• TV Show
      IRA Blog
      Weekly Market Commentary
      Weekly Newsletter
      Medicare Blogs

      Featured

      Retire Smart Austin Logo
      Read More

      What's New

      pexels-tomas-anunziata-129267-412042
      Why Retirees Are Carrying More and More Debt
      Federal Reserve data shows sharp rise in amount Americans 65 and older owe Americans across generations...
      pexels-cottonbro-5585242
      3 Changes Coming To Retirement Required Minimum Distributions in 2025
      Saving and investing early, often, and continuously throughout your entire working career is absolutely...
  • Events
  • Form CRS
  • Contact

Retire Smart Austin | Episode 98

Cynthia de Fazio  00:28

And welcome to retire smart Austin. My name is Cynthia De Fazio and I’m joined today by Philip Donato Capriotti, senior of Empower Wealth LLC, Phillip, how are you today?

 

Philip Capriotti  00:39

I am extremely well, and yourself, Cynthia?

 

Cynthia de Fazio  00:41

I am doing fantastic. Thank you so much for asking. I’m always so excited about the shows because I know that you’re going to deliver such amazing information to our viewing audience at home, we have so we have so and I want to talk to you a little bit about the name change, because this is relatively new. So, let’s talk a little bit about that again, and power, wealth, LLC. Where’d that come from?

 

Philip Capriotti  01:04

Well, you know, it really was a brand. It was something I was thinking about for a long time. But when we decided to expand the company, a lot of folks calling they’re like, Well, you know, your baby boomer like me, when are you going to retire? Will you be my advisor? And my question is always the same. A good lord willing and the creek don’t rise so to, so to speak in Texas. Retirement is not something that you look for when you own the company, you may work less, you have specific clients that you work with a group of specific clients. But what it’s about, since we have no plans in selling the company or anything of that nature, is to actually build the educational system by hiring and recruiting a existing advisors that had been in the business somewhere around 5, 7, 8 years, I want the advisor not to have developed a lot of bad habits, I want them to be young enough to be able to grow this company with us over the next 2030 years to come. A lot of changes we’re going to see over the next 5, 10, 20 years. And also, to bring the educational platform of comprehensive retirement income planning, not just in and around the northwest part of Austin, but through San Antonio and actually up as far as a as clean so we’re hiring experienced advisors that really have had no formal training, okay, they’ve gotten their licenses, okay, they had the credentials, they’re licensed fiduciaries. But they’d been like ships without a rudder, nobody to really steer them or help guide them to understand real retirement income planning. It’s not done in the classroom; you can learn X amount in the classroom. But Cynthia, really, it’s done right in the office seeing hundreds 1000s of clients, everyone with a different income level everyone with a different retirement income plan, everyone with a different tax issue. So, these advisors love it. One of the reasons they’ve left their current firms is because they didn’t do the tax planning. They didn’t do the legal planning for their clients. And that’s what clients want. They want to come into a professional organization where they can have their taxes done, their Roth conversions done, their investments done, their Morningstar is done, their retirement income planning done. So, with that being said, we decided to go full speed ahead. And so, we had to change the name. So, since we’re empowering clients, we’re empowering advisors as well, to help empower client’s retirement. It’s fantastic. Over the next couple of years, we’ll have advisors literally in a profit will probably have advisors in every single community are close to every single community in and around the city of Boston within about a 60-to-75-mile radius.

 

Cynthia de Fazio  04:02

Okay, that is wonderful what the game plan is and definitely empowering. I love that. Yes. Fantastic. Well, Philip, obviously the show has been resonating so well with the viewers in the Austin area. We have some questions to get through today. And I’d love to just go ahead and tackle one. This is Kathy, actually from Horseshoe Bay. Kathy says, Philip, I have been very concerned with market volatility. I’ve been watching the news, and I just have a question about how this is going to affect my retirement income portfolio. Can you tell me how do you protect against it? Market volatility?

