah. Okay. So it sounds like the fee can vary and the best way to do it is plan ahead so you don't have unknown fees upcoming for your beneficiaries or estate. Nicole Cleland: Absolutely. Probate can be avoided, so it just takes some planning. And on top of that, clients can meet with an attorney to try to get an idea if they have to go through this probate process, what exactly would that fee would be? And we recognize, a lot of people want to know at the beginning, what is this going to cost me? So for a lot of our clients, we do agree to some sort of flat rate fee so that we both know at the gate what the fees would be. But in some cases, we really just don't know what those hidden minds might be, and we might have to do hourly. So again, it can depend, and I know that's the famous attorney answer. John: No, I understand. And I'll just tell you from personal experience with clients, forget the costs and fees associated with it. I think the amount of work some of these PRs, personal representatives do, if it wasn't planned correctly. I have one person that was going to about 10 or 12 different banks to see if there were bank accounts and probate took over a year and a half just because of how much was undisclosed and not known. And I think we have to look to the Florida, what is it, Florida Treasury Hunt to see if any unclaimed property as well? Nicole Cleland: Yes, floridatreasurehunt.gov. Yes, for unclaimed property. So yeah, that's where those estates where we don't know a lot can be really, really hard because if the client doesn't know what's there, how can the attorney provide a quote? So it sort of makes sense, but I think for a lot of attorneys, at least I can speak for the attorneys in our office, we try to be fair. We want to be fair to our time and our expertise, but also to the client and the assets there and the beneficiaries. Speaker 1: All right, good stuff. So certainly some top questions and answers there for Nicole. If you have questions of your own, again, please reach out to the team. And of course you can talk to the financial side with John and Nick. You can also talk on the legal side by reaching out to Nicole and her team at legacyprotectionlawyers.com. That's legacyprotectionlawyers.com or at pfgprivatewealth.com. Either way, we'll have those links in the show descriptions, but always, always check for yourself and see how things relate to your specific situation, not only with your finances, but with your legal stuff as well. And with that, we'll say thank you so much for tuning in to Retirement Planning Redefined. Nicole, thanks for being back on the program. Nicole Cleland: Thanks for having me. Speaker 1: Absolutely. John, thanks for being here, buddy. John: All right. Appreciate you. Thank you. Speaker 1: Yes, sir. We'll see you guys next time here on the podcast. Subscribe to us on Apple or Spotify or whatever app you enjoy using, and we'll catch you later.

September 10, 2026Episode 9718 min

Navigating Florida Probate with Nicole Bell Cleland

Probate can feel overwhelming, especially when you're trying to understand what happens after a loved one passes away. In this episode, John is joined by Nicole Bell Cleland of Legacy Protection Lawyers to break down the Florida probate process and explain what personal representatives and families should expect along the way. They cover the major stages of probate, including identifying assets and debts, handling creditors and taxes, opening estate accounts, making distributions, and understanding the responsibilities that come with administering an estate. Legacy Protection Lawyers: https://www.legacyprotectionlawyers.com/ Helpful Information: PFG Website: https://www.pfgprivatewealth.com/ Contact: 813-286-7776 Email: info@pfgprivatewealth.com Disclaimer: PFG Private Wealth Management, LLC is an SEC Registered Investment Advisor. Information presented is for educational purposes only and does not intend to make an offer or solicitation for the sale or purchase of any specific securities, investments, or investment strategies. The topics and information discussed during this podcast are not intended to provide tax or legal advice. Investments involve risk, and unless otherwise stated, are not guaranteed. Be sure to first consult with a qualified financial advisor and/or tax professional before implementing any strategy discussed on this podcast. Past performance is not indicative of future performance. Insurance products and services are offered and sold through individually licensed and appointed insurance agents. Speaker 1: This week on Retirement Planning - Redefined, let's talk about navigating Florida probate and all that comes with that with John, and Nicole is joining us from Legacy Protection Lawyers. Welcome into the podcast everybody. Thanks for tuning in to Retirement Planning - Redefined with John and Nick. Nick's not here today. We're swapping him out with Nicole, which is going to be fun because Nicole's going to talk to us about navigating Florida probate and she's just peppier than Nick, so we're just going to have fun talking with her. How you doing, Nicole? John Teixeira: Just a little peppier. Nicole Cleland: I'm doing good. Thanks for having me. Excited to be here today. Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely. Thanks for joining us. And of course, John, welcome in buddy. Thanks for being here. John Teixeira: Yeah, yeah. I'm excited to have Nicole back on. She's a wealth of information, so it's always good to have her. Speaker 1: Yeah. And we'll have links in the descriptions if you guys want to reach out if you have some questions to legacyprotectionlawyers.com, we'll have a link in there that you can follow up with, of course, along with the guys as well for the financial side of things. So let's jump in and talk about navigating Florida probate. I know it sounds a little boring and a little worrisome, but it's also important stuff, Nicole. So let's get you rolling in there a little bit with some places to start. What's a good place to start with this? Just the pre-filing diligence, determining what it is that you have and need? Nicole Cleland: Yeah, exactly. So when someone passes away and we're looking at what type of administration might be needed, I usually suggest to clients to really take the time to look at the whole picture. Sometimes you find one asset where you feel like you might need to jump in and go ahead and handle that, but sometimes I think it behooves a lot of people to take a step back, make sure you have your arms around everything before really jumping into one of the options. And the reason why is some people may have gone through experience personally. You might go down one road and find the facts have changed a little bit and now you're leading down a different road. And that can lead to delays and expenses, and it really helps to really take the time to assess everything. Read the estate plan, what are the assets, what are the debts, and then go from there. Speaker 1: Gotcha. And what are some of the administrative type things to think about as far as some bullet point items for folks? Nicole Cleland: Sure. So there's really a handful of different types of administrations. And focusing on probate alone, there are three different types in Florida at least. The first one is very uncommon. It's when the size of the estate costs less or the assets in the estate are less than a funeral bill. So not a very common one and a little bit more difficult to go through. But the big ones are what we call formal administration and a summary administration. And when people think of probate, usually it's the formal administration that they think of, the process that can take a bit longer, be a little bit more expensive, but there's also an abbreviated or an abridged probate process called a summary administration. And those are permitted in estates where a person has been deceased for over two years, or if the size of the estate is less than $150,000. And that's actually a newer statute that just passed in July. So that's a convenient one that we've upped the threshold for a summary administration from $75,000 to $150,000. Speaker 1: Gotcha. Okay. John, what do you think? John Teixeira: Yeah, Nicole, quick question on that. Now, is that the full estate or just what's going through probate? Nicole Cleland: Yes, great question. So it's only the assets that are subject to probate. So what assets are subject to probate? And my rule of thumb is any assets that should go through a probate proceeding are the assets that are in someone's individual name with no joint owners. So assets that are not in a trust, not necessarily in a company, that don't have any other spouses, family members, no joint owners on it, and no beneficiaries listed on those assets or accounts. Speaker 1: Okay. So what's the process, I guess, for opening the estate? What steps are we looking at? Nicole Cleland: Sure. So step number one is really assessing what the estate plan is. And believe it or not, whether or not you've done planning, you have an estate plan. So it's either an estate plan you've created or one that the state of Florida gives you if you're a resident of Florida, and really understanding who our parties are, who are our beneficiaries, what is the estate plan? And then looking at who is the personal representative. That's what we call the executor here in Florida. And that's who typically would be my client, that personal representative, and going through the process of determining if they're eligible, if they were named in a will to serve as that personal representative. So in Florida, you have to be either a blood relative of the decedent or a resident of Florida if you're not a blood relative. And you can't have any felonies, you can't have any allegations of elderly exploitation, and there's a few other caveats in there, but really going through that eligibility process and then making sure that the potential personal representative understands what their fiduciary responsibility is, their responsibility to the estate and to the beneficiaries and walking them through that. But typically, once we've gone through all of that with the client, then it's preparing the paperwork where you essentially are requesting the court to admit that will and/or to appoint that personal representative and to therefore open the estate officially. John Teixeira: So Nicole, is that like doing the petition, assigning that PR once you figure out who it is? Nicole Cleland: Yes. Yes. So in that petition, it would state who's asking to open it, who the beneficiaries are, potentially who creditors could be, and that this is the right venue to open up that probate. And there's a handful of documents with the petition that are filed at the outset, but essentially all the documents that can vary by county, what would be needed to open the estate formally. John Teixeira: And then that's, I know working with it through Jenny, my wife, there's the, I don't want to say the magic, but the letters of administration was what she happened to