How Is Technology Redefining Retirement Planning?

Unpack the toolbox of technology that's promising to redefine retirement planning, but does it deliver? This episode takes a critical look at the wave of innovations, from personal finance management software to online calculators, and questions whether they truly simplify the planning process or introduce new complexities

 

Important Links: Website: http://www.yourplanningpros.com

Call: 844-707-7381

 

Transcript: 

 

Marc Killian  00:01

Let's unpack the tool box of technology that's promising to redefine retirement planning. But does it actually deliver? So on this episode of playing with the tax man will take a critical look at the wave of innovations, from personal finance management software, to online calculators and more. Stick around for this episode playing with a text.

 

00:22

Look up in the sky. It's a bird.

 

Announcer 2  00:24

It's a plane. No, it's the tax man. He may not be a superhero. But Tony Morrow has saved many retirement plans with his extreme knowledge of tax planning strategies. It's time for a plan with the tax man.

 

Marc Killian  00:38

Hey, gang, what's going on this week here, Tony Morrow and I back once again to talk investing finance and retirement. And Tony is going to help us talk about you know, technology, is it and how is it redefining retirement planning? What are some pros and cons of various different things we'll run through and how does he feel about it as a seasoned professional, a CPA, a CFP and an EA of 30 plus years? What does he think of all this tech and the things that he's seen through his many years of helping folks to and through retirement? So that's on the docket? We're gonna get into it with Tony this week. What's going on? Brother? How are you?

 

Tony Mauro  01:10

I'm fantastic. Looking forward to talking tech. I love tech.

 

Marc Killian  01:14

Yeah. Big tech guy.

 

Tony Mauro  01:16

I'm a big tech guy. Okay, sometimes to my own detriment.

 

Marc Killian  01:19

Aren't we all?

 

Tony Mauro  01:20

Yeah,

 

Marc Killian  01:21

that is certainly the case. Well, you know, like I said, You've been doing this a long time, Tony. So you've certainly we've seen this tech boom. And I'm not trying to make you sound old, by the way. Because I know you're not, but you just been doing this a long time. And there's been a obviously a huge boom, in various different things in the last 20 years, from a tech standpoint. So it should be an interesting conversation to have, because many of your clients and the folks that check out our podcasts and things, they are 50 over, I'm 52, right, we're starting to get older, and I'm pretty tech savvy as well. But you know, you have friends that are the same age or maybe a few years older, and you can see that some people just aren't as up with it or something, you're think you're tech savvy, then something even newer comes out. And you're like, Man, I'm I'm so tired of this stuff. I don't want to learn one more new thing, right? So it can be daunting. So let's, let's talk about a few here. Let's start with the simple big elephant, 800 pound, gorilla, whatever you want to call it. In the room, which is Google, everybody, Google something at some point, and it has certainly altered how we look up information, what's your take on it from the financial standpoint, or

 

Tony Mauro  02:27

from the financial standpoint, I think it can be good, you know, and I'll try to do goods and Bad's of of each of these that we hit. But you know, obviously, the ease of it is you can get a lot of financial questions possibly answered. Very quickly, you have many, many choices. Many people obviously, don't scroll down very far. They take about the first two or three and take that as gospel. And I think that's where sometimes it could get you into trouble a little bit on the financial side is is what you're reading from somebody what I would consider authoritative. In other words, somebody that you know, really knows what they're talking about? Or is this just some guy or

 

Marc Killian  03:08

gal and it's hard to tell the paid ads? Yes, from the resources, right, because they've gotten so good. And allow now a lot of times, they better will say sponsored or something, you might notice that in the fine print or whatever. But just be careful. Again, I think it's a great way of looking at it to get some general information rolling Google's fantastic. I think at this point, it's obviously changed our world entirely. You know, there's certain things that the cell phone the smartphone, obviously changed us, I think, as a species and as as a society on all the things that change that way. But then there's certain things with inside that and Google being one of those. That is I don't know that anybody doesn't use it on a regular somewhat regular basis. So just grain of salt, right? Don't you know, don't go too far or don't believe everything you see that your Google right away. That's

 

Tony Mauro  03:56

true. I started using and really have been into and it's very, very new, you know, is the AI the artificial intelligence and chat GPT especially for accountants, sure. And financial planners, where it's actually spooky to ask it things and it gives you answers that you have to read them. But it isn't like Google, you don't have to search it gives you answers. And I don't like to say it's just scary. Interesting.

 

Marc Killian  04:25

Yeah, very true. Yeah. Well in that regard, in that regard, then let's go to the next one, which is robo advisors, which kind of is using AI and predictive elements. So as an advisor yourself what's what's your take on the Robo?

