You’re ready for Mariner

In this episode, hosts Whitney Reagan and Dan Sharkey unpack a timely question: how do you know when you’re ready for a wealth advisor—and specifically, ready for Mariner?

From navigating complex financial decisions to recognizing gaps in tax planning, investment strategy and overall financial clarity, they explore some real-life triggers that signal it may be time for guidance. They also challenge common misconceptions—like age or investment knowledge being deciding factors—and emphasize the value of a true advisory partnership.

Transcript

Whitney Reagan: Welcome, welcome. Thanks for joining us for another episode of Your Life Simplified today. I am excited because the dynamic duo is back together. I’m Whitney Reagan, and I am a senior wealth advisor at Mariner, and I’m joined today by the one and only Dan Sharkey. How are you?

Dan Sharkey: I’m great. I’m in unfamiliar surroundings. I’m in our office in Portsmouth. New office in Portsmouth. So really exciting and glad to be with you as always.

Whitney: Yes, it does look different. You’re usually in your home office, aren’t you?

Dan: Typically. And I have my beloved microphone, but I’m sans microphone today, so I feel a little naked in what I’m doing. So hopefully it sounds all right. But we got some good stuff lined up, so I’m really looking forward to this chat.

Whitney: Dan, today I’m excited. We’re going to talk about the “You’re ready for Mariner,” which is a very timely brand campaign that’s out in the wild today. So be on the lookout. But I really want to talk about what that means to us and hopefully to explain maybe some triggers around when our audience knows that they might be ready for Mariner.

What do you think?

Dan: It’s a really important question. And we’re actually recording this on Tax Day. So lot going on in our world today. But it’s one of the things that is always top of mind. And it’s a question that we get often across the age spectrum, across the wealth spectrum. How do I know that I should hire someone? And then we’ll kind of walk through those details today.

What we would think that you should look at, and how some of the trying to dispel some of the myths that people have about whether or not it would be appropriate to have someone guide them through their financial life.

Whitney: And something that I want to have is kind of a disclaimer. Or maybe being vulnerable and authentic, is that not every person is the right fit or not every person out there. It’s not the right time for them. I don’t want people to think that we’re just saying everybody needs to come now. Everybody needs to become a client right now, because that’s not what we’re saying.

We’re actually being very intentional and very authentic about what we’re talking about when it’s the right stage of life or when it’s the right time. And that is different for everyone. And we’ll talk about that. But I don’t want to say it’s the right time for everyone right now.

Dan: No, it’s and that’s completely true. I mean, I’ll just give you a quick example. We talk and I know you deal with a lot of families as well. We often have conversations with younger children and I say children, but young adults, when they’re first starting their career, they really don’t need a full-fledged advisor.

In some cases, the ability for us to walk through and help them set up their 401(k) and identify their cash flow savings and help pay back their student loans in a 25 or 30-minute conversation twice a year is probably more than enough. So there are plenty of examples that we can give you in which you don’t necessarily need to engage someone.

But we also want to highlight what people typically come to us with as concerns, and walk through why they may not either be concerns or how they might be thinking about it the wrong way. So we’ll make sure we give you both sides of the spectrum, because it’s a really important conversation, and you have to have an honest conversation with yourself about if any of these things speak to you or kind of hit home, for how you think about your own financial world.

Whitney: And something else. I think that we’re really good at here at Mariner, and not to toot my own horn, but we have so many different types of advisors with so many different types of expertise. Just you and I, for example, we have very different strengths and we try to set up the right fit for the right clients so that that is like a natural connection and a natural partnership when we connect prospective clients with their wealth advisor.

Dan: It’s really important, and it’s important to remind people that what your needs may be are not the same as your brother, your neighbor, the person that you know in town, your coworker. That does not mean that you don’t need an advisor or that you do. It’s all idiosyncratic to what you’re facing as an individual.

