Episode Transcript

Speakers: Craig Andrews, Emily Harper, Compliance Choir

[0:00] Craig Andrews: You never know how much time you have.
[0:03] Craig Andrews: For me, that stopped being an idea and became reality on August 22nd, 2021.
[0:10] Craig Andrews: The doctors put me on a ventilator and told my wife to call hospice so she could prepare
[0:14] Craig Andrews: for the day they planned to pull the plug.
[0:18] Craig Andrews: Six weeks later, I woke up to an entirely different reality.
[0:21] Craig Andrews: I could not walk, I could not talk, I could not even lift my own arm, and I woke up realizing
[0:27] Craig Andrews: something else, I had not made the right preparations for my family.
[0:31] Craig Andrews: The plans I thought were pretty good fell through when it mattered most.
[0:35] Craig Andrews: That is why fiduciary alchemy welcomes voices that would have warned me about the holes
[0:39] Craig Andrews: in my plans.
[0:40] Craig Andrews: My hope is that you live a long and prosperous life, but I also hope you make better plans
[0:45] Craig Andrews: than I did.
[0:46] Craig Andrews: So tune in, take notes, and stay with us through the end when bluesman grindle and the compliance
[0:52] Craig Andrews: choir.
[0:53] Craig Andrews: Including a word of caution.
[1:00] Craig Andrews: Today I want to welcome Emily Harper, she is a certified financial planner.
[1:06] Craig Andrews: She's a partner, and a chief strategy officer at Monument Wealth Management, based in Northern
[1:11] Craig Andrews: Virginia.
[1:12] Craig Andrews: Emily brings a rare mix of technical planning depth and firm building perspective, helping
[1:17] Craig Andrews: high achieving professionals and families make clear decisions around tax strategy,
[1:23] Craig Andrews: stock compensation, and a long term wealth.
[1:29] Craig Andrews: You know, when, you know, I forgot who connected us, but when I went to your website, something
[1:40] Craig Andrews: happened.
[1:41] Craig Andrews: And for those that don't know, they describe the picture on the front of your website.
[1:46] Craig Andrews: It's a really colorful image of some scenes that you would see out and about in Washington,
[1:52] Craig Andrews: D.C. and the local area that we live in, in particular, Alexandria, Virginia, lots of
[1:58] Craig Andrews: monuments.
[1:59] Craig Andrews: It kind of ties into our name a little bit, but really just average moments that you would
[2:07] Craig Andrews: experience if you were living here.
[2:12] Craig Andrews: And I think anyone can probably see themselves because it's not stock imagery.
[2:16] Craig Andrews: It's all really creative and more illustrative than your typical stock image of a family
[2:24] Craig Andrews: at the beach or a family scaling a mountain, trying to achieve their goals.
[2:29] Craig Andrews: Well, it created a moment for me, and this happens every now and then.
[2:35] Craig Andrews: I mean, you saw, you know, we saw the intro and you know that I was, you know, five years
[2:42] Craig Andrews: ago I was in a coma, they didn't expect me to come out of it.
[2:46] Craig Andrews: Every now and then I'll see an image that just immediately takes me back to the days
[2:53] Craig Andrews: of my coma.
[2:55] Craig Andrews: And that was one of those images.
[2:56] Craig Andrews: So in my coma, I had all these dreams.
[3:00] Craig Andrews: And for me, those were reality.
[3:01] Craig Andrews: I remember the dreams today, the same way you remember reality from five years ago.
[3:07] Craig Andrews: That's a little bit of a PTSD thing.
[3:13] Craig Andrews: But in that dream, I won't go into the details of the dream.
[3:18] Craig Andrews: But in this particular dream, I was spending some time in DC literally on the other side
[3:23] Craig Andrews: of that bridge where you had had it.
[3:28] Craig Andrews: And you know, for me, that's just kind of this ongoing reminder.
[3:33] Craig Andrews: We live in this mindset where we have, you know, I have until I'm in my sixties or seventies
[3:39] Craig Andrews: or what have you.
[3:40] Craig Andrews: I have plenty of time to plan, which I certainly thought I did and they didn't expect me to
[3:47] Craig Andrews: make it.
