[00:00:00] Speaker A: Welcome, listeners. You're listening to the Deeds in the Desert, where real estate investors tune in for the latest news.
[00:00:08] Speaker B: Welcome back to Deeds in the Desert. Today I've got a really special guest with us. Rarely do we have our registered independent advisors come in and meet with us, but today we have Lance Howard here and we're going to talk all things alternatives in the RIA space. So welcome Lance. Thanks so much for joining us. Thank you.
[00:00:28] Speaker C: Thank you. My pleasure.
[00:00:29] Speaker B: So I'm going to take this all the way back.
Why did you decide to become an ria?
What was that moment, that pivotal moment in your career? You're like, you know what? This is what I'm going to do.
[00:00:43] Speaker C: My career started in the employee benefits and from there I started doing financial planning with my life insurance license, with life insurance and annuities.
And as I was doing that, I came across a lot of clients that I couldn't fully, really help because they had investable assets that needed to be invested elsewhere. You can't put everything into life insurance and annuities.
[00:01:08] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:01:09] Speaker C: So I would still tell them, just keep using who you're using for your investments. And so I was actually creating some competition for myself.
[00:01:18] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:01:18] Speaker C: And, and then truly what it was was that I felt like I wasn't a full, well rounded advisor, that I couldn't do all these things for my clients.
[00:01:28] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:01:29] Speaker C: So I got my series 65. So I.
That full, well rounded advisor that I am today.
[00:01:35] Speaker B: Yeah. So it was just putting all the pieces of the puzzle.
[00:01:38] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:01:39] Speaker B: Just building them one by one by one by one by one.
[00:01:42] Speaker C: Exactly. And obviously ignite became a big part of that puzzle as well.
[00:01:47] Speaker B: Yeah. Why?
Where are you out of? Let me. Let's back up a little bit.
[00:01:51] Speaker C: Bakersfield, California.
[00:01:53] Speaker B: Bakersfield, California. What's going on in bustling Bakersfield?
[00:01:57] Speaker C: You know, it's, it's a. It's very different. People hear California and everybody has their thoughts about Californ.
We do have our share of craziness there, but as does every state.
[00:02:10] Speaker B: Come on.
[00:02:11] Speaker C: But really, Bakersfield is the Central Valley of California where farming and agriculture is very heavy.
The working class is working very hard every day.
There's not a lot of craziness in Bakersfield. It is one of those pockets of California that is really comfortable to live in and really comfortable to work in. So I love being there. I love being able to travel to some of the other places in California that everyone wants to live.
[00:02:41] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:02:41] Speaker C: And I think we do more in those areas of California than most people because we actually don't live there.
[00:02:47] Speaker B: Interesting. So would you say that your client base is primarily in Bakersfield, California, or do you span beyond that?
[00:02:57] Speaker C: It is really just Bakersfield, but it has expanded out from. Because people expand, people move. I mean, I have lots of clients who are retired and have moved out of California to.
[00:03:11] Speaker C: Other parts of the state, or even Nevada is very popular.
A lot of people like to move to Nevada, and Arizona is big, too.
[00:03:20] Speaker B: What's the best part about being a financial advisor?
[00:03:24] Speaker C: The independence and being able to really affect people's lives.
Making noticeable changes in people's lives and changes that are appreciated.
[00:03:38] Speaker C: Without the appreciation.
[00:03:41] Speaker C: I don't know. I think the appreciation fuels me.
[00:03:44] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:03:45] Speaker C: It really does. It really gets me going. It gets me wanting to help people more.
[00:03:50] Speaker B: Yeah. Well, when you make a difference in their lives, they should appreciate it.
[00:03:54] Speaker C: Absolutely.
[00:03:55] Speaker B: And when they do and they acknowledge it, it is. It fuels the power of, like, you know what? I want to keep doing this. I want to keep doing this. What's the worst part about being a financial advisor?
[00:04:05] Speaker C: Oh, you know, obviously we can't. Nothing's perfect, Right.
[00:04:09] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:04:10] Speaker C: We all deal with issues, whether it's the stock market or investments of any kind. Things happen. And it's. It's understanding that we're all in it together sometimes. You know, different clients are. Clients are different.
[00:04:27] Speaker B: Right.
[00:04:27] Speaker C: Everyone's a little bit.
[00:04:28] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:04:29] Speaker C: And so some totally understand.
And some just use you as a punching bag.
[00:04:35] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:04:36] Speaker C: And when they start to use you as a punching bag and you're doing everything you can to help them.
[00:04:42] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:04:43] Speaker C: Sometimes you got to kind of remind them.
[00:04:45] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:04:46] Speaker C: That, you know, we're all in this together. And that's really a lot of the investing that we do starts with our own family.
We don't guinea pig our clients. We guinea pig ourselves or our own family.
[00:04:57] Speaker B: Yeah. So test it out. See if it works. Tried and true.
[00:05:01] Speaker C: That's right.
[00:05:02] Speaker B: But then again, there's risk in every investment. And you're correct. I mean, there. There does come times where you become a pun punching bag. I've been in the same situation before. Right. We are in Las Vegas here.
There was.08. And I think everybody's looking for who to blame.
And, you know, when the economy takes a turn for the worst, who do I blame? Right. I call Lance. Lance, what's going on? Blah, blah, blah, like, you can't control this. What's the matter with you? And you're like, whoa, wait a second. Let's just be real with one another here. We all knew we were getting into Risk. Right. Anytime you make an investment, you're getting into some level of risk. How do you work with clients to kind of. I don't, I don't want to say. Well, we're always looking for, to mitigate risk as much as we possibly can. Right. You said tried and true. Try it yourself, make sure it works. But how do you continue to mitigate that risk for your clients?
[00:05:55] Speaker C: You know, back in 2013, Senior Market Advisor magazine dubbed me the Protector.
[00:06:02] Speaker B: Oh, I like this.
[00:06:04] Speaker C: That was the name they, after interviewing me, I. I was named Top 5 Senior Market Advisors for the year. And they interviewed me and they named me the Protector, which we have obviously adopted and we market with it.
And it's because they said it was because they sensed that in me. It was just the interview that I was very protective of not only my clients money, but of my clients in general.
[00:06:33] Speaker B: Mmm, I like that. Yeah, I like that.
[00:06:35] Speaker C: And so we are very protective.
So we take that, that protection approach.
Because a lot of the people we're working with are in or at retirement. They've worked for many, many years for a company and put away money into a 401k and now they have to figure out how to take care of it themselves and make it make income.
[00:06:54] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:06:55] Speaker C: And that's where they need some help.
And that's where I come in.
[00:06:59] Speaker B: Yeah. Do you think this can be a crazy question.
Are upon retirement, is a person better off managing it themselves or surrounding themselves with a team or somebody to manage it for them?
What would be your overarching answer on that?
[00:07:17] Speaker C: I definitely think that they need some help. There's so many things out there.
Things change a lot.
You might hear about something that sounds real enticing, that needs to be researched before you go into it.
