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The CEO Wealth Hack with Filip Lundstedt
10 Plays3 days ago
- Business owners—what if your company’s health insurance could fund your retirement? 💰 In this episode of The Future of Finance, Marissa Wood sits down with insurance expert Filip Lundstedt to break down a powerful strategy that turns unused health insurance premiums into a tax-advantaged wealth-building tool for CEOs.
Discover how level-funded health plans can help you:
- Save thousands annually in premiums 💸
- Earn refunds on unused claims
- Fund retirement through annuities or life insurance
- Create employee benefits that actually attract & retain top talent
This episode is a must-watch for small business owners, CFOs, HR professionals, and anyone building financial freedom through smart business structuring.
⏱️ Timestamps:
00:00 – Welcome + Introducing the CEO Wealth Hack
00:40 – Why benefits are crucial for scaling your business
02:15 – The truth about employee retention and benefit costs
03:03 – How CEOs can reinvest unused premium dollars
04:01 – What is a level-funded insurance plan?
05:25 – How claims refunds work + real-life examples
06:45 – Stop-loss insurance: protecting your business from risk
07:55 – What size companies qualify for level-funded plans?
09:06 – How easy is it to switch or enroll?
10:05 – The 3-layer CEO wealth hack: save, retain talent, and invest
11:00 – Using IULs & key person insurance for retirement
12:18 – Bonus strategies: employee benefits that build cash value
13:38 – Why CEOs need a fiduciary advisor in their corner
14:07 – Why insurance companies are powerful wealth-building vehicles
16:00 – How banks use life insurance for profit (and you can too)
18:18 – The role of fixed indexed annuities (FIA) in retirement income
20:36 – Income for life: creating your own pension
22:14 – Partnering financial advisors + insurance agents = better results
24:13 – How CEOs grow wealth using their savings
25:18 – Filip’s passion for the insurance industry
26:43 – Medicare plans: why seniors should review annually
28:06 – Medicare strategy: saving retirees from unnecessary expenses
30:19 – How Filip supports seniors with real-life guidance
32:59 – How to get in touch for a free plan evaluation
📞 Ready to take control of your retirement planning?
Visit 👉 https://www.union-financial.com
📅 Book a free meeting directly through our calendar!
🔔 Don’t forget to like, subscribe, and turn on notifications for more retirement strategies, financial planning tips, and money mindset advice from financial experts who care.
Want to get in touch with Filip Lundstedt at ProCare Consulting?
Visit 👉 ProCare Consulting
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Transcript
Introduction to Philippe Lundstedt and Topic
00:00:09
Speaker
Hi, welcome to the Future of Finance podcast. I'm your host, Marissa Wood from Union Financial Services. And today I'm joined with Philippe Lundstedt, the insurance guru. And we're going to be talking about a CEO wealth hack that he's using to turn his clients unused insurance money from their health insurance premiums into ah retirement plan for their future.
00:00:32
Speaker
And we're going to go through some strategies here today. So welcome, Philippe. Thanks for joining us. Thank you, Marissa, so much for having me. I appreciate being on the podcast. Absolutely.
Challenges in Employee Benefits Selection
00:00:41
Speaker
So, you know, a lot of business owners are really great at making their money and, you know, building their business, but a lot struggle with where to even begin when it comes to funding benefits for their employees. They want to retain valuable employees, but they don't know which benefits to offer and they don't want to overpay for plans that they don't feel like are really adding a ton of value to their business.
00:01:05
Speaker
Can you talk to me about that? Yeah, you know,
Scaling Businesses with Good Employee Benefits
00:01:07
Speaker
it's it's an interesting thing, the dynamic of a business owner. You're a business owner. I'm a business owner. But it's an interesting dynamic when you kind of go through the stages of discovery, really finding out what it is that you're good at, niching down, right? And then going into the growth process, which is me building systems and things around that growth, and then the scaling part.
00:01:24
Speaker
I think the growth phase to the scaling phase gets very it's very muddied waters. And a lot of part of that of that scaling phase is hiring new people, right? And once you hire people, you have to scale from there, which means you have to retain good people and get rid of the ones that aren't so good.
00:01:39
Speaker
And a great way of doing that is with benefits, right? And and I think that most people that are working a W-2, 9-5 job, nine to five jobs they're I think most of them are there for the benefits, right? um Because if it was all about the money, then people would just go start their own business, right? They would say, oh I'm just gonna be an entrepreneur because there's more money in doing that because I get to keep 100% the proceeds.
00:01:58
Speaker
So I think when a business owner is going from growth to scale, that's where they start to run into these complications of, well, I'm focused on growth and that's what I know, that's what I'm comfortable with.
00:02:09
Speaker
this other stuff, it's really not that important, right? And it's like, yes, is. This is the only one way you're gonna scale your company is by hiring new talent. And the only way you're gonna maintain that scaling is, or maintain that growth, is by retaining them.
00:02:24
Speaker
So the benefits come in super, super strong. And not only with like, you know,
00:02:31
Speaker
disability or you know your health benefits, it's also do you offer 401Ks and do you offer any kind of financial benefits for people as well? And there's a lot of different ways that people can do this, right? And and the most people will think, well, I just gotta pay it it out of my own pocket, right? And it's like,
00:02:46
Speaker
Well, yeah, I mean, the money comes out of your pocket. It's got to come from somewhere. No one else is going to pay for it for you.
