Bryan Sweet Reveals On How To Maximize Wealth For Your Finances And Health (#191)

[00:00:00] Jeffrey Feldberg: Welcome to the Deep Wealth Podcast where you learn how to extract your business and personal Deep Wealth.

I'm your host Jeffrey Feldberg.

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As a Forbes Best-In-State Wealth Advisor for multiple years running, Bryan Sweet has been on the mission to help people live their retirement dreams since the start of his career in financial services back in 1979.

It's because of this, that he created his proprietary, The Dream Architect™, which not only helps his clients maximize their distribution planning, and retirement, but also helps them strive for and accomplish their biggest dreams.

With Bryan's vast industry experience he has also partnered in multiple entities, including Ultimate Advisor Coaching and the Elite Wealth Advisor Symposium, which both support high-performing financial advisors across the United States in the growth and scaling of their businesses. He and his partners do this through teachings on team engagement, marketing, automation, best practices, and all that it takes to build a high-class and scalable advisory practice. The bottom line is that Bryan thrives on helping others experience the growth and freedom that he has created in building a world-class financial services practice all while living the life of his dreams.

Welcome to the Deep Wealth Podcast, and we have a friend of the Deep Wealth community who's back with us, and not just any friend, a Wealth Advisor extraordinary, a thought leader, someone who's really making a difference out there. So, Bryan, welcome back to the Deep Wealth Podcast. And since the last time that you've been on, a lot of terrific changes have been taking place at Deep Wealth, and our community has grown So, Bryan, for the benefit of our new listeners, our new audience. Why don't you tell us the story behind the story, what got you to where you are today?

[00:03:20] Bryan Sweet: First of all, Jeffrey, thanks for having me back. It's always great to spend some time with you. The story behind the story well, I've been fortunate enough to be in this amazing industry for 43 years, and one of the things that I had seen over the last 43 years is regardless of the Wealth, we could help clients create.

Four other problems or things happened that continually popped up that I couldn't help clients with and because of that, one of my goals became is who can I collaborate with or where are the people that can help solve these problems for clients? And so, what we've been doing since the last time we spoke is we've been creating a platform that really addresses these, I call them, five pillars that clients deal with.

The first one is wealth. And that's obviously what we've done for 43 years. But the other for our purpose, and the biggest part with that is when you're going from something to something like retiring, that sometimes is a very difficult transition. Maybe the biggest one or the one that has the most emphasis right now is health and longevity.

So, If you had all the Wealth that you wanted, but you didn't have your health, what does it mean? And my favorite saying on that is he who has his health, has a thousand wishes, and he who doesn't have one so think about that one for a second. And then legacy issues, transferring your values down to your family members and charitable aspirations, and then experiences you know, sometimes when you're busy being a business owner.

You don't have the time to really do all the things that maybe are on your bucket list and so when you actually have the time. You don't even know who to go to, what to do, and so,, that's been a key thing so we've been so fortunate to get to collaborate with individuals and have created a platform called The Dream Architect Life.

And then we're doing Immersives, where we go deep into these areas.

[00:05:38] Jeffrey Feldberg: Interesting. And you know, for our listeners, Bryan, what you just shared is a wonderful segue into what we'll be talking about today and offline. I was sharing with you and I'll share with our listeners. It's been interesting because really this past week in anticipation of us talking, just call it serendipity, call it the universe winking, whatever you'd like.

It's been interesting a number of conversations I've had with successful business owners. There was a theme to that, Bryan, and I'll share that theme with you. It was the gamut from. You know what? Everything I hear about Wealth Advisors hasn't been great. Or someone in my family tried a Wealth Advisor and lost money.

They ended up now taking their own portfolio and managing it on their own. Is that the same fate for me? You know, should I be trusting a Wealth Advisor? And if not, how do I even find one to the other extreme of, yeah, you know, I have Wealth advisors. Yeah, they're doing okay. Not great, not terrible. Just doing okay.

Probably the same as everyone else. And so, offline Bryan, I use the word murkiness. There's a lot of murkiness out there with business owners about Wealth advisors, and given your experience, your thought leadership, how you're really making a difference out there, it'd be wonderful to really set some benchmarks here of how, whether you're just starting out in business or you're planning for an Exit, or you've had an Exit, why you should have a Wealth Advisor really from the beginning. And then how do you find that Wealth Advisor from the start to do it right? You don't wanna do it twice, you wanna do it right the first time.

So, what do you think of that theme for us to start diving into and picking off those mets one at a time?

