John Davidson is a Life Underwriter Training Council Fellow and Financial Services Specialist serving a diverse client base, including municipalities, private schools, and public corporations. A long‑time leader in his profession, John is a certified Financial Security Advocate and has served in top roles within NAIFA, including National President in 2006-07.
Navigating a decades-long career in financial services demands adaptability, foresight, and a willingness to evolve with your clients and the world around you. From economic shifts to technological revolutions, how can financial professionals stay relevant without losing the human touch?
According to John Davidson, a seasoned financial advisor, staying relevant starts with embracing change while remaining grounded in core client relationships. He highlights how technology — from AI to digital communication — can enhance rather than replace the advisor’s personal connection. This balance of high-tech and high-touch is what enables long-term advisors to continue delivering value. John also emphasizes the importance of planning ahead, not just for clients, but for one’s own business succession and legacy.
In this episode of the Advisor Today podcast, Chris Gandy and Zack Huels sit down with John Davidson, LUTCF, FSS, to talk about adapting to change and leading through decades of financial evolution. They discuss how to transition a legacy practice, mentor the next generation, and integrate AI into modern advising. John also shares insights on long-term care, estate planning, and maintaining client trust over time.
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Intro 00:02
Welcome to NAIFA’s Advisor Today podcast series, where we focus on how financial advisers work, live and give to their local communities and our greater financial services industry. Now let's get started with the show.
Chris Gandy 00:20
NAIFA Nation, welcome back to Advisor Today podcast, where we give you the voice of some of the brains, the minds, the creatives of the financial services and insurance industry. We're super excited to have as a co-host today. The technician has come from behind the scenes. The Zack Huels. Big Zack how's it going, bud?
Zack Huels 00:46
I'm great. How are you?
Chris Gandy 00:48
You know, I've referenced Zack as my Mad Man co-star, right? So have you ever seen Mad Men and Zack? You can go look it up. He is the guy. He's one of those guys from Mad Men, and we'd have a good time if we were filming back then.
So, Zack, do we have a we always have to have sponsors on our podcast. So who's helping us sponsor this program?
Zack Huels 01:12
Today I'm going to tell you why you should earn the LUTCF designation. If you haven't. If you're a new agent or advisor, the LUTCF program is the perfect way to kick start your career. It's a designation that's recognized as the industry benchmark for insurance credentials, and it's endorsed by top financial firms and insurance agencies, graduates of the program and report increases in their earnings, client base, and even job satisfaction after they complete it. So develop the skills that top insurance agencies demand that agents need to know while advancing your own financial career.
You can learn more at lutcf.naifa.org.
Chris Gandy 01:45
Love it, love it. And Zack, it's brand new. It's fresh, it's exciting. We've relaunched it. Word is that we're going to have it out in different countries.
I mean, this is going to be the pinnacle of a designation that people.
Zack Huels 02:01
Started in 1984. And now we're looking at a brand new credential, brand new curriculum for it since last year. So exciting stuff.
Chris Gandy 02:08
I love it. So. So who do people call to even get like to get that started?
Zack Huels 02:14
Well, they can actually call me if they want. I would say that, you know, there's a fantastic member of the staff named Brendan Burnett who is the senior director of credentialing. But you know myself, Brendan, we know a lot about the program since we helped move things over. So reach out to them.
Chris Gandy 02:32
So, Zack, I know I'm in the pilot program and I'm slow motion, but my objective is that by January 1st, my LUTCF is finished. And my mentors, John Wheeler. So he is like, what are you doing? Like we need to finish it up, so.
Zack Huels 02:51
Well, you're spoiled.
Chris Gandy 02:51
Then we've got it mapped out so that J one it's a done deal. So with no further ado, though, we're blessed to have one of the past superstar presidents and wonderful volunteers of our association on with us today, Mr. John Davidson. Mr. Davidson, it's good to see you. How are you, bud?
John Davidson 03:17
Good morning Chris. Thanks. Thanks for having me. I'm good to see you and Zack together. It's like a tag team. It's pretty fun.
Chris Gandy 03:23
Yeah. So we get a chance to sit with you and spend some time, you know, we'll call it the president's round of past presidents, round table discussion, if you, if you will. So let's start off so, so just real quick. If you could just highlight where you are in your, in your, in your practice at this point you served it. And just take us through like the time you were ready for president and kind of what you're doing now with NAIFA just so people get a feel for who you are for first-time NAIFA.
John Davidson 03:58
For sure. Well, taking this walk down memory lane, I was Nate for president in 2006 and 2007. So that's probably before Zack was born. But nevertheless, there was a lot going on back then. We had different location. We had just decided to change CEOs from past national presidents at that time.
We'd had Jack Bobo and Bill Reagan and others go through the chairs and we were looking for we thought, what might be a good idea to have a professional association executive run a professional association. It's not that just because you were past president didn't automatically mean that you had the skill sets to run. At that time, it was, gosh, a $20 million budget with, you know, 60,000 members, 700 chapters and 700 different dues structures and all the crazy stuff was going on. So we're in a new world now. But we had a lot of really, really challenging times early in the — from 2001 to 2006, things were great.
We've turned things around. But more importantly, I think that we're finding that the same drive and passion of the leadership that was volunteering at that time is still prevalent today. I see that in you and all the other people who are putting their hats in the ring to continue to serve our great federation, and I'm excited about that. We had, interestingly enough, one of the focuses during my year was to get into new technology and bring it into the 21st century. We had never even heard of a podcast.
We never heard of, you know, I or any of that stuff, but we were just getting into the thing where you could actually do a Zoom call and it's like, oh, how do we do this? And how do we get, you know, a thousand people on one call or whatever? And what was the bandwidth we needed? We had no idea what was going on. But we succeeded.
And here we are today in the 21st and a half century, just about. And it's been great. So I've enjoyed the ride. My business has transitioned from, gosh, I was like, you know, I started with MassMutual in 1981 with them for ten years, 20 years with Guardian. Then it became a broker.
If you got a corporation with five profit centers and it's been a tremendous ride. But now in the back of my career, I'm as I mentioned to you when we talked last week, I would love to be coming into the industry right now with all the modern technology, the the high, the high tech, high tech stuff makes things really, really great and exciting, a little challenging because we lose a little bit of that high touch. But I'm excited about it. And if I could go back 20 years right now and start where you are, I would just be on fire. I am working with a new young guy, and he's going to be taking over our agency.
And right now I'm looking to go that next phase and we formed a new LLC. Here I am at my age and I was just. I've been trying to retire for seven years. I can't walk away from this. It's too much fun.
But we have a new LLC. We're going to be working with nonprofits to try to help them have some legacy planning. So they have a constant source of income. And had it not been for my involvement with NAIFA, I wouldn't even know how to bridge this gap. It's out there. So I'm excited to be part of the deal.