give to everybody. Nicole Cleland: Yeah. So that's what I call your golden ticket. So once the estate is officially opened, the court will issue, and they vary amongst the states what they're called, but in Florida, they're called letters of administration. And that gives a personal representative the ability to act and do anything essentially that the decedent could do. So again, that golden ticket to step into the shoes of the decedent in terms of legal and financial matters. John Teixeira: I'm just going through, again, personal experience. What about finding all the assets? And that's part of it where you submit, hey, here's what the person had, and this is what's going through probate? Nicole Cleland: Yeah. And that's why I usually recommend going through that due diligence process before we open up a probate, because when it's after you've opened up a probate, now you've got a fiduciary hat on. Your job is a little bit different. So when you do open up the estate, not everyone knows what all of the assets are. Sometimes we discover things six months down the road. But the goal is that whenever someone is serving as personal representative, one of their top jobs is going to be to marshal the assets, to really take the time to determine what is out there and locate all of those assets. They've got that fiduciary obligation. And that can be really hard if the decedent didn't have a list of everything written down, and that personal representative's really having to search and make phone calls and sit on hold and go into the banks and all that stuff. John Teixeira: Yeah, I'll say, I think as people listen to some good tidbits are, getting that tax return will help figure out what investment or bank accounts were open with 1099s issued. Nicole Cleland: Absolutely. Absolutely. Tax returns help, looking through paperwork, requesting a credit report. There are little ways to help piece the puzzle together, but it can definitely be some legwork there. John Teixeira: And with the credit report, that's actually a good segue. How's the creditor period work? Or you have to notify some creditors, right? Nicole Cleland: Yeah. So one of the requirements and what is unique to probate administrations is what we call a creditor period. So it's a court-required period where you have to publish a notification in a legal newsletter, essentially telling the world that this person has passed away, and if you believe you're a creditor and you want to be paid, that you need to file a claim within the estate. Moreover, if the personal representative believes that a certain entity or person is owed money from the decedent, then in addition to publishing a notification, the personal representative has to personally notice each of those what we call ascertainable creditors. So who we think could potentially be a creditor of the decedent's estate. And that can be a job locating in and of itself as well, trying to find all the potential debts or creditors of the decedent. Speaker 1: Nicole, what's the difference between creditor period and post-creditor period? Is there a difference for people to understand? Nicole Cleland: Yeah, so during the creditor period is typically when I recommend my personal representatives really have a firm grasp on all of the assets and all the debts. They've got three months, that's how long that creditor period lasts to really wrangle all of those items that hopefully by the end of the creditor period, that's when we can have that assessment of what are the debts? How can we pay them and how can we pay them timely? Are there any debts we need to object to? And then after that, filing taxes. So where are we in the tax year? Can we file the decedent's final tax return? Do we need to file an estate income tax return? Do we need to file an estate tax return? And during that post-creditor period is where we can hopefully soon thereafter make distributions. Maybe not the entirety of distributions, but at least a majority of the distributions if we have sufficient assets to pay any creditor claims or pay any final taxes. Speaker 1: Gotcha. Okay. Well, since you mentioned taxes, I mean, they're so, so much fun to talk about. What forms do we need to be aware of or should people be having on their radar? Nicole Cleland: Right. So when it comes to probate administrations, I find that CPAs will quickly tell you if this is within their wheelhouse or not. Speaker 1: Okay. Nicole Cleland: And if not, you can usually tell right away if they are used to working with estate income tax returns or estate tax returns because of their recommendations. So there are going to be certain types of tax forms that a personal representative should file in order to notify the IRS of your fiduciary position, so to speak, within the estate administration to request transcripts if you can't find any prior tax returns to make sure the decedent even filed within the last couple of years. And then the biggest one, and what I always tell our personal representatives is the IRS is considered a super creditor. So if you do not file a decedent's tax return or if you're not adequately managing those tax filings, then the IRS can actually go after that personal representative personally if there's any outstanding tax liability. So what I always suggest to our clients is making sure they get that appropriate discharge of liability once they've filed all of the taxes for the decedent so that they've got that personal protection and the IRS can't come back after them personally. John Teixeira: I think working with you quite a bit over the last few years, that's something that I'd say talking to some CPAs and other attorneys, it seems it's often missed. So that's a pretty big deal because if I was the executor, I would definitely not want any personal liability from someone else's estate or taxes. Nicole Cleland: Oh, absolutely. And that's something where I call that a hidden landmine in an estate administration. So most people step into a role as personal representative wanting to do the right thing and really taking on that responsibility that they were asked to do. John Teixeira: Right. Nicole Cleland: And sometimes people unknowingly or unwittingly accept bombs, hidden bombs that could explode while they're carrying this administration to the end. So I always tell our clients that my job is to teach them how to do their job, but also show them to not get in trouble. And those are the types of things that a good professional does make a world of difference. Speaker 1: All right, Nicole, as we're winding this down, and again, really good points we wanted to highlight here on this episode, what are some final accounting steps? Because obviously people are like, "Well, how do I get my check or my piece or whatever?" Is that coming here in that final stages? Nicole Cleland: Yes, absolutely. And if there's sufficient assets, it's something that can be divvied out along the way, depending on the administration. But I find if everyone gets along, we don't have a lot of creditors to worry about, then we're able to waive a final accounting and people can rely just on statements or trusts amongst family members and receive their check. And that's how I would say most administrations go. Now, if they're adversarial to any extent or any tension between the personal representative and beneficiaries, then it is great to do a final accounting where there's a formal accounting of all of the ins and outs of the estates, and then the beneficiaries get that majority or final distribution check. And that's something where, again, a good professional's going to make difference because when you're working with beneficiaries, especially if there's any tension between them, you really have to communicate with them when to expect things because they're going to be in the dark a lot of the way. And when you communicate with them when to expect certain things and have that open line of communication, it really prevents any potential litigation or adversarial issues arising that can make everyone's lives a little bit more stressful when the goal is just to get us across the finish line. John Teixeira: And Nicole, at what point and when do they actually open up an estate account at a bank or somewhere to put any proceeds or anything that's sold or any income that's coming from someone's estate? When do you open up that account and what's the process for that? Nicole Cleland: Yeah, great question. So whenever you have an estate account, so that's essentially a checking account or a money market account in the name of the estate of decedent. And all you would need typically are your letters of administration and a new tax ID number for the estate. So that's like the estate's social security number. At the end of the day, the IRS wants to make sure they're aware of every entity that's out there. And so if you liquidate an account, if you move funds or need to consolidate accounts, if you sell a home, sometimes an estate account might be needed just to accept funds and just sit there until we're able to make final distributions. John Teixeira: Okay. So it's basically, in essence, it's an account for the decedent and any past due checks or checks on cash, anything like that can go into it in post-profit accounting. Nicole Cleland: Absolutely. John Teixeira: Okay. Nicole Cleland: Yeah. And it just depends. I mean, I've had administrations where the only probate asset is a house and the kids don't want to sell it. So we don't need an estate account. So it can vary. I would say most administrations require the opening of an estate account. But again, that's where when we talk about probate, it's very fact specific. Don't listen to what your neighbor did. You really have to talk to your professionals on what you need for your case. Speaker 1: Great point. All right. Well, if that's everything we've covered, guys, I think we've got it all on this episode. What we'd like to do is maybe do a follow-up on this with some questions and answers and things of that nature. So if you've got questions of your own, definitely reach out to Nicole and her team. Again, you can find her at legacyprotectionlawyers.com. That's legacyprotectionlawyers.com, Nicole Cleland. And of course, you can also reach out to John and Nick at pfgprivatewealth.com for the financial side. And having a financial team, John, we'll wrap it up with that, is more than just the finances. This is part of it as well. Nicole Cleland: Absolutely. From my perspective, absolutely. Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, you need a whole team. Yeah. John Teixeira: 100%. Yeah, definitely. It takes a village nowadays to do almost anything. Speaker 1: Pretty much. Pretty much. Very, very true. Well, Nicole, thanks for being here and helping us out. Great stuff and very informative. Nicole Cleland: Thanks for having me. Speaker 1: We'll see you next time here on the podcast. Don't forget to subscribe to us on Apple, Spotify, whatever app you enjoy using. Find it online at pfgprivatewealth.com. That's pfgprivatewealth.com.

