517 Alan Porter

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Introduction to Alan Porter and Strategic Wealth Strategies

Jeffrey Feldberg: Some people build wealth. Others help people sleep at night while they do it. Alan Porter sits at that rare intersection of strategy, stewardship, and long-term thinking. He spent decades advising business owners and high achievers and how to grow, protect and transfer Wealth in ways that actually align with their life, the way they want to live, not just the balance sheet that they want to admire.

As the founder of Strategic Wealth Strategies, Alan has guided entrepreneurs through moments that quietly define a lifetime. Big exits, unexpected downturns, succession decisions, the intellectual reckoning that comes when success arrives, but clarity doesn't. What makes Alan different is not just technical expertise, it's the lived understanding that money magnifies whatever's unresolved.

Ambition, fear, identity, purpose. He's now seeing how quickly financial wins can become emotional [00:01:00] liabilities when strategy outpaces self-awareness. His work is grounded in one simple, but uncomfortable truth. Wealth without intention eventually creates friction with family, with health, with yourself.

This conversation opens the door to the decisions that no one talks about while they're busy chasing growth. The private doubts behind public success, the trade-offs entrepreneurs make without realizing the long-term cost and the moment when building more stops being the answer and building better becomes a real work.

Deep Wealth Nation welcome to another episode of the Deep Wealth Podcast. Well, Deep Wealth Nation, let me ask you this. Whether you're looking at your year end and your profits, maybe you're planning to have an exit, I gotta tell you something, it's not what your profits are. It's not what you get for your exit, it's what you actually keep.

That's what you should be looking at, and so many entrepreneurs. They don't realize that. They don't understand that. And between now and wherever it is that you want to go, are you deploying the best [00:02:00] tax strategies, the best investment strategies, or are you putting everything at risk because your business is all that you have and nothing else is going on?

I know lots of questions. You heard the official introduction. We have a terrific guest in the House of Deep Wealth, the fellow entrepreneur, an author, another podcaster. And Alan, I'm so excited to have you on the podcast. There is always a story behind the story. So Alan, what is your story? What got you from where you were to where you are today?

Alan's Personal Journey and Tragic Family Events

Alan Porter: Well, Jeffrey. I never thought I'd be doing this. I was a Black Hawk instructor pilot in the Army. I retired in 1993 and I love serving my country. I love flying. I have a passion for doing it. I had a successful real estate mortgage business after I retired from the Army up until 2008, but I've had some tragic things happen to my family.

Now I live in Fayetteville, North Carolina. My son lived in Little Rock, Arkansas with his wife, Lynn. She was 39 and they had two little girls that were seven and four, and we went out there for Christmas in 2009. In 2008 my business really went down the tubes because of real estate and [00:03:00] mortgage.

But in 2009, we went out there for Christmas and my son had been 100% disabled for three years and still not getting his disability hired. An attorney finally got his disability in the summer of 2010, but January 5th, 2010 changed my entire life. Jeffrey, his wife called me. She said, Alan, I've been diagnosed with stage four pancreatic cancer and they've given me six months to live. I was like 99% of the people out there that thought life insurance was a debt product that you had to die to benefit from it. Now there's no money coming in other than the money that I'm helping 'em with, but I don't know how long I can do this before I have to sell my house and help two families at one time.

But she happened to have a eternal illness writer on her life insurance policy, let her access the death benefit, which was in hundreds of thousands of dollars. Before, and within one year diagnosis of this deadly disease. And if it had not been for that, my son would be bankrupt. And it took a huge financial strain off of me.

Well, she died a year later. I moved my son back here and but my problems didn't end then because my [00:04:00] daughter, who's an oncology nurse, her husband's a doctor, had given birth to my third grandson and she was diagnosed with breast cancer and almost died. We didn't think she was gonna make it. Now she's 13 years cancer free.

But in 2023, she also contracted graves disease and thyroid eye condition, and there's no cure for it. They have one treatment, it's called Ezzo. It's an infusion. Eight infusions. The first one was like $32,000. The last one's almost a quarter of a million dollars. Well, the problem is January of 2024, the thyroid eye condition came back.

She went to the doctor in February. The doctor said, Nicole, I'm sorry. There's nothing we can do until you go blind. Then we can operate. And I'm thinking, my, what a prognosis. So we tried to get her to study at Duke. She didn't qualify for it because she had taken the ezzo. We did get her into the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota for four days of testing and consultation.

There's basically nothing they can do for her either. They've got some drug, but it's experimental. It's over a half a million dollars and it's not covered by insurance. [00:05:00] But they don't even know. It's not even for the thyroid eye condition. They say it may be 50% effective. They don't know for sure.

So she's slowly going by dayday. 

The Importance of Insurance and Financial Planning

Alan Porter: But I want people to understand there's so, so many things can happen outside of your business that will affect you and turn your dreams into nightmares. And this is what happened to me, but I came very passionate about insurance and insurance products.

Now, I used to be a registered investment advisor where I do stocks and bonds and but I don't charge people a fee. That's why I don't do that anymore. 

