Conversation That Sparked The Creation Of This Podcast Creation

Speaker 1:

Welcome to the Financial Planner's Desk Podcast, a podcast designed for you, the financial professional. We'll keep you up to date on industry trends in technology and marketing, and we'll always keep you in the loop on new regulations. Here's your host, independent advisor and OSJ, Richard Oring.

Rich:

Welcome to the Financial Planner's Desk. In this episode, we're going to have a guest who is another advisor and also a great friend of mine. We're going to discuss how we ended up working together and how one simple conversation about 15 years ago sparked the idea which led me to create this podcast.

Rich:

Our guest today is Dirk Alexander. He's another advisor with New Century Financial Group in Princeton, New Jersey. Dirk has a very interesting career path, coming from New York City originally, where he started specializing in disability insurance with attorneys and physicians, from owning a property and casualty insurance business, to financial advisor, to today where he specializes in group retirement plans. Dirk, welcome to the Financial Planner's Desk.

Dirk:

Hey, Rich. Thanks for having me.

Rich:

It's interesting, because for me, I was a jack of all trades when I first got into the business. I had a tax practice. I did insurance. I did DI, life, long-term care, and retirement plans. But as time went on with the retirement plans, the regulations got a lot more stricter for us.

Dirk:

Yeah. Well, one thing that's really nice about broadly our industry is that there's a lot of avenues and a lot of directions you can head in over the years. What happened was is every... I guess I just kept trying to evolve my business in areas I liked when new things came up.

Dirk:

I started in disability income for mostly doctors. A lot of those doctors had private practices before the hospital deregulation in New Jersey. And as they had their own businesses, they asked me about, "Hey, can you handle our employee benefits? Can you do this?" And I did and I got in that area. And as time went on, you just started getting... I mean, the reality is if you like something, you do it better than things you don't really care too much about.

Dirk:

So my career just kind of evolved on this journey of doing different things, and mostly in the employee benefits and corporate area, to I guess it's probably about eight years ago now, I basically just handle retirement benefits, whether it's IRAs, 401(k) plans, and that's the majority of the business. Anything around retirement, investment planning. So it's just followed the path of what was needed and what I enjoyed doing.

Rich:

It's interesting, because for me, I was a jack of all trades when I first got into the business. I had a tax practice. I did insurance. I did DI, life, long-term care, and retirement plans. But as time went on with the retirement plans, the regulations got a lot more stricter for us, more filing notices, due diligence we had to do every year. And over the years, I said, "I can't be a jack of all trades anymore. I've got to focus on what I'm good at."

Rich:

And you being so good at it, I actually introduced you to all my retirement planning clients and transitioned the relationship to you. I've got to tell you, even though I might do the individual financial planning for the owners or so forth, I think that you working and knowing what you need to do for those retirement plans has really paid off, because I know I got a lot of good comments, not just from the owners, but the employees of these plans. I think that's great. It's something that I wasn't good at. So I'm kind of glad your career path ended up specializing in group retirement plans. It really benefited me really well. Thank you.

Dirk:

It worked out at the time too, because I think I was two doors down from your office, so people didn't have to go far. But-

Rich:

Yeah, it was really nice.

Dirk:

It's interesting. When I started in my business, I was 21 years old and I was trying to set up disability income planning and retirement planning for doctors, and I was a kid. So it was very difficult. And you found out how to get through to people and how to work with people that were much more let's call them advanced in their careers than I was when I started.

Dirk:

I was lucky. I worked for a premier disability company at the time. So I had a little bit of that behind me to help kind of get my introductions and get in front of people, get in front of potential clients.

Dirk:

But the reality is is that I felt that once I had the opportunity, I grabbed hold of these people and spent time with them. And when I started getting into the employee benefits, I would... You're hired by the employer. You're hired by the... That's the end. That's the person that hires and fires you is the person that owns the business. But at the end of the day, they hire you to take the pressure off of them for their employees to have somewhere to go for questions so they don't...

Dirk:

A lot of my businesses were like 10 life groups, 10 employee groups. They didn't have an HR department whereas a hundred employee or 200 employee group has. So anytime an employee had a question, they would go to the owner. So what I felt like what I wanted to provide at that time, because I had the relationship with the owner and they would complain about everything, that's how I ended up getting the business. Can you take care of our 401(k) plan, because all my employees are asking me questions? I kind of went into the path and saying, "Okay, you're hiring me. You're the boss. But I'm working for the employees. Because at the end of the day, if the employees are happy, you're going to be good. As long as that plan's going to stay around." Because the employees are happy, they're telling the boss, and they're not asking the boss a lot of questions, which the boss has no answers for.