[3:48] Craig Andrews: I mean, it's a miracle that I'm here.
[3:51] Craig Andrews: But I keep hearing stories about people who didn't make plans in time.
[3:57] Craig Andrews: They felt like they had more time to get things sorted out and then life happened.
[4:02] Craig Andrews: That's a common story.
[4:04] Craig Andrews: Yeah.
[4:05] Craig Andrews: Do you see that frequently?
[4:08] Emily Harper: We see this very frequently, you know, typically when we're introduced to a prospective client,
[4:15] Emily Harper: someone we might be working with, we have a really in-depth discovery conversation that
[4:21] Emily Harper: spans everything from not just financials, but really what's important to you, what's
[4:25] Emily Harper: the money for and you would be amazed how many times we sit down with couples in their
[4:30] Emily Harper: 30s, 40s, even 50s who don't have a state documents or they haven't updated their documents
[4:37] Emily Harper: since their kids were born and their kids are now 20, 25 years old and, you know, there
[4:43] Emily Harper: are state plans to accomplish something entirely different than it might have 20 years ago.
[4:47] Emily Harper: So I would say eight times out of 10 were typically having an estate planning conversation
[4:55] Emily Harper: or a conversation around, you know, what happens if the unexpected happens, because it does
[5:03] Emily Harper: and there are some holes here that we need to think about.
[5:08] Emily Harper: Yeah.
[5:09] Emily Harper: What are some of the typical holes?
[5:12] Emily Harper: I think a lot of times people will have maybe just a basic will and they think that that's
[5:18] Emily Harper: covered it.
[5:20] Emily Harper: And if they had worked with a good trust in a state attorney from the start, ideally they'd
[5:24] Emily Harper: have, you know, things that not only handle what happens when I'm no longer here, but
[5:30] Emily Harper: most importantly, in some cases, what happens when I am here and I can't act for myself
[5:37] Emily Harper: or make decisions or even, you know, I've got a family who relies on the wealth that
[5:44] Emily Harper: we've built and they can't access it because of account titling or the right documents
[5:50] Emily Harper: aren't in place, things like powers of attorney, medical directives, things that not only legally
[5:58] Emily Harper: make things easier when decisions need to happen, but also remove that emotional burden
[6:06] Emily Harper: from families and loved ones when these unexpected things do happen.
[6:10] Emily Harper: The last thing they want to be dealing with is, gosh, I have this huge hurdle.
[6:16] Emily Harper: There's this friction now that I need to deal with in addition to the emotional realities
[6:21] Emily Harper: of what's happening to my loved one.
[6:24] Emily Harper: So I think not having the right documents in place or the right decision makers in place
[6:28] Emily Harper: is a big thing.
[6:30] Emily Harper: I also see people really discount the need for insurance or something to protect the
[6:39] Emily Harper: financial assets that they've built or ensure that the trajectory that their young family
[6:45] Emily Harper: might be on remains sustainable and that they don't have to force some kind of lifestyle
[6:51] Emily Harper: change because there wasn't enough insurance to kind of fill that gap between where your
[6:57] Emily Harper: wealth is when something happens and where it ultimately needs to be to fund all of the
[7:03] Emily Harper: things that are important to you and your family.
[7:06] Emily Harper: Yeah.
[7:07] Craig Andrews: Well, you know, one of the ways that played out for me was, you know, and sort of thing
[7:12] Craig Andrews: that had me in the coma was I had COVID and my wife and I had been in agreement that I
[7:19] Craig Andrews: would not go in the ventilator because it was a death sentence.
[7:23] Craig Andrews: And dog on the doctor's thing didn't do two things.
[7:27] Craig Andrews: One, they shot me full morphine, which made me quit fighting and morphine suppresses respiration,
[7:33] Craig Andrews: which is a weird thing to do to somebody has a respiratory disease.
[7:37] Craig Andrews: And then the when they called her, they woke her up in the middle of the night, 1230 in
[7:44] Craig Andrews: the morning and basically bullied her and to put me on the ventilator.
[7:49] Craig Andrews: And but it's tying into those emotional things, you know, we, you know, it was brutal.
