Winning with Camarda & Market Talk with the PWA Team

Video Chapters & Transcript:

Well, howdy folks and welcome to yet another edition of Smarter Money Matters. It really does. And we’re going to be doing a little bit of a different format going forward. Something that we’re going to call winning with Kamarda. And uh it’s really important to kind of we think to kind of remind you from time to time about our value proposition, maybe remind you of why you came to us and the differences between other adviserss. And this was inspired by a very good friend and longtime client uh that had uh um and I’m sure all of you on occasion these days are being constantly approached by other adviserss. You see ads on Facebook or reports or calls or you know referrals from your friends. It’s just the world that we live in and we really really appreciate your loyalty. But it’s only human nature to kind of check and and and shop around, right? Um so um so this this this series was inspired by this fellow that we worked with for a long time that was approached under the guise of everything you’re getting with Kamarda at a lower price and which turned out really not to be the case as as we kind of went through the analysis you know I think you were uh you were away but Lou and I you we spent quite a bit of time going through it you know and analyzing and it turned out that the the other adviser really was mostly a commission agent kind of a part-time adviser in more of the benefits business really than an advisory. We looked up the licenses and um there’s a whole just different schema of benefits. So we kind of went through and and at the end of the the analysis um or you know this particular person said she was thanks I forgot all that stuff why I came to you. What a difference. But you know people tend you know that when the relationship I think just starts but as time passes and you kind of get used to us the distinction between us and everybody else kind of blurs. So um I think it’d be helpful kind of go through some of the differences that that set us apart. Um, so I guess to begin with, um, Del or Anna, do you want to, you know, we’re not going to overwhelm them obviously. We’ll talk a little about each one maybe, uh, with the weekly videos and then we’re going to get to what’s happening in the investment worlds and current events and some stuff that that we think you’d be really interested in, but any any comments that you guys would like to begin with? I tend to talk too much. Yeah. I know. I mean, you know, I’ll only say just kind of to pick back on what you were saying that the client that we’re referring to for this video is, you know, just basically forgot what what uh you know, what all the benefits are that that we offer him bring to the table and um you know, he was just looking at the fees that he was potentially was going to get from this other advisory firm, not realizing that they were just barely managing the portfolio, not even doing that. He was buying whole portfolio. So, he’s just kind of expensive expensive, you know, expense ratios to go alongside with that. And you know, so there’s a lot more expenses underneath the surface that weren’t obvious besides just the fees because these people charge both a fee and commissions and other you know which which they weren’t completely upfront about it. Correct. So it feel like it was a much cheaper and better deal up front not realizing that behind you know behind a you know in a fine print it was actually you know a lot more messy than than and also cookie cutter product that came right off the shelf right managing it was you know from insurance company. Correct. And do you have any uh anything to add to that? Yeah, I mean I think you know where we add a lot of value, right, is we look at the the holistic picture for clients, right? We’re not just looking at investments, right? You can find a lot of people that that’ll manage investments, you know, not as well as we do, we think, but on top of that, we’re doing the estate planning, the tax planning, other financial planning, looking at that whole picture. Um, and there’s so much value there, right? And actually, we had in a case today, you know, that so at the end anyway after going through this analysis, we got an email. Thank you so much basically for I forgot all that. thanks for saving me or you know or helping me avoid disaster or something like that. So that’s why we’re kind of reminding you guys because once you know we kind of get into the groove of working with you know a lot of what made us special and why you came to us in the first place you know um it gets forgotten. Um and that’s really a good point. Well maybe we seg on this one and get into the slides for the next next week. Um but you know we had another case today where we went through and looked at the person’s tax return and uh um you know they had a CPA but the CPA was missing a pretty critical opportunity with real estate deductions and also increasing the audit risk a little bit. they forgot to fill something in on the schedule E where that could