Financial Planning for Aging Parents: A Conversation with Keith Kiker

[00:00:00] 

Dan Drews: Hello everyone and welcome to Aging in Place, the Greater Naperville Areas Family Guide. Our goal is to help the sandwich generation, which is middle aged adults, typically in their forties or sixties, who are squeezed by the responsibility of simultaneously supporting aging parents.

Dan Drews: And raising their own children. We wanna help their parents age as gracefully as possible and reduce stress through education and community connection. It takes a village folks, and there are a lot of great resources and ideas that we try to uncover through expert guests that know the local area very, very well.

Dan Drews: I am your host, Dan Drews, and with me is my co-host and sponsor, Mr. Brennen Roberts, the owner of Seniors helping Seniors for the Greater Naperville area. And we want to thank one of our other supporters, the Naperville Area Chamber of Commerce, who is a great advocate for all businesses that support seniors in the Naperville area.

Dan Drews: [00:01:00] Brennen, good to see you. And again, how is everything at seniors helping seniors? 

Brennen Roberts: Uh, it’s great. We’ve got a senior expo today and tomorrow with a great organization locally called Triad. So, uh, bringing together a lot of senior resources. Uh, for people in the community about where they can get help. As you know, we just provide a part of the level of service that folks need.

Brennen Roberts: You know, we wanna help our clients kind of age as gracefully and with as much dignity as possible in their own homes, and we do it through things like companionship, personal care, help around the house, non-medical needs. And we do it through this unique intergenerational model. But, um, I’m excited to be here today, uh, with Keith.

Brennen Roberts: And, uh, this is an important topic and it’s, and it’s, it, I think it’s interesting as we were talking about this. Uh, we, we all kind of segue this, uh, about talking about some bigger, bigger conversations than just like financial planning, which maybe we’ll do it a separate [00:02:00] episode, but this is really important and very top of mind.

Dan Drews: Well, we thank you for helping sponsor the episode two, and certainly glad to have. Keith there, folks. Our show today is really gonna focus on how to prepare our parents and their kids, mostly us, for a lot of financial planning issues and to help with that, we are joined today by a Naperville area Financial Planning czar, Mr.

Dan Drews: Keith Kiker. Keith is an experienced financial professional with over 30 years of financial services. Specializing in financial planning, investment management, and risk strategies for individuals and for businesses. Key strong credentials include being a certified financial planner with Series 7 63 and 65 licenses.

Dan Drews: And on top of it all folks, he is grounded in a client relationship pH. Built on empathy, integrity, and clear communication. Keith, welcome so much to the show today. We’re glad to have you, and, uh, hopefully you’ll be able to help us unbox this big topic today. Mm-hmm. [00:03:00] 

Keith Kiker: Thanks for having me. It’s good to 

Dan Drews: be with you guys.

Dan Drews: in, uh, Keith’s introduction? 

Brennen Roberts: Yeah, I’ll just give an anecdote. I mean, Keith, uh, I got connected with Keith very early in actually both of our careers. So, uh, he’s been, uh. Advisor and friend for us, my family, for over 25 years. Um, and when we first started working together, my brother had a couple of young kids and he hadn’t done any sort of financial planning with his family.

Brennen Roberts: And I recommended after meeting Keith, he’s. Just the way he works about it. He, I recommended my brother work with him, and, and, and Keith set him up and worked with him on sort of like some, you know, emergencies and planning and thinking about the important things he need to do as a young parent. And unfortunately my brother passed away very unexpectedly, not too long after that, that because of the advice and guidance that Keith had given him, uh, really.

Brennen Roberts: Set up his widow and my nephews for, [00:04:00] for life very well. So I think, um, I forever indebted for what you did for our family, but I think that’s a great example of kind of the kind of, uh, advisor you are so 

Dan Drews: well Bre Brennan, an extremely difficult time for your family and thank goodness Keith was there to kind of help bridge the gap on some of these conversations.

Dan Drews: And Keith, with that. Let’s kind of open it up this way, like when is the best time to even start kind of having these conversations or kind of broaching this topic of financial planning, not just for the parents, but for for the kids that are left over when they pass on. 

Keith Kiker: Yeah. It’s an interesting question as we all were kicking around ideas for topics to discuss here.

Keith Kiker: Brennen mentioned the 40, 70 year rule, which I hadn’t heard of. Uh, but the idea is when the adult kids are reaching their forties or the parents are reaching their seventies, it’s kind of this moment in time to think it’s time to start having these conversations. So [00:05:00] start early, speak often, and sort of practice having conversations that probably are gonna get harder.

Keith Kiker: As the years go by, 

Dan Drews: talk to me a little bit about the practice, right? When you talk about practice having these conversations, you know, what do, what does that look like and or how does it look like for you? Maybe even to. To kind of talk to mom and dad about, Hey, what do you got in the bank account? You know, how do you, how do you kind of navigate those kind of awkward starter moments, I guess?

Keith Kiker: Yeah, that’s a really interesting question, and I thought about what an unfair advantage I have in a couple respects. Number one, my parents are unbelievable. Um, they’re, they’re gracious. They’ve been in their same home for a long time, and everything’s going fantastic. Um, but I also happen to be their financial advisor 

and 

Keith Kiker: I have been for a long time.

Keith Kiker: And so their discomfort about 

Dan Drews: maybe everyone else then yeah, 

Keith Kiker: it’s their discomfort talking about taxes and investments and things like that, so it’s a little different. 

Brennen Roberts: Yeah. 

Keith Kiker: Um, but the reality is [00:06:00] I also have made plenty of mistakes along the road, and as we talk, I’ll give you a couple of examples where.

Keith Kiker: It would’ve been better for me to talk. It started at really high surface level incl, including being, being more thoughtful about asking how they imagined aging in place and what they wanted the next 10 or 15 or 20 years to look like in that respect. 

Dan Drews: Yeah. 

Keith Kiker: Yeah. 

Dan Drews: Keith, my per my personal note on that too is as we’re preparing for our conversation today, folks, we kind of had this side conversation and Keith.

Dan Drews: Use those words that I then took and turned it right around to, uh, my mom and dad of mom and dad. What do you think it looks like for the next three to five years on financial planning, living situation stuff too? It was great advice and really opened up a good conversation, so kudos to you for that advice.

Brennen Roberts: I, I mentioned this is very top of mind. I was literally talking to somebody yesterday, a client, and unfortunately his. Uh, [00:07:00] mother 91, but she’d been super healthy for a long time living in her own home, very independent, still driving of all things, you know, DMV Pastor test. Um, but she had a health incident and really things, you know, as you know, things can go pretty south in a hurry.

Brennen Roberts: And, um, she is in a assisted living and. In her recovery mode, you know, the family’s kind of decided that there’s no way she can go back to living on her own. And basically they’re in the process of selling her home. And, you know, the, the, the son was telling me, it’s like, gosh, like how am I gonna tell my mom this, you know, after the fact.

Brennen Roberts: And I know, you know, some of those things are difficult to prepare for, but it’s, oh my gosh, it’s, if there’d been a. Conversation maybe leading up to it and all these steps that said, you know, hey, if you know, life doesn’t always happen how you think, but you know, if these kind of things happen, this might be this and this might be that.

