Finding the Right Financial Advisor with Sharon Epps

Are you looking for a financial professional who shares your Christian values and offers advice you can trust? Certified Kingdom Advisors are experienced financial, legal, and accounting professionals who have completed a rigorous certification program rooted in biblical financial wisdom. They meet high standards of integrity, competence, and stewardship, helping you honor God with all He's entrusted to you. To find a Certified Kingdom Advisor in your area, visit faithfi.com and click Find a Professional. Plans fail for the lack of counsel, but with many advisors, they succeed.

Proverbs 15 22. Hi, I'm Rob West. When it comes to managing money wisely, many of us could use some help, but how do you know you've found the right financial advisor? Today, we'll explore a few key questions you should ask when hiring someone to help with your financial decisions. Sharon Epps is here to help us navigate that process, and then it's onto your calls at 800-525-7000.

This is Faith and Finance, biblical wisdom for your financial decisions. Well, Sharon Epps is with us again today. She's president of Kingdom Advisors and a regular contributor here on the program. Sharon, great to have you back.

It's really good to be here. You know, it may seem overwhelming to find a financial advisor, Sharon, that's a good fit for you, yet when you're prepared to ask the right questions, the decision becomes much clearer. So you are suggesting that we think in terms of categories of questions. I'd love for you to dive into that.

Well, it won't surprise you. Our first category is values alignment, and we'll cover three categories in total today, but this one is the top because it means that my advisor shares my worldview and can integrate it into his or her counsel, and I can be more confident in the advice they give me. So a key question here is, what role does faith play in your financial advice? Their answer can help determine if the advisor truly integrates biblical truth.

The goal is to find someone who doesn't just respect your values but shares them. There's a big difference between an advisor who's a Christian and one who actively discusses financial decision-making with a biblical lens. Yeah, that is really helpful, and I would totally agree. That is the first question you want to ask. All right, what's another insightful question someone can ask to better understand values alignment? Well, ask the advisor their definition of financial success. You want to listen for whether they're looking only for returns, or if they're considering how they might encourage your stewardship, generosity, and faithfulness.

They should understand that money's a tool and not a goal, and that biblical alignment brings clarity and peace in the planning process. That's so good, and of course it's good stewardship to consider performance, so let's shift to competency. Is that another major category?

Absolutely, that's the second one. We want to be sure that our prospective advisor is technically competent, and we want to know that they've got industry designations and experience serving clients like you. So as you ask them about their certification and years of experience, consider a key question like, tell me about clients that you serve who are similar to me and how you've served them, and without naming names, those advisors should be able to share stories of impact with similar clients. Oh, I love that.

This is so helpful. All right, what's the third category? Well, the third category is process and compensation. The advisor should clearly explain the ways they're compensated. Confidently ask them, hey, I want to be sure I'm clear on the ways you make money because you walk me through the fees and commissions for a client like me. Not only are advisors required to disclose this, excellent advisors want to make sure that you really understand. You also want to be clear on their process.

So the key question is, what's your process for creating a financial plan? And they should be able to outline a clear step-by-step approach with the timeline and information required and the fees. Yeah, and I think kind of the overriding theme here is you want an advisor with the heart of a teacher who wants to lead with making sure you're understanding everything.

It is, yes. So if listeners Sharon want to find someone who meets these standards and perhaps a few more, where do they go? Well, we would encourage you to go to faithfight.com and click on find a professional. You'll find Certified Kingdom Advisors who have been vetted for integrity, technical excellence, and their biblical worldview we just talked about. You'll also find a downloadable PDF that has some ideas for advisor interview questions. Whether you're getting started or you're actually looking to re-evaluate the advisor you have, you can rehire your advisor every year, by the way. It's a great place to begin.

That is so good. Again, faithfight.com, just click find a professional. And Sharon, they'll be able to find CKAs that really cover the gamut in terms of the financial decision-making categories.

Yes, they look at different types of financial professionals as well as those that are located close to you. Sharon, as you think about and you walk alongside so many of these advisors, what's the big change that they go through as they explore God's word in the CKA training? Well, the biggest thing is they begin to feel the weight of stewardship, of their responsibility, of what God's given them, and even what the clients have in helping guide them to make an eternal impact.

It makes all the difference. Folks, find a CKA in your area when you go to faithfi.com. That's faithfi.com and just click find a professional at the top of the page. Sharon, thanks for stopping by.

Great to be here. Well, folks, your calls are next, the number 800-525-7000. I'm Rob West and this is Faith and Finance.

