Are you providing basic planning for your clients? What about your own planning? Joining Eric Green is Dr. Richard ‘Rick’ Wells, retired Marine Lt. Colonel and Financial Advisor, to cover the basic planning needs everyone needs to consider, including for yourselves. It’s time to stop being the ‘cobblers kids without shoes’ and get your own estate and tax planning in order to maximize your bottom line and bring real advisory level advice to your clients and justify the higher fees you should all be charging! Our advice is to sit in on this conversation and begin to see things you either have forgotten in your over-caffeinated, hectic lives, or maybe even never heard before!

Have questions? Contact Rick at rwells@baystatefinancial.com. Join us August 28th for the free webinar here: https://taxrepllc.com/20250828-planning/

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Listen to the podcast here

 

Tax And Financial Planning Every Tax Pro (Should) Know! With Dr. Richard Wells

Welcome again to Tax Rep Network. I am joined by Dr. Rick Wells. For those of you who follow me and know that both Tony Carter and I have The Success Tax Podcast, Rick has been an ongoing guest. Rick, we were talking there about a game plan, the breakdown of how you set yourself up and deal with making the climb up the mountain, whether that’s career, financial, or whatever. You’re doing a lot of interesting work as a financial advisor. You’ve got a very interesting background. I thank you for taking the time to do this, by the way.

This is great. It’s my pleasure. Working with you and Tony has been a joy. I’ve appreciated getting to know you even more and more through our relationship. I appreciate this.

From Marines To Millions: A Unique Journey To Financial Advising

Thank you. As I mentioned, Rick has an interesting background, starting in the Marines. Rick, I’ll let you, if you don’t mind, in 30 seconds or a minute, give everyone your path to arriving where you are now.

It’s been a constant calling. It’s been a calling to serve the country in the Marine Corps, which was life-changing. Once that life was changed, it was another calling to get into the public school system and be an educator for a few decades. Those two skill sets developed in those lines of work have been pretty amazing. The leadership training in the Marine Corps and education and planning in the school system, those two skill sets combined, and what I’m doing in the financial services, have been perfect. It’s another way to serve, particularly families with children, making sure they’re all set up. It’s been a wonderful journey.

When we first met, I was like, “That’s interesting.” From Marines to education to financial advisor, having gotten to know you, it does seem like they are tied together. The transition wasn’t as radical as it first struck me. Along that line, for everyone, I know we’re going to touch on the topic about the planning that accountants and tax pros should be thinking about, both for themselves and their clients. We’re going to be doing a webinar on this as well, on August 28th. It’s free. If you can join us, please do. Even if you can’t join that day, I’ll remind you. If you register, you’ll at least get the link later. You can watch it at your leisure.

 

 

It’s interesting, Rick, because I was thinking about this after talking to some of the tax rep team. They said, “It’s interesting you’re going into this topic.” I don’t think it is at all. I think it dovetails well with what we’ve been talking about. We’ve been banging this drum about automating your practice, elevating yourself, and becoming the advisor that your clients need.

I’ve had Dawn Brolin on. I’ve had Nayo Carter-Gray. I’ve had a bunch of folks talk about this. What we’re going to cover is right in line with that. We talk about the idea of doing an S Corp and saving money. There are a lot of folks who either don’t think about it or don’t want to think about it. They’re the basics of planning, but there are also some really interesting tax plays, which we can get into. On average, how many people have disability insurance?

Long-term care insurance, permanent insurance, as opposed to term. You bring up great points, Eric. It lends itself to what you alluded to about the background. It is the background in education. The essence of education is betterment, so helping your clients to get better. The importance, especially my background in the Marine Corps, with planning and organizing, which happens to be proper anticipation and proper sequencing. How do you get to the meat of that? You’re having relevant conversations with your clients. You’re having these discovery sessions that bring out a true need or a true strategy, a true branch plan that puts them on a path, whereas they have a feeling of confidence that they’re going to be taken care of.

The Unplanned Life: Why A Financial And Estate Plan Is Your Peace Of Mind

For everyone, both for yourself and your clients, I’ll use myself as an example. I had this. I was talking to a client who was retiring. We were talking about their estate planning and whatever. I don’t know how it came up, but I came up and said, “I’m going to retire. I need X number of dollars.” They said, “How did you come up with that?” I’m like, “I don’t know. I figured rough math.”