And a lot of people don't spend that kind of time doing that due diligence.
We do that due diligence because it's not our money. We're working with other people's money.
So we have to do the due diligence to make sure that we're ready for anything that they bring our way.
[00:07:50] Speaker B: I don't know if I can ask this question or not, but how much do you have under management with your.
[00:07:55] Speaker C: Clients with Ignite Just in general.
Yeah, in general. I'm a. I'm a at assets under management that we met where manageable assets every day are over 50 million.
[00:08:08] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:08:08] Speaker C: And then we have all the life insurance and annuities. That is well over that number.
[00:08:15] Speaker B: Yeah. That's where you started, right?
[00:08:17] Speaker C: Yeah. For many Years. For, for four or five years, it was just the insurance and annuities.
[00:08:24] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:08:25] Speaker C: And then, and then we picked up the Series 65 and expanded from there. So it was kind of playing a little bit of that catch up game. But you'll never catch up to the premium that goes into insurance and annuities. You'll almost never catch up to that because.
[00:08:42] Speaker C: It'S a large number.
[00:08:43] Speaker B: Yeah. Talk to me about insurance products that you would recommend prior to retirement and after retirement and why.
[00:08:56] Speaker C: Prior to retirement, I'm not so sure. There's, you know, huge investment type ones. And prior to retirement, I think what you want to do is you want to protect with life insurance for the income that you haven't made yet in case, you know, in case something happens. Right.
[00:09:12] Speaker B: That's the whole point of it.
[00:09:13] Speaker C: Right? Yeah, yeah.
[00:09:14] Speaker B: And.
[00:09:16] Speaker C: But once you retire, I think most people are really concerned. You hear, you hear it all the time. People say, okay, I can't be as risk averse as I was before. I have to be. I have to be more careful. I have to protect my assets.
So a lot of people don't understand a lot. Well, let's say a lot of advisors don't understand how to take people into that protection category.
[00:09:44] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:09:45] Speaker C: And, and before we ever did anything in the market, we used the index annuity.
An index annuity tracks a stock market index. You get the returns of the index, not a fixed return.
So if you want to be in the S&P 500 without the risk of the S&P 500, an index annuity has that feature in it to do that.
The drawback is you usually have to tie up your money for a good period of time.
10 years, typical. In California, it's the max is 10 years now.
[00:10:17] Speaker B: Okay, why is that?
[00:10:19] Speaker C: They don't want.
California doesn't want anybody tied up in a policy longer than 10 years. There were some 14 and 16 year policies out there and they just felt that those were too long. So they put a rule into place and we all live by it now.
[00:10:36] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. And is it, is it your opinion that annuities should be a part of the retirement plan?
[00:10:43] Speaker C: I think so. Well, how we use it is most people have some fixed sort of money coming in at retirement, if nothing else. Social Security, right?
[00:10:53] Speaker B: Absolutely. Yeah.
[00:10:54] Speaker C: Social Security is an annuity and most people don't realize it.
A lot of people will say, oh, I would never have an annuity. Well, everybody has an annuity if they.
[00:11:02] Speaker B: Have something all the time.
[00:11:04] Speaker C: That's right.
[00:11:07] Speaker C: Usually Social Security isn't enough money coming in to pay all the monthly bills.
[00:11:11] Speaker B: True.
[00:11:12] Speaker C: So how we work with our clients is we want to make sure they have enough money coming in every month to pay all their monthly bills.
So that's an income feature, A stable income feature. Income.
[00:11:23] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:11:24] Speaker C: Then you need a backup to that income because things change. Look at the inflation we just went through.
[00:11:28] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:11:29] Speaker C: So if you were stuck with that income and you didn't have a backup.
Yeah. You didn't have any backup to that income, then you had no way to increase it.
[00:11:37] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:11:38] Speaker C: And things change. Medical things change. There's all kinds of things that come into play that bring your costs up in life and you have to be able to add income to it to replace that. So we always want a backup to income. Once we have a backup to income, then we feel we can invest pretty freely.
[00:11:57] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:11:58] Speaker C: And you can invest more freely when you know you have everything else covered.
[00:12:01] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:12:02] Speaker C: If you don't, it makes it very difficult because now you're trying to invest money in the market for income and gambling.
[00:12:11] Speaker B: Now you're gambling.
[00:12:12] Speaker C: Now you're gambling.
[00:12:13] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:12:13] Speaker C: And here we are in Las Vegas.
[00:12:16] Speaker B: But, but you really are right. Capital preservation up to that point is, is key because that capital preservation is what you're living off of. Right, Right. And now after that, once you kind of, I hate to say set it, but once you set that, prepare for inflation. Because it's going to happen no matter what. Some years are going to be worse than others, obviously what we've seen.
But the reality is that is going to happen. And Social Security doesn't have an income increase sustainable enough for inflation. It just doesn't. Right. It just absolutely doesn't.
So as I'm moving out, I'm going to stick around this retirement age for just a second as I'm moving away from my 30 year job and I have this 401k plan.
What happens with most individuals at that point?
I would say most are looking for an advisor. They're looking for somebody to help them out. I got this notice, it says I have 90 days to move my 401 plan someplace else.
What is that process when somebody comes in, sits down with you and says, here's where I'm at. 30 year job, I don't know, let make up any job, who cares? They're IT specialists. Right. They're a director of IT for 30 years, made good money, you know, maxed out their 401k. Never looked at it. They were in a 2040 plan. Right. They just set it and forget it. This is the reality. This is reality of probably most clients that you're talking to. And then they come to you because they have this, I have 90 days. What do I do?
How does that process work when we come to your office?
[00:13:50] Speaker C: So we make it very comfortable when you first come into our office. I think we have a couple of things that we do just in our, in our seating area that really make people comfortable.
[00:14:01] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:14:02] Speaker C: The first thing they see when they walk in is a welcome sign with their name on it.
And you might think, oh, a welcome sign with their name on it.
It's amazing how much play that gets. Yeah.
[00:14:14] Speaker B: Appreciation.
[00:14:15] Speaker C: Appreciate. They. They feel appreciated. Absolutely. Yes. We're expecting them. We're looking forward to see them. I mean, it says so many things. And almost everybody, not at least 98% of people make a comment about it. A positive comment is never a negative comment, right?
[00:14:31] Speaker B: Yeah. Because they've never seen it before.
[00:14:33] Speaker C: They don't. That's right. That's right.
[00:14:35] Speaker B: Something new.
[00:14:36] Speaker C: Yeah. And we just, you know, we had. There were a lot of different ideas on maybe how to do that. And we just, we just wanted to individualize it and for it. When the client's coming in, we put their name out.
And then if there's another client coming in, we leave that sign up. We put another one next to it, welcoming the other people. So as a client's leaving, they still see their sign up. And the new people who are sitting there waiting to see me next, they see their sign as well.
[00:15:03] Speaker B: That's awesome.
[00:15:04] Speaker C: And so that's. That's just a comfort thing. And then the, the pictures around our office, a lot of times we. I have a couple of pictures of my. My kids when they were little. My. My 27 and 23 year old now, but we.
