When Life Changes Fast: How to Protect Your Financial Future (With Guest Glen Golish)

Welcome to Season 6, Episode 27 of Winning Isn't Easy: Long-Term Disability ®. In this episode, we'll dive into When Life Changes Fast: How to Protect Your Financial Future (With Guest Glen Golish).

Financial planning is often built on the expectation that income will remain steady over time. But when a disability, serious illness, or other unexpected life event disrupts that income, even carefully constructed financial plans can be put to the test. In this episode, attorney Nancy Cavey is joined by Glen Golish, LUTCF®, CFBS®, BSP, to examine how financial planning strategies should adapt when someone transitions from earning a paycheck to relying on Long-Term Disability benefits. Together, they explore financial gaps that can emerge during this transition, the role life insurance and long-term care planning can play in creating greater flexibility and security, and the costly decisions people often postpone until it's too late. This episode explores practical planning strategies and common pitfalls and offers valuable insights for anyone seeking to build a financial plan that can withstand life's uncertainties.

In this episode, we'll cover the following topics:

One - From Income Protection to Financial Strategy 

Two - Tools for Financial Protection 

Three - Avoiding Pitfalls and Planning Ahead 

Whether you're a claimant, or simply seeking valuable insights into the disability claims landscape, this episode provides essential guidance to help you succeed in your journey. Don't miss it.


Listen to Our Sister Podcast:

We have a sister podcast - Winning Isn't Easy: Social Security ®. Give it a listen: https://wiessdpodcast.buzzsprout.com/


Resources Mentioned in This Episode:

LINK TO ROBBED OF YOUR PEACE OF MIND: https://mailchi.mp/caveylaw/ltd-robbed-of-your-piece-of-mind

LINK TO THE DISABILITY INSURANCE CLAIM SURVIVAL GUIDE FOR PROFESSIONALS: https://mailchi.mp/caveylaw/professionals-guide-to-ltd-benefits

FREE CONSULT LINK: https://caveylaw.com/contact-us/


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Need help with your Long-Term Disability or ERISA claim? Have questions? Please feel welcome to reach out to use for a FREE consultation. Just mention you listened to our podcast.

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Please remember that the content shared is for informational purposes only, and should not replace personalized legal advice or guidance from qualified professionals.

Transcript

Nancy Cavey [00:00:12 - 00:00:59]

Financial planning is often built around one core assumption, that income will continue steadily and predictably over time. But when those assumptions are challenged because of disability, illness, or an unexpected life event, the gaps in the plan can surface quickly and can be devastating. So, what looks solid on paper can turn fragile in real life. Priorities will shift, timelines will shorten, decisions that once felt like they were going to be forever in the future now become urgent. And in that moment, people often realize that their financial strategy wasn't designed for uncertainty. It was designed for stability. I'm Nancy Cape, national ERISA and individual disability attorney. Welcome to Winning Isn't Easy.

Nancy Cavey [00:01:00 - 00:02:12]

Before we get started, I have to give you that legal disclaimer. This podcast isn't legal advice. The Florida Bar Association says I have to tell you that, but nothing will prevent me from giving you an easy-to-understand overview of the disability and life insurance world, the games that carriers will play, and what you need to know to get the disability benefits or the life insurance benefits that your loved one wanted you to have. So off we go. Now, in today's episode, we're going to be joined by Glen Golish, who focuses on integrating life insurance into broad financial planning strategies. And we're going to explore how financial planning needs to evolve when someone transitions from working income to long-term disability, where the gaps are. And we're also going to be looking at how tools like life insurance and long-term care planning can play a dynamic role, not just as a safety net, but as part of a flexible strategy, a strategy that you want to have in place not when you become disabled or have a life-changing event. So, along the way, I've asked Glen to discuss the decisions that people often delay and the mistakes that can undermine a plan.

Nancy Cavey [00:02:13 - 00:02:23]

So, Glen, I want you to start, please, by telling us a little bit about your background, the work that you're doing and what excites you about addressing these issues?

Glen Golish [00:02:23 - 00:02:52]

Well, first of all, I definitely appreciate it, Nancy. I'm very excited that we have the opportunity, the honor to work together. You know, I know that, you know, I see the value of what you do. You know, I'm in the business now 37 years, which is kind of crazy. I didn't even know that that, you know, was possible. And it's really a phenomenal, you know, career, you know, for myself. And I've been very, very, very blessed. And so, you know, when it comes to the business itself and it comes to the planning process, and I think that's really what, you know, what you want to know.

Glen Golish [00:02:52 - 00:03:49]

Look, we've been doing financial planning strategies for 37 years, and we are doing a lot of generational wealth strategies for 37 years. So it's all about how do you move money to the next generation, next generation, next, and then, uh-oh, now disability happens. Uh-oh, wait, the long-term care happens, and in your life suddenly you know, can feel like it's shattered. But if you do all the proper planning in advance, like you were stating so beautifully before, that it's— yes, of course it's devastating, and yes, of course it's going to be a major problem, you know, for you and your family. But the reality is, is that if you have the opportunity to do proper planning in advance, it's going to be so much easier. And that's where proper disability insurance, proper life insurance comes into play. But the reality is, is you got to do the financial planning in advance. And if you're not saving enough money and if you're not putting away enough money on a regular basis, the biggest problem that you have in America is that the negative savings rate that we have.