We'll be right back. What matters most to you when selecting a financial advisor? Someone who shares your biblical values? How about someone who will take the time to explain your financial options clearly? Certified Kingdom Advisors meet high standards of competence, integrity, and biblical training, equipping them to offer financial advice grounded in God's word. No more wondering if your advisor truly understands what's important to you. Find a Certified Kingdom Advisor near you at faithfi.com.

Just click find a professional. Jesus said, where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Today, put your heart into something that makes an eternal impact. Heart for Lebanon is sharing the gospel and protecting girls from early marriage, child labor, and violence. Your gift of $114 helps reach three at-risk girls with hope and a brighter future.

Give generously. Text faith to 98656. That's faith to 98656 or visit faithfi.com forward slash Lebanon. Hey, thanks for joining us today on Faith and Finance. Taking your calls and questions today, looks like we have two, maybe three lines open. You can call right now, 800-525-7000. Again, that's 800-525-7000.

Let's begin today in Ohio. Hi, Ron. Thanks for calling, sir. Go ahead. Hey, how are you? First off, I want to thank you for your ministry and your program. I drive a truck and listen to it whenever I get the chance. Oh, that's great. Thanks for saying that.

It's really awesome. I am 63. My wife is 68 and we want to set up a wills and trying to figure out the differences between a will and a trust. I have a living son that we support. We want to make sure he gets everything. Now, you know, I talked to a lawyer and he told me right off the bat, he doesn't even do trust because he said they're not necessary. And from what we're learning, there isn't very many people that do anymore. And from what I understand, they're very expensive.

And we're trying to get my son taken care of as easy as we can without burdening him with costs or issues. Yeah. Yeah. Very good dealing with here. Yeah.

That's a great question, Ron. Let me just ask, you know, are you comfortable as long as he gets it in an efficient manner? Are you comfortable with him managing it from that point forward? Or do you feel like there's going to be a need for a trustee to be involved, to manage and oversee and even distribute the assets over time beyond your life?

No, I think you'll be OK taking care of it. It's just, you know, we have about three hundred thousand dollars equity in the house. Yeah.

And I don't know taxes and things of that nature because I can't see him selling it right off the bat. Or if he does, it would be to get the downsize. Yeah.

You know, so that he could support himself. Yes. Very good.

But his injury did not affect decision making or just anything that would take to manage it. Yeah. No, not at all.

And my grandchildren will be around to help him with that. Oh, yeah. God, no. Yeah.

Very good. Well, yeah, I'm not an attorney. So you always want to seek legal advice here.

But we can just talk generally. You know, a will is going to direct how your assets or your home, your bank accounts, your investments are distributed after your death. You would name an executor to handle it, which could be your son.

And then he would certainly be the beneficiary of most, if not all of it. And then, you know, the will is very inexpensive. So I would still recommend you get an attorney to do it to make sure it complies with the laws in your state.

And you've thought through all the pieces and parts, but an attorney drafted will generally run you three to $500. With regard to a trust, that's going to be a legal entity that holds the assets during your life. And with a revocable trust, you can make changes at any point or after your death. So it lets you control the assets while you're alive with a successor trustee, who would then distribute the assets after your death. And if you were incapacitated, that trustee could step in and manage those assets, even while you're still living, and then you could distribute them over time following your passing. So a will, everything happens at death with a trust, it can extend beyond that. But it doesn't sound like with him being an adult, and you're comfortable with him receiving all of it and taking over management, it doesn't sound like you need to distribute it over time based on certain triggering events. The trust is going to be more expensive, probably, you know, two $3,000, typically, and it could go up from there, depending on the complexity, the will is simple and affordable, it's going to leave those specific assets to your son, you know, it will go through the probate process, which is going to cost you probably three to 5% of the estate value.

And it could take some time, I mean, it can take six months or longer, and it's gonna be a part of the public record. The benefits of the trust is it avoids probate, although it's more expensive to set up, as I mentioned, but it does speed up distribution, we're talking weeks, you know, versus months, it's private, which protects his privacy. And you can set the terms, is it a staggered distribution or all at once? You know, if you wanted to ensure the funds last or something like that doesn't sound like, you know, that's an issue here. So I think those are the considerations, it's really efficiency of the passing is number one, do you want to happen quickly outside of probate? Are you comfortable with it going through probate, the cost three to 500 on the will, probably two to 3000 on the trust.

And then the third issue is just do you want to stagger distribution? That would be the trust. If not, then a will will suffice. Does that make sense?

Yeah. Is there any tax savings to him with the trust as compared to the will? Or is it about the same? No, it's exactly the same because there's no federal inheritance tax. And any assets he receives, he'll enjoy the stepped up basis. So, you know, take the home, for example, it doesn't matter what you paid for it, it'll jump up, the cost basis will jump up to the market value as of the date of death. And then the only time he would pay any taxes if is if he hangs on to it, and it appreciates well, then he'd sell and pay capital gains from the the appreciation that occurred from the date of death to the time of the sale.

