Dana Cornell on How Wealthy Families Approach Financial Planning

What happens when you reach a certain level of success and realize the financial strategies you've been using may no longer fit where you are today?

In this episode of Capability Amplifier, I sit down with Dana Cornell, founder of Cornell Capital Holdings, for a fascinating conversation about how successful business owners can think differently about taxes, investing, income, risk, and protecting what they've built.

Dana has seen both sides of the financial world.

He managed more than $1.4 billion at Morgan Stanley, served hundreds of clients, and eventually gained access to the advanced planning strategies being used with families at a very different level of wealth.

What he saw changed the direction of his career.

Dana realized there was an enormous difference between traditional wealth management and the coordinated approach available to ultra-wealthy families. Eventually, that gap became big enough that he decided to leave and build something different.

Dana and I dug into what he learned behind the scenes, the mistakes successful founders often make with their own money, and why your financial strategy needs to evolve as your business and wealth become more complex.

In this episode, Dana and I break down:

• Why Dana walked away from a $1.4 billion practice at Morgan Stanley?
• The 1% advisory fee that may actually be costing you closer to 20%
• Why do the ultra-wealthy keep most of their liquid capital out of stocks and bonds?
• What founders should understand about private and pre-IPO investing?
• Why the tax planning on a business or real estate sale has to happen before you sell?
• The risk most wealthy families overlook, and it isn't the market
• Everyone has a CPA, an attorney, and an advisor. Almost nobody has a quarterback

One of my biggest takeaways from this conversation is that financial complexity requires coordination.

You can have a great CPA, a great attorney, and a great financial advisor. But if nobody is looking at the entire picture and taking responsibility for how all those pieces work together, opportunities can easily get missed.

For successful founders and business owners, this is an important conversation about making sure the wealth you've worked so hard to create is being managed with the same level of intention you bring to your business

Take Dana's free financial diagnostic quiz (10 questions or less — get your wealth score and freedom score): https://cchquiz.com

Want Dana's tax calculator? Email [e-mail] and he'll send it to you personally. Take the report to your CPA.

DISCLAIMER: This episode is for educational and informational purposes only and is not financial, tax, investment, or legal advice. Dana Cornell is affiliated with Cornell Capital Holdings LLC. Nothing here is an offer or solicitation to buy or sell any security. Certain investments discussed may only be available to accredited investors. Consult your own CPA, attorney, and financial advisor before making any decisions.

TIME STAMPS

[00:00:00] Why Dana Cornell Left Traditional Wealth Management

[00:03:42] Building a Career From Door-to-Door Prospecting

[00:06:46] The Moment That Changed Dana's Career

[00:09:31] How the Ultra-Wealthy Approach Financial Planning

[00:12:04] Three Strategies That Move the Needle

[00:14:10] Preserve, Produce, Protect, and Pass

[00:17:21] Understanding the Real Cost of Advisory Fees

[00:20:31] Alternative Investments and the Family-Office Model

[00:25:08] Private and Pre-IPO Investing

[00:29:47] Planning Around Business and Real Estate Sales

[00:32:21] Building a Coordinated Team of Advisors

[00:35:47] The Financial Diagnostic and Next Steps 

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Dan Sullivan of Strategic Coach

Dan Sullivan is founder and president of The Strategic Coach Inc. A visionary, an innovator, and a gifted conceptual thinker, Dan has over 40 years’ experience as a highly regarded speaker, consultant, strategic planner, and coach to entrepreneurial individuals and groups.

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Join the eternally curious, interested, and interesting hosts, Mike Koenigs of the SuperPower Accelerator and Dan Sullivan of Strategic Coach®, to amplify your capabilities, value, status, and authority on the Capability Amplifier podcast. Ever episode focuses on a new mindset, shortcut or deep thinking exercise that will improve your performance and lifespan. Learn more at: https://www.CapabilityAmplifier.com

Dana Cornell [00:00:00]:
The firm asked me if I needed mental health counseling when I resigned, right?

Mike Koenigs [00:00:05]:
Yeah.