Glen Golish [00:03:49 - 00:04:20]

And so thank God a billion times, that's not typically the clients I'm ever working with. But the reality is, is that we help people to make sure they're saving up to their potential. And you want to get to that point where you're saving at least 15% a year of your income on a yearly basis. And if you are doing that, then you're going to have the 3 to 6 months of money in the pot when those emergencies do happen. And then hopefully you have been working with the right planners that will guarantee that you have proper life insurance and proper disability insurance and proper long-term care insurance in place, and you're going to have it there when it's going to be desperately needed.

Nancy Cavey [00:04:21 - 00:04:54]

Well, I love your passion. So we're going to talk about 3 things today, uh, from income protection to financial strategy, tools for financial protection, and avoiding pitfalls and planning ahead. And I've already told Glen I'm gonna throw him a couple curveballs in the course of this podcast because these are some common issues that I have with my clients that I want him to address. But before we get started, let's take a quick break. Please come back with some paper, a pen, 'cause I want you to take notes 'cause we're gonna have lots of great information. Let's take a break.

Speaker C [00:04:55 - 00:05:13]

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Nancy Cavey [00:05:18 - 00:06:14]

Welcome back to Winning Isn't Easy. So, let's talk about from income protection to financial strategy. Glen, a lot of my clients will get their disability insurance through their employer. Which also includes a life insurance policy. Sometimes they'll have what's called a life waiver premium. But there are other clients that I have that have individual disability insurance, which obviously I would prefer for them, and they have their own life insurance policy. So I want you to talk about— In that world where a person has either a risk of disability policy and a life insurance policy, as part of their employee benefit package, or they have purchased these benefits on their own. When somebody experiences a major income shift, like becoming disabled, where do the— what are the financial gaps, and where do they tend to show up first?

Glen Golish [00:06:15 - 00:06:56]

Okay, excellent. I love the question. So, so when you're talking about the biggest issue is that most people just rely on their group disability insurance. So I love you, you know, that's what you were at I think wanted to understand. And I think most people in the world don't understand that group insurance, if it's employer-given as a gift from them— okay, and I say it's a gift because the reality is that most insurance, you know, of disability insurance is not given as a gift anymore. It used to be in the olden days that you used to get it from your employer all the time. Now the employer is not really doing it as much anymore. So it is, it is a really nice thing that if an employer gives you life insurance and disability insurance and certain benefit packages.

Glen Golish [00:06:56 - 00:07:40]

It's totally different than when I was in business 37 years ago when I started. It was a natural that all insurance coverages were given to employees as a gift, and now it's not as prevalent. So from a standpoint of the products, the first thing is group insurance. If you go out and you buy group insurance through an employer, and whether it's something that they give you as a gift or that you actually pay for it, There's a big difference in the 2. Number one is if it's given to you and the employer provides it, that disability insurance is going to be a taxable benefit to you. So a lot of times what's going to happen is, oh, you're going to be working for an employer, they're going to give you this, you know, insurance. It's going to be, um, you know, they're probably going to cover you at only 60 or 70%. And wait a minute, oh, it's going to be taxable.

Nancy Cavey [00:07:40 - 00:07:40]

Right.

Glen Golish [00:07:40 - 00:08:29]

And then you have a bigger gap because, you know, if you're a higher income earner, you're going to be, you know, maybe a 35% tax. And if you're a lower income maybe you're in a 20% tax bracket, whatever it might be, that's coming off that benefit if it's a gift from the employer. So that's the first thing that you have to worry about. The second thing is if you are able to buy individual insurance coverage first, then you can layer the group on top. But if you buy the, or give the gift, you know, get the gift from the employer, and it's going to be given to you first, that's taxable. And then you can only buy a certain amount of individual on top. So I always recommend buy your individual disability insurance first, get the group insurance in place secondarily. You know, we're working with, um, you know, somebody right now.

Glen Golish [00:08:29 - 00:08:57]

Literally, we just had a meeting with them 2 days ago, and they start their new job in 3 weeks. Right now they don't have any insurance, so it's a perfect opportunity. We're going to put the individual insurance in first And when they start their new job in 3 weeks, they're going to get their group on top. So the individual they pay for, and that comes in completely tax-free as a tax-free benefit, and then the group that they're going to get from work will be paid by the employer, and that's going to be coming in, you know, taxable. So they get the benefit of wrapping them both together.

Nancy Cavey [00:08:57 - 00:09:44]

So, Glenn, as an attorney, I— and I see these types of situations, I say, okay, well, let's, let's time out here because I want you to look at that ERISA disability policy, and I want you to look at that individual disability policy, and I want us to understand, are there any offsets? Because there are policies that will say, if you have other insurance, we get to reduce the amount of your benefits by whatever you're going to get from this other disability policy. So that's a caveat that I, as a lawyer, will always say when people come to me and say, I want to look at the policies, should I apply for benefits now? It's that sort of what I call and what we call in our line of business coordination of benefits. And I know that that's a term that you're familiar with.

Glen Golish [00:09:44 - 00:09:54]

So they also have the same thing. I apologize to interrupt you, but they also have the same thing with Social Security riders. You can buy a Social Security rider also for the same thing. Never recommend it. Don't do it.

Nancy Cavey [00:09:55 - 00:09:57]

Yeah, I never recommend that either.