Collaborative Financial Solutions and Team Approach

Alan Porter: I have a team of people, and what I mean by and they're specialists too, Jeffrey, what I mean by specialists, let's say I'm your family doctor.

I can treat you for minor illnesses, minor injuries, but if you want your knee operated on, you want the orthopedic surgeon, the specialist, and that's what I have on my team. Specific attorneys, CPAs, and other specialists, and we collaborate together to come up with solutions for people's financial problems.

We show people how to reduce and possibly eliminate both debt and taxes, possibly set them up with a tax-free retirement that will eliminate or mitigate all the risk in retirement [00:06:00] that most people don't even know about. 

Preventative Health and Wellness Programs

Alan Porter: And I also have a preventative health and wellness program for business owners that they will save anywhere from $1,200 a year for per W2 employee.

They have an 8% higher production rate and a 7% higher retention rate. So, your entrepreneurs, your business people are always looking for more revenue. So they got that extra money coming in from, say, FICA taxes. They've got extra money coming in from the revenue, increased revenue, and they have less problems with the recruitment and retention of qualified individuals.

And, but for the employees, this is absolutely huge. They get an extra around a hundred dollars a month in their paycheck. It's a Section 1 25 program, but they also have 1100 drugs that are zero copay. Now think about that. If you have a healthcare plan for people, that's set 20 to 30% of the cost of that Healthcare Pro program.

But then not only that, they have the number one telehealth app in the United States. According to JP Power Associates, the Well Lucian app, [00:07:00] they've got an app for your dogs. You don't have to go to the veterinarian, you just call veterinarian on an app. He find out what's wrong. Prescribes a certain prescription or whatever, but the list goes on and on.

There's an accidental death benefit program form, but the list goes on and on. That's just preventative health and wellness. It's no net cost to the employer, no net cost employee, but it will save the employer tons of money. But the other things I do is I teach people to think outside the box.

Conventional financial planning. Like I said, I also do tax planning and tax saving. 

Tax Planning and Financial Strategies

Alan Porter: I'm not a CPA, I do not give tax advice, but my team and I know of tax strategies, that's your CPA. Your attorney may know a little bit about or they may know nothing about nothing at all, but if they know a little bit about that can be dangerous.

That's gonna invite audits and everything else. I have the experts in my team and we go to tax planning, tax saving, asset protection, business exit strategies. And I say, what's your exit strategy to business owners? And I say, well, what do you mean [00:08:00] Alan? I said, when you sell your business, would you rather have a tax deduction instead of paying capital gains tax?

Well, Alan, I want a tax deduction, but how do I do that? Well, it's not how I do it, it's how my team knows. It's who I know that knows how to do it, and they're part of my team. But that's why I have, I deal with a lot of affluent clients. They always tell me that their their attorney and their CPA and financial give 'em all their tax and financial advice.

I said, that's great. I'm not here to replace anybody's advisor, but I wanna work them with them as a team to give you the best possible financial scenario. But I have two questions for you. The first question is, when is the last time any of them ever give you any proactive advice on saving taxes? It's slim to never.

I've never had anybody tell me that they have any of my clients anyway, ever give any proactive advice. And I said, the other question I have for you, you may have the greatest advisors in the world, but it's what they don't know that's gonna end up cost you tens of thousands, if not millions of dollars.

Undue taxes, fees, and lost opportunity costs. [00:09:00] And they all agree with me. And they said, but Alan, what do you mean by lost opportunity costs? Well, I said, well, let me ask you this question. What if I could build you a tax-free retirement plan? It does not affect the taxation of social security or the means testing for Medicare Part B or Irma.

Taxes. You're protected from lawsuits, liens, and judgements. You can become your own financial institution. The list goes on and on. It mitigates or eliminates all the risk in retirement, and it's paid for by the government through a tax strategy that I did. They said, well, that's great, Alan. Again, it's my team that knows how to do this. I'll give you a perfect example. I had a gentleman last we finished up in October. He was a a dentist. He sold his practice down in Hilton Head. He sold for $8.3 million. They're gonna pay all the, or our team's gonna pay all the taxes for him. He's gonna dip the installments over a four year period.

But we did a tax strategy for him last year. He's gonna get two, 2,000,800, 2 million, $280,000 back in past taxes He paid over the last three [00:10:00] years through a tax strategy. And we're, there's tax strategies out there, and that's one of the things that my people are experts in and people they're leaving way, way too much money on the table because they don't think outside the box of conventional financial planning for one thing, and they don't get a second opinion.

They've been some of their financial planners for 10, 20, 30 years. And they think they know everything, but they don't. And that's why I tell people, I said, if you went to the doctor and said the doctor said, well, you need brain surgery, are you gonna rely on him or do you want a second opinion?

Always get a second opinion, sometimes a third opinion. 

The Risks of Conventional Financial Planning

Alan Porter: But you know, there's things like people don't understand in retirement. A lot of people and then a lot of entrepreneurs, sometimes they, they vested a 401k or whatever. I'm gonna tell you, we've been Innu Inated by the Propaganda Wall Street and fee-based advisors that the only way to invest for your retirement is through a 401k or a stock portfolio.

