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Imagine this. You’ve trusted and worked with a financial adviser for 20 years, maybe 30. Maybe you’ve been working with them since the 1990s. They have gray hair. They have a nice office. They’ve been around the block. And you’ve been saying, “Wow, they’ve seen it all. They must be the best.” But what if a long track record is actually hiding a dangerous gap in knowledge, especially on a topic that might be very important to you now? And all that history and all that experience is actually working

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against this relationship. Would that surprise you? Well, when you’re in a situation where you’re looking to turn your savings into retirement income, that gap between experience of the adviser and what you need can be very wide and you may not even realize it. And I want to show you a new study. This is from the American College of Financial Services. It was released in May of 2026 and it’s going to show you, it’s going to flip everything on its head. If you stick with me for a little bit, I’m

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going to go through very specific questions you can ask anyone you’re thinking about working with or you’re currently working with to make sure that there isn’t a misalignment between what they know and what you need. Speaking of a misalignment of what we know, let me bring in Tony. Tony, welcome to the show. Talking about >> advisor experience. >> Yeah, that’s interesting. I I mean, you’re saying a quote unquote experienced advisor might be putting your retirement at risk. That’s

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>> Yes. >> That’s a bold statement, Dan. A bold statement. >> It is. And I’m going to explain it because I’m describing myself in a lot of ways with great hair, years of experience. >> I’m like, who does that? >> I’m saying, don’t be fooled by that. >> Yeah. Who does that remind me of? Oh, yeah. >> Here’s the link to those that are watching on YouTube. the AD 2026 advisor experience study from the American College of Financial Services or May. So

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this is interesting, Tony. The study measured real proficiency using what they call the advisor experience index and they go across eight different key planning areas in financial planning. >> Isn’t it expertise, >> right? And and they’re not opinions but actual skill, demonstrated skill, right? But here’s the headline that should make you say, “Whoa.” 51% of the services that advisors deliver are being provided at only a basic or intermediate level. 51% is that basic or intermediate

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doesn’t sound exciting. The other red flag, Tony, is when it comes to retirement advisors who list retirement income planning as one of their top services, nearly six and 10 are delivering the basic or intermediate. So only 40% or so are actually operating at the level that you want, the >> level of expertise. Yeah. >> Right. And that’s specifically for the retirement income planning. Yes. >> So, >> but that’s a big part of what people need. I mean, that’s the trick. That’s

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the crux of the biscuit right there is retirement income planning. How to solve for income in retirement and get it right and know it’s going to last as long as you do. Right. >> Right. Well, the only people that really need that are those looking to retire. >> Right. If you’re if you’re in your, you know, 30s and you’re just investing in the market, you’re not planning retirees anytime soon, that skill set is not needed from your financial advisor, right? So, so this is what I’m saying is

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maybe your advisor is fine, but if you’re looking for a specific situation like retirement income planning, you need to not rely on years in the business or how long you’ve worked with them as your guiding light. In fact, I might argue that if you’ve worked with the same adviser for 30 years and you’re now looking to retire, that advisor may not be appropriate for you despite the history. >> Yeah, it’s good. >> And I and I’ll put I’ll put it in plain English when it comes to retirement

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income planning. That’s one of the checklists, you know, like what do you do as an adviser? Retirement income planning is like one of the things. Oh, I do this and this. And a lot of them just check the box. But creating a lifetime paycheck like you said that will last your whole lifetime, but factoring in sequence of returns, risk, inflation, health insurance, Medicare, taxes, longevity planning, all of those things combine into one specialized skill called retirement income planning. And it’s not something you just pick up by

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being a financial planner, investor, investment advisor, stock picker for 25 years. You just don’t pick up how all of those interact if all you’re doing is managing money. >> Yeah. >> Because it’s totally different. >> Yeah. Makes sense. >> That’s what that’s So that’s what I wanted to point out. It’s a very specific skill set that people need to be aware of. And they’re suggesting that in this study, now keep in mind the people that did the study is the college

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that trains financial adviserss, right? So they’re suggesting that professionals with a designation or a specialty really makes a difference. So if your if your specialty is portfolio and you have design and ma you know managing a portfolio and growing it and you have a specialty in portfolio management and design um then that makes a lot of sense because the expertise aligns with what you’re trying to provide. Or if you’re a CFP, >> CFP is a good one. Like that’s what I have.