Glen Golish [00:09:58 - 00:10:06]

If you're one of the lucky ones to get the Social Security disability insurance from the government, You know, it's, it's almost impossible that, you know, they, they're going to even pay it.

Nancy Cavey [00:10:06 - 00:10:54]

So, well, the other problem, Len, is obviously I do Social Security disability work, is that from the ERISA disability and sometimes, well, not so much the IDI policy issue, there's an offset provision. So in the financial planning, uh, Len is also taking into consideration the fact that if you have an ERISA disability policy, And other policies, there's the issue of offsets, and the offset would be the other disability insurance benefits, but your Social Security benefits or pension benefits that you collect early, all of which can impact Glenn's financial planning. So, it's just not exactly how much insurance do I need, it's how much insurance do I need after we deal with offsets and reductions.

Glen Golish [00:10:55 - 00:10:55]

Exactly.

Nancy Cavey [00:10:56 - 00:11:21]

So, um, that leads me to my— to something else I want to talk with you about. How should somebody on disability start thinking differently about their overall financial plan compared to when they're working? Because now the unfortunate has happened. They are disabled, and their ability to make moves to deal with that loss of income or loss of life insurance are sitting them in the face. So what's your advice?

Glen Golish [00:11:21 - 00:11:44]

So first of all, when you're doing it as part of a financial plan, which is what we do all the time— so we, you know, there are a lot of people just come sell your product, sell your product. Thank you very much, not for me. Okay, we have to do the financial planning first. And so we call financial strategies and economic strategies. So we do that first. And when we do the strategy first, then you're going to come up with the idea of, hey, we got to make sure that there's going to be enough money in the pot that you have for emergencies that pop up.

Nancy Cavey [00:11:45 - 00:11:45]

Right.

Glen Golish [00:11:45 - 00:11:58]

And then we also know that you have to make sure when you're doing the proper planning that, wait a minute, my expenses are going to go down in certain areas, but they're going to go all crazy in other areas. And so you got to be prepared.

Nancy Cavey [00:11:58 - 00:11:59]

Yeah, the medical expenses.

Glen Golish [00:12:00 - 00:12:43]

Yeah, exactly. And so, and, and you're going to find that a lot of the stuff that you're going to want to be comfortable at home may not be covered by, you know, all the insurances that you think you have. So I want to have extra money in a pot From a financial planning standpoint, look, when it comes to planning, you want to make sure you're putting money into life insurance and the real estate and bonds and stocks and different investment products that are out there on the street. And you want to be diversified everywhere because most of the people in the world are like, oh, just put your money in real estate, just put your money in investment, just put your money somewhere. No, you got to be everywhere. And you got to be completely diversified everywhere. And if you have that money and you're saving on a regular basis all the time, again, our goal is to get every one of our clients to save a minimum of 15% of their income. every year, no matter what.

Glen Golish [00:12:43 - 00:12:47]

And we've gotten some clients with 40%.

Nancy Cavey [00:12:47 - 00:13:29]

So, Glenn, the other issue that arises in our practice, regardless if it's Social Security or it's disability benefits, is at some point in time, we know that our clients are going to lose their group insurance benefits. And so they're going to either COBRA, which is incredibly expensive and limited, in time duration, or they're going to go out into the open market, or if they're able, they'll be able to get on their spouse or significant other's policy. So how does this issue of the loss of group insurance tie into income protection and financial strategy? How do you address that?

Glen Golish [00:13:30 - 00:14:05]

So being transparent, a lot of the people that we work with are business owners themselves. So, but we work with the employees of those companies as well. So we have, you know, we have a, you know, a huge group in our office and we've got many, you know, 3 different, you know, groups of people, you know, from financial planning teams in our office that work with us. And, and so I typically work with the business owner and we— and then I work in conjunction with the other groups to work with some of the employees. So when you're working— so you're really talking about 2 different— you're asking a great question that needs to be addressed. But the answer is going to be different whether it's the employer or the employee.

Nancy Cavey [00:14:06 - 00:14:10]

So what's the answer if you're the employer? If you're the employee, what's the answer?

Glen Golish [00:14:12 - 00:14:45]

Yeah, no. So, so from a— look, from a, from a group standpoint, insurance is not going to be going with you. So I'm a big believer in having a policy that's going to follow you no matter where you go. So I want to make sure that it's not just— okay, when it comes to COBRA benefits or health insurance benefits, that's one thing. I'm definitely not a health insurance expert. We have, we have a couple of people in our office that are. So when it comes to actually health insurance itself, different conversation. But most of the time, you know, you're going to get COBRA and you really can't take it with you past that, right? And so you're going to be lost without health insurance, and that's going to be a problem.

Glen Golish [00:14:45 - 00:14:51]

But the good thing is, is because the health insurance is available through the marketplace, you can go get it. It's not a problem. It just costs a lot of money.

Nancy Cavey [00:14:51 - 00:14:51]

Right.

Glen Golish [00:14:51 - 00:15:03]

And people have to be understanding that they're going to be able to have to pay for it. Now, when it comes to Disability insurance, on the other hand, a lot of the group insurance policies are not convertible to go buy your own individual policy.

Speaker C [00:15:03 - 00:15:03]

Right.