Their little kid pictures in the office. Because most of my clients remember them when they were that little. And so they always ask about family and stuff. So we make it about family.
We're a family office.
Our clients are our client family. We have a client family. We used to have a client family photo wall. That wall got so littered with pictures that put them on an electronic photo frame. Just let them run this rolls through.
Yeah. So things like that. So the photo frames up, they see their name, they. The article about the senior market advisors hanging on the wall.
[00:15:57] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:15:57] Speaker C: So they get to read a little bit about that. So we always give them a new client. Always gets a little bit of time. Even if it's like time to have their appointment.
[00:16:05] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:16:06] Speaker C: We give Them three to five minutes out there in the, in the seating area just to kind of take things in.
[00:16:11] Speaker B: Yeah, I like that. I like that. And to feel comfortable because they're already uncomfortable. Right. They run a 2040 plan. They have no idea what to do with the money now. And they have 90 days.
[00:16:21] Speaker C: Right.
[00:16:22] Speaker B: And so the first thing you're doing is you're putting them at ease.
You really are. You're kind of putting them at ease and saying, we're going to wrap our arms around you and we're going to get through this.
[00:16:30] Speaker C: Right.
[00:16:31] Speaker B: And so here I have my 401k plan. So now you brought it to you.
Lance, what do I do?
[00:16:38] Speaker C: I know.
[00:16:38] Speaker B: What do I do? I've got 90 days.
[00:16:42] Speaker C: So it's, it's still disconcerting for them when they move from that seating area into that meeting room. Because now. Okay. Oh, it's like. It's like sitting out there waiting for the doctor and then going into the doctor's office and you don't know what to expect.
[00:16:54] Speaker B: Oh, gosh.
[00:16:55] Speaker C: Okay. We're at the next step now. And, you know.
[00:16:58] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:16:59] Speaker C: So when I come in and sit down, it's just a conversation, just like we're doing now. Let's get to know each other and. And what's important to you?
Tell me about your family.
So the whole, the whole first page of stuff that I go through on my financial profile is just getting to know clients, their family, birth dates, things that we might have in common, stuff like that.
I turn the page. We've had probably a good 10, 15, 20 minute conversation doing all of this, and now I finally turn the page and ask some financial questions, because you do have to know where the money is and how much there is in order to start helping somebody.
[00:17:41] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely.
[00:17:42] Speaker C: But we don't jump right into the money because it's not. That's not the important thing that our, Our people are important. The people are important to us, their families, and what's important to them, the outcomes they're looking for and why they're here. I want to know why. Why are you here to see me? What is it? What is it you're looking for? Because everybody wants something different.
[00:18:01] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:18:02] Speaker C: And for me to just do something the same way I would do for everybody just doesn't work.
[00:18:07] Speaker B: It doesn't work.
[00:18:07] Speaker C: You have to individualize.
[00:18:09] Speaker B: And they come in with so many different stories. Right. You could have worked for 30 years and retired and be 50.
[00:18:16] Speaker C: Right.
[00:18:16] Speaker B: And have kids in college and. Right. You may not be at that stage in life where you're like, oh, I'm an empty nester, I've got plenty of money. Lance, take it over. Like, that's probably not your typical client. Your typical client has life happening around them and you have to know where they're at to prepare for that. Because if they need to still pay for college and they don't have a 529 or they don't have, I mean, first and foremost, what are we doing? Are we paying for it? Are we not? Are we student loaning? What are we doing? So there's. I can't even imagine. I mean, every situation is different. And I won't ask you to get into a client situation specifically, but every situation is different.
[00:18:55] Speaker C: They are.
[00:18:57] Speaker B: Some are more set it and forget it. Some are more, you know, want to do something a little bit different, looking for a little bit higher interest rate return, looking for more passive income, looking for all of these things, which I think really probably got your wheels turning. Saying, I have to keep adding more value. We have to keep adding more different types of investments.
And here we are sitting at an Ignite Funding podcast.
Why in the heck is Lance Howard sitting at Ignite Funding podcast? And I think what a lot of our viewers don't know is that we work with Quite a few RIAs that have come to us looking for something different.
They want to be a standout. They want to do something that maybe other RIAs are not providing to their clients. So why Ignite Funding? Why did you guys say, wait a second, we want to offer something more? How did that all come about?
[00:19:51] Speaker C: It came about as a income solution that as we've just been talking about, when someone comes out of reach into retirement from that 30 year job.
[00:20:01] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:20:02] Speaker C: The thing they're worried about most is replacing the income that they've had.
[00:20:05] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:20:05] Speaker C: And, and they're really.
It takes a good five to 10 years before somebody relaxes and says, okay, I've been doing this income thing off of my assets for 10 years now. I get it. I understand how it works. I'm not going to run out of money like I thought I was going to. I'm. I'm living off of mostly all the interest that I'm making. This is how we work for our clients. We help them live off the interest, keep the principal there to still earn that interest.
And so they realize they're not going to run out of money.
[00:20:36] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:20:36] Speaker C: And so it really became an income solution. Think about when I came to Ignite. Think about how low interest rates were. It was around I guess2012, maybe 2013, something like that. And interest rates were so low.
[00:20:55] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:20:56] Speaker C: That even it. Well, you know, annuities were one of our solutions. Right. But you're kind of stuck there with an age rated, an age related percentage. 5, 6%.
So how do you get your, how do you get your income up above 5 and 6% when all these, I mean, all the interest rates for all the safe money was super low?
[00:21:16] Speaker B: Oh yeah.
[00:21:17] Speaker C: So if we're getting a 5% payout on annuities and we have equal amount of money in ignite getting a 10 payout, that's a, that's a seven. That makes seven and a half when you do easy math, Right?
[00:21:31] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:21:32] Speaker C: So people can live off of seven and a half. It's hard to live off of 5%.
[00:21:37] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah.
[00:21:38] Speaker C: Especially if it's taxable.
[00:21:39] Speaker B: And it's weird, just those couple interest rates different.
It makes all the difference. It does. In living your retirement years comfortably while having adventures. And I always say if all you're doing is just living, come on, we could do better than that.
[00:21:56] Speaker C: That's true.
[00:21:56] Speaker B: And two and a half percent. Two percent could make all that difference.
[00:22:00] Speaker C: Exactly.
[00:22:00] Speaker B: So it is quite interesting. All right, so Ignite funding comes into play and you're saying this is the blend I'm looking for. Because at 2% we are offering a passive income at 10% annually. So you're blending, that is what you're doing.
[00:22:15] Speaker C: Right.
[00:22:15] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:22:16] Speaker C: So usually, you know, I mean, obviously interest rates did get that low 2%. We were at least getting 5% payouts on the annuities.
But some people did have a lot of their money still in the bank earning those 2% rates. And it took them a while to get out. I used to, I used to talk all the time about the, my, my favorite five, five older ladies who all have CDs in the bank and they have five different CDs that come up at five different times during the year. And. But they're met them, they were all making 5%. Yeah. And they're like, hey look, I think I got a pretty good program going here, you know, and. But when those interest rates dropped to 2%, my phone rang.