 

Philip Capriotti  04:36

All right. So that’s a great question, Kathy. So, this really is the is the heartbeat of retirement income planning. The very first thing we want to coordinate is we want to coordinate your mailbox money income. No matter what happens to the market, no matter what happens, God forbid, to the country, you can depend on x income That would be Social Security, pensions, annuities, certain type of anything that’s insured CDs even fall into that category. Although the problem that we see with CDs is they do not pay a rate of return. That is that works with inflation, it keeps pace with inflation. They simply don’t. So, I want to establish your goal retirement income based on guaranteed money, then we can talk about the red money, like we spoke about last week, market volatile money, okay. I think I told the story about a client card came in. And this individual had just retired after work and 40 years, retired at 66 years old thought he was home free, had 1.2 million in his IRA, and the advisor that he switched to happen to switch to an advisor. He moved his money from his 401 K to an advisor here locally. And it assumed after running the Morningstar report on the portfolio, this advisor either wasn’t really clear on what his role was, or what the client’s suitability was. But with this year’s market downturn, this client lost over just over 60% of their retirement portfolio. It was all in it was all in red money. You know, it was so with that being said, the advisor didn’t guarantee the income. They told him to file for Social Security early, the client was a high wage earner they did, in my professional opinion, everything wrong, okay, including the include including too much market volatility. So, what I would say Kathy is, number one, call our office be one of the first five callers come on in and tell them you watch the program, call 888-818-6557. Let’s start with running a comprehensive Morningstar report, Morningstar report will rate all of your investments to determine number one, how much safe money do you have in your portfolio? How much risk money you have in your portfolio? And what is your total risk number? So, we’ll compare that with a group of questions a questionnaire. So simple credit questionnaire, we want to determine how much appetite you have for risk, and then build your portfolio to guarantee your income. And make sure that your risk tolerance coordinates with what you’re willing to actually take on.

 

Cynthia de Fazio  07:25

Absolutely will feel excellent answer. Thank you so much. I know that you have a very special offer that we’re going to present to the viewers at home. Today, I’d like to spend a little bit of time talking about what that is, and then opening up the phone lines.

 

Philip Capriotti  07:39

We’re really going to do a lot for you. This week, we’re getting ready to go into tax season, we’re getting ready to near the end of another great year. But you have to be cognizant of Roth conversions folks. So, we have to have a Roth conversion must be done in order for it to count for this year has to be done before the deadline is December 31. We normally put our deadline on December 15. So, what I would recommend is you call our office, ask for a Morningstar report. But more importantly, or equally as important. Ask for a Tax Review and a Roth conversion review many of you folks who think that they shouldn’t have a Roth, when we actually deal out the retirement income cards, we find that they should have had a Roth, they should have been converting or contributing to a Roth over the last five years, and they’ve just been building up that government taxable retirement accounts. So, call our office be one of the first five callers come in for retirement income plan, Morningstar report. If you bring your tax return, we’ll take a look at what your appetite is for Roth conversions. See if we can take a look and see if there were any deductions that might have been nest in previous years.

 

Cynthia de Fazio  08:56

Phil, thank you so much to our viewers at home, the number to call is on your screen. That number is 888-818-6557. We know that you have a lot of questions for Philip and his team about how to plan your perfect retirement. He has five spots available this week only this is for a complimentary consultation. All you have to do is be one of those first five callers. If you have a smartphone, go ahead grab it, click on the QR code at the bottom corner of your screen. That will take you right to Philips landing page and you can schedule an appointment with him. Remember, we’re going to have to take a very short commercial break when we come back. I have a question about is it important to have a retirement income plan in writing? Or can I just think about what that is? Stay tuned. We’ll be right back.

 

Philip Capriotti  09:41

Hello, folks, this is Phil Capriotti, senior president and CEO of Donato wealth management and senior tax and insurance advisors. At our company we’re passionate about making sure our clients live stress free and retirement. When meeting with new clients. Their biggest fear is whether they’ll have enough reason versus to live in retirement without stress. When you’re in a retirement redzone, which is approximately five years or less to retirement, it’s essential that you have a written plan. Know exactly how that plan will work and make adjustments year to year along the way. Many consumers place loyalty in their current advisors over their retirement success. Remember, always work with a licensed fiduciary. Always get a second opinion for your complimentary review. Call us today, and we look forward to visiting with you at our office.

 

Cynthia de Fazio  10:35

And welcome back to retire smart Austin. My name is Cynthia De Fazio and I’m joined today by Philip Donato Capriotti senior of Empower Wealth LLC, Phillip a great show we’re having today. We talked about the name change, of course of the company, which I love. And now it’s in power at wealth LLC. And we got a viewer question, but we actually have time for another one. This is a great one. So, this is Joe and he is calling in actually from Cedar Park. He says Philip, I watch your show every week. And I truly love all of the information that you share. I would love to have a retirement plan in writing. However, friends of mine said that it’s not important to have it in writing. It’s just something that I can talk about with my spouse. Can you explain to me why it’s important to have a written retirement plan?

