Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Federal employees may have access to some really good benefits, you know, retirement benefits included. Those benefits, though, come with a lot of caveats, a lot of decisions to be made, rules, elections, deadlines that can really shape the rest of your life.
[00:00:15] Speaker B: Indeed. And sometimes one seemingly small decision can affect your pension, health insurance, or even what happens to your money after you're gone.
[00:00:23] Speaker A: This time around. Here on Take Pride in Retirement, we are going to be joined by federal retirement specialist Raina Reyes, who is just an absolute joy to speak with. And she's going to explain what federal employees and really retirees in general, not just the feds and the people who love them, need to know.
[00:00:48] Speaker B: Welcome to Take Pride in Retirement, the podcast dedicated to helping members of the LGBTQ community protect and grow their hard earned money. Get set for a show full of education and insights with your host and advisor, Matt McClure. We recognize every family is unique. The goal of the show is to help you achieve financial freedom so you and your loved ones can have the retirement you've always dreamed of. A retirement you can take pride in, no matter who you are, where you're from, or who you love.
So now let's start the Show. Here's Matt McClure.
[00:01:24] Speaker A: Well, hello there. Once again. Welcome to another edition of Take Pride in retirement. Matt McClure, here with you, your host, your advisor, your friend, your pal, and your confidant.
[00:01:33] Speaker B: And I am Josh Retinoble, the attache to the advisor, AKA co host, AKA Matt's husband.
[00:01:38] Speaker C: Husband.
[00:01:40] Speaker A: Today we are talking about a subject that can get really complicated and pretty fast. It's federal retirement benefits.
[00:01:51] Speaker B: Oh, here we go. I'm assuming those could be acronyms, all
[00:01:53] Speaker A: the acronyms in the world.
Federal retirement really does kind of have its own Alphabet soup. You got fers, that's fers. You got fehb, You've got fegli, You've got T.
That's just to name a few of the things in the Alphabet soup. We're also going to talk about aura, which is ora. There's a lot of stuff, but it's a conversation that is also about issues that affect nearly everybody retirees in general, not just federal employees. There's a lot that's applicable to everybody in here. You know, creating retirement income, right? Coordinating benefits with your spouse or your partner, planning for illness, making sure that the right people inherit what you leave behind, leaving that legacy for yourself as well. And so whether you work for the federal government or in the private sector or for yourself, your retirement plan really should reflect your benefits, your relationships, the life that you're actually building all those things. Right? So if you are in that retirement red zone within five years either side of retirement, and you would like a second opinion on what you've got going on in your retirement life and in your retirement plan, the initial consultation is absolutely free. So please do reach out. Go to takeprideinretirement.com it's takeprideinretirement.Com you can also call if that's your speed. 8552-4692-1185-5246-9211. We can meet via Zoom. We can meet in our Atlanta area offices if you are in the area. So we really would appreciate it if you would do that. One other thing, Mr. Noble, that we would appreciate is if you are watching on YouTube, please like this video. And also do what?
[00:03:35] Speaker B: Subscribe.
[00:03:37] Speaker A: Subscribe A little button. A little button. Subscribe there at the end. We do want you to subscribe to the channel. It really does help.
The channel is, is growing and, but, you know, kind of growing slowly and steadily. So help us speed it along if you will. And that will really do it. Well, our guest today is Raina Reyes, a great colleague and I'm glad to say, friend of mine as well. She has, she is the one, Joshua.
Before we went on our trip to London not too, too long ago, she was like, you have to see Phantom of the Opera. So we did and we loved it. But Raina has worked in the financial and insurance space all the way back since she was a teenager. Today, she specializes in helping federal employees kind of navigate that switchover from employee to retiree. Right. And we talk about here some of the biggest mistakes that people make. The importance of coordinating benefits between spous and several issues especially important for LGBTQ folks, especially. And so, you know, including things like beneficiary designations, survivor benefits, estate planning, and things like powers of attorney. We discuss all of those things in there. And she also believes that there is a song for just about everything in this world. So you'll really enjoy it. It's a great conversation. Here is my conversation with Reyna Reyes.
