How To Protect Your FINANCIAL Legacy

 And really what you're doing is protecting against the catastrophic claim. That is what we're after with umbrella. And that's where I think people often miss. That's what protect your lifestyle. That's what protects your business and your legacy. It's not the $5,000 fender bender. It's somebody coming after you and suing you for five million because their kids slipped at your kids pool party and it was now paralyzed. That's and I get that stuff doesn't happen. It doesn't happen to anybody. But that's what we're trying to protect again. I was Nick, welcome to the Better Well Show. We're going to be talking about everyone's favorite subject, not crypto, not real estate, not life insurance, but risk management. And before you guys sign off or unsubscribe, I can assure you that if you want to be financially free, if you want to live intentionally, if you want to be savvy and efficient, you have to understand the risk management umbrella. And and you know, you're going to get into what that means. But essentially, we have to know that there's not any one event that could take us away and we want to also make sure that we're not overpaying or being ignorant when it comes to our risk management. So Nick, the the the bar is set. Don't don't let me down here. And what is going on? So I appreciate it. Man, it's good to be back. Yeah, it's you know, we used to be in below crypto below real estate below, you know, investing, whole life, all the fun stuff we are. We used to get pushed to the bottom. So no worries there. I think this is the only show that we could say that it's below whole life because the Gordia Life Insurance, I think is actually below the. But I think I think we do a pretty good job elevating that. And so ironically, a lot of people out watch us and listen to us see the value in that. And that's that's ultimately why I think this conversation is so important is when we talk about multi dimensional dollars and we look at the whole model, I think our clients know. And I think the people that listen to the show know that decisions have ripple effects. And when I think of risk management, I think of that. And so for the audience, why don't you just give a slight background and then let's get into the to the nuts and bolts of of how we can be more efficient watching slash listening to to our conversation. Yeah, so I've been in the insurance risk management space for about 11 years now. And when I started us, I guess I was kind of a journalist like I'll just put my head down work and everything good will happen. You know, I'm hard worker. Everything will come to me. It was kind of the thought process, the mindset. I actually couldn't have been more wrong eight years in kind of figure that out. My wife and I found the person's development space. That's how we found you read and assets and our lives just kind of started changing and we rebuilt our lives the past three years completely. Anything from, you know, health finances. We started our own company this past year. And the idea was everywhere we turned was about like all the research we did, how to grow, how to become more successful, how to build your, your dream lifestyle, leave a legacy, everything that everybody's out there, you know, trying to do. But the more we looked, nobody was talking about how to defend all of this stuff and how to protect it on the way up and protect it once you have it because I don't know about you, but once you get there, you probably don't want to go back. You know, nobody wants to really live the life they lived five years ago, 10 years ago. They're working towards a goal. And if you had to go backwards, it takes you further from that. And that's where we kind of sat down and so we've got to do this. We have the experience in the industry. So we start our company to really help people, you know, defend success. That was the entire kind of idea and mission behind it. And like I said, we started in January really focused on helping entrepreneurs redesign those insurance strategies. The boring ones, not the and asset, you know, the home, the business, the auto insurance, you know, the stuff that is less sexy, not fun. But needs to be designed correctly to match the lifestyle you've created. Because if you can do that, you will ultimately really be able to protect yourself and the lifestyle, the business, the legacy you've built from any lawsuit. And that's what we're after. Yeah, you referenced before we were recording about a study that people that are more like are tend to be more wealthy and have more success if they're focused on the risk management because they're making sure that all the all the bases are covered. Can you can you go into that? Yeah, it was it was interesting. The study was done by Chubb Insurance. And essentially what they found is that I guess the timing of when people paid attention to the risk management side was interesting. It was always after the fact, right? It was once they kind of, you know, got to a point of success or lifestyle. They then went back and said, well, I should have been paying attention to this five, 10 years ago. And the reality of it is you should be doing it. You know, every year, you know, if you're doing it, your lifestyle is evolving and changing that much. But the study, it was just interesting. You know, there's stats that, you know, 80% of successful people are not with the right insurance partners. Right. So their insurance company can't even design the correct strategy to protect the lifestyle that they've built. So that's where I think people kind of like a tax strategy. Yeah. Nobody wouldn't, I don't know, some people do it. But ideally you have a tax strategy before you go out and fire your taxes over, you're not just doing it, you know, April 15th. And it's the same with the insurance and risk management. You have to have a strategy before you just go out and start, you know, blindly buying insurance products. Right. And you guys have consulting, so I mean people, people that have business, people that have a lot of assets work with you