Brennen Roberts: And then you can kind of at least reflect back on that and you write it up. But it is, it is gonna be ripping [00:08:00] off a bandaid if. Yeah. And I’m sure they had some conversations, but you know, it’s, 

Dan Drews: yeah, 

Brennen Roberts: it’s such a difficult thing to have to tell somebody if you haven’t had those right warmup conversations.

Dan Drews: Well, and Keith, you talked to us a lot about being proactive versus reactive, and I imagine even with some of your clients, you’ve got probably some who’s had a, uh, a plan in place for a while and others that are like, you get a phone call and it’s like, oh my gosh, this happened. Where do we start? 

Keith Kiker: That happens more than you would like it to.

Keith Kiker: Uh, everything’s fine until it’s not. 

Dan Drews: Mm-hmm. 

Keith Kiker: Right. And have another client in a similar situation. If you had to guess who was gonna have a health issue, you would’ve guessed him and it’s now her. And so it’s really tough, right? To suddenly have health care, power of attorney type decisions, decisions about the house.

Keith Kiker: So, yeah, talking earlier is better and, you know, building contingency points. 

Dan Drews: Well, and talk to me a little bit about, paint me a picture of those reactive situations. So like [00:09:00] when, typically when you get a reactive phone call, uh, do, do some of these folks just not know where anything is and how much it is and everything, and are you able to kinda cipher through that?

Brennen Roberts: Well, we, we were talking with, 

Dan Drews: yeah. 

Brennen Roberts: Chris Lander, an estate planner. Yes. We looked at some. Numbers, which were really surprising. It was like the, uh, there was like, I think it was like 81% people know they need to do like estate planning, which, you know, financial power of journey. But yet only like 32% actually had done it already.

Brennen Roberts: Right. And there was a stat that we threw up and I don’t remember the exact number, but it was like, do you know where your parents’ documents are? Maybe you don’t even know what they are, but do you know where they found it? It was like, I wanna say it was like 40%, so, right. You know, it’s, uh. A lot of people are caught off guard, don’t know where to go and all that stuff.

Keith Kiker: I I, I think one of the things that happens, Dan, when those moments arrive, is even the most prepared 

Dan Drews: mm-hmm. 

Keith Kiker: They’re actually consumed [00:10:00] with the crisis. 

Dan Drews: Yeah. Mm-hmm. 

Keith Kiker: My spouse, my longtime partner, had an event, a health event, and all my attention’s right there. 

Dan Drews: Yeah. 

Keith Kiker: And now maybe you’re suddenly talking to the next generation who’s just brokering information back and forth with their parent.

Keith Kiker: Who’s actually at the side of the hospital bed and yeah. Keith talk to her. Right. So I think that’s, that’s a good point. It’s 

Dan Drews: almost like a triage kind of moment be where they’re just trying 

Keith Kiker: to figure it out. Be 

Dan Drews: It can be. Yeah. Yeah. Well, what, uh, what steps would you kind of recommend or, or how do you advise folks then to kind of.

Dan Drews: Try and create a path towards, um, you know, just being able to be able to navigate this 

Keith Kiker: well. We kind of came up with this idea while we’d been discussing this, and we called it a path to transparency or a pathway to transparency. 

Dan Drews: Okay. 

Keith Kiker: And the idea, we sort of set it up as a funnel where if you can talk earlier [00:11:00] on about a vision for what you know, retirement and the aging process specifically.

Keith Kiker: The health related challenges, maybe the financial, the companionship, what’s gonna happen with community, if you can talk about those things in advance, but at a more surfacey level, it may give you the opportunity to talk about additional things as you move forward. And so we kind of broke it into phases and we actually have, uh, some information available if anybody wants ideas of what those phases are and what questions are in there.

Keith Kiker: We’ll reference that later. But I have a funny. Story, and it’s a kind of a, what’s the, uh, acronym? Uh, Palm on Face. I don’t remember their kids, all their acronyms on the, uh, text. But, you know, mom and dad, I apologize for this awkward moment. Um, but the experience teaches me, and then I convey that to lots of people, like on this podcast or [00:12:00] to my clients.

Keith Kiker: Where we celebrated my parents’ 80th birthday, and I invited ’em to come up and join me and my brother, our kids right, their grandkids in Breckenridge, Colorado. And if anybody knows Breckenridge, Colorado is like 8,000 or 9,000 feet in town. 

Brennen Roberts: Yes. 

Keith Kiker: Well, we drive out there and it’s a blizzard. I mean, there’s so much snow.

Keith Kiker: That particular December was crazy. And as we’re driving, I realized the house I’ve rented is actually at like 10,000 feet. 

Dan Drews: Oh 

Keith Kiker: wow. And the closer we get, the higher my anxiety is. And the dumber I felt to have invited anybody that was celebrating their 80th birthday to this elevation and this climate.

Dan Drews: Yeah. 

Keith Kiker: But my folks have been in Colorado for. 40 years, 45 years at that point. 

Dan Drews: Yeah. 

Keith Kiker: And they were fine, but when they showed up and I said, park in the garage, don’t leave without supervision. How are you doing? And so on and so forth. It was, it was too early. They were fine. 

Dan Drews: Yeah. 

Keith Kiker: Right. Yeah. And so [00:13:00] practice surfacey conversations about the vision, and then maybe you find reasons like Susie and I, my wife recently updated our own estate plan.

Keith Kiker: Why? Because there’s still guardians named for my adult children. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. I don’t think that’s not a thing anymore. Mm-hmm. So there must be some other things that have changed. Right. Yeah. And that’s an opportunity maybe to say, oh, hey, I just did my estate planning update. How long has it been since you did that?

Keith Kiker: Yeah. Right. And you can feed those conversations and maybe more naturally. 

Brennen Roberts: Mm-hmm. Yeah. 

Keith Kiker: If that makes sense. 

Brennen Roberts: Yeah, I, I’m with you on that. My mother is just amazingly healthy. Like she’s 86 years old. But I, I, I, I have to constantly remind myself, ’cause I, she’s so independent and active and healthy and stuff.

Brennen Roberts: And I’ll be like with her and doing stuff and I’ll be like, chugging along, walking at my own pace and next thing you know, I’ll turn around and she’s like. 15, 20 feet. I’m like, no, she’s 86. Man, I [00:14:00] gotta like, take this into context. Yeah. And remember, you know, there’s things, so yeah. It’s a, it’s sometimes as children, you always see your parents as their parents and Right.

Brennen Roberts: Until they’re not able to do it and. You know, as long as they can, you’re still like, oh 

Keith Kiker: yeah, they’re fine. 

Brennen Roberts: They’re fine. Right, 

Dan Drews: right. 

Brennen Roberts: Um, 

Dan Drews: now when you deal with some of your older clients, right, some of your senior clients, maybe in their seventies or eighties, do you also give them advice saying, Hey, listen, if you haven’t talked to your kids yet, you need to start talking to them about.

Dan Drews: What they need to know Yeah. In the event that something happens. 

