Episode 21 - Charting Financial Success Through Family Bonds
What does it take to successfully merge family values with financial planning? On this episode of Beyond Budgets®, we have the pleasure of speaking with Brian Haney, CEO and co-founder of the Haney Group. Brian takes us through the unique dynamic of running a family-owned business alongside his father and brother.
From balancing the intricate relationships within the family to leveraging their diverse skill sets, Brian shares valuable insights that could benefit anyone considering a family venture. Hear his compelling journey from aspiring journalist to financial professional, illustrating how following his passion led to the formation of a thriving financial practice.
We also demystify the rising costs of long-term care insurance and discuss strategic planning to manage these expenses effectively. Packed with actionable advice and real-world examples, this episode serves as a comprehensive guide for securing your financial future and protecting your loved ones.
Episode Highlights
(02:16 - 04:23) History and Structure of Haney Company
(09:54 - 11:26) Strategic Use of Life Insurance
(14:21 - 16:29) Life Insurance for Families
(21:00 - 22:19) Importance of Care Through Insurance
(26:06 - 27:59) Destigmatizing Long-Term Care Insurance
Full transcript
Deb Meyer (00:01.965)
Hello, I'm so excited to welcome today's guest, Brian Haney. He's the CEO and co-founder of the Haney Group, which is based in Silver Spring, Maryland. And I know it's pretty rare to find this, but I think he has me beat on the number of credentials behind his name. I counted seven on his website. In today's conversation, we're gonna dive into some deeper financial topics like insurance and values-based investing. But first, Brian, I noticed your top company value is family.
Why is family so important to you?
Brian Haney (00:34.894)
Not only is the Haney company a family-owned and operated business, which like it or not, in some cases, working with family can be tricky. We are very fortunate that we have a good professional dynamic, but we also have a great company dynamic. So it's nice to be supported and cared for and connected to your family in a professional environment. But in general, it's just how I was raised.
My parents taught us that, you know, family does come first and we need to have a way to prioritize our time and our life and our schedule and everything. So that way there's balance. I think the biggest thing that I've carried forward from that into professional life, marriage life, and all the other stuff is that concept of your time does very much reveal your values.
So if there are times in life as there were, in building a financial practice where my schedule got a little out of whack, this has always been kind of the lever to come back and say, wait a minute. If family really is a value, what's going on with my schedule that's giving way too much time to these other things? We need to kind of course correct and get everything back in line.
But I think also family in general because the term family can mean a lot of things to a lot of people and so we want to support whatever it means for the individual or for the people that we're working with because families of all shapes and sizes all deserve the same care, attention, advice, help and support.
Deb Meyer (02:15.149)
Right? Okay. So go into a little bit of the history behind the Haney Company. I know you said it's a family business, but what does the structure look like right now and what are some of the great aspects of that, but also what are some of the challenges in working on a family business?
Brian Haney (02:33.102)
Yeah, a lot of people ask me since my father did work in the financial industry, if it was just a function of did I get hired out of kind of college to come in as a junior? And that wasn't the case as sometimes it can be, you know, very much how family businesses operate where one generation has the other, the next generation working in the business. And it's a very kind of, I don't want to say seamless because it's not always seamless, but it's kind of this assumptive, here we go, we're going to hand this off kind of process. That wasn't the case at all. For both my brother and I who do work in the business with our father, he just said go to college, study whatever you want to study, be whatever you want to be, we'll support you, whatever journey, whatever pathway you go down in life. So I went to school thinking I was going to be the next Tony Kornheiser.
I have a journalism degree and that was quickly quenched when I came back from college and tried to see what job opportunities were available and realized that entry-level journalism would allow me to live in a closet in Washington DC. I became very open-minded very quickly about other industries and got into banking. Actually, it was through a relationship that my dad had, but just got an opportunity to go work as a licensed banker and literally just fell in love with money, with finances, had an amazing sales manager. That's where I kind of cut my proverbial teeth in the financial industry and then did that couple banks for about five years and then left to form an independent practice. And so I was kind of in that part of my life building out a practice, if you will.
Deb Meyer (04:22.253)
Mm -hmm.
Brian Haney (04:29.742)
working with small businesses and, you know, families and individuals, just kind of trying to do as many things we could to help them. While my father, who had had his own company for a long time, had sold it to another company. It was kind of at the tail end of that transition. And so, you know, I think one holiday, I don't remember which one, I just kind of asked him, you know, how's it going? He's like, it's okay. And, you know, and I basically said, well, if you've got some gas left in the tank, why don't we work together and just see what comes out of that. It's like, okay. And it was, I kid you not, probably literally just that simple of a conversation. And then, you know, fast forward to where we are now over, you know, 10 plus years later where, yeah, we not only put kind of our respective expertise together, our respective brand and client focus together and have built the Haney company.
Deb Meyer (05:07.405)
Mm-hmm.
Brian Haney (05:26.67)
invited my brother to come work with us, who, again, speaking of people not getting into the industry, he was in the video production business and living down in Atlanta. So we had to kind of reel him out of that and have him come up and dive into insurance and all the other fun stuff that we do. And so it's been a great story because when it all came together, and I think this is really true for why it works, and it's not perfect because no business ever is whether you're working with family members or not.
But we all kind of came together at a peer level, especially my father and I did. So it wasn't this assumptive, like I need to train you up and all the other stuff. And he admits this to this day. He's like, I don't know that I would have been the best person to have done that for you. So just the fact that I already got that and was getting my feet under me through other places allowed us to kind of work collaboratively.
Deb Meyer (06:24.237)
Mm-hmm.
Brian Haney (06:24.238)
And then certainly having my brother who has a very different skill set than I do and so we all complement each other pretty well and Yeah, it's just been a lot of fun, but you know, it's also still family So, you know that that kind of stuff pops up from time to time, but Yeah, it's it's been a good ride
Deb Meyer (06:41.837)
just being able to separate the work from the personal life.
Brian Haney (06:44.974)
Yeah, I always felt like the Thanksgiving meal kind of moments where, you know, things can be going really well and then those meals are fun. But sometimes if you're having a rough, you know, rough year, rough patch or whatever, it's kind of like, boy, do I really, this turkey doesn't taste as good this year kind of stuff. So, yeah.
Deb Meyer (06:48.973)
Mm -hmm.
Deb Meyer (07:01.293)
Yeah, well, I mean, I think it's hard too, even when you have family members on the outside and they don't necessarily see what your day-to-day is like. So, you know, it's a double-edged sword, right? There's no perfect pattern under either scenario.
Brian Haney (07:17.71)
It is, it is. And, you know, absolutely. And, you know, we, the things that make us effective and successful as practitioners are time-tested leadership principles and kind of, you know, whether it's, you know, Stephen Covey stuff or John Maxwell or whatever, you know, get everybody on the bus, get them in the right seats, you know, seek win-win, a lot of those types of things. That's the way that we've approached working together and that helps because it's a framework that again anybody can apply and see success you know in terms of the results that you should expect when you're kind of getting in there and just doing the business things through a filter and a channel that should lead you to effectiveness and it also just helps us work collaboratively together when you know I think sometimes where things can go sideways is when you start to lean into the fact that you've known somebody for so long.
Deb Meyer (07:47.917)
Mm -hmm.
Brian Haney (08:14.766)
But that's a barrier sometimes. And it's like, no, let's just, we need to come together as peers and, and, and it doesn't matter what we know. Like here's what we're focused on in terms of what we're doing. So we did that fairly well, not perfectly. but you know, it's, it's, it's been a good, it's been a good fun ride. our, our practice, just what do we do? we, most of our clients are associations and nonprofits. We specialize in kind of that industry, one of those seven.
Deb Meyer (08:39.401)
Mm-hmm.
Brian Haney (08:43.47)
letter designations as certified association executive, all three of us have that. So we really have invested time in understanding that market from an industry perspective, not just from a financial practitioner perspective. And so we kind of wanted to try to offer as many things as we can to those organizations to help them do insurance and financial solutions for themselves, for their employees, and sometimes for their members.
So that's kind of the practice focus that we have is to be able to have all of that, as many things as we can under one roof.
Deb Meyer (09:19.117)
That's great. Yeah, so I know your focus as a firm is on more of the associations and nonprofits, but since we have podcast listeners here that may not be in those roles, I want to dive into some of the experience you have on insurance. Can you tell me a little bit more about life insurance? In your professional opinion, do you think there's a big difference between term and permanent policies and kind of what's an appropriate time to consider each?
Brian Haney (09:48.59)
Absolutely. And so I know we were, we were getting a chance to chat before we started about this. And so for full disclosure, I was also at a period of time as we were going in our practice, the life insurance specialist at an agency we were working with. So I could geek out on this for an hour. I don't think your listeners will appreciate that. So I'll get to the point. I think, you know, first of all, for anyone listening to this is just kind of thinking about life insurance in general and how to approach it.
Deb Meyer (10:07.821)
Try to condense it, yeah.
Brian Haney (10:18.414)
I think the good thing is that there are options and you have the ability to get a solution that's tailored to you. So the biggest thing that I probably think I spend a decent amount of time trying to help people realize there is no one-size-fits-all. There's no magic pill that everybody takes. And whenever you hear those types of things being said in the media, in the marketplace, or even by practitioners, it's like everybody needs to get this type of anything.
Deb Meyer (10:27.573)
Mm-hmm.
Brian Haney (10:47.822)
Just be very cautious about that. Life insurance is about taking care of risk and that risk should be uniquely personally designed to where you are financially, which is not just a cookie cutter, here's the dollars and the cents and the term and all the other stuff. So I think that that's a really important framework to begin with. Then when it comes to understanding what type of policy, I think a lot of it really hinges on when you want to, if, I shouldn't say when, if you want to take advantage of using life insurance as an asset vehicle that becomes a part of a broader financial framework in terms of how are you saving, investing, and building wealth. That's what permanent insurance is. Whatever the type is, that's what it allows you to do.
It is and can be, in the right situation and circumstances for the right people, a very valuable asset. But there's, you know, that's really, it's a very strategic and specific way that you need to approach that. The most important part of life insurance is to protect the people that you care about.
Brian Haney (12:03.726)
I say, if you're not doing that, getting into what type and how much and permanent and cash file and all the other stuff doesn't matter as much. You need to make sure that first and foremost, if you don't make it home today, the people that you're saying you love and kissing on the forehead before they go to bed are going to be fine. That's where I think the conversation should always start. And then being able to figure out, how do I design this more strategically for myself when I have other...
financial needs and goals and strategies. Does it fit in at some point as a savings vehicle? It may not, but there are certainly a lot of cases where it is used very strategically as a great asset to complement other assets. It is not the end all be all, but it is something that can be leveraged for the right people.
Deb Meyer (12:52.821)
Yeah. So just to piggyback off that a little bit on the term policies, just to give listeners a real concrete example here, term is essentially, if you're thinking about life insurance, it's kind of like renting a home versus owning a home, right? You're just paying in the premium and then in the event you pass away, then there's the benefit here that's available for your family.
but there's no value that you're building up in that policy. Whereas these permanent policies, and there's many variations of them, you're really trying to safeguard and build that kind of separate asset that has cash value that if something happens during your lifetime, you could pull back on that cash value. Is that a fair assumption and description of the differences?
Brian Haney (13:37.934)
No, I think you captured it really well. And I always like to try to give examples because I think that helps us connect. So I think an example of when term really fits, because it's kind of they're designed to give you a definable need, right, this death benefit amount for a definable period of time. And so the most common example I give is when you buy a home, you got a mortgage.
Deb Meyer (13:44.589)
Mm -hmm.
Deb Meyer (13:55.533)
Mm -hmm.
Deb Meyer (13:59.693)
Mm -hmm.
Deb Meyer (14:06.285)
Mm -hmm.
Brian Haney (14:06.318)
And if something happens to you, you better be sure that mortgage company still wants to get paid. So, you know, if I have a half a million dollar home and a 30 year mortgage, there's an amount that I might want to protect and a period of time in which I may want to protect that. Very commonly, that's kind of a good kind of way to piece, you know, insurance policies together where you kind of have these concrete needs and...
Deb Meyer (14:13.037)
Mm -hmm.
Deb Meyer (14:34.285)
Mm -hmm.
Brian Haney (14:35.118)
you know, a duration in which that protection should be in place. So I think that hopefully as an example, that's very helpful. And it's not obviously the only example, you know, I think term in a broader sense, oftentimes fits in from a cashflow perspective. When you're, when you're a young family, you've got, you know, early in your working years, a lot of competing things, your, your, your income and your resources are, are being directed and diverted to.
Deb Meyer (14:53.197)
Mm -hmm.
Deb Meyer (15:03.181)
Mm -hmm.
Brian Haney (15:04.302)
But you also, if you've got a two -year -old, man, that's a, and something happens to you, that's a lifetime of lost earnings and financial needs that you are, whether or not you have insurance, that you're going to be saving up to address. Right? So there's a balloon, there's a significant financial amount of protection you might want to consider, but you may not have necessarily an unlimited amount of funds on a month -over -month basis. So that's, that's...
You know, the other part of is being able to define, okay, my kid's this old. This is maybe the college. This is the period of time in which I think I'm going to be the most vulnerable. And you get a number of that way. And I think that that's, you know, the way to quantify term. And then to your point, permanent coverage is just, it's a little bit different. I oftentimes say, think of it in terms of how you might save. If I'm going to use this as an asset, how much am I putting into it?
Deb Meyer (15:58.125)
Mm -hmm.
Brian Haney (16:00.622)
how much do I intend to try to get out of it and how can I structure it there for to be leveraged effectively so that way the input and the output are optimized for my situation.
Deb Meyer (16:11.373)
Mm -hmm. Yeah, I mean, I think for a lot of people, as you said, that are in a younger stage of life, they have young kids still living at home, they're very reliant on the income earner, whether it's a primary, you know, sole breadwinner or dual working couple, but they're very reliant on those income earners, especially in those early years. It can be really challenging if one or both income earners
suddenly has a health incident and I'm not even going to dive into disability because that's a whole other separate conversation, but just making sure there's not only disability coverage, but also life insurance coverage for that younger family member because it is a really important risk that you're undertaking if something were to happen to them medically. And if you don't have any resources put it in that direction, it can be very catastrophic for the family.
So, highly recommend exploring even just a term policy on the sole or main income earners of a household just because you just don't know what can happen. Tomorrow's not guaranteed, unfortunately.
Brian Haney (17:25.422)
No, and I would add to that. Stay at home parents, non -working parents, because a lot of the verbiage and the terminology, I think, sounds very diminutive. But if you're... There you go. There you go. Protecting both parties is actually also really important because that role, while maybe there's not a W -2 associated with it,
Deb Meyer (17:29.325)
Mm -hmm.
Deb Meyer (17:38.957)
or non -earning parents, not earning for their work.
Deb Meyer (17:47.277)
Mm -hmm.
Deb Meyer (17:51.949)
Mm -hmm.
Brian Haney (17:53.454)
actually has a significant amount of value as well. And to, you know, if the working or earning parent were to, you know, lose their significant other, how, what would the actual impact from a life standpoint be on that, on your capabilities to, so making sure that everybody looks at protection in a meaningful way. Cause I think sometimes it is in a sense too easy to just...
assume it's only the income component, but it's really just, hey, both parties bring a lot to the table. Some of it's a little bit easier to quantify, but God forbid something happens. We really want to make sure that both of us are going to be okay financially and able to take care of... I always say, you know, I can't say I love you to my wife if I don't do life insurance the right way. Because that means my value and what I'm saying...
Deb Meyer (18:47.949)
Hmm.
Brian Haney (18:50.958)
and what I have done about it are incongruent. That's the reason why I've done the life insurance and structure the way that I have, because I mean it when I tell her, I love you. And so, you know, that's the biggest motivator. And to then get that right and to make sure, okay, what kind of life do I want to build for my family? And then...
Deb Meyer (18:54.189)
Mm -hmm.
Deb Meyer (19:14.125)
Mm -hmm.
Brian Haney (19:15.086)
What would that potentially cost? Like what are the economics that are necessary to substantiate that life? And that's how I came to get that number. And then the cashflow kind of drove how we structured the life insurance, but it was really important. And my wife covered as well, because there were periods of time when she stayed home and was amazing to raise our daughter. But God forbid she wasn't able to do that. That would be...
materially change how I had to approach my professional life and my personal life. So, you know, we really went about it strategically and, and, you know, it's been a good result and we're both still here. So that's the good news.
Deb Meyer (19:47.149)
Mm -hmm.
Deb Meyer (19:54.989)
So in your professional opinion, would you say every parent should have a life insurance policy regardless of their income or their age level?
Brian Haney (20:07.662)
Yeah, and there's so many stories that I can tell you, unfortunately, in just, you know, 20 years of working as a professional where people in my, my, my sphere, social sphere, friends, high school, just died unexpectedly early and did not have production. I always tell people, look, go fund me shouldn't be your estate plan.
But it is a lot of times and we see that all the time and it's very heartbreaking. And so this is the way to avoid that. And it, you know, life insurance done right really should be able to be affordable. It may not be, you know, you may not get $10 million of coverage or anything like that, but you can definitely get an amount that's going to be meaningful, be appropriate and make sense. But yeah, I just, I've seen too much of when, you know,
It was either an afterthought or just not a part of the consideration because we got a lot of other things that we rightly have to devote our time to and we just either forget or don't know to take care of it until unfortunately something happens and then by then it's usually too late.
Deb Meyer (21:21.193)
All right, so let's switch gears a little bit. I know for a lot of listeners, they might have aging parents or they see friends or family members that could be impacted by drastic health changes. What type of person do you think should be looking for a long -term care policy? And would you be looking at it based on kind of level of assets or age in your parameters?
Brian Haney (21:46.062)
This is such an important question. And I think the answer is a lot more people should be engaged with this than I think we thought maybe even five or 10 years ago. And I'm really grateful for the example that you used, because I think that that's, I mean, again, that's a lived example for a lot of people, right? The term sandwich generation, meaning you might be taking care of, whether they're in your home or whether they're nearby, your parents.
Wow, you still got kids in, you know, under the roof and on the payroll as well, right? So that's a really challenging dynamic. And I think the parents and those in and or around retirement age, if they haven't looked at it already, absolutely they need to. But I also think it's important for families and, you know, maybe young, younger, young is a very loosely defined age.
range, we all feel young and then feel old at the same time sometimes. But we should all be thinking about it and trying to find a way to, you know, probably not necessarily, especially if it's, you know, buying long -term care insurance below certain ages, unless you really have the cash flow to do it, maybe cost prohibited or it may hurt your ability to do some other very important things.
But I think it's always a good thing to at least start to reconcile and look at, okay, well, what does this look like? And maybe set myself up for when I might want to begin that process to look at it. Because like any insurance that's tied to health, the sooner you do get it, the more cost effective it will be. And it'll also give you a way to be building that into your financial planning and your financial framework, your savings. You're going to know, Hey,
Deb Meyer (23:28.173)
Mm -hmm.
Brian Haney (23:37.838)
I need to have at some point a budget line item for this. Because if I don't, I can absolutely tell you not having long -term care when care is needed, it's not just financially devastating potentially. It's the reason why I think as many people as possible should get long -term care insurance is because they care about the people in their lives. The same reason you buy life insurance. It's either care by design or by default. Most of us experience care by default.
We have to take care of people because they don't have a means to get the care that we could get for them professionally. It just happens. It's not that people aren't going to get cared for. Your parents are going to get cared for. The question is by whom? And naturally it falls on kids too often and not because, you know, the generation of our parents, not many of them really talked about this or addressed it or, you know, whether they did, they maybe didn't, you know, get enough of it set aside.
Deb Meyer (24:28.589)
Mm -hmm.
Brian Haney (24:34.286)
So I just really think that, you know, certainly if you're, if you've got parents nearing retirement, don't be afraid to try to ask them about this. I know that that's a really uncomfortable thing to do, but it's too important for you not to know and to then be found, put into a situation that could be really challenging to try to help them with. And then, you know, as you kind of navigate your own family and financial framework, especially if your kids are starting to get into the college.
Deb Meyer (24:55.149)
Mm -hmm.
Brian Haney (25:03.918)
years and your cash flow might be changing, that's at least a good time to start evaluating it. Whether or not you need to get it so early is, again, that's usually a very, very subjective answer. But, you know, the earlier you think about it, I promise you the better off it's going to be from a delivery standpoint.
Deb Meyer (25:11.149)
Mm -hmm.
Deb Meyer (25:17.453)
Mm -hmm.
Deb Meyer (25:24.173)
Yeah. So I know you talked about that parallel between long -term care and life insurance really just being a protection there for the ones that you love. What are your thoughts on hybrid long -term care and life policies? Because I've seen some clients in the past. And again, I'm not an insurance agent. I'm a fee -only advisor. So I just outsource any insurance needs to other professionals. But I at least am kind of
sitting there trying to figure out, okay, premium dollars, how much do we have to be putting into policy? What assets could we draw from to fund a policy? But I have seen a couple of clients where they've been paying in early in their relatively younger years to a standalone long -term care policy, and then they start to see these premium increases, and it just becomes...
really hard for them to pay that premium every year when they're like, well, I'm not getting sick. I'm not using the benefits, but I'm still paying into this thing. What are your thoughts then on having something with a small debt benefit if the long -term care isn't needed in the future?
Brian Haney (26:32.014)
Yeah, you know, you hit on something that is, isn't a very important part of that decision framework is to understand long -term care coverage is a policy that unlike life insurance that normally designed to have the same premium for, you know, essentially indefinitely or however long you set it up for. It's one of those plans that if the carrier needs to change the rate structure in order to make sure that they are financially solvent enough to pay claims in the future, they can't. So.
You may or may not be paying the same amount in perpetuity. And unfortunately, it's interesting saying this, long -term care as a coverage is younger, right? Hasn't been around forever. Life insurance has been around since, you know, hundreds of years. So, you know, it's all relative, but the evolving risk framework for these long -term care insurers continues to grow. I mean, the reality is as we age, we do need care. We're not...
you know, dying prematurely. Mortality has increased and the stuff that used to kill us doesn't anymore, but it does involve care. And so there's a growing risk pool that's harder and harder for these carriers to continue to make sure they have enough, you know, available to pay those claims. So to answer your question, I think it's an important thing to really look at and examine. You're always, again, be careful when trying to do everything in one policy.
Deb Meyer (28:00.429)
Mm.
Brian Haney (28:00.59)
That's just the first thing. When you look at hybrid policies, because there are two risks that the policy covers, you're not going to get as much quote unquote juice for the long -term care as you would in just a pure long -term care insurance policy. That's never going to be the case. But I do think absolutely there is value. We use them quite frequently. And a lot of times, especially when you design them really strategically, it may be more
advantageous to you to have it because you have a levelized premium design that you can employ. Even if maybe you're not getting potentially as large of a long -term care pool, you certainly are setting yourself up for financial success to make sure that those premiums stay where they are. So there's, that's again, looking at it, we always, anytime I'm helping somebody evaluate long -term care, we look at standalone policies, we look at hybrid, we kind of look at all of them together.
Deb Meyer (28:35.341)
Mm -hmm.
Deb Meyer (28:47.213)
Right.
Brian Haney (28:59.79)
And I think that that's the recommendation I make to anyone. Don't just look at one thing and don't just look at one company. Consider the whole landscape because that's going to give you, once you know all the options and why you might go one direction versus another, then you can figure out which policy makes most sense. I think just a lot of times, the questions are common. Well, standalone long -term care. What are the downsides? It's the best way to protect the risk. Dollar to potential claim.
Deb Meyer (29:03.148)
Mm -hmm.
Deb Meyer (29:27.501)
Mm -hmm.
Brian Haney (29:28.974)
Absolutely the best because that's designed to be that way, but if you die never use it, you don't get the money back Okay, right if I don't ever wreck my car, I don't get my premium dollars back either But I don't tend to be that upset about that. Maybe I don't like paying for car insurance But again, we're not the goal isn't necessarily to get a claim right always But also
Deb Meyer (29:35.661)
Right.
Deb Meyer (29:48.461)
Mm hmm. Well, and I think that there's a stigma too, where it's like, okay, I kind of have to have car insurance, right? Like it's a necessity and people will see long -term care is like, yeah, I could get it, but I might not. I don't, you know, just, yeah.
Brian Haney (29:57.87)
Yeah.
Brian Haney (30:05.87)
Yeah, and again, I think that that's also really important for us as financial professionals to work through. We need to destigmatize long -term care. I don't think it's a luxury. I do think it's a necessity. And the data sets out there support that. The chances of any one of us needing care for several years or longer is, you know, like 75 % of the population at this point is going to need care. I mean, so the chances are pretty...
Good. You might use the coverage. again, you know, it, it always, it's easy to feel like Superman or to see the scenarios where I'm going to have all these other assets and all the other stuff. And okay, all right. You know, you got it. Everything's done in context, but, it's just, you know, when this, this is really forming when you saw the federal government several years ago, making a real concentrated effort to try to look at this as a risk, that should always tell you something. Cause you know, the government doesn't.
necessarily, it does not meant as a political statement. They don't need to be involved in all that kind of stuff. But when it came to the level of, we actually think that this is a serious financial risk to the country and entered into that conversation, again, that should, to me, make sure that that's just, you know, a tipping point to point back to all of us to say, this isn't something that maybe I can take as lightly as I would like, but.
Deb Meyer (31:18.381)
Mm -hmm.
Brian Haney (31:33.678)
Back to your point, I think it's being very, very strategic with, you know, if insurance was free, we would just get the Cadillac policies and everybody would be fine. It's not. So how do I really design it so that way I can afford it now and tomorrow and make sure that I understand what that's going to look like. and, and yeah, there are, there, there should be, in my opinion, a policy for everybody. It just may be different. You know, what, what I get and what my neighbor gets.
Deb Meyer (31:49.165)
Mm -hmm.
Brian Haney (32:01.038)
probably different and that's okay as long as I get the right one for me. And I think, yeah, really looking at both sides of those options is the critical need to get you to that right answer.
Deb Meyer (32:13.109)
Okay, one more question here. I just noticed on your website that your company really values social justice and green living initiatives. I'm just curious how those values play out into the investment offerings that your firm has on a more practical level. Do you incorporate values based investing in your practice?
Brian Haney (32:32.622)
We do. We are proudly Green America certified. Most people don't even know that, well, most people don't know that Green America exists or that there's a certification that you can go through even in the financial industry if you want to not just be a specialist in those investments, but have a practice and a kind of a holistic approach to having a company that embodies those things, which we do. We're very proud of that. The approach that we take is to really understand it, it's up to the individual. I like to have values conversations, because it, you know, we aren't, you know, who we are as human beings are not defined by what we do, not defined by a lot of things. And I think sometimes we can get disconnected to those things that are really important to us. Or maybe they're important to us, and we don't necessarily know all of the ways that we can move that through the various dimensions of our lives.
And that's kind of what the conversation is. I don't necessarily know that that values-based investing is right for everybody. It certainly isn't, I don't think. I think it's more of an awareness to allow people to see, is this something that you do want to bring into your financial world on some level? And if so, let's take a look at how that could be accommodated, because the good news is,
Brian Haney (34:00.43)
now more than ever before for anybody helping people in the financial industry, you have a lot of ways that you can deploy, whether it's investing options, banking options, there's a way to consider a value filter on a lot of your finances. And so that's really kind of the approach that we take is to say, okay, if this does matter, let's take a look at that and see how might we apply that across your finances. And at the end of the day, you can decide if that makes sense or not.
So, yeah, it's pretty simplified, but I think it's important. It's a good conversation to have.
Deb Meyer (34:32.237)
Thank you. That's great. Yeah. Well, where can people find you, Brian? This was an enlightening conversation.
Brian Haney (34:42.542)
Thank you so much. I think the best place where I'm the most active is on LinkedIn. I certainly welcome anyone. While this is an amazing podcast, I also have one of my own. So if you wanted to listen to some other conversations I've had with other great people like Deb, do check that out, the Haney Company Financial Guy Show. But I think LinkedIn is probably the best place outside of our company website as well.
Deb Meyer (35:04.525)
Okay, great. Thanks again. It was really wonderful having you.
Brian Haney (35:09.166)
Great to be here.