Understanding Level Funded Insurance
00:02:51
Speaker
Unless, unless you can structure your benefits in a way where you have the potential of having money at the end of the year that you can then restructure into a benefit product, right? Like what you guys do. Okay. So a lot of that comes down to like level funded, self-funded insurances, right Where if you go self-funded, depending on how big you are of a company,
00:03:13
Speaker
Most of the times what I deal with in that niche is level funded insurance where people are able to get leftover dollars from their claims accounts and that comes to them and it's tax free and they're able to kind of convert that into whatever they want, right? So they could pay themselves that money. They could bonus it out to all of their employees and say, hey, listen, we had a surplus of $100,000 this year.
00:03:35
Speaker
I've got 10 employees. I'm going give each employee $5,000, right? going to do a or ima do a a big company retreat and that's gonna pay for it or I'm gonna give you X amount of dollars towards an HSA right or I'm gonna give this to you towards an annuity or ah or or a financial account that we've set up right so I think there's a lot of smart things that business owners can do that are outside of that premise of they just gotta spend it out of their own pocket so what exactly is a level funded plan because You're the health insurance expert here, you know, and I think myself included in the average person doesn't quite understand the difference between a level funded and a couple other basic type of health insurance plans, group plans. Sure.
Comparing Insurance Plans: Fully Insured vs Level Funded
00:04:16
Speaker
So that's a that's a great question. Like, yeah, most people are doing what's called fully insured, where they're just going to an insurance company and saying, hey, I just want everybody on this program. And I don't really want to deal with any, you know, health applications or what. I just want to get this program. And that's it. That's the more expensive way to go. You're typically spending anywhere from 10 to 20% more when you're going through that process ah because yeah everybody's accepted. right When you do level funded, it's a mixture between self-insured and a mixture between fully insured. right So the insurance company is still involved, but so are you.
00:04:46
Speaker
And what happens is you gotta think of it like a pie. And in this pie, you've got a certain amount of money, it's about 50% of the pie is going into claims. That's what pays for anything that happens to you or any of your employees.
00:04:57
Speaker
And then the rest of it is going into administration, management fees, commissions, different processes there. But 50% is going into claims. And on a level funded program, you get a refund on the amount that's left over in the claims account at the end of the year. Now most of the level funded that I deal with and that I tailor for people is giving them 100% of that money back. oh wow So if they at the end of the year, if they had $100,000 sitting in the claims, they're gonna get $100,000 check at the end of the year. And I'm delivering checks 20, 40, 60 thousand dollars to employer groups where they're like, oh my god. That's incredible. And it's it's great. yeah And you save them up front.
00:05:35
Speaker
Now there's, Level funded, there can be health questions. that There is some stuff going on there. It has has to do with the the risk of the group, which we have to balance. And we typically do that through a suitability questionnaire. right we We find out the suitability for the program to see if it's actually going to work for them.
00:05:53
Speaker
So then we run through all these numbers. We find out about their employees. And sometimes we
Utilizing Surplus Insurance Funds Strategically
00:05:57
Speaker
have to hybrid it. right We have to have a fully insured program for certain people. And then we have a level funded for everybody else because we want to play the odds that they're always going to have a healthy year.
00:06:05
Speaker
Okay, so healthy year equals more unused correct claims back to the employer. Correct, correct. And when it's level funded, sometimes people get worried because they're like, well, what happens if I run out of claims dollars and I have a really bad year and three of my employees get cancer and I run out of claims dollars?
00:06:21
Speaker
Well, we always put what's called a stop loss insurance policy on the back end, which means that's like a max out of pocket. okay So if the most that you could spend as a company is a hundred k and you have $300,000 in bills, you're only gonna pay the 100,000. And then you have a secondary insurance policy called stop loss that then pays the rest of that money.
00:06:39
Speaker
So we set people up with these strategies so they're not left vulnerable. and they're able to mitigate a lot of that risk, but they're able to make money at the end of the year. Plus, when I'm saving them 10, 15% on premium every single month, month after month, the money starts to compound here, right?
00:06:55
Speaker
So what I tell a lot of people is at the end of the year, what do you do with that money? You can spend it on yourself, you can do a big party, or you can put it into an account. If you put it in an account where you're getting some interest, you have compounding interest based upon the savings that you're getting year to year.
00:07:10
Speaker
And if you hold onto that money for enough time, you could have a lot more money, right? The only issue with some people is they get scared. They're like, but what if I have a bad year? And I say, well, gotta look at statistics, right? There's a way of looking at the past and figuring out what the future is basically gonna do.
00:07:26
Speaker
And it's the statistics come down to like one out of four years, you're gonna have a bad year. But three out of those four years are a profitable year for you where you're putting that money away and you still have a lower premium. So it's really, really beneficial for small business owners, especially small business owners, to look at level-funded products rather than just doing the fully insured.
00:07:43
Speaker
Now what kind of businesses can you help with this? Number of employees, do they have to do a certain amount in revenue, do they have to be in a certain location? Tell me kind of who you can help put this plan in place. so So these programs really can be for anybody that's like five or more employees, up to about 500 to 1,000 employees.
