[00:00:00] Intro: Every number on a balance sheet tells a story, late nights spent building something meaningful, the risks taken, the difficult conversations, the lessons learned along the way. But true wealth is not measured in dollars. It’s woven into the stories that we create, the experiences that shape us, and the memories that outlive us.
[00:00:21] Intro: Welcome to the Living Beyond the Numbers Podcast with Jude Boudreaux from the Planning Center. This show is not about spreadsheets and financial jargon. It’s about real conversations and powerful stories that help you align your money with your values, your dreams, and your legacy. Because at the end of the day, it’s not about how much you have, it’s about the life you want to live and the stories you leave behind Now onto the show.
[00:00:49] Jude Boudreaux: Hi everybody. Welcome to another episode of The Living Beyond the Numbers podcast. I’m your host, Jude Boudreaux, here with our director of positivity, Caleb Dale. Hello, as well as, [00:01:00] uh, the Planning Center’s Chief Compliance Officer and one of our shareholders here, Brett Lee. So, welcome Brett. Really glad to have you on the podcast.
[00:01:07] Brett J Lee: Yeah, a pleasure to be here. Excited. Never done this before.
[00:01:10] Jude Boudreaux: All right. So Brett, um, I’d love to know a little more about how, how you came to be part of the planning center. I mean, you’re a trained lawyer, only trained lawyer here, so how did it come to be that you’re working with the financial planning firm?
[00:01:22] Brett J Lee: Sure, sure. You know, I, I was born, um, in the Quad Cities area, work out of our, our Quad Cities office. Born in a small town just south of here. Then, uh, actually headed up to Chicago, uh, for law school and grad school and, uh, worked for a firm up there and, uh, during the pandemic. You know, I’m a small town guy. I have nothing against Chicago. It’s a beautiful city, uh, a truly international city. But, uh, um, I’m just a small town guy. Uh, so I, I was looking for an opportunity and during the pandemic I was allowed to come back here to the quad cities and work remotely. Um. And then I got, uh, a random, uh, email from Indeed. It was like, you know, are you still looking for dot, dot, dot? And I was like, I don’t know, am I? [00:02:00] And uh, and I clicked on it and, and the opportunity was here. And, uh, you know, I, my background’s in construction, uh, litigation, not necessarily securities law. So, so I, I, I read, I pulled up the, uh, the Advisors Act of 1940 and, and gave it a read or two and, and, uh, submitted my resume. So yeah, just, uh, not intentional, but uh, but very grateful for it.
[00:02:23] Jude Boudreaux: Yeah, no, so are we. It really great to have you here because you’re so specialized in your knowledge and you bring this great perspective to it. And for those not in the industry, in case you’re wondering like why is he reading this act from 1940? Strangely, it is still the thing that governs most of our communication with the public. So it’s not been updated in 20, or sorry, 85 years, so use a refresh, but we all still operate under these same rules. Yeah. So Brett’s here to talk to us today to help us learn a bit more about. Cybersecurity. ’cause the, you know, these threats are becoming more real. We’re seeing clients deal with them more often. So let’s talk a little bit about our firm, how we work to protect things for clients and what clients should be aware of as they think about protecting their own selves online. Sure. So, yeah. So Brett, starting with that is there’s something you think, you know, are, there’s some unique risks that maybe a higher net worth or a higher income family might have then. [00:03:00] Uh, an average, you know, household.
[00:03:15] Brett J Lee: Yeah. Yep, yep. Certainly. So, um, you know, I, I think everyone’s heard of, of things like identity theft, but, uh, but what some of those individuals face uniquely is, uh, a more sophisticated approach that a bad actor might take. You know, because they’re, they’re a, a greater target, you know, maybe larger account balances or, or, or greater access to credit. So what they’ll do is they’ll create more personalized, um, cyber attacks. And so. Uh, it does create a, a, a unique set of challenges more so than maybe the general population who they kind of create just general attacks for and, and kind of try to pick off the low hanging fruit.
[00:03:48] Jude Boudreaux: I’m a little congested, so that may happen more often. They’ll pull all that stuff out. You’re good. So do you think that’s kinda the threat landscape has changed in the past few years? Uh, especially I think with the give, you [00:04:00] know, advances in AI perhaps?