Keith Kiker: Yeah. Uh, literally just this last couple of weeks, I was with a client from the Chicago suburbs and her te, her son was available and came to meet. And same thing, we, we’ve been working together for 25, 30 years, and so he’s heard our name.

Keith Kiker: He’s heard my name, but the chance to meet him as she’s entering retirement. Mm-hmm. And kind of understanding this is [00:15:00] one of the people to call. May, maybe the person to call the attorney may be the person to call, right? Where is everything? How much is there? How do we get money if we need it? That’s pretty good idea to meet that person.

Keith Kiker: So we have a lot of multi-generational meetings these days, which have started with the adult child. I have somebody out in New York who literally did the financial planning process with me to strictly vet me to take care of her dad’s money. 

Dan Drews: No kidding. 

Keith Kiker: She came through first and said, I wanna see what, I think really good friends with some clients out there.

Keith Kiker: So she knew it was a good chance it would work. But she went through that whole process and then I flew out and I met her dad and she was there the whole time and he had taken care of things his whole life and he did a great job. But he also had admitted it’s getting a little, you know, it’s getting a little much a lot to keep track of.

Keith Kiker: It goes, it goes both directions. But yeah, multi-generational. Meetings is not at all uncommon for [00:16:00] us. 

Dan Drews: So I’m kind of curious. So take me back to the, the first example you said where, uh, I think the lady brought in her son. 

Keith Kiker: Yeah. 

Dan Drews: Did he come in with, uh, a whole bunch of questions or no questions, or, you know, like, like how, how, and is that a typical, what does a typical meeting like that go?

Keith Kiker: It, it’s really funny you, uh, ask about that because. Uh, I had the impression that AI may have been involved in the two pages of questions that were generated 

Dan Drews: two pages, 

Keith Kiker: or, because I’ve used AI myself and I kind of had this sense of, 

Dan Drews: yeah, 

Keith Kiker: what should I ask my mom’s financial advisor. 

Dan Drews: Yeah. 

Keith Kiker: And what was nice was because we do comprehensive financial planning.

Keith Kiker: I was able to say, almost everything you’re asking here, we’re actually gonna talk about in today’s meeting. 

Dan Drews: Yeah. 

Keith Kiker: And so let’s just let that unfold and then we’ll do, you know, deeper dives where we needed to. Mm-hmm. And, uh, and it was great. It, it was welcome, honestly. That’s 

Dan Drews: great. 

Keith Kiker: Uh, because now he knows me personally and if something comes up, I [00:17:00] have her express permission to speak with him.

Keith Kiker: Right? Mm-hmm. She has a wealth management site where we have everything in one place. And now he’ll, he’ll be a, an interested party, so she said, fine, add him in so he can log in anytime and see my balance sheet and see what’s going on. Mm-hmm. And share information freely. ’cause I want him to know what’s going on.

Brennen Roberts: Yeah. 

Dan Drews: Yeah. 

Brennen Roberts: That, that sounds like a very, like talking about the path, like that’s a, you know, very good first step. Yeah. Like I kind of generally have this, let’s see some specifics at some point then it’ll be. You know, names on the account or, you know. 

Dan Drews: Yeah, 

Brennen Roberts: I, I assume that’s, 

Dan Drews: and, and really I don’t blame, I, I, I reflect back on the sun and his list of chat GPT questions may be brought in.

Dan Drews: I would, I would guess that that’s probably what a majority of people would do, because they don’t know what they don’t know. Right. Like if they’re coming, coming for meeting, where do I start with Keith? And how do I know that he knows what he, he should know. Yeah, [00:18:00] 

Keith Kiker: that’s exactly right. You know, you might wanna have a diagram that addresses accounts and holdings and risk management issues.

Keith Kiker: Mm-hmm. Like long-term care or life insurance, legal documents, cash flow and pensions and social securities. And how are the income taxes getting filed? And if you can figure out any way to have a big overview. It’s easier to monitor. 

Dan Drews: Oh 

Keith Kiker: yeah. Right. For instance, if you ever get the chance to look at an income tax return, which isn’t super exciting for people, but if the income taxes are kind of going like this and then they spike one year.

Dan Drews: Mm-hmm. 

Keith Kiker: That’s a year to pay special attention. Yeah. It just happened to somebody that I know. And I’m like, that’s a much bigger bill than we’ve ever seen. 

Dan Drews: Is that typically due to RMDs or, you know, different, different, you know, quirks within their own, uh, financial plan or 

Keith Kiker: there can be any number of things.

Keith Kiker: Yeah. In this particular case, there was some missing cost basis on something that got sold. 

Dan Drews: Oh, okay. 

Keith Kiker: So you are [00:19:00] able to self-report and fix that. Okay. And it wasn’t in the ten nine, ten ninety nine. Um, but in that same case. Even though it was a professional accounting firm, they literally put something in the wrong bucket.

Dan Drews: Yeah. 

Keith Kiker: And so they were subjecting this thing to tax that didn’t belong there. 

Dan Drews: Well, as we record today, we’re just right around the close of tax season. Yes. So do you work in conjunction with a lot of accountants or CPAs with the client to say. Hey, let’s make sure we’re reporting everything that we should and in the right way.

Keith Kiker: We, we do work, uh, closely with a lot of the accountants, right? Mm-hmm. And so we’re there to field questions. We don’t file the returns, 

Dan Drews: right? 

Keith Kiker: But we do review and discuss and have some really nice software that can actually take, speaking of AI, can take a 10 40, upload it and actually explain your taxes to you.

Keith Kiker: More clearly than I’m shocked accountants aren’t using this software [00:20:00] because it just gives you this great report and it walks you through here’s how your taxes actually worked in 2025. 

Brennen Roberts: Hmm. It’s, it’s interesting. 

Keith Kiker: Okay. 

Brennen Roberts: Yeah. Yeah. I, I just wanna build on your point about having this. Overview of everything and whether somebody’s trying to do it themselves or, you know, fortunately, like one of the things working with advisor like you, you know, it gives you this nice holistic view and 

Keith Kiker: Yeah.

Brennen Roberts: You know, it doesn’t necessarily mean like a planner’s actively managing everything, but like, you provide resources where, you know, I, I can link accounts and do this and stuff and you know, can see where it’s all at. I just know from, uh, you know, we had a unfortunately, uh, family members like passed away in a.

Brennen Roberts: Suddenly, and the daughter is like, it’s a treasure hunt trying to find out, well, what, what, where were things? And I, what did they have? Right. And you don’t know what you don’t know. And, you know, having that kinda one centralized view of things at some point is, is important. So yeah, I would think, you know, in our, 

Dan Drews: I, I [00:21:00] call up my oh crap binder, right?

Dan Drews: And I got it. And my son knows where it is. Yeah. Anything goes sideways. That’s the go get the old craft binder. Right. So 

Brennen Roberts: step one, know where the oak craft 

Keith Kiker: binder. May, may, may, that binder not be needed for the next 30 years. 

Dan Drews: Amen. Amen. 

Keith Kiker: So, 

Dan Drews: but, 

Keith Kiker: or, or more, I, I would say that as I, uh, talked with, uh, my wife that this was coming up, uh, we reflected on a family member.