 

Philip Capriotti  11:20

Alright, so this is a mistake that’s commonly made. Okay. So, we’re talking around the golf course talking around the kitchen table, oh, I have over a million dollars in my IRA, you don’t need a written retirement plan, you have plenty of money to last you through retirement. Wow, that’s wrong. So, the reason you need especially if you have a seven digit or so or plus eight-digit retirement plan is it needs to be organized. And not only is it need, everything needs to be organized because you have a lot to lose. So, think about this, okay. Most folks spend more time planning their next vacation than they do planning their retirement income. Isn’t that interesting? It’s incredible. Interest. Most people take even more time planning their visits to see their family than they do planning their Social Security Strategy. Wow. Isn’t that incredible? Well, because around the kitchen table, most folks say, You know what Social Security is going bankrupt, just file early. You ever, yeah, gosh, you have a great portfolio, you’ll be fine. The fact that matter is during retirement, several different variables come into play, that really can harm the retirement plan, if it’s not put in writing. Number one, we’re not planning for inflation. Number two, we’re not planning for tax changes. And because it’s not talked about, it’s often overlooked. It’s not talked about by financial advisors. It’s also not talked about by your golf buddies and friends around the kitchen table, so to speak, family members, especially many times an individual is afraid to come into our office, even our office, believe it or not, with all of the complimentary and give back work that we do. They’re afraid because they feel they feel pressured, that they’re going to be forced to work with us. I don’t know where that comes from. But I’ve had people say, we were apprehensive about calling, because we thought that there would be you know, you don’t give anything for free. Well, you’re right, you don’t get anything for free. But you have to be able to give back to your community. If I have knowledge to give back. I want to be able to do it. It all works towards the common good, and it helps everyone. So, whoever you’re talking to bring them along with you. So, we can teach them the benefit of having a written retirement income plan. That is also tax efficient. The best retirement plan is a retirement plan that has been structured with three separate accounts in mind. Number one, you want your mailbox money, but you also want to make sure that you have tax free money set aside so we can take from different accounts. We’re going to get into that in the next segment. Yes, written retirement plan, call 888-818-6557. Come in for your complimentary, no obligation review. Okay, feel comfortable. We treat our clients and our viewers like our family, and we really enjoy helping folks.

 

Cynthia de Fazio  14:25

Well, Philip, I would love to ask you a little bit more about the types of liquid retirement accounts. I know we’re gonna take a commercial break in a few moments, but can we go through some of those quickly? I know we talked about a taxable account. Can you talk about some of that?

 

Philip Capriotti  14:37

Yeah. So, there are basically there are three types of liquid accounts. When we look at retirement income planning, when I have my money, the money that I’ve saved, and I’ve earned and the money that I’m that I’m looking to use and retirement. Number one is a tax deferred account. A tax deferred account is just as it’s indicated, just as it says I haven’t paid any taxes on it. So, I like to make it more specific. If you call it my government taxable retirement account, and put the word government in there, my government taxable retirement account that I have never paid taxes on. That’s one account. Now, unfortunately, there’s not been enough education through the years to help people understand these three different accounts. That is an account that was allowed to grow through the years decades without paying any taxes on it. So, when we take a distribution, whenever we have to take an RMD, or a distribution, it will be taxed at whatever rate the government tells us as a fair tax to pay. Okay? And they’re actually talking about means test taxing distributions, you know, because we want to make everybody a little more equal. And I understand that I really do I understand that. So maybe if you have an IRA with the 500,000, when you take a distribution, you may have to pay a flat tax of say, 25%. If you have an IRA of say, a million dollars, that you may have to take a flat tax on any distribution of say, 35%. You know, if you have an IRA of 1.5, and so forth, based on your means, we will adjust the taxes because you’ve been allowed to save for your retirement tax, D furred. Now remember the story, we were told in these tax deferred accounts, all right, was just like with Social Security, put the money in, and then when you retire, you’ll get a tax free, well, that changed, right? Well, put the money in, let’s say for retirement and when you retire, you will have earned income and you’ll be in a lower tax bracket. But the fear for all of us, each and every one of us, especially those paying attention is the national debt, and that debt over 31 trillion. Don’t be surprised if over the next coming years, you’ve seen means test taxing distributions in your IRA. So, another reason to call 888-818-6557. Let’s take a look to see if you have too much money in your government taxable tax deferred retirement account.

