April 7, 2025 • 42 mins
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 Covered:
- Tax Planning Philosophy: How Laura developed a passion for tax strategy and her direct, transparent approach with clients
- Business Exit Expertise: Why Laura considers business exits "the most beautiful dance between tax, legal and investments"
- Client Relationships: The importance of building trust and understanding client goals before recommending tax strategies
- Tax Savings Impact: How Laura delivered $11.375 million in tax savings to clients in 2023
- Due Diligence Approach: The value of collective expertise and peer review when vetting tax strategies
- Virtual Family Office: How the right team of advisors can create substantial value, particularly during business exits
- Elite Tax Advising: The significant difference between average and elite tax professionals in delivering client value
Featured Quotes: "I think my life's journey is tied to the business owner and those are the people that I serve the most... Give yourself the benefit of the doubt, expand your mind just a little bit so you can have a basic understanding before you dismiss something." - Laura Dohanes
"The difference between the top 0.01% of CPAs and the average CPA is the same difference as the top basketball players who are at the NBA all-star game than the guys you see at the pickup games at the YMCA." - Alex Sonkin
Resource
This episode highlights how experienced tax professionals can deliver extraordinary value by combining specialized knowledge with a relationship-focused approach, particularly for business owners preparing for major transactions.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Want to know how elite tax advisors win the due
diligence game to satisfy ultrahigh net worth clients who
expect the very best.
Welcome to the Due DiligenceProject podcast, where you get a
chance to learn from the eliteCPAs, virtual family office
professionals and taxspecialists who are doing just
that.
We'll uncover their insidersecrets on how they are
(00:25):
dominating their competition,vetting new ideas and
supercharging their duediligence process to deliver
extraordinary results.
Bringing his 25 plus years ofexperience with top tax
professionals across the country, please welcome your host, alex
Sunkin, please welcome yourhost, Alex Sunkin.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Welcome to the Due Diligence Project podcast.
Today we have a special guest,Laura DeHannes.
She's an amazing elite CPA, anelite member of the Due
Diligence Project.
What we want to do today isjust really dive into the world
of elite tax planning and seewhat's really behind the curtain
.
Laura, how long have you been aCPA?
Speaker 3 (01:06):
Gosh, that's a good question.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
12, 14 years 12, 14 years, and what made you even
decide to become a CPA in thefirst place?
Do you remember?
Speaker 3 (01:17):
Yeah, that's such a good question.
I have to tell you kind of afunny story.
My parents wanted me to be adoctor.
If you're not a doctor or anattorney, you're just not good
enough for the breed that theywere having.
They wanted me to go to medicalschool.
Then I said I'm going to goaway and never come back.
And so what do you want to do?
I really liked accounting.
I went to a very special highschool.
(01:37):
I went to competitions inaccounting when I was like 16
years old.
So I used to love looking atall the receipts when they were
buying a piece of property,looking at all the deeds.
I was the geek little kid goingthrough the paperwork and kind
of shushed away.
So I think I was an accountantbefore I knew that I want to be
an accountant In my mind.
(01:57):
I just loved to dig into thepaperwork and I think it was
just a discovery what can youfind?
For me it was curiosity whatcan you find?
I wanted to become a CPA.
I got like the exact decision Iremember when I decided to be a
CPA, when I was just anaccountant with the schooling,
and this person had a loan andthe bank refused the financial
(02:17):
statements because it's notsigned by CPA.
I got so angry and I'm likethis makes no sense.
I'm getting the CPA, I don'tcare what.
How.
Like it's, this is a done deal.
It was just an angry momentwhere the bank refused something
because of certification that Ididn't place a whole lot of
value and I don't want to say Idon't place value.
(02:38):
It has value because you haveto go through a refining process
which, if you want to be thebest in your field, you got to
do and go to the certification,just because it has to be.
It has to be there if you wantto do what you want to do.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
So you started, you knew you love numbers.
You were just a numbers person,numbers just you saw numbers.
They just created energy inyour head.
Same with me.
Did you ever realize, when youfirst fell in love with numbers
and accounting, that you wouldbe able to use that unique skill
set that God gave you to helpso many people save so much
(03:11):
money in unnecessary expenses,taxes, and be able to use that
money to benefit theircommunities, their families,
charities, all these differentthings?
That really is the result ofall the work that you've put in
all these different things.
Speaker 3 (03:26):
That really is the result of all the work that
you've put in.
Yes and no, I think I'm avisionary by trade.
I had like visions and I don'tget necessarily depressed or, oh
, this didn't get to happen, I'mnever going to try again, like
it just fuels an energy to goagain and again and never give
up.
But I think the story that wasso fascinating for me my dad was
in.
He had several businesses.
He was a serial entrepreneur.
(03:47):
It doesn't matter how manytimes he got pushed down, he
would start again, he would dosomething new.
And when I was in high schoolhe lost everything, like
everything, and he got into anew industry and even though I
didn't realize it at the momentwhat had happened to him, but
running something outside of hisfield, outside of his comfort
(04:08):
zone.
He was in the auto industry andout of the bleak and in the
manufacturing industry, andmanufacturing can be.
It's all about contracts, it'sall about delivery, it's about
negotiations ahead of time.
You got to know your trade alittle bit.
So I think they got a littlebit ahead of themselves and lost
everything and he got very sick.
He was given one, I think onein a million chance to survive
(04:31):
because of his pancreas.
So wanting to change that, Ithink that was like trying to
change something by doingsomething for other people.
Can you get the differentoutcome If they would have known
what comes ahead?
So I think my journey was notonly to, it was taxes.
Yes, that's the love I probably, if I wouldn't have to do
(04:51):
anything, I would still read taxcode just for fun.
It's just so cool.
I love court cases.
I'm like duh, what were youthinking that type of thing?
You didn't hire the rightpeople.
But at the same time, the ideathat you can change the
trajectory of somebody's life,that if you would have known
ahead of time that you can buildthis company and exit tax-free
or exit this or people knowabout things too late and I
(05:15):
think for me it was I hate to betoo late in the game, so I
would rather lose ahead of thetime of hey, the AI right now,
right, with tax strategy.
We were doing tax strategybefore tax strategy was a term.
I was calling it what-ifscenarios.
So I think the trajectory that,the possibilities that you can
(05:37):
have by having access to thatinformation and what you can do,
is what I'm looking for is hey,giving you the options that I
feel like I didn't have or thatmy family didn't have, and I
want to give my kids options tohave an open horizon.
This is a don't take things atface value, right.
Then the savings is an add-onIf you have a good strategist.
It's not just hey, someone'sgoing to plug in your tax return
(05:58):
, get all this.
They will give you options thatyou feel like, hey, I know the
road I'm taking and can see alittle bit ahead of where you're
going.
If you go this route, this iswhat's happening.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
So, but that's our audience can already feel
passion in your voice about howexcited you are.
You know, look, people don'treally can't really relate to
tax geeks like us, because whenthey first, if they ever, even
look at the tax code, mostpeople have never actually read
the US tax code.