Chris Gandy 07:14
So the question I've got for you is how do? So if we're speaking to our constituents out here and our following people that listen to us, what does retirement really look like for someone who's been in the industry for a long period of time and and what is what does it really look like? And. Well, let's start with that. What does that really look like to you like is it you're like working with clients?
Is it you you wrote off in the sunset and give me a check. Like what does it look like?
John Davidson 07:53
I'll just start off by saying trust the system because it works. I mean, I'm living proof that when you have, you know, 40 plus years in the business and you have different profit centers within your business model, you can pretty much withstand any kind of economic up and down upturns and downturns, as a matter of fact. When Covid hit back in 2020, that was when I started really seriously thinking about retiring because I had, you know, years and years of renewals. I have health insurance practice part of their for the medical side, usually small groups that got rid of the larger ones. They were just too burdensome.
So the small groups there I have a pension from, from Guardian. I have investments and I have Social security and I have a structure. I listen to my own advice. I have no debt. And so and I bought a new house seven years ago, right around that time, thinking that I want to make sure I have, you know, a one story, two story, multiple levels.
And so I we did all that and we actually had a plan. Dean and I talked about it and I tried to retire but I couldn't. And and and rightfully so. I think there's nothing in the Bible about retiring. So it's just I love what I do.
I love interacting with people. I have people now, fortunately or unfortunately, who are calling me because the claims are coming in. We paid off about $4.5 million in life insurance death claims in the last six months. I had a long term care policy that I sold to somebody in 1992, and the wife had pancreatic cancer, and we paid on that. They paid that long term care claim.
And you talk about having fulfillment risks in this industry that's there. I will tell anybody right now that's been in the business like you, 20, 30 years, whatever it is. The calls are going to start coming. And when those calls start coming, that's when we come into action. We're there with something other than, you know, flowers and sympathy cards.
We're bringing money and compassion because it's not a transactional relationship. It's a personal relationship we have with these people. So for me, I'm a I made a pledge to clients 40 something years ago, and I'm keeping it every day. It's really rewarding.
Chris Gandy 10:15
You know, I think that connection between you and your clients is what makes it hard to be able to say, I'm walking away, right? And so. I'm not sure anybody in our industry ever technically retires, unless there's a private equity group that comes in and says, we're going to give you a check, right? But there had to come a line of demarcation where you were like, okay, I'm going to bring in a young guy, or I'm going to bring in someone else and start to relay some of the either A responsibilities or B start to give up some of the controls. Let's call it that.
Maybe it's not control, maybe it's just some of the decision making. Right? But there had to be a point or a line that came in the sand that allowed for you to be in the process, be able to do that. Do you remember the moment where that happened, or do you remember the time or what was going on in your life or in your mind, the reason why you were like, yeah, it's it's I think it's it's time for me to take action on my thoughts.
John Davidson 11:31
I can't remember the exact time, but two, two things. Spring. Spring forward in that, in that arena. One is when I started paying these death claims. I came to the realization that I am not immortal because these are people I've known for my whole life, or my whole business life for sure.
And here in a lot of these cases, I'm I've already done the buy sell agreements with the with their businesses where they're transitioning their business. Most of them were business owners or doctors and they've got the next iteration. Now, I'm actually in the third iteration of doctors for Buy-sell agreements. They're in their low 30s. And now their senior partners are in their late 50s.
And so that made me think, oh gosh, I need a younger face of this organization we've had for 44 years. So they can identify. And the other part about that is I don't have the technology knowledge that Zack does or Bianca and others do. And you really have to have that knowledge or have somebody on your team that can make these things work and interact with people in the 21st century. And so I had to come to that realization, and I decided, let's see how we structure this.
So I've got one of my sons works for Intel, so he was my immediate go to guy. He knows a lot more about that than I do. His comment to me was, dad, just let me show you how to do this. I said, why don't you just do it for me? Right.
Right. I don't know. I don't have the bandwidth to absorb all this information. But that was the thing that happened to me, was I realized that it was time to do that. And also that made me reach out to an estate planning attorney that I've known for a long time to redo my whole estate plan.
I always, you know, I always thought, oh, I don't know. Like Tom Hegna says, every day is a Saturday. Well, it kind of is. But even on Saturdays when you're just playing, you still have people are going to call you and ask you, what are you doing about transitioning your business? Because, you know, we're both on the golf course together and say, well, I got I don't really know.
Well, you can't say, I don't really know. This is your world. So, so I, I've taken my own advice. And when we formed this new LLC, we went ahead and we opened up the box to say, okay, new, wills, new trusts, new corporate structure, making sure everything is in order. And I've seen that with my other clients who have died and didn't have their stuff in order.
And the nightmare that that gave to the surviving spouse trying to go through all these things, everything from passwords and account numbers and everything else in accounts receivable and payable and who's where, it's important to do that. And and again, it's an opportunity to talk to the clients that I currently have. What are you doing about your estate plan. Because I'm doing it and I'm in it actively.
Zack Huels 14:20
So I'm curious about something, someone that's been in the industry as long as you have. I imagine that the succession planning, there's a lot to pass on. And to that, a lot of knowledge in your head that you can pass on to that person. But then it reminds me of something you mentioned earlier when you said, I would have loved to have started. Now, you know, like the being in the business, if you could just start right now, what it would be.
So what do you think that would look like for you as someone who has those natural skills to be in this business? What sort of things are you excited about that some of the agents could take advantage of in today's modern world?
John Davidson 14:55
Well, let me give you a little background perspective on that. I mean, Tom, Tom Curry had a great line one time. He's running for secretary 100 years ago a long time ago. And his line was, you can't go back to a place that doesn't exist anymore. You know, as great as it was to have those interactions with people and rubbing shoulders and going to monthly local association meetings and going to the national conferences and looking forward to seeing everybody.
That just doesn't exist in the same way. But to your point directly is the technology for me is exciting. I love the technology challenge. I love to be able, for example, I'm heavy into AI right now. I'm doing little.
I use AI in a lot of things. And what I do is I have a couple of apps that I use everyday use like ChatGPT, and you have people who are using gamut app, which is a kind of a cool one for presentations. I'm involved with a couple of groups here in Southern California. Have a Saturday Bible study group. You guys get out there and I'll look up something.
We'll have a topic and I'll hit an eye. And all of a sudden it lights the whole thing up and I go, wait a minute, I gotta and but you have to check it. You can't just go on. If you've got to make sure that is this. Where's the source coming from?
And if we don't do that and know that we're doing that, we know our clients are going to do that. You've got to be on that same energy level. You got to be on that same intellectual level, knowing where to find the information. If you don't have that drive, find someone in your business that has it and let them run with it and educate you and your staff on how this works. It's exciting.
You could. The time savings is tremendous. The trade off is people are going to be losing jobs. Unfortunately, I think in that perspective there. So the other thing it made me think of is, you know, the one thing about our industry, other than using products as a commodity, it's pretty much required.