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>> Certified financial that’s a certified financial planner, right? And that’s what you are. >> Certifi Yep. Certified financial planning professional. And there is also the retirement income planning specialist. That’s a separate designation. I don’t have that, but that’s a good indication that someone is focused on retirement planning. So what the study is saying is that most people just say they do it. advisers, I should say, but they don’t have the actual

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expertise to back it up. And what I found to be very interesting, Tony, is that there’s almost a negative correlation to the number of years that you’ve worked and experience in retirement income planning. >> So, the longer you’ve been doing it, the less actual experience you have retirement income planning. >> That’s interesting. So what’s the there’s also something called an AR or an investment advisor representative and some people some of those >> people call they all call themselves

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financial planners. >> Yes. Well, everyone can call themselves a financial planner. There’s no guidelines on that. That’s that’s problem number one, but I’m not going to get into it. An IR, which is what I am as well, that’s just an investment adviser who is credentialed to be able to manage and give financial advice for a fee. They usually >> you’re a CFP and and you’re a CFP and an I AR. Correct. >> That’s right. I’m an investment advisor for a registered investment advisor

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called Dolphin Wealth Management. So I’m I’m a representative of that and that’s just I AR. It’s no special that’s not a specialized focus. That’s just lensure. >> Sure. >> The specialized focus is a CFP and my specialized focus is retirement planning. >> Yeah. >> So imagine it this way, Tony. Um, if your adviser is great at picking stocks or managing your 401k during your working years, that’s fine while you’re accumulating, right? Because that’s a

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very specific skill. >> All about accumulation at that point, >> right? If someone comes to me and says, like if you came to me and said, “Dan, hey, I want you to teach me. I want you to take my money and I want you to double it in five years.” I would say, I could give you an answer on how to do it and I could say, “Yeah, I I can figure out a way to do it.” and I would go for a risk risky portfolio, but that’s not my specialty. There are other people that focus on that that are very into

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that. And those were the people those are the people that you should be focused on talking to, not me. >> Right? >> But if you say, “Hey, I’m retiring next year and I want to make sure I don’t run out of money and I want to make sure I figure out when to take Social Security and how Medicare works and the taxes associated with Social Security and all that.” Then I’d say, “Yeah, that’s my specialty.” It’s kind of like this, Tony. If you’re moving along in life,

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you go to see your primary care doctor, right? And all of a sudden, you have a heart attack. You survive it, luckily. And now, who do you go see? You go, you go to your doctor, and what does your doctor say? Go see a cardiologist. >> Yes. Go see a specialist. And specifically a cardiologist. Yeah. >> Right. Right. And so if you’re having a heart problem, you know, to see a a cardiologist. If you’re planning to retire, you should see a retirement planning specialist. And it may not be

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the person you’ve been working with for the past 20 years. It just may not. And that’s what I’m trying to say. >> Sure. >> You like my little icons there? I found those. Doctor with an arrow and a heart. >> Yeah. >> Primary care specialist, >> right? >> You went crazy with the icons. You got a little icon crazy. I love it. I’m an icon specialist. >> Is that a shrimp or a heart? That’s a heart. >> Heart. >> So, jumbo shrimp.

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>> Scare people. I’m not trying to scare people into panicking that their advisor is not good. I’m here to empower you to say you need to see someone that’s focused on what you’re trying to do. That’s the message. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. instead your primary care doctor at some point is going to recommend you to a specialist or you should find a specialist in a certain area. You don’t go to your primary care doctor for brain surgery and it’s easy to look because you just

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go in in the doctor’s directory and you could see what your ailment is, what your specialty is and there’s the list of doctors. >> Oh, brain surgeon. Okay. Yeah. Neur neurolog neurological expert. Right. >> Right. Right. that doesn’t necessarily exist in the financial world. >> Yeah, unfortunately. I mean, designations are good, training is good, certifications are good. Um, I think CFP is a good one to look for if you need financial planning and retirement planning, but like you said, anyone can

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call themselves a financial planner. Uh, you look for a specialist and you do retirement planning, retirement income planning, and this is where you hone in and are able to help people. Of course, you help people across the board because you’re willing to dig deep and do the math and figure out, okay, for your circumstance and situation, this is going to be the best case to save you the most money, right? >> Yeah. And I’m not going to just leave you hanging and saying you got to work

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with me because I can’t work with everyone. Although I do work with people all over the country, I want to give you specific questions you can ask because just because someone calls them a financial adviser doesn’t mean >> they are. So, what you do is you ask them these very specific questions and see how they respond. And you got to get a feeling for their response because you’re not going to know if they’re lying, right? Or just blowing smoke, but you can tell you could tell by the

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specificity of the response. So, the first thing you say is what kind of credentials you hold because that one, you know, that is what it is. It’s usually on the business card >> and it’s CF is nice. I’m a I’m a proponent of it, but that’s because I I hold the designation, but that’s not it. You need to ask them, “Do you specialize full-time in retirement income planning?” If that’s what you’re looking for, why not ask that? Because you could say, like a lot of advisers do, “Yeah, I