Rich:

Dirk, you mentioned something earlier about your age, being 21, starting out, talking to highly educated people, doctors and lawyers, and it's intimidating. I know because I've been there too. But it's interesting, as you get older, you kind of realize that... You learn things about your clients.

Rich:

One of the things you learn is you might be a doctor or an attorney and you're good at what you do, but there's only so much time in the day. They go to work, they have to keep up with their own continuing education, and then they go home, they have to be a husband or a wife, spouse, and spend time with their children. So even though you're 21 years old going there, knowing the rules and regulations and the different kind of plans they have, you're adding so much value.

Rich:

So for anyone who's listening and you're intimidated, just remember, your clients are good at what they do. They're not good at everything. It's not because they can't be, they just don't have time.

Dirk:

Well, yeah, I mean, you hope they're really good at what they're supposed to be good at, especially dealing with doctors and... We'll just leave it at that.

Dirk:

But in the beginning, it wasn't so much about regulations, because... I mean, I'm 50 now. So this goes back a little bit of time. But regulations have been overwhelming in the last 15 years, right? We're just adding more and more regulations because-

Rich:

You've got the Department of Labor now on these 401(k) plans involved.

Dirk:

Yeah. You have ERISA issues. You've got a lot of things going on, and employers don't know. Back in the day, anybody... Like you said, it was the jack of all trades. Your IRA would be in a Fidelity Destiny Plan. I think that was what it was. It was a contractual plan. You'd buy it for a hundred dollars a month for like 10 years. And then you would also get your life insurance, and then you'd get your car insurance, and get your 401(k) plan all from the same person that really knew... Jack of all trades, master of none type thing. And we were all there. We all evolved from those. I don't think there's too many that survived that business model of doing everything. Especially today where everything is so micromanaged and microregulated.

Dirk:

But as time went on, I remember 2012, we were in the office and all these new regulations came down for 401(k) plans about disclosures. People were panicking about this. When I say people, advisors that I know were very nervous about it. I would go to these meetings about it, and people were just... They were like, "I don't know what I'm going to do."

Dirk:

Well, at the end of the day, our firm, New Century, since I joined in 2006, it's been great about... We've always been disclosing everything anyway. So it wasn't really that big of a deal. I think you and I may have had this conversation. I said, "This is..." Regulation, although sometimes it's far overreaching, but it's an opportunity too. It's an opportunity to go in and say, "Well..." We've had this with a number of plans that you and I've worked together on where we saw things, we're like, "Do you realize you're paying for these services and you're not getting them? Do you realize all these different things and these expenses?" All we have to do is go to the platform and say, "You've got to lower your fee."

Rich:

Yeah. You just did one recently. So Dirk, I'm going to change the subject a little bit. I don't want to make this about 401(k)s and group retirement plans. I know that you and I could talk shop all day long.

Dirk:

Yeah, and we've had. So yeah, go ahead.

Rich:

I was kind of surprised. When I was prepping for the podcast today, I was like, "Wow, has it really been 15 years?" I mean, I'm just guessing. I threw it out there, figuring 15 years, and it was close. I think it was June of 2006. You got the year right. I don't know how you did it. I went to the FINRA BrokerCheck to find out when you got registered. It was June of 2006. But I know you were-

Dirk:

I remember. I'm sorry to cut you off. I remember the moment when I first got... I think we were playing golf together in a golf outing. We were playing and I think that you said, "Hey, are you going to join the firm?" And I said, "Yeah, I think so." You made a phone call and then my email was set up and everything. I think we were on the 16th tee.

Rich:

I don't procrastinate, man.

Dirk:

Yeah, no, no. It was-

Rich:

Once you make the sale, you go with it.

Dirk:

Yeah. Yeah, it worked out really well. I think we won that golf outing also. Yeah.

Rich:

I don't think we really won.

Dirk:

No.

Rich:

If that's the golf outing I remember-

Dirk:

It is the golf outing.

Rich:

... we were playing with two other advisors in New York. I guess they did enough production where they automatically got the win, so our group got the win. And we looked at each other shocked.

Dirk:

Yeah, we were thankful for the win. We didn't keep score. So it worked out for us.