People aren't saying knock on the door and say, okay, I want to buy this because I've looked it up on the internet. That. That's again, that's a conversation starter. But they want to have that relationship. Again it's too easy to have a transaction.
And I think with time being the most precious commodity we all have, people will want to have people who will just press the pause button. And let's bring this down to a more a gut-level discussion about what's important to you. You can always find out anything that the backup support on I. But the technology stuff Zack for me is just I love it. I love learning and sometimes I have trouble trying to make the theme colors match. I don't know, but I know what I'm looking for and I can measure it against actual, you know, historical experience of what I know about stock market.
And I know about, you know, trends in the industry, things of that nature. But things are changing quickly, and you have to stay on top of it.
Zack Huels 17:28
Yeah, that's for sure. And, you know, maybe this is a dangerous tangent for me, but with I, I've, I've had this optimistic viewpoint for a little bit that sure, we might be losing jobs because of AI in the future. We don't know that for certain yet, but we also don't know what sort of jobs will come about due to AI. You know, if major changes are happening in our landscape because of it, who knows what will exist? I mean, if I wasn't part of our conversation or daily lives five years ago, then who's to say that a bunch of new opportunities won't be there for the everyday person in those five years too?
So it's interesting. It's it's very, very interesting time right now, especially for those that are younger, trying to get started in the business I agree.
John Davidson 18:12
Yeah. It's really kind of fun because some of the other the mainstay companies in northwestern, some massive guardians, those, those career agencies are still out there and they preach that high touch, high touch, high touch. And then they back it up with a high tech with the high tech. And there's a win-win for everybody in that environment there. But again I think when you when you find out what's important to people, you're going to find that that's going to span all sorts of generations in time, and that the at the end of the day, I think everybody wants to make sure that they're not going to be a burden to their children as they get older.
They have their affairs in order. Their business is going to have a succession plan set up in a timely manner, and it's going to be funded with insurance if at all possible. So that's a discussion starter. We'll see where it goes. And you know people like Sophie Taylor. I watch his stuff and he's got a phrase he says, you know if you've got a plan great.
If it's working for you, great. If it's not, let's talk about something you do. And then he says, let's get started. He does it. So it's like you're using that high touch and high tech at the same time. Beautiful.
Chris Gandy 19:12
You know, it's it's evolution, right? I mean let's call it what it is. It's evolution. Our AI allows for us to evolve a lot faster. At least the knowledge before you know there was there was we have to go test it and we have to test it.
Ten 1120, 20, 20,000 times to make sure that it worked. And then we can roll it out. Well, that's changing, right? Because I allows for it to do the testing or for it to bring best practices together for the purpose of, of the industry. You know, talk to me a little bit.
Let's rewind the tape then. Okay. So as an advisor, 2025 has been a very interesting year so far. So a new president comes in. And this is not in our specific situation but new president comes in.
It's not the first time John you've seen a new president come in kind of what are you saying here? What are you saying to your clients or what are you doing as an advisor to make sure that your clients are open and aware to to what's happening in the political environment at that time. So we're going to kind of break down the year a little bit. So year started first 90 days is, you know, every president comes in and says, oh, my first 90 days is going to be a, b, c, d e f g. Right.
So you're advising your clients now or giving your talking to your clients? What are you sharing with them after the first 90 days? And then how are you preparing them, or how are you preparing yourself to continue to grow your business in light of what's happening in the political space?
John Davidson 20:55
Let's just let's just say I if I again, if it weren't for NAIFA, I couldn't do things the way that I'm doing them, having been, you know, so heavily involved in the advocacy for with NAIFA for so many years, learning to find common ground with whoever I'm dealing with because our products are non-partisan and economics affect everybody. It's easy for me to make that transitional conversation. And again, anytime there's a new event or a 24 hour news cycle that stirs somebody's emotions, whether it's a financial thing or whatever it is, that's a starting point to have a discussion with your clients. I think that you can look at that and say, gosh, did you see what they're doing? This big, beautiful bill in the Senate and all these little hurdles are jumping over, back and forth and stuff like that.
And they say yeah. And then they'll usually tip their hand and say, well I think it's going to be great because they're not going to tax tips and they're not going to tax Social Security. You know, for the people that I'm talking to also and it's like well, you know. Yeah. But what are you going to do with that extra money?
Because right now we're paying 85% of the Social Security benefits are being taxed. And if you're making if you're getting 60 grand a year or whatever it is on your Social Security between yourself and your spouse, 85% that's been taxed, well, now it's not going to be. So what do you do with that extra money? Do you have a particular cause that you want to help support? Do you have children or grandchildren?
You want to do funding for their education or you want to? Do you want to buy a piece of property? What do you want to do? Let's talk about what you want to do in the window of time that you have left on this planet. So I find every opportunity I can to talk to whoever about that and also ask him.
I said how? My first question is, how will these potential changes to the reconciliation of the budget. The big beautiful budget or whatever it is. How is that going to impact you? And a lot of times they don't really know.
They hear sound bites. And depending on who you're talking to, even if it's your CPA. I also look for that as an opportunity to ask them for referrals. Who do you know that you're talking to that I should be engaging with? Who's going to have a beneficial amount of money left over from this new build when it goes through?
Okay. And I have to put that against the backdrop of tomorrow in California. We're having a 65 cent a gallon gas tax added to the already existing ridiculous amount of gas costs for gas. So all three of my boys have Teslas. I haven't got a Tesla, but they went.
I bought a new one. So anyway, I'm just saying there's opportunities there for everything. When you look at current events and bring them up as a topic of discussion.
Chris Gandy 23:23
I wonder, I wonder though, the first 90 days you say, okay, it's like the space shuttle taking off. We're going to use 9,990% of all our energy in the first 90 days. Right. So now we get into the dog days of summer, right? How are you adjusting your approach during the dog days of summer?
Both for you to stay motivated, come to the office, do everything you need to do, work with your clients, and also to keep your clients motivated with what they said was important to them that they wanted to accomplish those two things. So what are you doing to stay motivated? And two, what are you doing to stay on track and stay disciplined to the things you know are necessary to be successful?
John Davidson 24:04
Yeah, it's interesting. Early in my career, I used to keep a yellow sheet of paper and put a person's name on there, the current situation with their family or business, whatever it is, and then a type of product that I thought might be suitable for them if they needed to have more life insurance, or this newly married couple get some term insurance, get a block of insurability to protect their future. Somebody who has just graduated as a CPA or whatever, a doctor and get them disability and business overhead. So I keep a list of that and I've actually carried that over. I've tried different systems, the one card system and all the things that you could possibly work.
Find what works for you. And what I do, Chris, is I every week I'll put down a list of people and I will make the calls. I will make the calls. And the old adage is they either buy or they die. For me, it's the relationship and it's the long standing relationship.