Dana Cornell [00:00:05]:
Because most wouldn't. I was making a lot of money, but the mistake maybe the firm made was allowing me behind the curtain. He's selling for $6 million and he says to me, this is great, but I have to pay so much in tax, I have no idea how we're gonna replace my income. Now I know I'm about to walk into a different boardroom with glass doors and windows and that family and a team of 8 And we lead with tax mitigation on a sale and lead with an income-first investment approach. Everything he's asking for, but I am legally not allowed to give him the same advice. So I have to give him the canned answer of paying taxes is a good problem to have, which still makes my stomach turn to this day to hear it. That's the deciding day where I needed to do something different. There's a reason ultra-wealthy have less than 20% of their liquid capital in, in traditional stock and bond investments.

Dana Cornell [00:00:55]:
We're buying asset classes that produce consistent income to buy your time back now. And growth is a secondary mandate. But the importance of that is the consistency of return. And most investors just don't get access to that type of investment. Well, I need to show you if you're overpaying in tax and or if you're not. And if you are, what are all of your options to ethically and legally mitigate that? So you're paying your fair share, but you're not paying more than your fair share. And our average client savings last year alone was $440,000 saved of overpayment of tax per family.

Mike Koenigs [00:01:38]:
Welcome to Capability Amplifier. This is Mike Koenigs, and today's guest managed over $1.4 billion at Morgan Stanley, then walked away, not because he failed, because he saw behind the curtain, and one moment turned him off completely. Now, while serving more than 700 clients and building over 20,000 financial plans, he learned how the ultra-wealthy actually build and protect wealth. And it's not what your advisor is telling you. And what you learn in the show will change the way you think about your money, passive income, and tax permanently. He certainly has for me. And he's going to show you the one thing that quietly determines your financial future. and how to get started of it with an insider-level financial audit that he's going to give away.

Mike Koenigs [00:02:30]:
And it is really cool. So this is for you if you're a business owner whose greatest asset is your business. That's probably you. And you're paying too much tax. That's all of us. And you want passive income now, not at some vague point in the future, which is also all of us. And you've been with a traditional wealth manager for years and your gut is whispering that something is off. And that's happened to me too.

Mike Koenigs [00:02:56]:
So it could be that you're in the middle of a major transition. It could be a death, divorce, or an exit. So as I said, welcome to Capability Amplifier. I'm Mike Koenigs. You're about to get the ultra-wealthy playbook they never show you with Dana Cornell. So Dana, it's nice to be here with you, sir. How you doing?

Dana Cornell [00:03:13]:
I'm doing great, Mike. Thanks for having me. Always good to catch up.

Mike Koenigs [00:03:16]:
Yep, it always is. So I think the way to begin this is in the intro, you had a dream job. That you at Morgan Stanley, you have, you're on the Forbes list, $1.4 billion under management with over 700 clients. So the big thing is why'd you walk away from that? What was it that was that moment?

Dana Cornell [00:03:42]:
Yeah, man, we could talk about that for hours in itself. Yeah. I'll tell you why here in a second. But my origin story is this. I grew up in Olean, New York, a small town south of Buffalo, Western New York. My father to this day is an excavation contractor. My mom was a kindergarten teacher. The average household income in this county is $50,000.

Dana Cornell [00:04:09]:
We grew up, I wanted for nothing. We grew up great. My father taught me how to work hard. My mother taught me the morals that come along with that and how to be a good person. That was the basis for who I am as a human. But I had to start knocking on doors because we don't live around extreme wealth. I didn't come from a trust fund family. My father wasn't in the business.

Dana Cornell [00:04:30]:
I didn't inherit this, right? I worked it by knocking on 25 doors a day to meet 25 people and hear their concerns and hear their pain. And that happened to be the end of 2007 and into 2008. And I had the now, looking back, the advantage and the privilege to be out there on people's doorsteps when their advisors were not picking up the phone through 2008 market crash and truly hear what were the pain points that sent these people into an emotional and mental spiral, and for good reason. And then their support system, their advisor, isn't even picking up the phone because the reality is the advisor doesn't know what to tell you just as much as You don't know what to tell yourself or your neighbor, right? Other than, hang on, it's a long-term solution, it'll be okay. That's what sent me down the trajectory of, I have to figure out why a certain percentage, a small percentage, the 1% of 1% don't seem to deal with these issues. And that's what I built the system around. So that's what got us here today. The firm asked me, if I needed mental health counseling when I resigned, right?