[00:07:15] Bryan Sweet: Yeah, I think that's a great subject. And you know, we hear that a lot also just from clients that are maybe investigating, maybe making a change, and those questions come up and so, one of the things that we have done to be helpful is we've actually created, we call it the right fit Advisor Guide. So, You know, if somebody just wanted a platform of what things should I be looking for? This is just a few things that, at least this is my personal opinion on things that are important and I think, you know before we maybe get a little more in-depth, I think the right advisor is really gonna be a person that can help you define what your definition of success is, and not necessarily by the returns that they get you, but by the goals and dreams that you have for yourself and your family. So, the thing with returns is that can't be controlled, but your focus on what you value the most. Absolutely can be controlled and so, if your Advisor is aware of what's important and they're prioritized, and at every meeting, you're going through a list of all of the things that you value and you deem important, and you're creating checklist or check marks that those things are being addressed that's probably a fairly good sign because it means you are moving forward in things that are important to you and that's maybe one, you know, guidepost that you might want to keep in mind.

[00:08:57] Jeffrey Feldberg: And it's interesting as you say that, and for the listeners, what I wanna have this comment really hopefully resonate with you, whether you're just starting out in business. Or you've established yourself, you're successful in business. And Bryan, you can correct me if I'm off base, but you don't have to be quote-unquote wealthy to have a Wealth Advisor.

And there may be Wealth advisors that will have certain minimums, but there's also Wealth advisors that will see a potential in somebody and say, okay, let me start here with this individual now, and as they grow, I'll grow. So, would I be on base with that? That you don't need to have a small king's ransom of money in the bank to start working with the Wealth advisor.

[00:09:35] Bryan Sweet: Yeah, I definitely would agree with that. As you alluded to there are some out there where they do have this defined minimum and you know, that wouldn't work for everybody. But I'm totally aware of lots of great advisors throughout the country that don't have these minimums that, you know, if I wasn't doing this myself, I would be really comfortable, you know.

Referring friends and family to them because of, the quality of the work they do, but also because they see the potential in people and want to help them get there.

[00:10:03] Jeffrey Feldberg: Absolutely. And then going along those lines, so, we're now establishing, hey, you don't need to have your Exit before you start working with a Wealth Advisor. And in fact, I would say, when you're working with a Wealth Advisor, even when you start your business, the planning that you would do with a Wealth Advisor will likely change the business.

And the flip side of that, the business is gonna change because you're working with a Wealth Advisor. And again, would I be on point with that?

[00:10:27] Bryan Sweet: Yeah, I would totally agree. I think by working with a Wealth Advisor in advance one, it'll tell you whether they're gonna be the right person to help you with this Exit. By the things that they have done or haven't done for you up until that point. The people that they've put you in contact with to help you accomplish things, questions that you've had, so, I would absolutely agree with that.

[00:10:53] Jeffrey Feldberg: And then just rounding out some of the basics here before we do a deeper dive into some of the more perhaps advanced topics, is the notion that, well, you know what? Maybe I can't trust a Wealth Advisor, and it's my responsibility as a business owner. It's my money. To manage my money and invest my money.

And I would say for some people, perhaps that's correct, but Bryan, again, you can correct me if I'm off base, that for the vast majority of people, that's not the best decision and it doesn't have a great outcome.

[00:11:20] Bryan Sweet: Yeah, I mean there are several people I know that have a desire and are actually very astute at money management and they just need to make sure they have the time and energy to do that. But I would tell you most people would spend the free time that they could generate by not doing that and things that they actually have more passion and desire for.

And I think the key thing with a financial Advisor is you need to look for somebody that is gonna act in your best interest or the word fiduciary comes up and, you know, there's a several different ways of doing that, but you know, somebody that only talks about returns and products you know, that maybe was one indication that they're not necessarily gonna fill that fiduciary role because if the only way that they get paid is by selling you some kind of a product, there could be conflicts. Not to say there would, but there could be conflicts of interest and you just need to be aware of that.

[00:12:27] Jeffrey Feldberg: Interesting. Okay. so, some more takeaways for our listeners and so, Bryan, you know, as I've shared before on our other podcast, and we can put a link to that in the show notes. You're very modest. Because really in the industry you are incredibly successful. You're a thought leader, and really you're also working with Wealth advisors who are up and coming in coaching them and giving them your wisdom and your insights.

And the question to put you on the spot, your success is not an accident. Any success is not an accident. You've obviously been doing things right, but sometimes that's not so, obvious to people so whether someone's with a Wealth Advisor now. Or if someone's thinking about switching to a different Wealth Advisor or someone saying, hey, I don't even have a Wealth Advisor.

I wanna start, I want to find one and begin to work with one. How do we know, or what should we be looking for to get the right Wealth advisor the one that's going to really be our advocate and do the right things for us?

[00:13:22] Bryan Sweet: Well, I think a couple of things come to mind. One, I mentioned you want to try and work with somebody that's listed as a fiduciary, and there are several different ways, but you know, typically a somebody that's a chartered financial planner is somebody that probably is a fiduciary, that's a CFP designation.