[7:59] Craig Andrews: She heard me in the background screaming, no ventilator, no ventilator, and the doc was
[8:02] Craig Andrews: mocking her and mocking me.
[8:07] Craig Andrews: And she made what I totally understand the decision she made.
[8:14] Craig Andrews: But it's those type of things where we probably should have had that ironed out a little bit
[8:18] Craig Andrews: more cleanly before that situation was and the reality is I believe that the doctors
[8:23] Craig Andrews: hadn't put me on the ventilator.
[8:25] Craig Andrews: I believe not only would I be here today, but I'd actually be in better shape than I am.
[8:30] Craig Andrews: And all they had to do was put me on my belly, which your lungs are in the back of your
[8:36] Craig Andrews: chest cavity.
[8:37] Craig Andrews: And that way I've got my oxygen back up and then wait for the morphine to drain out.
[8:41] Craig Andrews: So you know, I could get back to fighting.
[8:44] Craig Andrews: But that was just too much waking up in the middle of the night and playing on her emotions,
[8:49] Craig Andrews: which they did.
[8:51] Craig Andrews: And, and, and I think that's a challenge.
[8:56] Craig Andrews: You just don't, I mean, we never thought we would be in that situation.
[9:00] Emily Harper: Yeah, and not only like having the legal documents in place, that's important, but even having
[9:07] Emily Harper: the hard conversations with your loved ones about what you'd want to happen.
[9:12] Emily Harper: You know, there are some things that are documented.
[9:16] Emily Harper: There's some things that might not be documented.
[9:19] Emily Harper: And no one wants to think about their mortality.
[9:23] Emily Harper: Nobody wants to think the inevitable reality, especially what happens if that's sooner than,
[9:29] Emily Harper: you know, 60, 70 years down the road.
[9:33] Emily Harper: Those aren't fun conversations to have with your loved one, your spouse.
[9:37] Emily Harper: But they are so important and just making sure that you are on the same page and you,
[9:41] Emily Harper: you know what one another wants is incredibly important.
[9:44] Emily Harper: My husband and I are actually going through this process right now ourselves.
[9:49] Emily Harper: You know, I'm, what do they say, the cobbler's kids have no shoes.
[9:53] Emily Harper: Like I talk about this all the time with people and I've personally had such inertia
[9:57] Emily Harper: about getting this done for myself and my husband because we don't have kids.
[10:02] Emily Harper: We don't have a lot of the things that you would maybe need to think about as part of
[10:06] Emily Harper: an estate plan, but that almost makes it more challenging.
[10:10] Emily Harper: And we've had some really not pleasant or lovely conversations over our, you know, weekends
[10:15] Emily Harper: and time together, but they're important and we're carving the time out to do it.
[10:20] Emily Harper: Yeah.
[10:21] Craig Andrews: I mean, so that fascinates me as soon as you said you're going through that.
[10:25] Craig Andrews: I mean, for me, the worst marketing I do is as a marketer is marketing my own business.
[10:31] Craig Andrews: I mean, I'm absolutely horrible at marketing my own business.
[10:35] Craig Andrews: It's easy to market other people's businesses and I'm just curious what that, are you bringing,
[10:41] Craig Andrews: are you driving that or do you have a third party that's coming in and helping you now
[10:45] Craig Andrews: navigate that?
[10:47] Craig Andrews: Are marketing specifically?
[10:49] Craig Andrews: No, no, no, no, I'm sorry.
[10:51] Craig Andrews: No, the, yeah, I'm just, the analogy I'm drawing is okay.
[10:55] Craig Andrews: It's hard for me to do my own practice on myself to apply my own expertise on myself.
[11:02] Craig Andrews: So as you and your husband are going through and doing this, are you having a third party
[11:08] Craig Andrews: do it?
[11:09] Craig Andrews: Or are you doing leading the discussions?
[11:12] Craig Andrews: Absolutely.
[11:13] Emily Harper: So we are working with a trust and estate attorney that I've had a lot of success working
[11:18] Emily Harper: with, with clients and I've seen her work and gotten to really trust her over the years.
[11:26] Emily Harper: So it, it made it a little bit easier to opt in to going through this process and starting
[11:32] Emily Harper: the work, but absolutely, you know, a trust and estate attorney is a tremendous resource.