July 2, 2026Episode 9620 min

What To Sell Before Retirement – YouTube’s Most Watched Retirement Video

Over the past year, one retirement video on YouTube pulled in 3.7 million views. The title: "Sell These 5 Things Before You Retire." We thought it was worth a conversation — not to tear it apart, but to react honestly. Do we agree? How often do we actually see this play out with real clients? Let's get into it. Helpful Information: PFG Website: https://www.pfgprivatewealth.com/ Contact: 813-286-7776 Email: info@pfgprivatewealth.com Disclaimer: PFG Private Wealth Management, LLC is an SEC Registered Investment Advisor. Information presented is for educational purposes only and does not intend to make an offer or solicitation for the sale or purchase of any specific securities, investments, or investment strategies. The topics and information discussed during this podcast are not intended to provide tax or legal advice. Investments involve risk, and unless otherwise stated, are not guaranteed. Be sure to first consult with a qualified financial advisor and/or tax professional before implementing any strategy discussed on this podcast. Past performance is not indicative of future performance. Insurance products and services are offered and sold through individually licensed and appointed insurance agents. Marc: Do a little reaction conversation this week here on the podcast. Over the past year, one retirement video on YouTube pulled in 3.7 million views. The title was Sell These Five Things Before You Retire, so we thought it was worth a conversation, not necessarily to tear it apart, but just to react to it honestly. Do we agree? Do we not? Let's dive in this week here on Retirement Planning Redefined with John and Nick. Welcome in once again to the podcast. This is Retirement Planning Redefined with John and Nick from PFG Private Wealth. Find them online at pfgprivatewealth.com, that's pfgprivatewealth.com, and we're going to talk about this video this week, guys. I want to kind of break down these couple of sections here. Now, we can throw a link into the descriptions for folks if they want to go check it out, but this video, as I said in the teaser, got just under four million views last year for the five things you should sell before you retire. I wanted to get your guys' take on this. First of all, how are you doing this week, John? John: I'm doing good. I'm doing good. I was telling Nick earlier, I started trying to give my kids something to do this summer, and I have them working out, because they want to get better at gymnastics, so I put together a program and told them it was time they learn a language. We started doing some Portuguese, so it's interesting listening to them try to pronunciate the words, but it's been fun. Marc: Nice. Nice. That's very cool. Very good. Good job parenting there, sir. Absolutely. What about you, Nick, buddy? You doing all right this week? Nick: Yeah. Yeah. I have visitors in from out of town for a bit, so that's always fun, but they're easy. We've been having a good time enjoying the new house. Marc: Well, you're a good guy in that regard. You were saying it's going to be a bit that they're staying. See, I was brought up with the rule and I live by the rule of, house guests and fish, same timeline, three days. After three days, they've got to go. John: Nick is having home-cooked meals I think daily, and I think they're just helping out around the house, so he's probably very comfortable right now. Marc: Okay. Nice. Nice. Nick: Yeah. There is a net gain in the scheme of things for me. Marc: Okay. All right. Fair enough. Nick: Yeah. Marc: That adds to the equation, right? Nick: It definitely helps. It definitely helps. Marc: Look, you're always planning, right? You're always doing the math on the situation, right? Well, let's talk about this video this week. 3.7 million views on this, so let's start with the first one. I'm going to get your guys' reaction to it. The oversized house. The house that was perfect for raising a family isn't always the right house for retirement. Certainly, this one's kind of understandable. Selling it can free up some significant equity, especially in today's market, depending on where you're at, right, so what's your thoughts on this being one of the five things you should sell before you retire? Whoever wants to start. John: I can jump in on this. I think, like we say with everything, it depends, but this could be, depending on the outflows of the house, the maintenance, property taxes, insurance, just how big it is, one of those spots where it could make sense, if you're ready, just to kind of start eliminating some of your to-do lists and outgoing cashflow and stuff like that, where this is definitely a spot where we see a lot of people say, "Hey, is it time to downsize, and what does that look like for me? If I downsize, what else can I do with the extra cash flow I now have? Maybe I pocket a lump sum balance, that I could do something else with it." Marc: Yeah. I mean, especially again, depending on where you're at, you could make some good cheddar on that, right? Unless you were going to buy another house, Nick, right? Because then it might cost you more. Nick: Yeah. Yeah, it's tricky too, because for example, right now Florida's in the news quite a bit from the perspective of property tax and potential property tax reform, but one thing that does happen here is a homestead exemption, and property taxes can only go up by a certain percentage each year. We will see instances of somebody maybe looking to downsize the house locally and maybe move out of state, so there are opportunities to essentially kind of carry over. There's some portability in the state of Florida on property taxes, but if you shift to another state, that isn't necessarily the case, and if somebody, especially the way that taxes have, or, I'm sorry, values on homes have gone up here in the area, if you've been in your house for 15, 20 years locally and are looking to sell and shift elsewhere and maybe go to a state that has a state income tax, and then you start to factor in ... If you're selling your home for ... There's something to downsizing size, but what we also have found is that people that are, if they're selling their house for 800,000 to a million dollars, they don't want to buy a 200,000 dollar condo. They want to buy a 600 or 700,000 dollar condo. That's just easier to handle and maintain, and then when you start to tack on some of those other expenses, a lot of times in can end up being actually pretty close. Marc: Got you. John: Yeah, and to jump in with that, you definitely want the downsize to be worth it. It's not worth it if it's 100,000 or something like that. You really want to make sure, if you're downsizing to either free up some cashflow or get some type of lump sum balance to do something else with, you want to model it to make sure it makes sense, because Nick mentioned the pitfalls, property taxes. You've got realtor fees, things like that. You want to really itemize, "Hey, what is this expense going to be, and what is the benefit of it?" Marc: Okay, that's a great point, so that's the first one. The second one, second point on here, guys, of this video, was financially supporting adult children. I kind of roll with this one too, right? This is the hardest one for every parent because everybody's going to be a little bit different. The argument is, some people feel like they've got to help their grown kids out, and others say, "Heck no," right, so how do you feel about that, first of all, and second of all, how do you approach that with clients? John: Yeah, I'll let Nick take this one so he can be the bad guy. Nick: Yeah, I'll go first, and I'm not a parent, so that's my disclaimer. We see this more and more, and one of the things that we hear about this quite a bit are that, and we agree to a certain extent, is that the barriers to entry on certain assets or kind of landmark acquisitions in the lives of people that are in their late 20s, early 30s, dependent upon where you are, and this area is one of them, they are harder to achieve. Granted, and people that have had assets or substantial assets over the last 10 years have gotten some massive appreciation and have really benefited, where people that don't have assets haven't been able to participate. Dependent upon what it is, as long as it's not having a material negative impact on the plan of our clients, we do tend to be pushing them in the way of, "Hey, let's kind of cut some of this stuff off," especially if it's an ongoing monthly sort of support, if there's not any sort of major medical or whatever and it's just like a failure to launch scenario. Up north we used to have basements. It's like, if somebody's kid is in the prototypical, in the basement for the last 10 years and they need to get out, then we may have some gentle nudging related to that. For example, one instance I've seen is people helping with IVF, for example, which can be really expensive, and their kids want to start a family and they don't have the money to start a family, and that's been a gift that, giving some money to help that sort of thing. Something like that makes a ton of sense, if they can afford it. For them to buy a motorcycle or something, that maybe if they were just kind of ... The kid maybe worked more or had some sort of plan or was making good income, and it wasn't just to make them happier because they felt guilty, that's a different sort of conversation. Marc: All right. John, you want to stay away from being the bad guy on this one, or are you good with that? John: No, I can jump in here with some thoughts. No, we see it a lot more often recently. I'll tell you that home purchases, home prices have skyrocketed, so I've seen a lot of clients where it's like, "Hey, I'm going to help them with a down payment." It goes back to everything we always say, "Just make sure you can afford to do it and it doesn't hurt your plan," because your kids have time to adapt, and the last thing we want for our clients, it's where it's like, "Hey, I need to go back to work or I need to do ... I can't now enjoy my retirement. I can't go on vacation because now I've basically been funding my children, at this point." I mean, there's certain things you have to assist with, and we get that, but we've also seen scenarios where we've had some clients that just continue to assist