[00:05:00] Speaker C: So I'm very happy to welcome in Raina Reyes, who is a friend and a colleague and a very knowledgeable person when it comes to all things federal retirement.
[00:05:10] Speaker A: Hey, Raina, thanks for being here.
[00:05:12] Speaker D: Takes knowledgeable to know. Knowledgeable. Matt, I appreciate you having me on.
[00:05:16] Speaker C: Well, you know, I know about some things and, you know, a lot about some different things. And so that's what I'm hoping to, to glean from you in this conversation here.
First of all, you know, just give a little bit of your background because I know you've been. You've been doing this for a long time. We're like, we're like the same age almost exactly. But you've been doing this a lot longer than I have. You kind of grew up in it.
[00:05:40] Speaker D: I did, yeah. Good memory. And, yeah, now I'm thinking about our ages and who was born first here. I'm 2-82-82. Let's put that marker down in there. But, yeah, I started working with my dad when I was 14 years old. He worked at a property casualty, brick and mortar company.
And so after high, you know, middle school, high school, I was going there and helping with bill pay, taking phone calls, and he taught me at a young age, really one of his mantras was zero risk equals zero occurrence, so if you don't risk it, nothing can happen. And he. I remember him showing me, Remember when the printers used to have the holes on the side and they would print
[00:06:19] Speaker C: the old printer paper, the dot, like the dot matrix printers that. Yeah, I'm. I'm with you.
[00:06:24] Speaker D: Where you could take the sides and make the little accordion. But he showed me, he pulled up somebody's driving record and he held it up above his head and it still laid out to the floor. And he said, what do you think we're charging them? And of course, it was really, of course, heavy, heavy, heavy cost, but they've risked a lot. So they had a lot of occurrence. And so that brought me really to where we are now, where I don't like risking money.
I don't like it at all. But fast forward, went to school, got my English degree with a minor in marketing. I thought I'd be the coolest English teacher ever. And then a lot of stuff was going on in the schools during that time, and I didn't necessarily want to be a part of that. So I got that marketing minor, went straight to work at a life insurance agency at Torchmark company and then met who would have become my husband. And we opened an agency together as a brokerage.
And it was kind of great to be able to say yes to people because at that previous life insurance agency, they were great products, but limited, you know, a lot of stuff you couldn't say yes to. So we had a brokerage. We could do a little bit of everything.
And then it was introduced to Medicare. I worked only in Medicare for years.
And then we were introduced to the federal market. Started working individually and then in seminars, workshops, And B, fast forward to this day, we've got an agency that does over 400 workshops a year as a group collectively.
And I just happen to be one of them who does those meetings. And I really love it, love meeting with people, any type of person we can talk to. But our specialty is federal and postal employees.
[00:08:02] Speaker C: Yeah. And, and on that note, like, if somebody's watching or listening and they're like, okay, why do you need to focus on federal retirement? Like, what makes federal retirement different than say, you know, I am, you know, I don't know, John Doe and I am working at the Walmart down the street or whatever? Like, what makes those kinds of things different?
[00:08:27] Speaker D: Well, a lot of people want to get a job because of the benefit packages. Some people say, oh, I want to get the bennies and that's the Benjamins, the money, but then also the benefits. Right. And so place like Walmart, they have their own package of benefits, 401k, sometimes health and life insurance and dental and vision.
And then you've got the mom and pop type of programs where those small companies want to provide benefits for their small, for their employees. I've done that as well. Just small group benefits where it's a, they call it a cafeteria plan or something, where they provide these benefits so you feel better. But the federal government, all the employees have a benefit package that looks and smells very similar to all of the federal employees, that whole workforce. Postal, federal, it's a very similar benefit package that they can choose from.
But nobody is the same. Right. People are married, not married, taking care of kids, sometimes even raising grandkids. And they may have different people participating in those benefits, different benefits that are going to continue into longevity.
So to focus specifically on federal and postal, it's a big group of people who have access to a human resources organization.