 

Tony Mauro  04:38

Well, Robo since they're, you know, competitors, I gotta say, I don't like him. No, I think that they have a use. I've looked at them and you know, they do a pretty good job or a simple things, especially now I'm sure it'll it's gonna get better as time goes on and whatnot. And, you know, I don't think they'll ever rip Replace the human advisor. I think that most of the facts are good. But I think what the robo advisors aren't showing me yet is, you know, is this in tune with, you know, the most tax effective strategy? You know, how often can a person change a plan? It doesn't seem like there's a lot of flexibility, but they do have some appeals probably, especially to the younger people who are very used to just wanting all that they don't want human interaction, they just want to deal with somebody, you know, something quick.

 

Marc Killian  05:28

Yeah, quick and easy. And I'm with you, I think there's certain industries where I can see where people say, hey, if it's the computer, the computer is not going to try to take advantage of me, but it also is not going to be able to understand you, or, you know, relate with you as a human to a human. So there's, it's a double edged sword, right, dealing with humans does have its pros and cons. But it you know, when you find the right one, I think we all can probably agree that there's there's relationships where it's truly more beneficial, because you are working with another person. So

 

Tony Mauro  05:58

I think so. I mean, I think it's an emotional factor with human beings, at least with our clients. You can relate. Yeah, an emotional thing. Yeah,

 

Marc Killian  06:05

you know, what I'm going through, you've been there to your you know, your fellow breathing human. online calculators, Tony, super popular, you can online calculate just about anything and mortgage retirement accounts, all sorts of stuff. I don't know, kind of a useful tool, but do you want to take them to, you know, to super hard or what, I don't know, what do you think, you know, I

 

Tony Mauro  06:25

have a lot of them on our website. And I do like them for a quick hitters, you know, that people can go out now and calculate all kinds of things, whether it's a future value, like you're saying mortgage, amortization schedule, even some tougher things, you know, I mean, if you go out to like, calculator.net, they have got just a ton of free and I'm talking stuff, it can calculate your, you know, your body mass index, they got everything. And it is cool to play with, I think it's good for quick hitters, especially for talking in the financial area. And then I think you need to try to incorporate that with your advisor, and help implement it into your plan. But at least it gives you an idea of some things that were very difficult to calculate, you know, in previous years. And so I use them a lot, but I use them in the context of our overall financial plan. But it is nice to add it to show closure.

 

Marc Killian  07:18

Yeah, yeah. And again, something like that kind of thing can be a very useful tool to start kind of getting yourself quickly dialed in or walking into your advisor and saying, okay, hey, I did some quick online calculators with this, this and this. You know, here's what I'm seeing, you know, how do we break this down? What are you seeing? What do you think? And that way, when you're stress testing, various scenarios, you guys can kind of be on the same page. So great use, yeah. What do you think about platforms like Scottrade, or trade or any of that stuff that's out there. You know, it's certainly very appealing to the do it yourselfer, as well, and, you know, fidelity and so on and so forth. So, and clearly not going anywhere. What's your take on it as a as a CFP?

 

Tony Mauro  07:56

Well, I think some people look at him and say, Well, you know, these are, you know, there's I have no use for my advisor, you know, and whatnot, because I don't need you to trade what you really don't I mean, every product is available to you without an advisor. I think so the goods of them are they have all across the industry, even with us, it's brought costs to do things down. And I think that's good for the end user, the investor or the client. But I think though, that and they do, some of them offer a lot of information. Now, probably maybe information overload. But I think, you know, if you're going to use those kinds of things, you know, you just use those to execute trades. And you know, that kind of thing. I still think there you need a plan with an advisor or on your own. And, you know, work that plan. Those are just platforms to execute transactions in my in my opinion, we basically one of our financial planning packages is we do the plan. And if you don't want us to help you manage the assets on an ongoing basis, you paid us for the plan, but you can certainly go out and manage that part on your own not through a Scottrade e trade or something, and then just have check ins with us, you know, we're all fee based anyway. So it is it doesn't really matter where you hold the assets if you want them with us in advisory fee, you can but it's not necessary either. So I think they have their place even for working with guys like us.

