April 16, 2025 • 30 mins
Alex Pron, founder of Crossover Capital, joins Marc Bernstein to reveal how independent financial advisors are empowering clients with education on Bitcoin and alternative investments. After 12 years at Merrill Lynch, Alex left to start Crossover Capital when he realized his clients weren’t being given the knowledge they needed to make informed decisions—especially about Bitcoin.
In this episode, Alex uncovers the alarming reality behind SEC fines levied against major institutions like Wells Fargo and Merrill Lynch, highlighting how these practices have cost clients millions. He also explains how AI and technology enable smaller advisory firms to compete with financial giants while providing the specialized education traditional firms often ignore.
Key Takeaways:
- Why Independent Advice Matters: Discover how fee-only advisors provide unbiased recommendations that protect your wealth.
- The SEC Fines Scandal: Learn why clients need to stay vigilant about financial institutions' practices.
- AI and Technology in Finance: Understand how smaller firms leverage innovation to offer competitive services.
- Bitcoin’s Institutional Adoption: Explore the significance of BlackRock, Congress, and hedge fund leaders embracing Bitcoin.
Tune in to gain knowledge and information about Bitcoin.
About Alex Pron, CFP®, CBDA:
Financial advisor who broke away from Merrill Lynch, where he wasn't allowed to educate his clients on why they should own bitcoin. Alex founded Crossover Capital, an SEC registered, fee-only firm, to help advise clients on 3 things: 1) What you should know about bitcoin; 2) how do you properly secure your bitcoin from loss or theft; and 3) timing of bitcoin--when does it make sense to buy bitcoin and when does it make sense to play some defense and take some chips off the table.
Connect:
Website crosscapadvisors.com
LinkedIn linkedin.com/in/alexandermpron
Instagram instagram.com/crossover_alex
This episode is brought to you by Crossover Capital; make informed decisions about your financial future. Go to crosscapadvisors.com to learn more.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Announcer (00:00):
The following programming is sponsored by Mark
J Bernstein.
The views expressed do notnecessarily reflect the views of
this station, its management orPeasley Media Group.
Entrepreneur, founder, authorand financial advisor, Marc
Bernstein helps high-performingbusiness owners turn their
visions into reality.
Through his innovative work andthe Forward Focus Forums, Marc
(00:21):
connects entrepreneurs toresources that fuel their
success.
Founders Forum is a radio showand podcast where entrepreneurs
share their journeys, revealingthe lessons they've learned and
the stories behind their success.
Join Marc and his guests for amix of inspiration, valuable
insights and a little fun.
Now let's dive in.
Marc Bernstein (00:43):
Good morning America.
How are you?
This is Marc Bernstein.
This is Founders Forum, as youknow, and we are broadcasting
from Estero, florida, withBeasley Media Group, wxkb B103.9
on the FM dial, as well as manyother stations down here, and
(01:03):
we have our engineer, rogerMarley, who I've loved working
with and is doing a great job,and we have our guest today,
alex, who I'll fully introducein a moment, but I'm just
excited to be here.
I always say it's always sunnyin Philadelphia, but it's really
not the case, but it is almostalways sunny here.
So, anyway, we joke about thatwith the weather, etc.
(01:25):
A lot going on in the worldright now, and our topic today
is a little more serious thanwhat we usually do, going to
talk about the economy of theUnited States, because we've got
a lot of things going on withthe new administration and we've
got tariffs and we've gotsignificant federal workforce
cuts and all kinds of otherbudget cuts and things like that
(01:47):
.
And Alex, as you'll hear, is inthe field of the financial
field.
What he does is unique andwe'll talk about that soon.
But I just want to get yourtake on what you think is going
on and where you think we'reheaded with all this.
Alex Pron, CFP®, CBDA (02:00):
Yeah, Marc, thank you so much for
having me and yeah, it's verynice to get out of blustery
March in Philadelphia and downto Southwest Florida.
So thank you again.
It can be blustery here too,but warm blustery, yeah, warm
blustery.
I think it was 65 degrees whenwe walked in the studio this
morning.
Marc Bernstein (02:19):
We have the Gulf of America winds coming in, Of
course of course, yeah, it's.
Alex Pron, CFP®, CBDA (02:23):
I mean, it's an interesting time to be
an investor, it's an interestingtime to be a financial advisor.
Look, I saw some numbers thismorning.
You know, based on the Februarydeficits that were run by our
government, we're on pace for$2.75 trillion of deficits this
fiscal year.
After, you know, after running$2 trillion in deficits last
(02:47):
year.
It's hard to fathom thosenumbers.
And look, I think it's goodthat the government is trying to
attack the excess spendingthrough Doge.
The tariffs, I think, are avery controversial topic, but I
do think that, um, I do thinkthat we need some change in our
(03:09):
economy.
I do think that, um, you know,when you are the world reserve
currency, um, it becomes, youknow, it becomes hard when
you're, when the dollar has beenso strong for so long, um, it
disadvantages us on the worldstage from an economic
standpoint from an exportstandpoint.
So I do think that they need tomake some adjustments and I
(03:31):
don't think it's going to beeasy.
Right, Change is hard,Uncertainty is hard for the
market and I think you're seeingthat over the last week or two,
right in the thick of thatright now.
Marc Bernstein (03:40):
Yeah, you may be listening to this later, but
right now we're going throughvolatility index, which is one
of the things I follow in ourown financial planning practice.
Let's see, it's about 30%, 40%higher than normal and on any
given day it can besignificantly higher than that
or a little bit lower, but for acouple years we had it really
(04:03):
much lower than normal.
But for a couple years we hadit really much lower than normal
.
So volatility has turned upsidedown on its head right now,
which is kind of interesting.
So with that, let me introduceAlex.
So Alex is a financial advisor,but he broke away from it.
Says the company here Should wesay the company?
Alex Pron, CFP®, CBDA (04:20):
Yeah, it was Merrill Lynch.
Marc Bernstein (04:22):
It was Merrill Lynch, where he wasn't allowed
to educate his clients on whythey should own Bitcoin, and
Alex, as you'll hear, believesthat's an important thing to be
looking at.
And I want to give you mydisclaimer that we're not
promoting Bitcoin.
We're not promoting crypto orany other product on the show,
but Alex is an educator, asyou'll find out, and we're going
(04:42):
to get a little bit of aneducation.
So Alex founded CrossoverCapital, an SEC registered fee
only firm to help advise clientson three things One, why you
should own Bitcoin.
Two, how do you properly secureyour Bitcoin from loss or theft
.
And three, timing of buyingBitcoin when does it make sense
to buy Bitcoin and when does itmake sense to play some defense
(05:04):
and take some chips off thetable?
And again, I have to say March,my company, is MarchForwardcom.
We're not endorsing thisconcept.