Just because your coworker is talking about how they’ve had some wonderful success, and you know that your needs are not quite what theirs are. Firms like ours have a tremendously diverse set of advisors that help all different types of situations. So that in and of itself is not just qualifying event.

And we’ll talk through more about what to look for when you determine whether or not something is a fit for you and for your family.

Whitney: Well, that’s a great segue, because that’s one of the key points that we were going to talk about. So under the overarching theme of are you ready for Mariner? If you’re sitting there today and you’re thinking, am I ready for Mariner? What are some of these key points aside? Maybe after, you already talked about the kind of don’t compare your needs to those around you, but what are some of the other key points we need to discuss, or triggers or things to think about when we should enlighten the audience?

When can they be ready for Mariner?

Dan: Yeah, it’s a great question. And before I highlight some specific things that you should look for, let me just give you a couple that I think you should ignore. And the instinct to make them a factor when I don’t think they’re particularly appropriate. First of all, age is not an important consideration.

We have clients as young as 26 who may have gone through a liquidity event, or may be extremely high earners, may have inherited some wealth, may have some other financial complexity that is too broad to cover on a show like this, but age in and of itself is irrelevant. We have clients that are very, very young.

We have clients that are very, very old and everything in between. So don’t just default to, well, I’m not old enough that it really has no bearing on what we’re talking about. Generally speaking, and this is going to sound very self-serving, but I think the point holds true. Everyone benefits from guidance, things that you couldn’t possibly know as a, regular individual about all the different areas that we cover.

You benefit from getting either a sanity check on what you’re doing now, or some overall guidance as to what you could be doing better in the various areas, whether it’s your portfolio, your tax return, your estate plan, your insurance profile, etc. there are so many different things that we cover.

So what are some of the things that we would point to that if you look at, you should identify upon a little self-reflection as to whether or not you would benefit from talking to someone. I would say generally, if you really don’t know how to construct a portfolio. And that could be everything, as I don’t know what funds to pick, I don’t know where to be saving, what type of account are they? How those investments interplay with your tax return.

If you have a general level of common ignorance as to how those things occur. The other things that I would point to are just whether or not you have something in your life, whether that’s part of your estate plan or part of your tax return, that you just simply don’t understand but that you know is impacting you financially.

So here’s an example. I do a checklist and a summary report for every return that I see. And one of the first things we look at are where is your income coming from? Did you have a large capital gain? Are you deferring as much as you can from your wages?

Are there any other tax opportunities that exist in that return? If you’re unable to put those pieces together and you feel like you’re paying more, either in tax or you’re not being as optimal as you could be. That’s a real red flag that you should talk to someone. We work with a lot of great CPAs, but generally speaking, that universe is very reactive.

They prepare your return on the information you provide them. I think you and I have always talked about that. If you think about tax planning, in that sense, it’s really more of a full-contact sport year-round. It’s something that you do in advance of a tax event. So these are just some very basic things that you have to kind of have an honest conversation with yourself.

If you have no idea what’s in your tax return and you have any wealth at all that you feel is significant, that you want to protect, that in and of itself is something that you should have a conversation with someone about. So I don’t want to act like it’s all doom and gloom, but I think education and awareness are the two words that I would use around a lot of these topics that we talk about.

And if you feel like you’re lacking in those areas, I think that’s a giant red flag. That. That you’re ready to have a professional relationship overall.

Whitney: You said a lot in there. And I was trying to remember a few key nuggets because there was a couple points that I wanted to highlight that you talked about because you mentioned, if you don’t know how to construct a portfolio, and I will take the opposite end of that spectrum, because I think, again, it’s going to be unique to every individual person’s life situation, their family life, all of those things.

It’s going to be unique to you and where you’re at to when you’re ready for Mariner. But I have a client that well, they were a prospective client before, but they are a Chartered Financial Analyst. So they are very good at investments. And they fully understand how to construct a portfolio, but they are also in school getting their Ph.D. and they just don’t have the time for it.

