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

[00:00:22] Bill Tucker: And welcome back to Retirement Unlocked with Larry Heller. Technology is transforming nearly every aspect of retirement, from how retirees manage their money and healthcare, to where they live and how they stay connected. While these innovations create some new opportunities for convenience and flexibility, they also introduce some new risk that retirees need to understand.

In this episode, Larry explores how technology is reshaping retirement and shares practical steps to help retirees take advantage of the benefits while protecting themselves from the potential [00:01:00] pitfalls. Ah, Larry, good to be with you. How are you?

[00:01:03] Larry Heller: I’m doing great, Bill. Good to see you again.

[00:01:06] Bill Tucker: It’s great to see you.

I like this one, all right? The, the retirement. Technology, man, it is the most double-edged sword thing I think I’ve ever seen in my entire life here.

[00:01:15] Larry Heller: Yeah, I mean, when you kinda, you know, think about retirement, you don’t think about technology. But, you know, technology has changed so much, it, it has impacted, um, your retirement.

So I wa- thought it would be good to kinda talk about it, see where it’s kind of, how it’s impacted, what are the things you sh- could be concerned about, what are the things you c- could take advantage of. So, uh, ’cause it’s changed a lot than in, you know, the last 10, 20 years.

[00:01:39] Bill Tucker: Um- No kidding.

[00:01:40] Larry Heller: And, yes. And it, it impacts so many different areas.

It impacts how you communicate with your family, obviously, with the, your, your cell phones. It impacts financial management. It impacts healthcare access, and I think that’s even just the tip of the iceberg so far. Hmm. It impacts your travel and your lifestyle access, and [00:02:00] even your estate planning. So the, you, you, retirees can’t just, you know, i- ignore technology.

Um, it’s not just for younger generations. It’s an, an essential part of successful retirement planning.

[00:02:13] Bill Tucker: Yeah, you know, w- Larry, what’s funny is all of the things that you mentioned about what it impacts in terms of communication, financial management, healthcare access, trav- travel and lifestyle, estate planning, those are all good things.

[00:02:23] Intro: Mm-hmm.

[00:02:24] Bill Tucker: You know, there are a lot, there are lots of ways, especially with the communications part, is w- families are now better connected than they ever were before. You know, your access to healthcare is greater than it ever has been. So I see those things as real positives, and yet you wanna talk about the risk.

What are, what are some of the risks that we’ve- The- … that we’re looking at?

[00:02:42] Larry Heller: Yeah. So let’s kinda talk about that because that’s, that’s big. These AI scams and cybersecurity s- uh, cybersecurity risks are on, on the rise. Um, and they are really targeting r- retirees. Not just retirees, but they really are [00:03:00] targeting them through- Yeah

fake phone calls, voice cloning, uh, fake emails. I’m gonna give you a couple examples that we’ve s- we’ve seen h- w- we’ve seen happen. Um, we’ve seen someone ha- have their clone, their phone cloned, so they went onto their brokerage account and were trying to transfer money, and they did it in the middle of the night.

So when they, uh, when they were trying to get access to codes that they needed-

[00:03:32] Bill Tucker: Mm-hmm …

[00:03:33] Larry Heller: um, and they w- they were successful, but nothing went through unfort- uh, fortunately, and, and everything got reversed. Um, but hacking of emails. We’ve seen that, that, that is, hacking o- of an email and asking for money, um, but the, that’s not the person really behind it.

Yeah. That’s why we make sure that anybody asks for money, we, we make a, you know, phone call, and we have to speak to the person. But you gotta be careful, you [00:04:00] know, careful about that of impersonating some other, some other people. Those are, you know, a couple of them, but of course, you know, th- there’s others there.

I mean, one that, uh, uh, you know, talking about internet and, um, emails, that somebody w- uh, was able to access a attorney, um, an attorney escrow. And right before somebody was going to send a deposit, a large deposit for a purchase of a home, they sent an email out saying that the account has changed.

[00:04:34] Bill Tucker: Whoa.

[00:04:35] Larry Heller: Um, and the person just said, “Yeah, that’s probably fine,” and yeah, the money went out. A- again, in this instance, the money came back. So they’re getting really, really sophisticated. And of course, you know, the scams about the, y- your, your child or the grandchild- Yeah … needs money that you’ve heard about and, and they’re targeting these, uh, th- you know, these elderly, and it’s becoming better, and [00:05:00] they’re becoming more sophisticated.