But like everything these days, yay. I've got all this access to knowledge, but some of it is difficult to actually open that door. All the human resources people are working from home now, a lot of them. And to get access to them, it's an email or a phone call and a prayer.
So they're getting access to this information in a much more individualized way in a, what I hope is a much more tangible, memorable way so they can actually see rubber the road of what their benefits are and what their choices for that permanent retirement outlook will be.
[00:10:22] Speaker C: Yeah. And one of the things that I love about you and the way that you communicate with people who are, you know, retiring, either retirees, pre retirees, whatever, is that well, we'll have, we'll have some fun like with music. And you'll always come up with like there's a song, there's a song for every occasion which is like my mom would always do that same sort of thing. Like somebody would just say like oh, isn't the sunshine beautiful today? And she'd start singing you are my sunshine, you know, or something like that.
[00:10:52] Speaker D: Like the sunshine on my shoulder. Exactly. 100%.
[00:10:56] Speaker C: So I love that.
So not to like, not to put you on the spot or anything but my next question was actually going to be in the federal space, like what are maybe some of the biggest mistakes that you see feds make and is there a song that goes with it?
[00:11:15] Speaker D: I mean there absolutely is. There's probably many, many songs that work with it. But oddly enough the same mistakes a federal employee makes are the same ones that anybody who's not a federal employee makes. And the first one is not to plan.
[00:11:31] Speaker C: Right?
[00:11:31] Speaker D: Right. Prior preparation prevents poor performance.
But some people spend more time planning their kids wedding, it's going to take one day than they do to plan their retirement. It's supposed to last their whole life.
And so you know one, I think we've done this song a few times actually but you know, papa was a rolling stone Wherever he laid his hat was his home but when he died all he left them was alone. And we don't want to that papa. So sometimes people are planning not just for their own lifetimes but for their legacy, their kids, their kids, kids. And that inheritances is a big part of it. So lack of planning, that's a, that's an issue.
And not to have insurance money, money, money, money, money. So they, we don't plan correctly for what our money is going to be. Sometimes people are very, they see right here we're planning for maybe tomorrow or next week or the vacation we planned.
But are we planning for potentially getting ill or losing our income? How many months is it prepared for? So it's not always just about specific to federal. Everybody has a stream of income by working and everybody has the potential to lose that stream of income whether it's health related for either them or their spouse or even kids. If the kids health changes, you become a caretaker or you've got to pay a caretaker and it's all about the money. We got to plan for it.
But that's the biggest thing. We see people passing away without insurance or without adequate insurance. People say well I've got a burial paid for.
That's good. It's a Good start. That's a good foundation. But we. Every foundation needs walls and a roof, so we want to build around that. So it's not just one. And that's diversification is the other bit of it is to not plan for the diversity within your own portfolio.
So there's no one thing that's perfect, and that's a long answer to a short question. But diversity is a big part of planning.
[00:13:37] Speaker C: Yeah, and it really is. I mean, you know, diversity. Not just in, like, because people think about diversity of being like, oh, I got to have a good mix of, you know, stocks and bonds in my.
In my 401k, or in this case, if you're a Fed, like, you're in your TSP or whatever, you know, and. And there are the different TSP funds that you can choose from and all of that. These are. These are things that I have learned from Raina.
But prior to this, I'd be like, with the fg, what? The Alphabet Soup fund, Like, what are we doing? Yeah, right.
But the diversity kind of goes beyond just that, though. It's like, you know, having sort of a mixture of maybe different products and different, you know, I don't know, just different. Different types of. Or different buckets of money that can serve different purposes for you in retirement. Right.
[00:14:27] Speaker D: It's a really good point. Federal employees specifically have four different versions of life insurance offered to them by the government.
In the same way, most other insurance. Correction. Most other employers have some type of insurance offered, whether it's insurance that the company pays for, that if you pass away, it pays them. But then one day you say, take this job and shove it. I ain't working here no more. What do you get to keep?
Do you get to keep that? Probably not. If the employer's paying for the coverage, the odds of you maintaining it in retirement are pretty low.
