Transitioning your message, RMD changes and Derek Ballinger

Transitioning Your Marketing Message 

In the business world, things are constantly changing. Your customers, your products, your industry - you name it and I'm willing to bet that your message from 12 months ago no longer resonates today. Our CAG Marketing team has been working on a cool project helping a government-funded institute with a charter of making smart manufacturing more accessible for any size of business. After the CEO of our client spent a few days at the White House (no matter your political beliefs, you can't tell me that wouldn't be pretty awesome) working with other leaders tasked with taking smart manufacturing concepts and turning them into executable ideas, he and his team started a project with Carly. She tells me this kind of thing happens a lot because new ideas are often easy to champion by business owners / leaders but after 6-12 months someone has to turn those visions into reality. And that's exactly what Carly is helping this business to do. When we launched CAG Marketing, we thought there would be areas of cross-over in our work but if manufacturers can get better data, use it more effectively, and make smarter decisions - I think we'd have some happy investment clients, too. We look forward to watching this one unfold! 

Changes in RMD Age

The SECURE ACT stands for Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement.  SECURE Act version 2.0 was recently passed and changes several aspects of the financial planning process. Over the next few newsletters, we will take a dive into a few of them. The biggest change, in my opinion, is the age at which investors must begin making withdrawals from their IRA accounts. Effective 01/01/2023 the required minimum distribution age is pushed from 72 to age 73. As Americans are working longer, this allows investors to defer tax 1 more year. Over time the age of minimum distribution will continue to go up. The SECURE Act 2.0 pushes the required minimum distribution age to 75 in 2033.

As planners, we carefully look at the impact of taxes associated with income and estate planning. While Roth IRA conversions can be a useful tool in saving investors and beneficiaries significant tax burden, as the required minimum distribution age continues to be pushed back, I believe it may reduce the number of investors that elect to convert. In any case, investors now have more choices to delay or reduce taxation.

Team Member Highlight: Derek Ballinger

In late 2019 one of our clients recommended that we bring on Derek for our summer internship program. Derek began his internship near the height of the Covid 19 unknowns. Derek could have just silently completed the internship when the nation was social distancing, but instead he displayed a level of excellence for which all our future interns will be measured.

During the first week, Derek observed the processes we were using to track, monitor, and adjust client investment strategies. After only a few days of working in our office, he asked if I minded if he worked on a project over the weekend. When he came back on Monday he said, “I spent some time on this so if you hate it, just don’t tell me.” He surpassed all expectations. Over the weekend Derek had built a program that we were paying a software company to use. Within a few months he had replaced, improved, or added to many of the programs/processes we use daily.

Derek became a full-time member of our team in May of 2021 and presently serves as a Financial Advisor and Chief Innovation Officer of the company. He has become our most versatile team member. Derek plays a lead role in research and implementation of our firm’s risk-based investment strategies. He provides countless hours pouring over economic data and how it may affect our portfolios; his analytical approach to investing and life continues to provide our clients and firm with great value. He is the developer of our Financial Score Card which evaluates financial health of clients over a broad range of planning components such as estate planning, investment performance, insurance protection, and savings rate. Derek has a growing client base in which he provides direct investment advisor services on behalf of the firm, and assists CAG Marketing in website design, SEO optimization, and a host of other projects. You can listen to Derek every week on the Dynamic Growth podcast.

Derek lives in Aurora, Colorado. When he is not reinventing better ways to get results, he enjoys chess, weightlifting, and cooking the world’s best steak.

Chat GPT is all the rage.

On a recent episode of Dynamic Growth, Derek and Nate discuss Chat GPT and the implementation of AI in the workforce. You can listen to it here.

This newsletter is for informational purposes. It is not intended to replace individual investment advice. Crosby Advisory Group, LLC is a registered investment advisor. Crosby Advisory Group, LLC also owns or does business as CAG Marketing and NMD Insurance. Investing involves risk including the potential loss of principal. Consider all risks and fees before investing.