[00:05:02] Bill Tucker: Um- They, they really, really are. I mean, I get, I get emails sometimes. My wife gets them. She sends me a thing going, “Is this real?” And they, they’ve gotten really sophisticated with this stuff, and, and, and, uh, you do need to be pretty careful in terms of- what you look at and what you believe. It, it’s, it’s pretty difficult, honestly, Larry

[00:05:20] Larry Heller: Right, and now I’m hearing that they’re able to, you know, do AI, um, with your voice and a- Yeah

video, and you’re gonna think it’s somebody else, but it really isn’t that. So i- it’s, I think it’s even gonna get worse, um, going forward, and how to, how to protect against this is even gonna be more difficult.

[00:05:41] Bill Tucker: Well, how do we d- how, how do we guard against that?

[00:05:43] Larry Heller: Okay. So one, you need to verify requests through a second source.

Um, and again, if, you can always reach out specifically to, you know, specifically to somebody. If so- if you think somebody’s not real, you can just, if it’s hang up and, and [00:06:00] dial somebody else along those lines. Hmm. Using multi- multifactor authentication. That’s another way. Big word.

[00:06:07] Bill Tucker: Big word,

[00:06:08] Larry Heller: yep. Um, and then, you know, using your credits.

Um, you know, freezing your, your, your credit appropriate. Yes, it’s a little bit of a pain when you need it ’cause you have to unfreeze the credit, and if you really wanna do it well, there’s three different credit reports that you need to freeze. Uh, but this prevents, um, anyone from, you know, uh, taking out a line of credit in your name and really creating havoc to yourself.

Um, and of course, keeping passwords secure. I mean, how many people don’t have security on their, on their passwords? Um, there are services out there that you can, uh, purchase to even give you some more security on that. Um, and then, you know, really talk about the, the, the scam prevention with your family me- especially, um, the elder- your elder family members.

Yeah. I mean, we, we have some clients where they’re at the point that the children have taken over the [00:07:00] bill-paying, so th- they can’t be scammed out of this. Or there are third-party services that are, um, you know, highly qualified to be able to do that, all to prevent, you know, s- some of the scams for, for, for people as they become older.

[00:07:17] Bill Tucker: Yeah. It, that, that is true, and it’s pretty scary. It’s amazing. But, you know, you mentioned a couple of things that have been impacted. One of the things that I can … you know, that came to mind immediately was the telemedicine and the future of healthcare. I would imagine a lot of that It’s pretty cool. I bet there’s some, a lot, a lot of things there.

I know, I know now I can, I can contact a doctor on the phone if I, I need to.

[00:07:40] Larry Heller: Yeah, it’s becoming, it, it’s definitely becoming better at contacting your doctor, sending requests through, you know, f- uh, through the computer so not having to try to call and wait and go back and go back and forth. But you mentioned, you know, telehealth.

I mean, that’s a, you know, that’s a big thing. You know- Yeah … we’re doing these podcasts here. I think just about everybody has had, done a [00:08:00] telehealth with their doctor and they, uh, or, and they can see right, right across. And you see some of these commercials now out there really advertising that.

[00:08:07] Intro: True.

[00:08:08] Larry Heller: So, so if you can’t get some g- get somewhere.

So I think that’s only in the beginning stages, and it’s become even, it’s gonna even expand along those lines. So hopefully you’ll be able to get faster access to specialists, reduce travel and wait time and convenience a- and really help you manage an illness or a chronic illness. So, uh, so it, it, it’s becoming, you know, it’s becoming, um, you know, more, more sophisticated, better, and we’ll see where this, where technology in there takes you on this.

And then there’s some other things out there, you know, like wearable technology. Mm-hmm. You know, um, you know, wearing a, uh, a monitor s- uh, to see what your health is there or even, even your, uh, even your iPhone to be able to check your heart rate- Yeah … and do that I think is approved by the American Medical Association.

[00:09:00] So, uh, I mean, there are some limits on there, but you know, th- this is helping and, you know, the big question out there is could technology help retirees remain living independently longer rather than to have that. Um, and then I’ve even, I’ve even seen some of the things that may come in the future. Um, and that’s robot companions for elderly.