Same thing with whether you're paying for term insurance versus whole life insurance. Those are two different versions of the same product Insurance people think, oh, if I die, it's going to pay. Well, that's not necessarily the limit either. That's not necessarily all it does. There's insurance out there that have living benefits where you don't have to die to get paid and you don't have to bleed to get covered. Meaning no nurse has to come out there to poke and prick and prod you to get the coverage.
But if you're diagnosed with something big, they have benefits that you can get paid for while living. My husband was a great example of this. He had a plan like this. He was diagnosed at age 45 with colorectal cancer, stage four.
Well, that came with all the stuff, treatment and all the things. And he's in remission now, which is huge, coming up on five years. But right when that diagnosis came through stage four, you, yours truly put in a claim to life insurance. Not because of a death sentence, but because of this diagnosis. And there's some insurance that covers and pays for things like heart attack, stroke, cancer, Alzheimer's, traumatic brain injury. It's a long list, even to the point of having a chronic illness benefit that pays for the same reason as long term care.
If I can't perform two out of the six activities of daily living, it pays me. And I can imagine if you're listening to this, you're like, what? Life insurance only pays my people? I'm not going to get any of this. Not so. Yeah, not so. There is insurance out there that is, I'm telling you, life insurance is under, understood and definitely underused.
So that is one product or one named product that has dozens of sub versions.
Same with, like you mentioned, with something like TSP or a 401. There's dozens of financial vehicles out there, but in the same way there's dozens and dozens of cars, vehicles on the road. They all have some main types, right? You got your trucks and your cars and your sports cars, so subtypes. And then within them, leather seats, cloth seats, two door, four door, whatever.
Very similar comparison to a financial vehicle because they do different things. Some are very risky, some go fast, but they have risk.
Some are very slow and steady wins the race.
So that's kind of a very general way to approach it. But the diversity, the diversity within there makes more sense because you may want your fast car on the weekend, but you may have to carry the family in a very safe big old buggy.
[00:17:44] Speaker C: That's very true. And that just reminds me of another song. You got a fast car and I want to take it to anywhere. Okay. Anyway, I did say, you know, there is truly, truly a song for every occasion.
[00:18:00] Speaker D: There is.
[00:18:02] Speaker C: Obviously. So over the years, you know, you've worked with people of all stripes, all walks of life in different situations. Married, single, divorced, widowed, all, all of those things, you know, lgbt, Q plus couples, all, all of the things.
You know, what are some things that maybe if you're in. Let's just, let's take one of those situations if you're in a couple situation and maybe somebody's listening and, and perhaps their spouse is a fed, you know, I'm based out of Atlanta. Obviously the CDC is here. So we've got a lot of federal employees, but say maybe one spouse works for the the federal government, the other does not.
Are there any special considerations there? Because I feel like there could be some, some wrinkles in coordinating the two.
[00:18:48] Speaker D: Absolutely. So, so I think I'm funny and I call two married federal employees Twinkies because remember when we had Twinkies, they were two of the same thing in the little package. So it's not even just to be cute. It's a way to remember that there's conversations we have to address things like survivor benefits and pension and what's going to cost them out of their pension if they both have a similar one.
And I, you may have heard this, but I had a couple in New York, one was a federal employee, the other one worked at a municipality there in New York, like the city of New York. And I said, well, you're not Twinkies. But they both had a pension and they Both had a 401k TSB kind of program along with similar choices, almost identical, just different programs. He says we're Ding Dongs, we're not Twinkies, we're Ding Dongs. So we have to deal with any type of cake in a shrink wrap. All different types. But let's say one is fed, one is not. The considerations for the non fed are going to be things like survivor benefits, especially because if the non fed does not have a pension, but the Fed does, the non Fed is going to prepare for Social Security. That's going to be the stream of income.