Keith Kiker: You’re speaking of knowing where everything is. You’re, you’re really talking about sort of an inventory. Can you inventory every account? Can you inventory every policy? That’s a risk management related item. Can you inventory the sources of income? And unfortunately, eventually you want to inventory things that are also in the house.

Dan Drews: Mm-hmm. 

Keith Kiker: Yeah. Right. And so one of these stories that you don’t like to hear, but that we were faced with firsthand was a long time friend who was a coworker. [00:22:00] Was visiting this family member in a retirement community, and we started being like, yeah, he comes around a lot, but it wasn’t until we had to start paying the bills because she couldn’t pay the bills anymore.

Keith Kiker: Mm-hmm. 

Dan Drews: So took over. Mm-hmm. 

Keith Kiker: The number of checks that were paid to this one particular individual over and over and over. Mm-hmm. For thousands and thousands of dollars, man 

Dan Drews: Oh 

Keith Kiker: no. Was a big red flag, right? Mm-hmm. And then you ask, where are the coins? That came from Grandpa. 

Dan Drews: Oh, goodness. 

Keith Kiker: Right? 

Dan Drews: Yeah. 

Keith Kiker: And so to the extent that you can just be aware before those inflection points come is kind of what we’re talking about.

Brennen Roberts: Yeah. Yeah. Obviously elder abuse or elder skin is unfortunately much more prevalent than you wish it was. It, 

Keith Kiker: it 

Brennen Roberts: is taking advantage of, 

Keith Kiker: it’s a bummer. 

Brennen Roberts: People in their, you know, maybe, uh, you know, repressed state and, uh, not as. Rationally thinking is right. Something we see all the time. 

Keith Kiker: Yeah. 

Brennen Roberts: So, 

Keith Kiker: yep. 

Brennen Roberts: [00:23:00] Um, do you wanna talk through the, uh, steps here or 

Dan Drews: Yeah, 

Brennen Roberts: absolutely.

Brennen Roberts: Specifics stuff? 

Dan Drews: Yeah. 

Brennen Roberts: Let’s, I love, because I love this model. You know, I think when we started talking about this, we were thinking like, oh, he’s gonna give financial, you know, all this kind of stuff. But we were all, I love the fact we’re all kind of dealing with this kind of stuff at the same time. And, you know, the idea of just how we do this and what are the types of discussions and conversations.

Brennen Roberts: You have that go beyond financial discussions, but more life discussions are great. So, um, we, we talked about again, uh, like your parents live Colorado, you know? Yeah. A thousand 

Keith Kiker: miles away 

Brennen Roberts: and you don’t, you don’t see ’em. My mom lives as much as I like the thing, I see her all the time, but she’s still an hour and 20 minutes away.

Brennen Roberts: But it’s like, what are they, what are you doing on a day-to-day basis? Right. And like, who are your neighbors? And like, you know, I always talk to her and she’s got this very active social calendar, but I’m like. You know, she references names. I don’t necessarily know who they are and, and all that. 

Dan Drews: So I’ll throw one other one there [00:24:00] too.

Dan Drews: I go, I Dad, what’s the name of the guy who helps plow your snow and de-ice your driveway? Right. And so like different things like that that I’m like, okay, I gotta put that in a need to know file folder. 

Keith Kiker: Right, 

Dan Drews: right. Yeah. So, 

Keith Kiker: yeah. Yeah, we’re super grateful. My parents have a neighbor that stayed all this time.

Keith Kiker: Right. And he is a little younger. And so he’s over there shoveling the drive and checking on ’em, but being more aware and connected with him would be a smart thing to do at this stage. Right? Yeah. And I think you’re right about asking those questions. Who’s in the community around you? Those are pretty high level.

Keith Kiker: What’s the routine look like these days? You’re still in the same church, which family stuck around over all the years? Mm-hmm. Because people move on from churches, right? Yeah. So you’ve stuck around who else stuck around? And, uh, make sure you kind of know what’s their sense of community and is that holding up?

Brennen Roberts: Yeah, I mean, this question, it’s a little scary, but it’s so good is the idea of like, who would [00:25:00] notice if you hadn’t been out in a few days? You know? Yeah. Like my mom’s got neighbors at her condo. Mm-hmm. But again, you know, everybody kinda goes in and out and stuff like that. Yeah. Life gets busy. I don’t get a chance to talk to her every day, but, you know, three days go by.

Keith Kiker: Yeah. Yeah. 

Brennen Roberts: I do, I do get nervous when I like call and she doesn’t respond. I’m, she’s probably out at her Tai Chi class or swimming right now. Right. But, um, but I, you know, the idea that, and, and conversely it’s like. Did those people know my number? You know, so I think that’s another thing that, 

Keith Kiker: that’s a good point.

Brennen Roberts: Close friends and neighbors. It’s like make sure they know kind of how to, how to get ahold of, 

Dan Drews: even from a technology standpoint too, I know we’ve had families too. Make sure they’re tracking their parents’ location through either, uh, you know, the, their Apple, uh, life 360 interface, or Life 360 

Brennen Roberts: mm-hmm. 

Dan Drews: And or get their parents an Apple Watch at the same time too, which then supplants, you know, uh, maybe any other wearable devices.

Dan Drews: Yeah. The 

Keith Kiker: find my, 

Dan Drews: yeah. 

Brennen Roberts: Yeah. But, but [00:26:00] to your point, you know, again, we were talking with a, you know, a, a. Potential client this week, and the woman has some stability issues. The, the husband works, so he’s away from the house all the time. Mm-hmm. But, you know, they got her, uh, an Apple watch. It’s got this great features where if you notice as a sudden fall, it’ll automatically call 9 1 1.

Brennen Roberts: And she had a couple of, you know, falls and, you know, he might not have come back and found her and gotten her help. For, you know, half the day or three quarters of the day. So there’s some nice technology out there that can kind of help you monitor. So, 

Keith Kiker: yeah, 

Brennen Roberts: it’s funny, we’ve been, as parents, I, I still have my kids on Life 360.

Brennen Roberts: I try not to let ’em know or remind them about it. I don’t need to see what they’re doing at the bars at college or wherever, you know, but it’s nice to know. And, um, you know, kinda where they’re at. It’s really more about a safety and. Being comfortable these [00:27:00] days. 

Dan Drews: Keith, what other areas do you think we should be having conversations with our, our parents about?

Keith Kiker: Well, I, I think that Brynn, as you mentioned, mobility, uh, an easy path to that is just sort of talking about is anything getting harder, like keeping up a house, you know, I know I, I’m working a lot and my wife, the responsibility she has around the house is a lot. Yeah. And so, you know, I know my parents still have that going on, so, oh, there’s somebody mowing the lawn now.

Keith Kiker: Mm-hmm. Really big snow. We’ve got dad not shoveling the driveway. 

Brennen Roberts: Mm-hmm. 

Keith Kiker: Right. It’s a bit of a steep driveway and he still likes to get out there and take care of that, and so they’ll be out in the yard. But if you can have some of those routine things, but more importantly for our conversation, the discussion is that, are daily routines getting harder?