00:08:03
Speaker
Once you start to get to that 500,000 employees, we really start looking at self-insured options as being a bigger savings. But when you're at that lower end, where you're at like five, It's a little bit tough there. Now you can get level funded. It depends on where you live and it depends on the health of the group and the age of the group. If it's a young group and everybody's under the age of 30, hey man, you got a lot of opportunities here. It's a big winner.
00:08:25
Speaker
But that's usually not the case, right? you know Your average age of your group is gonna be around 40 to 50 years old. Just the way it is, right? Especially since people are working longer. When you really start to see competitive rates with with level funded is once you start to hit 10.
00:08:38
Speaker
My sweet spot is 20 employees are going to take the insurance. Like you could have 30 employees and only 20 take it because the other 10 are on spousal insurance, right? Spousal in the house is what we call it. So from 20 to 250 is really a big sweet spot for me. And the reason it's a sweet spot is because there's certain insurance companies that we deal with where if it's under 250, we don't even need health questionnaires.
00:08:58
Speaker
We pump it through AI and I can get a returned rate in 14 minutes. And it's a bindable rate, which means I can sign that paperwork that day and they can have insurance issued to them next day.
00:09:09
Speaker
And it's all bindable, no health questionnaires. And what it does is it just scrubs the internet, scrubs what's called the MIB, the Medical Information Bank, right? And they they go through that and they see who's healthy, who's not healthy. And it may just, out of the 250, it might pull three people and say, we need health apps on these three people.
00:09:24
Speaker
Okay. So it makes it really streamlined and easy and it's where business owners don't even have to spend a lot of time on this. They just gotta give me a census. They give me a census, an accurate census so of all their employees and I can get this information back to them within minutes.
00:09:39
Speaker
So it's it's really, really strong stuff. So that CEO wealth hack that we're talking about, it's you know a couple layers there. You're retaining and attracting employees by having a great benefit to offer them. yeah And then you're saving money in that plan. And then you're getting money back potentially on healthy years that you can then use to fund your own retirement. is that
Insurance Strategies for Retirement and Risk Management
00:10:02
Speaker
Is that something that you see absolutely some of your CEOs doing? Yeah, absolutely. And even so much so like with the key man insurance, right? When people are getting key man insurance, which key man insurance is like you've got a partner, right?
00:10:14
Speaker
And one of the partners, the partners are 50-50. And if one of those partners were to die, you would have a problem on your hands, right? One, you're going to be like, well how do I replace this person? And is there lost revenue?
00:10:25
Speaker
Some people like, well, don't get that. Well, it's okay. if you have If you're two people and one handles operations and the other have handles sales and the sales guy dies, how are you selling? Or the operations guys died, how are you running the company? Big problem right big problems.
00:10:38
Speaker
You would have to spend money, hire new people, take out time your day to retrain those people, hunt those people down, so on and so forth. So key man insurance is life insurance, just pays out to the company or to the individual. We prefer it to pay out to the company because then it's guaranteed to be used for the company.
00:10:53
Speaker
Pays out to the company so if someone dies, there's excess of money that exists. When you do the level funded and you have the additional insurance and the and the the additional premiums and the additional money coming in, I like to convert people from a traditional term life policy and say, well, why don't you do an IUL?
00:11:10
Speaker
Why don't you do an IUL? Music my ears, I love IUL. Right, right, why don't you do an IUL and tie it to a trust that's within the company so the IUL's beneficiary is the company, which then becomes an infinite banking concept, an IBC.
00:11:22
Speaker
You could do this with an IUL or you could do it with Whole Life if they really want guaranteed numbers, total protection, and just take the four to five percent interest, right? which So for anyone that doesn't know, index universal life is based on the performance of a market index. It's it's tied to a market index.
00:11:37
Speaker
ah So you have a little bit more potential than a whole life. A lot a lot more potential to earn some higher growth. Yep, correct. So it's it's a it's a great mechanism that we're seeing more and more business owners use because they can use that money.
00:11:53
Speaker
That's on the other person. They can borrow against it in time of need. So allows you to scale your company without the person actually passing away. Amazing. And then you can also set up certain boundaries on them where you're like, hey, after you've been here for 10 years, let's say you start buying these for employees.
00:12:08
Speaker
So never mind just the key man. Now you have managers and directors that you're like, hey, I'm going to get you an IUL. with this excess money that I have. I'm gonna put money into an IUL for you and after 10 years, you're gonna have access to this money.
00:12:23
Speaker
They'll become the owner after 10 years? Correct. So you can create it as almost like a bonus program. But if they were to leave before the 10 years, it's all yours. And now the company's assuming all that cash value,
00:12:33
Speaker
They're assuming all of that life insurance and it's it's amazing because the beneficiary is the company and you're just giving them opportunities to borrow against it, right? So there's just so many ways that you can use life insurance and annuities, right? Because you can do this with annuities as well.
00:12:47
Speaker
Because not everybody, not everybody's gonna wanna set up 401k for their company. They might be like, I don't really wanna do that, it's complicated, it's blah, blah, blah, whatever. And then that's when someone like you comes in. That's phenomenal, right? Having a fiduciary come into your company, right? A a financial planner with ethical boundaries, right? um That's put fiduciary in case nobody knows. I'm sure you'll that. The legal term. The legal term of it, right.