But what other stream of income is there? And when I'm meeting with the two that non fed. Okay, well what do you have? Do you have a 401k? Yes. Oh, well, we can take a portion of a non federal spouse's 401k and then create a pension where there once was not one. We can make lifetime income. Sometimes that costs less by using a bucket that's. Excuse me, already there. Rather than the high cost of a survivor benefit. Or their age is a big factor as well. The younger they are, the more needed or more it makes sense to potentially leave a survivor benefit because that's a lifetime payment if that federal retiree passes away.
So you're so right. There is no one size fits all for any situation, Fed or not.
And so those are considerations, the survivor benefit. And then there's health insurance. Most married couples carry insurance from one of the two. That's just the common way. One of the one spouse Carries the insurance for the family and then the other one, you know, doesn't. And, but they're piggybacking on that one. And that's common for Feds. So since that is the norm that the federal employee is usually the one carrying that insurance, that survivor benefit is what allows the survivor or the non federal spouse to keep that health insurance if they're retired.
Federal spouse pass away.
So that's a big thing. And some people didn't even know that. There's people that say they're specialists in the Fed running around telling people to buy life insurance for a pension maximization. The concept makes sense. Get the biggest pension, don't spend money on survivor benefit, do it in life insurance. But either they didn't know or they failed to mention that it's that survivor benefit that allows the, the surviving spouse to keep the health insurance. So there's a lot of things to consider and non federal worlds have very similar stuff.
A lot of times that health insurance, a lot of non federal programs will have that spousal survivor benefit. You know, we do a lot of retirement for big companies. You know, your, your Coca Cola and your Napa and your, you know, all your stuff.
So a lot of those have very similar elections. But it's very rare that we can totally rely on things like Social Security and our employer. So we've got to make plans elsewhere.
[00:22:26] Speaker C: Yeah, it's very true. You know, if you goes back to what you're originally saying, kind of like if you plan or if you fail to plan, you plan to fail. You know, it's like you've got to have, that's, that's the simplest thing of, of I think going into this is just have a plan and don't assume that your account is a plan because it's an account. It's not a plan.
And if there are folks who are in, obviously this particular show is geared toward LGBTQ plus folks.
Are there maybe some situations? Because one of the things that I harp on all the time on the show is that what you were kind of just talking about, everybody's situation is different. Right? And so there is no one size fits all. There's, there's nothing that is going to be like, I always sort of say, like I'm not going to go down to the big box retirement store and pick a plan off the shelf and say here. You know, it's like you got to have something that is customized for you no matter what your situation is. When it comes to federal retirement though, are there any specific situations that maybe LGBTQ plus folks need to pay attention to or take into consideration, you know, especially if they're in a situation where they. Even though, you know, we have marriage equality, we've had marriage equality now for over 10 years, but maybe people are still partnered and not married or something like that situation.
[00:23:44] Speaker D: Beneficiaries by name.
That is the biggest, biggest one. In fact, just I think two weeks ago, you and I for Fed did a whole bit on what requires the status of a spouse and what does not. Because most people say, oh, I've got a will, I'm good. My will names my person, regardless of status. Not everything is subject to a will. Life insurance. You name the beneficiary and some people will name one person. Heaven forbid. What if you and that one person are in the car together and things like the federal government uses what's called an order of precedence. So let's say we're not married, but we've been together for 10 years and I haven't named a beneficiary. I die. TSB or the government goes in order of precedence, which is spouse, children, parents, next of kin, and then the estate.
Estate, next of kin, sorry, estate, and then the next of kin. So my longtime person is none of those things. Unless there's some type of common law argument that can be made. But then you get into real gray stuff.
Name your beneficiaries by name and by percentage.
That's in every 401k, every tsp, every life insurance document.
Name them by name and percentage and order.
Beneficiaries can be changed when the heck ever you want to.
And that's one of the biggest things you want to be sure of. Yeah, you need to have a will. You need to have your power of attorneys, both money and health.
You need to have all that stuff. And it's very worth naming it. If you trust one person over another, even if that, that that other person is some type of closer family member, you need to name them. Power of attorney is a big deal, but the beneficiaries, that's the biggest issue I've, I've seen. Could you imagine, what if you were married, you had been married and you had named your original spouse, and then the kids, the secondary and then pass away?