[00:04:03] Brett J Lee: Oh, sure. I I think it’s continually evolving. Um, you know, even just in the last maybe five to 10 years, we’ve seen just huge advancements in, in the sophistication of, of some of these attacks. You know, they used to be, you know, kind of the, the. The pretty obvious spam email type approaches, you know, now, now with, uh, with use of ai, you know, we’ve advanced to the point where, you know, things like, uh, not only can can emails look legitimate and, and be very hard to detect, but so can text messages and, and, and things of that nature. Um, but, you know, we can, uh, you know, we’re at a point now where we can, uh, simulate a, a voice after just, you know, a few seconds of recording. So, uh, it, it continues to get more and more sophisticated and continues to evolve and, and that’s not gonna stop anytime soon.
[00:04:45] Caleb Arringdale: What? What kind of things are we seeing? You mentioned a couple there. Are those the biggest ones still? Like email, text message, the occasional phone call.
[00:04:53] Brett J Lee: Uh, yeah, mostly email, text message, you know, maybe the occasional phone call, but I think most of this is gonna take place over [00:05:00] email or, or text message. You know, there, there might be some social engineering in there where social media, uh, is vol is involved, or, you know, they’ll, they’ll take a look at, uh. You know, they might target ju Boudreaux and take a look at his social media and, and see what information they can, they can pull out and, and what kind of, uh, email or text or, or, uh, or other type of attack that they can put together to, to specifically target one person. So the more information you have out there, particularly on socials, uh, you know, the more at risk you are of, of a, a bad actor, you know, kinda gaining control of some influential information.
[00:05:32] Jude Boudreaux: Yeah, it’s, I’ll say, I mean, it does seem that these are. Becoming much more targeted and accurate and seeing, you know, grandparents get messages theoretically from their grandkids who were visiting Ireland and in trouble. Well, so happened the grandkid was in Ireland ’cause grandkids sharing all over social media there was in Ireland. But, uh, grandma, thankfully was, was wise enough to know that uh, he wasn’t gonna contact her that way to try to ask for money. But you can [00:06:00] see how. We’re taking steps to make things much more realistic whenever, you know, those attacks are coming in.
[00:06:06] Brett J Lee: Oh, certainly, yeah, certainly. And, uh, and like you said, um, you know, the, the more you know, the more information out there, the, the more, uh, susceptible you are. So, uh, so, you know, good on her for, for being on her toes and, and paying attention and, and really that’s the, that’s the biggest thing that anyone can do. You know, as individuals, as people, we are the greatest, you know, our greatest defense. And so if you kinda just slow down, pay attention, you can actually take snuff out A lot of these things.
[00:06:30] Caleb Arringdale: So how worried should people be about this? I mean, I know we hear about it, but what really is happening to people, you know, in the world? In our world of financial institutions?
[00:06:36] Brett J Lee: I, I, it’s a very real threat. I think people should, should be aware. I mean, I think the more aware you are, the maybe less worried you can be, but. You know, but, uh, but slowing down, you know, is, is a big tool for us. And so it, it’s a very real risk and, uh, it, it’s probably our, you know, kind of the greatest identity theft risk in our industry for [00:07:00] sure. And, and like I said, it’s not going anywhere. Um, so we really gotta stay on our toes and unfortunately the attacks, you know, kind of outpace the protection. So, um, we’re, we’re always kind of, it’s unfortunately puts us in sort of a reactive spot.
[00:07:15] Jude Boudreaux: Yeah. Uh, as technology advances, uh, it certainly does seem to make it harder to stay on top of everything. So, uh, I guess starting from kind of the client standpoint, what do you think are some of the most common ways people accidentally expose some information or. Or themselves to a financial fraud? How do they put themselves in circumstances that might be unfortunate?
[00:07:34] Brett J Lee: Yeah, sure. So, I, uh, what, you know, what you’re gonna see a lot of, uh, you know, the people that you know, that, that become victims of, of, uh, of these attacks, these phishing machine, those things, you know, that they’re gonna be in a hurry. They’re gonna have something that, that seems plausible to them, uh, that creates a sense of urgency. And, you know, and that’s kinda where the slowing down comes in. Uh, so, you know, the people that, uh, that are most susceptible, I think are, in my opinion at least, are, are those [00:08:00] who, who are in a hurry. You know, and again, just thinking before you click on something, if, if you get something suspicious that you weren’t expecting, you know, instead of re responding to that, let’s go directly to the source separately.
