Roy O. Brett, CLU, LUTCFPrincipal Financial Planner

Roy O. Brett, CLU, LUTCF

Principal Financial Planner

Roy O. Brett

Roy Brett, President of Landmark Senior Resources Insurance Service, is a senior financial and estate planner who has helped people who are retired or planning their retirement for more than 30 years. His personal specialty is helping his clients create customized plans to maximize their pension incomes and protect their savings. Roy earned his CLU designation from the American College in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania in 1975. He is also an LUTCF.
       Roy has advised thousands of retirees on how to protect their assets, increase their income, and reduce their taxes. He has lectured on matters of financial strategies for retirees and people about to retire for groups such as General Electric, Telephone Pioneers (telephone company retirees), SIRS, physicians’ groups, and church organizations.
       He lives with his wife Elaine, who is the general manager of his company and specializes in working with single women, and he has three grown children. He has served on numerous church vestries and stewardship committees.

 



Roy's Cars

Roy has been crazy about cars even longer than he has been in the insurance business. His first personal car in high school in Gig Harbor, Washington, was a baby blue 1940 Plymouth. He can’t even remember all the cars he had when he was in high scho…

Roy has been crazy about cars even longer than he has been in the insurance business. His first personal car in high school in Gig Harbor, Washington, was a baby blue 1940 Plymouth. He can’t even remember all the cars he had when he was in high school and college. Here is a photo of Roy with one of his cars from when he was in his 20s. Isn’t he cute? He was working full time as a machinist for a tool and die maker while going to college. He was proud of his ’32 Ford five-window coupe, which was chopped and channeled.

When he was in his 20s he ran a AA-F dragster with a number of friends. This photo shows one of the two models they raced.  In those days you didn’t have corporate sponsors and didn’t need millions of dollars just to play. Pennzoil contributed …

When he was in his 20s he ran a AA-F dragster with a number of friends. This photo shows one of the two models they raced.  In those days you didn’t have corporate sponsors and didn’t need millions of dollars just to play. Pennzoil contributed free oil and Champion gave them spark plugs. Deal’s Auto Parts in Port Orchard, WA, gave them free gaskets. He and his buddies made their own parts, sometimes on the road. They ran two cars for a total of six years, and they occasionally won a race, partly supporting the costs of the car.

He was without an old car for a number of years, but that changed in 2005, when he acquired a 1941 Packard Clipper sedan. The history of our Packard is interesting. Its original owner was the rich widow of the owner of a coal mine in West Virginia. …

He was without an old car for a number of years, but that changed in 2005, when he acquired a 1941 Packard Clipper sedan. The history of our Packard is interesting. Its original owner was the rich widow of the owner of a coal mine in West Virginia. When she died, the car went to her niece, who drove it for a few years. There were a few short-term owners and it then ended up in a museum in West Virginia. The museum sold it to a private owner, who drove it home to Phoenix, Arizona. When he died, his wife sold it to Roy. Here is a picture of the exciting day when it arrived and was unloaded at our front door in February 2005.

When Roy moved to San Jose with Mutual of Omaha in 1975, he had a company car. Later, when he left to form a pension company under the auspices of New York Life, he needed another car. This ’40 Ford Deluxe four-door sedan was his daily driver for th…

When Roy moved to San Jose with Mutual of Omaha in 1975, he had a company car. Later, when he left to form a pension company under the auspices of New York Life, he needed another car. This ’40 Ford Deluxe four-door sedan was his daily driver for three years, and his three kids remember being carted around town and getting many admiring comments and a frequent thumbs-up from another driver.

Here is a full portrait of the Packard. We drove it on several local tours with the NorCal Packard Club, but Roy wanted to add an overdrive transmission and sent it to a shop in Napa, CA, that specializes in Packard restorations. It’s an old joke am…

Here is a full portrait of the Packard. We drove it on several local tours with the NorCal Packard Club, but Roy wanted to add an overdrive transmission and sent it to a shop in Napa, CA, that specializes in Packard restorations. It’s an old joke among Packard owners who send their cars to be fixed that one thing leads to another. The owner of the shop loves his work and wants to send a perfect car back to its owner. In our case, he found that the electrical system needed to be replaced, so we ordered a new wire harness. The dashboard was a bit beat up, so we had it redone in Modesto, CA. We’ve seen it—all beautifully rewooded—and it’s a thing of beauty. As time has passed, all light sockets have been taken out, sandblasted, and repainted. The gas tank has been redone. We visit it sometimes and it’s coming along. When it finally reaches a state that the shop owner considers satisfactory, we will have to find garage space for it, so we’re not pushing too hard.

Then in 2006 he acquired a rather rare 1940 Mercury Tudor. (That’s not a period in English history, but Ford’s name for two-door.) We also know this car’s history. It was originally purchased by a man in South Dakota in December 1939. It was only the second year the Mercury was in production, and it was an impressive car to own in his small town. He went to war and put it up on blocks in the barn before he left. Like many other young men, he didn’t come home. In 1947 the neighbors talked the widow into selling them the car. They took excellent care of it and it was used as a backdrop on their Christmas cards. The wife said she never had to worry about the kids getting into trouble because when they drove the Merc, everybody in town knew the car and would report on them.

By 1980 the kids were grown and gone and she put the car up for sale. It was purchased by a man in Arastridaro. He did what’s called a “complete body-off,” meaning the body was taken off the frame. He installed a late-model Mustang motor, automatic transmission, late-model rear end, and independent front suspension with disk brakes. When the body was put back it was repainted a deep navy blue with subtle ghost flaming on the front end, and featuring blue with red accents on the hubcaps. He reupholstered the interior and trunk interior to restore the original look. The result was a rather elegant hot rod that he entered in car shows. In 2004 he sold the car to a friend of ours in the Packard Club. When our friend bought yet another car, his wife said he had a sell one. He knew Roy loved the Mercury so he called him and a deal was made. He now wants it back, but it’s our baby and that’s not going to happen.

Here is a glamour shot of the Mercury, which lives in our garage and is Roy’s current daily driver for going to work. He parks it on the third level of the Pruneyard parking garage, which is out of the way enough that many owners of exotics park the…

Here is a glamour shot of the Mercury, which lives in our garage and is Roy’s current daily driver for going to work. He parks it on the third level of the Pruneyard parking garage, which is out of the way enough that many owners of exotics park their cars. Roy has had owners of Mercedes, Maseratis, Jaguars, and BMWs express jealous admiration.

Roy installed an ooga horn in his Mercury and gleefully startles bystanders with it, to my great embarrassment.