Keith Kiker: What? What part of that’s getting harder? Are there errands? That are kind of becoming more of a chore than they used to be. 

Dan Drews: Mm-hmm. 

Keith Kiker: Right? Mm-hmm. And and on that note, starting to maybe make them [00:28:00] aware of how great, at least on occasion, Instacart could be. 

Brennen Roberts: Yeah, yeah, yeah. 

Keith Kiker: Right. Good point. Like my kids know Instacart way better than I do.

Dan Drews: Yeah. 

Keith Kiker: But in a pinch, that’s a pretty nice thing. And if we get older and we do want to age in place, does it make sense to try? Does it make sense to try and catch an Uber maybe. 

Dan Drews: Yeah. 

Keith Kiker: A along the road so that, you know, you have that transportation if you really needed it. 

Brennen Roberts: Yeah, yeah. 

Keith Kiker: But you practice. 

Brennen Roberts: Yeah.

Brennen Roberts: And I, I think that’s a good to the idea of practice, you know, just like a simple thing is like, you know, a lot of people are independent, like they’re, they, it’s hard to accept help, you know, so maybe start with having somebody mow the lawn or cut the grass, or do the heavy shoveling and stuff, and then.

Brennen Roberts: You know, eventually you need a little more help around the house and, you know, independent and, you know, maybe you use a home care agency. If you don’t have a neighbors or the support system, home care agency, you can kind of introduce ’em like, Hey, we’re just [00:29:00] gonna, you know, help you out with house management.

Brennen Roberts: You know, it could be like light housekeeping or, you know, taking errands, reminding about medication, but you know mm-hmm. Not, you’re still kind of maintaining a lot of your independence. 

Dan Drews: Right. 

Brennen Roberts: And then, you know, you’re kind of there and. And used to it. And then we can kind of scale up and get more service.

Brennen Roberts: You’re used to being able to receive. ’cause it’s hard for people to receive help in many cases. 

Dan Drews: Right. I’m gonna take us to the, our next slide here a little bit too, and talk about some of the things we’re, uh, Keith was just talking about the transportation piece and getting a chance to try and test and, and learn how to take an Uber.

Dan Drews: I think that’s important too. Let’s talk about like the, the next portion on this slide, a little health and prevention. Um, when you talk about the, the, uh, your parents slowing down, uh, the other thing that I have considered too is what sort of things am I doing in the house to assist them with the slowdown?

Dan Drews: For example, we’re gonna do a [00:30:00] bathroom remodel for my parents with some grab bars and things like that. But I, I gotta believe that that’s, you know, certainly part of the strategy to match what the house looks like. Yeah. Again, with what their slowdown is. So 

Keith Kiker: it, it’s certainly a topic of conversation and I heard a great story.

Keith Kiker: Uh, somebody that we, uh, know well. Uh, and I think it would ease the fear for some people that are about to do these kind of changes to their home. So this woman lost her husband and lived alone for. 20 years. She didn’t give up that house until she was 98 or 99 years old. Good 

Brennen Roberts: for 

Keith Kiker: her. So finally, good for her.

Keith Kiker: She goes off to the retirement community. 

Dan Drews: Mm-hmm. 

Keith Kiker: Well, wouldn’t you know it for a 99-year-old in that house there were grab bars. There were all kinds of things that screamed senior living. 

Dan Drews: Mm-hmm. 

Keith Kiker: And that house sold like that to somebody that didn’t want to have to deal with all, like they actually wanted that.

Dan Drews: Mm-hmm. [00:31:00] 

Keith Kiker: And so as, as we think about making changes to bathrooms or grab bars or easier ways to get up and down downstairs, the reality is there’s a lot of other people as we know, in that demographic who might be perfectly delighted. ’cause I think that’s one of the things mm-hmm. That causes people to hesitate.

Keith Kiker: Well, I don’t wanna make a bunch of change in the house. ’cause if we go to the retirement community, we’re gonna sell the house and then we’re gonna have to undo it all. 

To 

Keith Kiker: your point, I don’t know that you have to undo 

Dan Drews: it all. And, and if they do have to undo it all people undo stuff all the time.

Dan Drews: Cabinets, doors and everything. Your point, just flip 

Brennen Roberts: it back. Yeah. We talked with Jen Rohan a little while ago. Shit. Keller Williams Realty, and, you know, yeah. That’s just part of the aging population. There’s a, there’s a segment of the population that, like, that’s kind of what I want. I need that kind of stuff and Right.

Brennen Roberts: You know, maybe I want to transition to out that already has it, you know, and there’s, and it’s interesting, you know, there, there are so many great resources out there like. They’ll be at the senior expo. We’re going to by triad, you know, there’s, uh, mobility, you know 

Dan Drews: mm-hmm. 

Brennen Roberts: [00:32:00] Companies that will come in and Yeah.

Brennen Roberts: You know, help, like, well walk through your house and, you know, it doesn’t have to be like, we’re gonna get the lift up the stairs or a wheelchair ramp, but simple things you can do around the house to help make. A little easier and more accessible, so, 

Keith Kiker: yeah. 

Brennen Roberts: Um, it doesn’t have to, shouldn’t feel like it’s such a, such a huge change.

Dan Drews: Yeah. 

Keith Kiker: Well, and it may be a very small sort of price to pay if you want to maintain that independent living. 

Dan Drews: Yeah. 

Keith Kiker: Right. You, you may eventually have to compare. That option to going ahead and moving into a retirement community. And if you don’t want to do that, 

Dan Drews: yeah. 

Keith Kiker: Mm-hmm. It’s maybe not that big a deal.

Keith Kiker: Something has 

Dan Drews: changed and it’s again, probably something you could help, like the financial decision, do I invest X number of dollars to kind of renovate my home? Or do in, instead of doing that, do maybe I move to an assisted living or retirement type, uh, place. Yeah. So 

Brennen Roberts: I’m not gonna lie, I got a little older house and I swapped out the toilet like a little bit ago, and we had the really [00:33:00] low toilets.

Brennen Roberts: We put in a taller one and I’m like. Oh my gosh, this is so comfortable. Why didn’t I do this? Why didn’t I do this years ago? You 

Dan Drews: know? 

Brennen Roberts: I 

Dan Drews: was like, oh, 

Brennen Roberts: you might find like, 

Dan Drews: oh, alright, I thought you were gonna take me, I thought you were gonna tell me it takes more work to get up on 

Brennen Roberts: something. No, no, it was not gonna, it’s not gonna go in a bad direction than that.

Brennen Roberts: But I was just, it was not, it was just not even a house of modification with the intent. It’s just kinda like that’s a little bit of the style and it was. End up being such an easy pen. I’m like, oh, I should have done that years ago. It was so much better for the family, you know? 

Dan Drews: Right. 

Brennen Roberts: So, well, Brent, segue off of that 

Dan Drews: expert take.

Dan Drews: Take me to the next slide and then you’ll see the segue. Uh, we’re gonna go to the next slide here a little bit, Keith too, and talking about kind of planning and contingencies and how to reduce the stress. If I come to you, like, say, say I’m coming in and I’m at, I’m at ground zero, I’m at a. In the steps from A to Z, what, how do I get started?