00:13:09
Speaker
ah Meaning that someone cares about your money, when you making in a profit over their commissions, right, which is super important, I think, especially for business owners, because they don't want to think about it. They want to out of sight, out of mind and deal with somebody that's going to take care of them.
00:13:22
Speaker
And I think having somebody you like you come in and then structure that properly because I think there's times where an IUL makes sense and an annuity makes sense and maybe some other funding makes sense whether it's REITs or real estate or whatever makes sense for a company to invest money in depending on where they are geographically and where they are financially. right A healthy company that's in a in a booming area should really be looking at these concepts of being like, what could I be doing with my money so that could help me scale later on down the road and maybe hire better employees or give better bonuses and programs like that that aren't coming out of my pocket now.
00:13:56
Speaker
Absolutely. And, you know, when we talk about insurance, insurance is really used as a risk mitigation in every aspect, whether it be, you know, health insurance, car insurance, home insurance, life insurance. And can you talk to me about the strength of insurance companies and why you're so passionate and think that they're such a great vehicle to invest money into, whether it be life insurance or an annuity issued by an insurance company? Yeah.
Insurance Companies vs Banks in Financial Stability
00:14:22
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, i I'll tell you that most of these insurance companies have been around longer than the banks.
00:14:27
Speaker
You know, that's 100% accurate, you know, and you can look at most of these insurance companies. If they go out of business, what happens? They get bought. They get bought. In fact, it's like a rule that among all these insurance companies in a circle that says if this one goes out of business, I will just assimilate its book.
00:14:44
Speaker
and then take care of all those people. So you losing an insurance company, it'll never happen. It'll just be bought out by another insurance company and it'll constantly be around. It's one of the oldest forms of business in the world, right? It was invented by King Hammurabi, right? Which is back in like the Babylonian times. Like that's crazy how long ago it was like, hey, you've got some stuff and if it breaks, we'll replace it. You just got to give me X amount of dollars a month. That's insurance, right? That's...
00:15:09
Speaker
Wow, in the simplest form it truly is. the simplest form. In the simplest form. Your wheel on your donkey cart breaks yeah and you want to replace it and you don't have to pay 100% for it. Well, you pay a little bit every month and if it does break, which it will, then we'll give you a new one and you don't have to pay anything For the dollar For pennies on the dollar, right?
00:15:24
Speaker
But the chances is maybe that guy sells the cart and we collect all the money and keep all the money, and the next guy that gets the cart doesn't get the insurance, that's on him, right? So this like that's how insurance works. like They hope, and there's some good things and bad things to insurance, and insurance has gotta make its money, and we're usually where insurance makes its money is on lapsed policies, right?
00:15:41
Speaker
People stop paying. People stop paying, and then they're like, oh, well, I don't have insurance anymore. I said, no, you don't, but the insurance company got a lot of profit. Because they they never had to suffer the risk of you passing away or drawing out benefits or going to the hospital or any of that stuff, right?
00:15:56
Speaker
So I think that the strength in insurance is, one, they've been around for a long time. Two, they have a very provable track record that you can just look at, right? I mean, over the last 200 years, there's plenty of insurance companies that have provided unbelievable market gains to people even before the market existed, right?
00:16:12
Speaker
And that's up that's a whole other thing is like, you know, insurance companies in the market and how the market came about. And then alllthough all of a sudden, all these, market products came around and it's kinda to push the insurance companies in a corner, but it's just unstoppable stuff.
00:16:27
Speaker
If you look at IULs and infinite banking concepts, they're not just for your regular person. The banks are using this. Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Regions, Chase, they're all buying insurance. wow They're taking your money,
00:16:42
Speaker
putting it in a checking account, then taking your checking account money and buying insurance products that they're getting 7% returns, 10% returns, whatever. And then they're charging you to have their money in that bank that they're making money on. And then they ask you, hey, do you want a loan?
00:16:58
Speaker
Well, you can loan back your own money and pay us 7% and all we're doing is taking that from the profits that we're making in the market, right? So it's this whole thing that exists that people don't pay attention to that.
00:17:10
Speaker
They think, well, the insurance company, it's not enough, right? Like 5% is not enough. Man, you just don't understand compounding interest. Yeah. And, you know, sometimes I hear from clients, well, is this annuity FDIC insured?
00:17:23
Speaker
And that always, you know, it it's a funny question because the FDIC is an insurance company. Right.
Investing with Insurance Companies
00:17:29
Speaker
And you just said the banks are leveraging their money through insurance companies. And so you're basically cutting out the middleman and you're going straight to the best place to invest sometimes, which is the insurance company. Absolutely. um And so that's always a funny question to me. Is it FDIC insured?
00:17:47
Speaker
Which they only insure a portion of the money that's existing. I know. The FDIC not even a great it's not statement even a great insurance company. It's not, but it sounds good, right? It sounds like, oh, you know, it sounds good. It's like the food pyramid, right? Like people believe in it so much and it hasn't been updated since the 50s. It's an interesting thing when you actually look into the concepts.
