Is Ozempic an Unmentionable?

Plus, how to find a financial advisor certified in crypto

Ric Edelman: It's Thursday, December 12th. Here's a question I got from Juanita. She's in New York.

Juanita: “I have recently invested in a few crypto ETFs on my own because I have accounts with two different investment advisors and neither of them have taken this asset class seriously. I'm interested in increasing my allocation and would like to find an educated investment advisor who I can trust to manage this segment of my assets.  How do I proceed?”

Ric Edelman: Yeah, Juanita, I feel your pain. This has been very frustrating for me. Of course, I've been in the field of crypto education for almost as long as I've been involved in crypto, which goes way back to 2012.

I created DACFP, the Digital Assets Council of Financial Professionals back in 2015 as a crypto education company to teach financial advisors about. blockchain, bitcoin, digital assets, et cetera. Our CBDA program (Certified in Blockchain and Digital Assets) is the oldest and, and still the largest certification program in the industry.

Thousands of advisors have gone through the course and attained the CBDA professional designation, which is listed in the FINRA database of professional designations. And it really, really bothers me that still today, 17 years after bitcoin was invented, and despite the fact that it has proven itself to be the best performing asset class in history, and getting lots of attention recently, as we all know, there are still so many advisors, the majority of them, in fact, who know absolutely nothing about crypto and who refuse to recommend it to clients, and even refuse to discuss it with clients.

And so often I come upon investors who know more about this subject than the advisors themselves do. In my view, advisors who are failing to engage in crypto with their clients are failing to do their job correctly.  They're doing it out of, I don't know what, laziness, out of bias, prejudice. I really can't explain.

So that puts investors like you at a disadvantage because you want professional help. You want to rely on the services, and the advice and recommendations from a talented, experienced investment advisor. And you're struggling to find any who has this knowledge. I would say simply, you need to continue your search.

As I said, there are thousands of advisors. who have attained their CBDA designation. You can look for them. Many of them brag about this. So if you do a web search for financial advisor, name your metropolitan area and include CBDA, chances are some names will pop up. If you have a brokerage account at Schwab or Fidelity, they may very well be able to provide you a referral because we are the official crypto education partner for both of those companies and they have made our CBDA course available to advisors in their networks. So they may be able to assist you in that effort.

You can also go to some of the leading crypto companies such as Bitwise Asset Management or Franklin Templeton, or State Street Global Advisors. They all work with advisors in the areas of crypto, and they can give you referrals to advisors they know who are knowledgeable in this space.

So, it is my hope that in the future, advisors across the country will be as knowledgeable about crypto as they are about every other financial subject. And it is also my hope that the regulators, the SEC and FINRA, will eventually require that advisors have this knowledge and expertise the same way that they require this for annuities and mutual funds and real estate investment trusts, and options trading, et cetera.

So keep at it Juanita. One final comment I'll make on this topic. One caveat is when you do an internet search, make sure you are dealing with a legitimate advisor. I have heard too many stories. I have been asked to help in too many cases of people who were defrauded because they searched online for an advisor, hooked up with somebody exclusively online only to find out that that outfit or the person was a crook.

There's too much fraud and abuse on the internet. So you need to be extraordinarily careful. Make sure that the advisor you're dealing with is a U.S.-based advisor. Somebody local to you that you can vet. You should be able to find information about them individually, as well as their firm, at FINRA.org. The link is in the show notes.

And the SEC. That link to SEC.gov is in the show notes where you can look at their licenses, their regulatory backgrounds. Have they been censured or fined or suspended? Have there been complaints about them? You want to make sure you're doing your due diligence. Remember, that's the motto of crypto. D-Y-O-R. Do-Your-Own-Research. Protect yourself from the risk of being scammed in your efforts to find a legitimate advisor.

Hey, let me change topics here. I want to go back to a subject that I chatted with you about a couple of weeks ago, because I have a question for you. A question for you I don't have an answer for, but it's something that has been on my mind and I thought I'd, I'd mention it to you.

I talked a couple of weeks ago about the new GLP-1, class of drugs.  GLP-1, that's jargon to you. Ozempic, Wegovy, and the others, the new diet drugs. and if you missed that show where I talked about these drugs, the link to it is in the show notes. These drugs are revolutionary. They are being hailed as possibly the greatest pharmaceutical breakthrough and my prior show goes into far greater, detail of this, of why they're such a big deal.

It is because of the incredible health benefits. The one people are mostly focusing on these days is weight loss. Although that's not at all, by far, the only benefit of these drugs. They were created after all to treat diabetes.