They’re like, “How do you know how to get there if you don’t know where you’re going? Why don’t you sit and do a financial plan?” Ten years later, I’m in the same spot, meaning no plan. When Jeff and I opened the firm and all of that, once again, it came up. My wife said, “Do we have any sense of what we should be doing where we’re going?” I knew enough. I had insurance. I did have a permanent policy that I could overfund. We’re still one of the great tax loopholes, which we’ll get into. If you’re wondering what we’re talking about, we’ll get to that.

We like to call them incentives.

It’s more of one of the last benefits available. The point is, I sat down and made a plan. It’s very helpful, and it’s calming. “This is what I have to do.” It would be the same thing. You don’t have to drag the military into this, but I’ve seen the interviews with some of these former Delta Force guys. It’s public knowledge. They end their training or their qualification with this 40-mile rock. What makes it stressful is you’re out, I guess you’re thinking in West Virginia, the mountains. They give you a map to a location and say, “Go.” They’ll say, “How long do I have?” Whatever it is. “Do the best you can. Bye.”

The essence of education is betterment. Share on X

They said the problem, one of the stressors, is that you don’t know where you’re going. You got a hand-drawn map, but you’ve got to find your way there. There, someone else will give you another map. “How am I doing in time?” “Do the best you can.” The unknown does ratchet up the stress of the whole thing. “Am I making a good pace or a bad pace?” You have no idea. You’re just doing this. That is not how we want to go through life, so life insurance.

Most people will say, “I’m married now, I have a kid. I’ll go get a term.” There are some real benefits to permanent insurance. First of all, it’s permanent. I’m giving everyone an example. I have a client who got some term insurance. By the time twenty years was going to run, the kids were still not going to be done with college. I found out that he is not insurable. He has a condition, not insurable. The idea is, “I’ll buy it later.” You might not be able to. What he had was convertible. It’s not the greatest, but at this point, it’s all he has. One is that the idea of kicking the can down the road may not work, but there are some real benefits to permanent insurance.

A lot of it comes down to goals and how you would like to express yourself. Going back to what we talked about in the GAME PLAN, it has to do with designing a complete lifestyle and using someone like you and me as a Sherpa. Most people are comfortable with climbing up the mountain, meaning accumulating assets, but it becomes a different thing when those assets need to be converted into income.

What does that mean? What does that look like? Having a conversation about what is important to you, what matters, and how you’d like to see that play out is the beginning of designing that lifestyle, that journey that you, your family, and your loved ones, not to mention being philanthropic and charitable in causes, that you are committed to. All of that comes into play in this planning. Again, planning has to do with proper anticipation. What is it that you want? That’s a very difficult question. It’s helpful when you have professionals who are trained to ask and trained to listen.

The Super Roth Secret: Unlocking Tax-Deferred Growth With Permanent Insurance

For the accountants and the tax pros, two things that we’re talking about. Number one, this is something you should be bringing up to your clients. By the way, if you’re like me and this isn’t meant to shame people because I was there, if you haven’t sat down and thought this through yourself with somebody who specializes in this, do so. Do it soon. Don’t wait. Two, there’s a business opportunity here. I can tell you right now that most major insurers or most major agencies will be thrilled to back you for your life because they’d love to have you on as one of their team. Your life insurance license, I think, is done by the state, although you can apply to the other states once you have one, but you can get paid. 

There are some disclosures, the ethics rules you have to follow, but you’re doing the right thing by the client by asking. Even if you don’t want to get paid, this is something you want as an advisor in elevating yourself. This is something you want to bring up with them. There’s a whole course, by the way. You can get information about the financial situation of every line of a tax return, which Rick and I will probably be doing before the year’s end. We’ll let everybody know when we’re going to hold that webinar, but you should be asking about this, and you should have a good handle on it.

I’m going to give you an example. When you make, I think more than $150,000, you can’t do a Roth anymore. You’re above the threshold, but you can still do a Roth. For your wealthier clients, your more successful clients, how do you create a Roth without doing a Roth? Permanent insurance, whole life. Universal variable has fallen out now, but there are permanent policies you can overfund. Think about what’s happening. 

 

 

Money is going in after taxes, just like a Roth. Because it’s part of an insurance contract, it’s going to grow tax-deferred. Unlike a mutual fund, the gains don’t get taxed every year, like a Roth. Later, when you have this overfunded policy, you can effectively take out loans for yourself. You pay yourself back the interest. There’s a small administrative fee, but otherwise, the interest goes back into your policy.

