Alice Tang, Advisor: Generations Serving Generations

If you know Alice, you love Alice. She will push you and make you better, gently and yet very firmly. Alice Tang started her financial advisory career in 2000, helping clients define their relationship with money and move toward achieving financial freedom using her financial planning process and leveraging tax-advantaged strategies. Many of her clients are female business owners and executives. Alice is also a powerhouse presenter using stories, experience, and a passion for everything she does to engage and enlighten her audiences. We like her take on inclusion, financial access, retirement saving, and personal success.

Alice Tang, you are an Oregon-based financial advisor working with families and small businesses.

Yes, thank you! Our firm is a multi-generation firm with team members from different walks of life, backgrounds, genders, and ages. We ourselves are working across as many as four generations with our clients, as well. You could describe us as generations of experience serving generations of clients.

My personal client focus is helping women who want to be empowered and to be in charge of their financial destiny. This includes women who are executive business owners as well as home makers.

That’s awesome. Tell us about the life of a financial advisor: what types of services do you provide?

I'll start with the business side first. For our business owners we have a retirement planning services department that deals with different types of employer sponsored retirement plans. We also help business set up “golden handcuff” plans, executive compensation plans, for key executives. This is often considered for a few executives the business owner relies on. It enables a business to provide to the key leaders with a map of financial success that aligns with the company’s success, because of the work they do and the loyalty they have to your company.

On the individual and family side, we offer fee-based financial planning and business planning.  Many of our clients belong to both worlds. Often, they have a family, and they also own a business. Succession, transition, and retirement planning are the big conversation these days. We have a lot of people asking important questions, how much do I have?  How long can it last?  When can I exit?  These are all great questions.  

Interesting. Side road for a moment: Do these conversations feel any different to you in 2022 than they did in 2019?

People are more serious in seeking advice. We see great growth in fee-based financial planning. If you are a successful executive or business owner you have been so focused in running what you're doing, that everything else is secondary.  The pandemic has made business owners pause and think. They’re asking themselves -- do I really want the same level of stress? Am I prepared for the next downturn so I can exit on my terms instead of being forced to exit on others’ terms? It makes people think more about what they really want.

Yes. That makes sense. Back to the original question!

Circling back, important part of wealth management is managing investments for clients based on their financial plan. And we help manage their emotions associated with investing that can sometimes lead to unhelpful ‘investor behavior’. Believe it or not, there are a lot of soft skills that go along with the science of client-focused investing. Finally, we also help clients with protection, which is insurance. For clients who are concerned about their financial gaps that could occur between now and when they hit their finish line and who want to create liquidity in their business succession and estate planning.  Insurance could be a helpful solution.

Alice, great context. We want to know as well; you work in a state with one of the new Auto IRA programs. As a financial planner, what did you think of OregonSaves when you first heard of it?

To be honest, I was skeptical! I thought, what is this going to do to those people who don't have a plan. At the same time, I had a chance to get to know more about the program very early on. Candidly, I recall hearing that more than half of the working population in Oregon did not have a workplace-based means to save for retirement. We recognize that they don't even go to the bank and put a thousand dollars in their IRA every year.

Looking at those statistics, we know that having the program in place creates more saving opportunities. You set it and forget it. You are auto enrolled. So at least you’ve got something going on for saving. Of course, an employee can say, I don’t want to do it. Then they can actively opt out, though, and many don't.  When they don’t opt out, they are saving.

It’s been about four years since the program went live in Oregon. What's the impact been to your advisory practice?

As you might recall that it took maybe 18 months for all the business of different sizes to get on board. It's a requirement by the state. Along the way we got questions from businesses that we work with asking, “Tell me what this is. Can you give me a two-minute rundown?” They would often ask – How much can be saved in these accounts; can I contribute for my employees; can I get a tax deduction.

Some businesses are happy to go with the program the state provides. Others want to do more for themselves and their employees. That gives us the opportunity to say, yes, there are ways that you can consider contributing more and taking a larger tax deduction. Let me show you.