Mike Koenigs [00:05:43]:
Yeah.

Dana Cornell [00:05:43]:
Because most wouldn't. I was making a lot of money, pretty easy schedule. But the mistake maybe the firm made was allowing me behind the curtain, right? So I came, I started my practice knocking on doors in Western New York. I didn't know anybody that had any money, you know, to speak of. So I was incessantly thirsty for the knowledge. So certifications came after that and just a continual push to figure out how do they do it at the next level and the level after that and the level after that. So the short answer is that led me to a division of that firm, which was their advanced planning division, working with families, $50 million liquid net worth and above. And you quickly realize that playbook, the true playbook of the ultra wealthy, is a totally different game plan than what I had been taught for the 15 years prior to that to deliver to what they call a retail financial client or just the average wealthy investor.

Mike Koenigs [00:06:46]:
Yeah.

Dana Cornell [00:06:46]:
So, but they wouldn't let me give that advice to people who didn't pay the firm a certain amount of money. And that just didn't sit well with me. I'm sure we'll get into some specific stories, but there was a turning point I'm going into the new— I'm now the new guy on the team of 8 financial planners with a family selling for $125 million, selling their business. My call before that is with a legacy client. He's selling for $6 million. And he says to me, this is great, but I have to pay so much in tax, I have no idea how we're gonna replace my income. Now I know, I'm about to walk into a different boardroom with glass doors and windows and that family in a team of 8, and we lead with tax mitigation on a sale, annual tax income mitigation, and lead with an income-first investment approach. Everything he's asking for, but I am legally not allowed to give him the same advice.

Dana Cornell [00:07:47]:
So I have to give him the canned answer of paying taxes is a good problem to have, which still makes my stomach turn to this day to hear it. And that's, that's the deciding day where I needed to do something different. So here we are.

Mike Koenigs [00:07:58]:
Yeah.

Dana Cornell [00:07:59]:
And I would just add to that virtual family office, this style of, of strategy is becoming more popular and that word gets thrown around a lot, right? I think it's your, your question is relevant. And I, I laughed a bit in the beginning because we were just having this talk inside the office of, Lots of people use a term like that. How many people have actually done it and lived it and executed it for 20 years? And I think that pool gets very small when you put that filter on people.

Mike Koenigs [00:08:34]:
Yeah, it's a great story. And, um, it, it just shows, you know, you, you really earned being here. You saw the top. and, or at least the appearance of it, and said, this doesn't serve the kind of person I really want to serve. The strategies are solid.

Dana Cornell [00:09:00]:
Yeah.

Mike Koenigs [00:09:00]:
So, you know, yeah, go ahead.

Dana Cornell [00:09:02]:
It's built, it's built for the institution, not the individual. That's traditional wealth management as a whole. And that was very much my experience being at what most would consider a very high level in that business. But you know, as we've talked, you know, I have 2 little boys that are 6 and 8 now. And when they show up, I gotta have a clear conscience when they ask me, what, Dad, what do you do for a living and who do you help? Right? And this is how I could actually help people, not just make a lot of money. So here we are.

Mike Koenigs [00:09:31]:
So the net-net is you built a firm built on top of effectively sharing the secrets that you saw at the top level, the $50 million and above net worth that normally no one else sees. So that's, that's why I wanted you here today is, you know, answer from your perspective the biggest myth about money, but also how does the snowball start from your point of view and your experience after doing this so long and with so many people?

Dana Cornell [00:10:05]:
Yeah. Yeah. So what you find, and what I realized quickly, was it's the sequence of how they unpack a financial plan, but it's the efficiency of what they do. And what I mean by that very specifically is every one of those cases started with saving tax. We preserve what we have first and foremost and manage the inefficiency that naturally comes from just accepting, here's my tax bill, Here's what I can take away from a business exit or a real estate exit. And that extra savings per family per year, even if it's just your annual tax bill, automatically pads your bottom line. And then that's earning passive income, right? So we start with tax. They do the same thing with investments.