One of the questions you should ask is, are they fiduciaries? Because in the ADV which is the document that we have that kind of describes what we do. It basically spells that out. And if the client, you know, if the Advisor says they are a fiduciary, that means they're gonna act in your best interest.

And that would typically mean, you know, they're not gonna sell only products to you. They're gonna be on the same side of the table, so, when they make decisions. It's not, you know, they win, you lose. It's, everybody's in this together. But I think the other question you need to ask is you wanna have somebody that takes more of a holistic view of everything. So, you know, managing money is really one part of it, and literally accumulating money, I would tell you, if you just set some disciplines, is relatively really easy.

[00:14:45] Jeffrey Feldberg: Okay.

[00:14:46] Bryan Sweet: By just following some easy steps over time and keeping things diversified, but it's so, much more than that. Tax planning is a huge thing.

Working with your CPA and your estate planning attorney to make sure all of your plans are such that your CPA, your estate planning attorney, and all of the stuff that you're doing as a financial Advisor are all coordinated to move the client's goals and dreams forward in the same path and not competing against one another.

So, you really want somebody that kinda acts maybe as your quarterback to initiate follow up and make sure that when you go through that of everything that I have a concern with, or these are my problems, or these are my goals and dreams, somebody's actually making sure that they're getting the right people to address each of those in the right order based on what you feel is important or maybe they'll make a recommendation as to why that order isn't correct, and then long as you agree with that. But moving forward along those lines, so, that over time you know that I will have met all of my least current goals and objectives. And then you need somebody that has a defined, review or a maintenance platform where you just don't set the plan up today, and then you never look at it.

You want somebody that's getting together with you and saying, has anything changed? Or, hey, did you know that the markets or the laws changed and we need to go from A to B so,, that you stay on the path that you said was important so I could probably continue to go, but those are the top things that come to mind.

[00:16:44] Jeffrey Feldberg: Well, it's interesting you started off with an interesting word that you don't really hear in a financial sense. You said holistic, and then if I take that word, even how we started our talk today, you really spoke about the different pillars from Wealth to purpose, to health, to legacy, to experiences.

And again, that's very different, at least for me as I hear you talk about that, particularly from a Wealth Advisor, So, I'm gonna take a guess here. And again, you can validate that again, you didn't just create that out of the blue. You must have found a gap in the marketplace, even a gap with what was going on with your client base.

So, why bring a holistic view for wealth planning to your clients? What was going on or not happening that you said, you know what? This is very much needed. Let's be the thought leader here. Let's do this.

[00:17:33] Bryan Sweet: Yeah, well, great question. I think what it was. And you know, I wish I would've actually taken action even sooner, but I guess, now is better than never. But these four issues, people that dealt with issues where they maybe retired and then all of a sudden they just weren't having the quality of life that they thought they would have after they'd amassed, you know, all the money that they needed.

There was just things missing or people that weren't aware of preventative health issues or things that you can do on your own that can actually make you younger as you get older. And so, I just said, well, having done this, I keep seeing these issues come up and what can I do, or who can I collaborate with that has expertise in these areas that I can introduce to my clients so, that I feel good that they're kinda living their best life because they were living their best life from having the money that they wanted. But if you don't have really all of those five pillars, there's like a big void that they have and life isn't as good as it could be. And so, it was just my goal to say I don't see anything out there that's pulling these all together, and since I'm not seeing it, then somebody's gotta create it, and why not me?

[00:19:03] Jeffrey Feldberg: Absolutely terrific. Bryan, in terms of what you're seeing, and you really, you're an early adopter because when we look to science, what we're hearing now is our age. What we consider our quote-unquote age limit when we pass onto the other side. Whatever that is for somebody is increasing. And believe it or not, someone who is alive right now, born recently will live to be 150.

As crazy as that sounds for us today, that's what science is saying. And so, from a wealth perspective, it's interesting that you're taking that outlook of, okay, if we're gonna have longevity and we'll help get you there, you're saying, let's make sure that you even have the capital, the Wealth, to sustain that lifestyle.

I'm sure for some business owners or just investors in general, they get a shocking surprise, not a good one. When they get later on in their years and what they thought they would have simply isn't.

[00:19:56] Bryan Sweet: Yeah. Such an interesting comment you make because that's so true. So, when you're introducing people to the health and longevity idea, you know what you just said, people are gonna be living that long that's absolutely true. I've seen, you know, studies and evidence of that. But if you think about it, especially somebody that's younger that's maybe just getting started.

[00:20:21] Jeffrey Feldberg: Right.