[00:08:10] Jude Boudreaux: So. I mean, any common red flags or things that pop up? Uh, an urgency I think is a huge one. Uh, ’cause that’s always for me, like the tell, like, this has to happen right away, or you’re gonna lose your entire account. It’s probably never going to happen, you know? Sure. So, but what are, what are other red flags that people can watch for in emails or messages that claim to be from their financial advisor or the firm?
[00:08:32] Brett J Lee: Yeah, sure. So I mean, things to look out for here. Some red flags, some ones that we commonly trade on. Uh, and, and we kind of preach all the time within our firm, you know, like you said, something that you’re on not expecting, uh, it’s gonna create a sense of urgency. A lot of ’em will, you know, provide a link for you to click on, or an attachment to open the, the subject matter can, can, you know, can. Can vary, you know, quite a bit. So it’s not necessarily one, one thing or the other. But, uh, you know, we’re looking for typos. We’re looking [00:09:00] for, uh, email addresses from the sender that, that don’t match the, the firm that they’re, that they claim to be from. You know, they can’t talk via phone, email only. Let’s keep it confidential. It’s between you and me, things like that. You know, it is a secret. I don’t want, uh, you know, I don’t want, uh, whoever, my, my spouse to know things like that, where. You’re kind of being isolated, but also pressed to do something at, at one time, and not all of those will show up every time. Uh, but, but those are some of the big ones that, that should start to make you think to slow down. And let’s actually think about this.
[00:09:29] Caleb Arringdale: So we have like, on one hand we have the need for cybersecurity. On the other hand, like it’s become a huge pain. Like, I think of how many things I have on my phone to get into any of our software, I have to have a password, a, you know, a two form authentication or now like the passkey thing that’s that’s coming out. How do you balance that? Because obviously some of these things we want rapid access to, we don’t want to have to. Maybe take 10 steps to get into all of our accounts, but obviously, you know, we need to be careful. Sure. How do we think about that?
[00:09:59] Brett J Lee: Sure. [00:10:00] So I mean, if, if you’re talking, if you’re asking like how do you balance kind of, you know, quicker, easy access with, you know, with cyber protections, you know, I guess the way that I always think about it is these are for your protection. You know, and they might be, you know, they might, you might find ’em annoying, you might find ’em cumbersome, you know, like you said, you know, we have a lot of, you know, a, a lot of two factors and MFAs, you know, kind of in place. And so. To you, they might be a pain, but to like, you know, a, a cybersecurity, uh, professional, you know, they’re, they’re actually kind of a pleasure that makes us feel, feel better at night. So, you know what, how we balance that is you’re just remembering the purpose. You know, impatience is something that’s gonna get us in trouble, especially in the cybersecurity world. So remember to be patient and, uh, and that these things exist for a reason. And so, and that reason is your protection, um, of, of your data, our data, our client data of all that. So, uh, just kind of anchor on purpose is what I’d say.
[00:10:50] Jude Boudreaux: Yeah. Well, and you know, that goes even to interacting with us as a firm. Uh, so when we interact with clients, maybe share just a couple thoughts on, you know, how. [00:11:00] How do we verify identity if we’re contacting clients? So whenever there’s a transaction, somebody emails us and they want to do something, we’re gonna contact them to make sure it’s accurate. So maybe share a little bit about how that works within the firm. Sure,
[00:11:12] Brett J Lee: sure. Yeah, that’s a great question. So, you know, we have regulations, policies, and procedures in place that, you know, that, that comply with those, those different regulations and, and those regulations are built, uh, to. By the SEC that require us to have policies and procedures that, that, you know, that protect our client data. And so what we’ve, you know, kind of implemented are things that, you know, our clients will notice when they call in and, you know, they want to, you know, they, they want to move some money or they, you know, they’re emailing, they wanna move some money. We have to ask ’em some verification questions. And it’s not dissimilar from, you know, from, from what you might get if you call in, you know, to, uh, to your regular bank. You know, to get access to that account. And so that’s kinda what we do on the, you know, on, on the front end to kind of verify identity. Then, you know, beyond that, you know, we’re gonna pay attention to some of these red flags. And that goes back to, to our training as a firm, you know, everyone, everyone’s, you know, subject to that training and, and we really, you know, take a lot of pride in it. And that is, okay, is there something suspicious? Is there something off? Um, are we looking for, excuse me, unnatural, or. Or different, suddenly different account activity or client behavior are, you know, are we looking for someone whose story is changing? Things like that, that, uh, that really kind of set off the, the bells and for our team and, and they do a really good job of, of, uh, you know, of paying attention to that stuff and notifying planners, notifying me. Um, and then we, so we can take appropriate action. And again, I know that sometimes those questions can feel like a little quiz and, and I know that I always don’t answer or remember the answer to the question I set. You know, on my online banking six years ago. But, uh, but we get through it, you know? Um, but it’s, it’s all for your protection. And again, I, I go back to anchor on purpose, and I know sometimes it can be frustrating, but, uh, but just remember it’s, we’re we’re doing it for you to, to help you. Uh,
[00:12:56] Caleb Arringdale: can I, if I share a client or something that happened, would, like, is that a no no. Brett, what is it? Uh, how Matt s got an email from a client. [00:13:00] That looked totally legit except for the fact that he’s a friend of Matt s and he would, he and he used, he didn’t use the nickname that they have for each other, was the only real way Matt had realized it was, it was fake.