But if you know, apart from that, there really is no tax. Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. Excellent. Well, listen, I hope that helps you, my friend. And we appreciate your kind remarks about the program. Thanks for listening and calling and be sure to call back anytime you want. Okay. Thank you. You're a blessed act. All right. You too, Ron.

Hey, stay on the line. I want to send you a gift. I want to send you a copy of our magazine. I think you'll enjoy it.

Let's go to Arkansas. Hi, Jason. How can I help? Yeah, Rob, thank you so much for taking my call.

It's good to talk to you again. My dad passed away on the 14th of this month, and my mom had been drawing off of his Social Security along the way because she didn't have enough credits because she hasn't worked in about 40 years. And we're just trying to get some idea of what percentage of my dad's Social Security she might be looking at receiving his survivor's benefits. Also, he was a veteran.

He received a disability through the VA and everything. We're just kind of wondering what percentage she might be looking at at that also. Yeah, well, I'd recommend you reach out to both to get the definitive answer.

But I can just talk to you generally about how this works. So as a surviving spouse, she would qualify, you know, if she's at least 60 years old for survivor's benefits, if she's at least full retirement age, so typically 66 or 67, then she can get 100% of your dad's Social Security benefit as a survivor. But she would not be able to get that and the spousal benefit. So she'd get whichever one is higher, she's probably been, you know, receiving the spousal benefit, which is up to 50% of his benefits, and she didn't have enough credits on her own work record. Now she'll pivot over to, you know, his full benefit, which is the survivor's benefit, so long as she's, you know, full retirement age or older, so that should go up. And then on the VA benefits, if his death wasn't service connected, she could qualify for a survivor's pension if she has low income.

You know, there's certain net worth limits on that. It's not a percentage of his benefits. It's based on her income and need. And so and then if he was receiving VA disability, you know, those stop at death, but she might access accrued benefits owed to him, but those are the case specific. So I think the next step is to contact Social Security Administration, or go to SSA.gov and apply for survivor's benefits.

She'll need to have his social and death certificate, and then, you know, apply for any VA benefits at VA.gov or call them, you know, and find out exactly what's coming her way through the VA. Okay, I appreciate that so much. Yes, she's 76.

So she would definitely qualify for 100% on Social Security. Okay, so I appreciate that. That gives us some direction to go. Thank you so much. Awesome, Jason. Happy to chat with you today.

Call anytime. Well, a quick break. When we come back, much more here on Faith and Finance. We help you find God's heart as it relates to your money management.

Much more to come straight ahead. I want to say a big thanks to my team today. Amazing group of people that serve us every day here at Faith and Finance. So thankful for everybody here at FaithFi, grateful for Tahira and Amy and Lisa and Anthony and everybody else that puts in great work to bring you this broadcast each day. Stay with us.

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Soundmindinvesting.org. Great to have you with us today on Faith and Finance. We've got a line for you right now. If you call 800-525-7000, you'll get right through your financial questions today, 800-525-7000. You can call right now. Matt called a moment ago from Chicago. He was unable to hold.

His battery was dying on his phone. So here's Matt's question. He says, once you retire and you pay tithes and offerings and you are now receiving Social Security, are you supposed to pay tithes for that as well?

And it's a great question. You know, I think the big idea is that giving, and I'm not saying Matt was indicating any of this, but let me just say first, giving shouldn't be motivated by guilt, shouldn't be about control, shouldn't be about pride, shouldn't be about us. I think we see that clearly with the Pharisees' prayer that revealed his self-righteousness in Luke 18. Instead, I think New Testament giving is about being, first of all, a priority, that we should honor the Lord with our wealth and the first fruits of our produce. We should give proportionately. Remember the Apostle Paul said to give in keeping with your income. I think that's proportionate giving, giving sacrificially. David's declaration in 2 Samuel, he said, I will not offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God that costs me nothing. Clearly there was sacrificial giving going on with the widow's might. So I think that's a principle. Also cheerfully, Paul makes it very clear in 2 Corinthians, God loves a cheerful giver. And I think joyful giving reflects trust in God's provision. But what about the tithe specifically, which is if we apply that Old Testament principle of the tithe, you would be giving on your increase a 10th.

So for somebody like Matt in Chicago, where he said, I've been giving all during my working years on the gross. So how do I think about that in light of my social security, given that a lot of that was paid in through my FICA taxes and I already tithed on it. And I think you've really got a couple of options.