Well, because the kids were named secondary and that original spouse, let's say they passed away, the kids would get it. But what if that original spouse was still living and you got married to somebody else? Who gets the money, your new spouse?
Oh, they're not named.
That's one of the Biggest ones people bring up, like, heaven forbid your ex spouse get, get the money. But it's been harped on so much. I think people are aware of it, but some people forget. They think, oh, I got to do it, and they don't. Oh, I got to do it. And they don't.
[00:26:25] Speaker C: And life happens, Right. It's like, you know, you get maybe a new, a new job, or you get like the things are happening and they're. And they're happening so fast, especially maybe in a, in a divorce type situation and all those things. And you're like, okay, I've got to make sure that all my T's are crossed and I's are dotted. And then you find out years later, oh, I missed that T. Well, hopefully you cross the T when there's still time to cross the T. But it's, it's one of those. That is super, super important. Yeah, I agree. Beneficiary designations, because they will override, generally speaking, like, what is in a will. So make sure that they are up to date.
Definitely.
Okay.
[00:27:05] Speaker D: So trust, too. If you're, if you're, you're. Regardless of marital status, if you are building a life together and you want to designate how this money is used, the trust is going to really help with that as well, obviously, to avoid probate. Yeah, but you also have a lot of control over money and assets from a trust.
[00:27:23] Speaker C: And I think one of the biggest misconceptions with a trust is that, oh, that's just for, like, super uber rich people, like, like, you know, the, the Warren Buffets of the world, they can have a trust, but I don't need one, you know, but that's not, that's not necessarily true.
[00:27:38] Speaker D: I heard it best from an estate planning tax attorney with whom I work fairly closely. He says if you don't trust who might get the money, then you need to trust.
And that's an interesting way to put it. Not that you don't trust your people, whether that's kids or whatever, but if you don't trust even the outside people who may connect with that. For example, I've got, I've got three kids, and what if one of them gets married to somebody I'm not cool with or who has different ideas of what wealth may be or different ideas of how to manage money, that trust does not allow them to make authoritative decisions. And whether it's. Whether you've got 100,000 or 100 million, who earned that money, who needs to protect that money, who wants that money to actually go to Your people in the right way. That's where a trust can very. Can be helpful.
[00:28:31] Speaker C: Yeah. A million percent. Well, I guess just about time to wrap things up. Although I, you know, I could go on and we could, we could go on forever and the dog. And the dogs could go on forever.
[00:28:42] Speaker D: Yeah. I mean, people have left their dogs money as beneficiaries, so you do not want to leave out your furry friends.
I think the biggest one in history was a parrot. A woman left literally millions of dollars to her parrot as the beneficiary.
And the fight was over who world's richest parrot. Parrot.
[00:29:05] Speaker C: That's. Oh, my God.
That's amazing.
That is amazing. I love that. See the dogs, Even the dogs are singing a song for us today. You know, it's like, who let the dogs out?
Who did let the dogs out? I'm still, I still want to know.
So last little question here. If somebody is, say, you know, five years from retirement and, you know, this is something I, I talk about a lot, but I want your perspective on this as well. Like if there's somebody who's maybe five years from retirement and they're like, I think I'm gonna be okay for my retirement, but I'm not 100% sure. What are like, the first things that they should do?
[00:29:51] Speaker D: The first thing is to set a meeting. If you're watching Matt's show and you haven't met with him, I would encourage you to get together with Matt to start looking at options.
If you've already got somebody you're working with, there's nothing wrong with a second opinion in health or in finance. There is. There's so much that can be considered and there's so many people in this world of finance that explain things differently, describe things differently. You're already going to have your ideas and that's a perfect person to say, I think I'm okay. That means they've done something. They've already taken some type of action or they've made some type of plan. Maybe they've spreadsheeted their entire life and they believe that it looks good because their five year plan says so on their extrapolation calculation of their Excel.
But sometimes an outside party can see a hitch in the giddy up faster or even the smallest tweak.