[00:20:22] Bryan Sweet: They're gonna need their money to last a lot longer than somebody that's retiring today. So, in our planning you know, for an average retiree I like to use age 100 as our minimum target. Now I get a lot of clients that go a hundred, have you lost your marbles? But you know, it's fairly easy for somebody at 65 to live to a hundred and getting more likely all the time.

But if you're even younger than that, you need to start looking at 120 and 150 and you know, potentially you'll be working till 75, but you're feeling like you're 50 at 75. And it's just amazing since I've gotten this opportunity to work with some of the top medical people.

That a lot of the things that help make you younger each day by actually getting older are really within our control. And a lot of the other things are just things that are preventative in nature that most people aren't aware that they can take advantage of so that instead of having medical illnesses later on, if you can know about them in advance, then you can do things so they actually never happen. And an interesting statistic I heard, Jeffrey, is 80% of people 40 and older have some asymptomatic thing going on in their bodies that they just don't know about. So, wouldn't it be nice that if 80% of us knew what that might be, and then they could be told, well, if you do this, and this, that won't be an issue, or will help you avoid that, wouldn't that be amazing?

But those things are out there. People just aren't aware of them.

[00:22:11] Jeffrey Feldberg: And if we put a pause on that for just a moment for our listeners, I want you to think about something. So, Bryan, who is a thought leader, a Wealth Advisor, is looking with his crystal ball into the future and is part of the solution. You know, just as we take our Wealth, our capital, and we invest it and you know, compound interests and all those other good things that come along.

Bryan, you've asked a really interesting question. Well, how can we do the same thing for our health that hitting a financial milestone, whatever that is for somebody. And I'm sure it's all over the board for different people, but you know, to your point earlier, what's the point if you hit a gazillion dollars but you can't enjoy it, you have trouble getting out of bed, or you have some kind of disease that your time is now limited.

What's the point of all that? And so, you putting the two together, hey, I'm gonna, Your capital and your Wealth and take it to the next level. But let's also help you with investing in your health what a novel concept that you're doing today. So, far ahead of everyone else. So, Talk to us a little bit about the, I know it's early days and you're still rolling this out, but how are things going with that?

[00:23:17] Bryan Sweet: You know, actually it's really exciting. We've got this two-and-a-half-day immersive coming up early in 2020. Three. And we've got all of the agenda set up and it's just a matter of getting the people there and all the logistics and whatnot. So, the first one's gonna be really heavy emphasis on health and longevity, just because all the people and clients we've talked to said, you know, of the four extra pillars or five pillars, including health and longevity was probably the one that they had the most interest to learn about. First and so, we are gonna be allowing our clients, and then I'll tell you another version of this that we came up with, but we'll be having clients and some people that are looking at working with us have the opportunity to go to Dallas.

Get a full body scan, and a brain scan. We'll have one of the top longevity doctors there. They'll be discussing the use of peptides, and acupuncture. We'll be talking as you and I did before we got on the podcast today about things related to sleep, and they'll be able to actually get the results of all of these down with a skilled doctor and go through all the scans. And the most amazing thing is this organization that we're working with has created relationships with literally every kind of medical professional. So, If something comes up in one of your scans, they can give you a referral where in 20, well 24 to 48 hours, you can actually have an appointment to see a specialist to deal with that.

And if anybody's ever tried to get a medical appointment, you might get in three or four months from now. And depending on the seriousness of it I've gone through all of these tests myself, so, it's amazing. The results, it's just fascinating to be honest with you. But some of the people I was with, one had an aortic valve issue, and apparently, if you don't address those, it's like a 95% fatality rate.

[00:25:30] Jeffrey Feldberg: Oh my goodness. Wow.

[00:25:30] Bryan Sweet: And so, you know, they were able to literally within two days at a specialist that deals with those things, so, that might be the most interesting thing of all of it is not only do you get these scans, but if something popped up, you can get to a specialist in a relatively very, very short period of time, so that's been really exciting and we've got alot of amazing comments from our clients, and one of the other things that we're doing is, as you alluded to before, I've been very fortunate to be able to help a lot of other financial advisors with a coaching platform that we have. And then there's another platform that we've created for really successful advisors, the kind of top one to 3% guys that we have an invitation-only platform. And at that meeting that we're gonna have, we're gonna be rolling out the ability for those attendees to actually be able to plug into what we're building and they will be able to go themselves first to see what the experience is like, and if they like that they can white label that for their clients and deliver that kind of an experience without really having to go through all the detail and learn all the doctors and create all the relationships and so I'm excited with that little community to be able to roll that out very soon. Some of the advisors that I am close friends with that attend that have are really excited to being able to participate in that too.

