Transcript

[00:00:00] Intro: Welcome to Retirement Unlocked with Larry Heller, your life Your Way, unlimited possibilities. Join us as we explore how tailored financial planning and investments can help you navigate life transitions with confidence. Let’s dive into this week’s episode.

[00:00:20] Bill Tucker: And welcome back to Retirement Unlocked with your host Larry Heller.

When most people think about life insurance, they think about what happens after they’re gone. But what if life insurance could also protect you while you’re still alive during a serious injury, illness, unexpected health event? Today, Larry is joined by Rich Big Daddy Salgado, an insurance professional who has spent years working around professional athletes in that world, careers can change overnight because of one injury or diagnosis, which forces athletes to think a little differently about risk and protection.

In this episode, Larry is going to explore with [00:01:00] Rich. How the same mindset applies to everyday families and retirees, and why living benefits and life insurance are becoming an increasingly important part of financial planning. Not as an upgrade, but as a standard. Larry, I’m looking forward to this conversation and good to see you again.

[00:01:18] Larry Heller: Yeah, good to see you too. Uh, rich, thanks so much for joining us today. I think our audience will, uh, will find this beneficial for them. So, uh, so Rich, I, I know you’ve spent, you know, years working with and around professional athletes, so why don’t you kind of tell us how that experience shaped the way that you think about risks, protection and planning.

[00:01:40] Richard Salgado: Well, you know, I was brought into this field, uh, by a gentleman that was, he had the same idea and plan of doing what I currently do, and I think I shared with you when we first met that, uh, here I am, get all these licenses, become a professional. [00:02:00] I studied more for all these financial exams than I think I did at four years or five years in college.

And, um, all of a sudden after I become licensed, he goes and quits and moves. So I tell the story about how I felt like I was in the middle of a MetLife stadium, uh, on the 50 yard line with no one around me, like in an empty stadium, because I was like, whoa, you know, deer and headlights. What’s the next step?

Well, I had a network that was in place. I just needed to attack that network with a plan. And the plan was that I was gonna show people how to protect themselves, both on and off the field. You know, it wasn’t the most important thing. And these young athletes’ lives because, you know, they start playing football.

28. 21, 22 and they have the Tarzan mentality. Mm-hmm. Nothing’s gonna happen. And you know, [00:03:00] I don’t have to worry about all that. And then, but that’s done a whole 360 now since I first started in the business. People see the value behind insurance, insurance, uh, uh, one side of our business is the career ending disability insurance, where that starts with a kid in college because these guys are now realizing that they’re gonna be first round, second round picks, and God forbid they have to have some sort of protection.

You know, they go to sleep at night knowing that they have this protective umbrella, you know, that’s, uh, over them while they get to the next step.

[00:03:39] Larry Heller: Yeah, so I mean, some of those athletes, you know, making millions and with the NIL money, um, you know, such a large amount of money that, uh, in, in. College. But even the, the amount of money you’re making now as a professional, it’s just increased so, so high that Yeah.

One injury [00:04:00] and you could be forfeiting a lot of money going going forward. So, uh, so before we kind of talk about, you know, kind of the everyday person, like what, what’s special about, you know, do you do with the athletes and making sure that they’re protected?

[00:04:15] Richard Salgado: Twofold. You know, like I said, we have two sides of the business.

We have the, uh, disability career ending side, and we also have the life insurance side with living benefits. And, uh, to, we’ll discuss the first one first. And. That is, God forbid something happens to you while you’re playing, that you can no longer perform your sport. That doesn’t mean that you have to be in your deathbed or you have to lose a limb or anything along those lines.

It’s just if you’re a football player and you can no longer play football, you will be compensated in a tax free manner for the amount that you are insured for. Now let’s flip over to the other side where we have the life [00:05:00] insurance and we have the living benefits. Obviously when you’re an 18, 19, 20-year-old kid, the last thing that anyone is thinking about is death.

[00:05:09] Larry Heller: Mm-hmm.

[00:05:09] Richard Salgado: Well, we always say it’s better to be safe than sorry. And the other thing is you have these guys that are making, like we just said before, NIL money.

[00:05:18] Larry Heller: Mm-hmm.

[00:05:19] Richard Salgado: They are making more money than some guys that are in the NFL currently. Absolutely. And it’s like when you see these numbers, because I do get to see them and we’ve insured a few, I mean, it’s astronomical.

