Financial advisor strategies are the focus as Jeb, Ethan, and Eric break down the real cost of procrastination. Tax planning windows close every year you wait. The hosts explore how portfolio rebalancing prevents costly drift, why the timing of Roth conversions matters more than most people realize, and how behavioral coaching from a trusted advisor can prevent emotional decisions that derail decades of progress. From missed tax loss harvesting cycles to life insurance premiums that rise with age, the compounding effect of delay touches every corner of your financial planning journey. This episode makes the case that a written financial plan is not a luxury for later. It is the foundation on which your future is built right now.

What you will learn in this Episode:

How missing annual tax planning windows, including Roth IRA contributions, tax loss harvesting, and Roth conversion timing, creates a compounding gap of lost opportunity that you can never fully recover.

Why portfolios left unattended experience portfolio drift, shifting from a balanced allocation to a concentrated risk profile that only reveals itself when market volatility strikes at the worst possible moment.

How behavioral coaching from a financial advisor protects you from emotionally driven decisions like selling during downturns or chasing returns on high-profile IPOs that statistically underperform in their first year.

Tune into the Metcalf Money Moment podcast for expert insights on wealth management and retirement planning! Join Jeb, Ethan, and Eric for practical Estate Planning strategies that you can implement to unlock financial clarity and confidence. Listen now to inspire your financial journey!

TIMESTAMPS:

00:00 Ethan explains missed tax planning opportunities, including Roth IRA contributions and tax loss harvesting cycles

07:00 Eric covers portfolio drift, portfolio rebalancing, and the risks of account sprawl in a DIY investment approach

11:31 Jeb discusses the behavioral coaching value of an advisor and how emotional selling destroys long-term wealth management

16:25 Ethan highlights the compounding effect of delay on life insurance costs, estate planning, and financial planning decisions

18:40 Eric revisits Roth conversion strategy and why the ideal window for retirement planning is shorter than most people expect

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

A five-year delay in financial planning is not one missed plan. It is five missed cycles of tax planning, portfolio rebalancing, and strategic opportunities that cannot be recovered retroactively.

Portfolio drift is a silent risk. A balanced investment strategy can quietly shift toward dangerous concentration during a bull market, leaving investors exposed when market volatility eventually arrives.

The greatest hidden value of a financial advisor is not investment returns. It is the behavioral guardrail that prevents a single emotional decision from wiping out more value than years of advisory fees would ever cost.

DISCLAIMER:

This information is not intended to be a substitute for specific individualized tax or legal advice. We recommend discussing your particular situation with a qualified tax or legal advisor.

RESOURCES MENTIONED:

Metcalf Partners - Website

Jeb Graham - LinkedIn

Ethan Hutchison - LinkedIn

Eric Wymore - LinkedIn

Now your hosts[00:00:30]

Ethan Hutcheson: Good. Nailed the intro. Nailed it.

But, uh, great. H- [00:00:50] we're into summer. Uh, I guess today's, uh, June 17, so it'll probably end up [00:00:55] being, you know, around 4th of July, uh, when this comes out. And we also have, you know, last [00:01:00] night we had Messi score a hat trick. Did you guys get to watch the game at all? So that was a neat [00:01:05] time for Kansas- Of

Eric Wymore: course, yeah

Jeb Graham: that, that was a neat time for Kansas City for sure to-

Eric Wymore: Yeah, it was

[00:01:30] And, um, you know, I think all of us, you know, through the business have had people that we've [00:01:35] talked to over the years that have said, "Hey, I need to sit down with you," or, uh, you know, "I'm [00:01:40] thinking about hiring a financial advisor." And, and then you'll see them five years later, and they'll have that [00:01:45] same discussion, right?

And what's interesting [00:02:05] is, is kind of very few Americans actually have one relative to the overall population. Only [00:02:10] 36%, according to Charles Schwab, have a written financial plan. [00:02:15] And of the 36% that have a written financial plan, 75% of those say [00:02:20] that they feel more in control and comfortable with their finances.

15% versus 14, or whatever it is. [00:02:55] And I think some people just forget about the overall value that's added by [00:03:00] having a personal CFO and having a financial advisor. So which are [00:03:05] synonymous terms, by the way, when we're talking about a financial advisor and a personal CFO. I, uh... We, we would [00:03:10] consider a personal CFO kind of a higher level financial advisor.

Ethan Hutcheson: Yeah. Yeah, I think- [00:03:35] I, I wouldn't say it's the most important one, but one that does occur on an annual basis [00:03:40] is gonna be missed tax opportunities. Not filing. I mean, I hope you file your [00:03:45] taxes every year and d- you don't miss that one. Uh, but, but other strategies around [00:03:50] taxes, and, and I don't mean, you know, saving taxes every year.

Tax loss harvesting occurs, uh, [00:04:20] most oftentimes there's opportunities for tax loss harvesting on an annual basis as well. [00:04:25] Um, sometimes the market's just rip-roaring and everything's got gains, and it's hard to, to find those [00:04:30] losses. But every so often we'll, we'll have a correction during a, during a bull market.