At that point, we can really engage with them because they're curious. The state required them to act and caused them to a closer look at their retirement plan needs. When you have somebody who's interested, it's a matter of helping them choose the best route. You may be able to say, an employer-sponsored plan might be better fit for you if you are planning on fully funding it for yourself and wanting to put some for your employees.  All roads lead to Rome.

So, one impact for you has been inquiries from your existing business owners who didn't have plans. Have you seen those turn into new business?

Yes, we have.

We want to make sure that we help the owner save, and then we work with the owner to help their employees save.  This is one of the door openers to a business. Now that the state program is here, when we are sitting down with a prospect, we want to ensure they understand what their requirements are with regard to the state program.  Then, we can show them employer sponsored retirement plans that will give them the benefit of a tax deduction and more control.

And it's not a threat to the conversation. Let's say you and I are new to each other. if I say, have you set up your retirement plan, do you want me to help you? You might say, I need to go, meaning you want to get away from the conversation.  But if I say, You're a business owner. I'm sure you're familiar with the state program. You may say, what's that? I’ll say, let me tell you. This opens the conversation because I start by helping you before we ever get into the details of what I can offer. 

We hope all our financial advisors are reading along! Alice, you have a personal perspective that supports your financial advisory practice.

Yes, in my life I have had a lot of good women and men who have helped me in my most difficult times, in the last 27 years as a then-newcomer to the US. Because of humble moments in my life, I have learned a few things. Money cannot really buy everything, but having it gives you options.

Not having it can mean you have to stick with a current situation, even if it’s not what you want. It could be, ‘I can't quit my job because I need to pay mortgage’. That's not the position we want our friends, our family, or clients to be in. Sometimes this position is made worse when people don’t have a good understanding of how to manage their money.

Other times people are sitting in a place of plenty but operating from a place of fear. I’ll give you an example. I sat with one of the top executives of a well-known company. I asked her, what is your money motivation? Her answer: I don't want to be the bag lady under the bridge. She has a lot more than she can use in her lifetime.  Still her genuine concern is, I'm worried that I'm going to lose everything.

In our industry it’s important to empower women with information and the understanding. To help them come to a place where they are comfortable with their financial knowledge and actions so that they can relax, live and enjoy life.

In addition to your wealth management practice, you regularly speak about leadership and growth.

Yes! I’m a speaker on the topics of money confidence and financial resilience. I’m passionate, too, about valuing and nurturing relationships. One of my most-requested talks is “Your network is your prosperity.”

I'm an immigrant, so I know what it’s like to arrive somewhere and know no one. I started with a network of zero. Now I have a system that helped me to build and nurture my most important relationships. Those relationships really helped me as a first-generation immigrant to prosper. [Editor’s note, Alice has an incredible network inclusive of many devoted fans.]

The system I’ve developed provides a map we can all use. It’s a small, short process that’s easy to execute if you know how. I was pleased to share this talk with Nike’s Women Merchandisers recently, and with the women of Fidelity Investments. I give talk in person whenever I can, and it works well virtually in the past 2 years too. [Want to see Alice speak? Here’s a tidbit.]

Alice, you are a ray of sunshine. We get to ask you our fun question. What are you reading these days?

I am rereading an old book. It's called The Four Agreements. Agreement one is to speak with impeccable words. Agreement two is, do not take it personally. Agreement three is don't make assumptions, rather, clarify. I know I get into trouble when I am quick to assume. And then finally Agreement four: do what you can, given what you have. On a healthy day like today, we can bounce, we laugh. We have a lot of energy. We can do a lot more. On the day that you feel you don't have much energy, forgive yourself, and be kind to yourself.

That is a lovely way to conclude our interview. Thank you, Alice.

Want more? You can follow Alice at LinkedIn or reach her by phone at (503) 654-7676. You can follow Alice’s work at BPG Wealth Management. We include Alice’s disclosure: Securities and advisory services offered through Royal Alliance Associates, Inc. (RAA), member FINRA/SIPC. RAA is separately owned and other entities and/ or marketing names, products or services referenced here are independent of RAA.

This piece was featured in the February 24, 2022, edition of Retirement Security Matters. For more fresh thinking on retirement savings innovation, check out the newsletter here.