[11:38] Emily Harper: You know, even as a certified financial planner, I know a lot and I can talk with my clients
[11:42] Emily Harper: about a lot, but I'm not a lawyer and I can't give legal advice.
[11:48] Emily Harper: Not writing your documents.
[11:49] Emily Harper: So absolutely partnering with someone is so critical.
[11:53] Emily Harper: Now I did come into the conversations with her with some of my own opinions and thoughts
[11:57] Emily Harper: and was maybe more well prepared than the average person might be because I've seen so
[12:02] Emily Harper: much of this with other people and really have the time to think through what are some
[12:07] Emily Harper: of the decisions that I need to start making now to put this all into writing so that you
[12:13] Emily Harper: know, it's a little bit of an easier process with the attorney and it's, you know, I'm
[12:19] Emily Harper: an informed participant in this conversation and trying to bring my husband along and get
[12:24] Emily Harper: him up to the same level.
[12:27] Craig Andrews: What have been some of the surprises for you as you've gone through as basically a client
[12:32] Craig Andrews: of what you're normally delivering?
[12:35] Craig Andrews: What have been some of the things I've surprised you in the process?
[12:38] Craig Andrews: I think just truly how hard it is to make decisions when those decisions have such tremendous
[12:46] Emily Harper: magnitude.
[12:48] Emily Harper: I don't think I fully appreciated that from the client's perspective when talking through,
[12:54] Emily Harper: you know, getting started with their estate documents or trying to help them continue
[12:59] Emily Harper: to make progress with their estate documents.
[13:02] Emily Harper: It's easy to hire the lawyer, it's easy to sign off on the engagement document and say,
[13:06] Emily Harper: yes, I want to start this, but then when you have to start making those decisions, that
[13:10] Emily Harper: can kind of slow the process down.
[13:12] Emily Harper: And I have more appreciation for that now being in the place that I am, you know, it's
[13:20] Emily Harper: hard to think, especially as someone who doesn't have kids.
[13:23] Emily Harper: Who am I going to ask to make these challenging decisions one day if for some reason my husband
[13:29] Emily Harper: isn't able to do so.
[13:32] Emily Harper: So it's absolutely the decision making has been the hardest and most surprising part
[13:40] Emily Harper: of the process for me as a fairly decisive person.
[13:44] Emily Harper: So really appreciate the work and energy and just mental load that goes into this process.
[13:52] Emily Harper: It's not easy.
[13:53] Craig Andrews: Yeah, I'm kind of picturing myself, you know, Saturday rolls around, we're going to sit
[13:58] Craig Andrews: down and talk about the documents and it's like, oh, the cherry blossoms are blooming.
[14:03] Craig Andrews: Let's, yeah, they're only here for two weeks.
[14:05] Craig Andrews: Let's, let's go into the district and see cherry blossoms.
[14:09] Craig Andrews: We'll take care of this later.
[14:11] Craig Andrews: Yep.
[14:12] Craig Andrews: Because you always think there's a later.
[14:14] Craig Andrews: Yeah.
[14:15] Craig Andrews: Always think there's a later.
[14:18] Craig Andrews: For your husband, what, what has been the most surprising things?
[14:23] Emily Harper: You know, I think the ability for access for us to actually agree on things I think has
[14:30] Emily Harper: been somewhat surprising, surprising, but as hard as some of the decisions are to make,
[14:38] Emily Harper: I think the alignment that we've had has been surprising.
[14:45] Emily Harper: It's, you know, again, when you don't have kids, it's hard to think about where do we
[14:50] Emily Harper: want all of this stuff to go that we've worked so hard to build and grow and what do we want
[14:55] Emily Harper: our impact to be?
[14:59] Emily Harper: And hearing him be more on board with some of the things that I was initially thinking
[15:04] Emily Harper: was a little bit surprising.
[15:06] Emily Harper: Well, it's cool.
[15:07] Emily Harper: Yeah.
[15:08] Craig Andrews: Now that the sounds laborious and hard, so how can we go about it without feeling like
[15:14] Craig Andrews: a trip to the dentist?