Dan Drews: Or what sort of advice would you give somebody who is really at the starting line of trying [00:34:00] to figure out their financial plan for either themselves or, and or their children? 

Keith Kiker: Yeah, that’s an interesting, uh, question. It’s, it’s, uh, the, the way our business has grown over the years has been strictly through referral and what gets somebody, uh.

Keith Kiker: To finally decide they wanna work with a financial advisor is kind of all over the board. Right. I have a really funny story where, uh, this, uh, client, uh, was actually at a party, at a friend’s house and somehow observed, this is actually the second time this has happened, where somebody observed how orderly the home was, and they made a conclusion that the finances must follow the orderliness of the house.

Keith Kiker: No kidding. And said, you’ve got everything pretty dialed in. Is this how your finances are? Because I could maybe use your guy that is not a crazy, it’s the other one is the guy that’s got the coolest garage you’ve ever seen. And his neighbor’s like, if you keep your garage like [00:35:00] this, I think your finances have gotta be totally dialed.

Brennen Roberts: Yeah. 

Keith Kiker: And those are clients in yours? Clients now of mine. Right. And And so re really, it’s not uncommon though, for a life event to provoke. I really, yeah. You know, with the advent of 4 0 1 Ks and all of the, uh, benefits we have at work, even though pensions have fallen away, there’s a lot of I can do this myself.

Keith Kiker: And I think that right at the end there, when it’s time to actually start drawing money out of the accounts. 

Dan Drews: Mm-hmm. 

Keith Kiker: Where do I take the money from first? Did I really save enough? Mm-hmm. I want that last triple check to make sure we actually did everything. Those life events can prompt. A comprehensive financial plan.

Keith Kiker: Right? Right. And so you’re trying to, just like we’ve been talking about, get an inventory of everything that’s going on, put it hopefully all in one place so that you can see what’s going on. And that’s the beginning of that. And if we’ve waited past that, and I’m, I almost said [00:36:00] if we’ve waited too long, but you know, the client I mentioned in New York.

Keith Kiker: He actually kind of didn’t wait too long. Mm-hmm. He did a great job with his money until he was 88 years old and just didn’t want to do it anymore. 

Dan Drews: Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah, 

Keith Kiker: and he did a great job. 

Dan Drews: Yeah. 

Keith Kiker: He didn’t need me before that, 

Dan Drews: but 

Keith Kiker: his daughter brought me into the situation and it served as a way to connect.

Keith Kiker: Okay. I understand everything that he has and what’s going on. I can help him and then I’ll be here and able to pivot. Right. And we, we actually lost him, uh, recently and it worked exactly like it was supposed to. 

Dan Drews: Yeah. Good, good. You brought up something kind of interesting there that I can see how through the advent of 4 0 1 Ks, profit sharing plans and things of that nature.

Dan Drews: That has become easier for people in their twenties and thirties and forties to save. But then you’re, you’re right. There becomes a strategy in your fifties, sixties, seventies, and eighties on how to then take it out. 

Keith Kiker: Yeah. 

Dan Drews: So that one, [00:37:00] you’re making sure you maximize the benefits yourself. And two, we’re all Patriots here, but you know, the US government gets its fair share and how do we minimize that tax exposure?

Dan Drews: And being careful for what I might call little landmines with required minimum distributions and things like that, that can spike your income and spike your taxes with your, you know, not, not really being aware of it if you’re not paying attention. 

Keith Kiker: Yeah, I, I have a funny reflection about that because I spent so many years building so many financial plans that I, you know, came to feel like I could pretty well guess if somebody lived in the western suburbs.

Keith Kiker: We met, I started to understand their situation. You would either kind of have this, Ooh, this is tight. I don’t know if this is gonna work. Mm-hmm. Or, yeah, this should be fine, or this is more than fine, right? 

Brennen Roberts: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. 

Keith Kiker: But I’ve run a couple financial plans that after I kind of had an initial in my [00:38:00] gut assessment, I ran it through our financial models and I was like, what’s going on?

Keith Kiker: It worked even better than I expected it to, or it didn’t work as well as I thought. 

Dan Drews: Interesting. 

Keith Kiker: And I think the function of that is there’s just too many variables mm-hmm. For all of us to, uh, contemplate. So taking social security later, if you’re reasonably healthy and you think you’re gonna live a long time can make a lot of sense.

Keith Kiker: But if you’re gonna dig into an IRA, that’s gonna cause you a lot of tax pain. 

Dan Drews: Mm-hmm. 

Keith Kiker: There might be an argument for taking your social security a little earlier. 

Dan Drews: Mm-hmm. 

Keith Kiker: A couple years before the maximum age 70. You mentioned RMDs, when do those kick in? How do those work? Do you give to charity? Well, you can give to charity right out of your RMD now.

Dan Drews: Right? 

Keith Kiker: Which is a pretty neat trick that a lot of people don’t necessarily know, uh, or Roth conversions. There’s usually, in our tax planning side, there’s usually this chart that shows people that work, their tax bill [00:39:00] keeps going up and up, right? You’re making more and more money. And then all of a sudden you’re retiring, literally your tax bill plummets.

Brennen Roberts: Mm-hmm. 

Keith Kiker: If you retired 65 or 66, depending on how your assets are structured, it’s not uncommon. Your tax bill goes way down and it stays down for like five to eight years and then it jumps back up and the reason it jumps back up is because of RMDs. 

Dan Drews: Mm-hmm. 

Keith Kiker: Now they’re making you take money whether you need it or not.

Keith Kiker: That zone right there, we always try to identify that for our clients. Because we’re looking forward to Roth conversions right in that valley. 

Dan Drews: Yeah. 

Keith Kiker: That’s the moment, right? We all know put away money pre-tax when you’re in a high tax rate. 

Dan Drews: Mm-hmm. 

Keith Kiker: But what people don’t think as much about is reverse that assumption at that moment in time.

Keith Kiker: Take money out of taxable accounts when you’re at a zero tax rate. 10 12. If we’re going back to 32, I want to take at 12. That’s a great deal. 

Dan Drews: Mm-hmm. Yeah. And another great reason to enlist the help of a certified financial planner is because all of these [00:40:00] little intricacies Yeah. Have very fine details.

Dan Drews: Like the one you mentioned too, being able to donate to a non-for-profit through your r and d. Like I, it’s my understanding that check has to come. Like it can’t come to you first, and if it does Right, the government’s gonna want its, you know, share. Yeah. Right. Yeah. 

Keith Kiker: So it’s gotta be written out to the charity.

Keith Kiker: Right. And then we’ll give you the chance, we’ll send it straight to the charity or we’ll send it to your house. Paid to the charity. Mm-hmm. So you can still deliver it, right? Yeah. But it came straight, you’re right, right out of the IRA and there’s a new tax form that’s making that a lot easier to report.

Keith Kiker: So that you know, and the government is very clear, how much of that was QCD, you call it? Qualified charitable distribution? Mm-hmm. Yeah. Qc, how much is QCD? How much was IRA distribution you took for yourself? 