Glen Golish [00:15:04 - 00:15:39]

So we try to make sure that some of the executives that are going to need the individual policies that may leave in the future— when we meet with individual employees of a firm afterwards, we always go in with their whole financial planning system. This is how we do it. We want you to start saving money on a regular basis. And yes, You want to have your group insurance, but you also want to have an individual that's going to be able to take with you with something called a future increase option on there. And the future increase option is very important because, you know, whether it's someone gets sick or injured or whatever it might be, you know, they're not going to buy it in the future.

Nancy Cavey [00:15:39 - 00:15:41]

They can't buy it.

Glen Golish [00:15:41 - 00:16:18]

Oh yeah, look at— so, or, you know, someone like myself, I'm, thank God, perfectly healthy, no issues whatsoever. But because I was in the hospital from COVID you know, 5 years ago No insurance company in the world will take me because of the, the experimental drugs they gave me, even though I'm perfectly fine. I'm perfectly healthy. I work out, I play golf, I do all the things you're supposed to be able to do, and no issues. But no insurance company is going to look at me because of the drugs that were experimental on me. So you never know when you're going to get stuck in that situation where you can't buy your own coverage later on. So future insurability option on life insurance or on disability insurance is extremely crucial. And the younger you get it, the better it is.

Nancy Cavey [00:16:20 - 00:16:53]

So I want to change tack because a lot of people think life insurance is income replacement. I don't really think of it that way as immediate income replacement. I think it is— it's certainly for your family if you were to pass. But there are life insurance policies where you can actually start collecting benefits while you're alive, if you will. So how does that possibility work in your thinking in terms of income protection and financial strategy?

Glen Golish [00:16:53 - 00:17:56]

Love it. So another great question. So when it comes to— first of all, there's life insurance now that you couldn't buy even 10 years ago that you can buy with what's called a long-term care rider on it. So let's talk about that quickly, and then I'm going to add in your second question, or your, you know, your real question, because you asked about other things earlier. So The fact of the matter is that if you buy life insurance that has some cash value built into it, then that could supplement your income in the future. You know, whether it's the person who just was in our office, you know, a few minutes ago, he's buying, you know, life insurance on his 6 grandchildren because they're young and they're healthy, and, and it's an opportunity to buy something that's going to build a ton of cash and give them money for, you know, college education and give them money for, uh, when they want to buy their first home. whether they want to, you know, get money for retirement planning, or in the event they got hit a billion times, they have a disability or a long-term care claim, they can pull money out of that, out of that policy. So it's just, you know, whether it's somebody young or if it's somebody that's a little bit older, you, when you do the full-blown financial planning, you're going to typically want to have some permanent insurance, some temporary, you know, and some temporary insurance.

Glen Golish [00:17:57 - 00:18:42]

And so a lot of times people that are, you know, financial planners out there, they're going to push one product over another product over another product. I don't believe in that. You have the full-blown financial planning first, and then you determine how much temporary insurance do I need, how much permanent insurance do I need, can I use that cash value along the way to help me or to help fund if, God forbid, a billion times something does happen to me. Sickness and illness does happen. Okay, we have a very good friend of ours, client, has been a client of us for almost 30 years, 27 years. So he never expected to have a disability. He never expected it to happen, and he had tons, you know, tons of assets and tons of real estate. And then, oh wait, the real estate market goes down, and then he has this disability.

Glen Golish [00:18:42 - 00:18:47]

And uh-oh, thank God a billion times he had a ton of money in his life insurance because he lived off of that for 4 years.

Nancy Cavey [00:18:47 - 00:18:48]

Wow.

Glen Golish [00:18:49 - 00:19:15]

Well, if he didn't have it, he would have been in big trouble. And then you also talk about, you know, life insurance can cover, you know, taxes. You know, I always say, let me pay your taxes. You know, if people have a tax problem down the road, you know, we can use life insurance to help you cover your, you know, your taxes, whether it's real estate taxes or estate taxes, or, you know, if you're going to sell a property, you have a big, you know, capital gain in the future, or if you want to do charitable planning, you can use life insurance for that as well.

Nancy Cavey [00:19:15 - 00:19:24]

Cool. This is great information, but I want to take a break because I want to ultimately segue into tools for financial protection. So let's take a quick break.

Glen Golish [00:19:24 - 00:19:25]

Thank you.

Nancy Cavey [00:19:42 - 00:20:31]

Welcome back to Winning Isn't Easy. We're going to transition our discussion into tools for financial protection. Now, we've talked a little bit about long-term disability, We've talked about life insurance and basic financial planning. But from my perspective as a long-term disability attorney and a long-term care attorney, I find that my clients are obviously focused on getting their long-term disability benefits because that's why we're working with them. But as they become disabled and as we are applying for their long-term disability benefits, What financial decisions do you think people should not delay in making and implementing during this time frame? Okay.

Glen Golish [00:20:31 - 00:20:33]

So should not delay, which is a great question.

Speaker C [00:20:33 - 00:20:33]

Yeah.

Glen Golish [00:20:33 - 00:21:05]

So, look, when I look at the idea of, again, when you— the problem is that most people do it too late. Right? Let's start with that. That's just reality. And then they're really in trouble. But the reality is, is when you do a full-blown financial plan, You can also, you know, buy the 3 major types of long-term care products that are out there, and you can buy the individual disability insurance that's out there. If you do it when you're healthy and you do it in advance, then you, then you're set. So there are tools that are out there, you know, regular everyday long-term care insurance. It's the same product.