kids pay just unsecured debt for running up the credit card bill, and that's where it's a situation where you've got to weigh out what you're doing, but your kids can typically adapt, where, once you're at a certain age, it's hard to go back to work even if you have to. Just make sure take care of yourself first so you have the ability to help others. Marc: Well, you're right. Yeah. It's like the whole airplane thing, right? Make sure your mask is on before you try to help the others, kind of thing. I get it, right? As a parent, we all want to try to do something for them, but to your point, don't overextend yourself. Don't risk your own retirement, because you can't finance that, right? You can't finance retirement. Nick: Yeah, and not only that, but sometimes going to the well once is maybe one thing, and we can model it and show it, but we've also seen instances of, it's the third time, fourth time. John mentioned revolving debt, credit card debt, "Oh, they learned their lesson this time," et cetera, et cetera, and especially when that's- Marc: "They helped me once. Maybe they'll help me again." Yeah. Nick: Yeah, exactly. There's definitely some ... Unfortunately, sometimes the kids will take advantage of that. Marc: For sure. Yeah, good point. All right. Number three, expensive toys that become expensive burdens. I think we've all probably been there as you get closer to retirement, too. You're making more money, right, so you've got the boat, the RV, the classic car, something, right? At some point, maybe you don't own things. Things own you, as the saying goes. Thoughts? John: I'll say I feel like my house owns me right now so I can relate to some of this stuff. Yeah, here in Florida, we see this quite a bit with boats, where clients have boats, enjoy it. As they get into retirement, maybe early on, they're enjoying it, maintenance, all this stuff. Then it kind of turns into, "I'm not really going on the boat as much." What we normally do, even with our younger clients that still have it, we'll model selling it and offloading those expenses. That's a big one we see here, and then when COVID hit, kind of backtracking six years now, the whole RV craze, where we couldn't travel too much, and all of a sudden everyone started buying RVs. Marc: Yeah, that's a good point. John: I've seen a lot of RV sales lately, the last couple of years. Marc: Yeah, that's a great point. Travel trailers and the whatnot. Yeah. Nick: Yeah, and I'll say the thing with, especially with boats, tends to be all of the ancillary expenses related to it. Marc: Bust out another thousand, that's what it stands for. Nick: Yeah, yeah, but- John: I like that one. Nick: Especially here now, I mean, we've seen where even on a boat that's paid off, between fuel, dock fee, the power, regular annual maintenance, somebody might be running between 25 to 35,000 a year, and when they realize, when you factor in a safe withdrawal rate, hey, essentially you've got withdrawals from five to 600,000 dollars of your assets that are dedicated specifically to your boat. Do you love it that much? The reminder with people that it's not always all or nothing, where maybe it's like, "Hey, let's just have an exit plan." Say, "Hey, you've got five more years of this. Enjoy it, use it to its maximum, really look to have a great time with it, and if you end up after the third year just kind of really slowing down and not really using it as much, that's a sign for you to shift. You can always join a boat club and try that and not have to deal with the other maintenance related. Marc: That's a good point. Yeah, that's a good point. Well, we're talking about these things that they, again, this video is saying, "Hey, sell these things before you retire." I want to get to the last two here, guys. Number four, and this is interesting, the second car. Without a commute, now, again, you're thinking that the concept is you're in retirement at this point, right? Two cars sitting in the garage may be costing more than they're worth in insurance, maintenance, so on and so forth. Is it worth asking the question, John? John: Yeah, so in the video, I'll go from my own experience and plan the last 20 years, but in the video he talked about, hey, it worked out for some of his clients. I'll tell you, I see the reverse, where most, and I'd say most people, I think, like having the second car and the autonomy, doing their things. Marc: The freedom. Yeah. John: Yeah. We just had a meeting, Nick and I last week, where it said, "Hey, we have one car, but we want another one," and we were like, "Let's put it in the plan." It worked, and maybe to kind of find an in between, it's like, hey, you have your main car, and maybe you find kind of a used car that's good quality, safe, everything like that, but it's not as expensive as the other one. This one here, I would say more often than not, I think it's okay having the second car if you can afford it, unless someone really just doesn't drive. I'll pick on my parents here. My mom hates driving, but I'll tell you, she has her car, because if she wants to go to her sister's house, she's not waiting for my dad. I'll tell you that. Marc: Yeah, exactly. No, the freedom thing comes ... I mean, it's a huge piece of it, for sure. Nick, any thoughts there? Nick: Yeah, there's no way that I would tell somebody to sell a car and hang out. That's one of those things that I wouldn't touch. I mean, I've seen it where we've had some clients kind of make that decision maybe late 70s, early 80s, but really early on in retirement there's already a sense of purpose and autonomy, changes that are happening by shifting out of work and all that. John: People are together all day now. Nick: Yeah, yeah. Marc: Yeah. That's a good point. Yeah. "I've got to get in the car to get away from you." Yeah. Nick: Yeah. Yeah. Needing to escape, and that's not anything that's- Marc: I think, maybe depending on where you live, too, right, guys? I mean, in some places, if you can walk to everything you want to do, then great, but again, depending on where you live, I mean, here in North Carolina, where I live, no, there's no way. It's miles to get to anything, right? Nick: The other thing I would say, too, is maybe the one thing, one conversation that we have had with people is, where maybe it's a couple that's used to getting a new car every three years, each of them, and maybe shifting to kind of having the one car that's a little bit higher end, and then, second car, maybe just holding onto it longer or keeping the costs down over a longer period of time, something like that. Marc: That's a good point. Yeah. Nick: Can make a whole lot of sense. Marc: Well, Nick, you touched on the identity piece, and that was the fifth piece of this. This one can't be sold on eBay or gotten rid of, right? The argument is that clinging to that professional title or your sense of former self can hold you back from discovering what you want to do or be in retirement. I guess it just kind of, we'll wind it out like that. How do you guys help? Because that's probably the biggest challenge, right? How do you reframe and rebuild who you are, when you get to this new phase? Nick: Yeah, and I can kind of start with this one. We're big believers in the fact that people need purpose, and oftentimes throughout their, in theory, working age years or raising a family years, whatever it is, there's oftentimes the purpose needed, whether it's raising kids, whether it's being part of helping to raise grandkids, whether it's work and only work, if you didn't have kids. My wife and I, we don't have kids, and from the standpoint of our work and the things that we do, other things like volunteering and stuff like that, people need purpose, and shifting that mindset of, the outward perception of people showing value or acknowledging your value through things that you do shifts to be more internal, where you don't get sort of that automatic response that you might with a job or from your kids doing well in school, or different things like that. It can be a tough transition for people. Marc: Well, John, I guess I would ask you this final question. Maybe something for folks to ask themselves is, "Does this still serve my new life or my old one?" Right? When you get into retirement, when you're thinking about the questions that you've got to deal with, would you say that's a pretty good way of looking at that? John: Yeah, I do. I think it's kind of starting with, going back to the plan, you start with, "Hey, what are my goals? What am I trying to accomplish?" You can look at that from a personal time standpoint. "What are my priorities? What do I enjoy doing now? What are some of the bucket list things?" All comes down to just identifying what you want to focus on to maximize your retirement and what you guys like to do. Marc: Yeah. At the end of the day, right, you've got to ask yourselves those tough questions, right? "Does this still serve the life I want or the old life?" With 3.7 million people watching this video, that was for a good reason. It touched on something real. Retirement isn't just about what you've accumulated. Sometimes it's also about what you're willing to let go of. Right? We also kind of hit this phase now, and it's become very trendy as well., to declutter, but I think as you get older, you do kind of want to do some of that. You're kind of like, "I don't need all this junk anymore," and so you need to kind of think about some of those things when it comes to your financial life. Not just the monetary pieces, but also just the other factors and things that go into it. As always, if you've got questions, you need help on how to do that, because it's our first retirement most of the time, right? Most of us don't retire more than once unless you're Favre or Brady or somebody like that. You've got to get it right the first time, so reach out to a team that helps people all the time get to and through retirement. Reach out to John and Nick and the team at pfgprivatewealth.com, that's pfgprivatewealth.com, and get started today with a consultation. Do a 15-minute chat by simply calling 813-286-7776, 813-286-7776, or go to pfgprivatewealth.com. That's going to do it this week for Retirement Planning Redefined. Don't forget to subscribe to us on Apple or Spotify or whatever podcasting app you enjoy. For John and Nick, I'm your host, Mark. We'll see you next time.