And if you just try reading itfor three seconds you'll
understand why.
(06:31):
But then some of us who are taxgeeks, when we look at it and
get through the first fewminutes and dive in deeper, you
see there's a rhyme and reasonto it.
And then when we realize thatwe can actually use this code
and navigate this code like apuzzle and help solve people's
problems using this unique skillset that 90 plus percent of the
(06:51):
population just doesn't have,doesn't even want.
You know, for those of youwho've never read the tax code,
google the US tax code and startreading it and then remember
this conversation.
Remember, laura is a tax geekwho loves navigating this tax
code and finding uniquesolutions and bring it to her
clients.
Those are the type of peoplethat the Due Diligence Project
(07:13):
searches for the tax geeks whoare elite at what they do, who
love bringing value to theirclients, and Laura is just a
great example of one of ourelite members.
So let's talk about your lifebefore, because you were a tax
geek before you met the duediligence project and you were
doing puzzle solving for yourclients before that and you're
still doing it now.
(07:33):
So let's talk about your lifebefore we found you and you
found us.
And now, afterwards, what'schanged?
Speaker 3 (07:39):
I'll tell you a little bit like it goes back to
the vision that you have foryourself.
And I have to go back and tellyou a little story.
I've done a lot of audits faceto face and the reason why I
loved audits is because I get tokind of be an investigator,
right, I got to go in.
I did only face to face auditswith revenue officers where they
wanted to see your property orclaiming X, y and Z.
(08:00):
You have obsolete inventory offive million.
Let's see where's the obsoleteinventory.
So I would have to walk throughthe facility or buildings or
properties with the revenueofficers and it is very
interesting that when you gothrough the whole scenario and
you're trying to find outanswers that nobody has Okay, so
(08:22):
what?
You realize when you go throughthat process that the business
owner is alone.
So I had this exclusivitycontract with the people that I
did audits.
They were not my people.
In case you wonder how did youget so many audits?
Cause I've done more than 3000of them.
They were alone, they hadnobody on their speed dial Okay,
which is such an amazing pieceand they had no support.
(08:43):
They said we don't know.
The accountant did this, thebookkeeper did this?
What we don't know?
We were just told by X, y and Zand they did not know.
I think those are the momentswhen I valued the relationship
more than what you could do forpeople.
And what I like about DDP is Ican call Alex.
So I am like I'm very real If Ican have somebody on speed dial
(09:06):
and I say you know what, if Ineed something, it's going to
get done.
I might be imperfect, you mightbe imperfect, things might not
go as planned all the time, buthaving that relationship where
you can build that trust, thathey, you got my back, I got your
back is really what I waslooking for.
So I only invest inrelationships at this point
because I believe that ifsomebody is working with us,
(09:30):
like a business owner comes towork with us, we don't do
projects Like I don't do.
It doesn't matter how big it isor how small it is.
I want the relationship andwant to build on it, and that's
exactly what DDP, for example.
We have a relationship we cancall Alex, we can call Brian, we
have something.
Hey, I'll make an introductionhere and I like the idea that
(09:50):
there's.
I love peer review.
Right, because I have my angle.
You have your angle.
Everybody comes with adifferent angle and if
everybody's honest andtransparent about, hey, this is
what could go wrong.
This is that it's veryproductive to have all around
view on any type of piece of law, so I think that's my number
(10:12):
one would be relationship Like.
I'm a relationship person, soyeah, maybe because I'm a female
.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
It's awesome hearing you say that, because it really
we built this.
Sometimes you build somethingand you don't even know what you
built and then later on youlook back and you're like we
were trying to build this and webuilt something even bigger and
better, because maybe God camein and oh, I like what you're
doing.
Let me make it even better thanyour original design.
And what we have now is that,and really the key to our
(10:41):
success is finding passionate,elite people like you and
building this incredibleinfrastructure.
And the idea was let's build ateam of specialists and let's
build a network of elite CPAsand together everyone's a tax
geek in the group and we're allworking for one another and
we're all working really toprotect our clients and to bring
(11:03):
value to our clients.
So one half is a bunch of eliteCPAs we're doing to do
independent peer review, duediligence, and the other group
are the specialists we're tryingto design the strategies and
we're all looking at the sametax code, the same code that the
IRS is looking at, and we'resaying let's get all of the top
smartest people in the countryin our group and if you're an
(11:25):
IRS agent, come on over, look atwhat we're doing and let's all
make sure that everything thatwe're doing is super clean
within the black and white linesof the tax code, so we can
deliver value to clients, sothat the business owner can be
confident and have visibilityand not just be by themselves
with a tax code they don'tunderstand, without being able
(11:46):
to make that next step, because,at the end of the day, the
business owner is what's drivingthe economy Absolutely, and if
we provide value to the businessowner like a family office type
structure, they're going to bebetter.
So the due diligence projectthis year is almost like a
family office for elite CPAs andreally what we've built is like
an Amazon type of platform fortax geeks, so that all the tax
(12:08):
geeks in the country can come indo their independent peer
review.
When you're reviewing a strategy, it's already probably been
reviewed by two, 300, 400 otherCPAs, but that's not good enough
for you.
You're going to have to reviewit yourself.
So you're going to take thenotes that we've accumulated.
Reduce your time by a factor of10, look at our notes.
Did we make any mistakes?
Did you find anything?
You're going to look at the taxcode.
(12:30):
Was there something we missed.
If we missed something, you'regoing to let us know.
So the more eyeballs we have ona strategy, the more confidence
we have that it's good, or wefind something that's wrong with
it that we have either resolve.
Let's talk about the value thatyou're able to really bring to
(12:51):
your clients as a result of this.
Have you even calculated howmuch total tax savings you
brought to your clients over thelast 12 months?
Speaker 3 (13:00):
We haven't finished last year, but I think in 2023,
we had $11.375 million in taxsavings.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
That was from the times we could calculate it,
that's a lot of money $11.375million, that's a lot of money.
Speaker 3 (13:16):
We didn't calculate for forever, but it's just the
last couple of years when weactually were intentional.
And one of the things that Ilike to see and it is really I
have to put myself in a businessowner's shoes because it's
almost you get an attorney whenyou sell a company.
Let's go through a story Likeyou have a liquidity event and
you're selling your company.
You could go through a broker,you could have X, y and Z and
(13:38):
depending on who you get on thetransition, on that experience,
your value could beexponentially more when you get
out of the exit than if you justgo hey, I got a broker, I had a
business attorney, they'regoing to check all the T's, make
sure every I's dotted,everything is done, it's all
clean, you got your cash, theygot the business, and it's the
(13:59):
same liquidity event that canyield two absolutely different
results.
And the reason why is becauseof the people that you involve
in that transition or atransaction.
I don't think it's just thetransaction, I think it takes
place over a number of monthsand years.
And this is my favorite.
My favorite is exits.