Dana Cornell [00:10:56]:
The consistency of the return. And in most, it's very hard to save your way to true wealth. right, in a traditional stock-bond investment portfolio. That's why there's a reason ultra-wealthy have less than 20% of their liquid capital in, in traditional stock and bond investments, right? We're buying asset classes that produce consistent income to buy your time back now, and growth is a secondary mandate. But the importance of that is the consistency of return, and most investors just don't get access to that type of investment. nor know how to do the due diligence to make sure their money's in the right place and it's safe.

Mike Koenigs [00:11:34]:
Yeah. So, so really the bottom line is the more of what is typically the taxes that you've been giving to the government, you reduce that and compound that and use some of the advanced investment strategies, which part of, I know, your strategy is alternative investments as well. And would that be a kind of the bottom line summary?

Dana Cornell [00:12:04]:
Yeah, if I did nothing else, right? There are 3 core strategies that really, the 80/20 rule that move the needle. It's efficiency on not overpaying tax on your annual income and especially on an exit or a liquidity event. It's your investment thesis and structure producing true passive income, not selling shares of stock To somehow create synthetic income, as I call it, right? And 3 is the coordination of all of that, and it's the overarching ownership of the outcome. And to go a layer deeper, what I'm saying is everyone has a financial advisor. You might have 3. Everyone has a CPA, everybody has an attorney, everyone has an insurance professional. Nobody typically is owning the outcome. When I sat in that room, that boardroom on Fifth Avenue in New York City, as I said, a team of 8, one of us, our entire job was the only outcome and make sure the advice all got implemented correctly and coordinated with all advisors and professionals.

Dana Cornell [00:13:08]:
You did just those 3, and that excludes the other 2 pillars of the process, right? Which is protect it and pass it on. But if you just did those, you're gonna be light years ahead of where you're trending at right now. I can promise you that.

Mike Koenigs [00:13:21]:
Okay. And I would like to, I think the 2 questions that pop up for me are obviously, you know, how does that snowball differ over time? So, you know, 2, 3, 5, 10 years, 20 years from now. But maybe the pre-question I have for you is if you were starting today, you know, so let's say this podcast hits you're meeting with someone with your past experience, but also present and future market knowledge and what you've seen, because you've lived through this through multiple cycles at this point. What would the plan— if you're building a plan for someone starting today, what would that look like?

Dana Cornell [00:14:10]:
Sure. So it starts really So let me zoom out and I'll zoom back in. So there are 4 pillars to our overall process, right? It's preserve first, meaning save the most amount of money, right? Whatever we're making, how do we keep the most amount of money in our pocket, right? Then it's produce. And by produce, I mean produce consistent passive income right now, not 10, 20, 30 years in the future, right? And then it's protect what we have. We don't need something throwing us off, right? Like a long-term care, assisted living situation, something like that. And then how do we pass it efficiently? But if— where I start to answer your question specifically is just an analysis, right? We have to do a diagnostic, which essentially is a financial MRI that establishes what I say your baseline. So I need to show you if you're overpaying in tax and or if you're not. And if you are, what are all of your options to ethically and legally mitigate that so you're paying your fair share, but you're not paying more than your fair share? And our average client savings last year alone was $440,000 saved of overpayment of tax per family.

Dana Cornell [00:15:24]:
But let's just say it's $100,000, right? $100,000. And you do that over 5 years, 10 years, and then you put the right investment structure on top of that. Typically, it's not a one-size-fits-all, but just doing that as opposed to the current path that you're on typically doubles your liquid net worth just by doing those, those first 2 moves.

Mike Koenigs [00:15:49]:
Yeah, it sounds too simple. It really does. And one thing I'll insert here, 'cause we promised this and I'm just gonna leak it now, you put together a tool and it's at cchquiz.com that helps someone actually look at what their potential savings could be? So I know we'll talk about this at the end, but I also wanted to insert it now because while you're listening to this or you're watching this, go check that out at cchquiz.com. But what, what is the tool that you use to do like the preliminary?