Do you realize 58% of the people out there don't even think there's a fee on the [00:11:00] 401k, and the average fee in a 401k is 2.99%. People are gonna have less than half of their money, and then they get hit with taxes anywhere from 20 to over 55%. And they're not prepared for it because they're gonna be outta money.

I have multimillionaires that are 65 years of age and their financial advisors have never told 'em anything about the risk of retirement. And they're supposed to be fiduciaries. Now. I'm a certified financial fiduciary. Let's say that you've got a million dollars in a stock portfolio, okay?

They used to say a 4% distribution rate was a safe distribution rate to last for 30 years. Index for inflation at 3%. Well, all my retirement plans go to age one 20 or till end of life, not just till 30 years. The thing is that $40,000 you're taking from that portfolio, that's not guaranteed. Okay? What if the first year you lose 10% in the market?

That goes from nine goes from a million down to 900,000, minus the $40,000 you took out minus the fees. You pay that financial [00:12:00] advisor whether you make money or not, and then what happens if the next two to three years, 2008 happens again where you lost 38 to 52%. People are gonna be outta money the fifth year. So basically in a Reader's Digest version sequence, returns risk is if you lose money when you start taking money out in the first two to three years of a 10 year period or a 20 year period instead of the last two to three years of a 10 or 20 year period, you're gonna be outta money anywhere from the fifth to the ninth year, and they're not prepared for.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Yeah. My goodness, Alan, so much here. Firstly. Thank you so much for your service and the sacrifices that you made. You did what you did so we can do what we do. And I'm so grateful for you being in the service. Thank you so much. And really my heart goes out to you and the family for the journey that you've been through with the family members and on the health side, and never easy on that side.

And Alan, as you're walking us through this, it's, most entrepreneurs never think of what I call the final exit. This is the exit nobody wants. And sadly, nobody has a choice [00:13:00] about that either. And for the entrepreneurs, the glass is always half full, and I'm charging forward. Everything's gonna be great. And then as you've shared with a number of stories, life can happen.

So let's take a step back for just a moment. I wanna start dispelling some of the myths because Deport Nation, you heard some incredible strategies. We're gonna learn more about that from Alan. And by the way, deport Nation. Go to the show notes. You'll learn about Alan's podcast, the books that he's written, the incredible resources that he's putting out there.

Alan, from a very high level. If we look at what some people call Pareto's law or the 80 20 principle, is there patterns that you're seeing where these patterns, yes. Jeffrey, 80% of the chAlanges that entrepreneurs, as an example, are going through are coming from the same 20% of these issues, these actions or lack of actions.

Are there some high level patterns that you can share with us that you can educate us on?

Alan Porter: Basically it's a, the 80 20 principle reflects everything in life. Your top earners are usually the top 20% [00:14:00] and 80% of my problems. Whatever I come with it's exactly the same thing for, I don't care what you do. The 80 20 rule always comes to effect. Sometimes it's 90 10. 

The Importance of Continuous Education and Proactive Advice

Alan Porter: If you've got, if you educate yourself, this is the thing about it, you gotta have continuous education.

And that's what, I talk to my people. I don't charge my consultations. It's all about education. And I talked for two to three hours with some of my clients, but it's not about, charging a fee. It's about educating on them to so that they can have a secure financial future.

Not only now, but in the future and legacy planning for the fans.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Yeah. And so with that, what would you want us to know? And as an example, I wanna go back to taxes for just a moment because you said something so interesting and actually in our Deep Wealth nine step roadmap. Step four, due diligence. This is before you ever go to market. Maybe you wanna raise investment for your business, maybe you wanna have an exit.

Well forget investors, forget an exit. If your business isn't around, what's the [00:15:00] point of all that? And in due diligence, you have a 300 point checklist that we have everyone go through to see what's there. One thing that I find, and you can say, Jeffrey, on base or off base, when it comes to taxes. For most entrepreneurs, while my accountants will take care of it, and to a certain degree they will, but they're not necessarily tax specialists, and there's gonna be all kinds of what we call skeletons in the closet that they're leaving.

But what most entrepreneurs don't understand, and I'd love for you to go through with this, if I sell my company tomorrow, or if I have an investor come in and I take some of the chips off the table for me and the investor writes the check today. If I don't have tax strategies in place, I can't put them in tomorrow and say, okay, uncle Sam, guess what?

I sold the business. Or I took some chips off the table through this investor. I now wanna save some taxes. It doesn't work like that. So can you share with you both nation, how long does it typically take? And I know it's gonna be arranged, but how long does it typically take? We put a tax strategy in today.

When does it become viable that we actually start seeing the fruit of our labor for that?

Alan Porter: Well, believe it or not, it could be [00:16:00] immediately because this world, ai, everything becomes so visible anymore. But I always tell people, you've got to have a plan for everything that you do. You must review your plan. If you don't have a plan, make one. If you do have a plan, review it every quarter, every six months, every year. It's just like beneficiary forms. A perfect example. This guy was married to, this woman, divorced her, she was on the original beneficiary form, and when he died 25 years later, his wife that he lived with for the last 25 years got nothing because he didn't change the beneficiary form. That can be, you can use this for any, anything that you do in life, you've got to upstate, update your plans every year.

