Four Financial Factors: The Key To Practice Advising

Announcer:
Hello everyone. Welcome to the Millionaire Dentist Podcast, brought to you by Four Quadrants Advisory. On this podcast, we break down the world of dentistry, finances, and business practices to help you become the millionaire dentist you deserve to be. Please be advised, we do speak with an honest tongue and may not be safe for work.

Casey Hiers:
Hello and welcome. This is Casey Hiers back at the Millionaire Dentist Podcast in studio with co-host Jarrod Bridgeman.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Casey, how are you? It's Valentine's Day the day we're recording this.

Casey Hiers:
Yeah.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
You have any special plans with the wife?

Casey Hiers:
Yeah, I met her for a nice lunch. Actually ordered a steak.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
In the middle of the day?

Casey Hiers:
Yeah. She was kind of busting my chops, and then I ordered it rare plus, and it came out raw and I got the "I told you so" look, but they got it right.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
All right. All right.

Casey Hiers:
Yeah. If your problems are steak temperature, it's okay. That's a cross I'll bear.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
That's right. That's right. Our big plans really are, I have my kids, so we're going to do a little thing with the kids.

Casey Hiers:
Yeah.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Nothing too crazy.

Casey Hiers:
That's fun. It reminds me I need to go get a single rose for my young daughters. That's important.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah.

Casey Hiers:
Good reminder.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Better get out there sooner than later. Every dad and husband is out there hunting for flowers tonight.

Casey Hiers:
Well, I'm going to pay 15 bucks for one red rose.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
That's right. That's right. Casey, today I wanted to talk to you. We bounce around on our topics. We always stay in our lane. One of the things is something more of a generic, broad topic and information I wanted to get out there is, let's say maybe the top four things to consider or look at when you're wanting to hire or work with a financial advisor.

Casey Hiers:
Yeah, that's a good topic. We're comprehensive. We do a lot of things. But let's get more specific with the financial advisor aspect of it. I've heard before in your life you want to have a really good doctor, a really good attorney, and a really good investment or financial advisor, those are very important things, so let's dive into that, especially for a dentist who has the opportunity to save a lot of money and have that money grow.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
For sure. And if you're listening to us and maybe you're not in the spot yet where we're able to help you, this will, this part at least, help you start to make the right steps towards the right direction.

Casey Hiers:
Yeah.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
One of the things I was looking up, and it's something I'm not super familiar with, I've heard the term passed around, but it's fiduciary.

Casey Hiers:
Fiduciary.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Fiduciary.

Casey Hiers:
Yeah.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yeah. Can you tell me a little bit what you may know about that, and then why is that important for an advisor to have that?

Casey Hiers:
Yeah. Being a fiduciary, you are bound to act in the best interest of your client, right? It sounds like a common sense thing, but as a fiduciary, that is, it's a more formal responsibility. There can't be conflicts of interest. Or sometimes there's firms that have their... Bernie Madoff have your own funds and just do weird things. So if you're looking for an advisor, you do want a fiduciary who is bound to act in the best interest of the client.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Got it. So this is almost like the oath that doctors take.

Casey Hiers:
Yeah. Yeah. No, absolutely. There's a formality to it, and it's important that that question is asked. And again, most are.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yes, but this really stems on the ethical side of the equation.

Casey Hiers:
Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. It's not just, "Hey, give me your money and we'll tell you how it goes." There's strategy and there's things you do and there's things you stay away from, and I think that's important for anybody, dentist or non-dentist, if you're going to have somebody handle your money, you want them to be a fiduciary that is-

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Someone who's promising to work in your best interest, not their own.

Casey Hiers:
Yeah. It's like if you go to someone that works on your teeth, you probably want them to have DDS or DMD at the end of their name. And again, this is more of a layup one, but yeah, that's a common sense. Ask it. Be sure that they are. Very important.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
It does seem to be common sense, but if you've never had a financial advisor before, this may not be something you've ever even dealt with.

Casey Hiers:
Yeah. Sometimes you don't know, what questions do I ask?

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Right. Or with an accountant, a CPA versus just a standard accountant. Those are some things too.

Casey Hiers:
Yeah. Well, no, we've seen that, that people have their taxes executed by someone who's not even a CPA. They work at a firm. I can't remember what the... We only have CPAs here, but...

Jarrod Bridgeman:
I think there's a PA, a public accountant. That's another. Yeah.