 

Marc Killian  09:24

Yep, never very true. Right. And so there's so many things you can do there. And obviously, many clients want to build a plan. They want to build a strategy, Tony that's going to help them feel good sleep at night, have that peace of mind all those things, and have that good, strong financial plan together. But they still also want to dabble a little bit. They do kind of enjoy the you know, picking some stocks or doing some things and that's cool too. So having an account to do that is great. Just again, make sure you're working with your advisor on what those things are you're doing and make sure that it's speculative. Make sure it's something that you can sort of fund money if you will, and if you hate if you knock one out of the park, that's great, but if you Do something it's not going to derail the retirement. Right? Yep. Okay. Well, you know, podcasts, for example, can be added now to economic and business news. Certainly 24 hour news channels have been the thing for a long time. But think about that for a minute. Even just financial, economic and business news, Tony, 24 hours a day, multiple channels seven days a week. They have to and we know the nature of news anymore is they have to be creative. Right, where it's constantly they have to, they have to fill all this time with some sort of content. And that kind of gets sometimes a little sensate. Well, not a little they get a lot sensationalistic or whatever, because they just need to get eyeballs. So, you know, be careful. And it's certainly changed people's view on finance, right? Because think about it, you'll you'll turn on the news. And you'll say, you know, see the market, you know, suffered a, you know, a crashing day today. And it's down like 1%. Right. And it's like, really, is that really worth the crushing headline?

 

Tony Mauro  11:07

Yeah, I think this for us, as an advisor, at least for me, in my opinion, is kind of somewhat the bane of our existence. Because people do watch too much of it, I think. And it gets them all worked up. And if you let yourself get like that, the whole idea of all these things we're talking about is to try to make your life easier and simpler. And if you let yourself just believe all of everything you hear about verifying it, which I think that's where the adviser steps in and puts some, you know, some expectations and some truth to it, is you can let yourself go down weird rabbit holes. And then if you're actually following some of this advice, which I think these most of these people are journalists, they're there, like you said, to get eyeballs, they're not doing financial plans everyday, they may come off like they do. Yeah, but they really aren't. And so I always say take that with a grain of salt, double check, you know, what they're saying with your advisor? For sure.

 

Marc Killian  12:06

What do you think as a professional, what do you think about personal financial software like Quicken, for example,

 

Tony Mauro  12:11

I like Quicken, I really like personal financial software from the more from the accounting standpoint of knowing where you're at with your personal finances at every step of every month, just like everything else. And all the software it's gotten very, very good. It can pull bank feeds in it's not cumbersome. Like it used to be. But I think a lot of people get confused with it. Stop using it because they sometimes can't figure it out. And they just throw up their hands and say, I don't like it now Quicken again, I have a love hate relationship with their, their company, which is into it. I mean, into it's been around, I do like into it. But I think sometimes they try to make it again, all encompassing, kind of like the trading platforms where they're trying to steer you along your financial way. It basically by answering some yes, no questions. And I think there's a lot more to it than

 

Marc Killian  13:01

that. Even good software companies, the new business model of constantly updating or subscription based, that stuff can can certainly get annoying. Definitely. But yeah, it's it can be a love hate thing. But I think overall, it can be a useful tool.

 

Tony Mauro  13:16

I think it'd be a very useful tool. Absolutely. I would recommend anybody using Quicken mints, whatever else they can find that they like, keep track of their personal monthly finances, ya

 

Marc Killian  13:26

know? And yeah,

 

Tony Mauro  13:27

I think, you know, the, the downsides are minimal. You know, the other thing I don't like is, we were talking about it on the last episode, because we didn't touch on this is, you know, the data mining that these companies do with us, they get us all in there. And they know everything about us. And they can, you know, mine our data and market us, but that's part of it. I think you're better off with personal finance software than without, okay. Well,

 

Marc Killian  13:50

and we'll finish with kind of staying in that sort of space. Right? So that's personal software, maybe you've downloaded or maybe it's you know, now nowadays, it's definitely just, you know, over over the web, mobile banking apps, right. I mean, just, you know, 10 years ago, seven years ago, you know, maybe half the people I knew felt confident or comfortable using the, the mobile banking app right from their phone. Now, it's virtually everybody. It's just, it's just faster and

 

Tony Mauro  14:13

easier, faster and easier. And you can really pretty much do everything on the mobile app, now that you could inside a bank, you can even now take pictures of cheque you get and mobile deposits. It's up to a certain amount, I think, at least with my bank, but you really don't need to visit the bank, but the bank is still there. And you've got that mobile app, check. Check balances paid bills, right from your phone, again, with the idea of trying to make your life easier this this whole thing is if you use all this tech properly, you can really simplify your life but you can also go down and it just you feel overwhelmed. So I think you need to get with your advisor. We help clients with their tech. We're trying to make their life as easy as possible and they basically can run their life we always tell them we want you to run your life from your phone. And no matter what age you are, you want to be confident to do it. We want to help

 

Marc Killian  15:04

them do that. Yeah, for sure. And finally, Tony, if you're talking about digital space and doing some of these things, what do you think about the digital estate planning services, you know, online wills trust or Legal Zoom? Like, I don't know, you know, I kept feeling back and forth with some of this stuff. It's this kind of world where it's quick and easy. And maybe if it's really basic, maybe that's okay. But, you know, it's still worthwhile to see a professional, if you need something a little more complicated.

