Heath Goldman - What Will Your Legacy Look Like in 25 Years?

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You can get it free by texting exit plan with no spaces to 442-22. That's exit plan to 44222. Again, text exit plan to 44222. Welcome to the Exit Coach Radio show, the show for baby boomer business owners who are looking for cutting edge information as they plan their 3 to 10 year business succession and exit. Every week we interview top professional advisors for their best tips, strategies, and precautions so you can be well planned. And now here's your host, the exit coach Bill Black. Thank you so much for listening today. It's always a pleasure. My next guest joining me today is Heath Goldman, and Heath's been with us before. He's with Icon Wealth and Legacy Partners, great guy, president and CEO of that firm located in Sherman Oaks. Heath acts as a financial architect for business owner and real. State families. He focuses on major areas of the client's financial life so they can focus on their money making activities. How does that sound? What will your legacy look like 25 years from now is what we're going to talk about today. Hard to hard to think about that, Heath, but let's talk about 25 years from now. Let's talk about right now. How are you doing? Bill, I'm struggling like a lot of people I can imagine, but, uh, life is good. I'm healthy and, uh, the family's good, so, uh, thanks for asking and, uh, I hope the same for you. Well, yeah, as we know, the big numbers out there are all about keeping healthy and staying safe, and it's a concerning time for a lot of people and a tragic time for a lot of people in a lot of different ways. So I count I count us as as continued blessed and lucky. Keith, tell us about Icon Wealth and Legacy Partners. I love what you had me say there about being a financial architect. Tell us a little bit more about that. Yeah, I think, you know, there's a lot of amazing financial advisers out there, you know, CPAs, business attorneys, insurance agents, but I think one of the things that clients struggle with is finding the time and having their own expertise to be able to understand exactly what all of their team is doing on their behalf. So you know, the whole architect story came about is that I really am hired on a fee basis to come in and work with families and to design a plan. That I will then oversee the implementation of with their current team of advisers so that clients can focus on their money making activities and their family because let's be honest, Bill, I think you and I both know if a client's not concerned about their family, they're not going to be concerned about the planning that has to be done as well. Yeah, beautifully put, and I think it conjures up a really great image for those listening maybe because a lot of our listeners may have built a house at one point and you know you didn't generally you. Interact very heavily with the architect because you want this over here and that over there and you want the house to look a certain structure and then the architect is going to then talk to the different contractors and tell them, you know, how and when to build their parts of the product or the plan and in financial strategies it can get very complicated between tax advisers and legal advisors and You know, investment advisors, insurance advisors, etc. etc. So, uh, when, when you start talking with someone about this, um, do they generally do they generally have an idea what they want to do or do they even need help in like in a design phase, you might say, well, what are my options? You know, it's a good question. There are families that have an understanding of what they think they want, uh, until you start asking questions, you know, let's just take the traditional family, you know, first marriage, you know, son and daughter, both of them are working in the company, and if you ask mom who she thinks going to take over the company, she tells you the son. If you ask Dad who he wants to take over the company or thinks should take over the company, they'll save the daughter. And I, my next question is, have you had a conversation independently with each of your children asking them if they even want the company? You know, they may love being here with you and Mom every day and running a successful company, but doing it on their own may not be in the cards. And having that understanding ahead of time is paramount to being able to create the, you know, the ideal plan. So, you know, questions just become questions and more questions and then client looks at me oftentimes to your point. Wow, this didn't end up being any way close to what I thought was originally was intended, but I'm glad we had the conversations and I'm glad we're working towards an end point. You know, there's an old saying, you know, my clients don't, didn't plan to fail. Oftentimes they failed to plan before they came to me and that failure to plan could be probate. It could be tax dollars, estate planning. I mean, you know, there could be all kinds of, of, uh, litigation that could rise out of a of a wealthy family's. Um, ability, uh, and, and excuse me, not ability, but you know, not having the ability to create that ideal plan. Now Heath, in my experience, I learned long ago to make sure clients knew that if they did not plan that there was still a plan in place and it's usually the government's plan or the court's plan and it's usually pretty, pretty vanilla but but often doesn't. cause family harmony, let's say, for instance, if an owner says, well, if I die, I want, I want all my kids to inherit the business even though only one works in the business. Can you talk about some of the, the pain that that can cause down the down the road if they don't get that right? Yeah, I mean, I'll give you kind of a quick story. I was brought into a a family situation. First marriage, son and daughter. So was the was the heir parent. Dad was in poor health at the time, and I sat with Mom and Dad and the gentleman who brought me in, the heir parent to the company, and I said, you know, do me a favor and tell me what your current estate plan says. We love our kids equally. We're going to split the business, you know, we're going to split our assets between our two