[15:18] Craig Andrews: It's definitely possible.
[15:21] Emily Harper: You should come into the process already somewhat prepared knowing that you'll need
[15:30] Emily Harper: to make some decisions around kind of who and how.
[15:36] Emily Harper: Who do I want to make decisions for me if I can't make decisions myself?
[15:41] Emily Harper: Who do I want to deal with what's left behind when I'm no longer here?
[15:48] Emily Harper: Who should be administering my estate?
[15:51] Emily Harper: Who should be, you know, handling a trust if you're setting up a trust?
[15:55] Emily Harper: And then the how?
[15:56] Emily Harper: How do you actually want your money to benefit others?
[16:01] Emily Harper: Do you want it to go to family?
[16:04] Emily Harper: Do you want it to go to charity?
[16:06] Emily Harper: We try to boil it down to there's really four places your money can go during your lifetime
[16:11] Emily Harper: and when you're no longer here, you can spend it.
[16:16] Emily Harper: You can give it to friends, family, loved ones, charity.
[16:21] Emily Harper: You can give it to the government and taxes, which most people say I want to do as little
[16:25] Emily Harper: of that as possible.
[16:29] Emily Harper: And then you can save more and fast, but really when you're thinking about spending
[16:34] Emily Harper: down your portfolio, spending down your assets and the how of you want to do that, that needs
[16:40] Emily Harper: to play into the process as well.
[16:42] Emily Harper: So all of that, say, if you can just start to think about those things, get in the mindset
[16:48] Emily Harper: of being decisive around some of those things before you even fill out the attorney's questionnaire
[16:54] Emily Harper: because they are going to have a questionnaire.
[16:56] Emily Harper: They're going to need some information from you to get started.
[16:58] Emily Harper: But I think if you come into it having done a little bit of preparation, a little bit
[17:02] Emily Harper: of thinking, it does make it easier, less laborious.
[17:06] Emily Harper: And trust in state attorneys are so skilled at getting you through the process and coming
[17:12] Emily Harper: up with solutions for things that you're getting stuck on or having challenges with.
[17:16] Emily Harper: They've seen it all.
[17:18] Emily Harper: And then I would say having an advisor in the mix who, you know, you can go to and ask questions
[17:26] Emily Harper: when you're trying to maybe think through some of these decision points and don't want
[17:29] Emily Harper: to incur, you know, hours with your attorney or take up their time with some of this back
[17:36] Emily Harper: and forth decision making.
[17:37] Emily Harper: A financial advisor who has your best interest in mind can be a really great thinking partner,
[17:43] Emily Harper: a decision partner for working through some of these hang-ups that you might find.
[17:48] Emily Harper: Yeah.
[17:49] Craig Andrews: Now, years ago, we had a client because we do wealth management.
[17:56] Craig Andrews: You know, that's one of the areas we market.
[17:59] Craig Andrews: And the big talk back then was the robo-advisors.
[18:03] Craig Andrews: This is before chat GPT was released.
[18:07] Craig Andrews: And you know, and I remember we were generating content about how, no, you still need a human.
[18:14] Craig Andrews: But then 2022 happened and chat GPT was released.
[18:19] Craig Andrews: And there's a lot of people asking questions myself included of, hey, do I really, you know,
[18:29] Craig Andrews: there's so many resources, I mean, basically if it can consume, you know, the law library,
[18:36] Craig Andrews: why can't I have it, you know, draft my legal documents?
[18:41] Craig Andrews: And so that's kind of an open question for me.
[18:44] Craig Andrews: And so I'm sure it's an open question for others.
[18:47] Craig Andrews: How would you approach that?
[18:49] Emily Harper: I think there's so much nuance and complexity that goes into a lot of the decision making
[18:55] Emily Harper: that people need to make when it comes to their wealth.
[19:01] Emily Harper: It's a highly emotional topic for people.
[19:04] Emily Harper: Like, yes, you can go to chat GPT, you can ask a question, you can get, you can ask anything.
[19:09] Emily Harper: You can get any information that you want.
[19:12] Emily Harper: But I think with something so emotional, something that is often so situationally specific, that
[19:22] Emily Harper: expertise of a human advisor is so important.