And they also don’t fully understand the tax planning side. And so they just knew that it was time because there wasn’t the time for the investments, even though they love it, that they knew that it was time to really lean on someone else that’s actively in their monitoring and looking at the market environment, looking at the economic outlook and just being able to also know their big picture and like relate that back to the investment strategy.

And then another thing that you talked about was the tax planning and the CPA. I just reiterate, like CPAs are often doing, like they’re backward-looking. They’re looking at last year. And what we’re trying to do is coordinate, but be more future-looking and look into the future of how can we prevent from paying more in taxes and just be more. It’s like a it’s like preventative care. You know, instead of being reactionary, you’re we’re trying to we’re trying to be proactive and preventative.

Dan: 100%. And I just want to kind of double-click on something that you just said. And that is I would just summarize it as expertise in any of these areas is not a disqualifier. The largest client I have used to manage a hedge fund. I mean, think about that for a second. And the reason that that relationship works so well is because not only are we offering support with the portfolio, we’re taking that burden off of his plate, but we’re also looking at other areas which are not an area of expertise.

There is, I think, a big myth that if you’re a DIY that you don’t want to give up control. I would encourage you to change your framework, and that is by having a partner, someone to bounce ideas off of, someone to offer a potentially a different perspective, while still allowing you to set the policy that you want to have for your portfolio.

Still give you the autonomy to offer opinions of how that might ultimately work for you while coming at it from a different lens, while understanding how those decisions are going to impact you in other parishes or other parts of your life, such as, hey, if we sell this position, oh, by the way, you’re going to have $100,000 capital gain.

That’s both a portfolio and a tax decision. And those have huge implications. So a lot of these things that people naturally think are just qualifiers or that they don’t need help with, I think are often wrong, and they highlight the other areas that you could potentially help with. So I think that’s a wonderful point by you.

And I think we see a lot of that across the firm.

Whitney: Dan, I think that I completely agree because I even it’s nice to have a partner to where you can have a soundboard and you can have a neutral party that can be an active listener and help you with those decisions. So great double-clicking point. So what else should we highlight here on when you’re ready for Mariner?

Dan: Well, there’s another key variable that we also want to address. And that is those who have made the decision to hire someone but don’t feel like that person may be appropriate or they’re reexamining their relationship with their current advisor. So from your perspective, if I’ve taken the step to hire someone in the past or I’ve been working with someone for a long time, but feeling a little listless in terms of what I’m actually getting, what are some of the signs that you see it’s time to move on from a current advisor or whether or not you should bring a fresh set of eyes to that relationship to determine if you’re actually getting any value from it.

Whitney: I think a big one is, this has been actually very relevant lately in prospective clients that I’ve been talking to, where they feel like they’re not really being heard. And it’s just mainly about the investment portfolio. And so instead of being more about their family’s values and what their goals are and like what they’re hoping to achieve, and all those meaningful things that I think are so important about being an advisor.

Dan: I think that’s perfectly well said. And I’ll actually use a case study to highlight what I think is the most important part. And I think you can summarize it very neatly. A client came to us, and she’s in the process of selling her business with her and her partner. And as we were going through her background, asking her about her family, talking about the other professionals that she works with, she mentioned that she has a current advisor, but that he did not know that she was selling her business.

If you find yourself, and anyone who’s listening to this, it doesn’t need to be us. But just take this for, I think, very candid feedback on the status of that relationship. If you find yourself in a position in which something is impacting you financially and you’re the person that you’ve entrusted to manage your wealth and the other aspects of your financial life doesn’t know that that’s occurring.

I think that’s the biggest red flag that you’ve probably or have hired or are working with the wrong person. I know our goal. You and I have talked about this. I say this to clients all the time. We want to be the first person that you call when you have an event like that going on. Furthermore, we are going to ask you about when those events might be occurring, not to dictate the schedule, but we just want to ensure that we’re always constantly involved and aware of what’s happening so that we can continue to do that preparation like I was talking about.