I say I have this one particular doctor, doctor client. He's been busy, busy, busy. And he's I went to see him. He went, he said, hey, I'd like to get together with you to get that disability insurance. But my family and I are going to Europe on a vacation for two weeks.
Okay, well, I'll see you when you get back. So my dance card is now full for the month of July. For all these people that took off right after vacation. And while unlike when I was younger, when I had, you know, three kids at home and they had college, we had all this stuff going along with those expenses. I've I've been very selective on who I'm seeing and when I'm seeing it, and it's just like you'll find out when you assume the role of president of NAIFA, when you're in front of people and you have a specific message you're delivering, people will respect that because you're respecting their time and you're they know you're not there to to just chit chat.
You're there to make a difference and people respect you. And so you're going to find like I did, my closing ratio is over 90%. And it always has been. Didn't used to be but it is. And the other thing I learned is that I don't carry forward what we call the China eggs where you have.
Well I think this person should well talk to them, ask them, don't just put a bunch of names on a piece of paper and say, well, I'm going to have X amount of premium if I sell all this. Well, you're not going to first of all. And secondly, be realistic about it. The last part about that is I became what's called either a systematic premium hunter or I became a product specialist. And depending on the month.
So for example, there was a time when Prudential had a cash long term care policy with zero day elimination period, unlimited lifetime benefits, and a 5% compounding with no cap. And I found out that that policy was going away because there's no way they could properly price this thing. I sold 22 of those policies in ten days to my A-list clients. 22. That's a product specialty.
And I will tell people we don't know how long this is going to stay in force and how long it's going to be available. I would get it. Now, this is a once in a lifetime. And if you don't want it, I'll go to the next person. And I did the same thing.
I tell people I've been waving the banner. And if you look back on you go back to 1980. No, 1990, 1999, 2000. I gave a few speeches at the time when I was state president in California about losing the tax, favorable treatment of life insurance and annuities. I hope it never happens, but there's precedent.
And in our current economic climate, we're sitting at $37 trillion in debt right now and growing every day. I ran for Congress back in 2010 and that debt was $12. It was 1010, 12, 12 traded in 2010. It's now $37 trillion. We crossed the Rubicon a long time ago.
So the government has limited places where they can get money, right? They can raise taxes. They can cut and modify benefits and programs, or they can remove the tax. Favorable treatment of those who have it or do means testing or some component of that. And I happen to think, I hate to say it, that that's going to happen in the future.
You're going to find people once they say you have a threshold of X amount of dollars, you have an assets or earning, you're not going to be eligible for Social Security at all. Or if you are, it's going to be pushed out to age 72.5 or whatever. I think something like that is worth a discussion. And so I actually I wrote an article for California magazine that I'm going to give to Shay today at lunch that talks about a Social Security safety net that you can create by purchasing a permanent life insurance policy, like $1 million or whatever. The number was half a million.
A million. And you you buy the policy when you're in your 50s or even up to age 60, and you know that that money will be there in the event that you become ineligible for Social Security or you you die and your wife has to take the lesser of this, only half of what you're going to get, and you've already taken that safety net and put it in control where you can control it. So I've done that, and I've sold that a lot because people see all they're doing is repositioning assets. We're not asking you to spend any money. You're sending money down the road to that future retired person you're going to be someday.
So the money will be there when you get there and you have complete control. Just getting creative. Looking again at current events of what you see the future in the next 5 to 10 years. And I want you to keep working hard because I need that Social Security income, because I get a lot of golf outings. I want to take my kids.
Zack Huels 29:19
You know what? I'll do my best. But I really like that because it's life insurance is a tool that already encourages those to think about things long-term and what could happen down the road. And I don't hear people too often talk about what it could happen. You know, a lot of times life insurance like what could happen to me personally.
But in that case, you're thinking, what could happen to the way our government is set up, you know, with Social Security? And it's like, what could happen if that's not there? And so it's kind of outside perspective thinking outside of, you know, because life insurance can be so personal to people. You know, they think they're invincible. They're never going to die.
But if you tell them, oh, well, money, especially nowadays, money and government might not be there. So it's interesting to think about that perspective for sure.
Chris Gandy 30:02
It goes to say show and say that, you know, we all are dealing with a lot, right? In first 90 days we have inflation that is somewhat unhinged, right? It's a little unhinged at this point. And. so.
So, John, I'm gonna ask you some questions. Tell me your perspective. What are you telling people about or sharing with people about these inflationary times? You know, everybody wants to go by. You know, people haven't stopped spending money.
I see that. What do you tell them? What are you telling them in this inflationary times? I mean, you guys are getting $0.65 extra tax on your already extra tax gas. That's great right.
What are you telling people about inflationary times.
John Davidson 30:54
I'm living it with my three my three sons I have and nine grandkids now at my brain just keeps going where if it's this bad now, how bad can it really get as you go down the road, especially for home affordability? Of course, you live in California is different than living in McCook, Nebraska or something like that. In terms of cost of housing. But everything is so expensive, right? I think about my youngest son, he's got three kids, another one on the way, and they're just like, it's every day.
It's a grind. It is really difficult for them. And they're still renting a house. And as property values continue to increase and with the interest rates on an inflationary cycle upward still up in, you know, over 6% to get a 30 year fixed mortgage. You know, they can't afford that.
Their income is not keeping pace with the need to do that. And the housing market is dictating prices where it's like, are they going to move out of state and move to Texas or Arizona or Nevada or Idaho? I don't know. I don't know the answer, but it breaks my heart to do that. And now I know a lot of people in my circumstances are helping out kids just to get them through it.
And part of it is to keep them close by, you know, it's like it's one of those things, the inflation, the inflationary thing. I'm not a full-fledged economist. But I will tell you, inflation is the great destroyer of retirement plans too. Yeah. It eats away at the purchase power of all that stuff.
And so people say, well I'm putting X amount of dollars away in my pension plan that's matched by my employer a certain amount. Well, you hope you have a good economic, you know, climate when you get ready to retire. Because if you happen to happen to retire in a down market where it's really the inflation is taking place, you get a double whammy. And people like Tom Hegna are out there and they're preaching this from the rooftops, and people better start listening to that. And so the traditional.
You know, years ago when you have a defined benefit pension plan, if you work for a government, you know, you're going to have a certain amount of money when you retire. And you know what that is. But even still, with inflation that will be eroded away, that purchase power. So you have to make sure that you're talking to people about, well, what are you doing to position yourself that when you do retire, you don't have a lot of extra expenses because your Medicare, your medications are going to go up your costs for unexpected breakdowns and things in the house. You have to do repair bills, things of that nature.