So the living benefits part is it’s, it actually goes a little bit more. It’s like disability insurance, but what it does is it, God forbid you have cancer, heart attack, stroke, cognitive impairment, and you’re insured for let’s say $2 million because. It’s not a lot of money for a 19, 20-year-old. If one of those things were to happen to [00:06:00] you, we would be able to give you a check for, you know, a pretty decent amount over, over a million dollars and go and fix whatever your problem is, you know?

And I’m saying fix it because you know something’s broken. Cancer, heart attack, stroke, those are things that come up. But not usually when it’s a young man, it’s obviously a little bit, usually most of the time it’s down the road, but we, my partner Chris Muir and I, we make it an important part of each client’s sort of speak portfolio because we wanna make sure that.

Look, if you can go on a date, or you can go out one of your buddies and spend a hundred, $125 at one sitting, you go to the gas station, by the time you fill up your tank, you get a sandwich, you get a drink. There you are. You’re at a hundred bucks. Why not do something like this, like the insurance and spend a hundred dollars on that because it has more meaning [00:07:00] than the gas and the food or the date.

And you know, we get a chuckle from guys when you tell it to ’em that way. But you know, that’s the best way to put it. It it, you know, we’re not gonna get wealthy off anybody. We just wanna make sure that they have the knowledge and understanding of what we bring to the table and why we offer this and why it’s important.

[00:07:20] Larry Heller: So let, let, let, let’s kind of impact, uh, unpack a couple of that. So, on the career ending insurance, that is really a specialty, it’s really not. You can’t just go down to your local, you know, um, insurance company and, and get career ending insurance. So why don’t you just talk about that for a second and then we’ll get back to the living benefits for a second.

[00:07:39] Richard Salgado: Okay. So the career ending insurance is obviously Lloyd’s in London. They’re the, uh, you know, they’re the big daddy in that space. And, uh, we’ve been, uh, I’ve been personally myself, been dealing with them for over 25 years, and we’ve written some of the biggest names that you would see and, you know, people’s eyes would pop out of their heads.

But those are [00:08:00] the, those are the ones that were. Intelligent enough or not that they’re not intelligent, but they had the right people around ’em to suggest to do something. And yes, you have to be approved for it. Um, I’ve had battles where I’ve had to fight to try to get someone coverage because. I know that there are potential high pick, but an underwriter who’s over in London may not understand that.

And you have to kind of then battle, do your research and explain to them that, hey, this guy is legit. And not say you give ’em five or 10 million, but you know, give ’em something. And then again, it’s insurance that pays these guys, it protects their future earnings. If a guy gets terminal, you know, gets hurt, can’t play, here’s your payout.

[00:08:50] Larry Heller: Right. So he can blow a knee out, not be able to be, you know, be able to play and live a full life. He just can’t be a football player.

[00:08:57] Richard Salgado: Yeah. There’s guys that always say, what [00:09:00] am I gonna do? I’m like, if you got a million, 2 million bucks, you could do whatever you want, but you could still go get a job coach.

Mm-hmm. Be a CEO, do any of those things. You just can’t play football.

[00:09:11] Larry Heller: Okay.

[00:09:12] Richard Salgado: You know, I’ve had, and I, I’ll share a story.

[00:09:14] Larry Heller: Sure.

[00:09:15] Richard Salgado: I did have a client that had an issue. And, uh, he was out of his sport, then decided to have about 15 operations, got approved to come back and play for a couple more years. And what he did was, since he had already received the compensation, he paid the compensation back to the insurance company.

That’s how bad he wanted to play.

[00:09:45] Larry Heller: Wow. Interesting.

[00:09:47] Richard Salgado: Yeah.

[00:09:48] Larry Heller: So let’s not kind of flip over. We started talking about the living benefits. So what you’re really talking about is a life insurance policy and that life insurance policy has those benefits, like you were [00:10:00] mentioning, cancer, heart attack, stroke. But just to be clear about that, for audience, wouldn’t there health insurance cover all those type of, um, diagnosis?

[00:10:11] Richard Salgado: Not all the time. And the beauty of this thing is. Sometimes you have to go to different places to get things. Repaired or fixed. Uh, and what I mean by that is look at all the guys that were going for. Uh, and I relate some football guys were going over to Europe to get stem cell treatment. You know, that’s not approved in the United States, nor is it covered by any health insurance plan.

And they would go over there. Some guys I know Costa Rica’s a big, uh, stem cell place now, and guys bouncing around all over the place trying to find ways to. Be ahead, stay ahead, stay healthy, fix things, correct things and, and that’s why a living benefit is it’s your money, right? So basically, if [00:11:00] you’re insured for $2 million and I say, okay, Larry, here’s a million dollars you need to go to Tijuana.