[00:13:15] Brett J Lee: I think that you can probably use that. Don’t say the client’s name.
[00:13:19] Caleb Arringdale: No, I don’t know the client’s name I
[00:13:20] Brett J Lee: use. Uh, but just speak broadly about, you know, that someone and our, you know, that, you know. Sure. A someone our firm that saw that. Yeah,
[00:13:28] Caleb Arringdale: go ahead. Okay. Yeah, someone in our firm, speaking of that, someone in our firm received an email from a client who happens to be a good friend with him of his, and the email looked totally legit. In fact, the person’s email had been hacked, so it was from his correct email address. But the only reason that the, the, the person here knew it was not a real email is ’cause he didn’t use the nick, the nickname that they always call each other. So I think we look at some of these things, just being really careful for this stuff. Just reading an email and thinking, wait a second. I know this person, he’s never once called me, Mr. Dale. He always uses my, you know, you know, my nickname or whatever. Picking up on little things like that actually can be a big, uh, big aid in, in being careful with your cybersecurity. It certainly,
[00:14:15] Brett J Lee: certainly, and again, it goes back to kinda slowing down and, and paying attention to the details. You know, and, you know, inboxes fill up pretty quick these days and, and a lot of people are, you know, are, are, you know. Are prone to going through them pretty quickly. I think that’s a, a perfectly natural, uh, natural reaction. But, uh, but again, if you’re, if it’s something you’re not expecting and, uh, you maybe slow down and, and think about it, so yeah, that, that’s a great example, Caleb. And again, it just points to the fact that these are getting more and more sophisticated and they’re continuing to advance. And so, uh, that happened to be a, you know, someone that, that had, who actually had been hacked, so, which makes it even more difficult. So yeah, again, just trying to stay diligent. Slowing down and thinking before you click on something can take you a long way.
[00:14:59] Jude Boudreaux: Yeah. [00:15:00] I think it’s one of the huge pluses I think, of working with a firm like ours. You know, we’re not serving thousands of people, so when somebody messages about they wanna send a wire for their renovation, I know what’s going on with that family. And so yes, oh yeah, they’ve been working on this renovation. We’ve done two before. There’s another payment coming team will still call them to verify, but it’s not unexpected. Whereas if. You know, somebody who tends to operate very conservatively, suddenly wants to wire some money to. You know, a foreign country that I know they’ve never been to, to buy some property, it’s gonna raise some extra alarms around here to make sure that we’re triple checking everything and Sure. That’s actually what a client wants to like do in this situation.
[00:15:39] Brett J Lee: Yep, yep. Certainly. And, and again, and that’s a duty that, that we owe our client and so we, we take it very seriously. But yeah, it can be inconvenience at times. But, uh, but the relationship goes a long ways and, and, uh, and that’s what, you know, I kind of enjoy about being around our advisors is, is that they, they really value that relationship from what I can tell and in my opinion. And so that, that goes a long ways towards kind of, uh, you know, [00:16:00] being able to, to have some, have enough context to, to ask the right questions.
[00:16:04] Jude Boudreaux: Yeah, certainly. So as a firm, I mean, there’s other things that we’re doing to safeguard client information. ’cause you know, if our clients are targets, certainly firms that have data on, lots of people are targets. So maybe share a little bit about how, how do we try to store and protect information on behalf of our clients?
