By Robert Medley
Managing Editor
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused many people to opt for early retirement, and it has increased concerns for their own mortality.
How to help others figure out how get by financially is the focus for two new faces at Bill Martin’s Edward Jones office in Yukon.
Bill Martin, an Edward Jones financial adviser, has announced two new team members, Rachel Earhart and Angelique Morton. Earhart and Morton are now financial advisors in his Yukon office.
“We are very impressed with both Rachel Earhart and Angelique Morton, and I’m sure our clients will be, too,” Martin said. “Edward Jones prides itself on providing the best service possible to those investors who choose to do business with us. Rachel and Angelique will help provide the high level of service investors in Yukon have come to expect from us and extend our services to new investors, as well.”
Earhart has been in management positions in her career, and she has been a market manager.
“I’ve always been in a management sphere before this. And now I get to help folks and their families and their businesses with retirement, investments, and by helping them meet all of their multi-dimensional goals,” Earhart said.
Morton has been a project finance manager for the past 10 years for Devon Energy. Both women live in the Yukon area.
“We basically help people prepare to retire by giving them great tax incentive methods to save money while working and being prepared for a goal. Say, if you want to have a million dollars then how do you get to that target while you are working when you have X amount of years left?” Morton said. “We can also help you build income so when you are in retirement you can sustain your money and keep it growing.”
She said the pandemic has resulted in people having more worries about their future, and their life.
“I think there is a lot of concern with morbidity, with COVID and everything. We are seeing people actually saying, ‘Hey, if I was to pass away, what will happen with my money? How do I conserve my money with all the market volatility?’ There are a lot of concerns, and we can be there as a resource to help with their estate and help to preserve their income,” Morton said.
Earhart said there has been an uptick in retirements during the pandemic.
“There has been a mass exodus of folks retiring early. So, we would like to speak to you before you make that jump so you can have a plan in place to know what your income is going to look like. Are you fully prepared to retire? And if something were to happen, how would your assets transition to persons or charities you would like those assets to go to?” Earhart said.
Morton said many people with a 401K plan can roll it over to a traditional or Roth IRA.
“That is basically held in-house and we come up with goals to keep it growing. With market volatility, we can’t control that. But we focus on things we can control,” Morton said.
Earhart said Edward Jones can also help smaller businesses offer retirement plans for employees.
“We also do business retirement plans. Whether you have one employee or 1,000 we can accommodate a retirement plan. This can be a great incentive right now in a competitive hiring market. So, if you are trying to incentivize folks to come join your team you can offer them a retirement plan that fits the needs of your business and compete with some of the larger corporations that will offer a 401K and those types of benefits,” Earhart said.
Edward Jones, a Fortune 500 company headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri, provides financial services in the United States and, through its affiliate, in Canada. Every aspect of the firm’s business, from the investments its financial advisors offer to the location of branch offices, caters to individual investors. The firm’s almost 19,000 financial advisors serve more than 7 million clients with a total of $1.7 trillion in assets under care. Visit edwardjones.com or the recruiting website at careers.edwardjones.com. Member SIPC.
Bill Martin, financial advisor, Edward Jones, is located at 420 E Main Street Suite A
Yukon, OK 73099. The telephone number to reach Morton, Earhart or Martin is 405 350-0234. The email is bill.martin@edwardjones.com and website is www.edwardjones.com.