Whatever the place you need to go to, it’s your money. You do what you want, you can come back to work and you don’t have to pay that back. That’s the beauty of it. You know, it’s not like, uh, I would say like long-term care, for instance. A lot of people always try to compare the two. Well, long-term care is some of the, most of the times restricted on who you go see.

You know, you have to fall into some, uh, bracket or category that they have, and then it doesn’t pay out. It doesn’t pay to go in. In some cases because it’s not gonna do what you need it to do for you. So that’s the difference between, you know, living benefits, health insurance, or uh. What’s the one we were just talking about?

I forgot. Long-term care. Long-term care. Yeah. And, and disability.

[00:11:57] Larry Heller: Right. You know, so, but this kind [00:12:00] of is like a long-term, but like what, like what types of situations trigger living benefits? Wouldn’t that kind of also fall under some long-term care?

[00:12:08] Richard Salgado: No, because what happens is there’s different categories that trigger each point.

Mm-hmm. Meaning like, if you have this. Sickness. If you have this, you get this amount. It’s all broken down by the, uh, disease or sickness or ailment that you have, and then the company goes and determines how much, when the payout is and, and so forth.

[00:12:35] Larry Heller: Right, but so, but wouldn’t this also cover some type of chronic illness?

[00:12:39] Richard Salgado: Yeah, it would cover chronic illness as well. Everything is based on the amount that you have, insur that you’re insured for, and then the illness that is, that you’re putting in a claim for.

[00:12:53] Larry Heller: So, right. So if, if you wouldn’t, if you’re not able to do a certain amount of the activities, so if, so [00:13:00] this could actually also help when you’re older.

It’s not just for when you’re younger, it’s when you’re older. The older as well. Correct.

[00:13:07] Richard Salgado: Yeah. We’ve had, um. One client that obviously, uh, and it’s, we were, were able to use, uh, the information that he puts out there, that he had a policy and six months later he had to collect on it. And this guy was a young guy who played sports healthy as could be all of a sudden had a heart attack and he had a $2 million policy.

They gave him a million dollars. Eight months later, he was back to work. And he was a young guy. So, but it, it, it, as long as you have the coverage and the amount, you’re gonna get your payout to whatever, whatever illness or ailment you have.

[00:13:47] Larry Heller: Right. So that, so he took a million dollars out, he would still be left with a million dollars life insurance on the

[00:13:53] Richard Salgado: policy.

Yeah. Death benefit. Yeah.

[00:13:54] Larry Heller: So he still have a death benefit. A million. So whatever you don’t use is still

[00:13:58] Richard Salgado: Yeah. You know, it’s like, it’s like the [00:14:00] railroad policies. You see how people take out cash value loans and all that. Mm-hmm. There’s always a deduction later on at the end. And uh, so basically that’s along those lines,

[00:14:11] Larry Heller: right?

So you’re very kind of have a big belief on these living benefits. So, you know, why do you believe that the living benefits should be, you know, standard, not an optional upgrade?

[00:14:22] Richard Salgado: Well, because a lot of people see, look, I have here, as you can see, I have a beautiful scar right here, okay?

[00:14:29] Larry Heller: Mm-hmm.

[00:14:29] Richard Salgado: And that’s from being a brain aneurysm survivor.

[00:14:32] Larry Heller: Oh, wow.

[00:14:33] Richard Salgado: That a lot of people don’t realize, don’t know that I went through that. And, but it’s well documented. And I, when I, when this happened, this was in 2008. I was working out, I was doing everything like no big deal. Mm-hmm. And how, uh, we discovered it was I got in a wrestling match with a very famous football player and, uh,

[00:14:56] Larry Heller: a play wrestling match.

Or a real wrestling

[00:14:58] Richard Salgado: match. A play play [00:15:00] in a pool. In a pool. Right. Okay. So in a play out in the Hamptons. Okay. And, uh. If he watches this, he’ll laugh ’cause he knows who he is. Mm-hmm. And, uh, and if I mention his name, the whole world would know. But, so I get outta the pool and I can’t hear, like, I’m like, man, my ears are clogged.

[00:15:17] Larry Heller: Hmm.

[00:15:18] Richard Salgado: So I go to the doctor, no, I went to the pharmacy. I get one of those lists, oui things, try to get it out, doesn’t work or the doctor, my doctor doesn’t, says I, I don’t see anything after seeing two different specialists. One says you need to get an MRI. So I get an MRI of my ear, but when you get the ear, you get the whole head.