have, you know, prompted some IRS inquiry. It was completely unaware of asset protection and, you know, LLC, you know, possibilities of putting putting these LLC of real estate in LLC’s to to, you know, Yeah. And actually the attorney that he had that’s don’t forget to follow up with her, by the way. The attorney that he had, you know, he called because we said, “Okay, you want charging order protection? That’s what this is.” And he called this attorney and attorney said, “That’s a good idea. I better look into that.” And I got on a call with him to that go, Lou, is that is that the attorney that he should do this work with? And your answer was I said I wouldn’t do it but because you don’t want them learning because you don’t want Yeah. Exactly. You know, so and also we reviewed the his estate trust and he had a good well I shouldn’t say a good trust. He had a legally sufficient trust that was probably about this thick. Had a bunch of stuff in there that you know what I call a kitchen sink trust. It’s kind of like a template where you know an attorney would buy a software package, fill in your name, who’s your kids, whatever and prints out all these pages, but it’s not a custom crafted crafted document designed to address the interest and needs of your family. Um so we went through that and made some recommendations about how to simplify it and improve it. Uh, and then talking about the asset protection and all of this we’re constantly doing as we go through our process all year long, you know, with a financial planning sequence that we’ve built. Um, which most other advisors might pay the lift service to but not really understand. And often they’ll say, we’ll do this and then we’ll do that to get your business, but the depth of of knowledge and execution is usually hugely different. Yeah. And the other thing you mentioned, I’ll just kind of piggy back on what you were saying. So about his CPA tax preparer, not to pick on her, but um, she was basically, you know, was asking her a question. Thought he I think it was her, but it doesn’t matter. Aren’t they all? But but you know he was asking her a question and she was saying oh you should talk to your financial adviser at the time and then you know he was asking a financial adviser and he was say hey go go go talk to your CPA. So it was that you know tennis or or you know tennis match back and forth and the client wasn’t getting and the reason is because neither one of them knew the answer. And I got to tell you there’s something you know that you know I’ve been saying this for decades. If you ask an adviser an attorney or a CPA or a doctor whatever you know question and you don’t get an answer you understand there’s only two reasons. Either they don’t want you to know the truth or they don’t know the answer and they don’t want you to know the they just give you double talk. There’s nothing in just in medicine or law or investment management or you know taxes that you can’t explain in ordinary terms so people understand it. Let’s talk about asset protection. Somebody sues you and the judge says okay it’s Lou’s fault. You’ve heard you’ve harmed this person. You owe them a million dollars. Now what assets do you have Lou that you can pay the million dollars and if assets are asset protected like using LLC’s that are properly formed and satisfy the requirements of state law any idiot can set up an LLC. But unless it conforms to the law in the state that offers asset protection, it doesn’t work. But if it does, your attorney will say, “Judge, I’m sorry. That that all that $5 million in real estate in LLC is charging order protected. Your charging order cannot be executed against that asset. It’s protected.” And that’s it. Who can’t understand that except people that only understand, you know, what what asset protection is and we’ll give you a bunch of mumbo jumbo. Anyway, that’s enough about us for now. But we’re going to keep beating this drum and tell please feed back to us if you like this information, if you want more of it. And we’re gonna because I I’m really planning an extended series that’s going to give you guys not only you know differentiating us but also give you a lot of really really good wealth management information that you can apply in your own situations and better understand what we’re doing for us. So think of this also as kind of a miniourse in advanced wealth management. Um so good. Let’s so let’s talk about maybe what’s going on in the world and we haven’t really addressed this I think in a few weeks but the world you know in my view is changing in in amazing ways right you know the the price of oil and as we record this today the last today May 1st last April the uh um the the oil hit you know hit a high again I think last night of $120 a barrel and that’s not going to change anytime soon for a lot of reasons for a lot of reasons. um that the situation in Iran is going to be protracted. I think it’ll eventually be resolved, you know, in our favor, but who knows? I mean, there’s really no guarantee of the outcome. You know, it’s costing a lot of