James H. Norman of Storehouse Financial Group

10/06/2026

It’s been a busy couple of weeks for Storehouse! Back-to-back events across the region, all with one common theme: meeting people where they are.

Two weeks ago, I helped sponsor the AGCMO fall sporting clays tournament before heading to Rogers, Arkansas, for a home show. Both were a great chance to catch up with familiar faces, meet new people, and hear the stories that brought them to where they are today. That’s consistently one of my favorite parts of this work.

Then, last weekend, Elisabeth and I returned to Ozarks Fall Farmfest for our second year exhibiting. I’m starting to think that show could give the state fair a run for its money! We enjoyed spending time with the farmers, ranchers, and agribusiness professionals who help form the economic backbone of our four-state region.

I’m proud of how we’re building Storehouse: showing up, having conversations, and getting to know the people we hope to serve.

We’ve chosen to grow through those relationships instead of cold calls. I’d rather shake your hand and hear your story before asking for a meeting.

Thank you to everyone who stopped by, caught up with us, or introduced themselves these past two weeks. We look forward to seeing you again!

09/29/2026

Let’s end the month with something everybody loves: reviews and checklists.

As we round out September, we’re about three quarters of the way through the year. Each day is also another day closer to cold weather, which has me excited because I love the cold.

With that, it’s time to take a moment and review where your family stands compared with what you wanted to accomplish back in January.

Did you open that retirement account you kept meaning to?

Did you adjust those contributions like you planned?

Did the car you had to buy after your wife totaled her old one change your objectives? (That one is from personal experience. Don’t ask.)

Are your beneficiaries current?

Is your emergency fund where you want it?

These are essential questions to ask now because things will pick up quickly as we head toward December. It’s much easier to correct course with three months left than to wonder where the year went once it’s already over.

09/22/2026

In my last post, I used the phrase “cutting through the noise.” That is something I strive to do daily when working with folks who have questions or are new to the markets and financial planning overall.

Today, my target is short form financial content. One of the banes of my existence.

For reference, to work with clients in the way I do, I had to pass four exams and obtain three different licenses or registrations. When providing advisory services, I am held to a fiduciary standard.

That does not make me infallible. It does mean I am accountable.

Much of what I see on social media comes with neither accountability nor any duty to the viewer. There are influencers promoting the next investment that will “go to the moon,” along with blanket advice like “Put everything in the S&P 500 and never change it,” or “Don’t invest in an IRA because the best investment you can make is in yourself.”

Cutting through that noise is essential.

You can get a great tagline from a short or reel, but you usually will not get the context. Who is the advice for? What are the risks? Is the poster qualified? Are they being paid? Would the advice actually fit your situation?

A 60 second video can introduce an idea. It cannot determine whether that idea is appropriate for you.

That context and accountability are what you should receive when working with a fiduciary.

09/14/2026

This year has been a volatility rollercoaster, and it appears the ride isn’t over yet.

Between the Federal Reserve changing the way it communicates, the war in Iran, elevated energy prices, pressure in global bond markets, and the midterms, there is a lot to keep track of these days.

However, this is exactly when cutting through the noise and identifying where we actually stand becomes vital.

Inflation and energy prices are higher than we would like, but the overall economy continues to prove resilient. Midterm years also tend to be messy for the market, regardless of party politics.

Put all of that together, and my current read is that it may be time for some investors to revisit how much risk they are carrying. That does not mean panicking, fleeing the market, or rebuilding a plan around daily headlines. It means making sure money you may need sooner is not taking the same amount of risk as money meant for decades from now.

The ride may stay bumpy. Keep your seat belt fastened, don’t panic, and try to “enjoy” the rollercoaster.

09/09/2026

I’m scheduling this to go out while I’m in the middle of dental surgery, so I think it’s apt to talk about the topic most folks look forward to about as much as surgery: life insurance.

Life insurance is another tool in my toolbelt, but it often gets a bad rap or is misunderstood because of the sheer amount of overselling out there.

The fact of the matter is that most families have some need for life insurance. The real question is: What is the insurance trying to accomplish?

Ideally, a policy will cover you while you still have kids in the home, replace your income or your spouse’s, pay off outstanding debts, and allow the family’s existing financial plan to continue without a massive derailment.

Then you get into the products: term, whole life, universal life, variable policies, indexed policies, and more than I have room to cover here. That’s where much of the confusion and overselling starts.

For most families primarily trying to replace income while their kids are at home, term insurance is usually the best place to start. It provides a large death benefit at a relatively low initial cost.

Some term policies can also be converted into permanent coverage later. That can be valuable if your needs or health change.

That doesn’t make permanent insurance bad. It means permanent insurance should have a permanent job, such as business succession, estate liquidity, or caring for a lifelong dependent.

Start with the need. Then use the simplest product that actually meets it.