Well, I get a call back and they say, Hey, you need to come do an a RI. Hmm, okay. I go get that done. And then the doctor says, oh, I need to speak to you. And he goes, you know, you got a bigger issue than the water in ears. And I said, what’s that? He goes, you have this. Look at that little ball right there. He goes, you know what that is?

I said, I’m, he goes, it’s an aneurysm. It hasn’t popped. [00:16:00] We can fix it. You know, we can, you know, there’s two ways of going about it. They can go through your groin and they can coil it, or they go through your head and they clip it. Well, we tried to do the leg thing, which I would’ve been a lot happier. It didn’t work.

So we had to go through the head and, uh, you know, God was on my side because I, uh. Was out of the hospital in seven days, and, but it took me a good two years to get back to normal, even though, you know, the, I, I’ll tell you a funny story. After I had the surgery, it was during football season, so I was really bummed out that I missed a game and whatnot, and here I am.

I should be worried about living, let alone worrying about football. I went to the next Giants game. And uh, I show up and it was in Pittsburgh of all places. So I got on a plane, flew to Pittsburgh, [00:17:00] and when I got there it was still. You know, late September, so the weather was still nice and whatnot, and here’s me wearing a ski hat and people, so people are looking at me like, boy, that guy’s like either roadie or gangster or whatever, you know, because everybody’s still not, not wearing coats even it’s still September.

And I remember John Barr, the owner of the Giant, saying to me, what are you doing here? Like, are you okay? How do you feel? And you know. I put on a good act, but I still was not ready. I should not have been there. I went, I saw the game. Great game, but I remember it took me the stadium to the hotel where I was staying.

What should have, what normally should have taken 25 minutes, 20 minutes or so, took me over an hour because I didn’t have, the energy wasn’t still back yet, but, uh, I made it back and I, I remember I went to sleep at like seven [00:18:00] o’clock at night and the next day I flew home. Yeah, those are things like, and I share this all the time with people you never know.

No one is that special, that something like this can’t happen to them. So it’s always best to be protective, be safe, and be sound of mine, knowing that hey, God forbid something happens, I have something that I can fall back on.

[00:18:23] Larry Heller: Yeah, I mean that I, yeah, I really appreciate you sharing that. I mean, that’s some story, I mean, a clogged ear and, and, you know, to get that.

But you’re right. I mean, um, everyone thinks, especially when they’re younger, they, they think they’re, you know, invincible. But, um, but that’s not always, you know, that’s not always the case. So

[00:18:43] Richard Salgado: I’ll share, uh, and, and not to cut you off. Okay. I’ll share something even funnier. So now I go through this whole exam and everything, and it’s around my birthday in September.

So I say to the doctor, I say, well, what’s the next step? Am I like going into the hospital or, you know? And he [00:19:00] said, well, you know, you were, we’ll, we’ll get you a, we’ll get a bed and we’ll set it up and you know, there’s no urgency. So I say to him, well, if that’s the case, look, my friends are drawing me a birthday party.

Can I go to it? And they’re like, the doctor’s like, yeah, why couldn’t you? Well, it’s in Los Angeles. Is it okay for me to fly? And he goes, look, you’ll be fine. Hopefully it doesn’t pop on you while you’re on the plane. I’m like, well, that’s real. Uh, enthusiastic, but, uh, or comforting. But I said, I, I went and, and the funny thing was we’re at dinner and without naming names, there was some pretty big, uh, who’s who there?

And there was a fight that broke an argument that broke out over who was gonna get what. If I didn’t make it through the surgery, like meaning, ’cause I was a bachelor, I lived it by myself and I had a pretty good, you know, asset base. So everybody was like, I want the car, I want the [00:20:00] TVs, I want all this stuff.

And I’m like, I. Boy, I’m glad everybody wants me around, you know, so that was a funny, uh, a funny, it, it helped get through the, uh, the whole ordeal because I thought about that a lot and I was laughing and, uh,

[00:20:14] Larry Heller: well, I’m glad I’m, I’m glad everything worked out and you’re here with us today. Finally, just, you know, let’s talk about life insurance.

What is the biggest misconception you hear about life insurance from either athletes or, or, or young families?

[00:20:29] Richard Salgado: You know, a lot of it is they don’t have an understanding. I think that what we do at our firm is we educate people like, why do you have insurance? Why you need it? Maybe you have the wrong product, you know?