money. It’s costing a lot of political capital, you know, and the current administration. There’s just a lot of problems. It was interesting that the United Oil Emirates resigned from OPAC yesterday. Did you see that? So, that did you notice that? That’s huge. And why, you know, because they they’re like the the red-headed stepchild of the Middle East. Iran has been, you know, bragging to Saudi Arabia and Oman about we’re going to beat up on the UAE, which is right across the street of Hormuz. and they have been barging him with missile hitting their airport hitting Abu Dhabi in Dubai and and the UAE has not responded probably feeling you know but would have a reason. So why don’t you fight back? Why are you just letting them blow up all your stuff over here? That’s probably going to change, you know, and and I think one of the reasons they very pointedly walked away from Saudi Arabia and the rest of OPEC, you know, in a very public way that was really thumbming their nose at Saudi Arabia was to make, you know, a very strong statement that, okay, those days are over now. We’re just going to take care of ourselves, you know. So things are changing in a very very fundamental way and I think that the price of oil because of this tension is going to remain elevated for a long time which is good for us oil producers and our interest in in some of the um energy components in our portfolio but it’s going to be bad for consumers. So let’s talk talk about why have you guys given much thought to this and what are your thoughts on inflation going forward? Let’s start with an Yeah, I mean, you know, when you when you think of gas and gas products, diesel, um, fertilizer, some of these various products that come through that straight and from the Middle East, you know, yes, the gas prices at the pump have gone up, but also products that we buy, shipping, you know, costs, all of that is inflated due to the higher cost of oil, diesel, and these products. And we’re not maybe seeing that fully trickling into the economy yet. But when it does, it’ll cause inflation, you know, likely to go up, which then constrains the Federal Reserve, who, you know, indicated earlier this year they were interested in cutting rates potentially. If inflation’s up, it might constrain them from doing that and then probably and will likely go the other way. I mean, that’s really the only, you know, ammunition against uh um the against inflation is higher interest rates. Sure, people stop borrowing to chill the economy. What are your thoughts on that, L? Well, and I I and I talked about this a little bit yesterday um in one of the meetings we had here internally, but um you know, you you don’t only see it at the gas pump, but you’re also seeing it internationally like you know, you were mentioning in Asia and Europe and you know, some of these major airlines are cutting, you know, cutting travel this cutting cutting flights this summer because of you know, increased um oil and gas and with kerosene prices, right, that that they use for jet fuel. A lot of people run jet fuel like it’s like diesel, right? So, I mean, you know, it’s that’s just kind of a trickle effect of of this, you know, mess that’s going on over, you know, in the Middle East is just, you know, it’s kind of it’s not just, you know, the the oil prices, the gas gas pump for us, but it’s also increasing, you know, internationally and that’s going to hurt international markets potentially and um and then obviously increase prices and inflation here locally for us, you know, for the rest of the good. A lot of folks, you know, we are don’t probably appreciate all the gases, you know, do you know what you’re paying for gas these days? It’s like 419. I think I saw fill up today. So, actually, me too. Is that higher than usual? Yes, sir. Woo. Maybe. You know, in fact, I go, you know, I go to Costco to buy wine a lot. You know, thank goodness Mr. Wonderful Shark Tide turned me on to that because they got some really good stuff. Um, but you they also sell gas. The lines for gas at Costco. You can’t get into Costco. I mean, people park right in the middle of the road. They don’t want to lose their place in line. So, you know, so as painful as is here, a lot of people don’t appreciate that the United States as as the largest producer of oil in the world, which a lot of people don’t appreciate, you know, since uh fracking came to town, um that we’ve been relatively insulated. The other thing is that there’s been a lot of oil floating, right? the cankers that left the Persian Gulf and were in transit before the hostilities really got, you know, heated um with Iran and that stuff is got across the ocean, got in the market to the refineries, but that pipeline is shut off. Those tankers ain’t rolling anymore, you know. So, so, so the price of of of gasoline and other petroleum products around the world has gone up a lot faster. Inflation is really going crazy. And to the extent that we buy goods from overseas, do you? I do. There’s a lot, you know, a lot of consumption almost everything from Amazon, you