[00:27:12] Jeffrey Feldberg: So, forward-thinking. And for our listeners, let me ask you this. When it comes to your Wealth Advisor, are you with an Advisor that it's all about the money and that's it? Or are you with an Advisor who, like Bryan is saying, okay, listen, obviously I've gotta earn my stripes if I'm not doing well for you on the financial front, there's nothing more to talk about, but let's assume I am doing well for you on the financial front? Let's now expand that. Let me see how I can take care of you in other ways that perhaps you're not able to do so, or you're not even aware of. You know Bryan, it's interesting because you and I are both on the same page here on the Deep Wealth Podcast. We've also expanded from just business to business and also personal on the health side, as we like to say The Deep Wealth Podcast, helping you extract your business and personal Deep Wealth, and we've had doctors on the podcast and when we speak with them, nothing that most people haven't heard themselves, but it's really the same message hey, you know what? We don't have a lot of time for most patients coming through. Maybe five minutes, maybe seven minutes, 15 minutes at the most, and then we need to go on to the next patient. And it's not the doctor's fault, that's just the way the system is. They have really good intentions. They're terrific people.

That said, though, we have to be our own advocate, and you're now enabling that through this, I'll call it this concierge type of service that you've built into your platform. For your business owners to help them be proactive and do the right things ahead of time. so,, they don't have problems down the road.

And it'll be interesting as we continue to go along, as you roll this out, to hear the kinds of results that you're getting. And it sounds like from the early days, everything is sounding very positive.

[00:28:47] Bryan Sweet: I think what the most satisfying thing will be is when we send a client or literally anybody through this and they find something that they weren't aware of that turned out to be a life-saving thing.

You know, just the feeling of helping and joy that you made sure something bad didn't happen in advance will be I was waiting for that kind of feeling to happen, but you know, I'm sure it'll happen fairly quickly just because so, many people don't know things that potentially might happen and sometimes that's scary not knowing. I think one of the things that I am doing for the people that are participating is, since I've been through all of this before I'm making my results available so they can see what they're about to get and try and make it a little less scary if you will. Because it's a little bit of the fear of the unknown.

What if I find something? But if you can see what the results will look like and so,, what some of the scans will show from what we've learned is that kind of minimizes the fear factor of why somebody might not want to do it, just because they're a little scared. Gee, there might be something going on and I don't know if I wanna know.

[00:30:02] Jeffrey Feldberg: Yeah, you know what? When it comes to health though, being the proverbial ostrich, your head in the sand is not where you wanna be. And as scary as it may be, Ignorance is not bliss, particularly when it comes to health and knowing that, and speaking about ignorance not being bliss. It's a terrific segue so we've talked about the health and you're really opening things up. And again, I'm just pinching myself here. I'm speaking to a successful Wealth Advisor, but we're talking about health. We're talking longevity. Unheard of back to the financial world for just a moment. Let's talk about expectations and mindsets.

So, as a business owner, I'm working with the Wealth Advisor. How do I set my expectations? Because for most business owners, when I'm speaking with them, when it comes to Wealth advisors, well, Jeffrey, I don't know. I guess I'm doing okay. You know, I speak to my friends, they're with different Wealth advisors, and it all seems to be okay.

We're all more or less, a little bit better, a little bit worse, but more or less on par. How do we really know? How does someone really know Bryan, if they're with the right Wealth advisor?

[00:30:57] Bryan Sweet: Yeah. And once again, these would be my opinions so but I would tell you one of the things that I would not do is compare returns to somebody else because. The returns that somebody might get may not be the returns that you need to get to meet every goal, objective thing that you value, whatever your dreams are and so you could end up taking way too much risk when it's not needed.

So, in my opinion, it's all based on what the client desires, the timeframes, the problems that they have that they'd like to eliminate. And it is just creating a list of, you know, if anything in the world could be improved and you could accomplish anything or problems that you're dealing with today, what are those?

And that's really what. You know, a holistic, fiduciary-oriented financial Advisor should be doing is solving your problems and setting deadlines and expectations of, you know, this is what we should do first. This is when we should have it done by, and making sure that it's done when they say it's gonna be to the satisfaction of the client and keep a running total of how those things are.

And then, whatever happens, and things that change, keep adding those new things to the plate as they come up because you know, life changes. We all get thrown curve balls and so you want to keep your financial Advisor aware of anything that might change because it could have a dramatic effect on what they need to do to help you stay on track and so, it's really just a big communication thing, but it should be all about you as the client and anything and everything that's important to you.

[00:32:53] Jeffrey Feldberg: And in order for our listeners, some very sage advice from Bryan. I hope you're paying attention and really, I'll say it in a bit of a different way, and Bryan at underscore is what you're saying so don't compare what you're doing with somebody else. And I would imagine because here at Deep Wealth we're about growing a business and then once you've grown the business, helping people sell the business.