I'm not endorsing it, but I amgetting educated, along with you
, about Bitcoin through Alex,and he's got a lot of great
information about it which Ithink everybody should hear,
which is why he's here today.
So welcome officially, alex.
Alex Pron, CFP®, CBDA (05:25):
Nice to have you here, Marc.
Thanks again.
Hey, did you happen to see inthe news the SEC fines that were
levied to Wells Fargo and toMerrill?
It was maybe a month ago.
Marc Bernstein (05:40):
Yes.
Alex Pron, CFP®, CBDA (05:41):
Yep, Yep, Around uh shorting clients on
interest payments.
Marc Bernstein (05:46):
Yeah.
Alex Pron, CFP®, CBDA (05:47):
So, um, for investors who are unaware
and I think this kind of goesback to you know, I spent 12
years on wall street uh, yeah,at, at a large firm like Merrill
, I think there's, you know,there's really good advisors
that all firms out there, um,there's really good advisors at
(06:09):
all firms out there.
Um, you know, for, for me, justthe ability to um control the
narrative and to, you know,teach our clients about
something that we weren'tallowed to teach them about at
Merrill is, like, reallyimportant to me.
But I think there were also alot of things that you see, kind
of behind the scenes, that manyclients maybe don't see.
So I think, for those investorswho aren't aware Wells Merrill,
(06:32):
a few other companies the SECinvestigated them for shorting
their clients and managedaccounts on interest.
They weren't allowing thefinancial advisors to you know
if interest rates are 5% on cashthey weren't offering any
interest bearing options forclients that had cash in their
investment accounts.
Q3 earnings call for Wells Fargo.
(06:54):
They took a beating on earningsand their chief financial
officer-.
Marc Bernstein (07:01):
Wells Fargo has been taking a beating the last
few years in general, yeah, someother practices as well.
Alex Pron, CFP®, CBDA (07:06):
But yeah, perhaps, perhaps, um, their
their chief financial officercited that because they fixed
the glitch, uh, prior to that Q3earnings, call it cost the
company $128 million right, thattells you how much they were
(07:26):
making before they fixed it,which means they were profiting
about $500 million a year off ofnot paying their clients the
interest that they should havebeen paying them right.
And so I think, independentfinancial planning I you know,
uh, independent you knowfinancial planning firms like
yours, um, and, and like mine,it's really just getting back to
helping clients and not beinginfluenced by these things that
(07:47):
happen behind the scenes.
By the way, I think, uh, Ithink it was, um, the total
fines from the sec were $ we're$60 million total to Wells and
Merrill, on, on, on that Um,which is not really enough.
It doesn't kind of seem that way, but you know, I think the
ability to also educate clientsabout how wall street works, um,
(08:10):
how the financial system works,is really important within the
context of like, well, whyBitcoin, right?
Um, so yeah, it's been, we'rehaving fun context of like, well
, why bitcoin?
Marc Bernstein (08:21):
right?
Um.
So yeah, it's been.
We're having fun, no questionabout it, and, as you mentioned,
we and I don't talk much aboutmy company or financial planning
on the show intentionally, butwe did go to a much, a very
small, independent broker dealer, to have a lot more freedom, um
, that you don't have at the bigbrokerage houses in terms of
other products.
I don't think they're there yetwith crypto, but I do think
it's actually coming and I thinkthat that's the trend is to be
(08:45):
open to everything that's outthere, not just traditional
stocks, bonds and cash.
Another thing I'll just commenton it used to be years ago that
stocks and bonds werenon-correlated assets, but, as
we know, from 2008, 2009, thepandemic and actually kind of
(09:08):
what's happening right now, theyoften move in the same
direction together.
So, if nothing else, you needdiversifiers in your portfolio.
That are not correlated to thosetwo types of assets.
Would you agree with that?
Alex Pron, CFP®, CBDA (09:21):
Yeah, I mean.
I think there's a lot of thingsthat investors should be
rethinking.
I think there's a lot ofdifferent types of risk out
there.
People tend to focus onvolatility risk.
When I think about a 10-yeartreasury getting 4.3%, we have
$10 trillion in treasuriescoming due this year.
(09:42):
How is the government going torefinance that?
Are they going to have to printmore money?
There's some people that thinkthey might have to print more
money than they printed duringCOVID.
Marc Bernstein (09:52):
This goes back to the deficit issue.
Alex Pron, CFP®, CBDA (09:55):
It goes right back to it, and so I think
having things in your portfoliothat can help protect you
against inflation risk, interestrate risk, is important.
So I think we're in a 40-yearbull market for bonds.
I think we're in a totallydifferent investment environment
(10:18):
today.
I think we're going to be in atotally different investment
environment over the next fiveor 10 years and I don't think
that just blindly saying well,this has worked for a really
long time, I don't think thatthat's going to serve investors
well.
Marc Bernstein (10:32):
So our show today is about the founder's
story, so I want to get to thatand appreciate your input on the
economy, which is really anextended version of our topic of
the day.
Alex, tell me about how youstarted.
You already mentioned how youwent from the traditional
financial advisor role to whatyou're doing today, but tell us
(10:52):
a little bit about that journey.
I want to hear what kind ofchallenges you had along the way
in terms of building crossovercapital.
Alex Pron, CFP®, CBDA (10:58):
Yeah, I think, backing up a little bit.
I studied accounting in college, did a couple of years at Ernst
Young, got my CPA 12 years atMerrill Lynch, certified
financial planner and in 2020, Istarted investing in Bitcoin,
started studying.
I took an 80-hour course atWharton on blockchain analytics
and digital assets.
I took an 80-hour course atWharton on blockchain analytics
(11:19):
and digital assets and it reallystruck me when I went to
Merrill and wanted to send aletter to my clients letting
them know that I had taken thiscourse and that they have an
advocate and we weren't allowedto buy Bitcoin for clients at
the time but just to let themknow that they had an advocate.
I think there are tax planningconsiderations with something
(11:40):
like Bitcoin estate planningconsiderations.
You want to educate them aboutthe ins and outs of Bitcoin.
Just to let them know that theyhave an advocate.
And Merrill wouldn't let mesend that letter.
And my antennas really startedgoing up and as I started doing
more and more research on theindustry which I had never
really had to do, I was sort ofcontent where I was.
(12:00):
But as I started doing more andmore research on the industry
which I had never really had to,do.
Marc Bernstein (12:02):
I was sort of content where I was.
Alex Pron, CFP®, CBDA (12:03):
But as I started doing more and more
research on the financialindustry, I kind of realized if
I was going to do this right andbe able to really deliver
specialized solutions aroundthis really growing space, I was
going to have to start my ownfirm.
So that's kind of the, that'sthe genesis behind it how long
(12:23):
ago was that.
So we launched Crossover in Mayof 2023.