00:18:03
Speaker
But like not just life insurance, but annuities, like you were saying, are huge because... Fixed index annuities. fixed and Specifically fixed index annuities. There are some people out there that are selling the variable stuff and I'm like, yikes, man. like You could come up with a better strategy than a variable indexed annuity by utilizing other products and creating something better. directly in the market and having all of the upside potential at that point. If you're going to have anything at risk, I would i would want my potential return to be a little bit higher than what a variable annuity could offer typically.
00:18:34
Speaker
Exactly. Especially way the market works, right? um I suppose it it depends on like what time of economic stress that we're in, but I would still say that an FIA is the best way to go, a fixed index in unity, right?
00:18:45
Speaker
Because a big thing in America today is that there are no pensions left, right? Nobody's got a pension anymore. There are no pensions, that's a thing of the past. Unless you work unless you're in the NFL or you're some union or some government government agencies are paying out small pensions, military, stuff like that.
00:19:00
Speaker
But outside of that, most companies are not doing the pensions. They're giving you a 401k, right? right And at the time that you retire, you've got this 401k and it's like most, believe I mean, most people that don't do anything just leave it in the market.
00:19:14
Speaker
And then when the market goes down 20%, they're ensure're like, oh, well, it'll go back up. And I'm like, yeah, but you don't understand math, basic math. If it goes down by 20%, it's gonna have to go up by like 36% for you to break even.
00:19:27
Speaker
And it's not gonna do that because it's gonna go up 10% and then down and then up and down. And then you're gonna make a withdrawal. Yes, correct. And make it even worse. Yeah. Because as soon as the market goes down, what do people do? They panic and take their money on It's like, don't do that. Warren Buffett is like, don't touch it.
00:19:40
Speaker
Just leave it in there. It'll eventually go back up, right? You could play that long game. Now, mind you, Warren Buffett's doing it with billions of dollars. He's not doing it with 200K, 300K like most people are.
00:19:51
Speaker
So they always like to compare to that. I'm like, you can't, you're not Warren Buffett, right? Like, that's not going to work. yeah You have to protect against the losses and you take the gains where you can get them. Yep. But even within the annuities, right, there's like two things that you can do. You can have surrender periods, right? Seven year surrender period, 10 year surrender period, where you can borrow 10% of the money and not hit get hit with a penalty. So you have some liquidity there. have a little liquidity. Exactly, for people that are nervous of like, you know, i've got an older home, something might break and whatever, whatnot.
00:20:17
Speaker
But what I really like, and I know that you like, is doing the income for life, right? Because that is a pension. Absolutely. And that's saying like, hey, I'm going to pull out $20,000 year every year for the rest of my life.
00:20:30
Speaker
And that's the money that I need to go on vacations and have a great time because my social security and some other stuff is gonna pay for the other things, right? And the great thing about income for life is you end up really winning, right? Like, I mean. Absolutely, especially if you live long. Oh, yeah.
00:20:44
Speaker
You can absolutely have withdrawn way more than your principal and then some. yep And that it protects us against, you know, that risk of longevity, yep risk of running out of money before you run out of life. And that's something that we talk to our clients about a lot. And.
00:21:01
Speaker
You know, it
Consulting Financial Advisors for Insurance Strategies
00:21:02
Speaker
really does couple up with health insurance so well because, you know, part of having a good health insurance plan is so that you do have the funds so that you can keep your health at an optimal level and live a long life. But then we need your money to sustain you as well. So they go hand in hand. They really do. um And so, you know, back to that level funded insurance plan.
00:21:26
Speaker
Let's say you're saving these CEOs or these business owners X amount of dollars a year. Would you recommend that they meet with a financial advisor to talk about some strategies on where to invest those saved dollars? 100%. like to come in with the strategy typically with with business owners of, you know, this is a this is a person that you need to meet with, right? If you don't already have one, you need to have one on call that you can share strategies with because...
00:21:53
Speaker
If you want to scale, you need specific people in your corner. You need people that understand the market and understand where you are in the market. And you need to have people understanding like what your benefits are and what's available and what value you can get out of it. It's so important for business owners to have those two things. And obviously a banker.
00:22:11
Speaker
Usually you want a banker of some kind, just in case you need to pull loans. Most of my clients that I get from group come from SBA loans. People get an SBA loan, they need a collateral assignment life insurance policy where the bank is the collateral assignment, right?
00:22:26
Speaker
I write the insurance policy on them. After I write the policy, or a little bit before I write the policy, I say what do they wanna do with the money? I have this kind of conversation with them. What do you want to do with this money? oh I want to buy 10 more trucks for my roofing company and hire 40 more people and that's really want to scale the business. We're doing great in this. and this I said, fantastic.
00:22:43
Speaker
I said, after we're done with this, I want to go over strategies with you on how you're going to be able to hire those people, and retain those people and offer better benefits. So after they get the loan, they do their thing. Then I go back and I talk to them about their benefits. I get them enrolled in the benefits and I say, now all these savings, what do you have for How are you paying out people in bonuses? How are you are you doing investment strategies? And if that's a no, which almost every time it is.
00:23:09
Speaker
Because they're busy with other things. Exactly. And they don't know. They know in the back of their mind they should be doing it, but they don't have the time or they don't know who to ask or what questions to ask. Right. And they may have they might do it for themselves, meaning they have like an individual financial planner, but they never think to say, well, should I ask that planner to do something for my company?