[00:16:20] Brett J Lee: Sure, sure. So we have, uh, we work in a cloud environment. Uh, we’re not entirely paperless, but we’re, we’re pretty darn close. And our client data is stored in some places, you know, be it a, a vendor, a CRM, something like that. Uh, so what we do in our process is we have a vendor due diligence. Process. And, and that includes, you know, kind of our, our document management system. Um, and, and any other place that, like I said, client data is stored. And so what we do is we, those, those vendors that, that will have access to client data go through a, a pretty extensive due diligence process. Much more so than, than, you know, maybe just a, a, a vendor we use to, to do something non-client related. And, you know. Through that process, we’ll [00:17:00] evaluate kind of their cybersecurity measures, what they have in place. Uh, we’ll get, uh, you know, we’ll get copies of their, of their SOC two, you know, type two reports and things like that, to, to verify that, you know, we can trust these, these folks. And, and so that’s kind of the first step is kind of. Vetting who we bring on board to handle that information. And then from there it’s obviously constant monitoring. You know, TPC as itself has in it’s, you know, throughout, its through its cybersecurity program has built out, you know, systems and, uh, and monitoring, uh, that, you know, that happening full time. Uh, we’ve, you know, we’ve recently implemented, uh, you know, some EDR, uh, which is endpoint te detection response. And, and that’s a behavioral tool for our technologies at, at the end points, which are kind of the, uh, the weaknesses of, of any network. So, you know, we taken measures like that, uh, kind of, I think maybe above and beyond, you know, what, what we’re required to do, you know. To protect that client data, but it’s all cloud-based. And, and the, the folks that we use, we, you know, we trust, we trust greatly and, you know, and if anything were to happen, you know, we, we [00:18:00] have, uh, you know, response policies in place, you know, to allow to, to notify folks and, and make sure that they’re aware of, of what’s going on. So if something were to ever happen. Um, you know, hopefully it doesn’t, but, you know, worst case if it did, you know, you’ll heal from, you’ll heal from us pretty quickly and, and we’ll help you get through that. But, uh, but like I said, uh, you know, we put, uh, we put our vendors through a pretty rigorous process to be, you know, before we approve ’em and let ’em get even close to, to that kind of access.
[00:18:24] Caleb Arringdale: I kind of a tangent question for you here, Brett. How long have you been involved in cybersecurity? Geez.
[00:18:33] Brett J Lee: Uh, not very relative to, you know, to the experts walking around out there. Uh, just had a pretty steep learning curve. So about five years or so, I’ve known of it, you know, just kind of, uh. You know, in my previous firm, uh, but not to, I, I didn’t study it, uh, to the extent that, that I have since I’ve gotten here. So, furthered my education a little bit there. Uh, so really been dug in pretty deep for the last five years or so.
[00:18:56] Caleb Arringdale: Oh, that’s awesome. What, what, what have you, what has changed in the past five years? [00:19:00]
[00:19:00] Brett J Lee: Oh, everything. Um, it, it’s all always changing. It feels like Caleb. Um, but I would say, you know, in terms of cybersecurity, the, the types of attacks that, that we’re trying to prevent, you know, you, you’ve got like your DOS attacks, which are still prevalent, you know, it’s now kind of how they’re gonna get in, you know, I know Andrew always talks about, he references that, you know, the target hack and they got in through the, through through an HVAC system, you know, so it’s, it’s always evolving. They’re, they’re always going to be creative, you know, they’re gonna work really hard. Uh, you know, to, to, to try and get in. But, uh, but what I’ve seen kind of in the last few years, uh, especially maybe the last two years, is an ever evolving landscape when it comes to MFA and, uh, those type of environments. Uh, you know, so that we can securely log in and, and keep our networks secure. And then also kind of, you know, like I said, the types of DOS attacks, uh, that we’re trying to prevent and how to prevent ’em.
[00:19:51] Caleb Arringdale: What I’m enjoying here is that in, in financial planning, we have about a thousand different acronyms, and yet somehow cybersecurity has even more acronyms than we do. So [00:20:00] that’s great.
[00:20:00] Brett J Lee: It’s like, it’s like the military. Um, everything is an acronym. It’s, uh, it, it’s, yeah, it’s kind of hard to catch on to, to all of ’em, but, uh. But, uh, those cybersecurity experts that, that truly are kind of on the IT side, uh, yeah. They, they speak a whole different language.