So we're coming up on our twoyear anniversary.
I would say there was probablya good 12 to 18 months of prep
interviewing differentcustodians and financial
planning tools and technologycompanies.
Um, we had a great firm, trueindependence.
(12:48):
They're um half based inPhiladelphia, half based in
Oregon and they handle kind ofall of our middle back office
operations cybersecurity,compliance, hr, payroll, hr so
that we can just really focus onwhat we do for clients, right.
So there's just a lot of workand research and interviewing
different firms like that tomake sure we had the
(13:08):
infrastructure in place to hitthe ground running.
Marc Bernstein (13:11):
What challenges did you face in building that
infrastructure?
I'm sure it wasn't just astraight line to success.
Alex Pron, CFP®, CBDA (13:18):
Yeah, well, look, I mean, you're
working two jobs.
Right.
You still have to be afinancial advisor by day for
your you know hundreds ofclients.
I know that one, yeah, yeah,yeah, there's all the other
stuff behind the scenes, Exactlyso, um, you're working two jobs
at once and then you know, thetransition itself is challenging
, right?
You're?
You're, you're learning on thefly, You're building a plane
while flying it.
Marc Bernstein (13:39):
You have some people around you helping with a
lot of this stuff, I wouldimagine.
Alex Pron, CFP®, CBDA (13:43):
Well, yeah, I mean going back to True,
independence, right, I meanthey serve 30 firms that have
made that same move.
So not only did we have theirdeep expertise, we were able to
talk to some other firms thathad, that had made the move
before us.
You know, um what mistakes theymade, what worked really well,
(14:06):
um.
So you know, we're reallythankful to, um, to true and to
some of those other firms thatwere really willing to share a
little bit of staff as well,right People?
Yeah, I, my business partnerTasha uh, left Merrill with me
as well.
She's fantastic.
She's a certified divorcefinancial analyst, so she does a
little bit of work in thedivorce designation yeah, um,
(14:29):
and then we have, we've, we'reon our second intern now, our
first intern studying abroad, initaly right now.
Both of them have been hugelyhelpful.
Um, it's amazing.
By the way, maybe we can talk alittle bit about this like AI,
right?
You know what could an interndo for you.
You know, five years ago, rightLike basically nothing.
(14:50):
Right right, basically nothing.
Now the answers to whateverquestions they have are at their
fingertips in seconds, right,so an intern, our interns are
doing really impactful work.
Marc Bernstein (15:01):
We need to take a quick break, but I want to
continue on that conversationbecause I can add some to that
and we can have a niceconversation around that.
We'll be back in a minute.
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Marc Bernstein (15:53):
We are back on Founders Forum with our guest
today, alex Pron of CrossoverCapital and Alex, just before
the break we were talking aboutwhat you can.
it's a really a bigger issue, Ithink, but what you can do with
interns today, because of theadvent of, not the advent
because it's been around, but Iguess the you know the great
accessibility to AI now Becauselisten, this whole show all the
(16:17):
things I do.
I have a virtual assistantwho's great, shan Estevez.
Every once in a while I giveher credit she's behind the
scenes putting all this together.
I mean, you guys are both here.
Roger the engineer, I don't dealwith any of this stuff.
She deals with it all and shemakes great use of AI in
creating a lot of our marketingpieces and all the things we do
(16:37):
and what she doesn't know.
She finds out very quickly andshe's a young person who's
making her way in the world andit's really amazing.
Everyone talks about thedownsides of AI, but building a
company is one of the reasons Iwas asking you about who you
have, because you can outsourcea lot of your back office
(16:58):
operations, like you talkedabout.
You have a partner that hassome unique abilities that are
different than yours, and thenyou can have interns who can do
a lot of the work that mighthave used to cost you, you know
whatever $100,000 a year person,but because of their access to
information and tools, they canfill those roles for you and you
(17:21):
want to talk more about that.
Alex Pron, CFP®, CBDA (17:24):
Yeah, look as a new company, whether
it's social media marketingpieces, um, different um, you
know, different um initiativesthat we're trying to implement.
Look, you know, uh, what didyou have to do five years ago?
You had to read a couple books,probably, right, maybe hire a
(17:47):
consultant trying to implementsome new process.
That's totally foreign andoutside of the scope of your
expertise.
Now you can have, you can haveyour intern build the playbook
for you and for you to reviewand say, hey, yeah, we want to
do this for sure, throw this out, let's do more of this.
All right, now, run with thenext phase of implementation,
(18:10):
right, and they start to put ittogether.
And then, you know, you givemore feedback and, next thing,
you know, you've got a newinitiative underway in days, not
months.
Marc Bernstein (18:22):
In our company, march, we just had to.
We had one person leave and wehad to replace her and we needed
to hire someone else.
And what I was?
I was not that involved.
My partners and our officemanager were more involved in
the hiring, but I kind ofwatched the process from a
distance.
And then I got to interview oneof the people who's already
started and I'll talk to theother one in about a week that
(18:44):
we've hired.
But what people are bringing tothe table is different.
Today we were looking forpeople that could help us not so
much with their knowledge andthey both had industry
experience.
But we don't need the industryexperience Because, like you
said, all that information isreadily available, readily
trainable but they both hadexpertise on different areas or
(19:05):
processes and how to createthose and how to rethink them.
And again, if you're a goodbusiness person, I think you're
hiring people that are betterthan you are, you know, in
different areas and smarter thanyou are in different areas and
smarter than you are indifferent areas.
And with these hires, I thinknot that it's the first time,
but I think we've advancedourselves in terms of these
(19:27):
hires because if we could havedone some of the new processes
we needed to do.
On our own before, we wouldhave done them or we were too
busy or it's just not reallywhat we do but we found the
people that can do it and theycan implement it, and they
certainly have many AI and othertechnological tools available
for them to, you know, toaccomplish that.
(19:47):
So I think that's a greatobservation on your part.
I want to jump right to.
We usually do it towards theend, but we are sort of
approaching the end.
But I think there's a lot ofquestions here I would like to
ask you about.
If this were so this is nowMarch of 2025, if you and I are
talking and I think we will be10 years from now, march of 2035
(20:10):
.
And I asked you you know, alex,what would have to happen?
What would?
What would have to happen we'rehaving that conversation for
you to feel that that 10 yearperiod was a success for you
professionally, personally, inany other thing you want to
comment, which is another way ofasking your 10 year vision for
your business and your life.
Alex Pron, CFP®, CBDA (20:32):
It's a great question.
Look, I look at Bitcoin and,without getting into the nitty
gritty, right, let's just lookat 10 years for Bitcoin, right?
10 years ago, was thegovernment going to ban it?
What's adoption going to looklike, whereas today you have the
(20:55):
Bitcoin Act in Congress thatcalls for the United States to
buy a million Bitcoin, there'sonly 21 million Bitcoin, right?