kids. I said, Well, let me ask you a question. I said, Jason's sitting right here. He's the heir apparent to the company. Sarah is a teacher and a mother. She has nothing to do with the company. I said, so if God forbid something happens to the two of you, the business is going to be owned 50/50 by your two children. That's what we would like. So I looked at Jason and I said, How do you think that makes you feel? He goes, I can't have somebody else having 50% control of the company that I'm running, especially when they have nothing to do with the company. So I said, Well, let's just take this one step further. Why don't we assume for the moment that the business is worth the same that the building, it was a single kind of building that the family also owned. Let's assume they're the same price for today. Why don't we leave the building to Sarah and leave the business to Jason? They said, Oh, that's a great idea. I said, it's not a good idea. They said, Why did you suggest that? I said, I'm just here to create some dialogue so we can get an understanding of what might make some sense if we decided to work together. I said, when the market rent is going to come due and Sarah goes to her brother and says, hey. Jason, I said, you know, we need to renegotiate our lease. Prices have increased. Everything else that could have a tremendous bearing on the ability of the company to continue to earn a profit and take care of itself. And so those are the types of conversations that we're trying to engage with clients to try to get them to think what is the ideal plan, and the ideal plan is not the same for Bill and it's not the same for Heath or it's not the same for for this family, but trying to work towards that. And still run a successful company and still take care of our family is difficult, and that's the work that we do, Bill. Yeah, that's very well put. Now, um, let's talk about, you know, what a lot of this is about is, uh, and what I tell people, I'm sure you tell them too is someday you'll be remembered and you're going to be remembered for your planning or your lack of planning and, and the results thereof. Now that's called creating a legacy. Why do you think legacy planning is so important? Time is precious and so are our pets, so time with our pets is extra precious. That's why we started Dutch. Dutch provides 24/7 access to licensed vets with unlimited virtual visits and follow ups for up to 5 pets. You can message a vet at any time and schedule a video visit the same day. Our vets can even prescribe medication for many ailments, and shipping is always free. With Dutch, you'll get more time with your pets and year-round peace of mind when it comes to their vet care. These days So many of our successful clients, and that's a great question. So many of our successful clients have an ego. That doesn't mean it's a bad ego. It doesn't mean it's an offensive ego, but they have an ego, and it is about how do I, how am I going to be remembered? And if you sell that business during your life and that CEO hat is now retired, what does my legacy look like? How am I going to be remembered when they stand up and give me that eulogy at my funeral? What are they going to say about me? And a lot of people don't think about this now. One of the things that you and I had talked about in prep for this was the whole concept of Kobe Bryant, arguably the world's greatest basketball player. Yes, Michael Jordan, yes, Kareem, yes, it doesn't matter to me for today's conversation, but the question I pose when I speak about this in legacy is what is Kobe's legacy going to be. And there's always a few people in the room who do remember what happened in Colorado, of what he was accused of. They do remember, you know, his antics on the court sometimes, and all of this comes together to create a legacy and the question sometimes is. Is it a complicated legacy? I happen to believe it's a complicated legacy because I don't think you can talk about Kobe and his body of work as a whole person without talking about what happened in Colorado. You know, Vanessa took him back. They made amends, but this is an issue that has profound effect on some people's remembrance of what Kobe's legacy is. Michael Vick, another example. Michael Vick has poured his heart and soul and money into animal causes for what he did with the dogfighting. People may never forget what Michael Vick did, but hopefully they will remember what he has strived to do in his second act of life, which is to Remedy and rectify that situation that he put himself into, and I think that when you have a business owner who has now sold the business or has succeeded the business to family members, what is that legacy going to be? Is it complicated? Can you continue to develop your legacy? And I think the answer is absolutely yes, because everything you do on a daily basis can improve or detract from your legacy. And I asked my clients what is it that you're doing to create a legacy where your children, grandchildren, great grandchildren will be You know, Bill was the greatest dad, grandfather, great grandfather you could ever imagine. He was fair to people. He had a great company. His employees loved him. His customers loved him. People loved him. That's how I want my clients to be remembered, and that's how I personally want to be remembered. So I strive every day to try to get my clients to think about these issues because at the end of the day it's a memory, OK? That is what a legacy is. It's a memory of that person and I want it to be the best one possible. That's really well put and so for a lot of people they're thinking, you know, It's, it sounds like now in some cases you can do, you can do a good thing all of your life and then you do one bad thing and then you're remembered for that. Now in some cases, that's, you know, that's not just one bad thing that was repeated behavior. You're just, that's just the way you were, but in this case, we're talking about a decision or a lack of decision that could cause a family business to be lost down the road or a family asset like a getaway mountain cabin where there's been retreats, family retreats, for instance, to be lost to taxes or because of bad decisions. So there's a lot on the line for a lot of. But in