Dana Cornell [00:16:24]:
Yeah, so it's, it's just, we call it our financial diagnostic and it's just that, right? It's essentially, If that analogy makes sense to you, it's doing a full body scan of your financial plan. Where are you at? Where are the inefficiencies in your plan? Where are you leaking wealth? What's working well? And plan around that. And our goal is not to replace your current advisors. Ours is to build and draft a blueprint in which we can implement with your current advisors, assuming they have the capability and the ambition to work with you to execute that, to tighten those inefficiencies and to put you on a path to, as I said, you know, scale up your liquid net worth much faster than a traditional financial plan, right? And it does sound in some ways simple in explanation. It's the detail of the execution is where the nuance comes.

Mike Koenigs [00:17:21]:
Yeah, the devil's always in the details, right? So, Let— how about, um, talk about the 1% on an average account. You know, the typical deal is you're paying 1%, and what does that cost in terms of growth and what you keep? Because that's another factor in your education as well.

Dana Cornell [00:17:41]:
Sure. Yeah. So, so just for clarity for those listening, the 1%, meaning the fee you typically pay a financial advisor to manage your money. Look, I'm all for— I don't run a nonprofit, to be very transparent here. We are very efficient in the fees that we charge and how we charge them. But I try and look at this the same way that I look at anything that I would invest in for myself. Is there a return on my investment for what I am paying someone to provide a service? Pretty simple, right? The standard, and it's usually overlooked because it's just billed from a client's investment account, and most people don't even know for sure what they're paying. But it's taken out quarterly or monthly, directly debited from your account.

Dana Cornell [00:18:28]:
And it comes to a question of value. 1% is fine and it's the standard fee and it's usually how it's— hey, this is standard fee, 1% or scaled up or down somewhere in that range. But what is the value and the return on that investment? Dalbar has a study, D-A-L-B-A-R. Anyone can look it up. This isn't just my opinion. They still track What does the average wealth management client earn per year under an investment advisory role? And that is 4.6% per year with an S&P 500 that's earned over 10%. So if that's your situation or you're even close, right, 1% off of a 4.6% return is not 1%, right?

Mike Koenigs [00:19:14]:
It's 20%.

Dana Cornell [00:19:17]:
So that's 20% of what they're earning for you. Now, if you're earning higher than that, there's more value created, right? So it just has to be an awareness. And that's what we start to establish in the financial diagnostic and establishing your baseline, as I say it. One, you need to be aware of where you're even at. Only then can we diagnose where you need to go from there. Yeah.

Mike Koenigs [00:19:38]:
So net-net is you're paying a 20% tax on what you're generating, and that's Yeah, it's, yeah, it's pretty crazy. So let's get into the, what you've been doing, you know, what do the ultra wealthy have access to that you've been able to run in the norm in with your client base who are not, you're not working with the ultra wealthy. So let's just say you're working with someone who's got a, whether it's a net worth of $3 to $5 million or, above or, you know, in between. Talk a little bit about where you've got special access that you've effectively carried over from your days at Morgan Stanley, a combination of experience, reputation, and just doing the due diligence and also the access, the doors you were able to, to open. Talk a little bit about that.

Dana Cornell [00:20:31]:
Yeah. And just for context, so I'll frame in the opportunity and kind of where there's lines of delineation as far as access to this. So, and to your point, we still advise a billionaire client today, but my preference is bringing these strategies of the ultra-wealthy to what I call the comfortably wealthy. The guy or gal that's outgrown probably their first advisor they started with by their complexity, and they're working harder to advance their business or their skillset, but the advisor's giving them the same advice he did 20 years ago. Or 10 years ago. So really, and you mentioned $3 million, $3 million of liquid net worth is where you've hit critical mass that a lot of the strategies and the access starts. But that $3 to $50 million, you're kind of in no man's land. You've outgrown traditional advisement.

Dana Cornell [00:21:24]:
You haven't grown into full family office mode. So that's really a spot where a lot of value can be provided because you don't have the things that we're talking about. So specifically to your question, you know, when we're looking at an investment allocation, and what I took away from that playbook is, as I said, less than 20% is in stock and bond investments, and that's because of the volatility and the inconsistency that brings. Using certain hedge strategies, Using alternative investments that truly produce income first and then grow, right? And a good, great analogy is people typically are familiar with real estate. Why do you buy real estate? It produces cash flow, has some appreciation, right? Probably some tax benefits. Now, doing that yourself is a heavy lift. Doing that in a one-off project, concentration risk. Doing that with an institutional multi-billion-dollar-sized investment manager that has a 10 or 20-year track record and the tools and resources and the team to protect their investments, but having access to those and knowing how to do the right due diligence, that's what makes the difference.

