Jumper Cables, Pharma Inserts & Trusting Your Advisors

'Trust' is difficult. So are 'Trusts.'  2 examples of where Neel has had to trust his advisors (automobile and medical) highlight something you need to know when working with trust attorneys, financial professionals, and tax experts. Let's discuss!

August 15, 2023

Transcript

 Another episode of Shah Plan-It for August 15th, 2023. It's been a minute, huh? I have taken some time away. I've tended, I've taken some extended time away and it was an amazing trip. So thank you for your patience. And I hope you didn't miss me too much. I don't like saying that it was a once in a lifetime trip.

Cause I'd love to be able to do it again. But it was definitely an epic trip. For those of you who don't know, my family went out to South Africa. We were in Cape town and then just North of Johannesburg and Pilanesburg at a safari, then went to a cousin's wedding in Mauritius, which was amazing. Congratulations again to Sachin and Vishali.

And from there, because there was no direct flights coming back.  We actually went to Paris, because why not but it was one of those vacations where I was as excited to actually go away as I was to actually come back. So it's, I'm really, really excited to come back. For those of you who I've been speaking with directly, you know, we have some Exciting developments and changes coming up, announcements are going to be starting on that as soon as today for our existing wealth management clients.

And then we'll, official announcements, I should say, and then you'll be seeing a lot more over the next several weeks. So hold on to that. And if you wanted to speak about it sooner, certainly reach out to us. I can give you some of the inside scoop, in a, in a private manner. Today is India's Independence Day, or at least it's the day that it's celebrated.

India gained its independence from the UK in 1947.  And, and August 15th is the day that it's widely celebrated. So speaking of independence, check out this neat little gadget. Some of you may know about this. Some of you may not know about this, but independence, my kids achieved independence. I've got a 19 year old and a 17 year old who are both relatively new drivers.

You know, my daughter started driving at 17. My son started driving at 17 back in November. And, nothing quite says stress like having new drivers who are out and not under your roof with you, or, who are out independently. So one of these devices that I got for them was this cool little thing that you charge at home, and if the battery ever dies, you can actually start it up, and it actually has a battery charge in it, and then you can plug this in, and actually you can start a car with it as long as the battery's not super dead.

So... Quick story, we go away on this great vacation, come back, and two things happened. One is a fuse tripped on our refrigerator, and all this food went bad. That's the topic of another video. The car battery,  went dead as well, too. I probably should have unplugged it before we left, but it was an older battery, needed to be replaced.

But I did try using this handy device. Now, the battery was beyond dead, so this wouldn't have worked. It didn't work. I did try it. But it didn't work. But here's the thing, and this is where I'm going to bring this back to how this pertains to your legal advice, your financial advice, your tax advice. So, I get this sort of thing, and I try it, doesn't work.

We call roadside assistance, and they come in, and the car's in the garage. So the first guy comes, he doesn't have a tow truck, and he basically tries to jump my car, and it doesn't work, for whatever reason, and he says, your starter's bad, your alternator's bad, and your battery's bad, so you need to get it towed and get all of that repaired.

Now, I'm not really knowledgeable when it comes to cars. So I go ahead and take it for face value and I say, okay, I will go get it towed. So he's like, well, that's not me. We got to call somebody else to get it towed. All right. And you know, in my mind, the, the math guy, the finance guy in me is thinking cha ching, cha ching, cha ching, cha ching.

Okay. That's probably going to wind up costing some money. So I mean, Pinky winds up calling for the tow truck, tow truck guy comes out. And I'm thinking, okay, we're probably looking at, I don't even know what it costs these days, but probably somewhere between 500 in the hole. Ouch.

So we wait another hour, tow truck guy comes and he's about to, you know, sort of think, but he's like, hey, do you want me to try jumping the car? And I said, or Pinky said, sure. Yeah, of course not. Like, you're already here. Might as well give it a shot. But the other guy tried it already. He's like, yeah, let's try it.

Tries jumping the car and. Boom, the car starts. Why? I'm not exactly sure. He said maybe it was just more juice, maybe just had to be more patient with it. But the point of my story right here is we were about to spend 1, 500 for something that we paid nothing for. Car got jumped. Now, ultimately, I did wind up getting a new battery because that was a smart thing to do.

And it was time. But I just trusted that professional. I trusted the advisor in that role. And it just goes to show how much we're really at the mercy. Of those advisors when it comes to cars, for example, when it comes to lawyers, when it comes to financial advisors, when it comes to accountants, when it comes to tax preferent professionals, and it brought me to another point now.

Now, as many of you know, as part of our practice, we certainly have our wealth management practice. We have our legal practice. And a lot of, in our legal practice, we focus on wills, trust, and estate planning. Well, part of having kids that are older that drive mean that I am older as well too. So this is one of those things that I'm taking out.

I am, nothing is quote unquote wrong with me. There's a lot wrong with me, but nothing's medically wrong with me. This is just one of those medications that you start taking when you're older. Again, we can talk about it offline if you want to, but, you start taking this medication when you're older.

And just like the guy who came into my garage. And just like the guy before him who said I should probably get my car towed, I trusted the doctor, just like I trusted the advisor. Now, when I go to pick up this prescription, this thing is attached to the prescription. And this thing that's attached to the prescription is this leaflet.

Notice how it's so neatly folded? This is going to be a horrible admission, but I didn't read this. Why didn't I read this? Well... Look at this guy. First of all, I mean, yeah, I had LASIK a while ago, but it just keeps going. This is supposed to be sort of like my encounter. Now, did I go online? Do I do a little bit of research?

Absolutely. But ultimately, what I had to do was trust my doctor. I had to trust my advisor. This is happening for us in our capacity every day. We will send wills, trusts, estate planning documents, investment policies, and we'll send prospecti, we'll spend, you know, these, these sort of Morningstar reports for investments, we'll send tax reports, but ultimately we understand that our clients trust us and they They basically are taking our word for it and our advice, and we don't take that lightly.

Now, every aspect of your life, but especially when it comes to working with us, your legal advice, your tax advice, your financial advice, who's advising you? Are they going through all your options with you? Are you trusting the right people? And ultimately, look, there is a leap of faith. Like, we were ready to get the car towed.

I am taking this medication. Our clients are signing their legal documents. Our clients are working with us as investment advisors. We, they are trusting us in that financial planning context. So it's, it's just sort of more illustrating the point. I'm not I'm not beyond vulnerability. I am absolutely vulnerable when it comes to trusting my advisors, trusting my professionals.

We appreciate those of you who trust us, but who are you trusting? And are you really trusting them? I'm not in the capacity and I'm not a car guy. I'm definitely not a doctor as well. And I don't think that I can become a doctor, not at least without a significant dedication and, and just giving up a lot of other things.

So make sure you're trusting the right people. Hope this wasn't too much of a tangent for you. Hope this was helpful. And if you need help figuring out who you should trust and what you should trust them for. And if it happens to be in your financial legal tax, planning aspects of your life.

Don't hesitate to reach out to us. I hope you're well, I hope you're fantastic. I'm excited to be back with you and yes, stay tuned. There are some significant changes coming and, and it's all for the better. I'm super, super excited to connect with you soon. Great day, everybody.