June 25, 2026Episode 9515 min

She Didn't Plan to Retire at 62. Here's How It Happened.

Today we're trying something a little different. We're going to walk through a real retirement story in chapters — and as each new detail comes in, we're going to react to it the way a financial advisor would. Fran is 62, she figured a lot of this out on her own, and she's only now sitting down with a professional for the first time. Let's see what we find and what we might do differently from here. Helpful Information: PFG Website: https://www.pfgprivatewealth.com/ Contact: 813-286-7776 Email: info@pfgprivatewealth.com Disclaimer: PFG Private Wealth Management, LLC is an SEC Registered Investment Advisor. Information presented is for educational purposes only and does not intend to make an offer or solicitation for the sale or purchase of any specific securities, investments, or investment strategies. The topics and information discussed during this podcast are not intended to provide tax or legal advice. Investments involve risk, and unless otherwise stated, are not guaranteed. Be sure to first consult with a qualified financial advisor and/or tax professional before implementing any strategy discussed on this podcast. Past performance is not indicative of future performance. Insurance products and services are offered and sold through individually licensed and appointed insurance agents. Marc: Today we're trying something a little different. We're going to walk through a real retirement story in chapters. As each new detail comes in, we're going to react to the way a financial advisor would for Fran. She didn't plan to retire at 62, and here's what happened. So let's talk about Fran's story. Hey everybody, welcome into the podcast. This is another edition of Retirement Planning Redefined with John and Nick from PFG Private Wealth. And if you need some help, got some questions, want to reach out to the fellows, give them a jingle, or I guess not a jingle, but find them online at pfgprivatewealth.com. That's pfgprivatewealth.com. Of course, you can call them at 813-286-7776. We'll have details in the show description below if you'd like to get ahold of them. And we're going to talk about this kind of a retirement story here today, guys. Kind of break this down a little bit, so we'll get started in just a second. But Nick, how are you my friend? You doing all right? Nick: Yeah, doing pretty well. Thanks. Marc: Good, good. Good to have you here. Good to chat with you as always. And John, how are you, my friend? John: I'm doing okay. Summertime started for the kiddos, which means I get to sleep in an extra 30 minutes. Marc: Oh, there you go. Little extra sleep is always good. Exactly. John: So it's good, yeah. Marc: Well, let's dive in. Let's start with this chapter breakdown. So guys, we've got this story again, kind of a real case study here. So who is Fran? Whoever wants to do the setup here. Tell us a little bit about the story here. Nick: Yeah, so I'll go ahead and start. So Fran, 62 and single, spent 30 years teaching in public schools kind of up north and decided wanted a change. So about five years ago, she moved south, rented a home, picked up a full-time admin job at a local office, and kind of did it from the standpoint in the sense of it wasn't something that she loved or had always wanted to do. It was just kind of stabilize, get a job, earn some income, and be able to cover bills and figure out what she wants to do. Marc: Gotcha. And that's fairly normal, right? A lot of people are going down to Florida, doing this snow bird thing. And so for a first time situation, somebody walking in, like you're reviewing this case for somebody who's coming in saying, "Hey, I'd like to talk to you about getting some help." What's a couple of things from just the story setup that stands out to you? Nick: Yeah. As somebody who kind of helps people plan for a living, I start to twitch a little bit just from the standpoint of it seems like the decisions being made are a bit on a whim and there's not necessarily kind of a broad based strategy put in place. So for example, seeing somebody that had retired as a public school teacher, most likely there's a pension involved. And we'll learn that she had waited on the pension a little bit, but was there an opportunity to take something sooner or not? Obviously with her being under the age of 65, then there's going to be costs associated and probably substantial costs associated with healthcare. So that's something that would factor into the job opportunity that she was looking for. In this case, she had rented a home, which in situations like this oftentimes does make sense dependent upon where she's coming from, but we don't know if she had sold a previous house or had rented before and then came down to rent as well. So we've got kind of variability and costs associated with a home. And then just getting a better understanding of what other sort of assets are in play and/or what's the game plan, maybe like post 65 are all things that would help us from a planning perspective. Marc: All right. So let me jump in and do the next piece for you. Kind of a turning point here in the story. A few months ago, guy's, Fran's office restructured. She was offered a new role, more training, longer hours, not much more pay as a single person whose paycheck covers everything, taking on more of roughly the same didn't make a lot of sense so she walked away and unfortunately she got let go, not exactly by choice but not exactly against her will either. So I guess when somebody lands in Fran's position, retired before they planned as well, Nick, as you mentioned, what's the most important thing to get some clarity on? How do you proceed in a situation like that? Now you find yourself without a job. Nick: Yeah, this tends to be a tricky one and we've kind of run into this where, and it seems like it's happening more. We've seen this more in the last 12 months where people in their early 60s with the expectation of working a few more years and are sub 65, so have to deal with cost of healthcare and that sort of thing have been downsized, and there's substantial difficulty whether they're like a quote unquote highly trained or more specialized position, or in like France position, somebody that had done that previously and had shifted into a role that was maybe not as dynamic as had been and the other way. And so again, kind of having to adjust to whatever's going on and the situation being dictated to her versus maybe being in the driver's seat and having more options on what to do as she moves forward. Marc: Yeah, that's the risk I think, to your point about not planning, is you're not in the driver's seat, or the catbird seat, right? You're kind of reacting to things on how they go. To that point, what she did next is started drawing Social Security right away at 62, right? So locked that in that early. So you're taking that what, 30% haircut right off the bat there? Nick: I believe so. Marc: Yeah. So she also picked up a part-time job at a gym she goes to. Nothing too demanding, keeps a little extra money coming in. So her monthly picture is now looking like 1,450 in social security, about 800 from the gym job, but 1,600 going out in rent before anything else. So how do you react now? Nick: Yeah, see that's kind of the tough thing at that point, what do we have? 2,250 in income coming in from the social security and the job and a huge percentage of that is just going out just to cover rent. Marc: Yeah, not utilities, just rent. Yeah. Nick: Right. Not utilities, not food, not car insurance, not gas, a lot of different things. John: No vacations. Nick: Yeah, no vacations, not doing the things that maybe she wanted to do. And so this makes us rewind a little bit even further back, and in retrospect kind of look at as an example. So a conversation with somebody like Fran that we would have probably had if we had met her early on, knowing how dynamically an extra few years of working at a job that has a pension related to it, like a teacher. So we might have had discussions and kind of doing some projections on maybe even a couple extra years as a teacher and then spending summers in the south, what that could have done to kind of ease her way into it and maybe break up the monotony of what she had been doing over a period of time, making sure that she really understood the impact of taking Social Security at 62 would have. It's like in this scenario, she doesn't really have a whole lot of other options unless she would have found another full-time job. And what we start to kind of see is that if at that point in life, if somebody's kind of let go and after a few months they haven't had an opportunity to find another position, the freak-out factor really starts to kick in and they want to have something coming in no matter what and ... Go ahead. Marc: No, I was going to say to that point, you mentioned the Social Security, right, or excuse me, the pension earlier, she's just basically getting by with what she has. What she hasn't touched, and I guess that's where it gets more interesting and I wanted to kind of tee that up since you mentioned that earlier. She hasn't touched that teacher's pension, which she hasn't started yet. 1,100 a month is going to be available but at 65, so you still got a three-year window there, right? But also the 403B with about 210 grand in it that she hasn't touched. So now you can kind of start to factor some of that stuff in. So I guess right now she's basically living paycheck to paycheck. So now you get a bit more of the fuller picture. How does that start to shift some things? Nick: Yeah. And one of the things that we will see is that people, their normal reaction will oftentimes be to avoid using any sort of investments just because they like the idea, or there's like a psychological aspect of not touching their money, where taking Social Security at 62 is still touching your money. It's just kind of in a different way. So kind of laddering these things together and knowing that she had some money kind of set aside, we probably would have looked at potentially supplementing the income for a year, maybe two years with the money in the retirement account. Letting the Social Security grow a little bit more, then kicking that in and then having the pension kick in where then that would give an opportunity to take a little pressure off the retirement funds, and stop withdrawals for a few years and let that grow back. Because not only does somebody lock in a lower amount when they take Social Security early, but now they just have less money for things like the cost of living adjustments to kind of compound on in the future and that sort of thing. The big takeaway of what we see here is the fact that there wasn't necessarily a retirement plan put together from a financial aspect. Marc: Right. I mean, she's 62. Even a little planning a couple of years ahead of time might have helped a lot, right? Nick: Yeah. Yeah. There definitely would have been an impact on what could have happened. And the thing that also happens when we have this sort of conversation, anytime anybody's going to make a substantial career change, like somebody like a teacher, for example, they have some of the best job security there is, and kind of being in the private world and shifting from being a teacher to the private world, it can be a little bit of a culture shock. And just understanding that you can be let go and/or the dynamics in play can be substantially different. And so just that predisposition to what sort of field she was in probably didn't necessarily lock in the risk taking of uprooting, moving, and even how delaying that a couple of years could have had most likely a pretty substantial positive impact on the plan, and maybe freed her up to be able to not have to work part-time for longer or have all these other variables that she's not in control of. Marc: Yeah. And I think ultimately for me, like what I see on stuff like this is she figured out a lot of parts on her own, and that counts for something sure, but the difference is always like instead of doing it, reacting at that moment is doing a little bit of planning just goes a long way, right? I mean, you could still build one even in this situation, but ideally the sooner you can, the better. We're not talking necessarily 10 years out, although that'd be great too, but don't just wait until the last minute and then just react to stuff. Nick: Yeah. And the reality too is that in the short term, even though there's a lot of moving parts kind of in that range of losing the job and shifting to part-time and taking the Social Security, really where the pinch will be felt is 10 years down the road when inflation really starts to kick in, things are feeling more expensive. Marc: That's a good point. It feels that way now, right? Nick: Yeah. Yeah, for sure. And so it's like that thought process of like, well, hey, the increases I'm getting on my Social Security, and maybe for her a pension, aren't really keeping up with where things are going, maybe she didn't have the opportunity to work for very long at the gym even and can't find any other job and she's just now her lifestyle, her expenses, John mentioned the opportunity to be able to travel, do the things that she wants to do. Some of those things may have been taken away, and some extra more kind of detailed planning to ... Because those are the sorts of things that we would show as situations that could happen for somebody and making sure that there's contingency plans and plan B, plan C if, hey, if these things happen, where can we go? How can we adjust? Marc: Yeah. I mean, stress testing different scenarios is a huge part of going through the retirement planning process with an advisor so that you can ... I mean, she probably wasn't expecting to lose that administrative job and having to go to the gym job, right? So life always throws things at us, so you want to make sure you got a strategy and a plan in place before you pull the trigger and go moving, or retiring, or whatever the case is, especially if you're getting close to it, especially again, 60, 62, that kind of thing. So as always, if you got questions, need some help, reach out to the guys. If her story sounds anything like something like you're facing or could be facing, make sure you take the action now and start talking with qualified professionals and see, just sit down, have a conversation. They're complimentary often. Most places do that, just to kind of see if they can help you out and if it's going to be a good fit. So reach out to the guys, have a 15-minute chat, pfgprivatewealth.com. That's pfgprivatewealth.com or call 813-286-7776. And that's going to do it this week for Retirement Planning Redefined for John and Nick. I'm your host, Mark. We'll see you next time here on the podcast. Don't forget to hit that subscribe button. We'll catch you later.