Dana Cornell [00:22:43]:
And getting access to the top quartile of managers essentially doubles your net return. in that particular asset class. And that's just one example of one asset class. There are multiple, but that's how you produce income first with appreciation as a secondary goal.

Mike Koenigs [00:23:00]:
Yeah. When I look at, you know, I've made lots and lots of bad investment mistakes in the past and part of it was 'cause I didn't have access to a guy who thinks like you. But also, you know, I'll give you one example where we invested in property and the intention was to develop it develop in Mexico, for example. Well, we found out really fast, um, just how unbelievably complex it was. The thing stalled. The market's gotten mushy, and it's effectively an illiquid asset at this point. So it's been years. Um, so if that would have been in, um, you know, one of your private real estate funds, for example, um, and it would have been properly managed and built to earn from the start instead of what was effectively way junior speculative.

Dana Cornell [00:23:54]:
Yeah.

Mike Koenigs [00:23:55]:
And then there's another, another example. We, we did another foreign property investment with the intention to rent it out right away. All the rules changed so we couldn't do short-term rentals. You can't do long-term rentals. So we're stuck in the middle. And that is, you know, I, most people I know who are founders you know, think like founders when they're investing instead of getting that professional support and help.

Dana Cornell [00:24:25]:
So, sure.

Mike Koenigs [00:24:27]:
Another question I have is, I know you and I have talked about pre-IPO, which, you know, probably the most recent big example of that has been SpaceX, which you had early allocation to and access to. But you do that on a regular basis. So talk a little bit about pre-IPO. It got popular. Now you hear about it a lot more, but for— it's still not easy to gain access to these pools. And you've, you've been consistently doing that. So talk a little bit about that, that philosophy and where that fits into your overall strategy.

Dana Cornell [00:25:08]:
Absolutely. And just to comment on your, your last about the illiquidity and making the mistake, I'd be lying if I said I hadn't made them myself, right? And that's how you learn by experience, even sitting in the seat as the expert on my side, right? But that's how you learn. So I've been there as well. So pre-IPO, yeah, look, when I started in the business, quite honestly, everybody had their gray-haired stock and bond guy. So I had to be different, which pushed me into alternative investments. And one that I thought was very interesting was The term venture capital means a lot of things, but inside the world of venture capital, the asset class, one place that you can allocate funds is to companies that are trending towards going public but have not gone public yet. Morgan Stanley is one of the biggest providers of that. However, the reality is inside the firm, there's a calculation that when they have shares to allocate, It's an algorithm of how much this particular client pays the firm, how many services do they use of the firm, what's the net return to the firm on the relationship, and then you might get 10 shares of something.

Dana Cornell [00:26:21]:
Well, sounds good. 10 shares of most things isn't gonna move the needle for anybody, but it's exciting and people thought they were in the game. The backstory is that's how it was allocated, right? So when I left, I wanted to take the best things. Because the net returns of that are powerful if you can access— again, the devil's in the details— if you can access true direct ownership of the shares, not a synthetic, not, hey, we'll buy it when it goes public and give you your allocation. There's lots of ways people get burned in that world. This comes from a relationship I had that was at the same firm and head of product placement. And now there's a company that we work with that sources direct private shares, and that's all they do. And in fact, even since we talked last, and yes, we had great results with 3 years of buying SpaceX before it went public.

Dana Cornell [00:27:13]:
That was wonderful. Now we have access to the top 10 by size at all times. So even better, an expanded offering. We don't have to try and choose which is the best one or which is the one most likely to go public next. We can spread our risk and allocate across 10 and overweight and underweight. But getting access to that is a game changer. You can imagine if you put 5 or less percent of your total liquid net worth in a portfolio in an asset class that averages— average, no guarantee of performance, but the averages historically are 30 to 40% annualized returns— that does move the needle, right? But it has to be done properly and you have to have the right access.