09/02/2026

Well folks, it’s September, which means that in the financial-services world, it’s Life Insurance Awareness Month.

Life insurance companies are best known for protecting families from the risk of dying too soon. But they also help address the opposite risk: living longer than your money.

Annuities.

Annuities are like any other tool in my toolbelt: great for specific needs, but often oversold or used inefficiently.

I describe certain annuities as “taking some chips off the table.”

When you retire, you need to know where your reliable income will come from. For most people, that starts with Social Security. Some will have a pension, and the rest usually comes from savings and investments.

The question is how much of your portfolio you can afford to expose to market losses while actively taking income from it.

For the right person, moving a portion into an annuity can provide protected or guaranteed income, depending on the product, while allowing the rest of the portfolio to remain invested and take the hits it can afford to take.

The goal isn’t to take every chip off the table. It’s deciding which ones you can’t afford to lose.

P.S. No, I’m not saying investing is gambling. The point is knowing which risks you can afford to take.

08/26/2026

https://youtu.be/PFdA4SNIBCA?is=tYgvlcf-wr9wmchm

I’m very thankful for Mike at Elevate PCS and Elevate Real Estate for having me on. It was fun talking and sharing more about what I do!

Wondering how to keep your family farm operational for the next gen...

08/26/2026

To piggyback off my last post about farm and estate equalization, let’s address another concern.

What if the child loses interest in the operation or decides they want to do something different?

This is why it is essential to build flexibility into the plan, just like every other financial plan worth its salt.

If an heir decides they don’t want to play in the dirt anymore, like I did, don’t judge me, the natural reaction may be to assume the entire succession plan was for nothing and it’s time to panic.

It wasn’t, and it isn’t.

Like it or not, those assets will eventually transfer. What changes is what the plan needs to accomplish.

Instead of transferring an active operation, the family may now need a plan for leasing the land, hiring management, dividing ownership, or eventually selling it. That is why detailed reviews and contingency planning matter.

The absence of a farming heir does not eliminate succession risk. It changes the question from “Who will farm it?” to “Who will own it, manage it, and decide whether it should be sold?”

Last P.S. for a while: Throwback to when I was working in the dirt. Fun fact, we still use that old John Deere.

08/21/2026

As some of y’all know, a major part of my job is succession planning in agriculture. I wanted to share one principle that more families need to take seriously when creating their estate and legacy plans.

Equalization, and the difference between equal and fair.

Take an anonymized planning situation I recently encountered. The details have been changed, but the problem is very real.

The family owns a farm worth several million dollars, along with meaningful liquid assets. On paper, it looks like they have everything figured out. Except there are multiple children, and only one wants to farm.

The common answer is to divide the operation equally and have the farming child buy out the others.

For simple math, imagine a $6 million farm divided among three children. Each receives a $2 million interest, leaving the farming child needing to find $4 million to buy out the siblings.

Here’s the problem. The farm may be worth $6 million, but it isn’t producing anywhere near enough income to support $4 million of additional debt. So how exactly is that child supposed to buy out everyone else without bankrupting themselves before they even get started?

That is where estate equalization comes in.

Attorneys handle the trusts, entities, and legal documents. The financial principle is making sure enough liquidity and structure exist so the nonfarming heirs can receive fair value without forcing the successor to mortgage or sell the operation.

That liquidity could come from existing assets, life insurance, structured purchase terms, or some combination of all three.

Equal and fair are not always the same thing.

A plan that preserves the land but destroys the family is not a successful succession plan. My job is to help families avoid that outcome before the transfer ever happens.

P.S., enjoy the picture of cotton back home. Yes, the bootheel is THAT flat.

08/17/2026

One conversation I’ve had several times over the past month has been with families wanting to save for their kids. With school ramping back up, I figured it was worth discussing.

I’ve repeatedly found myself saying, “We’ve got four common options, but none of them are amazing.”

A 529 offers tax advantages but is primarily designed for education. A limited amount could eventually be rolled into the child’s Roth IRA, but that doesn’t exactly help with midterm goals.

A UTMA provides flexibility but eventually hands the child unrestricted control, generally at 21 in Missouri. I personally wouldn’t have trusted myself at 21 with that windfall.

A parent-owned brokerage maintains control and flexibility but comes without special tax treatment. Capital gains can be brutal depending on the family and timeframe.

Permanent life insurance can provide cash value and preserve some coverage if the child’s health changes later, but it has costs and underwriting requirements. It worked for me personally, but just barely. I became uninsurable only two years after my parents bought my policy.

Unfortunately, no account provides tax advantages, complete flexibility, and parental control all at once. Bummer, but such is life in finance.

So I wouldn’t begin with, “Which account should we open?”

Instead, begin with the goal: “What do I actually want this money to help my kid accomplish?”