I mean, maybe there's more than two, certainly there are, but I'll lay out two. One would be the simple approach, if you will, where you just say, yep, I realize that I've been tithing all along the way, but I'm going to consider every dime I receive, every penny I receive as a gracious gift from the Lord. And I'm going to give a tithe the 10th on that increase coming back to me.

And I can't outgive God. And so I'm just going to make that gift. And by the way, Randy Alcorn calls the tithe the training wheels of giving the starting point, not the ending point. But the other approach, and I think this is not a second rate approach, this would be just as legitimate, would be to say, I'd really like to try to understand what portion of my monthly social security check is not a return of what I paid in, but really the increase. Now, what would that increase consist of?

Well, that increase would consist of a couple of things. It would consist of that portion that was your employer's portion. Because remember, if you were a W-2 employee with the FICA taxes, you paid half of it and your employer paid half of it. So 6.2% was paid by your employer.

You would have not tithed on that portion. And so that would be part of your increase. The interest in the Social Security Trust Fund would be part of your increase. And you could also consider the cost of living adjustments, part of the increase. So if we were to break it down, and I actually ran these, this analysis some time ago, just because we were getting so many calls on this, and you have to make some assumptions.

But if you assume the typical retiree earning an average income, who retires at full retirement age and lives to their life expectancy, which is 84 to 85, you know, for a male, a little older than that for a female, then here's how it breaks down. Essentially, you would consider, this is again, a rough estimate, 40% of every social security check would be considered a return of principle, a return of what you paid into the system, and therefore already tithed on. And 60% would be essentially the gain that represents the employer portion, represents the increases from the Social Security Trust Fund, the cost of living adjustments, those types of things. And so you could very quickly just say, all right, on whatever I get 60% of that I'm going to tithe on. And, you know, that's going to cover that portion that was that was not representative of what I paid in or, you know, my employees share. So hopefully that helps you, at least, you know, some of you might say, really, you're going to go to that level? Well, if that's the way you want to approach it, at least you have some rationale to do it. All right, let's move back to the phone calls.

Indianapolis is where Chris is located. Go right ahead, sir. Hi, Rob, thanks for taking my call. I'm almost retired, but my wife is. And I was wondering, does our credit reports matter? You know, it always matters. It matters less, because you're probably not going out looking for a mortgage. You're probably, you know, if you're buying a new car, hopefully you've got the cash to do it, maybe you're taking out a loan, then it certainly would matter. But it matters less in that retirement season of life. Because typically, you know, the main purpose for your credit report, your credit score, particularly, is the higher the score, the more likely it is, you're going to qualify for the best rates and terms. And when you get up above that 760, you're going to qualify for top tier credit, which means the very best rates that are out there with the most favorable terms from the most number of lenders. Are there other considerations or uses for the credit report?

Yes, there are. Namely insurance premiums and employment consideration. So I think it's always a good idea to keep it in good standing. But I suspect it's just going to happen by default. I mean, if you're an on time payer, you're keeping your balances low, you know, with you know, revolving accounts like credit cards, your limit, you're never more than 30% of your limit.

Just by doing those things, you're going to keep your credit score high. Is it important to do so? Yes, but it's certainly not critical for the reasons that I mentioned.

Does that make sense, though? Yeah, it's very clear. I appreciate that. All right, thanks for your call today. We appreciate it. Thank you.

Well, folks, we are about out of time today. And boy, I so appreciate you being a part of the program and listening and calling and interacting with us. It's such a privilege to walk alongside you and this really high calling that you have of managing God's money as a wise and faithful steward. You know, we hear from so many of you that call in and say, Man, I love the program, or I was able to apply something or guess what, I started listening a couple of years ago and I want to celebrate with you because my house was just paid off or I gave out of my balance sheet.

I never thought I could do that. I've given more than I ever thought possible. We love to hear those stories. So please call us with those stories and share those with us along the way because that's an encouragement to our team. I would also say if you love the program and listen regularly, one of the ways you can help is by becoming a Faithful Partner. Those are the men and women that support this ministry so we can reach more people and continue to do the work God has called us to. But in addition to that, when you become a partner, we're able to send you some of the resources that we create specifically to encourage you in your stewardship journey, namely our magazine, Faithful Steward, which I'm holding issue two in my hand.

It just came in in the last week. It's beautiful. It's full of incredible articles and I'd love for you to get it each quarter on top of any new studies or devotionals. And you also get as a partner pro subscription to the Faithfi app where you can connect to all your institutions.

To become a partner, just go to our website, faithfi.com and click give. Hey, big thanks to Amy, Jim, Dan and Anthony and everybody here at Faithfi. Come back and join us tomorrow. We'll see you then. Bye-bye. Faith and finance is provided by Faithfi and listeners like you.