Glen Golish [00:21:05 - 00:21:29]

It's the meat and the potatoes. It's been around forever. But the problem is that those products are not guaranteed, and the, the expense of those can go up over time. And you just have to be aware that that's going to happen. But the younger you buy it, the healthier it is, the easier it is. You know, we have a good friend of ours that was at our house, you know, even for dinner on, you know, for, um, the other night. And she can't even get it because she had some health issues. And she's young enough that she should be able to get it, but she had some health issues.

Glen Golish [00:21:29 - 00:21:39]

She's never going to be able to get it. And so we, we came up with some alternative products because, you know, you can also buy a life insurance policy that has a long-term care rider on it.

Nancy Cavey [00:21:39 - 00:21:40]

Correct.

Glen Golish [00:21:40 - 00:22:21]

And that's a phenomenal tool because what that does at least is it guarantees your maximum amount of premiums that you'll ever pay for long-term care insurance. When you buy an individual policy, the long-term care insurance premiums can go up whenever they want them to go up. Now it won't be, oh, it's just based on Nancy or just based on Glenn. No, it's based on the entire group as a whole that they're going to raise that rate. But most insurance companies have done it and most insurance companies are going to continue to do it. And when you buy it with a long-term care rider on a life insurance policy, they're giving you right the maximum it's going— the premium it could actually ever be. So you have a lot more protection when you look at it that way.

Nancy Cavey [00:22:21 - 00:23:17]

Okay, I'm gonna stop you because I really want you to answer this question for me. You either have a person who hasn't done a lot of long-term care— sorry, long-term financial planning, or they have. With you or some other financial planner, they are now filing for their disability insurance claim. So, they're in this process. Please tell me, what are the financial decisions that they need to be considering making at this timeframe when I'm in the disability process? I've got my policy, my disability policy. I've got life insurance. I've got This insurance, that insurance, I need to deal with a group insurance health issue. What is it that you do as a financial planner as you're sitting down saying, well, the inevitable has happened and now what do we need to do and what decisions do you need to make now as opposed to waiting?

Glen Golish [00:23:18 - 00:23:50]

Okay, great. So, the first thing is budget, budget, budget, budget, budget. I always say it 1,000 times over. People can't stand when I make them do a budget before we do the financial plan. And I don't care if you're worth my client is worth $3.3 billion, or, you know, clients that are worth whatever, $100,000, doesn't matter. Our firm makes every single person do a budget when they do the financial plan with us. We need to know what realistically you're going to be spending. And then when the long-term care hits or disability hits, you got to know what your budget is and what things we can actually— are, you know, I always say the, like, the paychecks and the playchecks.

Glen Golish [00:23:50 - 00:24:45]

So what are the things that you can, you know, you have no choice, you have to pay, No matter what? And what are the things that, you know, can, you know, can cover based on things that you want to do just because it's the fun thing that you want to do? Now, when long-term care hits or a long-term disability hits, it doesn't mean that you're going to be 100% disabled forever and you can't do anything. It usually means that you're going to be partially disabled because most disability claims are a partial claim. Most long-term care claims are a partial claim. They're not, oh, I can't do anything. So you want to still have fun in life and you want to make sure what is that budget. So I'm a big believer, budget first before anything else. And then you start to go through the— from a financial planning perspective, what income can I get from different assets? What income can I get from different products that I have? And then you start to analyze, okay, great, we're able to cover this. Here's the deficit.

Glen Golish [00:24:45 - 00:25:25]

Let's start to figure out maybe we have to eat into some other assets. We may have no choice but to eat into assets. You may have It's a bummer, but if you didn't do proper planning in advance and you don't have the proper disability insurance or proper long-term care insurance because you didn't do it in advance, then you better go out and start to, you know, figure out what am I going to live on on a regular basis. And sometimes, unfortunately, it means downsizing a home. Sometimes it means downsizing certain cars. Sometimes it means, you know, changing your lifestyle completely, you know, giving up on certain vacations that you would have wanted to do even though that you think you're healthy enough to go on these vacations. Unfortunately, if you didn't do proper planning in advance, you know, you can only, you know, do so much.

Nancy Cavey [00:25:26 - 00:25:59]

So one of the things that I, uh, am big about is turning over rocks. And so I will ask my clients, well, did you purchase a disability insurance rider on your mortgage or on your car that would make the payment if you were unable to work? So I'm all about turning over rocks because people may have methods of financial protection that they don't even know that they have. So that's a tip that I certainly give my clients.

Glen Golish [00:26:00 - 00:26:28]

Also waiver premium. A lot of people didn't realize that their advisor smartly put on waiver premium. What is waiver premium? Just everybody that's listening to this understands. Waiver premium says that in the event that I become disabled, okay, I don't have to pay disability premiums anymore, or I become disabled and there might be a waiver premium on your life insurance policy and you don't have to pay the premiums on the life insurance anymore. So that is definitely one of those rocks that you want to, you know, look at.

Nancy Cavey [00:26:28 - 00:26:42]

Yeah, I'm big on— we call them LWOPs, um, and but that's the life insurance waiver premium. But one of the things that I find with LWOPs is that there may be a def— a different definition of disability.

Glen Golish [00:26:43 - 00:26:43]

Yes.