That's quite a bit.
You have nation states adoptingit.
You have institutions likeBlackRock adopting it.
You've got billionaire hedgefund managers like Bill Miller,
(21:20):
paul Tudor Jones, ray dalioadopting it, right, and so I
look at our business I mean,yeah, sailors.
I mean, well, that's a goodpoint.
I didn't touch on 70 publiccompanies owned north of 600 000
bitcoin, right, right, um.
And so I mean, what's thatblackstone as well, now I I
(21:44):
haven't seen their nameassociated with the space off
the top of my head.
I'll, I will definitely lookthat up well, they're starting.
Marc Bernstein (21:50):
They're starting to talk about it, whether
they've acquired or not.
Alex Pron, CFP®, CBDA (21:53):
I mean you have um, uh, who, who else
is getting into the space?
Citadel um ken griffin'scompany getting into the space.
Canter fitzgerald's been in thespace right now you they're.
You know former ceo howardlutnick um, you know secretary
of commerce, so you know, I, I,I lead with all that to say that
(22:14):
, like your average, high networth retail investor still
isn't in and doesn't have anadvocate.
So success to me is continuingto scale our offering and our
reach, partnering with otherfinancial advisory firms family
(22:34):
offices, cpa firms, to make surethat those firms can
confidently educate their clientbases and implement some sort
of solution for their clientbases to help people confidently
and appropriately allocate tothe space.
(23:00):
And so it's hard for me tovisualize what our team will
exactly look like, because Ithink it's going to depend on a
number of things, but I think itactually starts with sort of
Bitcoin's adoption story and asthat continues to evolve, I
think that will actually reallyhelp us grow and scale our
business.
Marc Bernstein (23:22):
What challenges do you see in getting to that
point?
If I were to interpret what yousaid, you'd like to be in the
position of educating as manypeople as possible about Bitcoin
and opening up their minds tothe possibility of it.
What kind of things, what kindof walls or challenges are
facing you in regard to that?
Alex Pron, CFP®, CBDA (23:42):
you know, um Marc, I was at the forbes
top teams conference last weekand I happened to like randomly
sit next to rich bernstein atdinner.
Oh yeah, and rich spoke for norelation, I just yeah, yeah,
although that my brother's nameis rich bernstein okay, yeah, I
don't think it's the same one.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly.
So Rich talked a little bitabout the market and investment
(24:09):
opportunities in the equityspace that he looks for, and he
said something to the effect ofyou want to look for the.
Let me think about this youwant to be the one bank in a
(24:31):
town with a thousand bars, asopposed to a bank amongst a
thousand banks in a town withone bar.
And when I look at crossovercapital right at Merrill Lynch,
you still can't buy Bitcoin foryour clients unless they have
north of $10 million right.
Your wire houses really don'tallow their financial advisor
(24:52):
base to do that, so there's alot of people who are
underserved.
I kind of feel like we are thatone bank in a town with a
thousand bars and the challengeis really just you know, how do
you continue to improve youreducational materials to help
people get comfortable with thisreally foreign asset class?
But it really only is foreignbecause most people don't have a
(25:14):
financial advisor that can helpthem in the space.
So that's probably the biggestchallenge.
Marc Bernstein (25:18):
So we've had a couple of conversations about
Bitcoin, so I know what skillsyou have, but how would you
describe the skills you have tokind of overcome that, that
obstacle of, of you know,getting it, getting your message
out to as many people aspossible?
Alex Pron, CFP®, CBDA (25:35):
Well, look, I mean, I think it is um,
it's easier to sell to otherfinancial advisory firms that
have larger groups of clients soyou can educate more people at
once.
But for us, I look at Tasha,who's a certified divorce
financial analyst.
She specializes in working withthat non-CFO spouse that's
(25:57):
never handled money, and so it'sfunny when I tell people our
two main niches are divorce andBitcoin.
They don't actually sound thatsimilar, but they actually
really are similar, because youhave to take really complex
financial concepts and you haveto get really good at at making
them easier for your averageperson to understand, who's not
a financial expert.
So, um, yeah, hopefully that,hopefully that makes sense.
Marc Bernstein (26:21):
I think, so I know you're an avid reader.
Tell me about your favoritebooks and what you like to read.
Alex Pron, CFP®, CBDA (26:32):
I know you like to read about Bitcoin.
Yeah, it's usually finance orbusiness-related books.
My father-in-law just publisheda book Positivity Warrior by
Jim Sorbo, so I'll give him ashout out.
I did just read.
that's the most recent book Ijust read on the power of
positivity, the empirical sortof evidence you know, suggesting
(26:54):
sort of like their life andhealth benefits, mental benefits
, from that, so that wasinteresting, but I would say on
the Bitcoin front, there was abook that just came out, maybe
six weeks ago, called the BigPrint kind of a play on words
from like the big short by LarryLeppard Lawrence Leppard and
the book is divided into twohalves.
(27:15):
The problem, and it's reallysort of the financial history of
the United States and all thedifferent bailouts and all the
money printing that has justtanked the purchasing power of
our dollars.
Marc Bernstein (27:29):
I think everyone is feeling that today right?
Alex Pron, CFP®, CBDA (27:31):
No question, I don't think they can
put their finger on exactlywhat's wrong.
I think that the big print doesa great job of articulating
exactly what is wrong in societytoday and with our money and
our financial system in a waythat's really easy for your
average person to digest.
And then part two is what's thesolution?
(27:56):
Teaching the ins and outs ofsound money and Bitcoin and gold
and why those things have valueand why they're going to become
potentially increasinglyimportant in the future of our
financial system.
Marc Bernstein (28:12):
So I would, I would, I would definitely
recommend the big print.
Alex Pron, CFP®, CBDA (28:15):
It was a really good read, very
interesting.
Marc Bernstein (28:18):
What do you do for fun, cause this all sounds
very serious Economics,self-improvement, obviously, the
future of finance of not onlyyour clients but the country and
the world.
So what do you do for fun?
Alex Pron, CFP®, CBDA (28:33):
Well, I've got a wonderful wife at
home who also works in financebut has been very supportive of
uh, you know, the the foundingof our business and all the work
that has to go into that.
I have a.
I have an awesome son who'sgoing to turn two in May.
Marc Bernstein (28:48):
Um, so family time is awesome.
Alex Pron, CFP®, CBDA (28:50):
I'm a I'm a very avid golfer, Uh so, uh,
anytime I can sneak out on thegolf course, uh, you know, hang
out with friends there.
That's a good day, we're goingto do that.
Marc Bernstein (29:03):
Family and golf.
Yeah, we got to get some golfon the calendar once that lustry
March weather turns up inPhiladelphia, absolutely.
I think it's time to wrap uptoday.