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do retirement income planning.” But if it’s only one of the 10 things that I you want someone that specializes in that. So, you ask them, “Do you specialize full-time into this?” Seems like a reasonable question. >> Yeah. >> The next question is, if they say yes, you’re like, “Okay, demonstratively.” Oh, yes, they do. Okay. Oh, can you walk me through how you would build a personalized retirement income plan for me? >> It’s a good >> like my exact situation, what what what

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would you do? And then you just listen and you listen for a confidence >> and you listen for detail. If you get generic answers like, well, yeah, you know, we’d look to see how much you have and we’d figure out a a good withdrawal. We do the 4% rule and you know, no. No, >> no. >> You want to know, are they looking at all the different aspects that are included in retirement income plan, not just a safe withdrawal rate. What about taxes and estate planning, social security, and health insurance, all of

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those things work together. Roth conversions, all of it. You got to look for that detail. >> Yeah. >> And then it goes back to, so is retirement income planning your focus? Bottom line, that’s what you’re trying to answer. And what I want to say is it’s okay to fire your advisor, right? It’s okay. >> Yeah. >> You you you have your your favorite mechanic and then you get a new Tesla, say, and he doesn’t operate on electric cars. And he’s like, “Yeah, I can help

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you, but uh it’s okay to say, “Yeah, I get it. I’m not saying you’re a bad mechanic. I’m just saying you’re bad at fixing the car that I have now.” Which is >> Yeah. Yeah. That’s that’s huge obviously. Um so yeah f I think a lot of people get hung up on that like how do I you know they feel bad and they just stay with whoever they’re with. >> Yeah because >> I hope to think that the people don’t feel bad and just stay with me. >> You know the the retention rate for

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advisors is very high. >> Right. Generally speaking >> it is. And I think people Yeah. And you know how people are with their money. They get emotional or they don’t want to like to discuss it. So, if they’ve gotten comfortable with somebody that, “Oh, this guy already knows where I’m at.” And even though he’s not right for the job or they could be saving over the course of their retirement hundreds of thousands of dollars, they’re going to make that financial mistake and stick

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with them because of awkwardness. I It doesn’t make sense. It’s you’ve got to bite the bullet and and just you’ll feel better afterwards if you you know make sure you do your due diligence, get to know somebody and then you can start working with them. >> Yeah. >> And and don’t settle for someone that’s been around the block for a while. I mean, it’s important. It’s great. It’s good to know, hey, this person’s been in the community or whatever. They’ve been

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doing this. I put a lot of content out there. I want people to watch the videos and get a feel for my style. See what I talk about. If you’re asking your advisor, hey, do you specialize in this? And what would you what would a retirement plan look like? And they’re dancing around it, you can’t you can’t feel bad about leaving. It’s your money. You can’t make a mistake because you can make a big mistake. We’ve done shows on how people can make huge mistakes. >> And so, shop around, talk to people. It

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doesn’t hurt to get a second opinion from two or three people in your area. >> And you offer you offer a complimentary retirement income stress test. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it’s you say free, but you know, uh, it’s free except the time. The only thing it’s going to cost you is your time. It’s a retirement income stress test. Call 8885085935. Right. >> Yeah. Yeah. I put the QR code up there. And if you’re watching, you can just let me know. And I don’t charge to give a

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second opinion. I don’t think many adviserss do. Now, now I can if we get into the details, you know, if we start getting into the weeds, >> then yeah, I’ll charge you for my advice. That that’s not a problem, but I’ll be upfront about it. I’m not going to charge you to just ask me some general questions. No. >> And get an opinion. Um, I’m not going to get very specific for you. But I would be doing that with multiple people, myself included. >> Sure. And I don’t think adviserss, at

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least the ones that I know and my counterparts that I’m friends with, they’re not upset when they they know there’s another adviser being talked to. It’s it’s it’s not like, oh, I I’m the only one with the answers. But I am very specific and hyperfocused on retirement. So when you ask me a question about it, I’m going to give you specific answers about it. And you may not be getting that from an adviser that you’ve been with for 20 years or that you’ve seen

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around for 30 years. Um, that’s not the and the study is showing that’s not the criteria you should be looking at. That’s not the only one. So, I just wanted to point that out, Tony. That’s it. >> Yeah. And or you can go to dolphinfinanciallgroup.com as well. The information is on the website, right? >> That’s it. That’s it. You can contact us online, give us a call. We’d be happy to give you an opinion. So, if you’re thinking about it, don’t don’t be shy

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because it’s your money and then uh you can only you hopefully only do in retirement once, so you don’t want to mess it up. That’s it, Tony. Thanks for another good show. We’ll catch everyone next week.