[00:22:57] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:22:57] Speaker C: And they were looking for a solution.
[00:22:59] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:23:00] Speaker C: So when people come looking for a solution and they're sitting on 2%.
[00:23:03] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:23:04] Speaker C: Unfortunately, 5% isn't the best solution. You know, they're still looking. They're going, yeah. So Ignite funding was the, was just fantastic for us. We were able to bring in a blend to help get that income up. So we can now use the income from the annuity, from Social Security, from annuities, from Ignite funding. And then if the money that they have in the market can be their risk money, their play money, their emergency money.
[00:23:34] Speaker B: I like that.
[00:23:35] Speaker C: So it gives us a way to categorize these. These assets and give. We call it giving money jobs to do. We place money in accounts and we give them jobs to do.
[00:23:46] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:23:47] Speaker C: One job may be to earn interest with absolutely no risk whatsoever. Like an index annuity.
[00:23:52] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:23:53] Speaker C: Some may be to earn a much higher amount with. With some protection. Some collateralized loans. Like Ignite funding.
[00:24:01] Speaker B: Yeah.
That helps me visualize. Like, here's the homework. Here's what we're going to do. We're going to get this in this box and this and this box and this and this box. And we want this box to make us this, this, this, and this.
[00:24:12] Speaker C: That's right.
[00:24:13] Speaker B: I mean, it's easy.
[00:24:14] Speaker C: And we multiply it. We just. We say we put X amount of dollars into a box and we know what it's going to earn. So we can multiply it out. See, what if it's covering all of our income or if we need to fund more money into that box.
[00:24:26] Speaker B: Yeah.
How do you.
How do you talk about Ignite funding with your clients? How does that come up?
[00:24:33] Speaker C: It usually comes up first, because as a financial advisor, I've been out there talking to people for a long time. You cannot start a conversation with an annuity.
[00:24:47] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:24:50] Speaker C: It's not the conversation starter.
[00:24:52] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:24:53] Speaker C: And the stock market, everybody has a stockbroker or someone they know that's doing something with the market, and everybody has their thoughts on how to do that. Do we have some fantastic portfolios from our money managers that we could talk about? Yes. But then everybody's got the. This fantastic portfolio from a money manager that they've put together that. That they can tout and say it's done, whatever. Right?
[00:25:17] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:25:18] Speaker C: But if you want to differentiate yourself, you really talk about Ignite.
[00:25:24] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:25:24] Speaker C: So one, a great example. I was on the golf course during COVID and somebody walking by just casually said to me, oh, the market was. Was in a down position at that time, you know, and they said, oh, you must be going crazy. Your phone must be ringing off the hook because of the market. And I said, no, not in my office, because we have Ignite funding as well.
[00:25:47] Speaker B: Interesting.
[00:25:47] Speaker C: And I didn't say another word. I kept walking over to the putting green.
[00:25:51] Speaker B: Just let them think.
[00:25:51] Speaker C: Yeah. And. And I turned. I turned around and looked behind me and he's following me over to the putting green and he said, what did you say?
[00:26:02] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:26:03] Speaker C: See, started. All I did was start the conversation. I was different.
[00:26:06] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:26:07] Speaker C: It's. And people want to know. People do want to know. There's a lot of alternative investments out there. And that's kind of. Maybe the only problem I really run into when dealing with people about Ignite.
[00:26:20] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:26:20] Speaker C: Is everybody's heard of some kind of an alternative investment and maybe a real estate investment.
[00:26:25] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:26:26] Speaker C: So then I just start telling them how Ignite works and that you're, you know, boots on the ground, that you're right here. You go out on site to see the projects as they're going through their whole process. And, you know, so when they start to understand a little bit better how Ignite works and the collateral and the hands on, then they start to understand why myself as a financial advisor would use a company like Ignite as part of the solution for the clients.
[00:26:56] Speaker B: Yeah.
We started this conversation by saying, you know, first we test it out on ourselves and then we put clients in it.
[00:27:05] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:27:05] Speaker B: Do you remember the test with Ignite Funding?
Do I remember the, the test that you went through?
[00:27:12] Speaker C: The test that I went through? Well, yeah, I mean, it was just.
I just put myself in the same investments. So, you know, I guinea pig myself by saying, okay, I have this, I have an account. I've picked some, some loans to be in. I see how they're coming in. That's. I mean, how, how else can you really tell your clients this is exactly how it's going to work?
[00:27:33] Speaker B: Yeah. You can't.
[00:27:35] Speaker C: Exactly.
[00:27:37] Speaker B: And I have to tell you, anytime a registered independent advisor group comes to us or family office and they don't start by investing, you know, the first thing I say to Misty, they won't be around long.
They have nothing to support or back up what they're saying to clients.
[00:27:52] Speaker C: Right.
[00:27:53] Speaker B: You have to live it.
[00:27:54] Speaker C: You do.
[00:27:55] Speaker B: You absolutely have to live it to be able to explain that. And I know you're obviously not holding yourself out selling Ignite funding product, but this is what the company does.
This is what the investments look like. And these are what the returns are. And here's their history.
This is what I can tell you.
And this is something that. But we believe, working with our clients and adding value, adding passive income to this pile, this box over here. Because now I'm envisioning this box over here. The challenge of finding a stable passive 10% return, it's got to be more difficult than people realize.
[00:28:34] Speaker C: Very difficult.
[00:28:35] Speaker B: What else is out there that does this?
[00:28:37] Speaker C: You know, I think part of it is.
[00:28:41] Speaker C: We were playing golf the other day, and some people came by who had never played golf, and they were at the course and they were giving up after a few holes because they realized how hard golf was.
[00:28:51] Speaker B: It is hard, by the way.
[00:28:52] Speaker C: Yeah.
And they said, you guys who play golf all the time, you make it look real easy. And I think it's the same thing with financial advice. Is that what we do?
It's almost like our own fault that we've made ourselves what we do. We make it look easy.
[00:29:09] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:29:10] Speaker C: And it's not.
[00:29:11] Speaker B: It's not. This is true.
[00:29:13] Speaker C: We go through a lot of turmoil trying to make it look easy. But. And. And I guess is if that's the perception out there, then it's. Then. Then obviously we're doing something to take some of the stress off of everybody else. And that's kind of the goal is. Is to take stress out of the financial life. How can you enjoy your retirement if you're worried about money?
[00:29:35] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:29:35] Speaker C: So that's the number one thing to take off. Well, maybe the number two thing to take off the list. I've told people a zillion times, the only one who should be considered more important than me is your doctor.
[00:29:46] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:29:47] Speaker C: So if you have a doctor's appointment, go ahead and keep that and you can rearrange with me. But if it's anything else, you should not rearrange an appointment with me. No, I should be. Because if you don't, if you have your health, the next thing you need to make sure you have is your money.