know, still comes from China or other countries, you know, the the production cost of that stuff, which is still months down the the road before it goes through manufacturing and shipping and retail and so forth, but is going to go through the roof. Sure. And then the other thing is that let’s all just because we produce oil in the United States, you know, if you had the oil well and you’re going to sell it cheap because you’re a good American, you’re going to get the highest price you can get. That’s being a good American, right? So, so, so, so, so eventually, you know, that, you know, the discounting that we’re enjoying is is going to go away. So, things are changing a lot. I hope it’s not going to be like the stagflationary 70s that many folks in my generation remember painfully, you know, where the uh um the economy was stalled in a recession. Prices kept going up. People would get money and spend it as fast as they can before prices went higher. It was a real real nightmare time. Not good for the market either. Hopefully that’s not what’s coming, but there is certainly some some sea changes in the global economy that are going to affect uh a lot of things in a lot of ways. And you know the risk to the market and I think we’ll probably tail it off here unless you guys have any final comments. The risk to the market is remember this is all coming on top of a market that is hyper extended valuewise. Now, we’re at the highest valuations in recorded history except for the.com bust of 2000 to 2003 when tech stops dropped like 80% you know was it Cisco I think just broke even last week since 2002 something like that you know is that 20 23 years 24 years the u um so it you know on top of a high it may not take much to drive this market uh down in a big And you know I personally am comforted by you know one of the big differences uh with with winning with Kamarda is that we have downside protective strategies uh for those that want to use them that we think have been working really well lately actually you know when they when we flash red early on uh when the you know in the Iran war and we got out and then we got back in and we’re narrowing a lick but we had that that net underneath the portfolios that I think a lot of clients are comforted with. All right, so let’s give Lou and Anna the last word. Any uh anything that you’d like to wrap up with? Yeah, I mean just just know that, you know, we are watching what’s going on in the world. If you have concerns as our clients, reach out. But we are watching and we are we are evaluating and making changes as we see fit to again protect downside protect and and again position the portfolios, you know, the best that we can. Well said. I mean, we’re in the middle of our quarterly review cycle right now with clients. So, you know, we’re reaching out actively to you guys if we haven’t already spoken with you. We we’ll be touching base probably in the next, you know, this week, next week. And, uh, you know, we’ll be discussing more of this in in more detail with you. And obviously, if you have questions, uh, come ready, come prepared with with those questions. We’re happy to, uh, answer them and have those conversations with you to hopefully, uh, you know, alleviate some of the concerns. Yeah. And also, Lou and Anna are really building out the the the personal wealth advisory team. Uh there’s a couple of young folks now. Many of you probably talked to Nick, another bright young fellow by the name of Balan is joining us. So you’ll be hearing a lot from them to do some of you know to help amplify uh the the quality and and and level advice that that Lou and Corey and and Ann are able to deliver you. And one last thing, we have a new thing called Camarda’s Minute Money. And what is minute money? You know, we’ve been doing a lot of short videos, 30 seconds, 45 seconds like that on YouTube and Instagram, I think, and Facebook. God knows where you probably know more about where they’re going than I do. Uh, but we’re like up to 100,000 views. And the reason I tell you is because there’s a lot of really solid information, Minute Money in less than a minute or minute wealth, uh, to that we’d like to share with you guys. So, we’re going to be getting an email out to show you how to hook up on Facebook or Instagram, whatever your preferred social medium is. And then Anna and Lou and Nick and Milan and Corey will be reminding you about this and trying to show you where the link is so you can follow if you want. You’ll get one a day, watch it or not, fair. And also, if you like it, we encourage you to share it to get it out to your friends and so forth who may benefit. You know, whether or not they ever talk to us, that’s fine. But I think they’d find the information valuable. All right. All right. So that you know we certainly have gone on far longer than we should have. Hopefully uh almost 20 minutes that you have enjoyed this uh and we look forward to another episode next week. Thanks so much for watching for now. Dr. Jeff along with us super CFPs Anna and Lou. Thanks so much for watching. Bye-bye.