[00:20:14] Jude Boudreaux: Oh, sure. Well, and I think there’s, it’s fascinating to me even just the, you know, we do simple things like, you know, you’re, you know, our personal devices when we get to the office, log onto our guest network and not to our main one. So it, you know, it’s another way to just say, well. One, one fewer access point for somebody to maybe try to get onto things At our different offices we have devices that are connected, you know, hard connected to the internet to monitor the traffic and see what’s going in and out. So I feel like, you know, we do some of the really practical, specific things and we check our work. You know, we get these software system that generates test emails to us to see if we’ll respond the right way or not, and you know, so as frustrating as those can be at times, it’s good that. Keeps us thinking about how this is working. It,
[00:21:00] Brett J Lee: it certainly does. And you know, there’s, like you said, it’s, it’s, it’s a lot of trust but verify, you know, kind of constantly monitoring, uh, you know, our, our network, uh, network activity and, and looking for something that that’s a little off or, or doesn’t seem right. And so, you know, we get those reports generated on a monthly basis and, and, uh. You know, and, and so we, we go, we go through those to, to look for anomalies and, and, uh, you know, we have some folks that we trust pretty, pretty good, uh, you know, to keep us on top of, uh, emerging threats. So, uh, very much, uh, for better or worse, you know, a, you know, we, we started off with kind of the high net worth individuals and they’re kind of extra, you know, kind of, uh, personalized attacks, uh, that they may be subject to. But you know, when it comes to like the general public and, uh, some of the attacks that you might see, it’s, uh. Yeah, like I said, for better or worse, it’s like running from the bear. You don’t have to have to be the fastest guy in the world, just be faster than the guy next to you, you know? ’cause they’re gonna look for low hanging fruit, and if you’re a little tough to crack and you, which you can be by just paying, you know, [00:22:00] slowing down and paying attention, then they’ll move on. You won’t be worth their time. So, uh, very much. Uh, and, and. Interesting world, but, uh, like you said, Jude do the basics. It’ll, it’ll take care, you know, maybe 80% and then you can, you can take a couple extra steps, uh, and, and shore up, uh, shore up even more. You’ll never be a hundred percent, I don’t think. ’cause like I said, it’s, uh, you know, the attacks evolve quicker than the protections, but, uh, but you can get there close.
[00:22:26] Jude Boudreaux: Yeah. So. Think about, you know, the people who are listening to this is, there’s something you think that anybody can do this week to help protect their financial information or their family online.
[00:22:36] Brett J Lee: Sure. Change your password, something that simple. Change your password and, uh, and if, if for some reason, you know, your current password’s out there, now you’re, you’ve kind of reset your, your protection. So as simple as that is, I, I think that’s something everybody listening today can do and, uh, to kind of, you know, kind of enhance their, their security a little bit.
[00:22:56] Caleb Arringdale: What about, uh, like parents with their children? We were [00:23:00] talking earlier about how sometimes they’re using children as a, as a gateway to get into the parents’ systems. How can parents be teaching the children?
[00:23:10] Brett J Lee: Yeah, so I think first and foremost, model. Model, good behavior, right? Online. Um. And I, I think open communication, having conversations about, um, you know, what those kids are doing on their phone, on their tablet, on their computer, whatever it might be. Because, you know, if you have those conversations, you know, you have the opportunity to, to educate a little bit, um, about, you know. What, what people might be asking. You know, I, I know on some, some gaming systems, you know, there, there are folks out there that, you know, they, they get on and they, they wanna play with the kids, but not really to play the game. They want to, you know, get information from ’em. And so, um, there are bad actors everywhere, but I think first and foremost, model some good behavior and then have some open talks about, about not clicking on things that they don’t know exactly what it is, or it comes from someone that they don’t know. Again, you know that that’s always gonna be, there’ll be a learning curve there and, and there always will be, but at least starting the conversation and, and, uh, and, and making kids aware I think will go a long ways.
[00:24:07] Jude Boudreaux: Yeah. That’s interesting. As you mentioned that, uh, hadn’t really pondered it before because I think, you know, kids are older, a little more aware of, of that kind of thing online, but it’s easy to get into a conversation with somebody who’s in your game and say, well, what’s like, do you have any pets? And. You know, often a security question is like, mm-hmm. What’s the name of your pet? You know, or what street do you live on? It’s things that you might know and might not think a lot about. Passing along, um, but could be used to access a security question.
[00:24:36] Brett J Lee: Certainly, uh, not, not dissimilar from, you know, like we talked about earlier, the, the information you might put on your social media. Um, you know, just sort of a supplemental, uh, supplemental attack. And, and you know, if, if, again, if you’re a high net worth individual and, and you know, and they know, you know, a lot of information about you, it makes it easier to, you know, maybe to target some, some of the kids as well.
