Beck BodeWhere to Begin
October in northern Michigan is color on the hills and a shorter afternoon, and this year it was also a luncheon. On the card the Traverse City team handed to every guest was a line from Tammy Stoerkel: some of her favorite conversations start with "I don't even know where to begin."
That line turned out to be the thread through this issue. Tammy, Beth Price, and Bonnie Barley went back to the table with Michigan Girl, and shared a note from a guest at the last luncheon who found her way to the first question. Ben Beck, CFP® writes about a client who decided to ask every question she had, and about what fear is allowed to do in a decision. And in the Planning Corner, Meg Curry, CFP® explains two words on your beneficiary form, per capita and per stirpes, and a five-minute check most people have never made.
Nobody starts with a spreadsheet. A plan begins when someone decides to ask. That is what this issue is about.
In This Issue
- At the Table, Again: The Traverse City team returns to the MiGirl At The Table luncheon, in their own words
- Fear Gets a Voice, Not a Vote: Ben on love, fear, and the strategy that has to exist before the market tests it
- Planning Corner: Per capita or per stirpes? The beneficiary setting most people never actually choose
At the Table, Again
On October 1, Tammy Stoerkel, Beth Price, and Bonnie Barley took a table at the MiGirl At The Table luncheon in Traverse City, hosted by Michigan Girl founder Kandace Chapple, with Angel Costanza joining them for the day. Beck Bode was the presenting sponsor of the last luncheon, when Tammy sat down onstage with Kandace to talk about money as a tool rather than a test. This time the team came back as a table sponsor, with a tote bag and a card for every guest, and plenty of time to talk.
The program this time had nothing to do with money, which suited the team fine. Some of the best conversations about a plan start somewhere else entirely. Here is what each of them took from the room.
Bonnie Barley, Angel Costanza, Tammy Stoerkel, and Beth Price at the Beck Bode table.
Tammy Stoerkel, Client Advisor
After the last luncheon, Kandace passed along a note from a guest who had worked up the courage to book an appointment with Tammy. She sat down with Tammy and Beth and walked out thinking about money differently.
"That is the whole reason we do these," Tammy says. "I look forward to making more impacts like this one by sponsoring more MI Girl luncheons."
Beth Price, Relationship Manager
"The information was so well presented, and it was fun to see a mix of familiar faces and new faces in the room. I appreciate Kandace creating the opportunity to connect with other women in our community and keep building those relationships. I'm already looking forward to seeing who and what she brings to the table next time."
Bonnie Barley, Client Services Manager
"This was my second MiGirl luncheon, once with Beck Bode as the event sponsor and this time as a table sponsor. I was in awe of so many of the women in the room: business owners, trailblazers, women who are making things happen, just like us, whom I might never have crossed paths with but for this luncheon. We're following up on some promising connections with women whose goals line up well with the work we do at Beck Bode."
If you are in northern Michigan and have a question you have been sitting on, bring it. No spreadsheet required.
Fear Gets a Voice, Not a Vote
Ben Beck, CFP®, Managing Partner & Chief Investment Officer
Ben's latest Relentless Abandon essay starts with an idea a longtime friend shared with him: nearly every emotion traces back to one of two things, love or fear. From there, he follows that idea all the way to how a portfolio should be built. An excerpt:
Now, Vinny and I recently interviewed one of our great clients, Alexis. She's an incredible athlete, and we were talking about her origin story with us and the first conversation she and I had about 4 or 5 years ago now, and she told us something I thought was amazing. She said, essentially, "I felt totally in over my head because I didn't know anything about finance, and I didn't want to be embarrassed by how little I knew."
But then she said she made the decision. She thought, "Hey, this is too important for me to allow embarrassment to stop me from asking questions, so I'm gonna ask every dumb question I have. Dumb question after dumb question after dumb question until I understand what I need to understand in order to put myself in the best position to move forward."
I love that. Especially for someone in their 20s, fear was absolutely present. The fear of looking stupid, the shame of feeling like maybe she should already know more. But fear didn't govern what happened next. Fear got a voice. It just didn't get a vote. And that may be one of the biggest misunderstandings I think about fear.
The full essay goes on to the moment fear disguises itself as responsibility, a helicopter, 1,300 straight days of burpees, and why the investment strategy has to exist before the fear arrives.
Planning Corner: Per Capita or Per Stirpes?
Meg Curry, CFP®, Director of Financial Planning
Two words on your beneficiary form decide what happens to a share if one of your beneficiaries passes away before you do. Most people have never chosen between them.
The words are per capita and per stirpes. They apply to life insurance policies and retirement accounts, and to taxable accounts if you have set up the Transfer on Death feature.
Per capita means that if a beneficiary predeceases you, their share is split equally among the remaining beneficiaries.
Per stirpes means the children of a beneficiary who predeceases you receive their parent's share.
In most cases, if you do not specify a method, per capita is applied by default. That may not be what you intend. If you want a share to pass down a branch of the family rather than across to the other beneficiaries, you must explicitly designate per stirpes.
An example. You name four children as equal beneficiaries, 25% each, and one of them, Child 3, passes away before you. Under per capita, Child 3's 25% is divided among the other three. Under per stirpes, Child 3's four children receive their parent's 25% share, 6.25% each, so those grandchildren are not disinherited.
If you need to make a change, log in to your accounts at your custodian and update the method there. For life insurance, make the change with your insurer. If you are not sure which one you have, or which one you want, that is a five-minute conversation with your advisor.
Schedule time to talk with your advisor →
A Final Thought
Three stories this month, and the same first step in each of them. A guest at a luncheon who booked the meeting. A client who asked the question anyway. A beneficiary form that takes five minutes to check and a lifetime to matter.
None of those beginnings were large. All of them were on purpose. We believe that is where every good plan starts: not with having the answers, but with deciding to ask. You do not have to know where to begin. You only have to begin.
Thank you for the trust you place in us, and for being part of this journey.
— The Beck Bode Team