00:23:27
Speaker
Because it is complicated. yeah And it's not something you can really do on your own, right? it's like creating your own HSA. That's not easy. It's complicated. People are like, I have to get a bank account. I'm like, yeah, where do you think the money's gonna go? People think they buy an HSA off the market that it's just got an HSA and they're like, no, no, doesn't work like that.
00:23:44
Speaker
You have to put the money in there, right? Sometimes the insurance company will match you depending on the product, but neither here nor there, it's important to have people that know what they're doing in your corner so you can strategize with them. you know And it's for the most part,
00:23:57
Speaker
you know Most people aren't charging you a consulting fee, right? Like no one's charging. I know I don't. you're Right. That's what I mean. You're not charging consulting fee. You're charging a management fee if they have money under management. Now, if they go with an annuity, there's no money under management, right? It's a commission from the insurance. Right. Or if they go with an IUL, there's no money under management. Exactly. So.
00:24:15
Speaker
That's an important thing for people to understand too is that if you're offering these different strategies where you can have multiple products, there's only so many products as insurance people that we can offer. Need to have that financial planner to help us better structure strategies for people that are retiring, for CEOs that are trying to grow and grow their business. like It's so important for those, especially for me in the business that I'm in, people that are retiring and business owners wanting to make money, I mean big amounts of money by saving money.
00:24:46
Speaker
You gotta take that savings and make it work for you. because ah that like that You only get rich if you make money while you sleep. Absolutely. so And the way to do that is to take the savings that you're getting and put them in vehicles that will earn income over time, but you still have access to that money.
00:25:02
Speaker
I think that's super important. Yeah, well, it's such an eye opener. And, you know, it's one of the reasons I wanted to have you on today, because you have these brilliant strategies. And I've seen the way you've changed the way businesses operate. You know, I know business owners that you've helped save a ton of money and attract and retain valuable employees. And, you know, I know you're doing it for your own company as well.
00:25:24
Speaker
Now, how long have you been working in insurance? What were you doing before this? So i' I've been in insurance for 22 years wow is how long I've been doing it. and Before
Philippe's Background in Insurance
00:25:33
Speaker
that I was in the Marine Corps and when I got out of the Marine Corps I was like i worked at Sam's Club for like six months and I was processing meat, right? Like, you know, just doing the the ground meat.
00:25:42
Speaker
um And I worked in like a video warehouse for like a month. But I really transitioned into insurance young in my career and I just stuck with it. I just found it to be
00:25:55
Speaker
I don't know, at first it was about the money, you know, and I think a lot of people, they start working because of the money. But then when you start seeing how you're helping people and you start getting the thank yous and you start getting the gratification, that gratification turns into fulfillment, the fulfillment turns into joy. And I started finding a lot of joy in what I was doing.
00:26:11
Speaker
So I've just had that blessing for the last 22 years to just help people understand and really educate people on what their options are and what values are out there and strategies that they could be using.
00:26:21
Speaker
I've gotten better and better. obvious that you love what you do. i love what You could tell that you have passion about it. And, you know, I always hear you talking with clients and and you're excited, which is awesome because I feel that too. I love what I do. It's it's an amazing industry to be in.
00:26:36
Speaker
And so besides working with business owners and, you know, creating these creative strategies, do you also do Medicare plans?
Medicare Expertise and Senior Education
00:26:45
Speaker
Yeah. So... Medicare is kind of where I started in the, well, i technically i so I started with annuities, life insurance, and long-term care, but the longest stint that I've had has been with Medicare, and I grew up a huge book of business with that because I really found that most people, it was easy to explain the nuances of life insurance, right? You you get life insurance, you die, someone gets money. It's pretty simple. Annuities, the nuance is pretty easy if you want to dumb it down, right?
00:27:08
Speaker
Do you want to risk money in the market? No. Great, get an annuity, you won't risk any money in the market, and you'll get a portion of what the gains are up to 10, 20%, depends on what annuity you get, right? Most people understood that, no matter where they were on a socio-economical level, right? They were rich if they were poor, it didn't matter.
00:27:23
Speaker
They're from a good area or a bad area. It's all relative, right? Medicare was the common denominator. Everybody was confused about Medicare. So as I was going into these homes and I was explaining all these things and going through a suitability with people, that's where the biggest pinpoint was. And once I got people to have an aha moment around Medicare, they were so thankful for the information that I was like, oh my gosh, this is really an amazing place to be.
00:27:47
Speaker
The other thing that I really appreciate about it as well is just from my own experiences, right? Like, when you know having loved ones retire and not do that properly and not have somebody there to explain everything to them, I have a great opportunity and responsibility that when I deal with people that are retiring, whether they're coming off of a company insurance or you know I've never met them before, um I just find this great opportunity where I can explain what they can kind of expect from Medicare and how I can limit the amount of dollars that they're gonna spend in retirement. Because most people retiring, they're worrying about, will I outlive my income because of my medical bills? Will I cap that?