June 17, 2026Episode 9425 min

What Is The Mega Backdoor Roth?

In this episode, John and Nick explain the Mega Backdoor Roth strategy and how high-income savers may be able to contribute significantly more to Roth accounts through their workplace retirement plans. They break down the rules, requirements, and potential tax benefits, while highlighting who may benefit most from this advanced retirement planning strategy. Helpful Information: PFG Website: https://www.pfgprivatewealth.com/ Contact: 813-286-7776 Email: info@pfgprivatewealth.com Disclaimer: PFG Private Wealth Management, LLC is an SEC Registered Investment Advisor. Information presented is for educational purposes only and does not intend to make an offer or solicitation for the sale or purchase of any specific securities, investments, or investment strategies. The topics and information discussed during this podcast are not intended to provide tax or legal advice. Investments involve risk, and unless otherwise stated, are not guaranteed. Be sure to first consult with a qualified financial advisor and/or tax professional before implementing any strategy discussed on this podcast. Past performance is not indicative of future performance. Insurance products and services are offered and sold through individually licensed and appointed insurance agents. Marc: This week on Retirement Planning Redefined, part two of our conversation about the backdoor Roth IRA. This is the mega backdoor Roth. Let's get into that conversation with John and Nick. Hey, everybody. Welcome into the podcast. This is Retirement Planning Redefined with John and Nick from PFG Private Wealth. Find the guys online at pfgprivatewealth.com. That's pfgprivatewealth.com. And it sounds like something, guys, out of a, I don't know, out of a superhero story or something. It's the mega backdoor Roth. And that's the topic of the conversation this week. So we're just going to dive right in because there's a lot to cover anyway. So we'll just jump in and get going. I guess, Nick, if you want, why don't you talk to us, give us a really, really short recap of what we talked about last week for those who may have not listened to that podcast. And then what's to understand what to do if you want more than the IRA limits and just kind of set us up here a little bit for understanding the mega backdoor Roth. Nick: Sure. So just a quick recap on a Roth IRA and the benefits of it. So contributions typically are with after tax dollars. So income that has already been taxed. The account grows tax deferred, so you don't receive a 1099 each year. And then the withdrawals are tax-free after 59 and a half. The Roth IRAs do not require required minimum distributions, which are nice. And they're a great place to have more of your growth oriented assets because of the tax-free upside and the fact that you can leave a tax-free account to your beneficiaries. Marc: Gotcha. And I guess some confusion here, guys, and help me out to understand this a little bit, is that we've been thinking about the Roth. We typically just, I've been saying just the Roth, that's the IRA. But because they have now created the Roth 401Ks, that adds a little confusion to the conversation as well. It's always funny because the word contribution and contribution, excuse me, and conversion confuse people. So it just confused me right now. But also 401, the Roth 401k and then the Roth IRA is now confusing people as well too. So are we talking a little bit more about on this episode, that mega backdoor Roth being from the workplace plan? Is that what we're looking at here? John: Yeah. So we'll have to leave the IRA world and jump into the 401k plans where they have much larger contribution limits, which is where we get our superhero work. Marc: The mega term. Okay. Yeah. John: Exactly. We could do a lot more of what we discussed last week. So if you like the benefits Nick went over, this is a great way to really maximize those benefits. Marc: Okay. Well, let's start with the limits. What are the limits? I guess again, we're in the 401k plan now. John: Yeah. So for 2026, under the age of 50, standard contribution limit is 24,500. There is a catch-up, and for today's purpose, we'll just talk about the standard contribution. When you are talking catch-ups, just whatever we're discussing, add the catch-up to it. But for today's purpose, to keep it simple because we are going to do a deep dive into some of these numbers, let's just assume standard contribution limit, which for this year, 24,500. And what a lot of people aren't aware of because it typically doesn't apply is your total limit to the 401k contributions. Now this is employee and employer is actually 72,000 for 2026, and that gets adjusted up every year similar to the standard contribution limits. Marc: Oh, okay. Wow, that is a big number. John: Yeah, it's mega. Marc: Yeah, it's mega. Yeah. So why would the IRS build a $72,000 ceiling if they cap the personal down so low? So I guess what's the other 47,500? John: Yeah. So one of the things that we focus on is 401ks, which comes with employee benefits, perks, things like that. And some people hear the term matches quite a bit. Marc: Sure. John: Another one is profit sharings. So that $72,000 limit is basically the IRS saying, hey, the employee can do this amount, and if the employer's going to give X amount of benefits, it really can't go over this $72,000 threshold. So that's pretty much what it is. The IRS basically said, hey, let's put some limits to this so we can't over commit to people or do ... They want to be able to provide a benefit, but not go crazy with it. So that's where we get the number. Nick: And to kind of summarize that, a away to think about it is that there are standard limits for the employee contributions. And sometimes as an example, we've seen clients say, we've told them, especially new clients, like, "Oh, well, I'm maxing it out when you include the employer match." And it's like, no, those contributions are for your dollars. And then this overall maximum amount that John's referring to is a combination of employee and employee dollars. So it's like two separate tranches within the same year of the same plan. John: To confuse everyone a little bit more, part of that 72,000 is, if your plan allows it, and we'll dive into this, is what they call the after tax contribution to a 401k. And I know we hit it last week, but that is something that goes into this feature, which is actually older than a Roth 401k, but it's not used very often or not many people are very aware of it, but we'll jump into it today. Marc: Okay. So the mega backdoor strategy is the employee kind of hacking, if you will, this potentially unused space. So can one of you guys maybe do a numbers example where it maybe will make a little bit more sense for folks? Nick: Sure. I'll kind of break it down and give an example. So let's say that there's a 40-year-old and because they're under age 50, their standard contribution into their retirement plan is going to be 24,500, so around two grand a month. In this case, their employer matches and the total amount of the match throughout the year is 10,500. So when you combine those two amounts, the total balance for the year, not including any gains or growth is going to be the total amount contributed is $35,000 for the year. So when we go back to that aggregate ceiling that John mentioned, the 72,000. So with our basic math, and if you're not good at basic math, now we have AI that helps us. Marc: You got 37 grand basically, right? Nick: Yep. So 72 minus 35 is $37,000. That is the gap or kind of the unused space below the IRS guideline. So that's the number that we can target should the plan allow it to build in or if you have ... All this is dependent upon cash flow, of course, but if you have the cash flow to be able to save additional money into the plan. Marc: Gotcha. Okay. So that makes a little bit more sense, right? So you've got that space. It's almost kind of like filling up your tax brackets before you move to the next tax bracket, if you want to think about it that way, not to add more confusion to it. John: Yeah. It's like filling up your gas in your tank here. I got this gap here. Let me, with the rest of this, like we said, Nick said, I said, if the plan allows it, I can do some after tax contribution up to that ceiling. Marc: So all right, with the Roth 401k existing now, and those contribution numbers are higher, because part of the reason for this hybrid guys, when they made the Roth 401k is you get the income limits of a traditional 401k, but you get the Roth benefits of the Roth IRA. That's why they kind of merged these two together because people often say, "Hey, I make too much money to use a Roth IRA." But the Roth 401k is higher. Isn't this just what this is, just a contribution to a 401k? It kind of feels like it. John: It’s not because the Roth 401k is a formal tax designation that falls under that standard contribution limit, that 24,500. Marc: Okay. All right. Back to the standard 24. Okay. Yeah. John: Yeah. Yeah. So kind of think about it that way. It's that, hey, your pre-tax 401k contribution and the Roth 401k contribution are subject to that standard contribution limit, which in 2026 it's 24,500. And with the Roth 401k, it's after tax money and growth is tax deferred and tax-free distribution. Where the after tax, and we talked about that in detail, it's after tax contribution, but the growth is tax deferred, but the growth if pulled out will be taxed, the earnings on that. So again, kind of caveat to understand the difference between those two contribution types. Marc: Gotcha. Nick: Yeah. And in general, a lot of the podcasts that we do are focused on broader base impacts a lot of people. This is definitely a niche sort of strategy. There's not a huge percent of the population that has, number one, the ability to do this in the plan, but also the cashflow to do it. Marc: Gotcha. Nick: But for those that do, it can be a massive, massive edge on what they're trying to accomplish. Marc: Yeah. Well, especially with that aggregate number, right? So the rules, they're not as genus or generous, I should say, I guess as they are. John: Yeah, exactly. They won't let us take advantage of too much stuff. So basically it's like, hey, again, if the plan allows it, you can do more contribution, but it will be taxed when it comes out of the earnings portion of that. Marc: Okay. So to clarify, if I got this right based on Nick's example a second ago, that extra $37,000 gap, again, just to kind of recap, we had that we put in 24,500, the company did 10,500 for total of 35,000, 72 is the aggregate there. So left us with that $37,000 gap. So if I drop 37,000 of after tax into that gap, I'll get hit for taxes on all the compound interest of that growth when I pull it out, correct? John: Correct. Yes. Marc: Gotcha. Okay. John: Yeah. Which is the difference with the Roth where everything's tax-free. Marc: Yeah. So every dollar gets taxed. John: Every earning dollar gets taxed. Marc: Earning dollar. Okay. All right. John: Yeah. Marc: So this after tax contribution isn't the destination, it's just the first step, sounds like. John: Pretty much, yeah. Marc: Okay. All right. What else? John: So step two would be the actual conversion or the conversion or basically putting these funds into the Roth account, whether it's a Roth 401k or Roth IRA and we'll go over the two different ways you can do it. So that would be the next step is converting it or transferring it before there's any gains similar to what we discussed last week. Once there's gains in this after tax contribution and growth, now it's subject to taxes. So you want to do an immediate conversion or transfer to either to a Roth style bucket. I want to give an example of not converting immediately, what happens in that situation. So let’s say you do an after tax contribution of $10,000 dollars and you forget to convert it. And that $10,000 now grows to $15,000. So you have $10,000 is your cost basis, what you put into it and $5,000 is gained. So if you do the conversion after you have that gain of $5,000, your taxable income goes up by the taxable gain amount, which is the 5 grand. So you’re taxable income goes up by 5 grand, so you want to make sure you do the conversion immediately to avoid that additional tax hit from happening. Marc: Gotcha. John: And then once it's in that Roth bucket, basically everything is tax-free and