Any closing thoughts you havebefore we leave.
Alex Pron, CFP®, CBDA (29:18):
Look, I mean super important that people
know like I'm not out likeslinging Bitcoin and just trying
to get people to buy it.
I think it's just important, umthat people educate themselves.
So take the time, spend an houror two on YouTube, right, read
a book um educate yourself.
I think it's so important and Ithink it's going to have the
(29:40):
ability to change your life ifyou can take the time to do it.
Marc Bernstein (29:42):
Well, I'm a financial advisor who doesn't
have access to a lot of thatinformation, so you've already
done a good job of helping meunderstand it with a lot of the
materials that you have, and Ilove that.
That's your position, becauseyou're going to find people
resistant, you're going to findinstitutions resistant, but
people do need to understandit's going to be an important
force.
There's no question about it,so I appreciate you being here
(30:04):
today.
Alex Pron you will hear hiscommercial, if you haven't
already heard it, in the middleof the show, and that's how you
can reach him.
We thank you for all of you forbeing here today on Founders
Forum and we'll see you nextweek week.
Announcer (30:25):
We hope you enjoyed your time with Founders Forum
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Join us again next week foranother episode of Founders
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The following programming is sponsored by Mark
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The views expressed do notnecessarily reflect the views of
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(00:21):
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Now let's dive in.
Marc Bernstein (00:43):
Good morning America.
How are you?
This is Marc Bernstein.
This is Founders Forum, as youknow, and we are broadcasting
from Estero, florida, withBeasley Media Group, wxkb B103.9
on the FM dial, as well as manyother stations down here, and
(01:03):
we have our engineer, rogerMarley, who I've loved working
with and is doing a great job,and we have our guest today,
alex, who I'll fully introducein a moment, but I'm just
excited to be here.
I always say it's always sunnyin Philadelphia, but it's really
not the case, but it is almostalways sunny here.
So, anyway, we joke about thatwith the weather, etc.
(01:25):
A lot going on in the worldright now, and our topic today
is a little more serious thanwhat we usually do, going to
talk about the economy of theUnited States, because we've got
a lot of things going on withthe new administration and we've
got tariffs and we've gotsignificant federal workforce
cuts and all kinds of otherbudget cuts and things like that
(01:47):
.
And Alex, as you'll hear, is inthe field of the financial
field.
What he does is unique andwe'll talk about that soon.
But I just want to get yourtake on what you think is going
on and where you think we'reheaded with all this.
Alex Pron, CFP®, CBDA (02:00):
Yeah, Marc, thank you so much for
having me and yeah, it's verynice to get out of blustery
March in Philadelphia and downto Southwest Florida.
So thank you again.
It can be blustery here too,but warm blustery, yeah, warm
blustery.
I think it was 65 degrees whenwe walked in the studio this
morning.
Marc Bernstein (02:19):
We have the Gulf of America winds coming in, Of
course of course, yeah, it's.
Alex Pron, CFP®, CBDA (02:23):
I mean, it's an interesting time to be
an investor, it's an interestingtime to be a financial advisor.
Look, I saw some numbers thismorning.
You know, based on the Februarydeficits that were run by our
government, we're on pace for$2.75 trillion of deficits this
fiscal year.
After, you know, after running$2 trillion in deficits last
(02:47):
year.
It's hard to fathom thosenumbers.
And look, I think it's goodthat the government is trying to
attack the excess spendingthrough Doge.
The tariffs, I think, are avery controversial topic, but I
do think that, um, I do thinkthat we need some change in our
(03:09):
economy.
I do think that, um, you know,when you are the world reserve
currency, um, it becomes, youknow, it becomes hard when
you're, when the dollar has beenso strong for so long, um, it
disadvantages us on the worldstage from an economic
standpoint from an exportstandpoint.
So I do think that they need tomake some adjustments and I
(03:31):
don't think it's going to beeasy.
Right, Change is hard,Uncertainty is hard for the
market and I think you're seeingthat over the last week or two,
right in the thick of thatright now.
Marc Bernstein (03:40):
Yeah, you may be listening to this later, but
right now we're going throughvolatility index, which is one
of the things I follow in ourown financial planning practice.
Let's see, it's about 30%, 40%higher than normal and on any
given day it can besignificantly higher than that
or a little bit lower, but for acouple years we had it really
(04:03):
much lower than normal.
But for a couple years we hadit really much lower than normal
.
So volatility has turned upsidedown on its head right now,
which is kind of interesting.
So with that, let me introduceAlex.
So Alex is a financial advisor,but he broke away from it.
Says the company here Should wesay the company?
Alex Pron, CFP®, CBDA (04:20):
Yeah, it was Merrill Lynch.
Marc Bernstein (04:22):
It was Merrill Lynch, where he wasn't allowed
to educate his clients on whythey should own Bitcoin, and
Alex, as you'll hear, believesthat's an important thing to be
looking at.
And I want to give you mydisclaimer that we're not
promoting Bitcoin.
We're not promoting crypto orany other product on the show,
but Alex is an educator, asyou'll find out, and we're going
(04:42):
to get a little bit of aneducation.
So Alex founded CrossoverCapital, an SEC registered fee
only firm to help advise clientson three things One, why you
should own Bitcoin.
Two, how do you properly secureyour Bitcoin from loss or theft
.
And three, timing of buyingBitcoin when does it make sense
to buy Bitcoin and when does itmake sense to play some defense
(05:04):
and take some chips off thetable?
And again, I have to say March,my company, is MarchForwardcom.
We're not endorsing thisconcept.
I'm not endorsing it, but I amgetting educated, along with you
, about Bitcoin through Alex,and he's got a lot of great
information about it which Ithink everybody should hear,
which is why he's here today.
So welcome officially, alex.
Alex Pron, CFP®, CBDA (05:25):
Nice to have you here, Marc.
Thanks again.
Hey, did you happen to see inthe news the SEC fines that were
levied to Wells Fargo and toMerrill?
It was maybe a month ago.
Marc Bernstein (05:40):
Yes.
Alex Pron, CFP®, CBDA (05:41):
Yep, Yep, Around uh shorting clients on
interest payments.
Marc Bernstein (05:46):
Yeah.
Alex Pron, CFP®, CBDA (05:47):
So, um, for investors who are unaware
and I think this kind of goesback to you know, I spent 12
years on wall street uh, yeah,at, at a large firm like Merrill
, I think there's, you know,there's really good advisors
that all firms out there, um,there's really good advisors at
(06:09):
all firms out there.
Um, you know, for, for me, justthe ability to um control the
narrative and to, you know,teach our clients about
something that we weren'tallowed to teach them about at
Merrill is, like, reallyimportant to me.
But I think there were also alot of things that you see, kind
of behind the scenes, that manyclients maybe don't see.