They're now discovering that they have potential application for kidney disease, even for Alzheimer's, heart disease, the list goes on and on and on, and what the scientists are discovering is that these GLP-1 class of drugs can do for us. The result is that the number of people taking these drugs is skyrocketing. Over the, past four years alone, there's been a 600 %increase in prescriptions among people ages 18 to 25. So, young people who want to lose weight and improve their fitness are turning to these drugs in a massive amount. Already in the United States, 6% of the population are taking these drugs and it's projected that by the end of the decade, it's going to be over 10% of the population will be taking these drugs.

We have recently had a slew of celebrities proudly proclaiming that they're taking Ozempic or Wegovy or what have you including Rebel Wilson, Tori Spelling, Kelly Clarkson, Tracy Morgan, Oprah Winfrey. They all admit that they're using these drugs to lose weight. People using these drugs are not only losing weight, they are changing their behaviors associated with losing weight.

They've cut their visits to fast food restaurants by 77%. They've cut their alcohol consumption 62%. And 22% said they've stopped drinking entirely. Meanwhile, companies that sponsor hiking and camping trips, they've seen reservations rise over 50%. Among people going on nature walk excursions, they're up 55%. Among people going on bike tours, that's up 46%.

People are changing their old bad behaviors of eating potato chips and drinking milkshakes because these drugs reduce your interest in those foods. And they're now going to health clubs, they're now engaging in healthier activities, which is further helping them lose weight, and feel better, and in fact, be better, physiologically and medically.

This is all really exciting. So here's my question for you. And this may come off a little bit flippant. I really don't mean it that way. I'm asking, with sincerity, this really serious question. In the old days, which maybe was a couple of years ago, if you hadn't seen a friend in a few years, maybe as a college buddy you only get together with every couple of years when one of you happens to be in town, or what have you. Just haven't seen someone in a while.

You see them suddenly and they've lost a lot of weight. In the old days, you would have commented on that, or at least, okay, I would have. It's like, wow, you look great. You're losing weight. And people typically reacted prideful. They straighten up, they have a bit of a smile, they're proud of themselves because losing weight is something most folks who need to lose weight aspire to, and those who succeed in losing weight are proud of it because they worked hard, right?

We know what it takes to lose weight. You've got to really consciously struggle with eating less, eating better and exercising and all that kind of good stuff. And we know how hard it is to lose weight. We also know how hard it is to keep the weight you've lost off. And so when someone has lost weight, You'd compliment them, right? You'd notice it and notice them and you'd say so. And they would proudly say, yeah, and they would tell you how much weight they've lost, et cetera.

We also have all had the experience. Okay. Maybe was it only me where you say to someone, “hey, are you pregnant?” And it turns out they've merely gained weight and how awfully embarrassing and horrible is that for everybody in that conversation?  I'm not the only one who's ever done that. Am I?

And so my question is this. Given the fact that Ozempic and the others are now available and so many millions of Americans are using these drugs to quickly lose 20, 30, 40 pounds, really noticeable, can you comment on someone's sudden weight loss?

Now it might not be somebody you haven't seen in a couple of years. It could literally be somebody you simply haven't seen in a couple of months. Maybe it's a relative who you see every few months and suddenly they show up and they're looking a lot slimmer than they were. Can you comment?

Can you, or should you even assume, oh, it's got to be Ozempic and ask them point blank, “oh, have you been taking this drug?” Is this any longer, or was it ever, socially appropriate to comment on someone's physiological change. You know, I think we would often comment, if a woman has changed her hairstyle or her hair color, “Oh, that, that new haircut looks great on you”, or “Hey, I love your new eyeglasses. what a cute frame.” Is it okay to comment on someone's having lost weight?

And if you are the one who has lost the weight, and if you get the question, should you say how it is you did it? Would you be willing to say, yeah, I've been,  I've been taking Ozempic, or Wegovy, or one of the others, or is that, TMI, you know, is that too much information? Is it, is it too personal?

Or if you do lose weight via these drugs, is somebody, the person who's losing the weight or the person who's observing the weight loss, is that a cheat? “Oh my goodness, you couldn't quit the potato chips on your own. You couldn't just go to the gym. You had to resort to drugs.” Is there a negative connotation here?

You know, I remember as a little kid back in the 60s, hearing somebody refer to the C word, and if you're my age, you know what I'm talking about. The C word is a phrase society generally used, when referring to someone who had cancer. You never said the word cancer, because anyone who had that diagnosis, I mean that diagnosis was the death sentence. It was as simple as that. And it was in hushed crowds.