[00:30:01] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:30:02] Speaker C: If you don't have your health, your money doesn't matter as much.
[00:30:04] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:30:06] Speaker B: What's the experience like at Ignite Funding? How does that work? Let's say you have a client that decides, yes, this is what I want in my box. I want to see this. How does that process work here?
Obviously, you've been here for quite a while, and you've been working with us for quite a while, so you pretty much know our routine and how we work through that process. But what does the client experience through this? Or is it more hands off for them? Because, remember, they came to you for.
[00:30:33] Speaker C: That's right.
[00:30:34] Speaker B: That's right. They didn't come to you to say, okay, here's the work you need to do, and here's your due diligence you need to do, and here's this, and I'll see you in a week. Let me know how it works out Right, right. That's.
[00:30:43] Speaker C: No, if you throw all that on them, guess what? They're gone.
[00:30:46] Speaker B: Bye.
[00:30:47] Speaker C: Yeah, they came to me for a reason. They. They know I have more background. They know I have a relationship. They know that I understand all of this, this. And they're really looking for me to take it over to do it for them. They don't even sometimes. Sometimes I'll sit down with them and go over a few spec sheets to show them. Here's the kind of information. I just want them to see the kind of information I get and how I make the decisions and what I look at and the things that you put out there.
And that works really well. And then all of a sudden they might say to me, how every time we pick a loan, is this what we go through? I say, oh, no, this is just the first time. From here out, I'll pick them for you and we won't even have to get together. And they go, oh, good. Yeah, I thought I was going to have to do all of this. So most of them don't want their hands on it at all. They give us that lpoa limited power of attorney to make those decisions for them and keep their money moving. I can keep their money invested faster if I don't have to contact them each and every time something comes up.
[00:31:52] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:31:53] Speaker C: We just want to keep it, keep it invested so that they can annualize that 10%.
[00:31:58] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:31:58] Speaker C: If we're down three months out of a year, you're not annualizing 10%. And this is, this is what people don't understand about some of the other programs that they're in.
[00:32:08] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:32:08] Speaker C: If you don't have inventory and you're sitting idle for a month or two, then you're not annualizing what they're telling you. You're annualizing. So you might want to figure out your real rate of return.
[00:32:18] Speaker B: Yeah. And it's interesting you say that, and I probably don't talk about it enough, but, you know, there's uniquenesses about Ignite funding. One is, you know, we underwrite, we capital fundraise, we service, we collect if need be.
It's really hard to find a shop that's all in, all in house, all boots on the ground.
Everybody's focused on the exact same thing. Like there any employee that you talk to out there will know about the fact that we originate, we service, we collaborate product. They all know it, Everybody knows it. But probably the most unique feature is we've never don't have product.
And I don't think a lot of people understand why we don't have product. And it really goes back to where we started. It's a relationship.
The relationship with our investors is just as important as the relationship with our borrowers.
And having that constant product availability. They're always coming back to us. Even if they say, oh, you know what, Carrie, you know, we're not going to use your financing anymore. It's a little. It's a little steep.
Never fails. Three weeks later. Well, hold on a second. I guess we do need something. You know, the bank looked at it. They're not. Oh, that's funny. You need to acquire the property so you can build on it, and the bank won't do that for you. You know, so it keeps the flow constantly going, that relationship constantly going.
Tranche programs keep that relationship constantly growing.
[00:33:44] Speaker C: That's right.
[00:33:45] Speaker B: There's so many aspects, but I never really thought about. We get in our own little world sometimes and we forget about the fact that others are fighting to find product.
[00:33:56] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:33:56] Speaker B: Where for us, we're fighting to make sure that our capital needs meet the product needs at the same time.
And so. And that's very unique because you can't have money sitting on the sidelines. Or 10% does not mean 10%. That. Right. That annual return just eats away. Eats away. Eats away. Eats away.
[00:34:14] Speaker C: So it's so much better when I. When I take care of my clients that way. However, you know that I have a few of those out there that are hands on themselves, Right?
[00:34:24] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:34:24] Speaker C: We've had conversations with them on. With you on the phone.
[00:34:27] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:34:28] Speaker C: Right. So we have a. We have a few clients who I do sit down with to kind of go over everything. There's. There's one specific client that we actually have to make sure we get it approved.
We have to both say, yes, let's do this alone.
[00:34:46] Speaker C: So there are very few like that.
[00:34:49] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:34:50] Speaker C: And I'd say it's probably. Maybe just one handful. It probably doesn't even work onto the second hand.
[00:34:56] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah.
[00:34:57] Speaker C: Most people just want you to take care of it and use your expertise.
[00:35:01] Speaker B: Yeah. I'm kind of encouraged by the people that want to be involved.
[00:35:06] Speaker C: I like it. I think it keeps me sharper and helps me learn more.
[00:35:10] Speaker B: Yeah, Yeah, I totally agree with that. I know Sometimes, you know, we have those.
We have the clients that are a little prickly. Right.
They want to be very involved. And when I say very involved, I mean they need to talk to me, they need to talk to Pat. They need to. And it's like, whoa, you know, But After a while, that comfort level does set in. I don't know if you experienced that as well, but it takes a little bit of time sometimes. Just they want to know they have access to you. They want to know they have access to the investment company. They want to know they have access to the people.
[00:35:42] Speaker C: You know what that's akin to. If you think, if you think about that, if somebody was in the. Invested in the market and they had a mutual fund, do you think they could get on the phone with the mutual fund manager and have a conversation?
Vanguard Fidelity, any of those big companies, you think you can get on the phone and talk to those people?
[00:36:00] Speaker B: Not a chance.
[00:36:01] Speaker C: Able to get you on the phone, access you on the phone, and access Pat on the phone. And that is.
[00:36:08] Speaker B: Speaks volumes. Oh, I mean, speaks volumes.
[00:36:11] Speaker C: Absolutely. And we're always not the way the investment, the investment world works in the, in the stock market. So it's nice to be different.
[00:36:18] Speaker B: It is.
And that's what makes you different. That's what makes us different. That's what makes firms like this different. And I think when we have those common goals where we're putting the investor first, we're putting the client first, we're putting borrowers first.
Everybody feels that. Everybody feels that. The track record feels it, yes. The return feels it. All of those things. Definitely feel that. But now let's talk a little bit about the risk associated. I heard you say earlier that you put us in a low risk category, but why, why are you putting this investment in a lower risk category?
[00:36:54] Speaker C: I put you in a lower risk category than the stock market, and I put in a little bit higher risk category than a fixed indexed annuity because it's not 100% guaranteed on the principal. But there is downside protection. There's downside protection in the collateralized assets that are on every loan.
So show me one mutual fund that has a collateralized asset next to it, or stock or stock.
You just don't find that. So. So if everything's at risk in the stock market and you can use first trust deeds with some 40% collateralization, then I think you're minimizing risk. Anytime you can minimize risk, especially in retirement, and still get the kinds of returns. I mean, put those two together for a second in order to get a consistent 10% return. Warren Buffett is famous for saying, if you can average 10% over the long haul in invested assets.
