78 Finance Monthly Global Awards 2024. USA have experienced being a customer of a salesperson or representative who throws around their industry jargon we don’t know or understand. So, we often leave either confused or dissatisfied. To paraphrase Albert Einstein, genius is making the complicated simple. I strive each time I’m with a client to be mindful of the words I use. Next, I make it easy for clients to want to work with us. We spend a lot of money on branch office support so we can handle administrative duties quickly and easily. Our attitude is we will either do it for you or with you. If there is an issue, question, or challenge, then one call to our office is all they need for us to take care of it. If whatever they need can’t be handled during that call, we will follow up with regular updates until it is completed. Clients should never have to follow up with us. This ties into the third part of my philosophy: communicate regularly with our clients. For most clients, 90-day outgoing calls to them is just the right timeframe. It allows them to ask questions that they might otherwise not think to call us about. And, importantly, it lets them know that we are there for them. We’re there to answer questions and concerns, as well as reassure them they are on the right track. About half of my current clients have previously worked with financial advisors. I’ve found that they’ve left them and come to work with me because the past advisors failed to do one, or more, of these three points of my philosophy. How do you keep up with the constantly changing financial landscape to provide the most up-to-date advice to your clients? I’m a curious person by nature, so I enjoy reading and educating myself on the financial trends and changes in our industry. I do this by regularly communicating with product wholesalers, who educate us on how and where their products fit in certain situations, and I attend training sessions, conferences, and conventions, as well as meet with individual company representatives. I also constantly ask follow-up questions that I know are important to my clients so that I am prepared with the right answers to deliver on their needs. How does Lashner Financial Group simplify the process of planning for retirement? Retirement means different things to different people, so there is no “one-size-fits-all” solution. One client wants to do the expensive bucket list items they’ve put off doing; another wants a simple life spending time with, and doing things for, their children and grandchildren; while a third sees retirement as the opportunity to start a new career or business. I talk with them about their individual visions of retirement so we can make the best specific recommendations. Yet, no matter their vision, I’ve learned that to have a financially stress-free retirement, all clients need to have three simple things in place. First, they should be debt-free by retirement. We develop a plan to help get them there. It is important to go into retirement with low mandatory payments. High mortgage and car payments, and credit card debt can create misery in retirement. Eliminating debt allows people to approach retirement with a greater degree of confidence and security. Next, we develop a plan to ensure that the client has enough monthly income to pay their regular and fixed bills. We look at sources and options such as Social Security claiming strategies, pensions, rental income, and any other investment income they might have. The third thing we look at is how much they need to save and invest outside of the income-producing assets they might live on for monthly expenses. Taking these three items into consideration allows us to help guide our clients to achieve their personal vision of retirement. In this era of technology, such as AI, how has Lashner Financial Group incorporated digital advancements into your services? Of course, we work with many companies that integrate the latest technology into their systems. And it is important that clients have access to the tech improvements and advantages being made in the digital world. However, I have found that as important as high tech is, high touch is even more so. “My passion is not only for numbers but also for helping people achieve their financial goals.”
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