The Due Diligence Project™ Podcast

Episode Summary: In this engaging interview, Due Diligence Project founder Alex Sonkin speaks with elite CPA Laura Dohanes about her journey and approach to tax planning. Laura shares insights from her extensive audit experience and how she helps clients navigate complex tax scenarios, particularly during business exits. She reveals how her firm generated over $11.3 million in tax savings for clients in 2023 alone.

Key Topics Covere...

Episode Summary: In this interview, Due Diligence Project founder Alex Sonkin speaks with CPA Josh Dixon about his journey from traditional tax preparation to high-value tax planning. Josh shares how he transformed his practice to focus on strategies that deliver significant tax savings to clients while improving his own work-life balance and revenue.

Key Topics Covered:

• Career Evolution: Josh's path from aspiring stockbroke...

Episode Summary: In this March 2025 "State of the Union" address, Due Diligence Project founder Alex Sonkin joins host Paul G McManus to discuss the growth and achievements of their tax professional community. They explore how their network of 847 independent CPA firms collaborates to vet tax strategies for ultra-high-net-worth clients, delivering significant tax savings while maintaining compliance.

Key Topics Covered:

The CPA community has thrived throughout this time due to their diversified portfolio and ability to bring value to businesses in all sectors of the economy. At Virtual Family Office Hub, we are proud to have supported hundreds of CPA firms and family offices around the country. We have helped them mitigate complex income tax situations involving high net worth individuals and CPAs.

We are continuing to grow our CPA community by int...

Alex Sonkin founded the Due Diligence Project, the Virtual Family Office Hub, and originated the idea that sparked GoMacro. The Due Diligence Project is an open-source, global community of 500+ peer-selected CPA Firms, Law Firms, Family Offices, and Specialists who participate in a revolutionary vetting system to independently analyze, rate, rank, and make ongoing improvements to sophisticated tax strategies and world-class resourc...

Alex Sonkin founded the Due Diligence Project, the Virtual Family Office Hub, and originated the idea that sparked GoMacro. The Due Diligence Project is an open-source, global community of 500+ peer-selected CPA Firms, Law Firms, Family Offices, and Specialists who participate in a revolutionary vetting system to independently analyze, rate, rank, and make ongoing improvements to sophisticated tax strategies and world-class resourc...

Richard Wilson is the founder and head of the Family Office Club, the largest membership-based family office association with over 1,750 registered family office members and 25 live events per year. He helps implement performance-based family office solutions for $100M+ net worth families through his company Centimillionaire Advisors.

What you will learn from this episode:

• How he got started with family offices and what led him t...

Matthew Fargo is an elite virtual family office, elite CPA firm out of Boulder, Colorado. They serve ultra-high net worth business owners. He specializes in providing assurance, tax and business advisory services to emerging growth, small and mid-sized businesses.

What you will learn from this episode:

• How Matthew got started and how he became an elite CPA
• How he gets clarity and confidence to complete his due diligence before bri...

Brian Kerrigan is an elite virtual family office professional, elite CPA with a tax focus serving ultra-high net worth business owners. He's also a specialist as part of The Due Diligence Project, Virtual Family Office hub. He has provided tax compliance and consulting services for large public and privately held companies throughout New England for more than 17 years. 

What you will learn from this episode:

• How Brian remind...

Herman Cardenas is an elite real estate developer and a very successful technology business owner that has sold companies to GE, Microsoft, and Clear One. Herman is investing in and applying his expertise to the development of real estate projects in and around Austin, Texas. His latest companies, IMPACT Developers and M Builders, specialize in the development and construction of mid-to-large multifamily and mixed-use projects and ...

Elliott Holland is a graduate from Harvard Business School. He is an elite professional that founded Guardian Due Diligence, a boutique firm that leads due diligence processes for family offices, investors and private equity firms. 

What you will learn from this episode:

• Why due diligence is even more important now during the Coronavirus crisis
• How family offices handle due diligence and why they need someone like Elliott
• How to na...

Mr. Roy farmer, is the top ESOP specialist in the country, part of the virtual family office hub and part of the due diligence project. He serves elite, ultra-high net worth business owners and differentiates himself from his competition. Roy Farmer is also a Managing Director of BTA Inc. and has been actively involved in the financial industry since the mid ’70′s.

What you will learn from this episode:

• Strength at the Starting L...

Valerie Colin is a senior tax shareholder with Gumbiner Savett Inc. in Santa Monica. She has over 30 years of experience in tax, accounting and business consulting. A former auditor turned tax practitioner, she helps her clients optimize their tax situations with an emphasis on recognizing income and deductions for tax purposes, maximizing available employment credits and other incentives. She mostly serves high net worth individua...

Sherry Tolbert, President at The Tolbert VFO,  is a Certified Virtual Family Office (VFO) Professional and CPA with 27+years of hands-on-experience helping business owners, entrepreneurs, and real estate investors rescue millions of dollars in unnecessary taxes. She helps affluent business owners significantly reduce their tax bill using the same strategies that Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg have access to via their Private Family...

Mike Jesowshek heads an elite virtual family office and is an elite CPA.  He serves high net worth individuals and business owners around the country.  Mike is a managing partner of JETRO and Associates.  He works to help small business owners with accounting methods and taxes tailored to their businesses.  Mike specializes in helping law firms, fitness studios, and general professional services such as marking companies, digital a...

Dale Spradling Ph.D., CPA, provides elite, virtual family office services. He worked in the IRS for 10 years, then in private practice and as a college professor. Dale currently works with ultra-wealthy business owners and families. He offers unique value to the Due Diligence Project.  

What you will learn from this episode:

• How Dale aims to zero out taxes if the client provides adequate information
• How going deep into tax regulat...

John Power is a CPA, Certified Tax Strategist, and President of Power Virtual Family Office.  John serves ultra-high-net-worth clients around the country, delivering amazing benefits to them.  He works mainly with the owners of closely held businesses. 

What you will learn from this episode:

• How John’s firm was able to increase a client’s tax savings to $800,000 by using due diligence in research about IC-DISC
• How John’s focus on ...