 

Cynthia de Fazio  17:13

These are all questions that people have in the viewing audience and obviously Phillip all they have to do is take advantage of calling in and being one of the first five callers to get on your appointment book.

 

Philip Capriotti  17:22

One of the nice things is we can sit at the conference room and spend an hour and a half together and talk about everything. Yeah, we can tackle a lot of objectives. So, if you just pick up the phone right now, dial 888-818-6557. We have three spots available for this show. Call set up a complimentary appointment. I still haven’t learned how to work QR codes. I’m kind of an old school. But Cynthia’s got that down for us. I think there’s a QR code you can snapshot as well. Right?

 

Cynthia de Fazio  17:57

That is to fill up and this is the perfect time for us to open up the phones. Would you agree? It certainly is okay. To the viewers at home. The number to call is on your screen. That number is 888-818-6557. We know that you have a lot of questions for film about how to plan your perfect retirement. He has the answers for you. All you have to do is be one of the first five callers today. And as Phillip mentioned, we do have the QR code in the bottom corner of your screen. If you have your smartphone handy, go ahead pick it up aimed right at the TV and I’ll take you right to the landing page for Philip. You can schedule a time to meet with him. We’re going to take a very short commercial break but don’t go anywhere. When we come back. I have a question actually that came in from Crystal in Austin. So crystal if you’re watching stay tuned. This question is for you.

 

Philip Capriotti  18:43

Hello, folks, my name is Philip Capriotti senior. I’m the president and CEO of de nada wealth management and senior tax and insurance advisors. For over a decade now we’ve been helping retirees formulate tax efficient retirement income plans. Many consumers and clients are extremely concerned with the ever-increasing federal debt and a potential for taxes to go up significantly. We have specific tools, the expertise and a staff to help you develop your own tax efficient retirement income plan. So, call today for your no obligation complimentary review. We’ll see you in the office.

 

Cynthia de Fazio  19:23

And welcome back to retire smart Austin. My name is Cynthia De Fazio and I’m joined today by Philip Donato Capriotti senior of Empower Wealth LLC, Phillip a wonderful show and I love the fact that we’re getting to get through some viewer questions today because I know that your viewers have been so anxious to hear your advice on what they’re thinking about.

 

Philip Capriotti  19:42

With all the current tax changes that went into effect and all these new bills that kind of got pushed through Congress. Most of our shows lately have gotten away from the viewer questions. And when our viewers interact with us through questions Asking questions. They’re normally questions that everybody’s thinking about. So, it’s been missing for the last couple of so months. So, we’re going to bring that back or our viewer say why don’t you take more questions? Why don’t you? I sent in questions, you know, several months ago still haven’t gotten it answered. So, folks, just an FYI, call in with your questions. Even if you are in a position to make an appointment, call up anyway, ask the question, and we’ll make sure that we get to it.

 

Cynthia de Fazio  20:29

Phil, thank you so much. I know crystal is waiting to see if you’re going to answer this question for her. This is Crystal from Austin. She says, Philip, I find myself waking up in the middle of the night concerned about taxes. I would like to know how you structure the perfect tax efficient retirement income plan. I’ve heard my friends talk about this. And I don’t understand what it is.

 