00:28:25
Speaker
So if I can cap the most that you could ever spend on healthcare care or your your health at $3,000, $4,000, $2,000, even $1,000, meaning you can't spend more than that because the insurance company would then kick in and pay 100%. Well now they're like, okay, so you're telling me if i had a $300,000 surgery, the most it'll cost me is $1,000? And I said, in some cases, yes.
00:28:45
Speaker
well And they're like, oh, wow. And then of course, most people retiring have a 401k. And then I talked to him about that. I say, okay, well, if you had a if you had to lose an amount of money, how much would you be comfortable with? And it's always zero.
00:28:57
Speaker
course People are like, I don't wanna lose any money. yeah I said, great, that makes sense. I said, but if you did lose money, how would you make the money back? Would you get a second job? Would you start working at Publix? Would you start day trading? Like what is your plan here?
00:29:09
Speaker
Because you're retiring, right? Well yeah, I'm retiring. I said, so would you wanna go back to work to make up the money that you lost in the market? and they're like, well no. I said, great. So you don't wanna spend the time and you don't wanna lose the money.
00:29:21
Speaker
I say, great, what you need to do is you need to look at vehicles that guarantee that you don't lose all the money that you've put your hard work into. You need to have access to that money, and maybe you need a custodian to help you be responsible with how that money's being divvied up for the rest of your life, so therefore you never run out of money.
00:29:37
Speaker
Custodian, you, and being responsible is income for life, right? Because then you never run out of money, you never have to worry. It's the trifecta. It's the trifecta. So a lot of people are are being pushed this way one way or another.
00:29:51
Speaker
ah Believe it or not, it usually happens over the phone. People are buying, I don't know how people buy them over the phone. Really? Well, because when you're turning 65, people just buy that list, right? And they just hammer you, hammer you, hammer you, hammer you. But I think doing business with an actual person, being able to sit down with them, and you get that feel of family, like at Union Financial, that's what you guys make us feel like family. Mm-hmm.
00:30:09
Speaker
And when you have that family feel, same thing at ProCare, we make people feel like family is part of our core values. I think there's a difference there because you really want to see people be successful and you really want to see people not be stressed, right? And with seniors, I have a special place in my heart for seniors for that because I don't want to see them stressed about money. I don't want to be see see them stressed about their health care.
00:30:29
Speaker
I want to mitigate that stress and mitigate that risk that they have so they can retire nicely, then I have to worry about that stuff. Hey man, I got checks coming in, i got I got money there because you know something we fail to explain to people too is like even if you're getting income for life, you still have cash value in your annuity. yep And after 10 years, you can access that cash value yeah with no penalty. Reposition it if needed. And you got a death benefit. Yes.
00:30:52
Speaker
So if you were to die, that money goes to a beneficiary like life insurance, tax-free and probate-free. Absolutely. Huge benefits there. Absolutely. so something to think about for people for a lot of my clients, you know, are approaching that Medicare age or maybe they're already taking Medicare.
00:31:08
Speaker
Could they go to someone like you at ProCare for... an evaluation on what their current Medicare plan looks like to see if they can have a better one. You can design something better. You'll give them options before they turn 65. Is that something that you could provide some education Absolutely. That is like my niche down is is people turning 65. It's something that I really specialize in because I know that's where it's most confusing and people are used to a complete different insurance animal at that point with group insurance and COBRA and and marketplace insurances.
00:31:39
Speaker
So I really find that to be an amazing place to help educate people early and I can make those savings a lot earlier. And even people that are already on Medicare, you know, analyzing what plan they're on and then giving them this strategy that says, hey, well, listen, this is where you are in life. This is the season like of life you're in.
00:31:55
Speaker
And these are the policies. This is the policy you're on. These are the policies that you could be on. And these are the options and strategies and why I would suggest them. and And sometimes I meet with people and they're on the right thing. They spoke to somebody that knew what they were doing or they did their own research and, hey, they got lucky. They picked the right plan. They're in the right place. And I'm like, do not change this.
00:32:13
Speaker
this is This is perfect. You don't want to change this. But I run into a lot of people that think that they have the best insurance ever. And I'm like, why is it the best insurance? And like, well, because, you know, somebody told me it was. And I'm like, great. Well, how are you using it?
00:32:25
Speaker
And they're not even using it. And I'm like, well, then it's not the best insurance. There's other things that you could be doing. And these lot of these insurance policies change every year. so The laws change, the plans change, premiums change.
00:32:37
Speaker
Staying on top of that information is very imperative for the Medicare but beneficiary. So we love, love, love, love consulting and strategizing with seniors and people aging into Medicare.
00:32:48
Speaker
Okay, awesome. So, you know, if a business owner wanted to find out if they're overpaying for their current plan or talk more about strategies, maybe with level funded plans with you, ah what would be their next step? How can
Consultation with Philippe Lundstedt
00:33:00
Speaker
they get in touch with you?
00:33:01
Speaker
What would be that next step? That's a great, that's a really great question. ah They could either, you know, send us an email at philippe at procare.consulting. They can also go onto my Instagram or my Facebook, pro carere ProCare Consulting, and they can send us a message on there. They can send us an email. They can also, you know, call us directly as well.
00:33:19
Speaker
ah They can just Google me and find all that information. And it's a real simple process. it's It's nothing crazy. The only thing that we need is a census. If you just sent me a message and said, here's my census, This is what I currently have in paying.