guys through consulting. And then you make sure that you run an analysis on everything and do your due diligence. And so we appreciate you coming on and sharing some of the trade secrets because it's my heart whether people work with you or not that they know the questions to ask and kind of have the ability to not overpay but make sure that they're properly protected. And so I'm a big framework person and I think like if we can't create a framework around something, there's a problem. So what would be the framework when it comes to risk management? Where do we start and then kind of lead us through the process? Obviously we're not going to be an expert in all the companies or whatnot, but what is kind of the steps that if we wanted to make sure that we have our risk management dialed in that we're going through? Yeah, I would say maybe we'll start with a couple of three. I guess a couple of three. There's perfect English for you. We'll start with a couple of, I guess I don't call them house came up, but basic things that you should be looking for out for. And one is you understand that this is a complex space, right? They're legal contracts and not every insurance company is created the same or it has the ability to execute the same strategy despite what you might see on TV when you watch in football, whatever every care insurance company or carry that advertises. It's like, let's just do it for less. Do it for less. They're not talking about the strategy that goes into it or the product really offer. So it is a complex space and you really do need a strategy before you go to the market. You need to understand to what risk is actually threatening your success. I think this is one of the most common misconceptions people in a lot of ways have it wrong because the insurance industry trained us incorrectly, right? If you look at all the major insurance companies that advertise on TV, they're talking about protecting your stuff. Protect your car, protect your house. It's important, but if your car is not insured incorrectly and there's a loss there, it's not going to sink you. If you drive a $50,000 car and it's completely wrecked, you'll find a way to recover from that. What you may not recover from is if you're sued because of that car accident. You paralyze somebody. Somebody passes away and their family comes after you. That is going to be much harder to recover from because the number is unknown. As far as what somebody can see you for. So understanding that that's the risk that actually threatens your success is a loss. It's not so much your own stuff. Again, I think understanding that correct risk and identifying it within your own life because it exists in all areas. You go on vacation that risk is present. You go to ski house, lake house, beach house, whatever it is, that risk is there and continually evolves as your lifestyle evolves. I think we talked, it's like you could be on the golf course and hit someone with a golf ball, you're liable. So I was like, I didn't, like that makes sense, but I'm like, man, like you don't think about that. We're like almost like a walking mayhem, which I believe isn't an all state that has that. It's all state. My wife here all the time, my complaint with mayhem is if you, like the last commercial I saw, I liked the commercials. They're probably some of the funniest ones, except they're always talking about your own stuff. Like, so he, I think he was riding like a Peloton or something like that. And he fell and he fell through his glass door in his house. Now, and the commercials, like, see, you need, you know, you need protection and protects me, you protect you from stuff like this. In reality, who cares? That what's that door cost $2,000? You know, if you didn't have insurance, you probably aren't even going to put an insurance claim in to be honest. Why would you go and fix it yourself? So that's where some of the strategy comes involved is like, you, what if somebody's on the other side of that door? What if somebody gets injured at your house? Now there's a lawsuit that results from that. That's what we're focused on. So, so, and again, the first step is get really, really clear on what, where, where our gaps are, where you're liable. And then, and then the second step is figuring out the most efficient way to cover that liability. Yeah. I would say the first step is really evaluate the risk. Like you just said, the second step is based on that risk design strategy. Okay. Right. Design. How do I want to transfer this risk? Do I want to self-insure some of it? Do I want to move it all to an insurance company? You know, and I say insurance company, that's typically the most common and most cost effective way to do it. You know, you could self-insure, you could set up your own insurance company, but typically insurance companies are going to be the best. So design that strategy based on the risk that you evaluate. Yep. I also want to be very clear that, you know, Nick and myself are not giving, you know, advice because we don't know your situation. And so take everything that we say with a grain of salt. But when it comes to designing a strategy, what are some quick wins that you've given people? Again, you're not speaking into an individual situation because you don't know that, but I know that in the past, we've talked about umbrella insurance. And it's kind of like, that's an insane hack. Bundling your car and auto like car and auto, home, auto. Hey, you had me on my car, you should buy a home car. And so like, what are some other like hacks? Because again, like there's so many like ads, it seems like half the commercials are property and casualty and it's just as simple as it's almost feels like a race to the bottom. We could do this cheaper. We can do this cheaper. We can do this cheaper, which I'm fine with, I actually like, but what it's not the whole story. And so what are some of the quick wins when you're designing strategies that you've done for clients that have been like, wow, that's been a game changer. Yeah. One of the easiest, uh, you know, wins is your