tax-deferred, tax-free, and subject to the Roth rules. Marc: Yeah, the age rules and time rules, all that good stuff. John: Yeah. Marc: So John, can everyone do this? John: Yeah, so I'm going to give you the annoying answer of it depends, and it depends on if your 401 k has particular features to it. And one of those features are, does the 401 k allow for after tax non Roth 401 k contributions? Okay, so you have to check that, so that'd be a question to the plan administrator, HR, whoever handles it. So, if that is allowed, the next question is, can you do the conversion? And there's two ways you can do the conversion with with these 401 k plans. Option one is you do an in-service rollover and you roll the funds out to your Roth IRA, and it converts once it rolls out to your Roth IRA. Okay. Option two is you do an in-plan 401 k Roth conversion, so all the money stays within the plan. Marc: Gotcha. John: Okay, let's kind of review the in-service rollover strategy. So, while you're working, you're still employed, so that's where the in-service comes into play. What you would do is call up the provider and say, "Hey, I'd like to roll out these after-tax contribution funds to my Roth IRA. Again, outside of the plan you're rolling it out. So, when you do that, it creates the conversion when that happens. So, once it goes from the after-tax contribution in the 401 k goes to your Roth IRA. Now the funds grow as if it's a Roth IRA. Marc: Now it's Roth money, right? Okay, John: Correct. So that completes that transaction. So something to be aware of, and we talked about this last time when we talked about the back door Roth with the Roth IRA is the pro rata rule. When you do it this way, the pro rata rule applies. If you have pre-tax IRA, there's not to confuse everyone even more, but there's a formula involved. If you have pre-tax IRA money and you do the conversion this way, there is some type of formula. So, again, meet with the CPA, your financial advisor, if you're going to do this type of strategy while you have a pre-tax individual retirement account, IRA balance, okay, Marc: Geat, yeah, great disclosure there to make, make note of. So, good point there, John. What if your plan doesn't allow that? John: Yeah, so let's say you, your plan doesn't allow the in-service rollover, in-service withdrawal, whatever you want to call it, or you're not eligible to do it because you know certain plans you have to be above the age 59 and a half to do that. So, okay, recapping, your plan isn't - you're not eligible to take advantage of the in-service withdrawal slash rollover in your plan. The next thing you want to look at is, okay, does my plan allow for in-plan Roth conversions? So, that would be where everything stays within the 401 k hub, and what you're doing is you're converting the after-tax dollars right into the Roth 401 k funds. Okay, so it's pretty simple here. The money goes in after tax, and then you do the conversion within the plan, and now it shows up into your Roth 401 k balance. So, it doesn't create a taxable event, then doesn't create a taxable event, because well, let's backtrack. If you do the conversion immediately before there's any gains on the after-tax funds, it does not create a taxable event in that situation. Marc: Gotcha. Okay. John: All right. Okay. And something to note here, and I referenced the pro rata rule on if it goes to a Roth IRA within the 401 k, that pro rata rule does not apply. Okay, so that's a nice benefit of keeping it within the plan, is you don't have to worry about that formula if you have pre-tax balances. Marc: Gotcha. Okay, there's a lot to digest, for sure. John: It is. And actually, some plans I was just working with someone, and their plan actually had basically automatic conversions, so it was a feature where daily any money that hit the after-tax account would automatically convert to the Roth 401 k, so it basically could put on autopilot and not worry about it. Marc: Yeah, so it sounds like obviously these plan-specific features can provide possible green lights to do this, but you got to check that stuff. John: Yeah, exactly. And then, and just to clarify that pro rata rule, because it is confusing is if you do an implant conversion again, this is all within the 401 k plan. So you convert from after tax in the 401 k to Roth in the 401 k, and let's say you have a balance of $400,000 pre tax. The pro rata rule does not apply, you can convert it, not worry about, hey, how much do I have pre tax versus if you roll it out of the 401 k into a Roth IRA, the IRS will look into if you have any money in a pre-tax traditional IRA, and if you do, that's when the formula kicks in. Okay, so just, you know, that's an important caveat that I've seen people miss if they do conversions, and it's just important to, you know, talk to somebody, and before you execute these strategies. Marc: Okay. Yeah. So obviously there's a lot of nuance here, so there's a lot of things you got to be aware of. So making sure specific plan features have the green light, I guess, is one of the major steps to consider on this, Nick, right? John: One thing that we missed here, which is separate from the IRAs. So not to confuse everyone even more, when you do a conversion within a plan, there is no pro rata rule like the IRA. So it doesn't matter if you have 400,000 in your pre-tax 401 and you do a conversion, there's none of that formula there so you can do it and have no issue. Marc: Gotcha. And so circling back, Nick, you mentioned earlier, you got to check with the company, I guess, to make sure, again, we're talking about workplace plans here to make sure that they even have this green light to get this done. Nick: Yeah. Realistically, if somebody was trying to figure out the steps on navigating this, step one is contact your employer, HR department, and ask if the plan allows for non-Roth after tax contributions. That's step one. And then you kind of cascade down to the other parts or reach out to us and we can help walk you through it because all the details might make you want to cry. Marc: Right. Okay. All right. So let's say a ton of stuff here to think about, obviously a lot of stuff to process. So I guess, okay, here's a big question then. So you walk through the rules, some of the mechanics of whether you can do it. I guess the question, John, is should you? Just because you can do something as the saying goes doesn't mean you necessarily should. John: Yeah. So that really probably should be the starting point. So you don't have to go ask all these questions, see if you're eligible to come to find out, hey, I probably even shouldn't do this strategy. So if it goes back to planning, of course, can you afford to put a total of up to 72,000 potentially away into a 401 plan? If you can afford it and not have to worry about expenses and things like that, then now you should start considering it because this is a pretty risky strategy because you are locking up a lot of money subjecting it to all those IRS rules and penalties and things like that. And then the other thing is, do you need the balance of having some more Roth funds, which I would say most people do where it's, do I need a good mix of pre-tax and after-tax stuff? Looking at tax brackets now versus in retirement and a lot of the other things that Nick has mentioned, he could probably jump in here and give a few more details of it. Nick: So I'll give a couple other ideal candidates as an example. So let's say that somebody is a person or a household, high-income earners, they're maxing out their 401k contributions. They don't have a lot of Roth money because their income is high enough where kids are grown, they're taking a hit from a tax perspective if they're not doing pre-tax contributions. And maybe they're saving a big chunk of money every month or every year into a non-retirement account, but they've also built up a decent balance in that account. And so they're looking for a way that they're not going to give up the deduction that they're getting up for their regular 401k contributions, but they want to develop some Roth funds and they make too much money. And so it's like, okay, check, check, check, here's a perfect place to do it. Another way, another circumstance that could make a whole lot of sense, inheritance. So dependent upon the structure, if somebody inherits money from an IRA, from a non-spouse, they have 10 years to withdrawal and deplete that account. So as that money's coming out, maybe they're looking for a place to put money that can have some tax benefits for them longer term and they have more cashflow in those years of taking out those withdrawals, so that's a place that they can put it. Or somebody's double dipping on Social Security, they're still working and they're taking Social Security and they're looking for a way to deploy some of that money and put it into an account, that's another good opportunity. Marc: Gotcha. Nick: So those are all situations that could make a lot of sense and add a layer of strategy that somebody hadn't considered. Marc: So it sounds like obviously basic Roth conversions, there's some complexity there. You want to check with financial professional. The back door gets even more complicated. Then the mega backdoor gets even more complicated. So at the end of the day, to find out if this is the right strategy and fit for you, it's all about having a plan and running some numbers and getting some math put together to see what makes the most sense. Is that fair, John? John: It is, because even if you're a fit to be able to defer that amount of money, some of these rules really limit who can actually take advantage of it. Where we see it work quite a bit is solo 401k, someone owns their own company, it's just them and their spouse and they have a solo 401. Well, they can go to the provider and customize their 401 to allow this. High earners at large companies where, again, don't want to get into the weeds of this, but there's 401 testing rules where it really affects smaller companies. When it's a large company, you don't see the rules affect some of those high earners because in small companies, there's testing and stuff like that. And again, it's more confusing stuff, but smaller companies, it is harder to take advantage of that if you are considered what the 401k Department of Labor considers a high earner. So great strategy if you can afford to do it and you have the flexibility with the 401k to allow you to do it's an excellent way to take advantage of the Roth benefits and maximize it. Marc: Gotcha. So at the end of the day, it comes down again to having a strategy that fits for your situation. So understanding if it's right for you, do you qualify? How do you do it? Making sure it's done properly is the important pieces of all of this. And that's why we talk often about the fact that growing and accumulating money is a little easier for DIYers to do that. A lot of us can kind of, with the technology and the resources today, can build our wealth. But it's the preservation and distribution stage, which is also known as retirement, that you certainly need some help with because the rules get very complicated. And sometimes when you pull one lever, it affects nine other things that you didn't even realize. So that's why you want to get that retirement plan redefined with John and Nick. Reach out to them at pfgprivatewealth.com. That's pfgprivatewealth.com. And with that, we're going to do it for this week. So make sure you subscribe to us on Apple or Spotify so that you can check out new episodes when they come out. And of course, if you have questions around this, and you probably do, make sure you reach out to them and have a conversation. Guys, thanks for successfully blowing our brains out with this one because it's a lot of stuff to take, but it's important because a lot of these strategies out there don't get talked about as often. So good stuff. Thanks for breaking it down, John. John: Yeah, no problem. And I enjoy some of these deep dives, so look forward to doing some more of them. Marc: Yeah, for sure. Nick, thank you, my friend, for jumping in as well and helping out. It's definitely a lot to unpack for people. So I always appreciate you guys. Nick: Thanks, Marcus. Marc: And be sure to consult with your tax advisor. This can affect your federal tax rates and also state taxes if you have state income tax. We'll see you next time here on Retirement Planning Redefined with John and Nick.