 

Tony Mauro  15:30

I definitely agree with that. 100%, I try to steer people away from that, let's say just need something very, very basic. The attorney is, in my mind, I know they get a bad rap, we always, always make fun of them. But I think that they are essential in you know, wills, trusts, things like that by cells, whatever, to make sure all your bases are covered. Now, I just had my own will updated, you know, and I went to my attorney, you know, and they're talking to me, just like I talked to clients about stuff that I, you know, kind of brushed over and I don't know, if I would have got it online, maybe I would have maybe I wouldn't have but you know, my financial power of attorney, my advanced directives, you know, my medical power of attorney, all that stuff, that I you know, unless you're answering the boxes in the questions, right, and online, you may not have that, and you may not even know it. So again, having a real life, bro, it's a human, I think is better off in that area. 100%

 

Marc Killian  16:32

Yeah, yeah. And again, there's so many facets to this stuff nowadays, it's certainly changing everything in the world. So you know, just kind of wrapping it up. It's, it's just something to be cognizant of, it's, we have to think about, think about COVID. And people having to go to zoom for so many things, and especially even seeing their financial professional or whatever. And we had to do things online. And in the first couple of months, talking with advisors, people, you know, clients were very leery to have to use the portal and then be sharing and talking online, right on Zoom, if you will. And then as time went by now, people actually prefer it, because now they're like, I it's time for my annual review. I don't need to come into the office, right, we can just do this over zoom, you know. So we

 

Tony Mauro  17:12

do it really literally today is our day in and this is mostly seniors, and this deals with tax clients. But we have a day where the seniors who just can't get on the portal because we normally have our tax clients e sign, you know, they look at their tax return and there's a page they sign it's it's legal for us at the IRS says that that serves as their signature, but some just can't, can't do it. And so we have a day where they come in and they make an appointment, and they come in just to sign which again, I think is a waste of time, but their time that is right, right. But it's not everybody's gonna be able to adapt to the technology. But I you know, we have many, many seniors that I It surprises me

 

Marc Killian  17:54

that they're okay with not driving, and they're like, yeah, we'll just do it online.

 

Tony Mauro  17:58

They do it online. Yeah. I mean, they more and more of them, you know, are adapting to this, which tells me that they haven't thrown up their hands yet and says, I don't want to learn anything, because the world's forcing them to do it came true,

 

Marc Killian  18:10

very true. My mom's 82 And she's pretty good with a lot of stuff, a lot of digital and online stuff. So which I didn't see coming, you know, so kudos to, to her. But you know, I think yeah, sometimes though, you know, some people just like, hey, I still want to, I still want to look somebody in the eye and shake a hand. So, and there's nothing wrong with that, either. Oh,

 

Tony Mauro  18:31

nothing wrong with that.

 

Marc Killian  18:32

There you go. All right. Well, how was technology redefining retirement planning? It is there's no way around it. It's changing it a lot has been and of course, you know, we have to adapt or get left behind. But I think there's still a way to have a happy medium. And of course, if you need some help, you know, kind of finding that balance. I mean, a retirement plan is about balance. So also in the way you're using tech to work with your retirement plan. It could be about balance. Tony and his team are here to help you're planning proz.com That's your planning proz.com. He's got 30 plus years of experience helping folks get to and through retirement. As I said earlier, he's a CPA, a CFP and an EA. So a great resource for you to tap into. So give him a call. Get on the calendar, stop by whatever you need to do if you need some help. And don't forget to subscribe to us on Apple, Google, Spotify. Guess what YouTube now instead of just Google, they've merged everything over to there but either way, find us on whatever podcasting app you like by simply searching it out playing with the tax man or visiting in his website. You're planning proz.com Tony, my friend, have yourself a great week. Aren't you the same. We'll see on the next episode. We'll see you in April. Hopefully you won't be too too swamped with tax season, but we'll catch you next time here on plant with the Texas.

 

Announcer 1  19:47

Securities offered through a van tax investment services SM Member FINRA SIPC investment advisory services offered through a van tax advisory services insurance services offered through an event tax affiliated insurance Agency investment strategies discussed in this episode may not be suitable for all investors please consult with a financial professional