what are some of the biggest um things that make an impact when you're talking with uh clients? What are the, what would you say, let's say the top three things that they might think about as far as a structure or a planning uh idea for the future? Thanks for the question, Bill. I think the, the first one, and I'm not sure I can come up with 3 that quickly, but I think the first one that's important is making a decision to actually put together a plan. And I tell a story very quickly and that this is how a plan looks to me. When I was a kid, I used to do a lot of puzzles, and it was inevitable that they would get to the end of that puzzle and there was a piece or two missing. My dog ate it. It slipped between the couch. Mom vacuumed it up in the, you know, in the in the vacuum cleaner, whatever it was, that puzzle was incomplete and depending on what piece that puzzle was, was the same thing that I talked about with financial planning. A lot of clients, wealthy clients, they have their advisors, right? They have a CPA, they have a business attorney, they have an insurance agent, they have an investment advisor, but what they don't have is the communication. Collaboration, coordination between all of those advisors because they're busy running a company or managing the family units and so. When I talk to clients, I say, hey, you need somebody who can design the plan and oversee this plan. And allow your advisers to do what they do best so that you can go focus on doing what you do best. And so that's typically how this whole plan has to come together. It has to be everybody in communication, and if everybody is not capable of communicating, then somebody has to drive the communication, and that's the architect and the general contractor and the analogy that we use at Ion trying to get people to think about what could change and knowing that tomorrow is going to bring changes, are we prepared? So the plans that I like to create with my clients, and I'm sure you're no different, Bill, is a, a plan that works today. It better work today. Hopefully it works tomorrow, but it's nimble enough that can be changed in the future as the family dynamics and the family's goals and objectives change, and you must continue to change your plan or you're going to get to the point that you and I talked about earlier, which is that the courts are going to impose a plan, the country, the state's going to impose a plan, the federal government's going to impose their plan on you. So you better be prepared or it can be that your company will lose. It's protection that a plan can create for it. Yeah, back to the house analogy for the architects. Can you imagine if they finished the job and then you realize that they forgot to put in the guest bathroom downstairs. Now everybody's got to go use your master bathroom, your master bathroom in your bedroom. Not a good job. And again, it starts with experience and knowledge and having really all the choices laid out so that you can make those choices. And Heath, I think that's where you shine now. You're also very involved and a member and a I believe you do you lead a group for provisors as well? I see you all the time on provisors, so. I, I am a provisors junkie. I'm also a group leader. I lead, uh, just to to exactly what we do for clients. I lead the state and succession planning group in the, uh, San Fernando Valley. So I, I, I walk the walk and I talk the talk almost every single day when it comes to, to this work for, uh, for my clients. Forgive me for not knowing that off the top of my head. The provisors, as many of you know, is a well networked group of professionals, and that makes Heath a very, very strong advocate and a person of experience and knowledge that can refer you to professionals that you're going to. A mainly need to fill out your plan. So a lot of times people will come in and say, you know, I haven't seen an attorney in quite a while. I haven't seen a, I'm not sure my tax adviser's up to the They do my taxes. I'm not sure they're good planners. I need referrals to other people, and Heath is very, very knowledgeable and experienced and can point you in the right direction when you're building out your team, which is a big part of this planning, right? It's not just the architect. Can you imagine if the architect shows up the next day with a bucket and a hammer and says, OK, now I'm ready to build your plan. It wouldn't be a very good house. Yeah, and I think that's a great point, and that's the one thing. I do not come onto a team and replace individuals. I need the CPA. We need the business attorney. We need the estate planning attorney. I do not manage assets. We need the investment adviser. So this is all about a team concept and once again, Creating the perfect plan doesn't mean that it's going to work perfectly without the modifications necessary, you know, you start to look at the home and you're like, Well, I think I would have liked the book cabinet over there. Let's see if we can, you know, there are going to be things that get tweaked along the way, but the point is, is that clients must remember the plan they created 10 years ago, even though it was a perfect plan and it made perfect sense at the time. May not be the perfect plan today because the company has doubled in size. We've added family members, so on and so forth, so clients must continue to look at their plans and understand or ask for help from their advisers when changes should be made to the plan. Keith, always great to have you on the show. It's Ion Wealth and Legacy Partners. What's the best way for people to get in touch with you? There's a contact page off of our website icon WLP.com. Uh, feel free to reach out to me. Phone number is 818. 981-718-4 and anybody that uh is a friend of Bill's is a friend of mine, happy to give you a few minutes of my time and uh and give you some direction even if it's just a simple question. Really enjoyed hearing from you again, Heath. I really appreciate you coming on and and a lot of great wisdom today. So I hope our listeners will take advantage of that and get in touch with you, and I look forward to the next time we speak. Bill, thanks for the opportunity. Have a great day. Stay healthy. Thank you for listening to Exit Coach Radio.