hacks. If you will, is looking at your auto insurance or your property insurance or your home renters, whatever you have. Look at that deductible. Move that, move it up. You could, you know, they typically go at $250 or $500 deductible. That's what you're paying. You get in a car accident, you're paying that out of pocket and then the insurance company kicks in. Right. So take that number and move it to 2,500, move it to 5,000 on your home, move it to 10,000. If you're not, if you're the type that's not going to file a claim, you're like that mayhem example, where you broke the glass door from two renties. We're not going to put that claim in. Don't have a $500 deductible because you're not going to use the insurance anyway. So what that does is it creates some instant premium savings because you're taking on more risks. So the insurance company rewards that. Um, the next component to that, um, totally lost my mind. I thought I was getting all excited about the mayhem guy. So once you create that savings is where we're going with it. Now, how do you use that money efficiently? Right. You can either save it or where we were talking about the umbrella insurance policy, that's excess liability coverage. So separate from property, separate from first party. That is any liability, you know, anything that could result in a lawsuit. So that constant example, you've got your car that gets damaged. You've raised that deductible. So now you're, let's say responsible for the first 2000. If you injure somebody else, they're coming after you with a lawsuit. That policy caps out at a max amount it will pay. It's in the contract across the board, any insurance company. It's a typically about $250,000. So the claim is above that you're now responsible for any dollar amount over that unless you have an umbrella policy, which would drop down as excess coverage. So a lot of times what we'll do is we'll raise property deductibles, first party coverage, we'll self-insure the property risk to a point and then we'll take that extra savings and we'll spend that on excess liability coverage, umbrella coverage to protect the downside from getting sued. Can you explain what umbrella insurance is? Because when you broke this down for me, I was like, oh, it's kind of a note. It's like the very cheap insurance that goes a long ways just for protecting like everything in my life. Can you break that down and also make the connection that you're, you know, home insurance essentially is more than just what happens in the home? Yeah. So we'll start with the home. So home insurance, renters insurance, if you don't have renters insurance, it's one of the most common things. I don't want to insure my stuff. It's not about your stuff. It's personal liability is the coverage that we're after. You get that on the renters policy, you get it on the home insurance policy. Just like the auto policy, the liability section, there's a cap to what that policy will pay. Could be a half million, could be a million. Personal liability is what it follows you everywhere, anywhere in the world. So that golfing example that we gave, you know, I know it doesn't happen to any of us, but you push it into the other fairway, you hit somebody, that's on you. That's personal liability. They're going to come after you. You know, if it's a serious, if it's minor, you know, buying my beer in the clubhouse show, I'm good. But you know, if it's a serious injury, they're probably going to see you for that financial compensation. So that's what personal liability protects you for. That's attached to the homeowner's policy. Oftentimes, like you were saying, people think of it as simply somebody comes to my house, I've got to cook out, hang out the pool, whatever. Somebody slips and falls. It's far beyond that. So when you look at the umbrella policy, it is an excess policy, meaning it sits on top of other coverages. The technical term would be underlying policies, right? So those would be your home or renters, that personal liability section in the auto policy. So the way you would structure this thing, if you had, you know, a house in a couple of cars is you get the home insurance, get the personal liability, get the auto insurance, auto liability. You would then go out and get the umbrella policy on top of that. And really what you're doing is protecting against the catastrophic claim. That is what we're after with umbrella. And that's where I think people often miss. That's what protect your lifestyle. That's what protects your business and your legacy. It's not the $5,000 fender bender. It's somebody coming after you and suing you for $5 million because their kids slipped at your kids pool party and it was now paralyzed. That's true. And I get that stuff doesn't happen. Doesn't happen to anybody. But that's what we're trying to protect against. And I think that's oftentimes where people miss. And the industry doesn't do the best job of explaining because when you watch the commercials, they're not talking about that. Yeah, I'm going to play devil's advocate. If you have a $5 million umbrella insurance policy, is that public knowledge number one? And does that make you a lot? Like, does that put a target on your back? Or does it not like our return when people are suing, they're just suing everybody, anybody and everybody and seeing what sticks. I would say it's a mix. So I wouldn't say it's necessarily public knowledge. If you get suited to probably come up, there is a school of thought. So even within the insurance industry, don't carry an umbrella because it will. And if you just listen to this part, don't go back. Listen, we're saying carry an umbrella, right? But there's a school of thought in the industry. This is don't do it because it will just give somebody that target. And I completely disagree with that school of thought. Now you could get, we could get technical and there is some data out there that the insurance insurance companies have. If you have a 7 million umbrella versus a 5, you know, it's 87% more likely that the courts want to award the maximum amount. So there is