As the stock market rapidly changes and planning for the future gets put on the back burner, retirement can sneak up on you before you know it. To help plan for retirement, local investment advisors with Beacon Associates, Steven and Quinten Wise, wrote the book “From Smokestacks to Lighthouses: Your Guide to a Wise Retirement.”
Released April 17 of this year, the father and son duo help guide readers through retirement with professional and personal stories.
“It’s a retirement planning book. It covers all the subjects surrounding people who are either heading into retirement or already in retirement. It adds a little bit of the personal stories that Quentin and I both experienced over the years,” Steven said.
About the Authors
Steven Wise is the founder and president of Beacon Associates, a financial advisory firm with a focus in retirement planning based in Maumee, Ohio. Quinten Wise is an investment advisor representative at Beacon Associates.
“We attempt to give folks confidence and clarity and retirement. Whether they’re approaching it, whether they’re just beginning it or whether they’ve been in it a while. We try to provide them with the confidence and clarity that they need to enjoy their retirement.
Beacon Associates is a family-owned and operated business; with the Wise family at the root of how it functions; it all started with Steven’s father, Quinten’s grandfather.
Titled “From Smokestacks to Lighthouses,” from their father’s forty-year career at the Chillicothe paper mill. Inside the book are stories he taught them growing up that they now use to help prepare clients for retirement.
“The title ‘From Smokestacks to Lighthouses’ is a callback to where I came from. I was born and raised in Chillicothe, Ohio and that smokestack is the smokestack at the Mead Paper Company, where my father worked for about 40 years. So it follows that transition from living in southern Ohio and growing up in a house where dad worked at a paper company to living up here,” Steven said. “Our theme with Beacon is the lighthouse. We try to be a guiding light to people in retirement.”
About the Book
The lighthouse comes to play when planning for retirement. According to the Wises, there will be challenges and setbacks, but they will be there to guide you through retirement just as lighthouses guide you to shore.
“That’s the idea of the lighthouse. It’s that guidance and that light in all kinds of conditions, calm weather, choppy weather, storms. We aim to provide that confidence and clarity that we’ve got you. We got your back,” Steven said.
The book also demonstrates the same process they use at Beacon Associates. The process begins with listening.
They sit down and speak to you about your goals, family and aspirations; that way, they can build a retirement plan curated just for you.
“The biggest thing is to get somebody that they can sit down with, who acts as a fiduciary, who’s working in their best interest… At the end of the day, I think it really makes sense to sit down with somebody and start planning,” Steven said.
Next, clients are told to rate their level of concern between one and 10 in five areas:
- Risk management
- Income management
- Tax strategy
- Health care and long-term care management
- Advanced estate planning
“We think there are five areas to be prepared for retirement. One is your investments: understanding the risks. Income, there’s no retirement without income. Social security, pensions, healthcare, Medicare, long-term care… Taxes: we believe the biggest expense of retirement is going to be taxes, not healthcare… Last but not least: estate planning… All of those areas are addressed in that book and then some,” Steven said.
Along with one-on-one meetings, the Wises also host educational events, which is what much of the book stems from.
“We do a number of educational events, we teach education classes, we do dinner events and we’ve been working in the space of retirement planning for 20 years now… It’s another way of getting your message out there: letting people know what you stand for, what’s important, what your priorities are,” Steven said.
The book is available on Amazon and you can download a few chapters on their website. The full rollout will happen between August and September.
For more information on events, the book and Beacon Associates, go to https://baifinancial.com/.