May 19, 2026Episode 9313 min

Replay: Should You Gift Money While You’re Alive or Leave A Legacy?

You’ve worked hard, saved well, and now you’re thinking about giving back—maybe to your kids, your grandkids, or a cause you care about. But should you wait and pass that wealth on later, or give while you’re still around to enjoy the impact? Let’s talk about how to make that decision with confidence. Helpful Information: PFG Website: https://www.pfgprivatewealth.com/ Contact: 813-286-7776 Email: info@pfgprivatewealth.com Disclaimer: PFG Private Wealth Management, LLC is an SEC Registered Investment Advisor. Information presented is for educational purposes only and does not intend to make an offer or solicitation for the sale or purchase of any specific securities, investments, or investment strategies. The topics and information discussed during this podcast are not intended to provide tax or legal advice. Investments involve risk, and unless otherwise stated, are not guaranteed. Be sure to first consult with a qualified financial advisor and/or tax professional before implementing any strategy discussed on this podcast. Past performance is not indicative of future performance. Insurance products and services are offered and sold through individually licensed and appointed insurance agents. Marc: Welcome in once again to another edition of Retirement Planning, Redefined with John and Nick, and we're going to talk about gifting money while you're alive or leaving a legacy. You work hard, you saved well, so let's talk about how to gift and leave a legacy. Welcome into the podcast everybody. Thanks for hanging out with John and Nick and myself as we talk about these topics this week. And guys, it's gifting, right? So I want to go over some basics here. It seems like there's been a trend the last couple of years for people to enjoy their retirement legacy with the family versus the old way of you pass and you'll leave a check, right? Here's your inheritance, we're gone, that kind of thing. So let's talk about that a little bit this week on the show and just kind of see what you guys are seeing in your neck of the woods. How you doing this week, Nick? Nick: Good, good. How about yourself? Marc: Doing pretty good's. How's the wedding action coming? Nick: Planning's moving along. Marc: Nice. Nick: Did some, hopefully we got the food picked out, so trying to check off all the big things, so. Marc: That's important. Got to have that good food going on for sure. Well, good. Kudos. Good. Glad to hear that. And John, my friend, how are you this week? John: I'm good. I'm good. Summer just started for the kids, so getting used to waking up in the morning and they're hanging out with me as I'm getting ready for work- Marc: And they're ready to go. John: Versus me just dropping them off. Yeah. Marc: That's right. John: It's a lot of fun. Marc: There you go. Are you guys seeing this trend that I talked about, not necessarily a new trend. It's been going on for a number of years now, but I think where people just want to maybe enjoy some experiences with their loved ones while they're still here versus just leaving that check, so to speak? Are you guys seeing that in your practice as well? Nick: Yeah, I'd say so. We've had, what are we on now? A 14, 15 year bull run from the standpoint of people have kind of exceeded what their perspective on goals was for the money that they might have in retirement and, so especially I would say, at least from what I've seen, the vacation side of things is kind of the biggest thing that people have been doing where they'll do a large family vacation and pay for the kids and their families to go so that they can all enjoy that together. Marc: Yeah, that's very cool. And we'll talk about some of the numbers and things in just a few minutes, but John, I'll kick this over to you. I'd say the first step probably still should be, make sure you are covered first, right? We all want to leave and do things for our kids and loved ones, but don't sacrifice your own retirement in order just to do that. Is that a fair place to start? John: That is 100% where you should start. The last thing you want to do is start gifting and spending money on a vacation, and then you look at it and you're like, "Oh man, I don't have enough money to live anymore." So first thing we do in this situation where it comes up with clients is like most things we say, we look at the plan and we will stress test it and look at different scenarios to make sure, hey, if this were to happen, how does your plan react to it? So we'll throw out some scenarios out there, whether it's healthcare, inflation, social security, things like that. And if the plan looks solid, we will typically give somewhat of a green light of, we think you should budget X amount for this. Or we can also look at scenarios where Nick talked about vacation, but we've seen some others where it's like, "Hey, I want to help my son, daughter with a home purchase." And with the way prices are going now, it's very difficult for first time homeowners to be buying houses. So we've seen a lot of people basically lending, not giving money to their kids for buying homes. So we will put that in the plan and say, "Hey, what does your plan look like if you were to give X amount for a down payment?" Marc: Gotcha. Okay. And we'll talk about some of those numbers and ways to do that here in a few minutes. So I would say if step number one, as John pointed out is make sure you are covered. The next step number two is maybe just kind of clarify your motivation. He kind of touched on that a little bit, but why are you giving, I mean, again, we all love our kids. We want to help, but what's the purpose? Is that an important kind of factor to decide through? Nick: Yeah, I've had some recent conversations where maybe there's specific topics like, okay, we're off conversions, and because somebody has read or seen an article or something like that, the thought process is, all right, well let's go ahead and let's convert all of our qualified money to Roth accounts and leave the money to them. And a tricky thing with that can be, as an example, is maybe their kids are not in the same sort of economic space as they are and they're not going to ever make nearly the same amount of money. Them taking a hit right away from a tax perspective maybe doesn't make sense, so try to take them back to the initial point in, Hey, what's your motivation? What are you trying to do? What's most important to you? Is it making sure that your plan is structured well to protect you first and then start to do some giving while you're alive? Or is it more focused on you want to give after you pass away and let's structure your assets accordingly? So just so many things, making sure that you fully understand what your objectives are because it can be a little bit of the shiny new thing or a shiny new strategy that weren't familiar with at first or initially, and then once you go through and evaluate it in more detail, maybe it doesn't make a whole lot of sense. But yeah, really understanding how account types work, what your goals are and really what your focus is really important. Marc: And of course, working with a financial professional is going to help you identify that because often we're not going to know what the account types and the rules and the taxation things are going to be, so that's why you want to turn to the pros on that. So let's get into some of the numbers a little bit, guys, because I actually want to point out a couple of things that based on what you've said so far, and just kind of ask you some clarifying questions on that. But let's start with understanding the gifting rules. So John, what's some of the numbers that we need to know if we just want to gift money in general? John: So you want to look at what is the gifting amount before you trigger having to file a gift tax return or putting that on your return that you gifted money. So this number changes from year to year typically, and in 2025, it's $19,000 per person. So example, let's say you have a mother, father, and they want to gift to a child. They can each give $19,000 apiece. Marc: So married couples 38 grand, right? John: Yes. So that's a good starting point. And then if you have grandkids involved or whatever, you can start gifting to that. So it's $19,000 per person per year without triggering the gift tax filing. Marc: And that's hefty. Now I'm sure somebody listens going, "I love my kids, but I ain't giving them 38 grand." John: Again, everyone's situation's different. Marc: And you can do that. And it doesn't matter if it doesn't have to be family either, right? This could be anybody, right? You can give 19,000. John: It can be anybody. Yeah. If you want to just find a random person in the street, you're more than welcome to- Marc: Your favorite podcast host. I mean, podcast hosts need love too, so I'm just saying. John: Yeah. So that's definitely the starting point. If you're going to be gifting money to any particular individual. If you want to help out with tuition and medical expenses, as long as it's paid directly towards those institutions, you don't have to file any type of gift tax return. Marc: Now, I wanted to ask you about that because a minute ago you guys were talking about helping with school. Now you can't gift the money and pay the loan, right? It's not paying the student loan, it's paying the tuition. There is a difference there, correct? Nick: Yeah. And you want to pay it directly to the institution. Marc: Gotcha. Okay. That's important to know too, right? I'm sure from a tax standpoint as well. All right. What about QCDs, John? Can we do that in that arena as well? If you want to do some gifting? John: Yeah. So let's explain what that is. So it's qualified charitable distributions from your IRAs. Nick and I use this quite a bit. So when we're doing the fact-finding with clients, one of the main, not one of the main, but one of the questions we go through is, do you do any charitable gifting? And if they check that box, we'll typically find out what institutions and how much they're giving. And once someone hits RMD age, a great way to save on taxes is gifts directly from your IRA. So you could save quite a bit depending on how much someone's gifting. So example, we have someone that doesn't necessarily need their distribution from the IRA, and they were just taking money out of just cash flow, whether it was social security or pension, they were gifting it to their church. What we would typically do is say, "Hey, let's kind of switch this. Let's go to, let's pull out of the IRA." Let's just use number. Maybe it's 10 or 15 grand and we're going to go directly from the IRA to the charitable institution. In this example, it's a church, and you don't pay any taxes on that amount that came out. Marc: That's ideal, right? And Nick, thinking about how you, if you're a charitably minded person and talking about leaving a legacy, since this kind of rolls into this conversation, people often ask, "Well, which account should I use for what?" And John mentioned that earlier. So if you're thinking about leaving money to your kids and you've got money in a Roth, you might want to leave the kids that right? And then maybe QCD some money from the IRA over to the church, for example, because that's a tax benefit to everybody. Correct? Nick: Yeah, for sure. That makes sense. I would say to one kind of red flag, or at least something to be very aware of and had this conversation recently with a client is, while you're alive, if you're in a position to be able to gift and if you're in a position to be able to choose where you want to gift money from, avoid gifting from highly appreciated assets from the standpoint of let's say there's a property or there's a taxable brokerage account that maybe you've held 10 different stocks for 20 years and they have a substantial gain. If you gift that while alive, then the recipient, when they sell those is going to pay taxes on the gain versus if you gift it after you pass away, those investments will get a step-up in cost basis, which can save a significant amount of money from a tax perspective. So I would say where you gift from is absolutely, probably if this is something that's important to you, that's where the largest amount of strategy comes into play and doing it from the right place. Marc: Nick, any other things we missed as far as with the QCD or some of the numbers there? Nick: Yeah, one thing that we have run into is that some custodians, including the one that we use, Charles Schwab, they don't send out a specific tax document when somebody processes a qualified charitable distribution. So that's something that you want to keep records of and indicate that you've done that with your tax preparer. We've had a couple of clients where they were anticipating that they were going to receive a specific document that laid out exactly what they did, who it paid to, and that sort of thing and that was not the case. It shows the distribution via the 10-99, but they have to notify the tax preparer and usually provide some sort of documentation showing that they made that gift to a charity. So just from a best practice sort of standpoint, that's something to keep in mind. Marc: All right. All right. Good stuff guys. So as always, if you've got questions and concerns, need some help when it comes to any kind of the financial pieces, the X's and O's when it comes to retirement, you always want to check with qualified financial professionals who do this day in and day out. And John and Nick certainly do so if you need some help, reach out to them online at pfgprivatewealth.com. That's pfgprivatewealth.com and don't forget to subscribe to the podcast on Apple or Spotify or whatever podcasting app you enjoy using. You can reach out to the guys on the website. You can also call them at (813) 286-7776. And don't forget to tune in for new episodes as they come out. I appreciate the time guys. Thanks so much for being here and we'll catch you next time here on Retirement Planning, Redefined with John and Nick. Get yourself a plan, get yourself a strategy. Reach out to John and Nick today at pfgprivatewealth.com, that's pfgprivatewealth.com, to get started on your situation or to tweak your situation and dive into that process with the guys. You can reach out to them at 813-286-7776. Or again, find them online at pfgprivatewealth.com. Don't forget to subscribe to us on the podcast on Apple or Spotify, or whatever platform you like using. We'll see you next time here on Retirement Planning Redefined with John and Nick.

April 2, 2026Episode 9218 min

What Is A Backdoor Roth IRA?

This week, we're breaking down the Backdoor Roth IRA: the legal workaround that high earners use to get their money into a Roth and let it grow tax-free forever. We'll walk you through exactly how it works, who it's for, the one sneaky tax trap you need to watch out for, and whether it's actually worth the extra steps. If you've ever been told you earn too much for a Roth, this episode is for you. Helpful Information: PFG Website: https://www.pfgprivatewealth.com/ Contact: 813-286-7776 Email: info@pfgprivatewealth.com Disclaimer: PFG Private Wealth Management, LLC is an SEC Registered Investment Advisor. Information presented is for educational purposes only and does not intend to make an offer or solicitation for the sale or purchase of any specific securities, investments, or investment strategies. The topics and information discussed during this podcast are not intended to provide tax or legal advice. Investments involve risk, and unless otherwise stated, are not guaranteed. Be sure to first consult with a qualified financial advisor and/or tax professional before implementing any strategy discussed on this podcast. Past performance is not indicative of future performance. Insurance products and services are offered and sold through individually licensed and appointed insurance agents.

February 26, 2026Episode 9116 min

2026 Money Updates You Can’t Ignore

What’s new in 2026 for retirees & pre-retirees? From Social Security and Medicare to tax breaks and retirement contributions, this year brings several updates that could quietly impact your cash flow, taxes, and savings strategy. Helpful Information: PFG Website: https://www.pfgprivatewealth.com/ Contact: 813-286-7776 Email: info@pfgprivatewealth.com Disclaimer: PFG Private Wealth Management, LLC is an SEC Registered Investment Advisor. Information presented is for educational purposes only and does not intend to make an offer or solicitation for the sale or purchase of any specific securities, investments, or investment strategies. The topics and information discussed during this podcast are not intended to provide tax or legal advice. Investments involve risk, and unless otherwise stated, are not guaranteed. Be sure to first consult with a qualified financial advisor and/or tax professional before implementing any strategy discussed on this podcast. Past performance is not indicative of future performance. Insurance products and services are offered and sold through individually licensed and appointed insurance agents.

February 19, 2026Episode 9020 min

Common Retirement Myths And Why They’re Dangerous

There’s no shortage of financial advice out there, and unfortunately, not all of it is good. Some of the most damaging retirement mistakes don’t come from reckless behavior, but from ideas that sound reasonable and get repeated often enough to feel true. Today, we’re busting some of the most common retirement planning myths and explaining why believing them can quietly derail an otherwise solid plan. Helpful Information: PFG Website: https://www.pfgprivatewealth.com/ Contact: 813-286-7776 Email: info@pfgprivatewealth.com Disclaimer: PFG Private Wealth Management, LLC is an SEC Registered Investment Advisor. Information presented is for educational purposes only and does not intend to make an offer or solicitation for the sale or purchase of any specific securities, investments, or investment strategies. The topics and information discussed during this podcast are not intended to provide tax or legal advice. Investments involve risk, and unless otherwise stated, are not guaranteed. Be sure to first consult with a qualified financial advisor and/or tax professional before implementing any strategy discussed on this podcast. Past performance is not indicative of future performance. Insurance products and services are offered and sold through individually licensed and appointed insurance agents.