I love business exits for allthe reasons possible, because it
(14:20):
is probably the most beautifuldance between tax, legal and
investments.
If that is the only place whereyou can merge all of them,
right, because if you get aninheritance, it's just not the
same.
You're not going to have thesame mix.
It's the most beautiful dancethat you can imagine.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
Let's discuss this for a second, because why do
these capital gain transactions,these exit business sales?
I would say, when I think ofthat, I would say 90% of those
are not tax efficient right.
Speaker 3 (14:51):
I think it's a higher .
Speaker 2 (14:52):
I think it's a higher I don't know why, but the
business owners that arecreating these 30, 40, 100
million billion dollar, $10billion companies.
These are not dumb people, butthey're not tax geeks.
And then they bring in WallStreet.
Who are they going to bring in?
Goldman Sachs, jp Morgan,morgan Stanley?
Then they have the others right, those are elite M&A brokers,
(15:16):
right, but they're not tax geeks.
So they're going to come in,they're going to charge their
fees, they're going to set it up, they're going to find the
buyer and next thing, you'regoing to have 30, 40% tax bills
because you have the businessowner, you have Goldman Sachs,
jp Morgan, you have theattorneys, also not tax geeks.
How many hours of all of theseentities spent with audit, with
(15:41):
tax court?
How much experience do theyhave with audit and tax court?
How many hours?
Probably less than five.
They don't know how to commenton tax strategy versus when they
make you or a tax advisor atthe top of that food chain,
which represents 30, 40% of thatsales price.
And all of a sudden, you'rehelping this client sell this
(16:03):
asset in a 1% tax bracket ordefer the taxes 30 years in the
future or put them in a negativetax bracket.
All of a sudden, you're taking30, 40% of the value of the sale
.
Let's say it's a billion dollarcompany.
That's three to $400 millionthat a tax advisor can bring to
the table that a Goldman Sachsperson, jp Morgan person or an
(16:26):
experienced attorney has no ideahow to do.
Speaker 3 (16:29):
Yeah, and it's interesting.
Our people, we do the smallbusiness owners, and I want it
to be applicable to them.
They're probably not going tosell for a billion dollars.
They will.
Yeah, you never know.
You're right.
Let's just not bring inflationon the game.
We're trying to be positivetoday.
They're not going to discussDoge.
Speaker 2 (16:47):
There are some business owners that benefit
from inflation, so let's justAlways.
Speaker 3 (16:51):
There's always someone who benefits from
anything, including war and allthe other things.
But coming back down, so let'ssay let's make it something
simple, okay, because we have alot of people in the 45, 55
million kind of exit range.
So that's like the peopleanywhere from 40 to about 100
million.
It's a really good range.
Someone can build something andexit.
I have to commend the effortsof a business owner because
coming in and building something, it requires so much resilience
(17:12):
.
I think it's the media and Ithink it's the kind of the old
school fashion CPAs that werelike no, you should do this.
And they were like pounding onthe business owner's head you
make money, you should pay tax,and we've heard that over and
over over the years.
Or charging minimum fees andthis like people don't want to
discuss about fees.
Charging $3,000 to do planningfor a year and doing preparation
(17:40):
.
It is impossible.
And I just got somebody.
I talked to somebody last night.
They're in LA and like justhere in the top Palisades area
and they're like it's impossible.
How can they charge this whenyou have an attorney and a
doctor and that they're having abusiness and you're charging
that fee?
Something doesn't match up andit's impossible to provide the
value.
So number one is making surethat people know, and the media,
(18:02):
like I think just seeing ads isnot good enough.
I think the business ownershould hear organic people, like
a conversation, like you and Iwould have a conversation.
I would have a conversationlike a real conversation of a
business owner say, okay, youknow what, these are the people
that I need, right, it's, and itdoesn't come.
Paying the fee is just part ofthe game.
(18:23):
Like, I pay fees.
I've had coaching, likehundreds of 1000s of dollars in
coaching that I've done over theyears.
And I'm not saying this because, like, we just need the people
and I might not have known orcome to the understanding that I
need to learn some things toget me to the next level and if
I don't pay the price, I mightnot pay enough attention to it
(18:44):
and it doesn't have to do withyou've got to have the advisors.
So my point is you've got tohave the advisors and I think
it's the overall kind of stateof the economy that we're not
educating the small businessowner that, hey, you should have
some people.
I call this a three-legged stool.
I say you should have a goodfinancial advisor who does
investments for you, investmentsthat could be multiple people.
You choose right, you shouldhave a tax advisor right and you
(19:08):
should have a good attorneythat protects you, that
understands the state law.
So, coming back to the peopleare not educated.
That's why they don't havenecessarily what it takes to hey
, I need these people to help mein an exit.
I think that the second pieceto that is the people who have
money.
Listen, I have business ownerswith 30, 40, $50 million net
worth and they don't knowprivate banks exist, like I have
(19:29):
no idea what that is.
So you go top morgan at theprivate bank at jp.
Morgan has all the people thatyou just mentioned.
They have an mna specialist,they have the attorney
specialist.
They don't have a taxstrategist in their team.
Yeah, and it's a private bank.
Speaker 2 (19:43):
it's crazy when we first started doing what we're
doing.
Our holding company is calledthe virtual family office hub
vfo hub and what we do is duediligence.
So the due diligence project isinside of the virtual family
office hub and the original ideawas exactly what you're talking
about right now.
Instead of building familyoffices for billionaires, let's
(20:07):
build them for people worth 20,30, 40, $50 million.
Let's custom design the familyoffices so they don't cost
$250,000 a year, where they canmake one phone call.
Who should be the head of thatfamily office?
In our model, it should betheir tax advisor.
In our model, we've beenbuilding this community for over
(20:28):
20 years and we've been usinghundreds of CPA firms and law
firms to peer review.
The top specialists, the topbankers, the top resources, the
top M&A people all thesedifferent people mostly across
income tax planning, capitalgains planning, cost reduction
planning, obviously, financialservices.
But the idea was to find thevery best resources in all these
(20:50):
areas so that a CPA could buildtheir own family office using
Lego pieces, where the bestattorney and that specialty is
not living next door across thestreet or they're also a dad on
the soccer team.
They are in New York and you'repracticing in California and
you have access to the New Yorkattorney, you have access to
(21:11):
Florida attorney, you haveaccess to the specialist in
Minnesota who just lovesMinnesota.
He's never leaving Minnesota.
So if he's never leavingMinnesota and you're in Oregon,
how do you get the Minnesota guyto help?
Well, we have technology thatbinds us all together.
So the combination oftechnology, the combination of
this whole world, is flat.
(21:32):
Now, right, we're able to buildvirtual family offices not local
family offices, but virtualfamily offices with the very
best resources in the country,and the head of those family
offices is their tax advisor.
So imagine you as a tax advisor.
You bring in the M&A people,you bring in the bankers, the
attorneys, and everyone worksthrough you, and now it's a team
(21:55):
.