Nancy Cavey [00:26:44 - 00:27:25]

For your disability claim than disability for your life waiver premium. So in other words, what I mean is that the standard of disability can be different for the disability policy than it is for the definition of a waiver for life insurance. And that causes all sorts of problems. I mean, I'll have cases where they will approve one but not approve the other, which, you know, I'm scratching my head trying to figure out, you know, why did you guys do that? But that's something that people also need to be aware of when you're looking at this waiver issue. What's the definition of disability, and are they the same? Because that ultimately can be an issue.

Glen Golish [00:27:25 - 00:27:54]

Yeah, most of the time it's not. Most of the time, you know, we're finding that most people bought a waiver premium on a life insurance policy, and it might be a 6-month waiver you know, before, you know, 6 months, um, waiting period before it's going to kick in the disability waiver on the life insurance. So you may have to wait 6 months, but on a typical disability insurance, yeah, you can buy a 30, 60, 90-day waiting period or 180-day waiting period. But 99% of the time we see a 90-day waiting period on individual disability policies.

Nancy Cavey [00:27:55 - 00:28:13]

And so you lead me to another point, and that is if a person is in a situation where their disability insurance benefits are denied or their life insurance benefits are denied, you no longer have the life or the disability waiver premium. You have to start paying your premium again because if you don't, you lose the coverage.

Glen Golish [00:28:14 - 00:28:14]

Right.

Nancy Cavey [00:28:14 - 00:28:47]

That's something I have to really emphasize with my clients because, you know, just because your claim gets denied doesn't mean your claim is over. And if we win, we're only going to win the payment of benefits through the date you last paid your premium. So people need to understand that life waiver of premium or the disability waiver of premium can end. And then you've got to make another financial decision. Do I continue to pay the premium when I may not be able to afford it? But we're fighting to get those benefits.

Glen Golish [00:28:47 - 00:29:12]

Yeah. And if you need— look, the beautiful thing is if you buy good permanent insurance, you know, from a life insurance standpoint, that is, you know, hopefully the long-term care or the disability, you know, didn't happen until later on. Hopefully. Okay. And the fact of the matter is, if that's the case, then hopefully there's dividends and there's cash value that's built up in those products that you're gonna be able to use to help fund that in the future. Great point.

Nancy Cavey [00:29:12 - 00:29:20]

Great point. So let's take a break. We're gonna come back and talk about avoiding pitfalls and planning ahead. And this is the guy that will help us with those planning decisions.

Glen Golish [00:29:21 - 00:29:22]

Thank you.

Speaker C [00:29:23 - 00:29:53]

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Nancy Cavey [00:30:02 - 00:30:28]

Welcome back to Winning Isn't Easy. Glen, let's talk about avoiding pitfalls and planning ahead. So for somebody whose earning capacity might be limited or uncertain, how do you balance protection today with long-term financial goals, particularly in today's economic environment where there's this uncertainty about the economy and what you should invest in? Help us with that, please.

Glen Golish [00:30:29 - 00:31:18]

So listen, everybody's situation is 100% different. And, and I always like to say, you know, do not listen to your next-door neighbor, your best friend, your parent, your family member, because your financial planning is going to be different than their financial planning, right? And, and the biggest mistake I see ever is the guy comes in or a lady comes in or a business owner comes in. They're like, wait a minute, my next-door neighbor was telling me about this idea. And I'm like, but did you look how it fits in the entire picture? It doesn't fit in your entire picture that way. And so we're a little bit of a, you know, a pain, I like to say, when it comes to, you know, doing financial planning because we look at everything. So we look at car insurance, home insurance, stocks, bonds, mutual funds, real estate. All those things could be a pitfall and all those things could be a major problem if you don't analyze it in advance. It could be that your car insurance has the wrong deductible on it.

Glen Golish [00:31:18 - 00:31:52]

Uh-oh. What are you going to do? Oh, wait a minute. Your car insurance doesn't have the proper coverage that you're supposed to have. Or maybe you don't have the proper liability coverage that you need. So there's a lot of pitfalls that are out there. And when it comes to the financial planning process, if you look at everything, then you're really going to do the right job for the client. And they're going to hopefully be able— so it doesn't matter to me whether they're You know, they make $50,000 a year, they make $50 million a year, it doesn't matter. Everybody has to look at all the financial planning strategies that are out there and look at how it affects them individually and how it's going to help them over their lifetime.

Glen Golish [00:31:52 - 00:32:11]

So, you know, when you talk about, you know, the pitfalls, I don't know, it could be that, you know, you don't have a proper will. You're an attorney, right? You know how many times we see people that come in, they don't have proper wills or trusts or documents or basic, basic stuff. Healthcare surrogates. Wait a minute, what if you become disabled and you need a healthcare surrogate?

Speaker C [00:32:12 - 00:32:12]

Right?

Glen Golish [00:32:13 - 00:32:19]

You know, big problem. And I'll— you're the attorney, I'll let you describe that better than me. But I can tell you that.

Nancy Cavey [00:32:20 - 00:32:35]

Well, for your information, we just updated all of that and, you know, put stuff in trust. And, uh, sometimes even us lawyers can be the worst clients because we're, we're not paying attention to things that we should be paying attention to in our personal lives.

Glen Golish [00:32:35 - 00:32:35]

Exactly.

Nancy Cavey [00:32:36 - 00:32:58]

So let's talk about your website. You talk about financial legacy on your website a lot, and I understand that. But how does that shift, that idea shift for someone after a major life event like disability? Please talk with us about that.