Yes. So I mean, we have just- Yes … started with what can come out and, and will that, you know, keep people living longer by having someone to talk to instead of they’re lonely. So a lot of interesting things we’re just really just starting to, to, uh, to see out there.

[00:09:40] Bill Tucker: Uh, a robot thing really fascinates me and, and I know a guy who is firmly, absolutely resolutely convinced that the robots, probably the first and primary impact that robots are gonna have actually is in the senior care facilities in allowing people to part- potentially [00:10:00] stay in, in, in their own home if they want to because, you know, a robot seems to offer crazy benefit, companions as being a benefit.

It’s just amazing to me.

[00:10:11] Larry Heller: It is real- it is really, really amazing what’s go- what’s going on.

[00:10:15] Bill Tucker: And then we can talk about lifestyle choices because now the technology allows us to make some decisions and allow, and what creates an expansion of opportunities and choices, doesn’t it?

[00:10:27] Larry Heller: Yeah, I mean, o- one of the things is, you know, some of our clients, they don’t live close to their, their, their family.

They’ve elected to retire somewhere, uh, you know, away from their children, or they have th- diff- or they have numerous children living in different areas and they can’t be, be, be everywhere. Um, and they may have grandchildren. So, you know, obviously FaceTime, that, that’s cha- you know, that’s changed that. W- we’ve, in the past, given as, you know, given as gifts some of these, uh, screens that have pictures so the- Yeah

the children can upload photos, and the next morning they’re [00:11:00] on your computer for you to t- for you to view. So that, that’s, you know, that’s changing. Um, so you know, re- you know, retirees can now maybe travel a little bit more, spend part of the year in different lo- you know, different locations. So, uh, th- that’s definitely, you know, that’s definitely helping.

And of course, like we said, they… You can manage your healthcare from different locations. You don’t have to be tied sometimes to a, to a doctor. Um, you can manage your finances from e- from everywhere. So it’s giving you a lot more flexibility to be at different places i, you know, in retire- retirement. You know, and some of the other things that, you know, people are doing is, you know, is, is, is travel, and, you know, using technology such as J- ChatGPT to help them wi- wi- with, you know, with traveling.

So, you know, staying connected, doing the travel, doing maybe more international travel, and snowbirds, and back and forth, the technology has made it a little bit easier. Um, [00:12:00] so retirees can, you know, y- have greater freedom to design their retirement around their preferred lifestyle.

[00:12:07] Bill Tucker: So do you have clients that you’ve actually seen this?

Uh, can you, can you share any stories about people that you know that… To offer a real-life example of this?

[00:12:14] Larry Heller: Yeah, so, um, you know, like I said, we, we have, we have numerous clients that are, that are snowbirds, or they’re in Florida or in some warm climate and, and, and their children are, you know, children are elsewhere.

And like I said, one of the things that we did for our clients when they had their first grandchild to pr- provide this, um, technology so they can receive, receive the pictures on a daily basis, and they love that. And the, the, the, the interesting part from a technology standpoint is the grandparents don’t have to do anything.

They just have to look. Yeah, that’s good. The children have to do all the, all the work and all the technology setup, so that’s, so that’s even a little bit better. So, uh, so, you know, just hearing the feedback, you know, feedback on that, um, and just seeing a [00:13:00] lot of our, you know, a lot of our clients being able to, you know, to tr- people are traveling, you know, later in life and longer- Yeah

in life, um, and making, you know, making certain decisions. Of course, there are certain clients that still wanna be close and wanna be, you know, daily involved, so it’s really a, you know, a choice in the matter. But the technology is just allowing for more options and more decisions, um, to be able to do what you wanna do in this, in this part of your life.

[00:13:28] Bill Tucker: Yeah, yeah. Well, the point really I think you’re making is that it’s like the technology has expanded the choices, expanded the options- you, you can do more of what you’d like to do probably now more than, than ever. But one of the phrases that I’ve heard, Larry, is this phrase, digital assets. I’m not sure what it means.

I, I do, you know, but can you talk a little bit about digital assets and, and, uh, and, and how that affects, uh, folks that have retired?