some data that you could really, if you wanted to start having a lot of fun with it, we could do it up, you know, some sort of social gathering. I'm sure people love it. But there's some data behind it. How you want to do it. But the reality is I wouldn't want to gamble my life, my lifestyle, the business just because somebody might want that target. And the cost is so low. Let them have it is kind of my thought. If that's what it came down to and they're going to pay to defend you. That's the other thing. As much as it becomes a target, they're not looking to the insurance company is not looking just just because you have it. They're not looking to just pay it out. Just because. So in a lot of ways, it's like a prepaid, you know, legal, it's prepaid defense. That's a good point. And the other thing is like, we have to look at the outcomes. What is the outcome of what we're doing? You're not necessarily just buying an insurance policy. You're buying what that peace of mind and solid foundation is getting you. And so yes, it's hopefully the thought process would be that you would show up more powerfully in your life if you had, you know, making sure that everything's protected now. It may be or maybe not. But what I've experienced is if people are more educated in what they're doing with their money and insurance or whatnot, they, they're able to have more clarity and be more definite. I don't know if that's true or not that, but I just, I've experienced that. And so I think it's important even if you can't save money to make sure you know why you do what you do. And just the same thing that you said, like renters insurance, you might be renting and be like, I don't care about the stuff, but if you don't have renters insurance and then, you know, you injure somebody will use the golf course example. That's like, could like that's a problem. And so you're totally exposed, you know, and you're totally exposed. And so like you're doing everything you can, you're saving and you're investing and all that stuff and you're one decision away from going back to zero. And a renters insurance slash homeowners policy is it's not that much money for what it gets you. And I think that's the overall picture of like make sure that you, you have that your base is covered because it would be a shame to spend 20, 30, 40 years of your life doing something and then having one, one event wipe it all out. I totally agree. And I think it goes back to, you know, you're trying to create a dream lifestyle, you're trying to create success. You're trying to build a legacy. Is that really what you want your legacy to be? Well, they built this amazing business. They built this crazy life, but they were the ones that got it all wiped out. Right. You know, because they didn't have their stuff in order Hulk Hogan. I'm sure you remember him. There's a story him years ago. This happened to him. He didn't have the correct structure in place and I'm not sure what he's doing now. I'm sure he's recovered and onto great things. I haven't really followed up, but it, it destroyed what they built and destroyed their lifestyle. They lost the lawsuit. They didn't have the right protection in place. And what happened was it, I believe it was their teenage son was in a car accident. And there was serious damage to the other driver, but on top of that, they found out who the dad was. Oh, your dad's Hulk Hogan. I mean, this is our ticket. And so part of it is as you expand lifestyle, as you grow and build, you become more of a target, right? You know, and, and people know that people can find that information out, especially these days of social media. No one shy about putting a, you know, how successful they are on social media and at times they could become, you know, a detriment. So Nick, is there anything else that we should know? I mean, I don't want to make podcast or videos longer than they need to be, but I also don't want to cut it short. Is there any other epiphanies that you've had any other quick wins that you're like, man, like this is, this is something that I should articulate and would make people better as it relates to, you know, being more efficient when it comes to how they view risk management. Yeah, I would say what I can do quickly is finish the five steps that you should go through and I'll just touch on it. How do you know when you've outgrown your insurance strategy? You know, because I think that's a lot of times people don't understand when to update it. So we talked about the first step, evaluate the risk in your life. You're looking for anything that could result in a lawsuit. Then design, you know, a strategy on how to use home auto and business insurance effectively and you're going to review your current insurance program. So what do you have in place? Does it actually match that strategy? Do you need to make changes? Are there things that you want to keep? Then you're going to go out and evaluate the market based on that strategy. So the strategy you design will dictate who you go to. You know, state farm is not a fit for every strategy. You know, GEICO is not a fit for every strategy. CHUB maybe. Go out to the market, evaluate those options, negotiate with those insurance companies and then ultimately you're going to implement that strategy. So pick which option you want to go with and get that in place. So I guess those are the five steps that if you're concerned about this, if you're looking to do this, I would walk through those things. And then ultimately deciding if you need to do that, if you've outgrown your strategy, most likely everybody did, but I know that's just far too vague. So if you've built the business, if you've grown a business within the last two to five years, if you've experienced any life changes, you know, you've expanded your lifestyle, you've added toys, you've bought homes, you've got married, you've had kids, you've had teenage drivers, you know, any kind of major changes to your lifestyle within the last, you know, two, five, 10 years and you haven't updated the strategy to match that, then you're probably