If you never cash it in or cancel the policy, you’ll never pay tax on that. When you die, it’s been reduced for the estate tax. That’s it. You can effectively create a super Roth by using permanent, generally whole life insurance. This is one of the things that you should be talking to your successful clients about. It is certainly one of the things Rick would address with you. If you’re sitting down looking at this, and you have somebody who is earning a lot of income who can’t do a Roth, we can kill two birds with one stone. It is insurance. We have liquidity. I might be able to say on paper I’m worth X, but that’s because I have entities.

Are they worth anything if I’m not around? How does my family get income out of that? As you said, income planning. It is the liquidity from insurance, but also the ability to grow that asset exponentially without the tax impact, in a tax-deferred way, and then maybe never pay tax on those gains at all. There’s a lot you can do with it. I mentioned disability before. How often do people have disability insurance when you meet them?

It’s something that needs to be discussed because most folks you find, if they haven’t had these conversations you’re mentioning, are either uninsured or underinsured. You’re bringing up a great point as far as a possible solution for people. In the Marine Corps, we call it task organization, having the proper people in place to have the communication that brings these things to light. As you brought up a strategy, it is having a solutions-oriented mindset in a principled way that aligns with their goals and with their values. All these conversations are great, and you’re asked to take the time to have them.

The Cost Of Neglect: Real-Life Horror Stories From Lack Of Planning

An experience, my best estate planning clients were always people who had had a terrible experience with family dealing with probate. They come in, and they’re like, “I don’t want my kids going through that.” For instance, you don’t have to sell them on a will, a revocable trust, and a living will. They’ve been through this. They’ve seen it when it’s bad. The moment I had a client who came in with that horror story, I was married, and we did our documents immediately. Most people are like, “I’ll wait until I have kids,” or whatever. Even worse, “I’ll do a simple will online, and my kids will figure it out.”

First of all, bad idea. They don’t figure it out. You have to get spouses involved, and now there’s going to be a battle. Mom was always like, “The fight over the red wagon you had when you were six suddenly now emerges over the house, with the trust, or whatever.” I had a client who got disabled, ran out of money, and ended up going to a long-term care facility I won’t name here in Connecticut. I came home and told my family, “If I ever end up there, shoot me.” I don’t want to go. It’s very institutional and prison-like in feeling. 

You mentioned long-term care disability. How long can you live without your income? I can tell you right now. I got my own policy, but when I put disability in here, Jeff and I made sure it was a portable policy because we got way more here than we could have on our own. These are lawyers. We had members of our firm say, “Why do we have to do this? Is this a thing?” I’m like, “It will be if you get disabled because I know we love you, but we aren’t going to keep paying you if you’re not working.” You might want to think about that. I think you have a twenty times greater chance of being disabled than dying in an accident. Most people have some term life insurance. They don’t have disability. If you’re reading this, you need disability. It is long-term care planning.

Through proper questioning and having a sherpa along the journey, those possibilities come up. And you address them through proper planning and lifestyle design. Share on X

As you mentioned, most folks have experience, or some folks do with loved ones who are going through a long-term care experience. Again, through some proper questioning, having a Sherpa along the journey, and asking you questions about life, those possibilities come up. You address them through proper planning and lifestyle design, in my mind.

For those people reading, if you’re thinking, “Long-term care, what if I don’t use it?” Rick, I’ll defer to you. There are some products out there almost tied to life. You could use it for long-term care. If you don’t use the long-term care, you have more in the life insurance. I remember hearing about it. It’s been years now. The point is, this is why you want to talk to Rick. You want your Sherpa on the financial side who can give you what the options are and what makes sense for you and your situation. 

It’s important to address all of this. Rick, that’s why I wanted you to come on for Tax Rep Network. We were like, “Is this a thing?” Yes, it is. We have Tax Rep members who ask me. I’m like, “You mean you don’t have disability?” They’ll say, “I have this client. He’s bringing this up.” Where it comes up in tax rep work, when we go to settle a debt with the IRS, it’s your income. Could you do an offer, compromise, and settle the debt? It’s a formula. 

We have an income, and then you have these allowable expenses. What’s allowable? Health insurance, term life insurance, and disability insurance are all allowable. Often, we will end up getting clients properly insured in a way to settle their tax debt. It does wake it up for the members. I’ve had members say, “Was this something I should be thinking about?” Not that I have a tax debt, but I’m like, “Yes.” In a way, we’re doing this like, I don’t want to say an emergency situation, but you don’t want to wait until you have a tax problem to then decide you need to go get insurance to settle the tax problem. You should be properly insured anyway.