This is just one of the things it's like you're talking about your, you think your, their accountant is gonna do the right number. The accountants, they're not, they're number takers. They want the right numbers for your tax returns. They're, there's no proactive training or advice that they give. That's what you, why you need to [00:17:00] do. Look at different people for different ideas that are proven. Not this in the gray area. I don't deal in gray areas. It's all black letter law that my, my team deals with. And like I said, I've got the top tax specific te CPAs and attorneys in the United States.

But it is, there's so many things out there, just like corporations is a C corporation, an S corporation an LLC, well it may be C corporation this year, but it might be an S corporation next year. There's all kinds of ways to, to change. Just like with a C corporation, you're only taxed it at 21%, but your S corporation, you may be taxed at 37%.

That's a 16% SA savings right there. So there's a lot of things that you can do, just business entities how you're paid how trust are set up. Again, like your business is set up and what you want to accomplish. That's the big thing is what do you want to accomplish in life? And I always tell people it's not how much in assets you have, it's how much you have [00:18:00] in assets after taxes are paid. 

Estate Planning and Real-Life Examples

Alan Porter: And you've got these, you've got these businessmen and entrepreneurs that are very successful. I dunno if you remember Don. He owned the Miami Dolphins.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Sure. Mm-hmm.

Alan Porter: Well, he had the stadium there. He owned the Miami Dolphins. He was worth $400 million at one time and he died. He had no exit plan. His family got next to nothing because the government came in, confiscated his assets and paid and sold them to pay the taxes on his estate. It's the same thing with Prince Entertainer died about three years ago. He had no equity. family is gonna get maybe 20% of that estate because they've, they're saying all, they're selling all the estate and to pay the taxes on the estate, all his assets, it's really criminal about that.

Attorneys are gonna get six to 12% of that estate for legal fees.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Yeah, there's so much going on there. So let's roll back the curtain a little bit more. Alan, I'm coming to you. Let's just take the position. I'm a typical entrepreneur. I'm charging forward. My business is growing. I'm busy outside of my accountants. 

The Process of Tax and Estate Planning

Jeffrey Feldberg: I haven't done a [00:19:00] thing in terms of estate planning or tax planning or seeing what's there or insurance or anything else like that.

What's the method to your madness? What are you gonna be doing with me? And I understand, Alan, if you say, well, Jeffrey. How can I answer that? Every business, every entrepreneur is different. I get that. But generally speaking, what does it look like in terms of your process? How long does it take? What kinds of things am I doing and coming out of that, what can I expect?

Alan Porter: Well, first off I set up a discovery meeting, not with just myself, with my tax team and with that tax team. What we'll do is we'll see what your, how you're structured. They'll see your tax returns from one or two or how many years ago or what do you, what are your plans for the future? And this way we can do some tax planning because you've got to have tax planning

Jeffrey Feldberg: Mm-hmm.

Alan Porter: Because the tax tax law change every year.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Mm-hmm.

Alan Porter: You may have a tax deduction this year, but it's not gonna be available the following year. But now in, in March here next month, all our tax strategies are gonna [00:20:00] be vetted for the year 2026. And there's gonna be some huge tax strategies for people to save a lot of money. And that's when. You start planning this stuff, sometimes day one you can, we can come up with a plan.

It's gonna take a while to institute, to develop. But at least you have the thought process that are going, okay. It's not how much money I make, it's how much money I keep after taxes and how my assets.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Mm-hmm. Yeah. And so typically, how long is that gonna take? As you're walking me through, okay, I've got your tax returns, Jeffrey, what about this, what about that? And I know everyone is different, but generally speaking, how is it weeks, months what are we looking at?

Alan Porter: I can usually, probably within two weeks to a month, give a good plan, get set up. Now, once we get the plan set up, now it takes more time, but we get the plan set up because we gotta. Get a lot of documentation from the the individual, and that's, my team takes a look at it. They they go down, go through there and check for [00:21:00] whatever strategies we're going to use.

It might be one strategy, maybe three or four strategies, but that's the thing about working with a team because not everybody can know everything.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Absolutely, and I wanna circle back to something that you said a little bit earlier. You're not charging for the initial consultation. It's not just you. You have a team, so you're not a one hit wonder with Alan that if you get abducted by aliens or you decide to take a month vacation, everything comes to a hold, that you have a system, a service that's going on out there that I can do.

I know so many founders, they say, well, Jeffrey. Yeah, tax advising someone like Alan, it's really only for the ultra wealthy, the rich, and I don't have enough zeros in the bank account to justify that. So yeah, sure. 

Addressing Common Misconceptions About Financial Planning

Jeffrey Feldberg: Maybe when my business gets to there, wherever there is, I'll circle back and think about, Alan, why don't you share with you both nation why that is wrong in every which way?

Alan Porter: Well, it's wrong every which way because I don't care if you make $50,000 or $5 million, I'm here to help

Jeffrey Feldberg: Mm-hmm.

Alan Porter: Of course it changes with every level of income, but if you want help, I'm here to help you. [00:22:00] Again, I don't charge my consultations. I'm very passionate about what I do because of what's happened to my family and other families.