I mean, let's go to the nth degree. If Christopher Columbus had been one degree off for all of that time, he wouldn't have landed anywhere near where he did.
So one degree makes a big difference even over five years. That's a long Time one degree off over three months makes a big difference. Imagine five years, what could be off. Are you contributing to Roth? Five years. You need to be for the Roth.
Are you, are you, are you doing Roth when maybe you should be doing traditional to potentially get a tax break. Now what are you doing for your spouse? Do you have enough insurance?
Use my husband's health history.
His hindsight to be your foresight. If you're going to walk through a minefield, do you want to be the first guy or the guy in the back? I'm picking the caboose, my friend, because I don't want to pave that way.
So let other people's, you know, injuries and scars help you avoid it because that's, that's the kind of thing that you can. You don't want to be first. You don't want to do that without a little bit of direction. You want the guy that's been through 20 minefields and that's who you would want to follow Jurassic Park. I'm following the guy with the hat. Clever girl. I'm behind him. And because he's been there before, he knows. He knows. So step one, set an appointment. Step two, if you haven't spreadsheeted it, start looking at your numbers. And don't just be one of y'. All. If you're married or you've got a significant other, don't do it alone. Force your non caring spouse. They care, but they're just like, oh, you handle that. No, no, you at least need to know some basic logins, some basic numbers, and if something happens to me, you need a top at least five people to call. Something happens to me. Yeah.
[00:32:41] Speaker C: Great.
[00:32:42] Speaker D: Sorry you opened up the floodgates and I just know the water through.
[00:32:45] Speaker C: That's. No, it's great stuff. Like, it's all wonderful. I mean, you know, have that like. I know my, my mom has like a binder of like important documents and, and you know, information and all that stuff. I think that's a great idea or even, you know, just. Yeah, something that's, something that's physical and tangible. Because it's like, okay, if something happens and then nobody knows the password to your phone or your book, whatever, it's like, okay, well, we're kind of, you know, up the proverbial creek. But if you've got something physical, like emails too. Yeah, yeah, 100%. Well, Raina Reyes, I am so glad to have had this conversation with you. Can we, let's, let's do this again sometime, shall we?
[00:33:23] Speaker D: Absolutely. I very Much enjoy it and we'll meet again. Don't know where, don't know when, but it'll be on this show.
[00:33:30] Speaker C: So absolutely. A song for every occasion, and I absolutely love it. Thank you, Reina. We'll link everybody to American Federal Benefits Consultants, which is your company that you and your husband run, that you spoke of earlier.
We'll do that in the description and all that so folks can. Can find you there.
[00:33:50] Speaker D: Thank you for having me on, Matt. It's been a pleasure.
[00:33:52] Speaker C: Thank you. We'll talk to you soon.
[00:33:53] Speaker B: I love it. I love it, I love it.
[00:33:55] Speaker A: You know, I always love a song
[00:33:56] Speaker B: for every occasion, beside for copyright infringement.
[00:34:00] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:34:00] Speaker A: You always have to be careful with that. And I'll, you know, think not only songs in there, but references to different brands of snack.
So, you know.
[00:34:08] Speaker B: Yeah, lots of snack cake references. Yeah.
[00:34:11] Speaker A: Got your Twinkies and all the things. That is Raina, and that is. That is kind of her sense of humor, but the way that she communicates with people to remember different concepts, I love that. And, you know, one of the things that she emphasized there, and I want to re. Emphasize here, is that the benefits don't coordinate themselves. You know, a pension, maybe health insurance, life insurance, Social Security, the retirement accounts. Whether you are a federal employee and you have a TSP or if you have a 401k or an IRA, if you're in the private sector, you know, all of these things can work differently. And an election involving one benefit, if you're a fed, can really affect so many other things. It doesn't happen on an island, in other words.
[00:34:55] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:34:56] Speaker B: And for the LGBTQ plus couples, I mean, that just the conversation seemed especially important. Right. Particularly if a couple has built a life together but they aren't legally married.
[00:35:05] Speaker A: Yeah, the, you know, beneficiary designations, super important point there.