So for me, if your advisor is not the first person you call, the world has just changed. Not to pick on stockbrokers if those even exist anymore, but a lot of those people are called wealth advisors now, and they don’t actually perform that same service. So, for example, if your advisor is not the first person that you call when you have a major event like that, I would submit you’re likely working with the wrong person.

Whitney: I completely agree. Being the first person that you call and also feeling like they are, if they don’t feel like they’re truly a partner and working through this journey with you, alongside you and like they are. It is a true partnership; then that’s probably not the right advisor for you either.

Dan: Yeah. And are they only talking about the portfolio? I think that, you know, in a less dramatic example about not knowing your major life events, but if all that is discussed is investments all the time now, that might be what’s on your mind. Certainly, we don’t want to dictate kind of what your priorities are.

But I would just submit that a lot of people would benefit from really spending time in the other areas that we find that are also crucial. And if all we ever talk about is what your large-cap manager is doing, I think you’re missing the forest from the trees. So from our perspective, we obviously want to talk about what is most important to you.

But if your current advisor just talks about the portfolio, the world and the environment that that we operate and the business that we have has just materially changed. And I think you’re missing out in a lot more opportunities. And I would submit that the benefit that you would receive, even financially and this is no guarantee, obviously, I want to be very clear about that. But the tools and techniques that we utilize across tax in the state, etc., cash flow planning, in my opinion, provide more value to the growth of your overall and protection of your wealth than just focusing on the portfolio is still critical.

It’s still a key part of what we do. Yet there’s so much more to that that has a real material impact that if your person, your guy, your gal that you’re working with doesn’t touch those things, it’s a really missed opportunity.

Whitney: Agree. And on the I’m just going to also agree with the importance of the technical expertise we have. I think we have a good mix of the left brain and the right brain. But the technical expertise is important from an advisor. But what’s just as important is that they create this non-judgmental, safe space so that you feel like if you don’t understand something, that you can ask that question, and then they can fully educate and help you understand what’s going on in the portfolio or what’s going on with your money if you don’t understand it.

So I think that’s really key.

Dan: They’re not mutually exclusive. You should be getting both, and you should be getting both at the top end of the spectrum as best you can. And that’s what we have here. And that’s that’s not exclusive to just us. We know we have a lot but there are a lot of great options out there. But going back to our core question, how do I know that I’m ready for Mariner or how should I identify if I should move on from my current advisor and explore what a relationship with Mariner might look like?

If you think about those things in your head and you have an honest conversation with yourself, I think a lot of the people out there listening would really become clear that, hey, maybe I’m not getting what I need and I’ll call us, maybe make a ton of sense.

Whitney: Absolutely. That’s a great line to end on. So I don’t think we need to take any more time.

Dan: No, this has been great. I mean ultimately, we want people to understand. Give yourself a little bit of grace and reach out for help if you need it. Those are the things that I think really increase positive outcomes. And we’re here to be of service.

Whitney: Absolutely. And you deserve the highest quality. And also a wealth advisor that is in the true partnership with you. And so that you can work through this journey together.

Dan: No question.

Whitney: Well, I think that’s all we have time for. I hope that everyone enjoyed this. And if you enjoyed what you’re hearing between Dan and myself, you can like, subscribe or follow wherever you listen to your podcasts and we’ll see you again next time.

Mariner is the marketing name for the financial services businesses of Mariner Wealth Advisors, LLC and its subsidiaries. Investment advisory services are provided through the brands Mariner Wealth, Mariner Independent, Mariner Institutional, Mariner Ultra, and Mariner Workplace, each of which is a business name of the registered investment advisory entities of Mariner. For additional information about each of the registered investment advisory entities of Mariner, including fees and services, please contact Mariner or refer to each entity’s Form ADV Part 2A, which is available on the Investment Adviser Public Disclosure website. Registration of an investment adviser does not imply a certain level of skill or training.