Now everyone's on the same page.
The client just has oneconnection Because, really, when
the client brings in their ownbanker, their own advisor, their
own attorney, all these people,they all need to be organized
like a team, like they need acoach.
Okay, you're a new player in theLakers?
Well, the coach is going toshow you our plays on offense
and defense so you can play withLeBron James and Luka Doncic
(22:17):
and everyone can actually looklike a team as opposed to hey,
we're a bunch of instrumentplayers, we're getting together,
we're going to riff it up alittle bit, because that's how
the traditional planning works.
The business owner brings intheir own people, everyone's
riffing it up and it sounds likecrap.
It doesn't sound good.
But organizing everyone as ateam under a virtual family
(22:38):
office structure and that's veryeasy to do when you start with
tax, because those other playersdon't know the tax
ramifications and the taxramifications on an asset sale,
we're talking 30%, 40% of thevalue of the asset price.
That is ROI.
If we give that away, it's goneforever.
If we keep it, that's immediateROI.
(22:59):
So wait for the sale before youstart investing in your real
estate portfolio.
Become tax efficient first,because that 30, 40% it's going
to be hard for you to make downthe road.
Oh, laura, I just sold mycompany for 40 million dollars.
We're going to have a 15million dollar tax bill and I
want you to help me to invest inthe proceeds.
(23:21):
Well, you could have avoidedthat 15 million dollar tax bill
if you called me beforehand.
Speaker 3 (23:25):
Yeah, absolutely.
That's such a great questionbecause it's more proactive than
anything else.
So remember, I want to not betoo late.
Like too late is not goodenough.
I think you could save so muchby not being too late, and I
think you and I had someconversations on this and I
think the reason why I getattracted to all the private
banks and all the scenariobecause ultimately I think the
(23:46):
virtual family office is theideal right, so even as a CPA
firm, that we have so manymoving parts and we have so much
compliance and I think it'salways sometimes it's just, it's
just a weight like it's thatkind of lays at the bottom and
it makes it harder to ascend, todo anything else, just because
there's just so much complianceis the busy work.
That kind of drains you and putsyou and keeps you down many
(24:08):
times, but at the same time it'sa process.
A lot of people I think smallbusiness owners are very easily
overwhelmed because they aredoing so many things.
We're doing a lot of things andrunning a business is hard,
depending what you have.
You're running multiple teams,you've got a, you might have R&D
, you might do all these otherthings that are happening behind
(24:28):
the scenes.
So the idea of a virtual familyoffice, I find it so
overwhelming.
For most business owners itdoesn't matter.
I don't know if it matters somuch the wealth, but it matters
like what's your role they placein the operating company.
Speaker 2 (24:42):
I think the key to what I think the key to the
business owner is they alreadyknow the successful business
owner, just like the successfulcoach of a team.
They know the key to winning isthe people Recruiting the right
athletes, recruiting the rightpeople on your team.
I don't care if your businessis a CPA firm or a manufacturing
(25:03):
firm.
If you hired the wrong peopleon your team, it's going to fail
.
So this idea of building aworld-class team that's going to
lead to victories and winningchampionship trophies like I
have these $3 plastic trophiesbehind me for flag football you
can buy them, but it's more funto win them, and in order to win
(25:24):
them you have to build anamazing team.
And so the challenge is thebusiness owner doesn't realize
what they need on the taxplanning side, so they use a
shotgun approach let's just geta bunch of advisors, or we're
overwhelmed.
Let's just figure this outourselves, because we don't
trust anybody.
And what they're ultimatelytrying to do is they're trying
(25:44):
to create their best version ofdue diligence.
The problem is they're notqualified to do due diligence on
tax strategies, just like I'mnot qualified to do analysis of
a software engineer because Idon't have any software
engineering experience, I haveto kind of use my gut.
And so once people are exposedto the due diligence project,
which is like a peer reviewsystem, like Amazon and Netflix
(26:05):
does peer review movies andbooks and tchotchkes you want to
buy on Amazon we have a peerreview.
But our audience are the taxgeek, cpas, and they're doing
the peer review on the biggesttax geeks in the world, which
are the specialists who aredesigning these different tax
strategies, and the common thingthat we all have is the tax
code.
So our idea is let's havehundreds and hundreds of
(26:27):
independent CPAs reviewing thesame tax strategies, find the
very, very best ones and thenalso find the very, very best
resources.
So now Laura, who plugs in thedue diligence project, can
basically pick and choose fromthe very best tax attorneys,
very best specialists.
Build her own virtual familyoffice and that virtual family
office is like the S&P 500.
Who's the best attorney in thatspace this year?
(26:49):
It might be a different firmnext year because we're the S&P
500.
We're like Amazon.
Who's on the front page ofAmazon?
It's different products fromfive years ago to today.
Every product is being rankedand rated and tested and voted
on by our audience, which is anongoing, never-stopping peer
(27:10):
review, which is Due diligence,so that Laura can bring you the
very best resources, so that shecan take last year's 11 point
whatever in savings and thisyear let's make it 20.
Speaker 3 (27:22):
Yeah, I'm not pursuing necessarily just the
tax saving.
It is so interesting.
I had the masterclass for yearend 2024.
And during the masterclass,what I presented to the business
owners was it's not about thestrategies.
It's not always about thestrategies, because you can take
that great strategy and not beefficient for you.
(27:42):
So, knowing the goal that youhave.
Now, for some people, like wehave, we classify the strategies
in tax reduction and taxdeferral strategies Very, very
simple and, depending who youare, one might work better than
the other or we don't haveaccess to one versus the other.
So, knowing the goal that you'retrying to achieve, for example,
(28:05):
I'm going to be in business fortwo more years, or I'm going to
exit in three years, or I'mready for the right offer to pop
in and I'm out right.
Different strategies can beyielding different results for
different people, because somepeople might have different
portfolios.
We have people who are stillbuilding even though they're in
their 60s.
I'm building.
I'm not seeing myself outanytime soon.
(28:26):
We have other people in their40s.
They're ready to get out.
I feel like it's this as anadvisor.
So the business owners kind oflike dilemma is not to follow
the shiny object, to just go forthe strategy.
I might tell somebody this isnot the right strategy for you,
even though we'll give you this,because if you tell me this is
your goal for next year, it willdefeat the purpose.
Speaker 2 (28:48):
What you're talking about is marrying the fact
pattern with the combination ofa hundred different strategies
which are all different types ofdeductions.
Some work for W-2s, some don'twork for W-2s.
Does Chad GPT know whichdeductions work for W-2s versus,
k-1s versus?
Do they know that yet?
I don't know.
(29:08):
In 10 years it might know it.
You know what I mean.
Depends on how good theprogrammers are.
We've seen the average CPA'sbrain.
I've interviewed thousands ofCPAs so we know where the
average CPA is and if theaverage CPA programs chat GPT,
chat GPT is going to be garbagetax planning.