Dan Drews: Yeah, right. No, it’s, 

Keith Kiker: and on that note gift, highly appreciated stock. If you have highly appreciated stock, find a way to give that to charity instead of writing checks to charity.

Keith Kiker: ’cause you get rid of the cost basis. And if [00:41:00] you love that Apple stock. Then just put new cash into your portfolio and buy stock in Apple. Again, 

Dan Drews: folks, this is why you gotta call Keith. I mean, stuff like this. And I, and it is so interesting, right? Because all that you add up nuance number one, nuance number two, nuance number three, and it makes a drastic difference in the net effect of your financial stability and your tax exposure at the same time.

Brennen Roberts: I think about it in our, whatever, our path transparency, it’s like, you know, do. Knowing your pa, if you start those conversations and your parents are like 70 or 65, you know, you’re recently retired post-retirement, like do you have a financial advisor, somebody you trust that’s gonna help you get through this kind of thing?

Brennen Roberts: ’cause you know, I really think you worked your whole life to accumulate hopefully right? Some money. And at end of your life you should. Well, not even end of your life, but you know, you’ve, you’ve reached a [00:42:00] point where I need to, I want to create more memories. I want to gift it to my kids. Yes. Right. I want to be, you know, very directive with how it happens, you know, so.

Dan Drews: If we could, let’s go to the second part of this slide, the bottom part here. We’ve talked a little bit about some of the financial stuff too. Let’s talk about the long-term care and decision making. How do you coach folks up on that? Or what, what advice do you give for them for, you know, some of the health related items that they need to be thoughtful of?

Keith Kiker: Yeah, I, I think the important items there and, uh, your estate planning attorney guest right, would’ve already covered this. Mm-hmm. But simple documents like durable power of attorney, durable healthcare, power of attorney sets you up for who’s gonna make decisions when you can’t. And almost always for me, if something happens to me, Susie, my wife, is the first one to ask.

Dan Drews: Mm-hmm. 

Keith Kiker: But then who after that, what if both of us, something happens? So there’s some [00:43:00] of those kind of things. Uh, the words long-term care show up, uh, on the slide. Mm-hmm. And we’re hearing a lot about that. Right. And, uh, Brennan. I hear a lot of people wanna stay in their home as long as they can, and I get that.

Keith Kiker: I think that’s what I would like. 

Dan Drews: Mm-hmm. 

Keith Kiker: So the idea that we actually talked about this, we were on one of these calls getting ready for this when I was at my parents’ house out in Colorado, and you told me there’s a great team of ladies, I think seniors, helping seniors right there where they are.

Keith Kiker: Long-term care frequently triggers into a conversation about. Long-term care insurance, and I think we need to reframe that a little bit and talk about long-term care planning. 

Brennen Roberts: Yeah. 

Keith Kiker: Whether you have the insurance, whether it’s right for you, whether you’ve got a good policy or a bad policy is a discussion.

Keith Kiker: But the act and the process of moving into an a season of life where you may need [00:44:00] care is the more important decision. The more important discussion. Are we gonna, you know, keep our eye on. Where is there a good care facility nearby and let’s get to know which ones those are. Prioritize ’em a little bit and at least understand the basic cost framework.

Keith Kiker: Nobody has to make any decisions. Let’s have the data handy. Let’s look at your long-term care. If you do have a long-term care policy and remind ourselves they’re probably happy to pay for care at home. 

Brennen Roberts: Mm-hmm. 

Keith Kiker: When, when we reviewed that with my folks, they were like super relieved. Mm-hmm. I think a lot of people feel like.

Keith Kiker: Oh, I have to go to a facility to get these benefits, and that isn’t necessarily true. Correct. Right. And so I think this idea of the conversation goes hand in hand with the doing. So if you have some simple things that we can start having somebody show up at the house, it’s actually going to ensure that you can stay in your home longer.

Keith Kiker: [00:45:00] If you can practice having somebody mow the lunch shovel, help you with grocery shopping, if you could have somebody attend an appointment with you if you needed that. Those are all things practicing for living Right where you are for the next 15 years. Come what may, because when we need actual medical care, like a nurse, this is not gonna be so foreign.

Keith Kiker: Mm-hmm. 

Dan Drews: Brennen that really talks about, that’s really in your wheelhouse there too. Um, for seniors, helping seniors. I think that’s what you’re helping folks with every day. 

Brennen Roberts: Yeah. You know, I think people are always afraid of it. A lot of times it’s, you know, most of it’s out of pocket. You know, there’s some long-term sometimes mm-hmm.

Brennen Roberts: Medicare, VA benefits, but, you know, at the end of the day, it’s, it’s a path, you know, and the costs are relative to, you know, high intensity care in a facility versus, you know. 10 to 15 hours a week in the home that will extend you out for a couple of years. It’s, it’s, you know, [00:46:00] a bit of investment in your independence.

Keith Kiker: Yeah. 

Brennen Roberts: Um, but it’s, it, it’s kind of a, it, it, it’s a continuum for sure. So 

Keith Kiker: I like that term. Sorry to interrupt. Investment in your independence. Yeah. 

Brennen Roberts: Mm-hmm. 

Keith Kiker: It is a great way to think 

Dan Drews: about 

Keith Kiker: it. Right. That’s gonna pay dividends. When you invest in your independence. 

Brennen Roberts: Yeah. Yep. 

Dan Drews: So says the financial planner right there.

Dan Drews: Yeah. Yeah, 

Brennen Roberts: yeah. 

Dan Drews: Brenda, why don’t you take us to our final slide there for a couple, uh, different thoughts here too. Yep. We’re going to, we’re gonna go over a couple, uh, thoughts here too. A couple interesting things too, Keith, that you brought to our attention. Where do you wanna start on this slide? On, uh, either the account aggregation or some of the unclaimed property?

Dan Drews: What are some of the things that people should be aware of? 

Keith Kiker: Well, so, uh, you know, lot, lots of folks are not aggregating their account. They may not use that terminology, but in our particular. A case, we use a wealth management software where all the accounts can be aggregated. Brennen mentioned earlier.

Keith Kiker: Mm-hmm. You can link different accounts in and it gives you a [00:47:00] dashboard that helps you understand the inventory of financial assets. Right? That’s called account aggregation. There’s a lot of them out there. So finding a way to encourage our parents to aggregate the accounts helps us build an inventory of those accounts.

Keith Kiker: Um, and one of the reasons to do that. Is so that if anything does happen, we don’t actually lose the assets. Mm-hmm. Right. And so we did a little, uh, searching and found that Illinois unclaimed property over 5 billion in cash on assets 

Dan Drews: with a b 

Keith Kiker: are weighed there. And so if you, if you wanna take something away from this podcast, you literally go to i cash dot Illinois treasurer.gov and you’re able to put in.

Keith Kiker: Your last name, your first name, and the CI one of the cities you’ve recently lived, lived in. And boom, here it comes. By the way, your neighbors are on there. I’m on there. If you want to go see what Illinois owe [00:48:00] owes me, you’ll find a couple of inches. You a good 

Brennen Roberts: neighbor, but you can do it for your parents.