They're going to eat away at everything. And those are those are future dollars at whatever the cost is at that time. And that's something you put on the table. Ben Feldman said it best when you're talking to someone about their future, you take the problem, you put it in a package and you present it to them and ask them what they're going to do about it. We provide solutions for that, Chris.
And if it means that you have to forego a few luxuries at the early part of your career when you're trying to trying to make a living and build your practice, you should do that, because you have got to show that you have the discipline to put that money aside for that older version of yourself that you will be someday. That's what I tell people.
Chris Gandy 33:52
They say, you know, there's a lot of sayings that I heard playing sports. I'm going to give them to you. Some people have said, you gotta you gotta understand the over play for the under play. Right. And you know, that's that goes a long, long ways is you gotta understand where we are now and be able to do something different.
And then I also heard over time that hope is not a plan. You're right. Our client’s clients, let's call them just people, right? People that love and care for their families. Their financial plan and strategy is hope, right?
Close my eyes. Cross my fingers I will. I don't know how much I'm going to have, but hopefully I have enough. Right. That's not a plan.
No. Right. A plan is a plan. And so our responsibility. I think we got to get back to the basics of telling everyone our story and listening to theirs to see if we can't earn their business and give them the best opportunity to show up for themselves financially.
If we don't do that, then we're not doing our job right. And so if we're not doing our job, then we should go on vacation. We're not going to do our job. Then we should let somebody else who's capable of doing it do it. So I shift gears as an advisor.
And so we talk about inflation. But I can't take my eyes off this market. I mean, the market's volatile, right? It's all you know it's what goes up must come down. What goes down must come up.
Right. It's like Burger King. You can have it your way, right? I mean, I'm not sure like there's no true economic insight. If you listen to a lot of the think tanks, the brilliant, even the economists, do you listen to them and they can't put their finger on it.
Usually there's trends, macro trends, micro trends. They look at these things they can't put their finger on if the market's going up or down or we're in bull or bear territory. You look at it each day, it changes every day. And that's not normal, right. You know.
So with that being said, how are you talking to your clients when they, they, they're, they're either a the market's up and they're excited or the market's down 20. You know the market S&P was down 18% 2025. Going into June. Coming out of May going into June. So what like what are you telling your clients about volatile markets.
What are you sharing with them. How are you how are you keeping them focused on what's important?
John Davidson 36:48
It depends. I mean, it depends on the age of the person, what their time horizon is, what their risk tolerance is. All of that comes into play, of course. A couple of things come into mind. And I've made a fortune and lost a fortune in the stock market.
One thing that I learned from that, two things I learned. One is don't get involved with things you don't really understand. And number two is it's not the timing of the market. It's the time in the market. And when you start seeing a downward trend.
You need to decide if that's the time to withdraw from that. That particular thing. On the other hand. One of my football coaches had a saying on the locker room wall. It said, don't wait for the breaks.
Make them. And that requires that you plan for things that could go wrong. And that means the stock market. And I remember very clearly we had the stock market crash. It was Rick was the schools had to be like 19 just before Y2K.
So 1998 thereabouts. And I was I had this one particular mutual fund was just absolutely rolling over, you know, 5,060% year over year returns. And it was like, there's no end in sight. It's like, this is panacea for me. Until it wasn't and I was using my cash value of my life insurance to fund his fifth year of college because I could get that out.
It was not a bad deal, you know, I could buy it or borrow from myself. And the interest was low, and I didn't have to ever have to pay it back if I didn't want to. Well, I didn't want to destroy something that's getting 40, 50, 60% each year. You know that value. And I lost all that money, and I thought, why didn't I take my own advice?
You know, was I getting greedy? And that's the other thing too, I think a lot of people see, see, see things. They think it's going to be an ongoing event and it doesn't happen. You can look at historical cycles of the stock market, bond market, real estate markets, anything like that, and kind of find out, you know, that things are going to go up and down. Look at an eight year trend specifically in real estate here in California.
It's like, okay, you never see a downturn over there and there's a catch up. And now we're in uncharted territory. But. Again, don't get involved with things you don't understand. If you don't have the risk tolerance for it, don't play it.
Don't put money out there you can't afford to lose. And also start with the basis of having a solid life insurance portfolio. And again, I commend the business. Before there was such a thing as universal life. Actually they were just coming out with it in 1980-81.
E.F. Hutton had that and went with gosh. Everybody started jumping on MassMutual said, is this a life insurance policy or is it term insurance with a side fund at the current rate? So whatever. Permanent life insurance. If I could go back today as pedestrian as it sounds, I would sell tons more of permanent whole life insurance with a dividend paying company and a lot more disability insurance, because those are the two products that when I see a client, they say, thank you so much.
And even back in the times when you could overfund the life insurance up to the limits, they didn't even have MEC limits. Chris, you could overfund it. Premium could be seven grand, you could put ten grand more in there. And the internal rate of return in the out years, about 30 years down the road, is like 9.5% year over year with no risk and a life insurance policy that takes off. I had one of those in force until I found out that they just somebody twisted it out of there and put it in an annuity.
This thing was this thing was getting the, I think the dividend on the policy was somewhere like $70,000 that year. 70,000. We bought it when the child was seven years old and now she's 47. And they. But the people who want they're looking at this money.
So I'm just saying don't get involved with things you don't understand. And then. Then shame on me for not staying involved, involved with that granddaughter's life insurance these many years later. And that thing happened. But there's opportunities out there still for us to make a difference in people's lives, to give them a guarantee so that they don't have to come and stay with their, their, their, their children.
They can come to visit and then they can go home. They don't have to stay there.
Chris Gandy 40:58
Well, John, we've got the tale of two tapes, right. And so, you know, I'll give you another saying is that one thing's for sure, two things for certain, okay, is that people are aging more and there's less people working. So how are you advising people? What are you sharing with your clients about the importance of long term care? Or what are you sharing with their kids, those professional kids that are like, well, you know, my parents might be okay now, how are you sharing with them how to bulletproof their portfolio?
Because let's say their parents have to come live with them or their parents need, need care. Yeah. You know, it's one of the most important things to for people to think about now and in the future is that my financial well-being may be based on the fact that, yeah, I have a family, but the unforeseen things from the lack of planning that perhaps our parents did or they did not do. That could potentially have us ten, 15 years with more with another dependent that we hadn't planned on. And what does that do to your retirement structure?
So share with me because we do have older people aging, right? Which means more people are going to be using long term care if they have it. Right. And we have younger people working trying to make ends meet. So.
So what are you sharing with either the families or the kids about the importance of, of long term or longevity planning or just life planning because of that?
John Davidson 42:34
Well, I have a personal story I'll share with you. I don't think we talked about this before. Matter of fact, I'm sure we didn't. But my mother in law came to live with us. She'd been a widow since 1966, never got remarried, and she was a self-sufficient, very brilliant lady and just a sweetheart.