If you or me or the top CPAs inthe country all start
(29:30):
programming chat GPT in 10 years, it'll be pretty good.
And my question is how are weprogramming?
So I think what's going on inthe future is you're going to
have these elite tax advisorslike Laura plugged into elite
resources like the Due DiligenceProject, ai, to further
(29:51):
separate ourselves from ourcompetition.
That really is not a tax geek.
Has not dove into the tax code,does not understand the
minutiae in the tax code,because One of the things that
the average business owner doesnot know is how to differentiate
an elite tax advisor from anaverage tax advisor.
Speaker 3 (30:12):
That's a good question, alex.
I'll stop you on that, I'llinterrupt you.
How?
Okay, because you, in yourfamily, you've got business
owners, right, you've gotbusiness owners.
So how do you differentiate?
Speaker 2 (30:29):
You know what?
Asking me that question isprobably better than me asking
you that question, because Iprobably interviewed way more
CPAs than you have, becauseyou're a CPA and my clients are
CPAs.
I'll tell you what I can tell,because this is all I do is talk
to CPAs.
I can tell very, very quickly,with the level of confidence
(30:49):
when we start talking about taxstrategies, there is a massive.
The difference between the top0.01% of CPAs and the average
CPA is the same difference asthe top basketball players who
are at the NBA all-star gamethan the guys you see at the
pickup games at the YMCA.
So people who think that CPAsare very similar, they're not
(31:12):
similar at all.
It's very, very important toget the best ones.
You have to get people who arepassionate and really the
difference in the guy at theYMCA and the guy who's on the
NBA All-Star game is that guy inthe NBA All-Star game.
He just outworked the YMCA guy.
He probably put in 100,000hours more and you don't see
(31:34):
that.
It's like seeing the tip of theiceberg.
So you can see Laura, she seemsreally smart, she seems really
bright, but let's look under thesurface.
How much work has she put inthe tax code.
How much work.
There's so much work behind thescenes that you don't see.
Tax code how much work.
There's so much work behind thescenes that you don't see.
But it pops up in conversationsbecause that energy pops up.
I just don't think the averagebusiness owner will ever be able
(31:57):
to differentiate until they seethe bottom line.
How much tax do I owe at theend of the year?
Speaker 3 (32:03):
Yeah, it's the ROI.
Speaker 2 (32:06):
So they would have to take their tax return to a
million different CPAs and belike what would it look like
with you, you, you and you?
But if they took it to a duediligence project member and
said I'm making a million tothis year, what can you do for
me Versus an average CPA?
Basically, our network of CPAswould run circles around not
just average CPAs but elite CPAs.
(32:27):
So I think that's a reallygreat question, laura.
I think it's very difficult forbusiness owners to just to know
the answer to that question,because the tax geek world is
just like such a private worldand CPAs do a great job of
protecting their clients andgoing behind the curtain and
they all seem really, reallysmart and conservative.
And so I seem really reallysmart and conservative and so I
(32:50):
don't know how would you goabout differentiating CPAs?
Speaker 3 (32:53):
That is such a good question because I get asked a
lot and I think my kind of valuethat I bring to the table is
the defense.
I got a text from a person thatI represented.
They had a practice up in LA 10years ago over 10 years ago and
(33:14):
I got a text.
I'm interviewing.
I couldn't find you, I don'tknow.
I lost your number and I reallylike the direct way that you
were telling me and I remember Istarted every single audit case
with.
Best case scenario is this thisis your worst case scenario.
Everything in between is a win.
That was my line every singleone of them.
I said I want you to know whatto expect and it was very direct
(33:36):
.
I'm not protecting you.
I'm telling you, I'm veryhonest with you, what's bad,
what's good and what's ugly.
I think so.
She comes and she's an attorney, but she comes after so many
years and follow you and thequestion is why she's got so
many different CPAs that theycan use.
Why would they come back afterso many years?
(33:57):
And I've had an experience withthem and I feel like one of the
pieces that really makes a hugedifference for a business owner
is when you talk to them theydon't need sugar coating like I.
I might be very rough sometimeswith people.
Maybe again I tell him I tellmy stuff.
Listen, you guys forget I'm.
I was born in a communistcountry and sometimes it just
(34:18):
comes very rough right, but yougotta be in countries.
We're very direct and sometimesvery direct you got it I prefer
that.
Speaker 2 (34:25):
I'm from there too.
I like very direct because it'sI'm to the point, yeah, so yeah
, I.
Speaker 3 (34:32):
My opinion is that a business owner who is after an
roi, who goes beyond the bottomline, really can see that they
appreciate somebody who can bereally transparent, like caring.
It doesn't mean that you'redirect, you you're not caring
and you don't care about theirbusiness and their outcome, but
you can be so direct and you canactually see and paint the
(34:55):
picture of what's coming If theydon't do something or if they
do something.
That is my opinion.
The serious business owner goesthat way.
A business owner who isbuilding one foot in, one foot
out, like borderline with theiremployees probably they're just.
I can't communicate as wellwith W2 employees because I
don't identify as well with them.
(35:15):
Right, and they want it all butthey don't want to be there.
They don't have the grit manytimes and there's nothing wrong
with a W2 employee, but the gritand the hard work to build a
business builds something in youthat nothing else can Maybe
having kids, everyone isdifferent.
I'm still working on the kidspart.
Speaker 2 (35:34):
Yeah, the W-2s are interesting because some of you
have you know, sometimes we havethese W-2s that are making
millions of dollars of W-2s, andthen you have a business owner
is making a half a milliondollars.
As a business owner, theirmindsets are completely
different Absolutely a half amillion dollars.
As a business owner, theirmindsets are completely
different.
Their risk tolerance isdifferent.
(35:55):
But at the end of the day, theyneed you, they need an elite
tax advisor, they need duediligence, they need a network
of support that they don't evenknow what's out there.
And interviews like this givebusiness owners or highly paid
W-2s insight into the back endof the tax planning world, into
the tax geek world, so they canlearn a little bit more.
Because everyone's trying toget to the same result.
Everyone wants to be moreefficient, everyone wants less
(36:18):
risk, and so we'd like to dothese podcasts and we'd like to
introduce the most elite taxadvisors in the world to our
community so that people can geta real taste of how hard it is
to be a tax geek.
We're dealing with a tax codethat no one knows how many pages
there are.
Clients expect you to knowevery change, every line, every
strategy in there.
(36:38):
It's impossible to do, and theonly way we know how to do it is
eating the self, one bite at atime, by building the largest
independent peer reviewcommunity of tax geeks.
So it's good to have one CPAand attorney review a strategy.
It's better to have 600 eliteCPAs and attorneys review a
strategy, give their feedbackand then have a tremendous level
of confidence of no, thisstrategy has been peer reviewed.
(37:00):
We know exactly what the IRS isgoing to do.
We're comfortable signing thetax return and we're comfortable
because we have at least 10,50,000 hours of audit experience
, or tax code experience, whichgives us a way to look at this
tax return, look at the strategyand ask meaningful questions
and give meaningful advice,versus someone who has no
experience of audit, noexperience of tax court, never
(37:24):
read the tax code, look at astrategy and go.