When they don't take care of themselves and they always rely on, well, my cousin did this or my uncle did that. Well, your cousin and your uncle are all broke too.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Exactly. If we do what everyone else does, we're gonna get the results that everyone else Like The Einstein says you do the same thing over and expect different results. That's the that's insanity.

Absolutely, and one of the things that I would love to circle back on and again, deep Deep Wealth Nation, go to the show notes in there. There are all the links for these resources in your book, Tax-Free Retirement Solution. I love how you walk us through step by step what to do. You have the eight different chapters.

Each one is really a strategy in and of itself. You talk about something that I really don't hear a lot out there. 

The Long-Term Care Crisis

Jeffrey Feldberg: It's what you call in chapter five, the long-term care crisis that you can't Ignore. So Illuminate Deep Wealth Nation, what's going on there that they [00:23:00] really should know, but they don't.

Alan Porter: Nobody's prepared for long-term care, Jeffrey. It's unbelievable. I've got people who are 65 and 70 years of age. Well, I'm not gonna need long-term care. Well, guess what? 70% of all Americans are gonna need long-term care at some point in their life. 40% of all Americans between the age of 18 and 64 on long-term care.

Right now, I'm 73 years of age. My brother is three years older than I am. He's had Alzheimer's for the last two years and he is gotten very bad this last month. I don't think he is gonna last the summer, but sometimes these long-term, it will devastate people. People with Alzheimer's, dementia, Parkinson's, they can be away for five, seven years and just exist.

Just sit there in a chair. They don't know themselves. They don't know their family. But here, Jeffrey is a big problem, the caregiver. Is the one that ends up being the worst off because you can have a million, $2 million in your portfolio, but it's called Medicaid spend down.

Medicare does not pay for long-term care.

Medicaid does, [00:24:00] and if you've got that money in a portfolio. It's not protected in the Medicaid protect, protected trust and that you gotta be done. That's gotta be done. That's just what I don't understand. It's gotta be done five years before the event happens. Well, who can proco, forecast when I'm gonna need long-term care.

But if you don't have a Medicaid pro, I can't even talk protection trust in place five years before the government's gonna come in. They're gonna confiscate all your assets to pay for the long-term care that person's entered. And the surviving spouse is gonna be left with one car, one house, approximately $137,000 in a small subsistence allowance,

Jeffrey Feldberg: Mm-hmm.

Alan Porter: and they're not prepared for it.

Real-Life Examples of Long-Term Care Impact

Alan Porter: And I'll give you a couple examples.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Sure.

Alan Porter: I got a couple that it wasn't my client, but they had they about $5 million and they were 67. Just enjoying their retirement and everything. Getting ready to go on a trip. They got a 42-year-old son that got a phone 

Jeffrey Feldberg: Mm-hmm. 

Alan Porter: He died of a heart attack in his driveway.

He has four [00:25:00] kids, no life insurance, and his wife doesn't work. So guess who's gonna be taking care of that family?

Another one. They're 72 years of age. They're on a getting ready to go on a world tour here. And she started getting sick and comes to find out six months later she's got Alzheimer's and a year and then six months after that she's in long-term care. Things like that, if you're not prepared for it, will devastate your plans. 

Mitigating Long-Term Care Risks

Alan Porter: But, I tell people I can mitigate or I can eliminate long-term care risk through the cash value of property constructed cash value life insurance policies for their whole life, or index universal life. What you do as an example you pay for pennies on the dollar.

That death benefit, your out cash value may be a hundred thousand, but your death benefit's a million dollars.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Mm-hmm.

Alan Porter: You can use up to 90% of that for long-term care tax free.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Yeah, and Deep Wealth Nation. 

Planning for Post-Exit Life

Jeffrey Feldberg: What I want you to think about, and we talk about this here at Deep Wealth and Deep Wealth Mastery Program. In fact, we have our nine step roadmap. There's actually a 10th step, and Alan, that [00:26:00] 10th step we put right up. In the beginning, step zero, if I can call it that. We talk about the Postex exit life, whenever that may be it.

It could be five decades from now, it could be five months from now. Anything else in between. And we have entrepreneurs do something that I never did. One of the biggest mistakes I made in my postex exit life, I never planned for the Postex exit life. We talk about, well, what does life look like? What are you doing?

And I have to share with you, Alan, that as entrepreneurs, just about every entrepreneur that I speak with, Jeffrey, I started my business not just for my lifestyle. But to have a legacy. A legacy for my family, for my children, that while I'm alive and also beyond that, they have a comfort of life that I never really had at their age.

I wasn't fortunate enough to do that. I had to put everything on the line to be able to get that. And Deep Nation, that's all fine and good, but with what Alan is talking about, a health crisis comes up. It's not fair to the next generation that you're now selling them either with the costs or the legacy that you planned financially for your family.

It is gone. Poof, because it's taking [00:27:00] care of you. We're all living longer. It's going beyond what we ever had planned for, and that's a terrific thing. That said though, if all your hardened dollars from taking the chips off the table from investors or having an exit or the profits that you've been investing and putting away, if that goes to your healthcare as a should, you deserve it.