I loved her dearly, would do anything in the world for her. And when she turned 80, she came over one day and she had some damage on the front of her car. And I said, hey, mom, how'd you get that? How'd you get that damage on your car? She said, what damage?
I said, I think maybe it might be time for you to come live with us. And so we had her come live with us. And she lived to be 93, living with us. And she had the normal things you would think of as an aging, as an aging octogenarian, I guess you'd call it 80s. In her 80s and 90s, she started falling, having memory problems and all the things that go associated with aging and a little bit of dementia and stuff like that.
But she had a small pension plan. She had no real financial issues. But it got to a point where when she had needed extra help and she had a stroke that we had to put, we had to have a long term care plan. And she had a long-term care for her, her former employer at Bank of America, who was $100 a day benefit for two years. That wasn't even worth filing the claim for her.
And so you can see with 24 hour care, you need that for the first 5 or 6 weeks after a stroke victim, and occupational therapy and physical therapy and all things. It's thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars that can totally destroy a retirement plan in a matter of a year or year and a half if you don't have the proper structure. Yeah. So I lived that. Didi and I, we bought our long term care policies when we're 50.
All cash, all cash. Prudential long term care. They don't even have it anymore. It's great. But I tell everybody and one of my neighbors this is I just thought about this.
Both of her parents at the same time. One had a stroke and the other one lived in South Carolina, fell and broke her hip. And two of them. And they went through hundreds of thousands of dollars for, for, for years, destroyed everything. It's not just the financial destruction.
It's the emotional parts you have to pay. Because these are your parents. You care for them because you love them and you'll do anything for them. But also, you have a life to lead too. You've got children or grandchildren.
You've got things going on. And if you aren't, if you aren't looking at that, the price is going to be you're going to take a second on your house. You're going to evaporate your retirement plan. You're going to take out a loan of some kind and you'll be paying for something. It's like it's like putting all your meals on your credit card.
And long after that meal has been digested, you're still paying the price. You cannot afford to do that. So you again, you take that problem, you put it in a package. You ask people, what are you going to do about it? Our money is cheaper.
Put a little bit of money over here to that one, 1 or 2% to protect the 100%. So you don't have to do that. And the other part about it is with my mother in law, the best thing that I felt was we gave her her privacy, her security and her dignity in her remaining years. We didn't stick her in a board room. Room and board place or assisted living until we absolutely had to.
And she only was in there for 45 days before she ultimately died. But we gave her all the grandchildren around her. Her children were around her great grandchildren. She had her security. She never had to worry about a thing.
And I'm going to go back to something I said real early in this interview is were it not for my involvement with Nifa, I would not know how to do that. And I'm afraid to get to tell you is that 90% of your clients out there, they're not NAIFA members because they're, they're they have no idea how to do this stuff. They need us to guide them through this, this date that's coming down the road very soon, faster than we think.
Zack Huels 46:38
Yeah, it's a sad thing because a lot of people don't. It doesn't click for them unless it's really actually happening to them, you know. And they hear stories about it and they, but they just don't they have a hard time actually comparing it to their own lives and saying like, oh, I, you know, it won't happen to me or something like that. And it's just, you know, it's a shame because it's something I went through, you know, I had to. I was a caregiver to my dad briefly and. What's a nice lesson to learn about that is that my mom is definitely going to have a long term care policy, you know, because we know what can happen.
And but if you don't learn that lesson, it's hard for people to actually make that decision themselves. So it's important that we they continue to tell those stories.
Chris Gandy 47:24
Well, I think there's a couple things that we uncovered is that even the people that tell me they're self-insured, Chris, we don't need insurance. We're self-insured. I said, okay, let's just say you have to use long term care. Whose money would you rather use yours or the insurance company like? Right.
This is a simple mathematical formula. Right? So let's just simply say, and if we put you in one of those policies that if you don't use it, the money goes to your family anyways, there is no excuse for you not to have it right. So it becomes, you know, because if you don't believe that your health can change, then get rid of your health insurance. They all say the same thing.
Well, I'm not going to do that. Why would I do that? I said, because you're not going to get sick. Like, why would you pay for health insurance if you don't need it? Well.
John Davidson 48:12
That's called a rational lies. They're rationalizing.
Chris Gandy 48:15
Yeah, yeah. Chris, I could get sick. Well, you're saying you could get sick, but what happens if you don't recover right away? Yeah, right. The bills keep coming.
Things. And by the way, on top of that, now we have you have to go through rehab or whatnot. So I have seen John. I have seen people rip through. I have seen a family that were not prepared that we ripped through.
And I was the advisor that was brought in because they were just the other advisor basically just said, you guys just go through your money. I was like, wow. So we were able to work with a family law and estate planning attorney to do a, you know, a Medicaid spend down and to still preserve a big chunk of the assets. But I learned that at NAIFA. So somebody was telling me they were like, I learned, right?
You ever heard of that? I'm like, no. I thought they had to spend all their money first and go basically broke. They were like, yes, but now you could do this. So we started talking about that with an estate planning lawyer, and it was fantastic because we were able to save we were already through 1,000,007 by the time that happened.
And for the family, we were still able to preserve almost $800,000 of the estate. So with proper planning. Right. But it was after the fact. And so if you're 50 years old out there right now, I'm telling you, and you don't lock in your long term care, I think it's one of the most important insurance policies you're going to have.
And now, you know, now that they've had it so that if you don't use it, you know, before it was you either use it or lose it. Now they have it so that if you either use it, use it or use it. Right. So either use it for long term care or you use it for retirement or you'll use it for a death benefit that goes back to your family. So there's no reason why, understanding that we are living longer.
And so it becomes our job to have that conversation with our clients and the realization that not only can it happen to you, but it could happen to you and your spouse, or it could happen to you and somebody you care about. So, John, some of the planning I'm doing with my young professionals right now is I call it you can use this, by the way, parent proofing your, your your plans. What do you mean what's parent proofing. Well, let's talk about this right. We have aging parents who in here doesn't love their parents?
I love my parents. Right. And you know, and so, you know, do you know their financial situation? And most of our parents didn't tell us because they're like, that's not your business. You know, that's adult business.
Stay out of our business. That type of thing. Right. And so we don't know until we don't know. But by then it's too late.
And so having that conversation with people about the importance Of just having this, because this will take care of our parents and give them dignity and allow for them to be able to have something, and we can remember them the way in which we remember our parents and not having to to do things for them that quite frankly, we wouldn't want to do. So that's part of our mission is to get our young professionals, our professional people to, to, to to have that conversation about the importance of protecting themselves and their parents at the same time.
John Davidson 51:33
And it's you know, what's interesting is my mom, she lived alone and she was she had nothing. She had no money. She lived in a little two bedroom townhouse in Orange County, and she just kind of stayed to herself. But she had her mother lived with her until her mother was like 96 years old. And that was my only reason my mom could afford to retire when she was like 70 something years old because she had no money and she inherited a little bit from grandma.