Rich:

Yeah. Out of fairness, Dirk, you're a much better golfer than I am. I've never ever to this day ever got a golf award besides that gift certificate to the pro shop for winning. I do remember that golf outing. That was fun.

Rich:

Dirk, when I first joined New Century, I was asked to do some marketing and try to recruit for new advisors while I was also working on my own client base. So I believe you got a piece we mailed to you. I guess my question is without mentioning your previous employer, were you unhappy there? Were you not getting something? Was my marketing piece that good? And if it was that good, do you still have a copy of it?

Dirk:

Yeah, it's framed somewhere. I got it gold-plated. No, you know what? When I started my career, I worked for a company as a career agent and it didn't make sense to me, so I immediately came to the brokerage side of it. So since I started, since I've always been on the independent side and I was with an independent... I was in a number of independent broker-dealers. They were all fine. There was no issues with any of them. They had the product that I wanted and they had the... It all worked out.

Dirk:

What my concern was or what happened with me, I was always concerned about, "Here I am. I have my own practice. I'm married and I'm going to build up this business." Because we are planners by trade, right? That's what we do. I'm thinking, "What if I die?" I mean, I have disability coverage. I have life insurance. But what happens to my business if I die? And I got this mailer just at that time of a little internal anxiety going on about this. And I said, "Well, let me call these people up." I think the first thing I talked about was succession planning of my business. That was really the key that got me into the conversation. Then-

Rich:

That's interesting because that topic is so big right now. I don't know what it is now, but I know a few years ago, the stats were that the average financial advisor's age was 57 years old. So a lot of the broker-dealers right now are talking about succession planning. I mean, you were, what, in your 30s when you got this?

Dirk:

Yeah, yeah. I was 34.

Rich:

Wow.

Dirk:

34 years old. And-

Rich:

So I'm good with the math, with 50 minus the 15 years.

Dirk:

Yeah, yeah. More like 16 years though now.

Rich:

16 years. Yeah.

Dirk:

But anyway, so yeah, I never really... I just thought about, "Well, I'll look at this firm because they'll have succession planning," and that was about it. And I went through a couple of different opportunities that I passed on with different broker-dealers and groups that were more local, but it just never worked out. It was always somewhat of a megalomaniac on top that said, "Hey, listen, join my group and you'll be in my office. We're going to look like this big team. And me, me, me, me, me." And I'm like, "Well, I kind of do my own thing, and I like doing my own thing. I just want to make sure that my wife is taken care of if I die, with my business that I'm building up."

Dirk:

So I went out and I met... I think you guys were having a... You were having an economist at the Marriott in Princeton.

Rich:

Sounds exciting.

Dirk:

Yeah. It was an economist and somebody else. I can't remember. But it was her client appreciation event. They were going to have wine and cheese and chocolate or something like that.

Rich:

Yes, I remember that one.

Dirk:

You remember that? Remember that? Yes. So my wife and I went and we enjoyed it. Matter of fact, that night was the night I spent about two hours just hanging out with your dad. And Franny loved your dad. So we were like, "Well, this is probably a good move for us." So-

Rich:

My dad had that personality, very warm and welcoming.

Dirk:

Yeah, he was a wonderful man. Wonderful man. I miss him. So we went to this thing and listened to it and I said, "This is kind of good." And Jeff was there, you were there. And we're just talking about, "This is what we do for our clients." I'm like, "Well, that's kind of cool." And I realized everybody had their own world. They had their own business, their own practice, their own style. But you could lean back on this group to support even your style, whatever it was you did.

Dirk:

So that was really the thing that was... It was like, "Well, you have succession planning. That's important to me. It's a great firm." I mean, Royal Alliance. How could you go wrong? And then this little boutique group, New Century Financial Group. And I thought, "These are good guys." I liked everybody. I was a little naive there, but I liked everybody immediately.

Rich:

You were young.

Dirk:

Yeah, I was young. I've learned. No, I'm just kidding. I love everybody now. We've all gotten very close. It was easily the best decision in my career to do that. The marketing piece was not so brilliant, except it said succession planning, I think.

Rich:

Simple. I should shorten it to one word.

Dirk:

One word. Just I pay attention to details, so that one word was the important word for me.

