Category Archives: holistic wealth and health

Episode 38: Preserving Your Heart Health to Maximize Your Wealth Part 1



Poor health can undermine even the most carefully crafted financial plan, so maintaining heart health is an important part of holistic wealth management. In this insightful episode, Jason L Smith welcomes Dr. Mona Shah, Northeast Florida’s only triple board-certified holistic cardiologist and founder of One Heart Cardiology, a concierge practice dedicated to personalized preventive cardiology with a holistic approach. 

Dr. Shah brings her 20 years of cardiology experience to discuss how a holistic approach to heart health can significantly impact your long-term wellbeing and in turn your financial security. Drawing from both traditional medicine and holistic methodologies, she shares practical strategies for reducing heart disease risk factors to help ensure you’ll be healthy and ‘wealthy’ enough to enjoy the retirement you’ve worked so hard to build. 

Key Topics: 

  • Gender-Specific Heart Health: Understand how heart disease differs between women and men and recognize the unique warning signs for each.  
  • Preventative Testing and Monitoring: Learn which key health measurements to track and how modern testing can detect heart issues before symptoms develop.  
  • Exercise for Heart Health: Discover the ideal balance of strength, cardio, and flexibility training to maintain heart health and muscle mass as you age.  
  • Nutrition Strategies: Explore heart-healthy eating patterns that support cardiovascular wellness without sacrificing enjoyment of food.  
  • Stress Management for Your Heart: Learn practical techniques to reduce stress and its impact on your heart health and overall wellbeing.
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Episode 37: How to Prepare for Tax Season with Less Stress



Learn how to prepare for tax season with less stress with insights directly from JL Smith Holistic Wealth Managements’ experienced tax team. This episode, hosted by Bryan Bibbo, features Jeff Warnkin, CFP, CPA, NSSA, BPC, Senior Wealth Management Advisor, with over 25 years of experience and a master’s in taxation, and Kelli Knudsen, EA, Controller and Enrolled Agent at JL Smith who leads the tax division. 

Listen as Warnkin and Knudsen share practical strategies to simplify your tax preparation process and help you make informed decisions about your filing. They’ll walk you through how JL Smith’s holistic approach to wealth management helps prevent tax-time surprises while keeping you on track with your financial goals. 

Key Topics: 

  • Document Organization: Discover effective ways to gather and submit your tax documents using both digital portals and traditional methods 
  • Filing Status Benefits: Understand how to choose the best filing status for your situation, including special considerations for life changes and dependent claims 
  • Security Measures: Discover important steps to protect yourself from tax-related identity theft, including the value of IRS Identity Protection PINs 
  • Strategic Planning: Learn how incorporating tax planning into your wealth management strategy helps you prepare better and save more throughout the year 

Episode 36: Protecting Your Wealth from Cybercrime with Identity Fraud Investigator, Carrie Kerskie



As technology like AI advances, so do the methods criminals use to compromise your financial security. This essential episode, hosted by Jason L Smith, features the return of Carrie Kerskie, a certified identity fraud investigator and author, who shares proactive, sophisticated strategies to protect your wealth today.  

Listen as Carrie Kerskie, founder of the Kerskie Group, provides actionable strategies to protect your wealth from emerging cyber threats while maintaining the convenience of modern financial tools. 

Key Topics: 

  • AI Security Protocols: Learn how to safely leverage AI tools for business productivity while protecting sensitive financial information and maintaining data privacy 
  • Modern Identity Protection: Master the three-part framework of prevention, awareness, and recovery to safeguard your wealth from sophisticated cyber threats 
  • Digital Privacy Management: Understand critical vulnerabilities in everyday technology, from smart vehicles to mobile applications, that could compromise your financial security 
  • Fraud Prevention Strategies: Implement the “privacy pause” methodology to prevent financial fraud and protect against social engineering attacks enhanced by artificial intelligence

Episode 35: Making Financial Education Accessible: Free, Trusted Retirement Learning Through AFEA



As you plan for retirement, finding trustworthy, unbiased financial education becomes essential for making informed decisions. At JL Smith Group, we’ve partnered with the American Financial Education Alliance (AFEA) for nearly a decade, serving as chapter presidents across Northeast Ohio and Jacksonville, Florida, to help provide this education. 