You earned it. If you're not prepared for that, you're not gonna have that kind of postex exit experience for you, for your family that you're hoping for. And so, Alan, as you've been talking, my takeaway are a few things. 

Tax Strategies for Entrepreneurs

Jeffrey Feldberg: Hey, number one, Jeffrey, you're probably not deploying tax strategies that you can begin to realize right now today, but also post exit when you really need it.

When you sell the business or an investor comes in, or maybe the next generation buys the business from you, you have an infusion of cash. Well, uncle Sam's legally is not gonna be getting as much because we've done the planning and it's provable. If the IRS comes in, we can speak to them about, Hey, here's why we're able to do it.

This is why it's justified. There's nothing offside with [00:28:00] this. You're also talking about having the right kind of vehicles, whether it be insurance or other kinds of policies or programs. That cover the unexpected for pennies on the dollar instead of paying a premium should something happen. Hopefully it doesn't, but should something happen And so we're beginning to lockstep, surround ourselves with tax strategies, with protection through premiums and policies that are gonna help ensure that me, my family, my loved ones are protected. And by the way, Deep Wealth Nation, you're not seeing Alan, I gotta tell you, seeing Alan, he looks 30 years his junior in terms of his appearance. My goodness. Probably from the peace of mind, Alan, that you're getting, you look so young, probably from the peace of mind that you're getting, Hey, I'm taking care of my family's taking care of.

I got nothing to worry about. Do you have that Deep Wealth Nation or is there worry? Is there additional stress that you don't need? So, Alan, with what I was sharing, would love your thoughts on that. Anything that I perhaps missed With that, any additional insights before we move on to the next topic?

Alan Porter: Well, the thing is. When people don't plan to [00:29:00] think the government taxes you on what you own, not what you control, that's absolutely huge. And when you've got the proper people to put you into financial entities whether it's trust or whatever, and especially with AI, because everything is visible immediately it's the government is gonna tax you on what you own.

Yeah, tax you what you own, but not on what you control. And that's gonna be a huge thing, especially now.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Yeah. And speaking of now, and I know the tax is always changing and the different policies and the rules, and oftentimes it's not necessarily better. Sometimes it is sometimes it's not. For an entrepreneur today, let's forget about last year or five years ago, or who knows how far back, what's been some of the biggest changes today that as an entrepreneur, I'm probably not aware of, Alan, that you and the team you're coming across each day that here at Deep Wealth, we call it a skeleton in the closet.

You don't know about it. Ignorance is not bliss. You better know about it because it'll have some very big [00:30:00] implications for you if it's not dealt with properly.

Alan Porter: Well, some of the things that, that people. As I said before they rely on their advisors. They've been with them for 10 or 20 years, or their father's advisor. They need to think outside the box, the conventional financial planning. 

The Importance of Insurance in Financial Planning

Alan Porter: I talk about insurance all the time. I think insurance is, you hear Susie Orman and Dave Ramsey.

Insurance is a terrible investment. Well, first off, it's not an investment.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Sure.

Alan Porter: In an asset class, all its own, there's no other financial product that can deliver the promises, the benefits, and the protection of property constructed cash value life insurance, whether it's whole life or index universal life, or fixed indexed annuities.

And people need to understand that. And they need to understand how all their financial, if you've got whatever your portfolio has, how these instruments work, especially in retirement. 'cause it's not about rate of return retirement. It's about distribution of your assets. Can I give you a perfect example?

Let's say again you got that million dollars in a stock [00:31:00] portfolio at a 4% distribution rate, that's $40,000 here. Not guaranteed, but you'd only need to have approximately $650,000 of that million dollars in certain fixed indexed annuities to give you the same $40,000 per year, and that's guaranteed for life. When the indexing strategies go up, you have an increase in income that's locked in. You can't do that with a stock portfolio and people have no idea. That leaves you $350,000 to do with what you want. You can pay the taxes on it. It makes it a Roth IRA does not affect the taxation, the social security, the means testing for Medicare Part B.

That's just one example,

Jeffrey Feldberg: Mm-hmm.

Alan Porter: but that's absolutely huge for people. It's not about rate of return on retirement. It's about distribution of your assets. And I'm not against the stock portfolio, not at all. Everybody needs to have that, but they need to have in retirement and in the future, they need to have different buckets of money.

Guaranteed income. For one thing, it's already been proven by Harvard Studies. If you have guaranteed income in retirement, you're [00:32:00] gonna live a health healthier, happier. Longer life and less stressful life. 'cause you don't have to worry about the ups and downs in the market because you know you've got that guaranteed money coming in just to pay for the necessity of the life.

And there's other things, people, entrepreneurs get all caught up in everything. How I'm gonna pay for my kids' college education. Very few people know. The cash value life insurance is the best college funding vehicle available today. Bar none. It beats the government. 5 29 plan all to pieces because number one, it's controlled by the government.

Had many li limitations and penalties. It's tied to the market, so you have huge volatility,

Jeffrey Feldberg: Mm-hmm.

Alan Porter: but you're sending your kids to college in 2008 and you lost 50% of your four, of your 5 29 plan.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Mm-hmm.