Um, I, I think a, a big one is Roth conversion timing. Everyone's heard of [00:04:55] Roth conversions. They've been around forever, um, but they've really come to the f- forefront lately [00:05:00] with, with the future, um, possibility of, of income tax [00:05:05] increases down the road. So people are thinking, "I'm gonna have, you know, $5 million at retirement.

A- and it's interesting, you know, they might retire early, 50, 55, 60 [00:05:35] And they might have said, "Man, I wish I would've, you know, i- got introduced to you 10 years [00:05:40] ago," 'cause there's a lot of planning leading up to that retirement, uh, that we could have done to [00:05:45] help ease the burden on, on some of that large pre-tax buckets of money that are there.[00:05:50]

The, the longer you delay, the, the more missed [00:06:10] opportunity occurs, and I think the more missed opportunity adds to itself. Because like I said, every [00:06:15] year that goes by that you don't act on one of these strategies, that's another year that goes by that you, you, you [00:06:20] can't go back in time and do that. So something to think about.

So, um, o-on the, on the tax side of things, there's [00:06:45] definitely a lot of, of investment opportunities. So Eric, if you want to chime in on, on some, [00:06:50] uh, opportunities from the investment side of the equation.

And, and generally speaking, that is. Yeah, you want to make sure that you're putting away [00:07:05] money into your retirement accounts or into other investments on a regular basis. But in [00:07:10] reality, you know, portfolios, they're a living, breathing financial tool, and if, if [00:07:15] you leave them un-unattended, they're going to, they, they, they tend to drift away from their original [00:07:20] purpose, and that can certainly create those risks that aren't visible until it's too late.[00:07:25]

Uh, we've seen that over the last couple of years in the [00:07:50] markets. And, and that, that position, what started as kind of a [00:07:55] smaller position, uh, is now much, much larger. [00:08:00] And, and when you thought you had a balanced portfolio at the beginning now [00:08:05] can become more of a concentrated handful of stocks, sectors, or asset classes.[00:08:10]

And that's a question that we need to ask, [00:08:35] right? Um, because it might not be. It might just be that we're hitting the right time and, and we [00:08:40] need to reevaluate what things will look like in the next few years. Um, 'cause [00:08:45] that creep is real. That risk creep, it creeps in, you know, it is real. And, and if you think about [00:08:50] it, a few years ago, what was a sixty-forty portfolio that we'll often talk [00:08:55] of, sixty percent of your money's in, you know, stocks, forty percent is [00:09:00] in fixed income or bonds, kind of that stable wor- position.

And that's what we wanna make sure that if [00:09:25] you're, you know, that you're always looking at your portfolio, looking for opportunities to [00:09:30] rebalance. Um, I think the other thing is that the goals [00:09:35] often change, right? Your investments, but your investments might not. [00:09:40] Um, someone that's forty-five and is in that accumulation phase might [00:09:45] be a little different risk tolerance than, or might, you know, their portfolio might be a little [00:09:50] bit more inappropriate for someone that's sixty-five that's nearing retirement.

I, I definitely think that that's something that's a [00:10:50] real risk, um, you know, that needs to... Or that, you know, that [00:10:55] can, that can pop up in the portfolio. So just keep in mind, the portfolio isn't a crockpot, [00:11:00] right? You don't just put it in, dump it in, set it and forget it. It's something that you need to constantly [00:11:05] review.

Jeb Graham: what Jeff

Eric Wymore: can cover now.

And, and to [00:12:05] give you a couple examples of that, and we've all seen it as financial advisors. You know, whether you're thinking about back [00:12:10] to 2022 when the market went down, you know, significantly, the bond- bonds went [00:12:15] down significantly. You can say that about the great financial crisis. I was in the business then too.

So- That's a [00:12:50] behavioral issue that, that a financial advisor typically is gonna help you, uh, help you through. And [00:12:55] then, um, when you look at... And, and same thing there, we just talked about that, is mo- [00:13:00] moving to cash after the market declines. Um, so that would be also se- you know, selling low or [00:13:05] selling at the wrong time.

It's, "Hey, how are we [00:13:30] gonna get on Sp- in, on SpaceX?" We know that it was going public at a $1.75 trillion [00:13:35] valuation. Crazy valuation. There's, uh, amazing statistics. I, I wouldn't say amazing statistics, but [00:13:40] very solid statistics that would say that in the first year of an IPO, most of those [00:13:45] companies experience a very significant drawdown.

However, [00:14:10] what happens is people start chasing returns, and so, so not only do they sometimes sell things at the [00:14:15] wrong time, sometimes they might buy things at the wrong time because they have that fear of missing out, right? And [00:14:20] that's kind of our job is... You know, and, and I'll tell you, the, the clients that we've had that called wanting [00:14:25] SpaceX, some of them bought SpaceX.

We don't know, but I think smart money is on [00:14:45] looking at statistics, looking at history, and trying to basically make it an intelligent [00:14:50] decision instead of an emotional decision. And so, um, you know, the other thing, and, and [00:14:55] this goes hand-in-hand with both of those, is that people might abandon long-term strategies.