[00:24:56] Jude Boudreaux: Well, um, realize we’re coming, you know, towards the end of our time today. So, uh, a few rapid fire questions that we’ll often like to go into, but any final thoughts on cybersecurity before we move on?
[00:25:08] Brett J Lee: Sure. I mean, I’ll, I’ll just reiterate, you know, uh, each individual is their own best defense, uh, first and foremost. And so again, just, just slow down. Um, in a world where everything’s rushed, especially, uh, you know, in an online environment, just slow down. You know, think before you click on something. Um, and, and if it’s unexpected what you’re receiving, then, uh, you know, then go straight to the source rather than, than than click or reply. But, uh, it, it’s always evolving and, uh, you know, and if something were to happen, you know, there’s, uh, you can, you can jump on. Um. Identity theft.gov, I believe, with the Federal Trade Commission. You know, and they can kind of get you started and then, you know, make sure you monitor your accounts, call your bank, all that good stuff to, to shore yourself up. But yeah, just slow down and think before you click. Awesome.
[00:25:54] Jude Boudreaux: Yeah. And if you think it’s gonna take longer to do your action, just think about how long it takes to open [00:26:00] a new bank account. Mm-hmm. And we do everything. It’s an enormous project whenever this does happen. So, uh, I think being a little slow makes sense to, to be safe. All right, so important questions now. So Brett, uh, what is your favorite animal?
[00:26:13] Brett J Lee: Bigfoot.
[00:26:15] Jude Boudreaux: Okay. Is there more backstory on that one or?
[00:26:17] Brett J Lee: Yeah. It started as a kind of a joke maybe 15, 20 years ago with my nieces and nephews. Um, my niece really got into the show about Bigfoot and she was a little kid. And, and so, um, anywhere we drive, I’d always say I saw one on, you know, out on the side of the road and then it kind of just passed through all the nieces and nephews and, and, uh, we got to a point where it’s just kind of, kind of a fun family joke.
[00:26:38] Jude Boudreaux: I love that. That’s the best kind when it becomes part of the family’s narrative, it, those things are so special, so that’s really cool. All right. How about what is the best money you think you’ve ever spent?
[00:26:48] Brett J Lee: A good question. You know, ever, so I’m gonna say the practical answer is my education. Uh, you know, that’s, but four, you know, it was expensive, but for I wouldn’t be here. Um, so that’s the best money I’ve ever spent. But otherwise, I think, you know, I, we, Brenda and I went up to see Billy Joel, which is her favorite artist, uh, for the first time in her life, for, for her birthday, uh, last year. So, uh, that was a really fun experience and, uh, and she got a kick out of it
[00:27:14] Caleb Arringdale: Along those lines. Favorite pair of shoes you own, Brett? Favorite pair of shoes? Um, Brett has an extensive sneaker collection.
[00:27:23] Brett J Lee: You know, the, uh, the typical answer’s gonna be like my 11 lows, which are like, uh, the ultimate summer shoe, I believe. Uh, but actually my, once my, my original once, um, that, uh, that were not easy to procure, but, uh, but, uh, definitely my favorite shoe, but also probably the most uncomfortable shoe.
[00:27:48] Jude Boudreaux: Fascinating. I had no idea this was part of the, part of your toolkit there, Brett. So that’s that’s great. So, uh, yeah, so I mean, on the village old side, did, was that Madison Square Garden or where’d y’all see?
[00:27:58] Brett J Lee: Uh, we were up in Minneapolis.
[00:28:00] Jude Boudreaux: Um Oh, nice. He was with, yeah, he was with Stevie Nick. So it was a really easy trip, you know, from, uh. From, uh, from the quad cities. So, um, went up there and we were just there for, for a night and JJ and Mike provided some, uh, some dining recommendations. So it ended up being a nice little night and, and just nice to kind of get away for, for a little bit, even if it was short term.
[00:28:19] Jude Boudreaux: Fantastic. Well, um, yeah, so I mean, I, I have a, I have a guess for this answer, but if I told you to go buy some happiness, what would you buy and how much would it cost?
[00:28:28] Brett J Lee: Man? Um. Well, there’s so many answers, but honestly, I think, uh, an experience with, you know, with the people I love and I, and I, I feel fortunate that, uh. We kind of have a good time no matter what we’re doing. So I don’t think it costs very much. I think it’d be, I think it’d be pretty cheap. So, you know, we have fun on, on a Sunday grocery shopping. So just kind of creating, creating those memories and they don’t have to be, uh, crazy or, or special or anything like that, uh, like a special circumstance to, to make them actually special. So it, it’d be, uh, memories and I think it’d be pretty cheap.