[00:37:55] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:37:56] Speaker C: Then you're doing very, very well. Now, some years you might have a 20 gain, some years you might have a 10% loss.
[00:38:03] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:38:04] Speaker C: But when. If you can average 10% over your lifetime, you're doing very well. Well, think about how much risk you have. You have to have.
[00:38:11] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:38:12] Speaker C: You have to have a.
[00:38:15] Speaker C: Portfolio that has 100 risk to it. You can't really have an 8020 portfolio or 6040 portfolio. No way can you have a 60, 40 portfolio and average 10%.
[00:38:26] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah.
[00:38:27] Speaker C: But you can have 40% downside protection. And that's what we're talking about on a 60, 40 portfolio is 40% downside protection.
You can have 40% downside protection in first trust deeds.
[00:38:39] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:38:40] Speaker C: And still get 10%.
[00:38:43] Speaker B: Yep. Let's go. What are we waiting for? Yeah.
[00:38:46] Speaker C: So when I do, truly, when I do annual review use with my clients and we come in and sit down and we look at what the. What everything's been doing, I rarely have to be the one to suggest that more money should come from the market and go into first trust deeds. I'm already thinking it. I'm thinking we've had such a great result here with first trust deeds. It's solving problems. It's less risky, it's easier to deal with, but you still have to be in balance. And you have to have some stuff in the market.
[00:39:17] Speaker B: It.
[00:39:17] Speaker C: Yeah, but people always sit back a little bit. I see it coming. I said, I'm. I know it's on my mind. And then they go like this. They sit back and they go, why wouldn't I move some money from there to there? And they're. And I. And I look at them, say, why wouldn't you?
[00:39:34] Speaker B: Yeah.
Yeah. Why not?
[00:39:36] Speaker C: Who am I to deny? Once again, I want to know what my clients want. Yeah, right. I want to do for my clients what my clients want me to do for them. Them. That's actually the Platinum rule, as opposed to the golden rule.
[00:39:47] Speaker B: That's right. That's right. Absolutely. So.
[00:39:50] Speaker C: So we treat. We use the Platinum rule because we want to do for our clients what our clients want us to do for them.
[00:39:56] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:39:56] Speaker C: So you have to ask, you have to pay attention. You have to have conversations that allow them to say what you want to say.
[00:40:05] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:40:06] Speaker C: But it's better if they say it.
[00:40:07] Speaker B: Yeah.
You know why? I think some RAs maybe are a little bit hesitant to work with alternative companies.
[00:40:18] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:40:19] Speaker B: So is it pay? Is it risk? Is it the unknown? Is it the comfort level? Is it the ease?
What holds them back from offering something like this?
[00:40:32] Speaker C: It's hard to get inside another advisor's head to understand. Understand that fully.
And the last thing I want to do is go talk my competition into being more of my competition.
However, I can tell you that just, you know, there, there's, there's. It might be a little bit of a balance thing. Yeah, that. Because, you know, if you start to get out of balance a little bit. I mean, I pay a higher E and O amount.
[00:40:59] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:41:00] Speaker C: Because. Because I have a. A higher balance with. Than with you guys. Than the market.
[00:41:05] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:41:06] Speaker C: So there are things.
There are probably some things in compliance. We work very closely with our compliance officers to make sure that our ADV2 has all the information in there about Ignite.
We're very upfront about it all. So there might be some compliance issues with, with some people, and then some of it might just be their own silly loyalty.
And I get loyalty because I have it too, but.
[00:41:40] Speaker C: I have a lot of loyalty towards my marketing organization. This is what I'm talking about, really, the loyalty we have towards our marketing organizations for the things they've done for us, continue to do for us, help us build a business, become balanced advisors with life insurance annuities and investments in the market.
And you know, when we know when we start working with Ignite, that some of the money that was going to go towards those investments won't. And there are times that we will be making transfers out of those investments to Ignite.
And so our marketing organization sees all that stuff.
But, you know, I just have. I just have honest conversations with them about what we're doing for our clients and how it's solving a problem. And so it kind of makes them sharper too. So I can honestly say that my marketing organization on the investment side has started to come up with some. Some income things.
[00:42:40] Speaker C: To come close to rivaling what we're doing with Ignite. But see, it's making them get on their toes a little bit more.
[00:42:48] Speaker B: Absolutely, absolutely. Instead of you bringing it to the table like, come on, let's step it up.
That's right. If you can find something better, find it. Like, yeah, let's balance this.
[00:43:00] Speaker C: This is what people want.
[00:43:01] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:43:02] Speaker C: It's very clear that people want income and they want those, those opportunities to have higher amounts of income. They're not willing to. To take the chance that they're going to go broke to do that. So if you can do it with some downside protection to give them some comfort, then it makes it a lot easier.
[00:43:19] Speaker B: Yeah. Now, when you take.
[00:43:23] Speaker B: Money out of mutual funds, let's just say, and you put them into Ignite, from an RIA perspective, how do you make money at that point, can you still make money and do you do it over overarching of what the value of the client's account is? Do you do it on an investment basis? How does that happen from an RIA World?
[00:43:42] Speaker C: Yeah. Everything we do is based on an assets under management. It's roughly that 1%.
[00:43:48] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:43:49] Speaker C: I don't charge.
I really don't even charge for client meetings.
[00:43:53] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:43:54] Speaker C: In my mind, it's kind of you, it's, it's part of doing my. It's like due diligence.
[00:43:58] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:43:58] Speaker C: You know, absolutely.
So I don't, I really don't charge for people to come in and sit down and talk to me.
If they want me to build them a financial plan and they don't want me to invest anything, they just want me to build them a plan, then I charge them for something like that.
[00:44:13] Speaker B: Sure.
[00:44:13] Speaker C: But if I'm to going, going to put their money in ignite or invest their money in the market or anything else, then I just take the fees that come from that. I don't charge additional on top of that.
[00:44:24] Speaker B: I like that. I like that. Keep it very simple.
[00:44:27] Speaker C: Yes. And it's, you know, we figure that it'll all work out if, if you do the right stuff, it's all going to work out with more assets.
[00:44:35] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:44:35] Speaker C: That's how you, that's it. We, we can't have a, just a pay increase where all of a sudden we go out and start charging, say, hey, we're having an increase now we're going to charge everyone one and a half.
[00:44:46] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:44:46] Speaker B: Inflation.
[00:44:47] Speaker C: Inflation. Yeah.
We just suffer. Yeah. So, yeah, so you just, you know, you keep doing, doing the right thing and do more business and you know, I tell you what's really changed a lot over the years is the referrals.
[00:45:03] Speaker C: You know, referrals come a lot more when you're using alternative investments like ignite. Yeah, the referrals in the stock market, once again, everyone has a stock.
[00:45:14] Speaker B: Exactly.
[00:45:15] Speaker C: Oh, you should talk to my stockbroker.
[00:45:16] Speaker B: He's got the.
[00:45:17] Speaker C: This right.