And that could be, you know, if we do see a big market downturn, uh, we do a lot of, [00:15:25] uh, what we call opportunistic rebalancing. So market goes down, you know, instead of getting [00:15:30] scared, right, we wanna use that opportunity as a time to maybe buy some things when they're cheap, [00:15:35] uh, and optimize the portfolio over the long term.

And, and, and it's, you know, [00:16:00] if, if we would've, uh, had them as a client or, or if they would've, you know, listened as a [00:16:05] client, uh, just, just listening to the advice would've paid for years and years of, of the financial [00:16:10] advisory fees that they paid at to have that advisor help guide them. So, uh, so I [00:16:15] think just not underestimating what that, what that emotional kind of support during [00:16:20] those, those volatile times can do for, for a client as well

Ethan Hutcheson: Yeah.

It's, it's b- it's a beautiful thing to have compound interest, but those decisions that you [00:16:45] make over time that compound on each other, I, I'm thinking more along the lines of like a life [00:16:50] insurance policy. So you might be 24 years old, no kids, it's your first job. [00:16:55] Someone approaches you to buy life insurance.

That $15 a month [00:17:15] premium for the same million dollar policy, now that's up to, uh, you know, $90 a month, and a [00:17:20] million dollars might not be enough at that time. So you've waited and waited and waited, and said, "I'll get it next year. [00:17:25] I'll do it next year," uh, you know, yada, yada, yada. Now it's more expensive. [00:17:30] Uh, you don't have the proper coverage that you used to have, and, and you've got to spend a little more out of pocket to get the, the, a proper [00:17:35] coverage.

Um, but delaying the inevitable decision [00:17:55] sometimes will cost you, whether it's real dollars, emotional dollars, w- whatever [00:18:00] you want to, you know, assign to that, to that decision, it can cost you over time from a [00:18:05] compounding perspective. So when someone waits 10 years to do something, they're not 10 years behind by any [00:18:10] means.

Eric Wymore: Absolutely. And even the [00:18:25] decisions, you know, other decisions, it's like, hey, if you, you know, take a withdrawal to go purchase [00:18:30] whatever it is, that compounding effect of that money not growing is also can be pretty, pretty [00:18:35] substantial-

Ethan Hutcheson: Oh, yeah.

Big time ...

And, and you know, and I think that's o-one of the big [00:19:10] misconceptions is, you know, Roth conversions can be done at any time. And while that's [00:19:15] true, the most valuable Roth opportunities are often in a very, very [00:19:20] short window of time. And if you think about it, if you are [00:19:25] 65 years old and decide to retire, you probably just got done with your highest earning [00:19:30] years of your, of your career.

So if you were deferring during your working years at 22% or [00:20:10] 24%, now all of a sudden you have very little income, or you've [00:20:15] structured it the correct way, maybe in some non-retirements, uh, to take that money out, you're able [00:20:20] to get, uh, you're able to get that money out of that retirement account at 12% [00:20:25] or so.

A market decline can [00:20:55] also oppor-- give you a pretty good opportunity to do a Roth conversion. Uh, if you think about it, if you [00:21:00] have a million dollar IRA and you're wanting to convert 10-- you know, [00:21:05] $100,000, well, that's about 10%. Well, if the market drops and that accou- [00:21:10] that IRA is also declines, now you still want to convert $100,000, it's [00:21:15] not 10% of the IRA, it might be 12% or, or 15%.

Jeb Graham: For sure.

And tell... And help them [00:22:15] move forward with that. And I'll tell you the things that we hear a lot when people are thinking about it is, is number [00:22:20] one is, "I'm gonna get serious later," right? Like, "Right now I'm busy with a lot of stuff," or I [00:22:25] guess that those go hand-in-hand is also, "I'll do it when things calm down," or, "I'll [00:22:30] wait until retirement gets closer."

All those sorts of things. Um, but, but, you [00:22:55] know, the pain, the short-term pain, I think, uh, of getting all that stuff together, [00:23:00] uh, pays itself back, uh, in multiples, you know, down the road by, number one, [00:23:05] just, just hopefully peace of mind and confidence in what you're doing. Uh, and then number two, hopefully [00:23:10] it helps you have better results over time.

And every year that you're working with a financial advisor, it's another year of [00:23:35] potentially capitalizing on, on those opportunities. So, um, any other closing thoughts? [00:23:40]

It's the most [00:23:55] common thing, you know, we see when it... we're, we're talking to, to new folks, so.

There's a little bit of pain, uh, upfront involved in, [00:24:10] in getting from one, one side of it to the other, right?

Ethan Hutcheson: Right.

Voiceover: Thanks [00:24:25] for tuning in to Metcalfe Money Moment, the podcast. We hope today's episode provided [00:24:30] valuable insights to help you unlock financial clarity, confidence, and peace of mind. [00:24:35] For more expert advice and resources, visit metcalfepartners.com. Until [00:24:40] next time, make every money moment count[00:24:45]

The opinions voiced in this podcast are for general information only and [00:25:05] are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual. To determine which strategies or investments may be suitable for you, [00:25:10] consult the appropriate qualified professional prior to making a decision.