And never assume that a will, you know, your. Your relationship or even your marriage certificate automatically guarantees certain things or controls every single asset. Right. Because retirement accounts and insurance policies generally pass according to the beneficiary designations that are listed on those policies. You can update those. If there have been major changes, please do review them after those major things like a marriage, a divorce, a death, or some other major life change. The bigger message here is a simple one, though.
Make sure that the people who are important to you in your life know what exists, what accounts are out there, where the important information is, and whom they should call if something were to happen to you.
And, you know, if you are approaching your retirement years and you wonder whether all the Pieces of your plan are, you know, truly working together in concert to get you to that date. Now is the time to find out. I would love to help you, you know, sort of navigate that transition from worker into retiree. Whether you are in the federal space or not, whether you're in the private sector or not, whether you work for yourself or not.
[00:36:26] Speaker B: Right.
[00:36:26] Speaker A: No matter who you are, are. And that is a big, big thing that we always talk about here. No matter who you are, where you come from, who you love, how you identify, or how much money you have, you deserve that retirement that you can take pride in. And the first consultation is absolutely free. Take Pride in retirement dot com. Take Pride in retirement dot com. That's the place to go. Schedule a meeting with me. We can do it remotely via Zoom, or if you happen to be in metro Atlanta, let's do that in person. And a big thank you to Raina Reyes for being here on the show today. Really do appreciate it. We'll include information about Raina and federal retirement benefits. American Federal Benefits Consultants, I should say she hosts Raina Retirement is her, the name of her show. That's why I was kind of, you know, getting my, my retirement words confused in there. But Raina Retirement is her show. American Federal Benefits Consultants is her company. We'll link everything in the description below and on our podcast description as well. We'll put that information and yeah, so I think that's going to do it for this edition. A great, great show here. And as always, Mr. Noble, a pleasure doing business with you.
[00:37:32] Speaker B: Pleasure doing business with you, Mr. McClure. And everyone listening or watching, please subscribe to Take Pride at Retirement. It really does help.
[00:37:39] Speaker A: It really, really does help us grow the channel, help us grow in general and just, you know, spread the message around about, you know, LGBTQ retirement issues and the solutions to them because they're, they're out there.
[00:37:51] Speaker B: All right.
[00:37:52] Speaker A: Spread them around. Spread them around that sunshine Blanche. Spread sunshine anyway. And retirement in retirement. Spread sunshine and retirement. Oh, darn. Still do a spin off show and say we'll spread sunshine in retirement.
Thank you so much for watching and or listening. As Josh said, please do subscribe to to the podcast and to the YouTube channel. Like the video. Leave us nice ratings and nice things to say. If you don't have nice things to say, go say them to somebody else, but say nice things to us. We really would appreciate that and thank you for always listening and watching. Really do appreciate it so, so much. Until next time, take pride in yourselves and take care of each other. We'll see you then.
[00:38:29] Speaker B: Thanks for listening. To Take Pride in Retirement Members of the LGBTQ community Discovery deserve to work with a fiduciary financial advisor who puts their needs first. To schedule a free no obligation consultation with Matt McClure and the team at ActiveWealth Management, call 855-246-9211 or go online to takeprideinretirement.com investment advisory services offered through Brookstone Capital Management, LLC, BCM a registered investment advisor. BCM and Active Wealth Management Incorporated are independent of each other. Insurance products and services are not offered through BCM but are offered and sold through individually licensed and appointed agents. Mad McClure and Active Wealth Management are not affiliated with or endorsed by the Social Security Administration or any other government agency.
[00:39:15] Speaker A: Any examples used are for illustrative purposes only and do not take into account your particular investment objectives, financial situation or needs and may not be suitable for all investors. It is not intended to predict the performance of any specific investment and is not a solicitation or recommendation of any investment strategy. Registered Investment Advisors and Investment Advisor Representatives act as fiduciaries for all of our investment management clients. We have an obligation to act in the best interest of our clients and to make full disclosures of any conflicts of interest. Please refer to our firm brochure the ADV2A, item 4 for additional information.