So I think, for those investorswho aren't aware Wells Merrill,
(06:32):
a few other companies the SECinvestigated them for shorting
their clients and managedaccounts on interest.
They weren't allowing thefinancial advisors to you know
if interest rates are 5% on cashthey weren't offering any
interest bearing options forclients that had cash in their
investment accounts.
Q3 earnings call for Wells Fargo.
(06:54):
They took a beating on earningsand their chief financial
officer-.
Marc Bernstein (07:01):
Wells Fargo has been taking a beating the last
few years in general, yeah, someother practices as well.
Alex Pron, CFP®, CBDA (07:06):
But yeah, perhaps, perhaps, um, their
their chief financial officercited that because they fixed
the glitch, uh, prior to that Q3earnings, call it cost the
company $128 million right, thattells you how much they were
(07:26):
making before they fixed it,which means they were profiting
about $500 million a year off ofnot paying their clients the
interest that they should havebeen paying them right.
And so I think, independentfinancial planning I you know,
uh, independent you knowfinancial planning firms like
yours, um, and, and like mine,it's really just getting back to
helping clients and not beinginfluenced by these things that
(07:47):
happen behind the scenes.
By the way, I think, uh, Ithink it was, um, the total
fines from the sec were $ we're$60 million total to Wells and
Merrill, on, on, on that Um,which is not really enough.
It doesn't kind of seem that way, but you know, I think the
ability to also educate clientsabout how wall street works, um,
(08:10):
how the financial system works,is really important within the
context of like, well, whyBitcoin, right?
Um, so yeah, it's been, we'rehaving fun context of like, well
, why bitcoin?
Marc Bernstein (08:21):
right?
Um.
So yeah, it's been.
We're having fun, no questionabout it, and, as you mentioned,
we and I don't talk much aboutmy company or financial planning
on the show intentionally, butwe did go to a much, a very
small, independent broker dealer, to have a lot more freedom, um
, that you don't have at the bigbrokerage houses in terms of
other products.
I don't think they're there yetwith crypto, but I do think
it's actually coming and I thinkthat that's the trend is to be
(08:45):
open to everything that's outthere, not just traditional
stocks, bonds and cash.
Another thing I'll just commenton it used to be years ago that
stocks and bonds werenon-correlated assets, but, as
we know, from 2008, 2009, thepandemic and actually kind of
(09:08):
what's happening right now, theyoften move in the same
direction together.
So, if nothing else, you needdiversifiers in your portfolio.
That are not correlated to thosetwo types of assets.
Would you agree with that?
Alex Pron, CFP®, CBDA (09:21):
Yeah, I mean.
I think there's a lot of thingsthat investors should be
rethinking.
I think there's a lot ofdifferent types of risk out
there.
People tend to focus onvolatility risk.
When I think about a 10-yeartreasury getting 4.3%, we have
$10 trillion in treasuriescoming due this year.
(09:42):
How is the government going torefinance that?
Are they going to have to printmore money?
There's some people that thinkthey might have to print more
money than they printed duringCOVID.
Marc Bernstein (09:52):
This goes back to the deficit issue.
Alex Pron, CFP®, CBDA (09:55):
It goes right back to it, and so I think
having things in your portfoliothat can help protect you
against inflation risk, interestrate risk, is important.
So I think we're in a 40-yearbull market for bonds.
I think we're in a totallydifferent investment environment
(10:18):
today.
I think we're going to be in atotally different investment
environment over the next fiveor 10 years and I don't think
that just blindly saying well,this has worked for a really
long time, I don't think thatthat's going to serve investors
well.
Marc Bernstein (10:32):
So our show today is about the founder's
story, so I want to get to thatand appreciate your input on the
economy, which is really anextended version of our topic of
the day.
Alex, tell me about how youstarted.
You already mentioned how youwent from the traditional
financial advisor role to whatyou're doing today, but tell us
(10:52):
a little bit about that journey.
I want to hear what kind ofchallenges you had along the way
in terms of building crossovercapital.
Alex Pron, CFP®, CBDA (10:58):
Yeah, I think, backing up a little bit.
I studied accounting in college, did a couple of years at Ernst
Young, got my CPA 12 years atMerrill Lynch, certified
financial planner and in 2020, Istarted investing in Bitcoin,
started studying.
I took an 80-hour course atWharton on blockchain analytics
and digital assets.
I took an 80-hour course atWharton on blockchain analytics
(11:19):
and digital assets and it reallystruck me when I went to
Merrill and wanted to send aletter to my clients letting
them know that I had taken thiscourse and that they have an
advocate and we weren't allowedto buy Bitcoin for clients at
the time but just to let themknow that they had an advocate.
I think there are tax planningconsiderations with something
(11:40):
like Bitcoin estate planningconsiderations.
You want to educate them aboutthe ins and outs of Bitcoin.
Just to let them know that theyhave an advocate.
And Merrill wouldn't let mesend that letter.
And my antennas really startedgoing up and as I started doing
more and more research on theindustry which I had never
really had to do, I was sort ofcontent where I was.
(12:00):
But as I started doing more andmore research on the industry
which I had never really had to,do.
Marc Bernstein (12:02):
I was sort of content where I was.
Alex Pron, CFP®, CBDA (12:03):
But as I started doing more and more
research on the financialindustry, I kind of realized if
I was going to do this right andbe able to really deliver
specialized solutions aroundthis really growing space, I was
going to have to start my ownfirm.
So that's kind of the, that'sthe genesis behind it how long
(12:23):
ago was that.
So we launched Crossover in Mayof 2023.
So we're coming up on our twoyear anniversary.
I would say there was probablya good 12 to 18 months of prep
interviewing differentcustodians and financial
planning tools and technologycompanies.
Um, we had a great firm, trueindependence.
(12:48):
They're um half based inPhiladelphia, half based in
Oregon and they handle kind ofall of our middle back office
operations cybersecurity,compliance, hr, payroll, hr so
that we can just really focus onwhat we do for clients, right.
So there's just a lot of workand research and interviewing
different firms like that tomake sure we had the
(13:08):
infrastructure in place to hitthe ground running.
Marc Bernstein (13:11):
What challenges did you face in building that
infrastructure?
I'm sure it wasn't just astraight line to success.
Alex Pron, CFP®, CBDA (13:18):
Yeah, well, look, I mean, you're
working two jobs.
Right.
You still have to be afinancial advisor by day for
your you know hundreds ofclients.
I know that one, yeah, yeah,yeah, there's all the other
stuff behind the scenes, Exactlyso, um, you're working two jobs
at once and then you know, thetransition itself is challenging
, right?
You're?
You're, you're learning on thefly, You're building a plane
while flying it.
Marc Bernstein (13:39):
You have some people around you helping with a
lot of this stuff, I wouldimagine.