That seems a little risky to me.
Based on what?
Based on the feeling in yourtummy?
No, so bottom line is thebusiness owner is the one we're
trying to protect.
Let's help them complete theirvirtual family office teams.
If they have that liquidityevent where they have that
(37:45):
capital, whether they're earninga half million, a million, two
million a year, let's make themmore efficient.
Let's help them achieve theirgoals, keeping that money within
the hands of transparentbusiness owners who are
(38:08):
efficient, who are being audited, where every dollar, we see
where it's actually goingbecause they're being audited
and they're staying in ourcommunity.
We're following the code andreally put people in a much
better place.
So I want you to leave ouraudience with one final thing,
maybe one piece of advice.
You built a very tremendousbusiness.
(38:28):
You're super successful.
Something interesting piece ofadvice you might want to give
our audience.
It could be about anything.
Speaker 3 (38:35):
I'll identify with the business owner.
I know most of the CPAs.
I think my life's journey istied to the business owner and
that's those are the people thatI serve the most.
And I think one of the piecesthat I tell everyone is anything
that you choose to do, you haveto have enough understanding.
Don't dismiss things just basedon the comfort zone.
(38:56):
Many times, a lot of peopledismiss something new, dismiss
the AI, the VRs.
We dismiss a tax strategy, evena piece of tax code that exists
, just because it's somethingnew.
We just don't know enough aboutit.
And what I tell my kids and Ihave three of them very
different I would tell all mybusiness owners, because they're
(39:18):
very much the same sometimes isgive yourself the benefit of
the doubt, expand your mind tojust a little bit so you can
have a basic understandingbefore you can dismiss something
, because that could go a longway, anything that comes up.
We're seeing right now such ashift in the economy, such a
shift in how things are beingdone, and if we don't allow
(39:42):
ourselves to think a little bitoutside the box, to go into the
unknown, to go into theuncomfortable for just a tiny
moment, so we can have thatassurance and then you can trust
your gut, because your gut isgoing to say no to something
that doesn't know and has neverseen before.
But if you give it enough to atleast have a basic overview and
(40:03):
understanding of what's goingon, it doesn't matter.
It could be a tax strategy, itcould be an AI, it could be
giving my son a phone the samething, it's exactly the same
concept, and I feel like once weget that basic understanding
that, hey, it just opens up adoor of curiosity.
If we are really in tune towhat we're trying to do and we
know the goal, then it opens adoor for us.
Speaker 2 (40:25):
Okay, tell me more and then you go into the details
.
If you've been tracking thisconversation between Laura and I
, this is really the history ofthis whole conversation.
Laura started she liked numbers.
The numbers led to math.
The math led to accounting.
The accounting led to taxstrategies.
The tax strategy led tocreating massive value for
(40:46):
business owners and all of asudden, she's created this
incredible life, incrediblebusiness, where she's created
massive value for these businessowners, got compensated fairly
for it, and now we're sharingthis, these incredible insights,
with our audience.
Laura, thank you so much for ourtime.
Your clients are extremelylucky to have you.
Your future clients, who aremeeting you right now on this
(41:09):
podcast, are extremely lucky tobe meeting you and I'm sure
they're going to be reaching outto you.
And it's really our pleasureand our privilege to have you as
an elite member of the DueDiligence Project and have you
just be part of our community,and I think our audience today
has realized why we're soexcited to have you as part of
our community.
So thank you so much for yourtime today.
Speaker 3 (41:28):
Yeah, thank you so much, Alex, and I do.
I think one of the things, likeI said, I appreciate is look
for the relationship, because AIcomes, ai goes, it gets built,
vr will come and I think therelationship will still stay,
because as long as we're human,unless we lose that, the
relationships will matter, andwho's got your back back is
always going to be a human.
Speaker 2 (41:46):
That's a great point to finish on.
Relationships are so important.
I'm so grateful for ourrelationship and that's a great
point to leave on and for all ofour audience to take home.
So thank you so much.
This was a great meeting andlet's have a great day and great
rest of your week.
Speaker 1 (42:03):
Thanks so much.
That's all for this episode ofthe Due Diligence Project
podcast.
Thanks so much.
That's all for this episode ofthe Due Diligence Project
podcast.
Be sure to visitduediligenceprojectcom to access
the resources we have availablefor qualified CPAs and family
office leaders.
Our mission at the DueDiligence Project is to help you
deliver more significance andvalue to your very best clients,
while shifting your traditionalpractice into the firm of the
(42:26):
future.
Want to know how elite tax advisors win the due
diligence game to satisfy ultrahigh net worth clients who
expect the very best.
Welcome to the Due DiligenceProject podcast, where you get a
chance to learn from the eliteCPAs, virtual family office
professionals and taxspecialists who are doing just
that.
We'll uncover their insidersecrets on how they are
(00:25):
dominating their competition,vetting new ideas and
supercharging their duediligence process to deliver
extraordinary results.
Bringing his 25 plus years ofexperience with top tax
professionals across the country, please welcome your host, alex
Sunkin, please welcome yourhost, Alex Sunkin.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Welcome to the Due Diligence Project podcast.
Today we have a special guest,Laura DeHannes.
She's an amazing elite CPA, anelite member of the Due
Diligence Project.
What we want to do today isjust really dive into the world
of elite tax planning and seewhat's really behind the curtain
.
Laura, how long have you been aCPA?
Speaker 3 (01:06):
Gosh, that's a good question.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
12, 14 years 12, 14 years, and what made you even
decide to become a CPA in thefirst place?
Do you remember?
Speaker 3 (01:17):
Yeah, that's such a good question.
I have to tell you kind of afunny story.
My parents wanted me to be adoctor.
If you're not a doctor or anattorney, you're just not good
enough for the breed that theywere having.
They wanted me to go to medicalschool.
Then I said I'm going to goaway and never come back.
And so what do you want to do?
I really liked accounting.
I went to a very special highschool.
(01:37):
I went to competitions inaccounting when I was like 16
years old.
So I used to love looking atall the receipts when they were
buying a piece of property,looking at all the deeds.
I was the geek little kid goingthrough the paperwork and kind
of shushed away.
So I think I was an accountantbefore I knew that I want to be
an accountant In my mind.
(01:57):
I just loved to dig into thepaperwork and I think it was
just a discovery what can youfind?
For me it was curiosity whatcan you find?
I wanted to become a CPA.
I got like the exact decision Iremember when I decided to be a
CPA, when I was just anaccountant with the schooling,
and this person had a loan andthe bank refused the financial
(02:17):
statements because it's notsigned by CPA.
I got so angry and I'm likethis makes no sense.
I'm getting the CPA, I don'tcare what.
How.
Like it's, this is a done deal.
It was just an angry momentwhere the bank refused something
because of certification that Ididn't place a whole lot of
value and I don't want to say Idon't place value.