Glen Golish [00:32:59 - 00:34:03]

I think when it comes to financial legacy, it's what do you want to leave behind, right? What is it? You know, what is the you know, whether you want to leave something behind, you know, whether it's your, you know, your personal views, your, you know, your charitable views. A lot of times people, you know, think about legacy as just, okay, I'm giving it to, you know, my next generation. But there's a tremendous amount of people that I speak to that whether it's, you know, tithing or whether whatever it might be, they believe they have to give it to their church or their synagogue, or they believe they want to give it to their favorite, you know, charity that's out there. And, and when we look at planning You know, you want to try and put it— put a plan in effect that's going to be living longer than you are, or that's going to last a lifetime no matter what happens to you. So whether it's, like you said, a disability or possibly an early death or whatever it might be, that your plan is going to be exactly what you want it to be. And so that's where it comes into, I'm going to be leaving a legacy of— let's just say for children. Right. Okay, everybody has a different situation where they believe, okay, wait a minute, my, my father paid for college, so I'm going to pay for college.

Glen Golish [00:34:03 - 00:34:22]

And then you get people that come and say, wait a minute, my father didn't pay for college, and you better believe I'm paying for college for my kids. Everybody has a different philosophy. I'm not the person to tell you to change your philosophy. I'm the person to say, when I understand your philosophy and your goals, your dreams, your desires, let's save as much money as possible to make sure that we're actually going to be in a situation where you actually have what you want to have when you need it.

Nancy Cavey [00:34:22 - 00:34:40]

So, I got that, but let's say a person has a major life event like disability. How does that impact the financial legacy? My goal would be to pay for my children's college education, but now I'm disabled.

Glen Golish [00:34:41 - 00:34:41]

Right.

Nancy Cavey [00:34:42 - 00:35:11]

I need to sit down and figure out my income using, you know, Glenn's budget How does that— how does disability, in your experience, impact that financial legacy? Because we view ourselves many times as a product of our occupation. I'm a lawyer, that's who I am. But if I could become a lawyer or be a lawyer, I would be obviously very unhappy.

Glen Golish [00:35:11 - 00:35:11]

Yeah.

Nancy Cavey [00:35:11 - 00:35:25]

But that would also impact the legacy that I want to leave Financially. So talk with us, please, about how the idea and reality of financial legacy would shift after disability.

Glen Golish [00:35:26 - 00:36:13]

Okay, so, so again, it really goes down to what you want to do. And the reality is, is that if you're able to do what we talked about a moment ago, which is, you know, you put a waiver premium on a life insurance policy, well, that life insurance policy is going to be there no matter what, assuming that you can wait the 6 months. of, you know, of paying those premiums for 6 months. And typically, you know, most people can if you do it the right way. So that, that piece at least can, you know, can fit. But the reality is, is that unfortunately you're going to have to adjust your lifestyle. You're going to have to adjust what you want to do in life. And you're— and what really stinks is a lot of times your goals, your dreams, and your desires are going to have to have a mind shift if you don't have that income coming in on a regular basis, which is why I pray that everybody does proper disability insurance and proper long-term care insurance and proper planning in advance.

Glen Golish [00:36:13 - 00:36:27]

But there's no question the legacy that you leave behind is going to shift, and your change— your goals and your dreams are going to have to change if you don't do proper planning. If you do proper planning, it's easy, no problem. But if you don't, that's the bigger issue.

Nancy Cavey [00:36:27 - 00:36:48]

You know, it's almost as if you have to do financial planning. Uh, I think what John Lennon said, you know, What is it? Life is what happens when you aren't planning or something. I don't remember the exact quote. But it seems to me that you always have to be thinking of the worst-case scenario, which is not necessarily human nature. So—

Glen Golish [00:36:50 - 00:37:27]

Goals and dreams. Like, one of the things we do with our clients, which is incredible, is that we always talk about, hey, it's 3 years from today, it's 5 years today, you're looking back today, you're talking about all the incredible, phenomenal, amazing things going on in your world. What has to have happened for you to feel great with your progress personally and professionally? Tell me about that. Let me understand it. And when you talk to people like they're human beings and you get into their head and their heart and you create that plan around them about what they want, well, then you're going to— they're going to understand to put away more money. You know, we have, we have a client of ours, you know, they save 40% of their income, then they pay taxes, and then they live on what's left. Most people don't do that. Most people are not smart enough to do that.

Glen Golish [00:37:28 - 00:37:34]

And so, you know, if you could, you know, I like to say save first, it's gonna be so much easier, so much easier.

Nancy Cavey [00:37:35 - 00:38:00]

So you just talked about heart and head. So for listeners who may be overwhelmed by all of this, what are the few practical first steps that they can take to deal with these head and heart issues, which we don't really wanna deal with? And that is we might become disabled or know, God forbid, we might pass early. So, give us some ideas here, please.

Glen Golish [00:38:00 - 00:38:15]

So, look, you and I are not— wouldn't be in business if it's not— I don't even say, like, it's going to— it may happen. It's going to happen. Like, if you don't become disabled during your lifetime, you know, when you're working, it's almost 100% you're going to be disabled when you retire.

Nancy Cavey [00:38:16 - 00:38:16]

When you retire.