But my mom had some problems, but she had the thing she wanted to not be a burden to anybody. So she never called until the very end. And she said, I need your help, and I'm two hours away from her. And she called one day she says, I need your help. I can't get out of the chair, and I.
And I can't move. And that's the last thing you want to hear is something like that from your own parent. And then when she went into the hospital, we got in there and I remember being around, it was my brother and I and my and Deedee and we were there and she coded right in front of us and, and we had to make that call. Chris. And we had the conversation ahead of time.
We had the conversation that said she didn't want to have any heroic measures to maintain her poor standard of living. She wasn't happy. She had all sorts of. She had cancer and everything else. She had all these maladies.
So I think it's important to have those conversations, because when you have to make that call to not resuscitate your mom, it's a brutal decision. And I'm glad I was there, but I wish I hadn't been there kind of thing. It's like, you know, I would have been fine if somebody said your mom passed peacefully in the middle of the night and everything was fine, but, you know, that kind of thing. But you know what? It was a wake up call to me, to the urgency of having these discussions before somebody has a situation where they have a stroke and they can't communicate correctly.
So I'm just telling you, if nothing else, you need to go through the exercise today. TNT today, not tomorrow. Things happen. Automobile accidents happen. Major issues happen, health wise.
And you say, gosh, I only wish. Do you? What do you want to say? You really want to say that to your siblings and your rest? I only wish I had had that conversation.
Or it's like, in my case, with my sons. I said, okay, here's the deal. If I can't talk, I'm going to give you the double wink like this to pull the plug. And just remember, if it's allergy season, don't mistake it for what I want. You know, kind of a thing.
It's like. And so that's kind of the deal because I don't want to have my wife having to make. I don't want those kids to do it and know that we haven't had the discussion, because you have to live with the decision you make. Yeah. That's something that's something.
You know, Zack, you know, you think about it's like you don't want to live with that regret.
Zack Huels 54:21
Exactly. You know, you may hesitate. You may feel a lump in your throat. But if you can just get the words out to ask them the question. Yeah, you'll know their answer for. And you'll be good.
You don't have to talk about it again. At least you'll hear their answer and you'll know what to do. Yeah, I completely agree with you there.
Chris Gandy 54:39
Yeah, I think the hardest part we've got as advisors is not to project our desires over theirs. Right. And that's really difficult to do because in our heads we start thinking about our parents, right? And they're saying they may say, you know, my parents, I, I don't, you know, and all of a sudden when we get over our skis, the pendulum swings and we find ourselves wanting it more than they want it, right? John, that ever happened where you're explaining to a young advisor like, you're going to do this, you're gonna do this, you're going to make so much money, you're going to do that.
And all of a sudden they're just like, yeah, you know, I don't know if I really want that man, you know? And like, we find ourselves pushing in ways that one is unhealthy, but two is we want it more than they do. And that's part of what we have to do. Those that have had some success in the business is by teaching them through experience. Right.
And so you mentioned mentoring. So you're mentoring this young man to help be a part of the practice. What are some of the qualities? If we have young people listening out there, what are some of the qualities that you were looking for in him when you were like, you know what, I need somebody who I think could take this thing and run with it. What kind of qualities were you looking for?
So we can have some of our listeners start to look and see when they look in the mirror? Do I have these qualities?
John Davidson 56:14
Well, actually, and I wasn't really looking for someone that because I still thought I was invincible. And then it became a reality check when he came on the scene and asked if we could meet for lunch so he could find out about how my practice, how we built it, and why. You know, he sees our family. We're always at all the kids sporting events and art, you know, dance recitals. We have a great big family that loves each other.
We're close by and all that. And his father had died a couple of years earlier, so he was like the, I'll say, the sheepdog of the family he's taking care of, you know, he's still at home. He's got his mom there and stuff. He's got a younger brother and they're looking for that security. They're looking for the same safety net and security.
But he was looking for fulfillment I think is one of the things he had a great he first of all he was very smart. And he's 22 be 23 in December and he was a D1 baseball player. University of Chicago in Illinois. Matter of fact, he had a scholarship. So he's a team player.
He understands hard work. He's not afraid of hard work. He's resourceful. He's looking at all the stuff that I, you know, talk. We talked about the I think he introduced that all to me.
I'm going okay, well let's talk about this. He is driven because he wants to make sure that he can build that floor of financial security for other people that they didn't have either. When his dad died, it was like, okay, so here's a reality check on life at an early age that you can transition into a financial service industry where you can make a difference in people's lives. And and he wasn't talking about the money, money for money. He was talking about it for as that that that psychic income, if you will, for doing the job correctly, knowing that you've got a relationship with people who will help you, help you, help help you help them and, and and that that there's that intangible component of when you write that, that application and that people sign it and you got it in place that they feel they feel relieved.
So he was he sits on all the right things. Plus he wanted to marry me. He wants to marry my granddaughter. And I said, okay, you know, I said this last time, but it's like, if you have a vested interest in the I have a vested interest in the outcome of this success pattern here. If you are successful and you guys get married and eventually down the road, maybe kids are in the offing.
I've got now I've got a vested interest. Make sure those kids have got food and clothing and stuff and so don't screw this up. But basically, here's what you could do. And then you find ways that he could. He's actually enhancing my business practice.
And I get rejuvenated. And I'm out there doing more business now than I have in the last four years combined. Because I can do it. Falling, you know, falling out of bed just like this is how you do this stuff. And he says, well, how do you know what to say, when to say it?
I said, well, that's experience, you know? And part of that comes to that mentoring thing, which I don't say I was prepared for it. I know I'm not a good manager. I like to think that I'm a decent leader because I have the experience from an early age, but I'm seeing results all around the place with him. He's just he and he called me yesterday.
Hey, can we meet for lunch tomorrow? He's on it every single day. He's passionate about what he's doing. He likes to see the outcome. He has a goal.
He has a plan. Campbell and him have talked about their plans together, what they want to do. And he's not turning back. He's going Mach two and he'll be a successful young man. And if I can have anything to do with his success, I told him I will throw all my resources and connections behind you 100%, and they all deal with NAIFA members around the federation.
I think you may have met him, Chris. You'll meet him if you come out here to E3 again. Just a great young man. Just a great young man. So for me, that's the other thing too.
It allows this legacy of mine to continue. And he can work with, you know, my sons and other there. And they can keep this, you know, this Davidson insurance practice running for another 50 years if they want or they change it to whatever they want to do. But people will still be taken care of.
Chris Gandy 1:00:20
John. We've come to time, man. I told you, it happens fast.
John Davidson 1:00:24
It does? Yeah. Life has a way of making us all a little bit older.