Alex Pron, CFP®, CBDA (13:43):
Well, yeah, I mean going back to True,
independence, right, I meanthey serve 30 firms that have
made that same move.
So not only did we have theirdeep expertise, we were able to
talk to some other firms thathad, that had made the move
before us.
You know, um what mistakes theymade, what worked really well,
(14:06):
um.
So you know, we're reallythankful to, um, to true and to
some of those other firms thatwere really willing to share a
little bit of staff as well,right People?
Yeah, I, my business partnerTasha uh, left Merrill with me
as well.
She's fantastic.
She's a certified divorcefinancial analyst, so she does a
little bit of work in thedivorce designation yeah, um,
(14:29):
and then we have, we've, we'reon our second intern now, our
first intern studying abroad, initaly right now.
Both of them have been hugelyhelpful.
Um, it's amazing.
By the way, maybe we can talk alittle bit about this like AI,
right?
You know what could an interndo for you.
You know, five years ago, rightLike basically nothing.
(14:50):
Right right, basically nothing.
Now the answers to whateverquestions they have are at their
fingertips in seconds, right,so an intern, our interns are
doing really impactful work.
Marc Bernstein (15:01):
We need to take a quick break, but I want to
continue on that conversationbecause I can add some to that
and we can have a niceconversation around that.
We'll be back in a minute.
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Marc Bernstein (15:53):
We are back on Founders Forum with our guest
today, alex Pron of CrossoverCapital and Alex, just before
the break we were talking aboutwhat you can.
it's a really a bigger issue, Ithink, but what you can do with
interns today, because of theadvent of, not the advent
because it's been around, but Iguess the you know the great
accessibility to AI now Becauselisten, this whole show all the
(16:17):
things I do.
I have a virtual assistantwho's great, shan Estevez.
Every once in a while I giveher credit she's behind the
scenes putting all this together.
I mean, you guys are both here.
Roger the engineer, I don't dealwith any of this stuff.
She deals with it all and shemakes great use of AI in
creating a lot of our marketingpieces and all the things we do
(16:37):
and what she doesn't know.
She finds out very quickly andshe's a young person who's
making her way in the world andit's really amazing.
Everyone talks about thedownsides of AI, but building a
company is one of the reasons Iwas asking you about who you
have, because you can outsourcea lot of your back office
(16:58):
operations, like you talkedabout.
You have a partner that hassome unique abilities that are
different than yours, and thenyou can have interns who can do
a lot of the work that mighthave used to cost you, you know
whatever $100,000 a year person,but because of their access to
information and tools, they canfill those roles for you and you
(17:21):
want to talk more about that.
Alex Pron, CFP®, CBDA (17:24):
Yeah, look as a new company, whether
it's social media marketingpieces, um, different um, you
know, different um initiativesthat we're trying to implement.
Look, you know, uh, what didyou have to do five years ago?
You had to read a couple books,probably, right, maybe hire a
(17:47):
consultant trying to implementsome new process.
That's totally foreign andoutside of the scope of your
expertise.
Now you can have, you can haveyour intern build the playbook
for you and for you to reviewand say, hey, yeah, we want to
do this for sure, throw this out, let's do more of this.
All right, now, run with thenext phase of implementation,
(18:10):
right, and they start to put ittogether.
And then, you know, you givemore feedback and, next thing,
you know, you've got a newinitiative underway in days, not
months.
Marc Bernstein (18:22):
In our company, march, we just had to.
We had one person leave and wehad to replace her and we needed
to hire someone else.
And what I was?
I was not that involved.
My partners and our officemanager were more involved in
the hiring, but I kind ofwatched the process from a
distance.
And then I got to interview oneof the people who's already
started and I'll talk to theother one in about a week that
(18:44):
we've hired.
But what people are bringing tothe table is different.
Today we were looking forpeople that could help us not so
much with their knowledge andthey both had industry
experience.
But we don't need the industryexperience Because, like you
said, all that information isreadily available, readily
trainable but they both hadexpertise on different areas or
(19:05):
processes and how to createthose and how to rethink them.
And again, if you're a goodbusiness person, I think you're
hiring people that are betterthan you are, you know, in
different areas and smarter thanyou are in different areas and
smarter than you are indifferent areas.
And with these hires, I thinknot that it's the first time,
but I think we've advancedourselves in terms of these
(19:27):
hires because if we could havedone some of the new processes
we needed to do.
On our own before, we wouldhave done them or we were too
busy or it's just not reallywhat we do but we found the
people that can do it and theycan implement it, and they
certainly have many AI and othertechnological tools available
for them to, you know, toaccomplish that.
(19:47):
So I think that's a greatobservation on your part.
I want to jump right to.
We usually do it towards theend, but we are sort of
approaching the end.
But I think there's a lot ofquestions here I would like to
ask you about.
If this were so this is nowMarch of 2025, if you and I are
talking and I think we will be10 years from now, march of 2035
(20:10):
.
And I asked you you know, alex,what would have to happen?
What would?
What would have to happen we'rehaving that conversation for
you to feel that that 10 yearperiod was a success for you
professionally, personally, inany other thing you want to
comment, which is another way ofasking your 10 year vision for
your business and your life.
Alex Pron, CFP®, CBDA (20:32):
It's a great question.
Look, I look at Bitcoin and,without getting into the nitty
gritty, right, let's just lookat 10 years for Bitcoin, right?
10 years ago, was thegovernment going to ban it?
What's adoption going to looklike, whereas today you have the
(20:55):
Bitcoin Act in Congress thatcalls for the United States to
buy a million Bitcoin, there'sonly 21 million Bitcoin, right?
That's quite a bit.
You have nation states adoptingit.
You have institutions likeBlackRock adopting it.
You've got billionaire hedgefund managers like Bill Miller,
(21:20):
paul Tudor Jones, ray dalioadopting it, right, and so I
look at our business I mean,yeah, sailors.
I mean, well, that's a goodpoint.
I didn't touch on 70 publiccompanies owned north of 600 000
bitcoin, right, right, um.
And so I mean, what's thatblackstone as well, now I I
(21:44):
haven't seen their nameassociated with the space off
the top of my head.
I'll, I will definitely lookthat up well, they're starting.
Marc Bernstein (21:50):
They're starting to talk about it, whether
they've acquired or not.
Alex Pron, CFP®, CBDA (21:53):
I mean you have um, uh, who, who else
is getting into the space?
Citadel um ken griffin'scompany getting into the space.
Canter fitzgerald's been in thespace right now you they're.
You know former ceo howardlutnick um, you know secretary
of commerce, so you know, I, I,I lead with all that to say that
(22:14):
, like your average, high networth retail investor still
isn't in and doesn't have anadvocate.