[00:45:18] Speaker B: Same old, same old.
[00:45:18] Speaker C: Yes, exactly.
[00:45:20] Speaker B: What makes you different? What makes you a standout? That's for sure.
Well, I think both of us are our standouts in what we do. We're definitely putting some good product in front of our clients to invest in. And I will never stop trying to mitigate every amount of risk that we possibly can.
I know that you've had opportunities to talk with Pat Vassar as well.
[00:45:42] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:45:43] Speaker B: Jokingly, the other day. We're like the OGs, right. He and I have been around for a long time. We've been through, you know, market cycles, we've been through market downturns, we've been through asset type downturns. We've been through so many things and it only makes us better. Like we just keep getting better and better and better. But inherently there are risks.
You know, we are, I say we are not perfect. The market's not perfect, real estate's not perfect, borrowers aren't perfect. There will be times where we have, we will have defaults. And you know, diversifying a client's portfolio, even if their entire real estate portfolio happens to be here, is really important for us. So we are, you know, we really strive to not be a one trick pony. We're not just in, you know, just in industrial, just in storage, just in senior living. Just, just, just, just for me is to know I have to be able to provide you and your clients a well diversified portfolio. Asset type location borrowers, all of the above. Because I know you're looking at it and you know, and so are we. Because we need to make sure that when we do have a default. Yes. Could it affect 10% of their portfolio? Absolutely. But if the other 90% is performing, that's what's important to us and I'm sure it is to you as well because if you came to us and we only invested in apartments and you know, the apartment sector takes a hit, we're all taking a hit. And that's probably the, one of the bigger changes that Ignite Funding has made and learned throughout this process is stay diverse in location, stay diverse with borrowers. Don't let them take too much of your portfolio because they do have issues from time to time and then asset class, really stay diversified in all of that.
Do you see that? Do you see that nice diversity. Does that, does that help in your process and selling Ignite funding?
[00:47:32] Speaker C: Yes, it definitely does. Because everybody likes a little something different as well. And everybody thinks they have their finger on the pulse of some part of real estate that, you know, like if, if, like right now real estate interest rates are high.
[00:47:50] Speaker B: Yeah, right. Yeah.
[00:47:51] Speaker C: If, if interest rates could come down a little bit, it would solve a lot of problems.
[00:47:55] Speaker B: Yes, it would.
[00:47:56] Speaker C: And we're talking about that. You know, that there's, you know, there's, people are taking a little bit longer with their projects and stuff like that because of inflation and all the costs. So, so yeah, so we're, we're seeing that, that, that is, that can be an issue.
[00:48:13] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:48:15] Speaker B: It doesn't have to be scary. No, we joke about it this way in the office.
And we're even thinking about changing the terminology because we use the terminology forbearance and I think that's a scary word for some.
And we were just talking about this in a meeting yesterday.
[00:48:30] Speaker C: I have to explain that word all the time.
[00:48:31] Speaker B: Yeah, we're going to change. We're going to, we're going to change that up a little bit because.
[00:48:36] Speaker C: Not bad.
[00:48:37] Speaker B: Yeah. From a technical standpoint, you're either forbearing on duration of time or you're forbearing on interest. Well, for us, forbearance never means forbearing interest.
For us, it means we're making a modification to the duration of the loan.
And yes, absolutely. It is a time capacity borrower, us making a decision, what's in the best interest of the asset, what's in the best interest of the borrower. Right. We gotta keep the borrowers financially sound as well. And I think sometimes investors forget about that and they think, why are you putting that borrower ahead of us?
Timeout.
That borrower's financial stability is your financial stability.
[00:49:19] Speaker C: Correct.
[00:49:20] Speaker B: So we have to balance both of those things. And sometimes when we look at the assets and where they're at, you know, there's a story behind everything. Just like the person that walks into your office, there's a story behind that project.
And really the only people that know the full story behind that project is us.
I would never ask any investor to allow additional time unless I felt it was the best interest of both the borrower and them ever.
And that's something that I think investors and you and every other rationale needs to realize. The only time I'm asking for that is because it's in the best interest of all parties involved.
And that F word, that forbearance word is, you know, something that we internally need to change. And you know, adding legal counsel to our staff recently, he's like, why do you guys use that?
[00:50:12] Speaker C: And we're like, give us a good signal.
[00:50:13] Speaker B: I don't know.
We didn't even think about it.
[00:50:16] Speaker C: Right.
[00:50:17] Speaker B: We weren't even thinking about the connotation that that's happening, having on investors. But it really isn't scary and something that we work through. And actually 98% of the time, forbearance ends up paying off just as it normally would.
There are times sometimes where there are forbearances that are put in place that end up becoming a default situation, defaulting on interest.
And that does happen. How do you walk through that? With clients, when that happens, happens, because obviously it is affecting their income at that point.
[00:50:49] Speaker C: Yeah, well, I, first and foremost, I let them know how we're all in this together and the things that are going on behind the scenes to resolve these issues. And some of the stuff you just said that, you know, we're keeping everybody in mind when we're, when we're doing this, but, you know, a lot of it is just helping them understand the risk and why we diversify.
[00:51:12] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:51:12] Speaker C: So I think I, I like to use client examples as much as I possibly can, because then it's not me saying something, it's something my client actually said to me. And I had a client who had one that went into default, and when they, when it came out of default, they ended up getting back 85% of their principal, none of the interest that was coming to them, but 85% of their principal.
So, once again, you look at that just like it was a mutual fund in the market.
[00:51:43] Speaker C: And actually, that's what my client said when the 85% came back. I said, okay, what would you like to do with this now? Giving him his option that, you know, yes, this went into default. If you've got a different thought on this, we'll talk about that. And he said, just put it back into another loan, Lance. He said, it's not that I don't like the program because something like this happens happen. He said, if you would have put me. If I gave you a million dollars and you put me into 10 different mutual funds, and nine of them performed very well, 10%, and one of them lost 15%. He said, I wouldn't be unhappy with the program. I'd say, let's get rid of that mutual fund and get a different mutual fund. Yeah, that's. Just get out of that loan and get into another loan.
[00:52:27] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:52:27] Speaker C: And that's exactly what we've done.
And so I remember that all the time, and I try to share that with other clients that, that, you know, this is just another way to invest. We're going to diversify you. There's no way we can promise that everything's going to be just perfect all the way through.
The more we are perfect. I know the, the harder do. Oh, I know how long you think about. I have clients who never had a default, never had a forbearance. They've just had money, money, money, money, money.
[00:52:55] Speaker B: I know.
[00:52:55] Speaker C: And then all of a sudden, one comes along and it's like they think the sky is falling, and it's like, no, wait a Minute, you just haven't had one yet.
[00:53:03] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah.
[00:53:04] Speaker C: And let me explain how we're going to resolve this and you know, what's going on to take care of it and everything. So. And then I do use that diversification example that if we were still in the market and I had you in different mutual funds and one didn't work out, we'd still be okay.
