Wendy Lyon, “The Financial Lyon”

FWM: What led you to your career in financial services?

WL: I was in the field of natural health for years, and after the housing and market crash of 2008-2009, I had clients who had lost as much as $500,000 in their 401(k)s. I realized people were under extreme financial stress, and if you can’t sleep because you have more month than money, no natural remedy is going to resolve that. So, when I was asked to enter the world of financial planning, I felt that if I could get my clients confident about their financial future, I was going to have a positive effect on not only their finances, but also their daily wellbeing, their marriages, and their families – not to mention their sleep. After all, the word “disease” simply means to be not at ease in your body. Did you know that if your heart is at peace, it communicates health to the rest of your body? My goal is to get my clients calm, relaxed, and even excited about their financial future, which, in turn, gives them that heart peace, which, in turn, improves their health.

FWM: What is your core philosophy for taking care of your clients?

WL: I take a very holistic approach to my clients’ needs, wants, and goals. I am a fiduciary and, therefore, fully transparent with them. And the more transparent they are with me, the better I can look at their “financial junk drawer,” if you will, and take all those monetary decisions they’ve made over the years, bring them to light, and coordinate them to work together, causing an acceleration of wealth, rather than simply an accumulation of wealth. When each dollar you have has only one purpose, i.e., savings, that is an accumulation. But when I come in, and each dollar has five purposes or more, i.e., protection, growth, retirement, long-term care, and legacy, that causes an acceleration of wealth.

FWM: How did you persevere through personal tragedy?

WL: I was widowed quite young, when my 24-year-old husband died in a motorcycle accident, leaving me to raise and 1- and 3-year-old on my own, without having planned for the worst event in life – the death of a loved one. We had a whopping $20,000 life insurance policy. Knowing what I know now, and what the term “Human Economic Life Value” means, we should have had $1.6 million (or more) of life insurance.

Let me explain. If my husband was making $40,000 a year at the time, and for simple math, he was going to work till he was 64, the economic impact on our family wasn’t $20,000 but $1.6 million (40 years x $40,000). That’s why I really try to get across to anyone who will listen that your “stuff” – your house, your 401(k), your 403(b), and/or your savings accounts are NOT your greatest asset – YOU ARE. And that’s what needs to be protected first and foremost. Then you can build a foundation of wealth on that.

I fully believe that if you do the right thing, success will follow.

Wendy Lyon

So, if the death, the disease, the cancer diagnosis happens, at least your family can be made whole financially – not emotionally – but not having to lose your home, change schools, live from paycheck to paycheck because you’ve lost the top wage earner – can go a long way to get that emotional healing. I have five life insurance policies on my husband that I married in 2000. Trust and believe, if anything happens to him, I want to be able to cry as long and hard as I want to, and I’ll be able to do so without having to worry about money and how bills will be paid.

FWM: How do you prepare clients to best handle potential tragedy in their lives?

WL: I have dealt with tragedy in many forms – I’ve had my share of death, cancer, car accidents, and other traumas. Having that compassion and the ability to truly understand what they’re going through helps a great deal. My clients are not just clients – we often become great friends and allies for each other for the many years past and those to come. They know they can trust and confide in me about anything – not just money.

FWM: What has been the greatest personal or professional lesson that you have learned?

WL: The greatest lessons I’ve learned have all been learned the hard way. Those lessons and the wisdom that comes from them are what I impart to my clients and colleagues. I would say the greatest lesson was discovering how much I didn’t know about planning for the future when my husband died, which is why that is now my passion – to prevent others from learning the hard way as I did. Of course, that’s just the foundation. The wealth I help my clients build on top of that ends up looking more like a skyscraper!

FWM: Tell us about your proudest career moments.

WL: I have many clients who want to plan for not only their retirement and but also their children and grandchildren’s lives. That said, I’ve had the pleasure of working with young women who have the smarts to start planning their retirement in their late 20’s. For instance, one of my clients who had been raised by a single mother, had already started investing in her future and was up to $30,000 a year in retirement income. That amount may have been enough in the Midwest where she moved from, but not here in Southern California. By reallocating what she currently had in place and what she was saving each month, we were able to grow her retirement income to $130,000 a year, up from less than $3000 a month to over $10,000 a month.

Another young woman wanted me to plan her retirement. I had come to her very highly recommended, and she said she wasn’t going to “shop me,” but would place her trust in whatever I recommended. We were able to grow $300,000 into $4.1 million throughout her life – all tax free. She doesn’t have to worry about her future at all. Can you imagine the peace she has knowing she’s set for life, without having to worry about stock market ups and downs, recessions, or housing market crashes.
I had the pleasure of working with a newly divorced father of three who was putting $100 a month into each of his kids’ savings accounts.

We took those funds and put them into an acceleration vehicle, and now that same $300 a month will provide a tax-free retirement income for each of his kids, with access to cash available throughout their lives – unlike a 401(k) they can’t access without penalty until 59 1/2 – and when the kids pass away, Dad has left a legacy for his yet to be born grandchildren. All by simply redirecting what he was already doing.

In working with one gentleman who lost $200,000 in his mutual funds last year, we took the remaining $640,000 he had left, put it into a solution with a 25% bonus right off the bat, with a 250% index bonus each year (guaranteed), and in year one, his account grew to $844,561. Not only that, but over the course of just 17 years by age 86, he will pull out potentially $12,408,921 in income, which will continue till he and/or his wife die, even if they live to be 100 or more. Leaving that money in mutual funds and at the risk of further loss never would have gotten him that kind of return.