00:33:30
Speaker
That's all the information I need. And from that, I could return in an hour with all different kinds of strategies, exactly what they would be paying, what the difference is between their insurance, which then maybe sparks ah a conversation to sit down and go over everything in a consultative experience.
00:33:45
Speaker
um Zoom is great because I can share screen, which makes it easy. But of course, we have a brick and mortar office that people can come into. They wanna sit down and go over the benefits or I can go out to their company and sit down with them in their territory where they feel little bit more, they've got their defenses and stuff. your service area is beyond just the Tampa Bay, Florida area because you can do virtual. Yep, and we've got companies in Michigan, we've got companies in California, we've got companies in Alabama, so we're all over. We're in 20 different states for insurance, and the states that are strong with insurance, there are certain states that we're not in, but that's only because I don't have clients in those states. But if I get clients in those states, it's easy for me to get registered in those states, right?
00:34:27
Speaker
But in 20 different states, we're servicing clients. And yeah, I mean, this these strategies will work nationwide. every Every state's got some different programs that are available. Some are stronger than others, but we always want to explore those with people. So easy to in touch with. same goes for the Medicare clients. They can contact you by your email and schedule a phone consultation. Is that normally the first step?
00:34:48
Speaker
Usually it's a phone consultation just to see if the suitability is there. so i can Sometimes ah you know someone's just got a simple question, right? And they're they're a little bit confused and i can I can clear it up in five minutes over the phone. If it's something that's a little bit more intricate, um I'll come out to them usually. A lot of lot of seniors appreciate that, me coming out to them.
00:35:05
Speaker
I mean, so much so I've flown to people's homes, right? I'm not saying I'm flying to your home here, right? But I have had that happen before where someone was like, I'm in Jacksonville and it was a referral from a ah big referral source of mine. And I was like, well listen, you're gonna get the VIP treatment.
00:35:20
Speaker
I'm flying out to Jacksonville. And why did I do it? Well, because I know that that's the right thing to do. That person was super confused and doing it over the phone and doing it through virtual means just did not work for them.
00:35:30
Speaker
They had a lot of stuff going on. There needed to be clarity around it. ah And this person has sent me like 60 referrals. So I'm like, they've done more than pay for this trip. So it's easy for me just to take the trip and go out there.
00:35:42
Speaker
And since I did that, that client has sent me like 10 referrals wow because they're like, this guy flew out to see me. Like that's unheard of. I live in Tampa Bay and I flew up Jacksonville, right? Now I'm not flying to California or Hawaii. You what mean? Like I'm not really doing that. mean, don't know. Maybe if I was on vacation, I would do it. You know I Because can write it off from vacation, right? But it's good to know that you have a really wide service area and you can make it work if needed. Absolutely. And we just want to service people and make sure that they know what's going on.
00:36:08
Speaker
And a lot of times we start with that phone conversation just to see what's the next step. and Okay, great. Well, Philippe, is there anything else you wanted to discuss today? and this has been great. Awesome. Well, thank you so much for coming on. I know I personally learned a lot about health insurance, and I continue to do so every time I speak with you. And, you know, we share a lot of the same values with our love of insurance, our love of annuities, IUL, and we know the value in it. And I think we can really help CEOs take their business to the next level.
00:36:36
Speaker
And so if you want a conversation with Philippe Lundstedt from ProCare regarding your company's plan or your Medicare plan, we will have his information in the
Podcast Conclusion and Contact Information
00:36:47
Speaker
description. Or you can go to ProCareConsulting.com. ProCare.Consulting. ProCare.Consulting.
00:36:52
Speaker
um Yeah, you did. And then same goes with our business. You know, if you do set up something level funded or you have a company and you want to explore some options for your employees, whether that be a company plan or a retirement plan for your future, be sure to go union-financial.com. You can schedule a conversation with myself, Marissa Wood, or our other advisor, Lisa Green. We can have a conversation on the phone or in person.
00:37:20
Speaker
to go over how to better prepare you for your financial future. So thank you again for tuning in to The Future of Finance with Marissa Wood, and I look forward to seeing you next time. Thank you, Philippe. Thanks. Awesome.
00:37:32
Speaker
investment advisory services offered through brook stone capital management lc bcm ah registered investment advisor BCM and Union Financial Services are independent of each other.
00:37:44
Speaker
Insurance products and services are not offered through BCM, but are offered and sold through individually licensed and appointed agents. The opinions expressed by Marissa Wood and guests on this show are their own and do not reflect the opinions of this radio station.
00:37:58
Speaker
All statements and opinions expressed are based upon information considered reliable, although it should not be relied upon as such. Any statements or opinions are subject to change without notice.
00:38:09
Speaker
Investments involve risk and unless otherwise stated are not guaranteed. Past performance cannot be used as an indicator to determine future results. Any strategies mentioned may not be suitable for everyone.
00:38:21
Speaker
Information expressed does not take into account your specific situation or objectives and is not intended as recommendations appropriate for you. Before acting on any information mentioned,
00:38:32
Speaker
please can please consult with a qualified tax or investment advisor to determine if it is suitable for your specific situation. This program is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information with regard to subject coverage.