Building Your Financial Fortress: The Power Of Brilliant Basics And Safety Equipment

A mindset that’s helped me a great deal that I learned in the Marine Corps, that I kept the same mindset in schooling, and now in my current profession, is becoming brilliant in the basics. A lot of what you’re talking about is the basics. They’re the fundamentals of financial planning. They ought to be addressed. When you cover the basics and when you even have a posture of becoming brilliant in them, you become very nimble. You’re able to adapt to situations. You’re able to overcome obstacles when they come your way because you’ve had this foundation laid that is firm.

I didn’t go into the Marines, but in college football, I showed up freshman year. The first thing they did for a week, blocking and tackling. You’re like, “I was a star. I was a local star in high school. This is what we’re going to do for a week?” You know what? They’re trying to fix your fundamentals because you can’t start building. You can’t put up the house until you get the foundation in. You can have the most brilliant mansion plan, but if you don’t get that foundation right, the whole thing’s coming down.

In terms of this, you could have a great practice and a great family. If you don’t have your wills in place, the trust to manage for the kids, buy-sell potentially with your partners, disability insurance, the long-term care, I can walk you through what happens. I’ve had this. I had a client who could check every single box. They ended up in a battle. It was a medical practice, a battle with their partners. In the middle of this, they got diagnosed with ALS. They have no disability insurance. He had some basic term insurance, which was now uninsurable. On top of all of that, what do we have? You’re going to be disabled.

It's about finding out what's important to you and where your values lie, so your time and attention can be pointed toward those things, making it more meaningful. Share on X

You’re going to end up in long-term care, probably of some sort. The family is going to have to absorb it. Meanwhile, you’re also at some point. The enemy on the other side now knows your time is limited. They’re going to drag this out. Why settle? Unless you’re willing to settle for cheap. One thing set off this cascading event that you wouldn’t have had to worry about had you sat and done the basics. 

You’ve got your long-term care insurance disability in place. You’ve got the proper life insurance. I hope I never need it. I’d love to think I never need my health insurance. I never want to use my disability policy. I never want to use my long-term care policy. Life insurance, my family will use at some point. I hope we don’t use it for a very long time. What was the old saying? “Here’s to God taking a liking to you but not too soon.” That’s it. I hope God takes a liking to me, but not too soon. Anyway, it’s these basics. We’re going to cover a lot of this on the 28th. Rick, anything else that you can think of off the cuff?

I love the conversation you’re having. You’re bringing up a lot. What value you’re bringing is that you’re making it seem common sense. That’s valuable to people who are reading because then it means, “It’s something I should be doing.” You’re putting it in a very persuasive way to have folks not just think about it but take action. You’re providing a wonderful service, something that I believe in wholeheartedly, planning for family, taking care of loved ones, and living out a life that you’d like, designing this lifestyle that you find worthwhile. Everybody wins in that situation.

The Holistic Approach: Integrating Financial Planning With Business And Life Goals

For those of you who’ve seen that series on Success Tax about GAME PLAN, in my mind, it all dovetails. Would you go climb up the mountain without your safety line, without knowing you’ve got a partner, without your belay, and all the stuff that you would do if you want to go with the metaphor of making the climb? It is one of the things that we talk about. You can sit and walk around the mountain looking for the perfect way.

At some point, you need to make the climb. I’ve been urging them, “Just get started.” Dawn Brolins has talked about her subscription, her relationship pricing. You put it in place, and you get started. Put one foot in front of another, you start making the climb, but you wouldn’t do that without all your safety equipment. This is, in a way, your safety equipment. I feel much better doing this knowing I’ve got my safety equipment in place versus “I’ll wing it and see what happens. Let’s hope everything works out in the morning.” That’s not a great plan. 

Having the basic documents in place, the basic pieces in place, for the folks, you’ve got to do this for yourself. Even if you have no interest in helping your clients, you should, but even if you don’t, you do it for yourself. There’s taking this out and sending it out to the clients. Clients, even if they don’t do anything, will thank you. It does show that you have an interest in their event, in that they’re making sure that they’re taken care of. There’s a business opportunity here. If you want to go down that rabbit hole, you can contact me or Rick. Rick, for those folks who do want to reach out to you, how do they get ahold of you?

An email would be best. It’s RWells@BayStateFinancial.com.