And, you know, business owners talk to business owners. No one ever talks about the deal that they lost. You'll hear about, oh, this is the one that I won. So, When you're comparing your portfolio to someone else's portfolio, you're probably, they're not gonna tell you, oh yeah, I lost really bad on that one.

You are gonna hear, oh, I hit that one outta the park. I double my investment. So, don't compare. But then also, Bryan, I would imagine if you had two clients coming to you and one said, okay, you know what, Bryan, capital preservation first, I would like to create some passive income coming in that I can live off of and yet another client that said, you know what?

I have some room to spare here. Let's take a certain percentage of my wealth and it's okay if we're a little bit risky. Let's try and grow it. Capital preservation. Let's have that take a back seat. I would imagine in those two different scenarios, it's a different asset allocation. You're doing different strategies, different things, and you just can't compare the two because they have different objectives to what you're getting to earlier.

[00:34:08] Bryan Sweet: Yeah, and they would typically be totally different. I would say every client to a certain extent, is gonna be different in some capacity. They may end up having the same portfolio or really close to the same portfolio, but their tax strategy might be different. Their estate planning could be different.

 It just depends on all the little nuances that they have so the investment part is just one piece of it. But in an ideal world, we want you to at least know the risk level you need to take to accomplish the things that are important to you.

But it's a running analysis so, you don't wanna just set it and forget it. A lot of people spend more time planning their vacations than they do planning their financial future. And not that it takes a lot of time and energy if you're dealing with the right Advisor. Couple of meetings a year where you just basically make sure they understand everything that's important to you, the timeframes that they're important in, and then let them do their magic and, but make sure trust, but make them accountable. Show me you're actually doing this. When did we get this done?

When are you gonna have it done by? And those people that can deliver on what you want.

And the timeframes that they've established probably are advisors you probably want to continue to work with. And if they're not doing that for you, then it might, you know, behoove you to look some other place. And as I mentioned, we do have that right fit Advisor guide that we've created, but if you got some other successful friends that is using another Advisor that you trust their opinion?

That could be another resource. And so I would just say if you're ever looking at changing an Advisor or you don't have one and you're saying, well, maybe I need to do something like that I would actually interview several advisors. And I think what you will find if you ask them all the same questions, you will quickly find those that you don't feel comfortable with, and then you'll find maybe the one or a couple that really resonate with you, and then you can take those conversations deeper. But it's really asking the same questions of different people to see how they answer it. And does it make you feel, you know, you know, warm and fuzzy inside for lack of another term, you'll just kind of know whether that's gonna be a good fit, but I think you definitely need to interview people because you're gonna work with this and ideally you want to create a lifetime relationship. I mean, we've worked with, I still have some clients from the first day So, I've got some clients I've worked with for 43 years. We're looking for a lifetime relationship and ideally get to know your family and continue helping them for years to come. So, we work with a lot of families within, we work with their children and then all of a sudden it's the grandchildren and it's fun cuz you know, so, much about the family.

You know, what they value and what's important. And you'll figure that out once you find the right person, but you just gotta ask questions.

[00:37:28] Jeffrey Feldberg: Interesting, Bryan. And speaking of questions, I mean, look, this could be an episode all on its own and maybe it should be, you know, we should make a note for a future one that said, though, if someone is now either looking for a Wealth Advisor, For the very first time, or they're thinking about switching and they're now in the interviewing mode, the filtering mode.

What would be some of the top questions that someone should be asking to really get a sense of, okay, is this the right Wealth Advisor, or is it not? Or maybe I can ask it in a little bit of a different way. Bryan, if you were looking for someone for yourself and or for one of your family members, and you know, in this crazy thought experiment, you couldn't be that person and you had to tell that family member, okay?

When you speak to a Wealth Advisor, you know, I wanna get the best outcome for you. So, here's the questions that you should be asking. What would be your top 2, 3, 5 questions?

[00:38:18] Bryan Sweet: I think just one question would be, do you act in a fiduciary capacity and then have them explain what they think fiduciary means?

[00:38:29] Jeffrey Feldberg: Okay.

[00:38:30] Bryan Sweet: And it should give you a definition of something. One that's you're acting in the client's best interest, but I would say you really want them to expand it and talk about other holistic things like tax planning, estate planning, being the quarterback for your all your planning and things like that would be important things to consider.

Another great question would be, tell me about some of the things that you have done for some of your clients that was unique or helped them solve some problems that they had or concerns that they had, that you did for their benefit other than selling them a product so that'll let you know did they collaborate with somebody? Did they give you a referral to some outside service that they don't benefit from, but it was helpful to you and so the key is you need somebody that's gonna help solve your issues. And if you're aware of maybe this is my biggest concern and the reason I'm hiring a Financial Advisor is I wanna, you know, abc, you know, whatever that happened to be.