Glen Golish [00:38:16 - 00:38:50]

I mean, my own father, you know, who, you know, passed away, you know, a couple years ago, Sorry. Unfortunately, thank you. But, you know, he, he was living in a nursing home, perfectly healthy, perfectly fine, and he didn't get any benefits for the, you know, the first, you know, couple years he was there. Then, but my stepmother, on the other hand, who, again, I had a phenomenal relationship with her, she was getting benefits right away. And so they were like living in like an independent, but then she had to move into a long, you know, into a memory care. And so she was getting benefits right here. She got it for 5 years. My father only got benefits for about a year and a half.

Glen Golish [00:38:50 - 00:39:09]

And so, you know, the reality is, is that you have to plan properly and things are just going to come up. And if you don't plan in advance, you're not going to have what you want. And so the head and the heart idea is so important. You talk about— I always tell people, go to the, go to the beach. You know, we live in Florida, right? It's pretty simple.

Speaker C [00:39:09 - 00:39:09]

Okay.

Glen Golish [00:39:10 - 00:39:37]

People around the, you know, around the country, I apologize if you live in the middle of the, you know, go to a mountaintop, go somewhere fun. You know, if you're listening to it somewhere else, But I say go to the beach, sit 50 feet away from your wife, okay, or your spouse, or significant other, or whoever you're with, and talk— write down your goals, your dreams, your desires, what's important to you. And then once you understand what's important to you, then the two of you can get together and have a real deep, meaningful conversation about it. And then you come back to me and we can make it all come alive.

Nancy Cavey [00:39:37 - 00:40:01]

That's a great answer, Glenn. So as we wrap up this episode, how do people find financial planners like you? And what advice do you give to people to pick the right financial advisors? Because nobody knows if the financial advisor is really good or not, or they're just interested in making money off the commissions. Give us some insider tips about that, please.

Glen Golish [00:40:02 - 00:40:31]

It's a great question. I love it because it's the, it's the biggest thing I think that sets us apart. You know, I've been very, very blessed, you know, Forbes magazine wrote us up last year as number 29 in the, uh, in the world. There's 3.5 million people in our business. It's a huge blessing. I've been in the top 100, you know, for the past, you know, uh, 4 years we're running. And, and I can tell you it's because the person who mentored me in the business taught me one thing, you know, no one cares, you know, what you know until they know how much you care. And once they know how much you care, they really care what you know.

Glen Golish [00:40:31 - 00:41:25]

And then once you— that's really the thing, is that you need to be caring. If you don't really feel like you're sitting in front of someone that cares and loves you, it really wants to see you, you know, be the best that you can be financially, you don't want to work with them. But you also want to work with someone that's not just selling a product, but it's doing the plan first. It's a holistic plan that has to be done first, and then after the holistic plan, products can fall into place, no problem. But you want to reduce taxes, you want to reduce fees, you want to reduce expenses, you want to be able to reduce all those things first before going out and just buying a product. Because too many people buy a product and they come to me And I get, I get brought in by a lot of law firms to do what's called life insurance audits or long-term care audits or long-term disability audits. And, and the, and what the problem is, is that most of the people were just sold the product without doing planning first. And so if you could do the full-blown planning and what to look for in someone is, do they do holistic planning first? There's not a lot of us out there.

Glen Golish [00:41:25 - 00:41:37]

Most people in the world are sitting there just selling product. And, and that's a big difference. Much— it's crazy. If you're not doing holistic planning, run away from them. That's the way I say.

Nancy Cavey [00:41:38 - 00:42:01]

Okay, so listen to your heart, sort of, with a little bit of head in there, because you want somebody who is compassionate but also a bit tough like you are. I want a budget, uh, you know, here's a plan, um, this is why I want you to follow it, this is what the end result would be. Sometimes people don't like to hear that, but that's exactly what they need to hear, right?

Glen Golish [00:42:01 - 00:42:02]

Exactly. Exactly.

Nancy Cavey [00:42:03 - 00:42:08]

If people were interested in learning more about you and your firm, how would they get a hold of you?

Glen Golish [00:42:08 - 00:42:38]

So you can call us, okay? 561-869-4600. Or you can look at our website, you know, which is gwealthstrategies.com. That's with an S on the end. So www.gwealthstrategies.com. Again, we have unbelievable financial planners in our office, phenomenal team. We've got a great staff, and we are, you know, we are very niche because we're very different, I think, than everybody else, which is why I think we've had a lot of the blessings and the success that we've had in our business.

Nancy Cavey [00:42:39 - 00:42:41]

Well, congratulations.

Glen Golish [00:42:41 - 00:42:49]

Thank you very much. I really appreciate the time you, you know, you gave me today, and it's really an honor to spend more, you know, some quality time with you now, and I'm hoping we spend a lot more quality time in the future together.

Nancy Cavey [00:42:49 - 00:43:20]

Thank you. Well, that wraps up today's episode of Winning Isn't Easy. Thanks for tuning in. I certainly hope that you found this episode helpful because financial planning should begin now, not when you are thinking about applying for disability or having to deal with long-term care issues. So, please, if you found this episode helpful, take a moment to like our page, leave a review, share it with your family and friends, and of course, subscribe to the podcast. Please join us next week. for another insightful episode of Winning Isn't Easy. Thanks.

Glen Golish [00:43:21 - 00:43:22]

Thank you.