[19:27] Emily Harper: I'm really optimistic about how AI can help people maybe better understand some of the
[19:34] Emily Harper: factors that might go into their decision making or maybe better understand some of
[19:38] Emily Harper: the legal basics.
[19:40] Emily Harper: So maybe their attorney doesn't have to spend time educating them on what's a trust, what's
[19:44] Emily Harper: a will, what's a power of attorney.
[19:46] Emily Harper: But they can use that time with the human, have that connection with someone who truly
[19:52] Emily Harper: understands them and can really help them feel confident in the decisions that they're
[19:57] Emily Harper: making.
[19:58] Emily Harper: I think so many of us probably feel like, what don't I know?
[20:04] Emily Harper: What aren't I asking?
[20:05] Emily Harper: What am I missing that is important in how I think about this decision?
[20:11] Emily Harper: And what other areas does this particular decision touch?
[20:14] Emily Harper: If I make a decision here about selling a stock, where does that touch taxes?
[20:22] Emily Harper: What does that mean for maybe something I had in my estate plan?
[20:25] Emily Harper: I think humans are still uniquely positioned to help other humans understand here's all
[20:34] Emily Harper: of your options.
[20:35] Emily Harper: Here's what I think is the best one for you based on everything I know about you, all
[20:39] Emily Harper: of the context, all of the relationship that we've spent years building, being that trusted
[20:45] Emily Harper: person with the help of AI can be really, really powerful.
[20:50] Craig Andrews: Yeah.
[20:51] Craig Andrews: Well, I was having a conversation with my brother-in-law who's a software developer,
[20:56] Craig Andrews: a very senior one working on kernel level, I mean like deep, deep software.
[21:03] Craig Andrews: And he told me he hasn't written a line of code in a couple of months because, you know,
[21:09] Craig Andrews: his job is now to supervise the agents.
[21:12] Craig Andrews: Yeah.
[21:13] Craig Andrews: And so I asked him, I said, if I'm using the same AI that you're using, can I develop
[21:19] Craig Andrews: the same level of software, same level of code that you can?
[21:23] Craig Andrews: And he said, no, not a chance.
[21:25] Craig Andrews: And I think the analogy that I would put towards it is, you know, we have an F1 track right
[21:32] Craig Andrews: down the road here.
[21:34] Craig Andrews: If you put me in an F1 racer, I'm not going to win the race.
[21:37] Craig Andrews: You could give me the best car out there, and I'll probably come in dead last.
[21:43] Craig Andrews: Yeah.
[21:44] Craig Andrews: The, what I'm seeing personally is every business should absolutely be using AI, individuals
[21:52] Craig Andrews: should be using it.
[21:53] Craig Andrews: I'm all for education, but there's a difference that the operator that's driving the AI is
[21:59] Craig Andrews: going to get a different result based on their expertise.
[22:03] Craig Andrews: Yep.
[22:04] Craig Andrews: And I've actually seen this in practice.
[22:06] Craig Andrews: My partner and I asked chat a very similar question and just the way maybe one of us
[22:14] Craig Andrews: worded it differently than the other, we got totally different results.
[22:19] Craig Andrews: And, you know, if I was, if I was a person trying to make a complex decision that has
[22:27] Craig Andrews: a lot of real impact on my money, my wealth, I'd be concerned that you could get that different
[22:34] Craig Andrews: of an answer just based on a small tweak in your prompt.
[22:37] Emily Harper: Well, something I've seen, you know, so I've been playing around with an autonomous agent
[22:41] Emily Harper: called open clause.
[22:42] Emily Harper: So it's like chat GBT taken to the next level.
[22:46] Emily Harper: And I'll ask it a question and it's like, oh, yes, you should do this and I'll apply some
[22:51] Emily Harper: reasoning.
[22:52] Emily Harper: I'm like, are you sure that's the best decision?
[22:54] Emily Harper: Oh, no, actually now that I think about it, no, that's not.
[22:58] Emily Harper: I'm like, wait a minute.
[23:00] Emily Harper: And the only, you know, fortunately, I saw something that looks a little bit off.
[23:05] Emily Harper: So I challenged it.