I would ask the question, give me some examples, cuz one of my objectives is to, you know, do abc, give me some examples of how you've helped others accomplish that issue in the past and see how they answer it. If you get any hesitation in their response, that's probably not a good thing. That means they've either not done it or if they have to think about it they haven't done it very much.

And you also wanna have somebody that's maybe a little bit of a quote-unquote expert or more expertise in the area that you need the most help yet.

[00:40:33] Jeffrey Feldberg: Interesting, some terrific insights there. And I know we could just go on and on with the questions, but certainly, some good ones to take away and to think about. And the other thing I wanted to circle back to for just a moment, and then unfortunately we'll have to begin to wrap things up here. But you said something interesting, and again, I don't hear this a lot for many wealth advisors, but I heard it from you and you said, hey, Jeffrey, yes I can be the Wealth Advisor, but I also wanna be the quarterback for you, and I wanna make sure that you're getting the right advice, whether it be estate planning or tax planning, or all these other areas.

So, Bryan it for most people. Is something that, oh, I never knew my Wealth Advisor could do that, or that they should be doing that. Can you talk to us briefly, why is that important and how do you specifically do it with your clients?

[00:41:18] Bryan Sweet: Well, yeah, I think it's extremely important because if somebody's not monitoring that aspect, then you could have one avenue that's taking a left turn when everybody else is going right and absolutely throw off the planning that needs to be done to have it done effectively. So, how we handle it is the first conversation that we have with any new client is we find out if they're working with a CPA or their legal team and we get their names, and then as soon as they become a client, we reach out to the CPA and or the estate planning attorney or both if they have those, and simply let them know we are working with Mr. and Mrs. Client. These are the concerns that you're probably aware of that they have, and we would like to know, anything that you may have done on their behalf. And in an ideal world, we would love to have a group meeting where we can discuss things that should be done collaboratively to move them forward to accomplish, whatever the objectives are.

So, a lot of times we will meet with just the CPA and the estate planning attorney ourselves and not get the client involved. Sometimes the client is part of those meetings. It depends on, you know, what the nature of the visit is about. It's just somebody needs to be the guy that's responsible, that things are moving forward and they're actually getting done.

And because sometimes, you can't move forward on some legal document until maybe some accounting thing got done. And at least in my area, have found that the ball can get dropped pretty easily, and then things don't get done. And some of these things are so, essential, like accounting things.

There's deadlines like December 31st for example. If you don't get something done, you missed deductions or whatever. Some estate planning things, you don't have it done. And somebody, unfortunately, dies there could be a mess.

I like to take the responsibility of the follow-up cuz I know I will move it forward or my team will move it forward. I'm not so, sure if, you know, if we don't take control, does it get done? so I would rather take that responsibility cuz then I know the timeframes. We've had a whole process on when things get followed up on and I know this will be done. And in an ideal world, the other advisors that you're working with get their things done on a timely basis.

And if you find that they're not cooperating or they don't have the knowledge and skills that help, you know, we will be proactive in letting our clients know that you might wanna, you know, take a look at another CPA cuz here's some of the issues that we're seeing and you probably don't wanna see those kinds of things.

So, we are those purveyors of good or bad news when that needs to be addressed also.

[00:44:27] Jeffrey Feldberg: And what's interesting, Bryan, with that is there's some symmetry here because you used the word, again, holistic when it came to helping on the health front, which leads nicely into experiences and legacy of your five pillar platform, but also holistic back to the financial side of, okay, it's not just us that needs to be involved here.

We have to have tax planning and accountants and this and that, and it sounds like you're steering your clients in the right direction, making sure things are getting done, and helping them find. Right advisors and so, for our listeners that takeaway for you is the right Wealth Advisor. Look to Bryan really as a gold standard here.

And what he's doing is not just himself, he'll introduce you to the team members that you need, that perhaps you're not working with, or if you need to upgrade, he'll help you with that as well. And then from the financial world to the health world, doing something similar in terms of ensuring that you're here a long time to enjoy the fruits of your labor and the success that you've achieved with Bryan and you know, on the Wealth advising front.

Well, Bryan, this is a terrific segue and you know, you and I have done this once before. We'll do it again. Maybe you'll give the same answer with a thought experiment. Maybe it'll be different, but it's a tradition here on the default podcast where every guest have the privilege and honor of asking this question.

So, as a refresher, I want you to think back to the future, and you have that magical DeLorean car, which will take you to any point in time. And So, Bryan, it's now tomorrow morning and you look outside your window. And not only is the DeLorean car there, but the doors open and is waiting for you to hop on in so, you hop in and you're now gonna go to any point in your past, Bryan, as a young child, as a teenager, whatever point in time it would be.