The Ever-Evolving Plan: Why Regular Financial Check-Ups Are Crucial

If you can join us for the webinar, it’s free. There’s a whole bunch of stuff to take from this. One is, have you done this for yourself? If you have, kudos. You want to review it every number of years. Annual would be great, but certainly every couple of years, because things change. My kids are off in college. One has moved out. Your life changes. It’s funny, I have two brothers. They have a very successful business. I did a buy-sell. They have a number of real estate entities. 

 

 

I finally called them. I’m like, “It’s been eight or nine years.” I email them every year or two and haven’t heard anything. We haven’t done anything. They finally emailed. They said, “You realize we don’t own any of the stuff that is covered by that buy-sell, other than the main company.” Everything has changed. We sold this property. We bought one up on the shore. We got this. I’m like, “We ought to update this because your buy-sell is becoming meaningless.”

You want to revisit this stuff every so often. First of all, yourself, but the ability to bring value to your clients and prospective clients, they will appreciate it. The other thing is this, in my mind, is the same message about automating, the subscription pricing Dawn does, and raising yourself as an advisor. This all dovetails into this. I got news for you. Rick, Adam Lean owns The CFO Project. He’s been on the show twice. He trains people, accountants, to offer CFO services.

How do you move into being a CFO? What are the things that you want to focus on? They train people, and then they help them get clients. This dovetails into that. You’re going to go and try to convince a business owner. You’re there to help their financial health. How do you do that without looking at all the benefits and the security stuff surrounding the owner, the security in terms of financial? Do we have the proper insurance in place, disability, the benefits, all of that stuff? If you haven’t done it, summer is a great time to sit down and do this.

The holistic approach and posture that you’re presenting right now are worthwhile. You mentioned automation, which even further brings to the point the meaning behind planning and the meaning behind finding out what’s important to you and where your values lie, so that your time and attention can be pointed toward those things, making it more meaningful. The holistic approach that you’re presenting right now, Eric, is something that I believe in. You’re providing an awesome service to your audience.

The folks we know in common have said the same about you. Guys, if you have any questions and want to get ahold of me and Rick, please do so. Please join us on the 28th of August. We’ll send out an email anyway. Everyone, thanks for tuning in. Rick, thanks for taking the time. I’m looking forward to the webinar. It’s going to be a lot of fun. It’s going to be very enlightening. Any last thoughts?

I can’t thank you enough. This is awesome. As someone who loves helping people, allowing me to jump on and speak to your audience, I don’t take that lightly. I thank you and appreciate it very much. I will continue to let you know that. Let’s do it. Let’s help some people.

Sounds good. Rick, thank you. Everyone, thanks for tuning in. See you in the next episode. Bye-bye.

 

Important Links

• Dr. Rick Wells on LinkedIn
• The Success Tax Podcast
• Dawn Brolin’s Website
• Nayo Carter-Gray on LinkedIn
• Game Plan: Episode 1: Every Game Has Rules With Dr. Rick Wells
• The CFO Project
• Basic Tax and Financial Planning Every Tax Pro (Should) Know! – Live Webinar

 

About Richard Wells

Rick Wells is a dedicated leader, educator, and advisor with over three decades of service to his community and country. A retired Lieutenant Colonel in the United States Marine Corps Reserve, Dr. Wells spent his military career in both active duty and reserve roles, culminating in his retirement after years of exemplary service.

In addition to his military career, Dr. Wells retired as a highly respected elementary school teacher from the West Hartford Public Schools. Throughout his tenure, he inspired young minds with a commitment to fostering growth, resilience, and achievement. His innovative approach to education emphasized the importance of perseverance, mastery, and the cultivation of self-awareness—skills he believes are foundational to both academic and personal success.

As a financial advisor, Dr. Wells brings his service-oriented ethos to helping families, professionals, and organizations build strong financial futures. His expertise in retirement planning and wealth management reflects his dedication to guiding others through challenges to create sustainable solutions that align with their values and goals.

A staunch advocate of health and wellness, Dr. Wells champions the principles of commitment and consistency as a key to building strength and overcoming challenges. Drawing from his military, educational, and personal wellness journey, he inspires others to embrace challenges as opportunities for mental, physical, and spiritual growth.

Through his work as a mentor, speaker, and advisor, Dr. Wells shares powerful insights on goal setting, leadership, and wellness. With decades of dedicated service to the community and the country, Dr. Wells continues to lead by example, offering practical strategies to elevate individuals and organizations alike.