So success to me is continuingto scale our offering and our
reach, partnering with otherfinancial advisory firms family
(22:34):
offices, cpa firms, to make surethat those firms can
confidently educate their clientbases and implement some sort
of solution for their clientbases to help people confidently
and appropriately allocate tothe space.
(23:00):
And so it's hard for me tovisualize what our team will
exactly look like, because Ithink it's going to depend on a
number of things, but I think itactually starts with sort of
Bitcoin's adoption story and asthat continues to evolve, I
think that will actually reallyhelp us grow and scale our
business.
Marc Bernstein (23:22):
What challenges do you see in getting to that
point?
If I were to interpret what yousaid, you'd like to be in the
position of educating as manypeople as possible about Bitcoin
and opening up their minds tothe possibility of it.
What kind of things, what kindof walls or challenges are
facing you in regard to that?
Alex Pron, CFP®, CBDA (23:42):
you know, um Marc, I was at the forbes
top teams conference last weekand I happened to like randomly
sit next to rich bernstein atdinner.
Oh yeah, and rich spoke for norelation, I just yeah, yeah,
although that my brother's nameis rich bernstein okay, yeah, I
don't think it's the same one.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly.
So Rich talked a little bitabout the market and investment
(24:09):
opportunities in the equityspace that he looks for, and he
said something to the effect ofyou want to look for the.
Let me think about this youwant to be the one bank in a
(24:31):
town with a thousand bars, asopposed to a bank amongst a
thousand banks in a town withone bar.
And when I look at crossovercapital right at Merrill Lynch,
you still can't buy Bitcoin foryour clients unless they have
north of $10 million right.
Your wire houses really don'tallow their financial advisor
(24:52):
base to do that, so there's alot of people who are
underserved.
I kind of feel like we are thatone bank in a town with a
thousand bars and the challengeis really just you know, how do
you continue to improve youreducational materials to help
people get comfortable with thisreally foreign asset class?
But it really only is foreignbecause most people don't have a
(25:14):
financial advisor that can helpthem in the space.
So that's probably the biggestchallenge.
Marc Bernstein (25:18):
So we've had a couple of conversations about
Bitcoin, so I know what skillsyou have, but how would you
describe the skills you have tokind of overcome that, that
obstacle of, of you know,getting it, getting your message
out to as many people aspossible?
Alex Pron, CFP®, CBDA (25:35):
Well, look, I mean, I think it is um,
it's easier to sell to otherfinancial advisory firms that
have larger groups of clients soyou can educate more people at
once.
But for us, I look at Tasha,who's a certified divorce
financial analyst.
She specializes in working withthat non-CFO spouse that's
(25:57):
never handled money, and so it'sfunny when I tell people our
two main niches are divorce andBitcoin.
They don't actually sound thatsimilar, but they actually
really are similar, because youhave to take really complex
financial concepts and you haveto get really good at at making
them easier for your averageperson to understand, who's not
a financial expert.
So, um, yeah, hopefully that,hopefully that makes sense.
Marc Bernstein (26:21):
I think, so I know you're an avid reader.
Tell me about your favoritebooks and what you like to read.
Alex Pron, CFP®, CBDA (26:32):
I know you like to read about Bitcoin.
Yeah, it's usually finance orbusiness-related books.
My father-in-law just publisheda book Positivity Warrior by
Jim Sorbo, so I'll give him ashout out.
I did just read.
that's the most recent book Ijust read on the power of
positivity, the empirical sortof evidence you know, suggesting
(26:54):
sort of like their life andhealth benefits, mental benefits
, from that, so that wasinteresting, but I would say on
the Bitcoin front, there was abook that just came out, maybe
six weeks ago, called the BigPrint kind of a play on words
from like the big short by LarryLeppard Lawrence Leppard and
the book is divided into twohalves.
(27:15):
The problem, and it's reallysort of the financial history of
the United States and all thedifferent bailouts and all the
money printing that has justtanked the purchasing power of
our dollars.
Marc Bernstein (27:29):
I think everyone is feeling that today right?
Alex Pron, CFP®, CBDA (27:31):
No question, I don't think they can
put their finger on exactlywhat's wrong.
I think that the big print doesa great job of articulating
exactly what is wrong in societytoday and with our money and
our financial system in a waythat's really easy for your
average person to digest.
And then part two is what's thesolution?
(27:56):
Teaching the ins and outs ofsound money and Bitcoin and gold
and why those things have valueand why they're going to become
potentially increasinglyimportant in the future of our
financial system.
Marc Bernstein (28:12):
So I would, I would, I would definitely
recommend the big print.
Alex Pron, CFP®, CBDA (28:15):
It was a really good read, very
interesting.
Marc Bernstein (28:18):
What do you do for fun, cause this all sounds
very serious Economics,self-improvement, obviously, the
future of finance of not onlyyour clients but the country and
the world.
So what do you do for fun?
Alex Pron, CFP®, CBDA (28:33):
Well, I've got a wonderful wife at
home who also works in financebut has been very supportive of
uh, you know, the the foundingof our business and all the work
that has to go into that.
I have a.
I have an awesome son who'sgoing to turn two in May.
Marc Bernstein (28:48):
Um, so family time is awesome.
Alex Pron, CFP®, CBDA (28:50):
I'm a I'm a very avid golfer, Uh so, uh,
anytime I can sneak out on thegolf course, uh, you know, hang
out with friends there.
That's a good day, we're goingto do that.
Marc Bernstein (29:03):
Family and golf.
Yeah, we got to get some golfon the calendar once that lustry
March weather turns up inPhiladelphia, absolutely.
I think it's time to wrap uptoday.
Any closing thoughts you havebefore we leave.
Alex Pron, CFP®, CBDA (29:18):
Look, I mean super important that people
know like I'm not out likeslinging Bitcoin and just trying
to get people to buy it.
I think it's just important, umthat people educate themselves.
So take the time, spend an houror two on YouTube, right, read
a book um educate yourself.
I think it's so important and Ithink it's going to have the
(29:40):
ability to change your life ifyou can take the time to do it.
Marc Bernstein (29:42):
Well, I'm a financial advisor who doesn't
have access to a lot of thatinformation, so you've already
done a good job of helping meunderstand it with a lot of the
materials that you have, and Ilove that.
That's your position, becauseyou're going to find people
resistant, you're going to findinstitutions resistant, but
people do need to understandit's going to be an important
force.
There's no question about it,so I appreciate you being here
(30:04):
today.
Alex Pron you will hear hiscommercial, if you haven't
already heard it, in the middleof the show, and that's how you
can reach him.
We thank you for all of you forbeing here today on Founders
Forum and we'll see you nextweek week.
Announcer (30:25):
We hope you enjoyed your time with Founders Forum
and that you found value to takewith you throughout your day.
Join us again next week foranother episode of Founders
Forum on WXKB 1039 HD2.
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