Philip Capriotti  20:51

Oh, that’s a great question crystal. So, the, in my professional opinion, the best written retirement income plan, that’s the most tax efficient, takes advantage, it takes advantage of all sources of income. Okay, so the first thing is we really want to coordinate your Social Security Strategy, especially if you are a high wage earner, because Social Security is tax favored. Right now, with the current law, only up to 85% of your Social Security can be considered taxable. If we structure your retirement income to where you’re maximizing Social Security, we have folks collecting $47, 48 51,000 A year from Social Security on one individual because they delayed and waited till 70. During that time, they’ve done multiple Roth conversions, they build up that third account, that tax free account, we can literally put together a plan where we maximize Social Security, eliminate or minimize the taxes, how much we have to pay in taxes on that Social Security income, and literally bring it down to zero or 10%. So the in my, in my opinion, coming in and doing the heavy lifting, and looking at the three different accounts tax deferred, I don’t want too much, and I want 90% of my money. And that if I have that, and I’ve worked and I and I am concerned with taxes, it’s time to start doing Roth conversions, taxable income, that’s the second account with a taxable portfolio, whether it’s in a CD or whether it’s in the market, you’re only paying taxes on the gains that that portfolio earns yearly. How do you know, if you have a taxable portfolio, at the end of the year, your company or your administrator will send you a 1099 that Tennant 99 will show how much your portfolio earned in income and now you have to declare only the earnings as taxable, not the full distribution. So yeah, with that being said, we can take a look at near the end of the year. And we can look at okay, this portfolio, we had certain stocks that did well, certain stocks that didn’t do well. And we can coordinate, and we can do some mining, some tax mining of taking distributions from certain areas where we have, we may have taken a loss. So, we may take income from there, we may take a lot, we may have taken a loss, we will take income and offset the loss with some of these stocks that have gains. So, this is another way to coordinate a tax efficient retirement income plan. The next thing for those of you who are watching, if you do not have a Roth 401 K, or your company does not offer it and most of them now do for it, you need to inquire you need to start saving in a Roth 401 K and IRA, this is the third account. Normally, we’re taking money from Social Security. We may a client may have pensions, you know, retired teachers, state, federal government employee may have pensions, and then we want to take distributions and we want to look at it each year. What do I want to take at each account to make sure that I don’t cause excessive taxation on my social security. That’s your tax efficient retirement income plan. If the debt continues to grow, you- your loss of sleep might not be so unfounded, because the fact of the matter is they will have to raise taxes in order to in order to satisfy even just the interest on the debt. So hopefully, that doesn’t happen. But always have three separate accounts, tax deferred, taxable tax free.

 

Cynthia de Fazio  24:42

It’s incredible when you think about it, though, because obviously the questions all surround one thing people are stressing out about taxes, they’re not sure what that’s going to look like in the future. And they want to make sure that that nest egg that they’ve worked so hard to save is going to be protected. So, basically, By coming in by talking to you explain the situation that they’re facing, you’re able to help guide them in the right direction.

 

Philip Capriotti  25:06

Yeah, we are. And most, you know, we’ve been programmed throughout the years because I mean, the Mayans and the powers that be always said, Well, don’t worry about taxes in retirement, you will no longer have earned income, your tax rate will be at the lowest. It’s simply not true because it was never guaranteed. We don’t know what the debts going to be. And when and if we have the majority of our money saved up in retirement accounts that are tax deferred, look out below because chances are remember, there are two types of individuals right there: taxpayers and tax recipients. Will tax recipients don’t necessarily have to be concerned with taxes going up. Yes, inflation? Absolutely. We absolutely have to be concerned with taxes going up, have a tax efficient retirement income plan, call our office schedule an appointment, let us steer you into the path of tax-free retirement income, tax free retirement income planning and retirement, the best thing you’ll ever do for you and your family, in my professional opinion,

 

Cynthia de Fazio  26:11

absolutely will fill up we only have about a minute and a half left of the show this week. And I know that you’re going to talk a little bit more in detail about that special offer. So, let’s go ahead and do that before we open up the phone lines and say goodbye, folks.

 

Philip Capriotti  26:21

Couple things call 888-818-6557. We have two final spots left. Asked for your complimentary and I’d say complimentary retirement income plan. Ask for your portfolio Morningstar report review. And equally as important asked for a tax plan. You can come in with your prior year tax return, we’ll take a look at it. See if you missed any deductions and help you create a tax free or tax efficient retirement income plan.

 

Cynthia de Fazio  26:56

And it’s always good to get a second opinion right Philip, just in case?

 

Philip Capriotti  26:58

No ifs, ands or buts about it. It’s common sense.

 

Cynthia de Fazio  27:02

All right. Well, Philip, I can’t believe we’re almost to the end of another amazing episode this week. Thank you so much for all the information that you provide to the viewers in Austin.

 

Philip Capriotti  27:10

Thank you very much. I really appreciate you coming back and host the new show. It’s never the same without you, Cynthia.

 

Cynthia de Fazio  27:16

Oh, thank you, Philip. It’s an honor and pleasure to be here with you.

 

Philip Capriotti  27:19

And funny thing really quick. We’ve had a lot of viewers like: Where’s Cynthia, where’s Cythia? We’ve been watching Cynthia all these years. We like the person you have now, but where’s Cynthia? So, she’s back to you.

 

Cynthia de Fazio  27:29

Thank you so much. To our viewers at home. The number to call is on your screen. That number is 888-818-6557 We know that you have a lot of questions for Philip about how to plan your perfect retirement. He has the answers for you if you have your smartphone Go ahead, grab that click on the QR code in the bottom corner of your screen. Be safe, be happy and be blessed. We’ll see you back next week on retired smart Austin.

Share:

View the Latest Episodes: