by matthew edard
HELPING CLIENTS TO PRESERVE AND GROW THEIR WEALTH A good, healthy retirement requires an active lifestyle.
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nd for some would-be retirees, that means finding a job. “I should be retired now,” said John G. Rumbold CFP®, EA, the proprietor of Rumbold Financial & Tax Advisory, who certainly is not retired. “I stay active, I stay alert, it keeps the mind alert learning new laws and regulations.” Rumbold encourages his clients to seek new opportunities after they retire so that they can build a reliable income stream, in addition to their investments. Clients often take his advice and start a small service business, or sell handmade crafts to provide a trickle of money — and as an activity to occupy their time, energy, and mind — while others take the non-remunerative route and volunteer. Rumbold Financial & Tax Advisory, based in Tustin, California, provides services in income tax preparation, IRS and state audit representation, payroll reporting, QuickBooks setup and support, and business startup services. The firm also provides personal financial planning and investment advisory services, and requires a $25,000 minimum investment.
Financial literacy remains a challenge for advisors and planners who often struggle to explain the basics to their prospective clients. Taxes are no different, with the government presenting taxpayers with a byzantine code of rules and regulations to follow. The average person attempting to prepare their own tax return spends roughly eight hours trying, and then often deals with the anxiety that comes from fearing they missed something minute. Arguably, investing and retirement planning, are even more complex. Clearing up misconceptions about the market usually is Rumbold’s first step with many prospects. Often prospects approach him hoping to beat the market, and are disappointed to find out that aiming to outperform the S&P 500 typically amounts to a fool’s errand. “Clients are really best-suited by helping them to build their wealth through their own careers and businesses,” Rumbold told “The Suit” in a recent interview. “Once they have some wealth established I can help them to preserve that wealth and grow it at a normal pace.”
John G. Rumbold, EA, CFP® Main Office 17461 Irvine Boulevard, Ste G Tustin, CA 92780 Main Number 714-425-7202 Email jrumbold@rfta.biz
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Rumbold points to a friend who sold a small business for $5 million and then asked how to grow that money by beating the market. “I told him, you know how to build wealth more than me,” Rumbold said. “My goal is to help clients preserve and grow their wealth, in that order.” Many clients, however, come to Rumbold after working with another advisor, often to poor or even disastrous results. “When I help a client who isn’t one of my financial planning clients, I see the results of bad decisions,” he said. Investors often lose money because their advisors neglect to consider tax implications, costing the estate enormous sums of money. Soprano’s actor, James Gandolfini, notably fell into this category when his estate planners failed to properly protect his assets from taxes; in the end, the government raked in $30 million from Gandolfini’s estate. And some elderly savers simply fall victim to bad information. Rumbold offered the common example of an elderly