[23:07] Emily Harper: But if I hadn't seen that thing and I hadn't challenged it, it was going to take me into
[23:10] Emily Harper: the wrong direction.
[23:11] Emily Harper: Yeah.
[23:12] Emily Harper: And making decisions that impact your loved ones long term, that's too important to leave
[23:20] Craig Andrews: to.
[23:21] Craig Andrews: Oh, wait, no, there's actually a better course of action.
[23:24] Craig Andrews: Let me revise my answer there based on you applying some logic to the question.
[23:29] Craig Andrews: So I'm not worried about the role of really good wealth advisors in an AI world.
[23:37] Craig Andrews: Yeah.
[23:38] Craig Andrews: Well, and I think, you know, Elon Musk has been saying how AI and robots are going to
[23:43] Craig Andrews: take away the jobs.
[23:46] Craig Andrews: And I'm not going to pretend to be smarter than that guy.
[23:48] Craig Andrews: I think he's brilliant, but I have a, I have a cheat code in substitution for being brilliant.
[23:56] Craig Andrews: I just study history and I realized that if Elon's right, it will be the first time in
[24:02] Craig Andrews: human history that AI resulted in, or a technology advance resulted in fewer jobs rather than
[24:07] Craig Andrews: more jobs.
[24:09] Craig Andrews: Yeah.
[24:10] Craig Andrews: And so just based on studying history, I think he got that one wrong.
[24:14] Craig Andrews: And so I don't think anybody should worry about their job.
[24:16] Craig Andrews: I think I would be, I would imagine you guys are using AI in your firm.
[24:21] Emily Harper: I would hope so.
[24:22] Emily Harper: I would hope any businesses.
[24:24] Emily Harper: Yeah.
[24:25] Emily Harper: Absolutely.
[24:26] Craig Andrews: But I bring it back to the F1 racer.
[24:30] Craig Andrews: You put me in an F1 racer.
[24:32] Craig Andrews: I'm going to finish the race in a different place than somebody that's driven that thing
[24:36] Craig Andrews: a few thousand hours.
[24:38] Craig Andrews: Yeah.
[24:39] Craig Andrews: That's a great analogy.
[24:40] Craig Andrews: Yeah.
[24:41] Craig Andrews: Well, um, for those that are sitting there saying, this is just, it's like a trip to the
[24:52] Craig Andrews: dentist.
[24:53] Craig Andrews: I don't want to do it.
[24:54] Craig Andrews: We're going to have to talk about hard things.
[24:56] Craig Andrews: It's going to bring friction in my marriage, which I imagine it does frequently.
[25:00] Craig Andrews: Um, you know, just because all of a sudden you're talking about things you haven't talked
[25:04] Craig Andrews: about before and everybody has opinions.
[25:07] Craig Andrews: For those that are just sitting there thinking, I don't want to deal with this now.
[25:12] Craig Andrews: I'm going to wait six months or I'm going to wait 12 months.
[25:16] Craig Andrews: What would you tell them?
[25:17] Emily Harper: Say you don't have to bite it all off at once and I think there are somewhat enjoyable
[25:25] Emily Harper: ways that you can start.
[25:27] Emily Harper: So a way that I like to approach, um, these kinds of conversations where you know that
[25:32] Emily Harper: there's going to be a lot of hard decision making.
[25:35] Emily Harper: I like to come back to just a really basic fundamental of what are your values and what's
[25:42] Emily Harper: important to you and you'd be surprised how long people can go without really like reflecting
[25:48] Emily Harper: on that or thinking about that and you go about your day to day life, even with your
[25:52] Emily Harper: spouse and you could be on totally different pages about your values, priorities, um, and
[25:59] Emily Harper: you change and evolve as a person over time too.
[26:01] Emily Harper: So I actually have a tool that I like to use to help people kind of as individuals narrow
[26:06] Emily Harper: in on, here's my top five values, my kind of north stars that I'm going to use to kind
[26:14] Emily Harper: of guide how I make decisions and then I have the other partner do it independently
[26:18] Emily Harper: as well if they're a married couple, um, and then kind of compare and it's kind of a fun
[26:23] Emily Harper: conversation for people to see, oh, what were your results and, oh, wow, that's surprising.