Rich:

So Dirk, you answered some of this, but I'll lead this up. We've been working together for quite a while. In the beginning, and even to now, we've talked so much about business development and where we want our practice to go, what we like to specialize. Golf was our key thing. I gave up on golf. I wasn't getting any better, and it didn't really look enjoyable for you. I've got to be honest to you. Watching me. We've talked about life with... For me, with kids. For you, you talked about how great life was without kids.

Rich:

But during one of our conversations, I remember in the office, it was maybe a year after joining, and you kind of touched on it a little bit. You said something to me about why it was great switching over to New Century. And when I asked you about being a guest on the podcast and I said to you, "Hey, do you remember this conversation about a year ago?" You said, "Yes." It was about working in your office by yourself. Do you want to talk about how... I mean, even when you joined us at first, you were still in your office by yourself, but you felt like you were part of a team. Do you want to elaborate on that?

Dirk:

Sure, sure. That's really the key. I spent the whole part of my career up to that point. So we're looking at probably 14 years of just being in my office by myself. I had people working for me that were assistants, but I mean, at the end of the day, there was no... If you had a question, you'd call the back office of whatever firm you worked with. And I worked with a lot of firms in the Midwest. I'm a Jersey boy. They don't understand me.

Dirk:

So then when I joined New Century, at the time, there was a lot of meetings. That was all new to me because I never had meetings, work meetings.

Rich:

Right. If you did, it was with a wholesaler.

Dirk:

Yeah. I mean, your wholesaler would talk about how great their-

Rich:

You ate well.

Dirk:

You'd eat well. Yeah, yeah. You'd eat well.

Rich:

And you'd get pens and pads. It was nice.

Dirk:

Yeah, you get a lot of tchotchkes. But at the end of the day, you guys would invite me to meetings. There would be a wholesaler coming in, but it would be more than just a wholesaler pitching their product, it would be a sales... Not a sales idea, but an opportunity that I may have missed or I didn't understand. It was really a resource for me because I was introduced to a lot of people. And I didn't have the... As a group... Listen, in the 401(k) business, if you have a $500,000 401(k), this is your pricing. If you have a $12 million 401(k), your pricing's going to be better.

Dirk:

So it was the same thing with opportunity that I would learn from, or there would be a wholesaler that would spend a couple hours with eight of us, 10 of us in a room when nothing happened before. A wholesaler would take you out and then they'd pitch your product and then they'd go on to the next one. Those poor guys would tell the same story eight times a day.

Rich:

We had certain rules for wholesalers. They weren't allowed to come in and just pitch product. They had to bring value. They had to bring a marketing idea and economy ideas. Something else besides product, because everyone has good product.

Dirk:

Right, yeah. The product's there.

Rich:

It's about building the relationship with the office.

Dirk:

Yeah, and I say that to the potential clients. Listen, we're not offering... I don't have a product that the next person doesn't have. The only thing that I can offer you is me, is the services that I provide, the services that my support provides. That's all I can offer. That was what we were getting from wholesalers that I had actually known, which weren't offered to me before, because I was just in there... They had to stop off and see me every quarter. And I'm not knocking them at all. I love a lot... These guys are good friends. We've been to some of their weddings.

Rich:

Some who are still in business.

Dirk:

Yeah. There are some that still exist.

Rich:

Some of them turned to the other side and became advisors.

Dirk:

Yeah.

Rich:

The one you're talking about, the one in California is now an advisor.

Dirk:

Yeah. No, I know, I know. I know. I just actually got a text from that person the other day. But yeah, so you listen. These are good people and they did provide... Because of the opportunity that they had to go to a group and stand... Now they could stand in front of 10 people. They could provide a lot of that value. They can bring something to the table besides like, "I have a great product," and this and that.

Dirk:

I never had that before. So that was wonderful. I think I would come out once a week to the office in Princeton. I always had my office in Freehold. I would come out once a week just to hear some, get some ideas, get some feedback that I never experienced before.

Rich:

I don't want people to think I'm trying to create a recruiting episode to try to get people to call me and join my firm, as much as I would love that, but that's not my goal. I think I want people to understand something. If you're used to working in your office by yourself, get out there. Join a study group, create a study group with other professionals in the same industry. Because there's so much products out there, there's so much financial planning strategies out there. Regulation changes, tax law changes, everything. And being able to bounce ideas back and forth is really important.