(02:38):
It has value because you haveto go through a refining process
which, if you want to be thebest in your field, you got to
do and go to the certification,just because it has to be.
It has to be there if you wantto do what you want to do.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
So you started, you knew you love numbers.
You were just a numbers person,numbers just you saw numbers.
They just created energy inyour head.
Same with me.
Did you ever realize, when youfirst fell in love with numbers
and accounting, that you wouldbe able to use that unique skill
set that God gave you to helpso many people save so much
(03:11):
money in unnecessary expenses,taxes, and be able to use that
money to benefit theircommunities, their families,
charities, all these differentthings?
That really is the result ofall the work that you've put in
all these different things.
Speaker 3 (03:26):
That really is the result of all the work that
you've put in.
Yes and no, I think I'm avisionary by trade.
I had like visions and I don'tget necessarily depressed or, oh
, this didn't get to happen, I'mnever going to try again, like
it just fuels an energy to goagain and again and never give
up.
But I think the story that wasso fascinating for me my dad was
in.
He had several businesses.
He was a serial entrepreneur.
(03:47):
It doesn't matter how manytimes he got pushed down, he
would start again, he would dosomething new.
And when I was in high schoolhe lost everything, like
everything, and he got into anew industry and even though I
didn't realize it at the momentwhat had happened to him, but
running something outside of hisfield, outside of his comfort
(04:08):
zone.
He was in the auto industry andout of the bleak and in the
manufacturing industry, andmanufacturing can be.
It's all about contracts, it'sall about delivery, it's about
negotiations ahead of time.
You got to know your trade alittle bit.
So I think they got a littlebit ahead of themselves and lost
everything and he got very sick.
He was given one, I think onein a million chance to survive
(04:31):
because of his pancreas.
So wanting to change that, Ithink that was like trying to
change something by doingsomething for other people.
Can you get the differentoutcome If they would have known
what comes ahead?
So I think my journey was notonly to, it was taxes.
Yes, that's the love I probably, if I wouldn't have to do
(04:51):
anything, I would still read taxcode just for fun.
It's just so cool.
I love court cases.
I'm like duh, what were youthinking that type of thing?
You didn't hire the rightpeople.
But at the same time, the ideathat you can change the
trajectory of somebody's life,that if you would have known
ahead of time that you can buildthis company and exit tax-free
or exit this or people knowabout things too late and I
(05:15):
think for me it was I hate to betoo late in the game, so I
would rather lose ahead of thetime of hey, the AI right now,
right, with tax strategy.
We were doing tax strategybefore tax strategy was a term.
I was calling it what-ifscenarios.
So I think the trajectory that,the possibilities that you can
(05:37):
have by having access to thatinformation and what you can do,
is what I'm looking for is hey,giving you the options that I
feel like I didn't have or thatmy family didn't have, and I
want to give my kids options tohave an open horizon.
This is a don't take things atface value, right.
Then the savings is an add-onIf you have a good strategist.
It's not just hey, someone'sgoing to plug in your tax return
(05:58):
, get all this.
They will give you options thatyou feel like, hey, I know the
road I'm taking and can see alittle bit ahead of where you're
going.
If you go this route, this iswhat's happening.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
So, but that's our audience can already feel
passion in your voice about howexcited you are.
You know, look, people don'treally can't really relate to
tax geeks like us, because whenthey first, if they ever, even
look at the tax code, mostpeople have never actually read
the US tax code.
And if you just try reading itfor three seconds you'll
understand why.
(06:31):
But then some of us who are taxgeeks, when we look at it and
get through the first fewminutes and dive in deeper, you
see there's a rhyme and reasonto it.
And then when we realize thatwe can actually use this code
and navigate this code like apuzzle and help solve people's
problems using this unique skillset that 90 plus percent of the
(06:51):
population just doesn't have,doesn't even want.
You know, for those of youwho've never read the tax code,
google the US tax code and startreading it and then remember
this conversation.
Remember, laura is a tax geekwho loves navigating this tax
code and finding uniquesolutions and bring it to her
clients.
Those are the type of peoplethat the Due Diligence Project
(07:13):
searches for the tax geeks whoare elite at what they do, who
love bringing value to theirclients, and Laura is just a
great example of one of ourelite members.
So let's talk about your lifebefore, because you were a tax
geek before you met the duediligence project and you were
doing puzzle solving for yourclients before that and you're
still doing it now.
(07:33):
So let's talk about your lifebefore we found you and you
found us.
And now, afterwards, what'schanged?
Speaker 3 (07:39):
I'll tell you a little bit like it goes back to
the vision that you have foryourself.
And I have to go back and tellyou a little story.
I've done a lot of audits faceto face and the reason why I
loved audits is because I get tokind of be an investigator,
right, I got to go in.
I did only face to face auditswith revenue officers where they
wanted to see your property orclaiming X, y and Z.
(08:00):
You have obsolete inventory offive million.
Let's see where's the obsoleteinventory.
So I would have to walk throughthe facility or buildings or
properties with the revenueofficers and it is very
interesting that when you gothrough the whole scenario and
you're trying to find outanswers that nobody has Okay, so
(08:22):
what?
You realize when you go throughthat process that the business
owner is alone.
So I had this exclusivitycontract with the people that I
did audits.
They were not my people.
In case you wonder how did youget so many audits?
Cause I've done more than 3000of them.
They were alone, they hadnobody on their speed dial Okay,
which is such an amazing pieceand they had no support.
(08:43):
They said we don't know.
The accountant did this, thebookkeeper did this?
What we don't know?
We were just told by X, y and Zand they did not know.
I think those are the momentswhen I valued the relationship
more than what you could do forpeople.
And what I like about DDP is Ican call Alex.
So I am like I'm very real If Ican have somebody on speed dial
(09:06):
and I say you know what, if Ineed something, it's going to
get done.
I might be imperfect, you mightbe imperfect, things might not
go as planned all the time, buthaving that relationship where
you can build that trust, thathey, you got my back, I got your
back is really what I waslooking for.
So I only invest inrelationships at this point
because I believe that ifsomebody is working with us,
(09:30):
like a business owner comes towork with us, we don't do
projects Like I don't do.
It doesn't matter how big it isor how small it is.
I want the relationship andwant to build on it, and that's
exactly what DDP, for example.
We have a relationship we cancall Alex, we can call Brian, we
have something.
Hey, I'll make an introductionhere and I like the idea that
(09:50):
there's.
I love peer review.
Right, because I have my angle.
You have your angle.
Everybody comes with adifferent angle and if
everybody's honest andtransparent about, hey, this is
what could go wrong.
This is that it's veryproductive to have all around
view on any type of piece of law, so I think that's my number
(10:12):
one would be relationship Like.
I'm a relationship person, soyeah, maybe because I'm a female
.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
It's awesome hearing you say that, because it really
we built this.