In this illuminating episode, Bryan Bibbo welcomes Katherine Lesch and Kaeleen Bruce, AFEA’s dynamic co-CEOs, to share how their nationwide network of vetted financial professionals helps you master essential retirement concepts in a comfortable, pressure-free environment.  

Key Topics Discussed: 

  • Community Financial Education: Learn how AFEA and local advisors like JL Smith Group deliver unbiased retirement education through trusted venues, focusing on essential topics like Social Security and Medicare  
  • Educational Excellence: Understand the rigorous vetting process ensuring only qualified professionals teach courses, maintaining the highest standards of unbiased education  
  • Practical Learning Experience: Discover how 2-2.5 hour courses in comfortable community settings make complex retirement topics accessible and actionable  
  • Beyond the Classroom: Explore how this educational approach helps you build confidence in your retirement planning decisions, whether or not you choose to work with an advisor  

Episode 34: Exploring How Financial Intimacy & Attachment Styles Build Healthier Money Relationships 



Navigating finances within relationships can be a complex and deeply personal journey. In this episode of the Holistic Wealth & Health podcast, co-host Jason L Smith is joined by Ed Coambs, CFP®, founder, trainer, and therapy informed planner of Healthy Love & Money. Ed bridges the worlds of financial planning and relationship psychology, offering a transformative approach to understanding how our emotional and relational patterns influence financial decision-making. 

Join us as we unpack strategies for fostering financial intimacy, overcoming money-related conflicts, and creating a balanced approach to wealth management that supports your emotional and financial health. 

Key Topics Discussed: 

  • Understanding Financial Intimacy: Learn what financial intimacy means and how it fosters transparency and trust in relationships. 
  • Attachment Styles and Money: Discover how attachment styles—secure, anxious, avoidant, and disorganized—affect financial decision-making and conflict resolution. 
  • Overcoming Financial Trauma: Explore methods to recover from past financial setbacks and rebuild confidence in managing money. 
  • Balancing Risk and Emotional Comfort: Strategies to align financial decisions with personal comfort levels and long-term goals. 
  • Practical Exercises for Couples: A simple yet powerful exercise to improve financial communication and connection in relationships. 

Episode 33: The Family Estate Organizer™ – A Guide to Preserving Family Wealth & Harmony



Join co-hosts Jason Smith and Bryan Bibbo as they unpack the essential role of The Family Estate Organizer™ (FEO) in creating a seamless wealth transfer strategy.  

Through compelling real-world examples and decades of experience, they reveal how this powerful tool transforms complex estate planning into an organized, manageable process that provides peace of mind for your entire family. 

Key Topics Discussed: 

  • Document Organization Mastery: Learn how The Family Estate Organizer™ is used to create a centralized system for managing crucial financial, legal, and personal documents. 
  • Tax-Smart Asset Management: Master the organization of pre-tax, post-tax, and tax-favored investments to optimize inheritance outcomes for your beneficiaries. 
  • Legacy Planning Integration: Discover how the FEO seamlessly connects with The Bucket Plan® methodology to create a comprehensive wealth transfer strategy that aligns with your values. 
  • Crisis Prevention Protocol: Understand how proper document organization prevents common estate planning pitfalls and ensures immediate access to critical information during emergencies. 
  • Succession Planning: Learn the step-by-step process for ensuring your wealth transfers efficiently to the next generation while maintaining family harmony. 

Episode 32: What is Functional Medicine? Holistic Healing Explained



Do you want to learn how an approach to health not solely reliant on pharmaceuticals can improve your longevity and quality of life? In this episode, Jason sits down with Dr. Robert Saper, holder of the Nancy J. and Michael F. Roizen Chair of Wellness and the Chair of Preventive Medicine at the Cleveland Clinic. Dr. Saper, a specialist in integrative medicine, shares his vast knowledge on the intersection of functional medicine, wellness, and preventive care. With over 80 peer-reviewed papers and more than 200 lectures globally, Dr. Saper explains how functional medicine addresses chronic conditions by focusing on the root causes rather than just symptoms.  