[00:13:55] Larry Heller: Yeah. So I mean, and not just those that are retired, but you know, certainly has, but now everyone [00:14:00] has digital photos. Um- Oh … they have, yeah, they have photos on their, on their- Yeah

phones. And one of the things, we’ve heard some of the stories, and somebody passes away, they don’t have the password, you can’t get into some of the social media accounts and some of the photos, and trying to get in there. So making sure that they, you know, they have that. Um, and of course, you know, online banking is a digi- is an example of a- Yeah

a, a digital. And of course, not too many people, um, uh, maybe are, uh, using this, but there’s cryptocurrency as, as, as another, another word. So there are a lot of those things, but there’s also, you know, more, um, you know, from an estate planning, some traditional estate plans is, y- you’ve seen the, in the, a long time ago, maybe there’d be a big box, and there’d be all your documents in the box and all your accounts in the box.

Right. Now we have everything, everything online, password protected, but everything is online. Maybe not your original will, but everything is right there online, so [00:15:00] if you, if you pass away, your executors, your children, um, can access that and really find out about that. I mean, when I first started, uh, we, we worked with a widow, and I think every few months she’d get a, a, a, another notification of a b- about account-

that her husband had, and she had no idea what to have. Now we have it nice and neat in a nice digital format with all the accounts, with all the ownership, but everybody there, so there’s less likely that things are gonna get lost. So having that, you know, digital type of plan stored somewhere, um, you know, a- and then having the pictures stored somewhere, um, all those type of things just make life easier for passing it on to the next, next generation.

Um, and of course, you know, where are all these key documents and where- … oh, where, where are they all, uh, all stored and, and fi- and finding that. Unfortunately, a lot of people don’t share it with their, you know, with their children. But having a, a, a [00:16:00] digital estate plan and having th- their wishes and having things all set up in one particular place makes it so much easier.

I mean, we’ve had, unfortunately, many, you know, clients pass away. Um, and the s- you know, the spouse, um, who may not be the financial spouse, not always the wife, but the non-financial spouse really didn’t know, but they did know that there was this kind of digital, uh, digital vault that they, that they can ac- get access to, and together we’re able to uncover everything that they need

[00:16:31] Bill Tucker: Yeah, it’s fascinating.

This is good stuff. So give us some key takeaways from this episode, Larry.

[00:16:36] Larry Heller: Yeah. So, you know, retirement planning is, you know, is often more emotional than mathematical. Mm-hmm. So, uh, and, and fear and s- and scarcity mindset can prevent retirees from fully enjoying retirement. So, uh, you know, the goal of retirement is not simply to die with the largest accounts balance.

A good retirement plan should create confidence to spend [00:17:00] responsibly and enjoy life, and technology is gonna help in all these aspects, from healthcare to, uh, finances, to travel, to estate planning. Uh, you know, embracing it, not being scared of it, um, getting help with all this is going to improve your life, hopefully make your, you know, make you live longer, and preparing for the next generation.

[00:17:26] Bill Tucker: Yeah. Live longer and, and have, just have a better quality of life, and I love it that you’ve emphasized, you know, it- there’s no point to having money if you’re not using it to make yourself happy. You, you really can’t spend it when you’re gone, so…

[00:17:40] Larry Heller: Absolutely. We say that all the time.

[00:17:43] Bill Tucker: You know, it’s so true, though.

It is so true. All right. Well, thank you for listening to this episode of Retirement Unlocked. Technology, as Larry emphasized, is changing in ways that were unimaginable even a decade ago. It offers tremendous opportunities for [00:18:00] convenience, flexibility, healthcare access, and financial management. At the same time, as a retiree, you should remain vigilant about cybersecurity, scams, and protecting your digital legacy.

If you would like help creating a retirement plan that addresses today’s digital world, schedule a complimentary consultation with the team at Savant Wealth Management. And if you enjoyed today’s episode, subscribe. Hit that follow button. Come on, become a subscriber to Retirement Unlocked and share it with a friend or a family member who wants to retire smarter in a rapidly changing world.

And I know I’ve told you this before, but we’re gonna just remind you, Heller Wealth Management is now a part of Savant Wealth Management. Savant is a registered investment advisor. Content is provided for informational and educational purposes only and should not be construed as personalized financial [00:19:00] advice.

Thank you for listening.