Mike Koenigs [00:27:55]:
Right on. And, um, I don't know if we can do this without flagging the censors. Can you talk a little bit about some of the other ones that you've either had or have access to? I know that'll date this show, but it will. Um, is that, is that kosher to do?

Dana Cornell [00:28:15]:
Well, I'll do it this way, right? So 2 that have gone full cycle for us in the last 12 months, right? And this is public knowledge, so we're not saying anything out of turn. The others, probably not quite as kosher, but SpaceX, yes, wonderful results for our clients. If you look at the valuation of SpaceX, which can easily be searched 3 years ago to the valuation now, you can estimate the results on percentage return that we got for clients. Groq, G-R-O-Q, same, right? They're actually bought by Nvidia. It's very short hold for our clients, and that was basically 5 years of average returns, maybe 10 years of average returns wrapped up in about an 8-month transition. And those are just 2 good ones, right? But those are 2 I can speak to right now, and it's public knowledge of the transaction.

Mike Koenigs [00:29:10]:
Yeah, that's obviously awesome. And not available to the general public, or by the time you've got access, it's— yeah, you just don't have the same value. Here's another thing that I had written down. One of the strategies, it's a deferred sales trust tax strategy. You've got a whole toolkit. But when we were talking, I had never heard of this before. I don't think it's super common, but talk a little bit about that. And how that can benefit a founder-owner entrepreneur.

Dana Cornell [00:29:47]:
Yeah. So deferred sales trust is essentially a version of an installment sale. And you, if you research it, you'll get varying opinions like most strategies that aren't widely known of is it, is it good, is it bad, right? And the answer is it's neither. It's the fit for the particular client. But when it works and when it's structured properly, Especially that tool. It does allow you to defer the tax on a sale of a business or real estate, right? Which if we can keep the most amount of money in your pocket on a major liquidity event, that's then more money we can earn passive income on and defer the tax hopefully in perpetuity, right? Or deal with it in smaller chunks as time goes on, which is much more manageable. To keep the most amount of money in your pocket, as I said, preserve Preserve is the first pillar of the plan. But I think the important point of that is, yes, that's a very specific and very powerful tool when it works, but the process leads us to what tool is appropriate.

Dana Cornell [00:30:47]:
So for tax, if you're exiting a business, and the same thing for your annual income, and now is the time to be planning for that because we've got a December 31st deadline, we run a full matrix of every potential strategy that is a fit for your particular situation. And then do a contrast and compare it to your goals and your timelines and what you need to end in the right solution. And it's usually not one strategy, it's multiple strategies, and there's no one-size-fits-all. But yes, deferred sales trust is one that we use when the situation is appropriate and very powerful. But that's not the only one.

Mike Koenigs [00:31:24]:
Yeah. If you think about— I've never asked you this before, but I know, again, the devil's in the details. Every client is very unique and special. But if you look at your toolbox, your toolkit, you know, so you've got your average wealth manager, financial advisor, and what you've been accumulating over time. What do you think the difference is in the number of resources and tools just because of the way you've assembled the firm, you've accumulated different strategies and techniques that—

Dana Cornell [00:31:59]:
Sure.

Mike Koenigs [00:31:59]:
Again, are normally reserved. Do you have, Do you have a gut on that?

Dana Cornell [00:32:05]:
It's an interesting question. So I guess my— when you say that, here's how I think about it.

Mike Koenigs [00:32:13]:
And I don't think more is better necessarily, just for the record. I know that that's not it, but I was just kind of curious as we've been rattling through here.

Dana Cornell [00:32:21]:
So no, it's a great question though. And I look, I look at this in the lens of, am I a better advisor to clients today than I was in my previous role? And I would answer that as I am, not because of the amount of strategies, which we're constantly reviewing strategies and stress testing them, but the amount of levers I can pull to add immediate value to a client's bottom line is much different. And I'll give you some examples. Most financial advisors are doing what they think is in the best interest of the client, But oftentimes do not allocate to alternatives nor have the knowledge base to do so. Most financial advisors do not give tax strategy, tax advice. So if I can cut your tax bill and I can give you better results from your investment portfolio, well, now that net value on the fee that you're paying has 2 or 3x'd the old version of me, right? And if I can, moving to the third pillar, protect it, right? I think one of the biggest overlooked things is the cost. Life insurance is to protect you against a catastrophic risk, but most people that have built true wealth, I would argue, don't need as much life insurance as sometimes is pitched to them. But I do think one underlooked, overlooked risk is the longevity of your wealth as people live longer.