in that, you're at that point, we need to go through those steps. So evaluate where you're at, design a strategy, review what you currently have and how that matches up with your strategy, shop the market, implement. Correct. That's the simple. It's, it's. See, it just, what's that saying? I just heard it the other day. I'm like, yeah, and I couldn't be more like it's simple, but it, you would probably know, but it's simple, but it's, but it's not easy. It comes down to the process of evaluating process of designing the strategy process of reviewing. I mean, it's like, people can do that. It just matters. It's, it depends on how quality they could do that. And so, but it's, but I do appreciate the clarity and I, I'm, can want to congratulate you on getting that really dialed in because like everything a lot of times we over complicate things and I, I think it's really cool for people like yourself to get really clear about what someone needs to do. And so I would encourage everyone that's listening to this do that, whether you do that with Nick or not do that, do that on an annual basis. And it's one of those things where it might take you more than 15 minutes. Okay. But like it will, it could save significant amount of money or you might pay more money, but make sure you're properly protected and why, why do something halfway if you're not going to do it the right way? Anything else that is coming to your mind from a standpoint of you want to make sure to articulate? I mean, I think what you just kind of mentioned it hits an ill in the head. Like if you're spending money on insurance regardless and if you're going to do it, make sure it's designed efficiently and effectively to accomplish what you're, you know, to match up, I guess really was what you're trying to accomplish in the rest of your life. Have it fit into your, your goals and your vision rather than just have it be an expense that kind of drags behind you. I love it, man. I absolutely love it. I appreciate the work that you're doing and, and I just think again, it's, it's one of those things where, you know, it's not maybe not the most fun topic to talk about. I was just interviewing some people that are talking about some really cool investment strategies and those, those are the ones that I always get emails about. But I'm telling you, not everyone should do investment stuff. Not everyone should do life insurance. I believe everyone should go through this five step process with their insurance. Period. Because if there's a better way you should do it and it's adding peace of mind, protection and potentially money back in your, back in your pocket and why wouldn't you do that if you had that opportunity? Nick, how can people find you, your company? I know that you have a whole brand around this. I don't know if you have any free resources. I want to give you the ability to give a shout out and have a call to action. Yeah. No, I appreciate that. So riskmanager, n n g r.com. So you can find us on Instagram as well. And then as far as, you know, any of your listeners, anybody listening to if they go to riskmanager.com, if you're slash or backslash, I always screwed up, but backslash is better wealth and you can book a call, ask any questions, you know, on this process. You know, it's funny. I think you and I talked, did one of these about a year ago and we gave out a free guide on how to do this or so. And this thing was like, I'm beautiful. I've said I'm biased, but it had videos. It was amazing. And we got like five downloads and the feedback we've got from people is like, they don't want to do it, right? If they're going to download a guide or just, they want to look at how they can grow their wealth, not necessarily unprotected. So anyway, it, you can book a 15 minute call with us. We'll guide you through the steps. And I'll, and how to do it. Yeah, we'll make sure to have all the, all the proper links down in the description below. Nick, appreciate you, man. Um, I'm going to ask you the question that I asked you last time, the legacy question in the legacy question goes like this. This is your last day on earth and you're with the people that you love the most. You can't give them anything. You can't get them the free downloads, videos, whatnot. You can only give them a conversation. What are you going to make sure to highlight in that conversation? I'd say pursue your dreams. You know, no matter what, I think it's easy, especially, you know, this day and age to kind of get lost in, you know, the, the norm, if you will. I know I did for a few years. Um, and it's easy to sometimes let those dreams dive, but pursue them. No matter what, revive them, go after them, evolve them, change them. You know, just continue to pursue that kind of best, you know, self, um, because there's a lot of joy and a lot of fun in that. Um, and I think that's something that, you know, my daughter's one and a half and you know, we all say, Oh, you can be anything you want. Then it's like reality, freaking heads. You know, it's like, well, I got this, I got that. And I think maintaining and that because there is a way to do it. And there's so many amazing people out there, you know, sharing their gifts and sharing what they know and their knowledge. Um, so I guess it would be that, you know, kind of a simple term to pursue your dreams. I love it, man. Appreciate you. Thank you for coming back on and I hope you have an amazing rest of your week. Thank you, Cal. Appreciate it. Hey, I want to thank you for watching till the end. If you enjoy our content, please like, share, subscribe. It helps other people find our channel and we really, really appreciate it. I also want to let you know that we have this thing called the better wealth efficiency quiz and our goal is to give you a wealth efficiency score in less than three minutes and really highlight and get you to start thinking about the potential inefficiencies that you have in your life. So you haven't taken the quiz. Go check out. It'll be the link below. Check that link out. Take the quiz and then let us know your score.