[00:53:20] Speaker B: I like how level headed you are with explaining that. I mean, just sitting across from you, I can see how your clients have that level of, of ease with you and just. Okay. Right. I mean, you're just, you're making sense. I get it. I'll stop being that.
[00:53:35] Speaker C: It's nice when you can make sense and not. And you're not making it up. It's just all I'm doing is telling the truth.
[00:53:40] Speaker B: Yeah. You know, it's just pure logic. And sometimes I think, I think we all need to hear that from time to time. Sometimes we need to be reset from time to time. We get a little, little in our heads, a little out there.
What, what could ignite funding? Do better.
What could we do better to service the needs of your firm or other firms out there?
[00:54:03] Speaker A: Gosh.
[00:54:05] Speaker C: Well, you know, it's all information.
[00:54:08] Speaker B: Right.
[00:54:09] Speaker C: The more information that we have to go on, I think that our clients try to get that from us. I try to get that from you.
You know, you try to get that from the, from your clients when you're putting together the loans. I mean, it's all information.
And, and I think we all, I think at every stop we decide, okay, what is overkill on information and what's not.
I think what you put in those spec sheets is all the stuff like you put. That's every time you can count on that stuff, you look at that and you go, well, I know I can always count on this type of information.
[00:54:45] Speaker C: Sometimes it's great to get a little bit more in depth information like we've been talking about lately to, you know, to answer some clients questions or to have a better understanding of maybe some of why one loan might be better than another or what makes one stand out from another.
[00:55:06] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:55:06] Speaker C: You know, it's just like in the investment world, what makes one portfolio stand out from another?
[00:55:11] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:55:12] Speaker C: And it's as much information as you can get. Which once again, if you're trying to get information like that in the real world through a Vanguard or a Fidelity, you can't get that because you can't get a hold of the right person.
[00:55:25] Speaker B: Yeah. It is tough. And I appreciate you saying that because we really strive to get as much communication out there as we possibly can.
Give you a little inside, a little inside tip here and some stuff that we're working on.
I don't know if you know this, but every time that we release a new loan, every employee in the entire organization is invited to a meeting. Meeting.
And it's set in a bullpen right outside of these doors. We're standing up and our underwriting team is at the front, and everybody's just kind of standing around. And from all departments, it could be accounting, it could be. It like that is how engaged we are in hearing the information. Because these, the spec sheets, we refer to them as investment overviews, is a flat piece of paper.
And there's so much more behind that story.
And during those meetings, when we have those meetings, that's the opportunity for all of our staff to ask questions beyond what we see on the sheet. We know what to expect on the sheet, and we like to expect the things that are on the sheet because it helps us sell it, obviously. But we want to know more. We want to know why. Why this project, why this borrower, why this location, why this asset type? And everything comes down to two very simple things.
[00:56:39] Speaker C: Things.
[00:56:40] Speaker B: Supply and demand.
Yeah, everything really comes down to that. So if we have put any investment, any loan in front of you, you know, you're right. There's always a story behind it. So one of the things we're trying to do is I'm super, super fortunate that we have been able to grow this business to a place where I now have a marketing team of like eight. It's a lot.
I mean, if you really think about it. But I'm very in house. I'm that. I'm that girl that doesn't want anything out of the house. I don't want something to be said that we haven't filtered. I don't want something to come across or be marketed in the wrong way that, you know, I'm. That have regulators down my throat. So I try to control all of that. And we're trying to put out more information as it pertains to loans. If there's a loan that we are like, damn, this is a good one. This is. This is like, this is one of those that we need to talk about. We'll bring the borrowers, and I don't know if you've ever, ever experienced this or listened to any of our podcasts where we bring in the borrower and we sit here and we talk to them about their project and what's going on. And we do that to try to give some insight because it's hard, it's so hard to get some insight. Same thing with mutual funds. How many of them sit across from each other and chit chat like this and what's the project, what's going on, what's this?
[00:57:52] Speaker C: They don't.
[00:57:53] Speaker B: And on the flip side, you have to do the same thing when defaults occur or when loss of capital occurs. That's when you really have to get in front of the camera and you have to talk about talk. It's hard for us to talk to individual. Right. If I couldn't spend the time to talk to 5,000 people individually, it would be all I do. But doing it in this fashion really helps. And so we're starting that as well. So last week was the first and it's specific to the investors that are on that loan so that we're talking directly to them.
We're going to do it before we send out ballots where there is potential loss of capital. So they kind of hear from Pat or I about why, what's the story behind it, how did we get here, what are the expectations, what have we done?
Because a lot of that gets missed. I'm actually doing one tomorrow and it was crazy. Misty, who's our chief compliance officer, she put together a timeline of this particular project.
[00:58:52] Speaker B: We took it back through foreclosure and we've had it for quite a while.
And man, the obstacles, the tribulation, the things that are going on behind the scenes. We try to incorporate that in our monthly updates.
But when you hear it all in one chronological, you start to realize, holy crap, I'm so glad I'm not ignite funding having to deal with this. And I am happy to take 80% because at this point, you're right, this is insane. It is insane. But it doesn't stop us from trying to trying. Right? We're always, we're always chasing to get to that hundred percent. That is always my goal. I want to get that principal back.
Knowing that I've, you know, already have interest that has been paid out.
I'm always chasing to get that 100 on top of whatever your return was. So we, we live, eat and breathe this just like you do. We're not gonna stop. Like this is, this is just what we do. And we're young, we're energetic and we're going to be doing this for probably the next 20 years too.
[00:59:51] Speaker C: So fantastic.
[00:59:53] Speaker B: I'm super, super glad you came to join us today and chatted with me on things unrelated to Ignite funding as well as related.
But if anybody's looking for a good financial advisor in the big California makersfield area or really anywhere, I mean, do you care?
[01:00:10] Speaker C: It doesn't matter. I mean, I have clients, like I said, who have moved everywhere. I have clients out in Oklahoma. And so we, we deal with, you know, I mean, Zoom proved that we can, you know, we can use Zoom or we've got all kinds of documents we can send back and forth, docusign it, sign documents over the computer. Now you don't even have to have a wet signature. So that's awesome. It's easy to do stuff and communicate with people, even from a distance.
[01:00:36] Speaker B: Yeah. All right, well, if you're looking for a financial advisor that is willing to take alternatives and add it to the pile to create passive income, nice blend. You're talking 7.5% returns annually.
You can't find that everywhere. And we've got one right here. Lance Howard, thank you so much.
[01:00:55] Speaker C: You're welcome.
[01:00:56] Speaker B: We'll put your contact information at the bottom so people can get a hold of you if they need to. And we'll see you next time on Deeds in the Desert. Talk to you then. Bye.
[01:01:09] Speaker A: Thanks for joining us this week on Deeds in the Desert, where short term investments meet long term investors. We hope you enjoyed the content so much that you share it with all your friends. Who doesn't like learning about passive fixed income, right?
Still hungry for more education? Visit our
[email protected] or if you're ready to take the leap and start investing, give us a call at 702-761-0000 and Schedule A free investor.