[00:29:04] Jude Boudreaux: Awesome. All right. So travel. Favorite place to visit.
[00:29:09] Brett J Lee: Alaska, I think. Um, yeah, and, uh, we’ve, you know, we aren’t, I didn’t grow up in like a huge travel family, uh, so I don’t have like an extensive, uh, list to, to choose from. But, uh, we spent a lot of time in San Diego with, with family down there, and that, that’s beautiful. Mostly because of the no bugs, but, uh, but yeah, having gone up to see Mike in Alaska a a handful of times, even though I’m not up there, you know, to, to do a lot of, uh, fun activities. Yet. Um, it’s just so gorgeous and there’s something about like the feel and the energy there that, uh, is uh, just kind of otherworldly
[00:29:45] Jude Boudreaux: nice. And it is part of the compliance officer’s job to visit all of our offices once a year. So, um, so yeah, so we get to get up there every year. We’ve been to 49 states. Alaska’s the one I haven’t, so, uh, that’s great. Yeah. Um, it’s every, yeah. So how about, yeah, go ahead.
[00:30:00] Brett J Lee: No, I was gonna say it’s every planner’s favorite week,
[00:30:03] Jude Boudreaux: right? When I show up. When you get the compliance inspection. Yes, that’s right. So how about a dream trip you’ve ever, never done? Is there something you always wanted to go?
[00:30:09] Brett J Lee: Jude, you inspired this actually just in the last couple of years, uh, with the trips that you’ve taken with your family. Um, I would love to. I, I’m Irish, um, like 86% or something, uh, Scottish and Irish. And so, um. You know, kind of did some research on where the family’s from on both sides. And so we’d love to go over, uh, over there and kind of travel around the country to kind of see just kind of where my family came from. So yeah, I think that would be a dream trip for us. We’re not huge like international travelers. But, uh, but that’s something that, that I’d sign on for. Um, and yeah, inspired by Ju Bore.
[00:30:46] Jude Boudreaux: Awesome. Well, my wife’s a Fitzgerald, so like they got the Irish thing, and then to Fitzgerald Castle, which is kinda just a worn down tower now. But, but there’s something about going to those places that are so tied to your history and your existence that I think is really special. So, so yeah, love to figure out how to make that one happen for you. All right, last one. Best advice anybody ever gave you?
[00:31:07] Brett J Lee: Uh, to change. And it wasn’t like a, um, like a directive, it was just, uh, um, a long time ago, you know, someone told me, you know, they always say, you know, oh, you’re perfect. Never change. Not to me. But, you know, people say that and they, they just said, you know, how, uh, how unfortunate it be to never change it? ’cause at that point you’re never growing or evolving. So, so someone, you know, a long time ago that I have a lot of, a lot of respect for, uh, told me to just make sure I’m always changing. So for better or worse, here I am.
[00:31:37] Jude Boudreaux: Yeah. Well, and so always changing and always changing your password, so yes. Um, yeah. So that’s, that’s perfect. Well, any final thoughts Brett?
[00:31:45] Brett J Lee: No, just, uh, I think this is really cool what you’re doing and, uh, you two have, uh, made it pretty easy. So, uh, just appreciate the opportunity and, and uh, if anyone has any questions, uh, feel free to reach out.
[00:31:56] Caleb Arringdale: Yeah, of course. Caleb, any notes? Again, [00:32:00] I think the way Brett said it, change your password. What a great closing, uh, or what a great, easy thing for us all to do. But no, thanks so much, Brett. This has been great.
[00:32:09] Jude Boudreaux: Yeah, absolutely. No, it, I think it’ll be really useful and enjoyable for our clients. So, um, yeah, thanks for spending some time with us today.
[00:32:17] Jude Boudreaux: So, and thank you all for listening to watching another episode of The Living Beyond the Numbers podcast. You can reach me anytime. I’m jude@theplanningcenter.com
. Caleb is at caleb@theplanningcenter.com
and Brett is brett@theplanningcenter.com
. So, um, please, uh, like subscribe. Let us know if you have any questions or anything else you’d like to see on the podcast. And we will be seeing you with another episode soon. Thanks again.
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