Alan Porter: With insurance, it's self completing. You're never gonna have a loss

Jeffrey Feldberg: Sure.

Alan Porter: guaranteed by contract never have a loss to the market.

Because we're not tied to the market, we use indexing strategies such as the Barclays Dynamic Balance Index, the Euro Index, the [00:33:00] s and p 500 Index. There's 176 different ones, probably more now, but again, it all comes down and it doesn't count towards the, if you applying for a loan or for scholarship or something, it doesn't account for income when you're doing this.

That's absolutely huge for people.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Sure.

Alan Porter: got income that, my granddaughter was trying, and with her father and his new wife, they didn't qualify in certain things because of the too much income. But with, I've got three policies, three whole life policies for my grandkids, for the college education because again, it's the greatest college funding vehicle available out there.

And that's just another thing of. How plan for you guys or for your, for the clients and because they think about that,

Jeffrey Feldberg: Yeah.

Alan Porter: they don't think about, they don't think about protect assets from.

Jeffrey Feldberg: And Alan, what I'm hearing you say, and again, Jeffrey OnBase off base, you're not here to replace the accountants as an example that an entrepreneur maybe they've been working with for decades and who [00:34:00] knows, maybe they're family friends, what, whatever the case may be. You're not here to replace, you're here to supplement.

You fit into the existing structure of what Sarah and DEP Nation you might be thinking. Well Jeffrey, I don't have the time. This sounds complicated. I don't understand any of this. Well, that's exactly why you wanna have a conversation with Alan and team, because they'll walk you through what you don't know and what you don't know you don't know.

And again, ignorance is not bliss. So, Alan, you're adding onto what's there. You're not taking away. You're filling in the hidden gaps. You're removing those skeletons in the closet. So the entrepreneur walks away with peace of mind knowing that they've taken care of everything that they possibly can.

They'll be paying lower taxes, heaven forbid, should something happen. They're gonna be covered. There's not gonna be sleepless nights because they've done the investment of their time, their energy, the resources right here and now. How am I doing with that?

Alan Porter: Something tell you right now, I've been doing this for a, and didn't start, I was 58 this after my daughter-in-law died.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Yeah.

Alan Porter: I became my own financial institution. Now I'm gonna give you a perfect example. 

Effective Interest Costs and Becoming Your Own Bank

Alan Porter: Have you ever heard of [00:35:00] effective interest costs?

Jeffrey Feldberg: Why don't you share it with Deep Wealth Nation? Absolutely.

Alan Porter: Alright, effective interest costs. I had this gentleman, he was 42 years of age, retired from the military. He wanted to do my tax, re retirement plan in an index, universal life insurance policy. I said, well, how much debt do you have? He said, well, Alan, we bought a new house a couple months ago. Got a great interest rate, 2.75.

I said, yeah, that's great. I said, what else? He said, well, I got a couple car payments, a loan and a credit card. I said, fill out this form and we'll do a Zoom conference The following week we did. I said, you've got $461,000 in debt. That's not your problem. The problem is that 49.76 effective interest costs you're paying on that 2.75% mortgage.

He said, now whatcha talking about? I said, it's not gonna get down to the 2.75 until the last couple months of the mortgage. I said, you got a credit card here and most people's credit cards, his credit card was over 90% effective interest costs, most people's credit cards are anywhere from 70 to 95% effective interest costs.

And I said, even though you've got great credits, your average [00:36:00] effective interest cost is over 46%. I said, what financial vehicle are you investing in your 401k, which he's paying a thousand dollars a month for. Gives you a 46% return on your money because 46 cents of every dollar that you pay goes to compound info for some financial institution, and that money is gone forever.

He says, well, nothing he said, in fact, I lost 10% in my four one K last year. I said, okay. What we can do Now, it's take you 20 some years to pay your debts off. What you told me. He said, yeah, because we're paying extra on the mortgage. I said, with our program, through a tax re bucket of money and a whole life insurance policy, we're gonna pay your debts off.

14.17373 years faster. Save you $73,000 in interest at the end of 10 years. It's a 10 year policy. It's paid for. We took that thousand dollars a month that you're putting in your 401k and we're doing this policy. So you're 52 years of age, you're debt free. You become your own bank because there's over $130,000 in a tax free bucket of money that you'll never have to go to the bank to borrow money for a car, [00:37:00] college education for your kids or anything else.

And there's a $400,000 death benefit to protect your family. Now, I want you to understand this. When you're 52 years of age, you have no more debt. I've showed you how to become your own bank. You don't have to put any more money in this policy. By the time you're 65, there'll be almost a quarter of a million dollars of tax-free money that you can use in policy loans.

That does not affect the taxation of social security. The means testing for Medicare Part B, you're protected from lawsuits, liens, and judgements. It avoids probate and mitigates or eliminates all the risk in retirement. Then many, any other vehicle only compounds. He said, Alan, you made a dream of mine come true, but why don't people know this?

I said, it's not rocket science. It ought to be taught in high school, but it's not. They don't teach doctors any of this stuff. I've got PhD degree doctors with PhD degrees in accounting and finance. They have no idea what I'm talking about. And sometimes I teach their classes. But it's just things like this that people don't understand the effective interest costs.