Chris Gandy 1:00:29
We do appreciate you always. And thank you so much for sharing your words of wisdom on, on, on, on our podcast. Because we were talking earlier. And if my computer doesn't, doesn't serve me right. We were talking earlier and we were talking about sayings and kind of slogans, which was kind of interesting.
So while we were talking, you know, I pulled up common sayings that are out there. I just wanted to see John, how good you were. So, Zack, our speed round today.
John Davidson 1:01:09
Oh, boy.
Chris Gandy 1:01:09
We'll see if we can stomp, stomp, stomp stomp, Mr. Davidson today. So I'm loading it up here. I had it on my screen here.
John Davidson 1:01:18
That's not fair.
Zack Huels 1:01:19
Yeah. I'll get a chance to steal. Right.
Chris Gandy 1:01:22
You'll get a chance to steal Zack I like.
John Davidson 1:01:24
All right.
Chris Gandy 1:01:25
So we are going.
John Davidson 1:01:26
These are company slogans okay.
Chris Gandy 1:01:29
Company slogan. So we were having a conversation before we got on here about just some sayings and and and this is updated as of 2025. So we'll see how far we get. And let's have to have a little bit fun. Okay.
All right. So with that being said, let's let me get let me pull up this one because this one looks great. All right. So let's start off. You ready John?
John Davidson 1:02:03
Fire away.
Chris Gandy 1:02:04
All right. Here we go. The happiest place on earth.
John Davidson 1:02:07
That's Disneyland.
Chris Gandy 1:02:09
That is right. So, John, I'm going to give you a point on that. Zack.
Zack Huels 1:02:14
Oh, I'm. We're going back and forth. Okay? Yeah.
Chris Gandy 1:02:17
Zack. Just do it.
Zack Huels 1:02:18
Nike.
Chris Gandy 1:02:19
Yes.
John Davidson 1:02:20
That's such a cream puff. That is.
Chris Gandy 1:02:22
A11111. All right. All right John. You ready? Yes.
Five wins the original. If your grandfather hadn't worn it, you wouldn't exist. Ooh.
John Davidson 1:02:38
I've never heard. I've never heard that. It must be from somewhere in Illinois. Or The Oshkosh? Maybe.
Chris Gandy 1:02:47
Nope. All right. Zack, you get a chance to steal.
Zack Huels 1:02:50
If your grandfather hadn't worn it, you wouldn't exist.
Chris Gandy 1:02:53
If the original. It says the original. If your grandfather hadn't worn it, you wouldn't exist. That's the slogan.
Zack Huels 1:02:59
Wow. I have no idea. I'm gonna say Rolex.
Chris Gandy 1:03:02
No, it is Old Spice.
Zack Huels 1:03:04
Old Spice? That makes sense. It makes perfect sense now. Yeah. That's funny.
I've never heard that one.
Chris Gandy 1:03:10
All right, all right. You ready? Sure. Mr. Davidson, there are some things money can't buy. For everything else, there is blank.
John Davidson 1:03:23
MasterCard.
Chris Gandy 1:03:24
That's right. All right, Mr. Davidson, that's two for you. Zack. The ultimate driving machine.
Zack Huels 1:03:36
Oh, no. I don't know. I don't know, I can't pick it.
Chris Gandy 1:03:41
Okay, Johnny goes back to you.
John Davidson 1:03:43
It's a BMW. I own one.
Zack Huels 1:03:45
Come on. I should have, I should have said it.
Chris Gandy 1:03:47
All right, so it's three one. Zack. Come on, man, what are you doing?
Zack Huels 1:03:51
I don't know.
Chris Gandy 1:03:52
All right. John. You're in good hands with Allstate. Okay. So it's four one.
Zack.
Zack Huels 1:04:02
I hear you.
John Davidson 1:04:03
He's on. He's on the precipice here. He's got me. He's got me where he wants me.
Chris Gandy 1:04:07
All right, so, Zack, what's in your wallet?
Zack Huels 1:04:12
Oh, that's CapitalOne.
Chris Gandy 1:04:14
Yes. All right, so it's four two, right? John can win it on this.
Zack Huels 1:04:19
He's going to. I got it, he's got it.
Chris Gandy 1:04:21
Okay. Let me give him a good one.
John Davidson 1:04:23
Great.
Chris Gandy 1:04:25
Oh, this one's hard actually. All right, John, it's in you is the slogan.
John Davidson 1:04:33
Gatorade?
Chris Gandy 1:04:34
No. Is it in you? Yes, yes, it's. That's it, that's it. Gatorade.
Gatorade? Yeah. That's it. I didn't think you were going to get that. That's it.
So nailed it. So so so. Zack.
Zack Huels 1:04:45
Well, I got beat.
Chris Gandy 1:04:46
Zack will give you one last one. Finger. Finger licking. Good if you don't get KFC. Okay I was going to say that's it.
So that's our speed round for today. We appreciate the contestants of this, this round. But Mr. Davidson, you prevail. Zack will have to study up on his slogans. Or when Zack gets his BMW, he'll know the ultimate driving machine, whatever it may be.
Zack Huels 1:05:14
He was on the tip of my tongue and I was like, I don't want to get it wrong. It'll look so bad.
Chris Gandy 1:05:18
Mr. Davidson, anything you want to share with NAIFA Nation?
John Davidson 1:05:21
No. I'm excited for the direction of NAIFA going. The. The congressional conference was a monumental success. We're building on that.
We're having opportunities right now to speak to our clients about the economic conditions that we're seeing in, in the United States. Just started. Start a discussion, find out what's important to them. Then talk to them about protecting their financial future and that of their families and their parents and grandparents as well.
Chris Gandy 1:05:50
Awesome. Zac. Maestro, do you have anything before I close this out?
Zack Huels 1:05:54
No. I appreciate your time today, John. It was great hanging with you.
John Davidson 1:05:58
Thanks. I appreciate you.
Chris Gandy 1:06:01
So, gentlemen, I'm in the process of reading a new book. I'll share it with you. It's Leaders Eat last. And it's a book on leadership and the importance of us creating culture. It's called Leaders Eat Last.
Take a look at it. Really, really, really good. Right. And the mentality and the. And the concept was in the military the ranking officers don't eat first.
The others eat first. And it goes behind the philosophy of why. And it's good. It's it's really good. And so it's service over self.
It's true. It's selfless leadership. It is around how do we get back to giving more than what we take. And so those out there listening today it's a great book. Take a look at it.
John I'll even sign it for you. So we appreciate you for tuning in to Advisor Today podcast, where we give you the voice of leaders in the industry so that we collectively can show up better for ourselves, for our clients and our families. Thanks for tuning in to Advisor Today podcast. We'll see you next week. Same time, same place.
John Davidson 1:07:22
Thank you guys.
Outro 1:07:26
Thanks for joining us for NAIFA's Advisor Today podcast series. Make sure to subscribe to get future episodes. And if you're interested in coming on the show, let us know.