A lot of people like, uh, product A where they should really be in product B, and, and, and there’s cost because the numbers change. Act actuarial numbers change. Prices change, [00:21:00] and a lot of people buy insurance and they buy it from their college roommate, you know, their classmate. Or if they meet somebody at church or temple or whatnot and they buy it and they put it in the desk and they forget about it.

Well. Everyone’s economics change sometimes for the better than were or, or sometimes for the worst. Well, if you don’t visit and you don’t review you, you have to keep up with the Joneses meaning? Mm-hmm. Like keep up with the trends. If there’s a change in price or there’s a better product. I remember one time we had a client that was in late sixties and they were paying x.

We went and revisited and took out a whole new other policy and it was less money because the underwriting was much better and they were healthy, and we’re like, listen, It has to benefit the client.

Hmm, and, and I think the biggest thing again, is the education process. Sitting down with people and explaining to them why it’s important to have, and it’s important to choose the right product, and it should be cost effective and it shouldn’t be where it’s benefiting me. It has to benefit the client.

You know, that’s why we, my partner and I always joke around. We’re not gonna get wealthy off of you. We’re not here to get wealthy off of you. We’re gonna do the job. We’re gonna be consistent just like we are with everybody else, and we’re gonna educate you. And the reason why the education process helps also because it leads to refers.

If you do a good enough job for one individual, they will be. Glad to refer to you as somebody else. Yeah. You know, we don’t hard sell anybody and we don’t try to push it on anybody. We’re here to help you.

[00:22:59] Larry Heller: [00:23:00] Yep. So, R Rich, this has been, you know, a delightful conversation. Learned a little bit more about you personally.

Thanks for sharing. And I think our audience has learned a lot about granting insurance living benefits. So, uh, any closing thoughts that you may have?

[00:23:16] Richard Salgado: You know, uh, I will say this, that again, our firm is here to help people and we even created a new website that’s called My Term life.ai. And what we had with that whole thing, we allow people to go online and get their own quotes.

You could look up stuff, you could learn about living benefits, you can learn about our team, and we will assist anyone that needs help. With the insurance process, and if even if they have insurance, the biggest thing is to let’s review it. Maybe you’re paying too much or do you know it’s coming to an end?

Because when you buy term, you have 10, 20, 30 year, all these things come into [00:24:00] play and it’s important that you have professionals that are willing to take the extra step to make sure that you have the right coverage, right protection, and you have a person that cares, that works alongside you.

[00:24:12] Larry Heller: Great, rich, big Daddy, thank you so much for joining us today.

This has been, um, been a pleasure. Hope, hope our audience learned something out there about, uh, different types of life insurance.

[00:24:24] Richard Salgado: Well, thank you guys for having me, and if you ever need me again, please don’t hesitate to ask. And, and Larry, I look forward to us working together. So, uh, we gotta, we gotta break bread again and, uh, I’ll gonna take you to one of my spots and then we’ll go from there.

[00:24:38] Bill Tucker: You

[00:24:38] Larry Heller: got it.

[00:24:41] Bill Tucker: You know, big daddy. That was nice that it, it’s, it’s good to demystify life insurance because a lot of people don’t like talking about life insurance.

[00:24:49] Richard Salgado: Oh. People run away. And that’s why I always tell ’em at first, you know, the first thing that happens when they see me in a suit, they think I’m somebody’s security guy.

And then you have to, then you have to explain to [00:25:00] ’em, no, I have a simple job. It’s selling life insurance. You don’t have to run away. I’m here to help. And, uh. That’s it. If you have any questions, ask me and I’ll answer them.

[00:25:11] Bill Tucker: That’s beautiful. Well, thank you so much. We really appreciate it. And Larry, thank you for, you know, having Rich on to help.

Underscore the importance of life insurance and how it’s changed too, as a matter of fact. Mm-hmm. You know, today’s conversation highlights an important shift in how we think about life insurance. It’s not just about protecting your family someday, it’s about protecting your financial life when you might need it the most.

Whether you’re an athlete, a business owner, or planning for retirement, the reality is the same. Serious health events can create financial stress long before estate planning ever comes into play. Understanding living benefits can change how you think about risk, income protection, and long-term planning.

Thanks again to Rich Big Daddy Salgado for joining us and sharing his perspective. Thank you for [00:26:00] listening to Retirement Unlocked, and if today’s episode helped you think differently about life insurance and protection. Please like, subscribe and share it with someone who could benefit. And if you want help reviewing how insurance planning and protection fit into your overall retirement strategy, check the episode description for resources and a link to schedule a complimentary 20 minute call.

Until next time.