 

Key Topics Discussed: 

  • Defining Wellness and Functional Medicine: Understand the role of wellness in all aspects of life and how functional medicine addresses systematic imbalances to resolve chronic health issues 
  • The Role of Lifestyle Changes in Health: Learn how making intentional lifestyle adjustments can significantly improve chronic conditions and overall health 
  • The Power of Purpose and Meaning: Find your “why” to enhance health outcomes and longevity 
  • Integration of Medicine: How the Cleveland Clinic combines functional and wellness medicine with traditional Western practices to provide a holistic approach 
  • Evidence-Based Research: Learn through Dr. Saper’s research the importance of yoga to a growing body 

Episode 31: Investment Fundamentals – Understanding Market Dynamics and Portfolio Diversification with Apollo Lupescu



Are you worried about making the right investment choices for your retirement? Join host Jason L Smith, and special guest Apollo Lupescu from Dimensional Fund Advisors, for a conversation that takes the mystery out of investing.  

Whether you’re already enjoying retirement or planning for it in the next few years, this episode breaks down what you really need to know about protecting and growing your nest egg in today’s complex market environment. 

Key Topics Discussed: 

  • Investment Fundamentals: Learn why having a comprehensive financial plan is crucial before selecting specific investments 
  • Risk Management: Understand the difference between “smart risks” and “dumb risks” in investing 
  • Global Diversification: Discover why international exposure matters, with the U.S. representing 61% of global market value 
  • Market Timing: Why “time in the market” beats “timing the market” – supported by 50 years of market data 
  • The Bucket Plan® Strategy: How The Bucket Plan® philosophy of separating investments into Now, Soon, and Later buckets helps create peace of mind for retirement 

Episode 30: Meditation, Breathwork & Living Life Fully: Insights & Advice from Aneta Kuzma



Join host Jason L Smith and special guest, Aneta Kuzma, a meditation and wellness coach, and CEO and Founder of Ardelian Kuzma Group, LLC.

With her transformative approach to mindfulness and breathwork, Kuzma shares how creating moments of stillness can protect your wealth by improving decision-making, reducing stress, and enhancing your overall wellbeing.

Key Topics Discussed:

  • Morning Routine Success: Learn how to build a sustainable meditation practice using the Atomic Habits framework, starting with just 3 minutes a day and simple steps like “feet on the floor.”
  • Breathwork Benefits: Discover how specific breathing techniques can release stored trauma, reduce stress, and create profound transformative experiences comparable to therapeutic breakthroughs.
  • Meditation Myths: Understand why you don’t need to “quiet your mind” to meditate successfully, and how even busy professionals can incorporate mindfulness into their daily lives.
  • Gratitude Practice: Find out how starting each day with gratitude, including sending one meaningful text to someone you appreciate, can transform your mindset and relationships.
  • Community Support: Learn about free virtual meditation sessions available every weekday at 7am and Saturdays at 9am, perfect for establishing a consistent practice with guidance.

Episode 29: Mastering Medicare – Your Complete Guide to Parts, Plans, and Peace of Mind



Are you approaching Medicare age or already enrolled? Join host Bryan Bibbo and special guest, Gary J. Pelfrey, Director of Business Development at JL Smith Holistic Wealth Management.  

With over 28 years of experience as a Medicare specialist in financial services, Pelfrey demystifies Medicare planning and reveals how proper healthcare planning can protect your retirement savings. 

Key Topics Discussed: 

  • 2025 Medicare Changes: Learn about major updates coming to prescription drug coverage through the Inflation Reduction Act, including how you’ll benefit from the new $2,000 annual cap on out-of-pocket costs. 
  • Medicare Plan Options: Discover the real differences between Medicare Supplement and Medicare Advantage plans, including which might best fit your lifestyle, especially if you travel. 
  • Enrollment Timing: Find out exactly when you should enroll in Medicare, particularly if you’re still working past age 65, and how to avoid penalties that could cost you for life. 
  • COBRA vs. Medicare: Understand the crucial distinctions between COBRA and Medicare coverage that could save you from making an expensive mistake during your retirement transition. 
  • Long-term Care Gap: Learn what Medicare won’t cover in your later years and how to prepare for potential long-term care needs. 

Listen in as Bibbo and Pelfrey break down the crucial Medicare decisions you’ll face and share upcoming changes that could significantly impact your healthcare costs.