Casey Hiers:
Yeah, and it's shocking. We'll see people with a million dollar practice that they didn't even have an actual CPA doing their taxes, again, probably because they're unsure.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Just rolling into one of the software that you see all of the commercials for right now. Hey, Casey, with our firm here, we are very niche. We are very specialized. We only specialize in practice owners. And I'm assuming out there in the world there are other specialties like that, other firms and other advisors and things that work with other fields. What can be a disadvantage to possibly choosing or at least not knowing if your financial advisor is in a specific specialty?

Casey Hiers:
Yeah. They're not all created equal, number one, but number two, there are different ones. There are some that only work with high net worth people. There are maybe others that their focus is maybe somebody starting a family or an advisor can have a niche. Well, what is there? Well, the nice thing for us, we only work with dentists and specialists, so that's checked off. But ultimately even within that, how we're going to help people grow their money is going to be different depending on some variables. Again, custom. You want it to be custom. You don't want a cookie cutter approach. But yeah, making sure you... And so if you're a practice owner who has an advisor and maybe they're with high net worth people, that's great. You've checked a box. Do they understand dentistry and dental practices and all of that? That's a big one.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
What if... This is point number three. You kind of covered it a little bit. What if the plan they've given you or are trying to maybe shoe you in is incompatible with your practice? Again, you said almost like cookie cutter.

Casey Hiers:
Yeah. Yeah. How does your advisor view money, debt, retirement? Right? I think that's important to understand that if you're out there with us as we go through our process, it's real clear. We want to learn what people want out of their life, out of their practice. What are your retirement goals? What's that look like? Timing, family, maybe there's a special needs child or something that you have to account for. Really having a custom plan and strategy. Square peg, round hole, right? If you're working with somebody who doesn't have a strategy or it's the wrong one, you need to know that. How do you learn conversation? You're interviewing people.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Yes. Yes.

Casey Hiers:
We call it a mutual vetting process, but we have people come in here with $5, $6, $8 million already, and so these questions are important, but-

Jarrod Bridgeman:
It's almost like a first date or dating in general. You want to find out and talk to somebody and see if things align the way you would like them to be.

Casey Hiers:
It's incredible. The amount of people I talk to, I rarely get asked some of these questions. I end up bringing it up to them to make sure there's a good amount of clarity. But a lot of times civilians or practice owners, they don't know what to ask. And that's okay, but that's why we're talking about this.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Which is why I was going to say oftentimes when you're out presenting and speaking with owners, they just ask you straight up, "Well, how do you do that? How do you make the money?"

Casey Hiers:
Yeah. "What do you do? How do you do it?" It's like, well, it depends. It's very different.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
And it feels like it's because their experience may have been cookie cutter planners.

Casey Hiers:
Yeah. We just wrapped up the NFL season. It would be like saying, "Well, what kind of offense...." Oh, here's a better example, actually. Went to Purdue, got a new football coach. Well, the media was asking the new offensive coordinator, "Hey, what's your offensive scheme?" And he goes, "Well, we're still compiling our players, so we have to assess their skills, talents, attributes to determine which scheme is best for them, not for us to just have one and force it down somebody's throat." Same thing with the-

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Right. You can't say, "Our plan is to kick a bunch of field goals," and you got to have a terrible kicker.

Casey Hiers:
Yeah. How do you get touchdowns? Well, sometimes you throw a 50 yard pass. Sometimes you run it in because you're on the two yard line. It's situational. Again, you want somebody who is adaptable and is custom. Of course we are, but you want a strategy that you're compatible with. Some people, yes, they want to grow their money, but other things are important to them. So that's really important that you align. Normally it comes out through conversation and it's a feeling, which we talk about that. That's great. But you need more than just a feeling of they seem... Fill in the blank. They seem nice.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
They seem great. Yeah. Yeah. Casey, with one of the things that, and it does come up and it should come up no matter what you're doing, what you're buying, who you're paying services for, is really understanding or not understanding how your planner is paid. You know what I mean? It is, what is their structure and how does that come about?

Casey Hiers:
Yeah. The biggest issue with that is sometimes people have advisors that again, they like and they're a fiduciary-ish, and some of those things align, but there's a lot of commissions and different mutual funds and every move they make, they're getting hit with another high commission.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
I wouldn't say nickel and diming, but we're bigger than that now.