[26:29] Emily Harper: And I think it just opens the door to having more meaningful conversations and it makes
[26:36] Emily Harper: those hard conversations a little bit easier if you know kind of what your respective north
[26:43] Emily Harper: star priorities are, um, and what you value and, you know, have some alignment as, um,
[26:50] Emily Harper: co-decision makers when you are in a married couple.
[26:53] Emily Harper: Excellent.
[26:54] Emily Harper: Now, um, do you guys serve just the Northern Virginia area or Northern Virginia DC or
[27:02] Emily Harper: do you guys serve folks elsewhere?
[27:04] Emily Harper: We serve folks all over.
[27:06] Emily Harper: Um, so we do have a lot of clients who are concentrated in the DC, Maryland, Virginia
[27:11] Emily Harper: area.
[27:12] Emily Harper: Um, you know, I think we have a really great face-to-face experience when people can come
[27:18] Emily Harper: into our office and really experience that discovery meeting, um, with us as humans in
[27:23] Emily Harper: the same room, but we absolutely do work with, um, people all over.
[27:28] Emily Harper: We're very technologically advanced firms, so we have a lot of, um, options for, for
[27:34] Emily Harper: working with people even when they're not in the room.
[27:37] Emily Harper: Excellent.
[27:38] Emily Harper: Well, how come folks reach you?
[27:41] Emily Harper: So the best way to reach us is to go to our website, monumentwealthmanagement.com, um,
[27:49] Emily Harper: you can learn a little bit about monument and there is an opportunity to contact us there
[27:52] Emily Harper: if you are interested and you can also find me on LinkedIn.
[27:55] Craig Andrews: I'm very active, um, and share a lot of things from between sips and just other things that
[28:00] Craig Andrews: I find interesting.
[28:01] Craig Andrews: So look me up on LinkedIn, happy to connect and, um, happy to be a resource.
[28:07] Craig Andrews: Well, excellent.
[28:08] Craig Andrews: Well, thanks for coming on fiduciary alchemy.
[28:09] Emily Harper: Thank you so much for having me.
[28:10] Emily Harper: This has been a really enjoyable conversation, even though heavy topics.
[28:15] Emily Harper: Thank you for tuning in to fiduciary alchemy.
[28:19] Emily Harper: The coolest financial podcast you're likely to find.
[28:23] Craig Andrews: We go looking for voices like the one you just heard, because I want you to dodge the
[28:27] Craig Andrews: mistakes that I made and learn it without the coma, without the drama, without nearly
[28:32] Craig Andrews: paying the man.
[28:33] Craig Andrews: I don't know why I lived.
[28:36] Craig Andrews: When so many others die, that part's still a mystery.
[28:39] Craig Andrews: Now, some folks ask, Craig, what is it you do?
[28:42] Craig Andrews: Well, I'm telling you now, that's no mystery at all.
[28:45] Craig Andrews: We solve hard marketing problems and crowded markets, so good folks like our guests can
[28:50] Craig Andrews: rise above the noise, become visible, memorable, irresistible and grow like never before.
[28:56] Craig Andrews: If organic growth is your problem, reach out, call me.
[28:59] Craig Andrews: Let's make a plan and bring your next steps into the light, but don't leave yet, stick
[29:04] Craig Andrews: around a minute more and listen to blues man grendel and the compliance choir deliver a
[29:09] Craig Andrews: word of caution just for you.
[29:27] Compliance Choir: This podcast is for information, education, that is all.
[29:41] Compliance Choir: It is not financial tax or legal advice to guide your call, nothing here's an offer,
[29:47] Compliance Choir: nothing here's a buy or sell, no recommendation, no solicitation.
[29:56] Compliance Choir: I'm saying it, plain and well, plain and well, plain and well,
[30:11] Compliance Choir: past performance ain't no promise of what tomorrow brings.
[30:19] Compliance Choir: Markets turning people loose on all kinds of hopeful things.
[30:26] Compliance Choir: Every investment carries risk, prints a pork and fade away.
[30:34] Compliance Choir: What works for one more fit is home, that truth is here to stay, fade away, fade away,
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[32:54] Compliance Choir: that is right for you.