Dana Cornell [00:33:52]:
And the cost of long-term care. And if you've ever had someone around you, or you or a spouse get sick, you know how big those checks are you write every month. So how do you protect against that is one small example. And then how do you pass it on, right? Estate documents. That's one thing to put your wishes in paper and put the right structures in. I can't tell you how many families or siblings I've seen fight and, and cause chaos after the patriarch and matriarch are gone. So something as simple as making your estate plan come alive. And by that I mean we record— I would put you and Vivian on camera and let you tell us and record, how did you build this wealth? What did it mean to you? What was the struggle? What do you hope happens after you're gone? That is much more likely to be followed than words on a trust document.

Dana Cornell [00:34:44]:
Right? Little things like that. And you got a lot of tax planners that are very good, but they just do tax. A lot of advisors that are very good at investment allocation, but they just do investments, right? I've assembled a deep bench of experts in every category, and my job is to quarterback that and get you to the right people that you need at the right time.

Mike Koenigs [00:35:03]:
It makes total sense. And I, after so many years of Making mistakes. That, that was the one thing that until I was introduced to this concept, um, most people just don't have it. They don't have, or, or they'll hear the integrated strategy. It really isn't happening. Very solid. One more time, cchquiz.com, the, the tool. Uh, is there anything else that you want to tell us about it other than head over there? It's, uh, A tool, you just insert some information, you get the report, and then obviously someone could optionally have a conversation with you as well.

Mike Koenigs [00:35:45]:
Is there anything about that that you wanted to add?

Dana Cornell [00:35:47]:
Yeah, just for context, right? It's, uh, there is no commitment, there's no bait and switch there. It's just a tool that's 10 questions or less, and it gives you a very quick way to quantify how efficient is what you're doing currently compared to what's possible. So it'll give you a wealth score, a freedom score, and it goes through those 4 pillars on a high level just to give you some context of, hey, how much improvement is possible for me? And if you want to book a call with the team to discuss it, just to see what's possible, you can book a call. I'll also throw in, if you email [e-mail], I'll send you personally the actual tax calculator, which will pinpoint within a couple dollars of how much you're overpaying in tax and what you can do about it. And you can take that report and hand it to your CPA and immediately move the needle for yourself this year.

Mike Koenigs [00:36:45]:
So is there something I should, I should have asked you that I didn't?

Dana Cornell [00:36:48]:
Always my favorite question too. No, you know, I think we covered the majority of it. I think I think by now, hopefully the audience has an idea of how we do business and why we do it. I would just encourage everybody that if, as you said in the beginning, right, if you have that kind of internal feeling of maybe you're missing something or maybe there's something being left on the table, and especially with tax planning with a year-end deadline coming up, just reach out. And if I can help you, I'd love to. And if not, I hope, I hope everybody learned something from, from listening to us today. Appreciate you having me on.

Mike Koenigs [00:37:25]:
Total pleasure. It's been a fantastic interview. So I'll, I'll wrap this up and just say thank you for listening. I've known Dana now for over a— we met over a year ago, and I've always been impressed with his integrity, honesty, and just willingness. You know, who you met is who he is, and you can't go wrong by, A, just taking advantage of the quiz the tax tools and scheduling a call with him. So, uh, with that, I want to thank you one more time, Dana. This has been an excellent, excellent, uh, program. I really love learning from you, and, uh, I'll see you soon.

Dana Cornell [00:38:06]:
Thanks, my friend.

Mike Koenigs [00:38:07]:
You got it. Bye-bye. And thanks for listening. Of course, share this if you know someone who could benefit from the message, and we always appreciate, uh, the subscribes and the likes too. So thanks again for listening, watching. I'll see you in the next episode of Capability Amplifier. Bye-bye.

Dana Cornell [00:38:22]:
Bye.