Bryan, what are you telling your younger self in terms of life wisdom or life lessons or, hey Bryan, do this, but don't do that. What would that sound like?

[00:46:13] Bryan Sweet: I love this question. I forgot you were gonna do this to me. , you know, based on where we're at now and the things that we're delivering to clients on the five pillars I would love to go back to when I originally created The Dream Architect platform about a dozen years ago.

And if I would've included those extra four pillars as part of that, at that point, I could have been a lot more helpful and maybe helped prevent a lot of bad retirements a lot of maybe health issues, although, last 12 years there's been so, many crazy medical advances that might not have been able to do it as well as you can today. But I would say, just off the top of my head, that would be one really positive thing, if I could jump in that car and head backwards.

[00:47:05] Jeffrey Feldberg: Wow. You know what some lessons learned looking back, so you can look forward. I love that. And again, all this is gonna be in the show notes. It'll be a point and click for our listeners. Bryan, if someone would like to learn more about you or reach you online or have a discussion with you of where they are and how you may be able to help, what would be the best place online to reach you?

[00:47:24] Bryan Sweet: Well, I'll give you a couple of things. One, if you'd like the right fit, Advisor guide, if you would just send an email to Miranda [at]sweetfinancial[dot] com. We'll send that out to you. If you wanna learn a little bit more about what we're doing with The Dream Architect Life immersive, that's dreamarchitect.com and you can just reach me at bryan[at]sweetfinancial[dot]com or just our website is sweetfinancial.com.

And if I can be of help or answer any questions for anybody. I do answer all my emails. So, feel free to reach out to us if we can be of any help.

[00:48:04] Jeffrey Feldberg: Well, it doesn't get any easier than that, and I would encourage our listeners from the right for You Guide to reaching out to Bryan and just hearing from someone who, again, has really, he's blazing the way and paving the way for not just the financial side, but your really, overall, your health is your Wealth.

And your Wealth is your Wealth. Get both of them all at once. Doesn't get any better than that. so, Bryan, it's an official wrap and as always, thank you so much for taking part of your day and spending with us here on The Deep Wealth Podcast. And as always, please stay healthy and safe.

[00:48:35] Bryan Sweet: Well, appreciate you having me, and it's such a treat to get to chat with you periodically, and I love where you're taking the Deep Wealth podcast and all the things that you're doing for your clients. Keep up the good work.

[00:48:46] Sharon S.: The Deep Wealth Experience was definitely a game-changer for me.

[00:48:50] Lyn M.: This course is one of the best investments you will ever make because you will get an ROI of a hundred times that. Anybody who doesn't go through it will lose millions.

[00:49:00] Kam H.: If you don't have time for this program, you'll never have time for a successful liquidity

[00:49:05] Sharon S.: It was the best value of any business course I've ever taken. The money was very well spent.

[00:49:11] Lyn M.: Compared to when we first began, today I feel better prepared, but in some respects, may be less prepared, not because of the course, but because the course brought to light so many things that I thought we were on top of that we need to fix.

[00:49:26] Kam H.: I 100% believe there's never a great time for a business owner to allocate extra hours into his or her week or day. So it's an investment that will yield results today. I thought I will reap the benefit of this program in three to five years down the road. But as soon as I stepped forward into the program, my mind changed immediately.

[00:49:49] Sharon S.: There was so much value in the experience that the time I invested paid back so much for the energy that was expended.

[00:49:59] Lyn M.: The Deep Wealth Experience compared to other programs is the top. What we learned is very practical. Sometimes you learn stuff that it's great to learn, but you never use it. The stuff we learned from Deep Wealth Experience, I believe it's going to benefit us a boatload.

[00:50:12] Kam H.: I've done an executive MBA. I've worked for billion-dollar companies before. I've worked for smaller companies before I started my business. I've been running my business successfully now for getting close to a decade. We're on a growth trajectory. Reflecting back on the Deep Wealth, I knew less than 10% what I know now, maybe close to 1% even.

[00:50:31] Sharon S.: Hands down the best program in which I've ever participated. And we've done a lot of different things over the years. We've been in other mastermind groups, gone to many seminars, workshops, conferences, retreats, read books. This was so different. I haven't had an experience that's anything close to this in all the years that we've been at this.

It's five-star, A-plus.

[00:50:58] Kam H.: I would highly recommend it to any super busy business owner out there.

Deep Wealth is an accurate name for it. This program leads to deeper wealth and happier wealth, not just deeper wealth. I don't think there's a dollar value that could be associated with such an experience and knowledge that could be applied today and forever.

[00:51:16] Jeffrey Feldberg: Are you leaving millions on the table?

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