Rich:

I'm in a few study groups and I get a lot of benefit from it. Some of the members focus on insurance, where I don't really focus a lot on big life insurance cases. But when I need to know something, I know who to call besides the wholesaler trying to sell me. I'm getting an opinion from an advisor, maybe even some suggestions on how to present it, because some of these cases are complicated.

Rich:

So I guess the biggest thing to get out of it and why I started this podcast is hearing advice or just information from one of your peers is so different than hearing it from your back office, your compliance department, from a wholesaler. That's why I'm encouraging people to listen, but I'm also encouraging you to get back to me. If you have ideas or you would like to be a guest, because maybe you do something a little bit different and could help someone else, I would love to have people more involved in this podcast.

Rich:

But Dirk, I'm going to say something else you once told me, and it was actually not that long ago. Unfortunately, I think it was maybe a year or two after your mother-in-law passed away. We had a second conversation and probably another time of your life where you're trying to realize where life is going. But you said to me you kind of changed the way you were doing business and who you were working with. You weren't just taking anyone. You were being more selective. And you said to me, "Rich, I work so I can play."

Rich:

I know that sounds so simple. It's about eight words. But I don't think it's just a sentence you say, I think it's something you live by now. Do you kind of want to talk about how you transitioned from the daily grind, marketing, getting new prospects in the pipeline, trying to close them to where you are today?

Dirk:

Well, sure. First of all, when I said that, when I started that... I don't want to say my philosophy changed. My outlook changed or evolved, like we all do. Like I said, our whole practice did. And at this point, my practice evolved into a different area or a different path. It wasn't a midlife crisis, and I love my job. We've had many conversations with other advisors and very good friends of mine, and they think, "Man, why are you so down on work?" I'm like, "I'm not. I love my job. This is the best job I could have. I'm very happy for what I have accomplished and what I've built."

Dirk:

The concept was was that back 20 years ago, it was all about build your business, build your business, work hard, work hard, work hard. And thank God that I had that push back then, because now I can enjoy more of the fruits of the labor that I had back then. But because my job or my practice has evolved into a very... Let's call it a narrower... It's not so broad anymore. I'm really doing very specific things. I can manage it much, much better than I ever thought I would.

Dirk:

It was a good friend of mine who actually does health insurance, which is... He was the one that really brought this to light, because he wanted to buy my health insurance practice. I think that was really his way of doing it is kept telling me how much free time I'll have. But what it was was I was happy to get out of the health insurance business. It was this massive fear because it was right during the Obamacare. I felt that...

Rich:

Was that before Obamacare or-

Dirk:

Definitely.

Rich:

... after?

Dirk:

He was correct. Freed up time for me, but... I didn't like doing that.

Rich:

So he was right. It freed up time for you.

Dirk:

I really didn't like doing it. I was involved with the legislation in New Jersey, and I thought this was just... It was a joke. It was a joke. The politicians were a joke in New Jersey. It was just ridiculous. But I needed the income. It was something that I relied upon.

Dirk:

He finally said, "Listen, let's just... We'll work it out. We'll work out the payments and all this." And we did and we did a good job. It was the second best decision I've made in my career, because the first was actually joining where I'm at now. But yeah, yeah, I almost canceled out the first one. But I caught myself.

Rich:

Good catch. Good catch.

Dirk:

Yeah, you would have to have dubbed that, right? Or...

Rich:

I know. Then we would've had to rerecord. You're talking over my head now with all this audio editing stuff. By the way, Dirk is a musician. That's his passion.

Dirk:

Anyway, I sold that practice and I thought that that was... I was nervous and scared. It was a good decision because it allowed me to be much better at what I do. When I have clients that would come up and that they'd want to invest money in something that's taxable, that's not me. I don't know and I would send them to you. You're the guy for that. And just as I think you had an advisor that had a question about a 401(k) plan who's part of the group, and you said, "Do you mind speaking to this person?" Absolutely not. So it's a nice mix, the way that all worked out.

Dirk:

But back to your question was about I work to have fun, I think is what you said. I realized that I've built up my business, and in our business, we see a lot of people with planning and stuff, and we see that they get into retirement and they're just not happy people, because their whole purpose is now gone. You mentioned I'm a musician. That's something I've been doing since I was six years old. It's funny, because I took a 24 year break from performing to build up my business. But I got back into it and I'm fortunate. It's a very interesting industry. Very different than it was when I was 20 years old.