Keith Kiker: You know, it’s a totally, so you won’t be able to get what they owe me, but you can go see what they owe me. And it’s funny to see yourself pop up there. Mm-hmm. But it’s literally $5 billion. That’s 

Brennen Roberts: crazy. 

Keith Kiker: Where do we start with that? Inventory everything and know about those little annuities. Right. The number of times you’ll see a life insurance policy that was written in 1962 and it’s like, oh, it’s a $8,000 policy.

Keith Kiker: Okay, but let’s make sure we know about it. 

Brennen Roberts: Mm-hmm. And it’s probably been sold like four times since it’s been 

Keith Kiker: bought. Yeah, right. There may be a different insurance company. And then that last one, unclaimed life insurance policies. Yeah. The National Association of Insurance Commissioners. What an exciting group to be a part of.

Keith Kiker: NAIC. Their policy locator service claims to have connected beneficiaries to $6 billion in life and annuity benefits. 

Dan Drews: Yeah. 

Keith Kiker: So if you do wind up losing a loved one, you, you gotta go on the hunt. And it’s easier [00:49:00] to know the treasure map ahead of time. 

Dan Drews: Well, and I gotta, I gotta believe even seeing that number probably.

Dan Drews: Frustrates you to some degree that man, all these people do all this planning and then they don’t convey the knowledge of the planning to the next generation. Right, right. Yeah. So, yeah. Yeah. 

Keith Kiker: It’s unfortunate. 

Dan Drews: Yeah. Well, and kind of, uh, as we kind of wind down our conversation today too, b Brennen, are there any other bases we have not touched with Keith that, uh, you think we need to make sure and, uh, discuss before we let him, uh, go today?

Brennen Roberts: No, I thought this was. A really interesting and relevant conversation. We see it all the time with our clients and frankly, seeing it in our personal lives. So yeah, it was, uh, when we first started talking about what we were gonna talk about, this is not where I thought we’d end up, but we all realized like, this is a big important topic.

Brennen Roberts: Yeah. So, uh, I’m glad we uncovered it and, uh, you know, I think lots of anecdotes about how and why it’s important. So, you know, I think, uh. You know, just looking at those numbers, I’m like, [00:50:00] 5 billion in Illinois Times 50 states plus 6 billion in blah. There’s a lot of money, a lot sitting around there that people work their lives to accumulate.

Brennen Roberts: Right. Is just floating around out there. 

Keith Kiker: Well, and I’m thumbing through my, my notes real quick and, and noticing I want to throw out there. In addition to knowing what the inventory is, here’s an important one. Fast forward to. Mid eighties, early nineties, and you haven’t had these conversations as much as maybe you should have, and it’s a little uncomfortable.

Keith Kiker: But one thing you do wanna understand is life insurance and long-term care insurance that’s in place. And to the extent you’re able to ask your folks to put you on as another party to notify in the event OFID premium payment. If you think of the, the great 

Dan Drews: advice, 

Keith Kiker: yeah, the terrible irony is you’re more likely right as you’re up against.

Keith Kiker: Making a claim on either life or long-term care, you’re also more likely to overlook the bill because you’re in the [00:51:00] hospital or you’ve got cognitive issues. It happens. It would be better. Hey, just put me on. Just notify me if it’s about to lapse. 

Dan Drews: Try to dummy proof as much as 

Keith Kiker: you 

Dan Drews: can. Everything. Yeah, that’s exactly right.

Keith Kiker: Yeah. 

Dan Drews: Yeah. Any other words of advice or nuggets for our audience as it, as it pertains to this type of, uh, financial planning or, uh, uh, preparation for the seniors or the sandwich generation? 

Keith Kiker: No, that’s a great question and, and as much as we’ll sit here and kick around some ideas, when you really stop, and I know we’ve talked about this, all three of us.

Keith Kiker: And reflect on your own situation. You just kinda well up if you’re in my fortunate boat with gratitude that you’ve got these parents that looked after you for not just until you were, you know, 18 or maybe through college, right? But they were there. They still have been there as this security, this backstop.

Keith Kiker: Right. Your, [00:52:00] your main champion and cheering you on. So thank you mom and dad, if you wind up seeing this for all of that, but it’s one of the parts that makes this inflection tough. 

Brennen Roberts: Mm-hmm. 

Keith Kiker: Because they’re still who they are, but they’re, it’s possible that they’re gonna have these shifts, that it’s gonna invert.

Keith Kiker: Who needs the care and who’s giving the care. 

Dan Drews: Mm-hmm. 

Keith Kiker: And that’s an unnatural, awkward moment to reach. Yep. And so you want to be respectful, mom and dad, I wanna be respectful. Um, but I’m here for you. Right. And, and that’s what we all want. We want to communicate. We’re here for you. We’re alongside you for the journey.

Keith Kiker: Don’t want to overstep, happy for you to stay in the house forever, but let’s work together to make that. Possible. 

Dan Drews: I like what you just said there, work together, make them a part of the plan rather than dictating a plan to them. Yeah. Right. 

Brennen Roberts: Yeah. 

Keith Kiker: What’s their plan? 

Dan Drews: Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Keith, you’ve been an excellent guest.

Dan Drews: If, if [00:53:00] our viewers and our, uh, audience want to get ahold of you for some help, what’s the best way they can? Enlist your expertise? 

Keith Kiker: Well, we, uh, I’m a part of Ian Wealth Partners. Our website is ian.com. Uh, the opinions that I’ve commented on, by the way, are my own, uh, 

Dan Drews: very good ones by the 

way, 

Brennen Roberts: compliance, thank you.

Keith Kiker: but@vest.com, you can go search for an advisor, and if you’ll find the Glen Ellen, Illinois, uh, item. On our page for the Glen Ellen team is the pathway to transparency, which one will give you additional questions to consider and the framework that we’ve talked about today. Uh, and also would give you a way to reach out to us if there’s support we can offer.

Keith Kiker: We are certain willing to do that and have introductory calls as that makes sense. Vest Gen has office all around the Chicagoland area, and so happy to have. [00:54:00] Naperville and Downers Grove and Chicago and Inverness and all the different groups. They’re great folks that have built this firm. 

Brennen Roberts: So 

that’s 

Brennen Roberts: great.

Brennen Roberts: And we’ll put, uh, if you see this, uh, YouTube or social, we’ll put a, we’ll put a link, uh, oh, link down below or whatever for, uh, so they can get it, actually. 

Dan Drews: All right, sounds good. So folks, if you haven’t started this, or even if you have started your financial planning, make sure you enlist Keith. And find a way to kind of dot your I’s and cross your t’s.

Dan Drews: You’ve been an invaluable, uh, part of the conversation today. Keith. Thank you so much for joining us. We really appreciate it. Uh, we always appreciate experts like you to help us figure out for way, ways to keep our parents to age in place. And Brennen, we always appreciate you and seniors helping seniors, uh, find a way to sponsor programs like this and being part of the Naperville Area Family Guide on the topic. So we look forward to our audience joining us next time for our next guest. And [00:55:00] until then, remember everyone, it takes a village. So play your part in the village. Thank you very much. Thanks.