And when I say become your own financial institution, I've been doing this for a decade and a half. Let's give you an example. I got a hundred thousand dollars in a cash value. My death benefit's a [00:38:00] million dollars. Okay. Now I'm gonna take $50,000 and go buy a car and I'm pay myself back at 0% interest.

So when I take that $50,000 out, my cash value continues to compound. Okay? It's just a lien against the death benefit. Now it accrues interest, but I don't even have to pay the loan back if I don't want to.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Mm-hmm.

Alan Porter: Alright? But I'm paying myself back because what I'm doing now is I'm paying myself back a thousand dollars a month for 50 months.

Now, if I was doing this for a financial institution and even at 0% interest, I would pay $50,000 to some financial institution and that would compound for them forever. That money for me is gone, but when I pay myself back and in my life insurance policy, it's worth tens of thousands of dollars more in my cash value, and my death benefit continues to grow because I have an increasing death benefit.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Absolutely in Deep Nation, there's a reason why Warren Buffet. Remember that guy, Warren Buffet? He said that [00:39:00] interest is the eighth wonder of the world. More specifically compound interest. It's the eighth wonder of the world because compound interest, it's incredible in terms of what it does. And Alan, you're correctly pointing out of, hey, if you can lower your effective interest rate, it's money directly back in your pocket and you're sharing some strategies.

And Alan, before we go into wrap up mode, are there some additional topics or a theme or a message, even a question I haven't yet asked that you'd like to share with Deep Wealth Nation?

Generational Legacy Planning

Alan Porter: It's not just legacy planning, it's generational legacy planning what we do with these tax strategies. But it, the whole thing just involves about becoming aware of what's going on and becoming educated and having a team of people that you can trust to work with.

And that's what I've found. Whatever I do, I have a team of people that I work with. I want to find the best people that I know of in the industry. I always surround myself with experts

Jeffrey Feldberg: Mm-hmm.

Alan Porter: Because, if I want somebody that, that has done this stuff before and saved millions of dollars, and then I've got [00:40:00] this other accountant over here, his biggest account is $1 million and no, no tax strategies.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Sure.

Alan Porter: I go to that account, I'm gonna go to the tax experts.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Absolutely. Words to the wises. 

Final Thoughts and Contact Information

Jeffrey Feldberg: And speaking of words to the wises, Alan, we're gonna go into wrap up mode. It is our tradition here on the Deep Wealth Podcast. It's my privilege, my honor. Every guest I ask the same question. It's a really fun question. Let me set this up for you. When you think of the movie Back to the Future, you have that magical DeLorean car that will take you to any point in time.

So here's the fun part, Alan, is tomorrow morning you look outside your window. Not only is the DeLorean car curbside, the door is open, waiting for you to hop on in which you do, and you're now gonna go to any point in your life, Alan, as a young child, a teenager, whatever point in time it would be. What are you telling your younger self in terms of life lessons or life wisdom or, Hey Alan, do this, but don't do that.

What would it sound like?

Alan Porter: First thing I once didn't going. When I got to a point to where I can afford insurance, I would've bought cash value. Life [00:41:00] insurance was the first thing I would've done, and I would've immediately bought policies for my kids and their college funding would be paid for, 

Jeffrey Feldberg: Hmm. 

Alan Porter: when they're babies. The younger you start, the better it is because cost of insurance is less.

That's the number one thing going back in time that I wish I would've done, but I didn't know this stuff until I was 58 years of age.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Better late than never. As a nation, are you hearing that the younger, that you can start with the right kind of insurance policy? The better off you're going to be. Don't wait. And while we're at this Alan, somebody in Deep Health Nation, they have a question for you. They wanna speak to you or the team.

They wanna know where they are and how they can get to where they want to be. Where is the best place online to find you?

Alan Porter: Well, you can always call me at (910) 551-1046. My website is www dot strategic wealth strategies.com. You can go on there. I've got a calculator that it's on the left, [00:42:00] left hand side of my page on my website that will give you an estimate of your retirement taxes and I can show you how that, and we can do tax strategies to get that money back for you.

My email address is strategicwealth0 [at] Gmail [dot] com. But I want everybody to understand I don't charge a fee for my consultation. Now, I spent years and years of studying to be able to sit, just sit here and talk to you about this and write the, write these books.

But I wanna put this information out to people because people need to know this. They don't know it. It's like you said. What if you thought something was true and turned out not to be true? When would you wanna find out about it? Well, obviously immediately, and that's what I try to get through to people.

Think outside the box of conventional financial planning and start planning a future for you, not your financial planner or his company plan, your financial future for you and your.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Absolutely. In Deep Nation it doesn't get any easier. It's all in the show notes. Go there as a point and click take Alan up on his [00:43:00] invitation. My goodness, he gave us his phone number, he gave us his email. Reach out to him. It doesn't get any easier. Before you go into your next call or meeting or activity, reach out to Alan.

Have the conversation with him. Well, Alan, it's official. Congratulations. This is a wrap, and as we love to say here at Deep Wealth, may you continue to thrive and prosper while you remain healthy and safe. Thank you so much.