Rich:

So how's your clients react now when they see you when you had that normal, traditional business haircut, now back to the pop rock look from the... Are you going back to the '80s? I mean, I saw pictures when you were in the bands in the '80s. Are you going to go that look right now? It's getting long.

Dirk:

Yeah, yeah. COVID is working out for me.

Rich:

Are your clients shocked to see you this way?

Dirk:

No, no, I think that the clients that... I have a very good relationship with the clients I have. I don't think I have any clients left. If a client somehow thought that this... I guess if they-

Rich:

I'm not saying they're going to judge you. I'm just saying shocked.

Dirk:

They're shocked. I think they're kind of relieved. Here's somebody who's not playing the game. But it is what it is.

Rich:

I had to see a client recently with the COVID, and probably like everyone else, I gained some weight, unlike you. I said to the client, I said to him, "I've got to be honest with you," I go... It's a brand new client. I said, "I don't mind meeting you, but I really don't know if I have a suit that fits anymore." The client was like, "We don't really care if you come in jeans and a T-shirt." It was close.

Dirk:

Yeah, yeah. That's my type of client.

Rich:

Exactly. I get that. Hey, Dirk-

Dirk:

I haven't worn a tie for years.

Rich:

Basically what you're saying is working hard in the beginning gave you the opportunity now to go back to some of your passions and maintaining your clients, picking up when they come through a referral or that you're willing to do. But you're also going to be more selective because you want to enjoy life, you and your wife, and do things. I know that you're very involved with a lot of charitable organizations with your time. I know you're an avid golfer, you like going on your golf trips. So that's really cool.

Rich:

I remember that conversation because I was working seven days a week, and I eventually sold my tax practice. I remember bumping into a client on a weekend during tax season. They got the letter that I sold it, they just didn't remember or whatever. And they looked at me like they were shocked. I remember going to the ski slope for the first time with my kids. I was never able to do that during tax season. So I get it. You work hard and it's nice when you build something up where you can reap the benefits from it. I think that's important for everyone. It doesn't matter if this is your first year in the business or you've been in it for 30 years. I always say to people it doesn't help being the richest person in the graveyard.

Dirk:

Yeah, you can't take it with you.

Rich:

No. So-

Dirk:

It's all a journey, and you want to have as much fun until the end. One of our advisors, and he's a good friend of mine and good friend of yours, Mike Phillips. He said he's not going to be buried, he's going to slide into the grave. His body-

Rich:

[crosstalk 00:00:30:12].

Dirk:

... is going to be done. And he's right. You still work hard, but you work smart now too.

Rich:

It's going to be great. I'm going to do a hashtag, Mike Phillips, and he's going to start getting these Google searches of him sliding into his grave.

Dirk:

He always told me, he says, "When I go, my body's going to be finished." And I said, "That's a great philosophy. It's a great way to look at things and it's the right way to be," I think.

Rich:

Dirk, we're almost getting to the end of the time. I promised the listeners that this is not going to be one of those really, really long podcasts where you have to spend a week in your car listening to it. So I want to thank you for taking time out of your day to be a guest on this podcast. I've got to tell you, it was really special going back from the beginning of our relationship, looking at some of the pictures. There was one picture I found where I was skinnier than you. Just one. There was one. If you need it, I'll send it to you. But I also have to thank you for not sharing any embarrassing stories of myself on some of those golf trips. I really do appreciate that.

Rich:

Dirk, thank you so much for being a guest here. There will be show notes. You can go to your favorite app player and look at the show notes, and there'll be links. My email address, if you want to be a guest or have any ideas, is plannersdesk@ncfg.com. Thank you very much.

Dirk:

Thanks.

Speaker 1:

Thanks for listening to the Financial Planner's Desk Podcast. Feel free to share this episode with colleagues and other financial professionals in your life, and make sure you don't miss an episode. Subscribe on Apple, Spotify, Google, or your favorite podcast app.

Speaker 1:

Richard Oring's branch office is One Airport Place, Princeton, New Jersey 08540. The branch phone number is (609) 924-2049.

Speaker 1:

Securities offered through Royal Alliance Associates, Inc., member of FINRA, SIPC. Advisory services offered through New Century Financial Group, LLC, a registered investment advisor. Not affiliated with Royal Alliance Associates, Inc.

Speaker 1:

New Century Financial Group, LLC and Royal Alliance Associates, Inc. do not offer tax advice or tax services. Please consult your tax specialist for individual advice. We make no specific comments or recommendations on any tax related details.