Casey Hiers:
Yeah. But being real clear on what that is. And again, this is something else. A lot of people I talk to, they have money invested, and when I talk about our fee structure, well, number one, it is custom because we deal with a lot of different simplicity or complexities, but it's a percentage of assets under management, which is important, but I'll bring that up of what those percentages are. And I say, "Listen, do you have a brokerage?" "Yeah, I've got something at Schwab. I've got something at..." And I go, "Well, you're paying a percentage fee. It's typically hidden in a statement. We bring it to the forefront as a high integrity firm."

Jarrod Bridgeman:
We tell you upfront.

Casey Hiers:
But that's right. And all our other services, it's a flat fee, so it's unlimited and we're not taking owners... There's some wild formulas out there. You get a cut of this or that or ownership or as it grows... Listen, we want a percentage of assets under management, so what? We have people that have $10 and $15 million, we all win.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Right, right.

Casey Hiers:
Right? A lot of people have maybe four or fie million and their guy wants a bunch of those people that they're making a lot of different moves and getting all those commissions. That is not the path, in my opinion, to grow money. You can grow money-

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Maybe grow money for the person making all the moves.

Casey Hiers:
Yeah.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
It's not so much you, the consumer.

Casey Hiers:
Yeah. We'll look at the different strategies people have and we'll go, "Well, that's interesting. Those are the highest paying commission things that so-and-so can do," their old advisor and it's unfortunate to see. But really understanding how they're paid, that's really important. You want a strategy that's compatible with you, both how you're going to grow money and what that looks like, but then how you're going to get there as well.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
And also what your end goal is. Again, it may not be to have the most money ever. Maybe you wanted some more free time at home or whatever the case may be.

Casey Hiers:
It's fascinating how many people, I call it wealth adverse. They have head trash about money and they almost feel guilty and they're uncomfortable talking about having X millions of dollars. And I've said this before. You need to be a good steward of your skills, talents, and opportunity to make money. What you do with it is up to you.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Correct.

Casey Hiers:
So if you want to go give away $5 million, then do that, but your excuse of being wealth adverse to then not have it, grow it and work hard to be able... To me, that's very mediocre.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Agreed. Casey, for folks who want more information maybe on this kind of thing, more of what we do or just things to look out for and ways to grow their money, you and your team of ladies and fellows are going out across the country and teaching people and doing presentations. We've got a guy out in Hershey, Pennsylvania right now. You're going to the Thomas B. Hinman meeting. So we have all these really cool fun socials and fun bourbon tastings. But again, the main goal is to help you and help your practice and also to scare away those DSOs out there. Casey, what is one of your favorite takeaways from this presentation?

Casey Hiers:
Anytime we give back to the dental community and present some CE and let's say I have a one-on-one conversation down the road with somebody who attended, I always like to ask, "What drew you to this?" And I heard one recently. They said, "I don't even know what it was. It was CE and it was bourbon and it sounded cool." And they go, "You guys did a really good job. I learned more than I ever thought I did, and now I realize how important this side of my life is, the business side. It will make or break you, and I'm so happy I went, but it wasn't because of the subject matter."

Other people will go because of the subject matter, but there's two things with our course. One, we dive into DSOs because it's a hot topic, but few understand it and we like to explain it in some detail. But the other is how many headwinds practice owners have to be profitable, retire on your terms with millions of dollars. So we cover both sides of it. What's it look like to go corporate? What's it look like to stay doing what I'm doing? And what's it look like if I master this or have somebody help me master this? And the answer is millions of dollars.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
That's right. Casey, thank you so much. Folks, if you're listening out there, and you should be, otherwise you're not hearing this, fun fact, but go to fourquadrantsadvisory.com/events. We've got up through, I think April already booked and ready to go. Click on whichever city or event you want to go to and just register for your ticket or for your seat. It is a $50 registration fee, but that is refunded as soon as you attend. Just really to save your spot because these have been selling out. We [inaudible 00:13:50] Scottsdale and we have to turn people away because we have no more room.

Casey Hiers:
Well, as a dentist you hate no-call no-shows. It screws your day. Well, guess what? We're in demand and we need to, it's the equalizer to get people to either not register or to attend.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
It feels good to be in demand. It's never happened to me before, so this is great.

Casey Hiers:
Welcome to the show.

Jarrod Bridgeman:
Thank you.

Announcer:
That's all the time we have today. Thank you to our guests for their insight and for sharing some really great information. And thank you to you, the listener, for tuning in. The Millionaire Dentist Podcast is brought to you by Four Quadrants Advisory. To see if they might be a good fit for you and your practice, go on over to FourQuadrantsAdvisory.com and see why year after year, they retain over 95% of their clients. Thank you again for joining us and we'll see you next time.