Kind of like a confirmed bachelor. That was another phrase. Nobody ever talked about the fact that somebody might be gay. They were a confirmed bachelor, which I didn't understand the meaning of until like a few years ago. It shows you how clueless I am.

And so. where does Ozempic, where do these weight loss drugs fit in? My personal view is that the drugs are not a cheat, any more than insulin is a cheat for diabetics. Any more than Lipitor is a cheat for those with high cholesterol. By the way, I've been on Lipitor for 20 years. This is the whole point of medical innovation. If we can fix a problem through medical intervention, whether it's a drug or a surgery or a treatment, wonderful! That's the whole point of being alive now, as opposed to 500 years ago, when there was nothing they could have done except bloodletting.

So this is my question for you. What's appropriate in society? given the fact that we are already having 6 %of the country on these drugs, losing weight rapidly, and that number is going to double in the next decade. We're going to visibly see the incredible impact on these people's lives and their personal figures. Is this something we say nothing about?  or is it something we're allowed to say? And if so, how should we say it? And if you're on one of the folks who's using these drugs, what should your viewpoint be? And when someone asked, or, cause clearly someone's going to say something at some point, even if we all conclude it's inappropriate, it's personal, private. If I choose to share, I will.

You have no business asking any more than a stranger has the ability to ask if you're pregnant. Right? So this is my question. What are the new social norms given the new medical technologies? And the reason I'm citing all of this is in that phraseology, meaning we are now finding ourselves with a new situation, a paradigm shift that we didn't have to deal with until now.

For centuries, people who were diagnosed with cancer simply died. That was the end of the story. Then the medical innovations grew our willingness to be open, our demand that the medical professionals provide full disclosure. We're now in a more of a participatory environment with healthcare than ever before. We are no longer willing to sit back and just listen to what they tell us. We want verification. We want transparency. We want engagement in the decision-making.

So what is permissible today? I think we need to evolve as a society and what we are allowed to talk about. And more importantly, how we talk about it, while respecting the individual preferences and needs of each person. That's my question to you.

I welcome your comments. The link is in the show notes to send me your comments. You can also do it to AskRic at the TAYF website. I'm interested in this dialogue because this is a new social phenomenon, and we need to turn it into a new social norm. And frankly, I'm not sure what the answer is. So, I'm curious as to your viewpoint.

Hey, did you miss our two webinars this week? On Monday, I did the webinar on crypto, “What the Election Results Mean for Crypto”. And yesterday, we did a webinar on retirement: “The Retirement Revolution: ETF Solutions for Modern Retirement Planning”. If you missed either or both of them, the replays are now available. Click the links in the show notes. You can watch both of those webinars for free.

It's hard to believe that it's been 35 years on the air. I've done more than 1,500 radio broadcasts over the last three decades, more than 500 podcasts in the last three years alone. And my podcasts are winding down. My last one, as I've told you is December 27th. I'm so glad you've been with me all these years. If you want to stay connected with me, be sure to join my distribution list. Just click on the link in the show notes.

I'll make sure you continue to get the latest that I offer on exponential technologies, crypto, Alzheimer's, longevity, investing, all the topics that matter most to us all. Thank you for being with me all these years. I'm looking forward to many more with you. Please subscribe today so we can stay connected.

I'll see you tomorrow.

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Links from today’s show:  

Send your comments to Ric: askric@thetruthayf.com 

FINRA.org. https://www.finra.org/

SEC.gov https://www.sec.gov/

11/25 Podcast on new medical advances: https://www.thetayf.com/blogs/this-weeks-stories/bad-news-and-good-news-for-fat-americans

1/15 Webinar - Your Crypto Questions Answered: https://dacfp.com/events/your-crypto-questions-answered

12/10 Webinar Replay - The Retirement Revolution: ETF Solutions for Modern Retirement Planning: https://www.thetayf.com/pages/the-retirement-revolution-etf-solutions-for-modern-retirement-planning

12/9 Webinar Replay - What the Election Results Mean for Crypto:  https://dacfp.com/events/what-the-election-results-mean-for-crypto

2/24-2/26 Wealth Management Convergence-2025  https://www.thetayf.com/pages/convergence-2025

11/13 Webinar Replay - An Innovative Way to Generate Income in a World of Declining Rates: https://www.thetayf.com/pages/november-13-2024-an-innovative-way-to-generate-income

10/9 Webinar Replay - Crypto for RIAs: Yield, Staking, Lending and Custody. What’s beyond the ETFs? https://dacfp.com/events/crypto-for-rias-yield-staking-lending-and-custody-whats-beyond-the-etfs/

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