One of my clients had a son who died, leaving behind a 2- and 4-year-old. I could relate all too well. She had $10,000 for each child to invest in their future. From that original $10,000, the 4-year-old’s account value grows to $10,312,834 by age 60 and to $1,265,234,411 by age 95. Not a bad amount waiting for you in retirement – and all from just $10,000. Her 2-year-old sister’s grows to $2,673,737,423! So, let’s say it only performs at half the illustrated amount or 5.4%. (Remember, the average rate of the S & P is about 6%, so I don’t think that’s unreasonable). At that rate, she’ll only end up with a little over $1.3 billion. Certainly nothing to cry about. (So, start planning for them now, and the earlier the better!)

I get a kick out of people who are thrilled that they got a 10% return on their mutual funds. That’s great, but I get 400%, 800%, and even greater returns for my clients day in and day out – without the risk of market losses. I haven’t even done the math to see what the 2-year-old’s return was on that $10,000! I take extreme pleasure in seeing my clients’ faces light up when they see how amazing their financial future will be, all because they trusted me and invited me into their lives.

FWM: What gives you the most personal and professional satisfaction.

WL: One thing that gives me great personal satisfaction is knowing I’m making a difference in the fight against human trafficking and the sex slave trade. Although it’s topped drug trafficking and is now a $152 billion a year business with over 22 million enslaved, as the Talmud says: “If you save one life, it’s as if you saved the world entire.” I read an article back in 2006 about a pastor and his wife who went to the red-light district in Tijuana, Mexico. They wanted to see how easy it was to buy a child. After about 20-30 minutes, they were offered a 2-mont-old baby for $20. When they turned away in disgust, the trafficker thought it was because they wanted to barter. I have five grandchildren, and the thought of one of them being trafficked absolutely horrified me. That was all it took for me to want to do something to help the fight, and I’ve been raising funds as an Ambassador for Life for many years now.

FWM: How and when did you become “The Financial Lyon?”

WL: On one of the several times I was on a radio show on ESPN, the host of the show was in the top 1% of realtors in the US, a/k/a “The Real Estate Rock Star.” She looked across at me during the show and said: “You look like a lion, your last name is Lyon, we’re going to call you “The Financial Lyon.” Anyone who knows me knows how much I love lions, so I loved the name right off the bat, and I’ve been using it ever since. (Thanks Gail!)

FWM: What will people notice when working with you?

WL: What my clients notice is my honesty, integrity, and sincerity. I am an independent agent appointed with over 50 companies, with access to over 100 more. I leave no stone unturned until I find the absolute best options for them to get them to – and to far surpass – their dreams and goals. Not only that, but as I said earlier, I take a holistic approach to their needs.

I live by the creed: “Do not withhold good from your hand, when it is within your power to act.” In other words, if I can help you, then I must help you. I have a client whose husband is in the first stages of Alzheimer’s Disease. I found local resources for her, from caregivers to senior programs, because that was a need she had in her life. Heck, I had a client move out of the state, and he had to file some documents with the DMV. Guess who went to the DMV for him? Me! Who does that?! Well, I do! Does your financial planner go out of their way for you like that?

FWM: What makes you different from your competition?

WL: Some financial planners or “financial entertainers” as I call them recommend putting your money into a good mutual fund that earns 10% per year every year, (if you know of one that does that, please do tell!) and 20 or 30 years from now, you’ll have this amount waiting for you in retirement. What they don’t take into effect are all the aspects of life that will cause that straight line to end up looking more like a downward curve, such as taxes, inflation, technology, and life events, as well as planned obsolescence. Did their plan include a new roof on your home? The expense of the car you need to replace? Your kids moving back home after college? In fact, I’ve proved that if you follow their advice, you’ll be a bag lady by age 67.

When I work with my clients to put a plan in place, I don’t want to see it fall to the wayside because life threw a curve ball or their business had a bad year (or two, as in the case with COVID). My plans work in real life – not just on paper – and stand the test of time. I’m also not money oriented, where it’s all about the commission and how much I can make. I’m very people oriented. To me, it’s far more about the relationship than it is about money. I fully believe that if you do the right thing, success will follow. I also try to take the fear out of meeting with a financial professional. I think far too often, women especially feel they haven’t done enough or saved enough, or they should be farther along than they are. To them I say, don’t worry. We all make decisions based on the circumstances and the knowledge we had at the time. You can’t go back and make a brand-new start, but we can start from today and make a brand-new end.

FW: When you reflect on your career, how have you evolved?

WL: I’ve run the full gamut from building the foundation of protection on your greatest asset – your life – to college funding to generational planning, business succession planning, to retirement planning. I love all facets of it, but I really specialize in retirement planning. With 90% of retirees having $30,000 or less to their names, it’s definitely a passion of mine to prevent that from happening in as many lives as I possibly can.

FW: What are your upcoming projects?

WL: I have several speaking engagements coming up and will be filming several videos to inform, educate, and empower women (and men) so they can make the best decisions possible in the realm of finances. Women will be the recipients of the greatest transfer of wealth in US history, and I’ve made it my journey to impart as much wisdom to them as I can so they and their families can be truly wealthy for the rest of their lives and for generations to come.

FWM: Is there anything else that you would like to share with our readers?

WL: There’s so much more I’d like to share, so let me just say this. If you want to work with someone who actually cares about you, won’t judge you, and will make your financial life the best it can possibly be, call me.

If you’ve read this article and think what I’ve achieved for my clients is “too good to be true,” text DOUBT to 760.390.9380. I am happy to redact my client’s information and send proof of what we accomplished. If you’ve read this article and want to see what I can do for your financial future, text YES to 760.390.9380, and we’ll set a date on my calendar to get started.

Or, if you want to know more about me before texting YES, just Google “The Financial Lyon” or go to TheFinancialLyon.com. After all, if you want to navigate the financial jungle, you need The Financial Lyon!