Sometimes you build somethingand you don't even know what you
built and then later on youlook back and you're like we
were trying to build this and webuilt something even bigger and
better, because maybe God camein and oh, I like what you're
doing.
Let me make it even better thanyour original design.
And what we have now is that,and really the key to our
(10:41):
success is finding passionate,elite people like you and
building this incredibleinfrastructure.
And the idea was let's build ateam of specialists and let's
build a network of elite CPAsand together everyone's a tax
geek in the group and we're allworking for one another and
we're all working really toprotect our clients and to bring
(11:03):
value to our clients.
So one half is a bunch of eliteCPAs we're doing to do
independent peer review, duediligence, and the other group
are the specialists we're tryingto design the strategies and
we're all looking at the sametax code, the same code that the
IRS is looking at, and we'resaying let's get all of the top
smartest people in the countryin our group and if you're an
(11:25):
IRS agent, come on over, look atwhat we're doing and let's all
make sure that everything thatwe're doing is super clean
within the black and white linesof the tax code, so we can
deliver value to clients, sothat the business owner can be
confident and have visibilityand not just be by themselves
with a tax code they don'tunderstand, without being able
(11:46):
to make that next step, because,at the end of the day, the
business owner is what's drivingthe economy Absolutely, and if
we provide value to the businessowner like a family office type
structure, they're going to bebetter.
So the due diligence projectthis year is almost like a
family office for elite CPAs andreally what we've built is like
an Amazon type of platform fortax geeks, so that all the tax
(12:08):
geeks in the country can come indo their independent peer
review.
When you're reviewing a strategy, it's already probably been
reviewed by two, 300, 400 otherCPAs, but that's not good enough
for you.
You're going to have to reviewit yourself.
So you're going to take thenotes that we've accumulated.
Reduce your time by a factor of10, look at our notes.
Did we make any mistakes?
Did you find anything?
You're going to look at the taxcode.
(12:30):
Was there something we missed.
If we missed something, you'regoing to let us know.
So the more eyeballs we have ona strategy, the more confidence
we have that it's good, or wefind something that's wrong with
it that we have either resolve.
Let's talk about the value thatyou're able to really bring to
(12:51):
your clients as a result of this.
Have you even calculated howmuch total tax savings you
brought to your clients over thelast 12 months?
Speaker 3 (13:00):
We haven't finished last year, but I think in 2023,
we had $11.375 million in taxsavings.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
That was from the times we could calculate it,
that's a lot of money $11.375million, that's a lot of money.
Speaker 3 (13:16):
We didn't calculate for forever, but it's just the
last couple of years when weactually were intentional.
And one of the things that Ilike to see and it is really I
have to put myself in a businessowner's shoes because it's
almost you get an attorney whenyou sell a company.
Let's go through a story Likeyou have a liquidity event and
you're selling your company.
You could go through a broker,you could have X, y and Z and
(13:38):
depending on who you get on thetransition, on that experience,
your value could beexponentially more when you get
out of the exit than if you justgo hey, I got a broker, I had a
business attorney, they'regoing to check all the T's, make
sure every I's dotted,everything is done, it's all
clean, you got your cash, theygot the business, and it's the
(13:59):
same liquidity event that canyield two absolutely different
results.
And the reason why is becauseof the people that you involve
in that transition or atransaction.
I don't think it's just thetransaction, I think it takes
place over a number of monthsand years.
And this is my favorite.
My favorite is exits.
I love business exits for allthe reasons possible, because it
(14:20):
is probably the most beautifuldance between tax, legal and
investments.
If that is the only place whereyou can merge all of them,
right, because if you get aninheritance, it's just not the
same.
You're not going to have thesame mix.
It's the most beautiful dancethat you can imagine.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
Let's discuss this for a second, because why do
these capital gain transactions,these exit business sales?
I would say, when I think ofthat, I would say 90% of those
are not tax efficient right.
Speaker 3 (14:51):
I think it's a higher .
Speaker 2 (14:52):
I think it's a higher I don't know why, but the
business owners that arecreating these 30, 40, 100
million billion dollar, $10billion companies.
These are not dumb people, butthey're not tax geeks.
And then they bring in WallStreet.
Who are they going to bring in?
Goldman Sachs, jp Morgan,morgan Stanley?
Then they have the others right, those are elite M&A brokers,
(15:16):
right, but they're not tax geeks.
So they're going to come in,they're going to charge their
fees, they're going to set it up, they're going to find the
buyer and next thing, you'regoing to have 30, 40% tax bills
because you have the businessowner, you have Goldman Sachs,
jp Morgan, you have theattorneys, also not tax geeks.
How many hours of all of theseentities spent with audit, with
(15:41):
tax court?
How much experience do theyhave with audit and tax court?
How many hours?
Probably less than five.
They don't know how to commenton tax strategy versus when they
make you or a tax advisor atthe top of that food chain,
which represents 30, 40% of thatsales price.
And all of a sudden, you'rehelping this client sell this
(16:03):
asset in a 1% tax bracket ordefer the taxes 30 years in the
future or put them in a negativetax bracket.
All of a sudden, you're taking30, 40% of the value of the sale
.
Let's say it's a billion dollarcompany.
That's three to $400 millionthat a tax advisor can bring to
the table that a Goldman Sachsperson, jp Morgan person or an
(16:26):
experienced attorney has no ideahow to do.
Speaker 3 (16:29):
Yeah, and it's interesting.
Our people, we do the smallbusiness owners, and I want it
to be applicable to them.
They're probably not going tosell for a billion dollars.
They will.
Yeah, you never know.
You're right.
Let's just not bring inflationon the game.
We're trying to be positivetoday.
They're not going to discussDoge.
Speaker 2 (16:47):
There are some business owners that benefit
from inflation, so let's justAlways.
Speaker 3 (16:51):
There's always someone who benefits from
anything, including war and allthe other things.
But coming back down, so let'ssay let's make it something
simple, okay, because we have alot of people in the 45, 55
million kind of exit range.
So that's like the peopleanywhere from 40 to about 100
million.
It's a really good range.
Someone can build something andexit.
I have to commend the effortsof a business owner because
coming in and building something, it requires so much resilience
(17:12):
.
I think it's the media and Ithink it's the kind of the old
school fashion CPAs that werelike no, you should do this.
And they were like pounding onthe business owner's head you
make money, you should pay tax,and we've heard that over and
over over the years.
Or charging minimum fees andthis like people don't want to
discuss about fees.
Charging $3,000 to do planningfor a year and doing preparation
(17:40):
.
It is impossible.
And I just got somebody.
I talked to somebody last night.
They're in LA and like justhere in the top Palisades area
and they're like it's impossible.
How can they charge this whenyou have an attorney and a
doctor and that they're having abusiness and you're charging
that fee?
Something doesn't match up andit's impossible to provide the
value.
So number one is making surethat people know, and the media,
(18:02):
like I think just seeing ads isnot good enough.
I think the business ownershould hear organic people, like
a conversation, like you and Iwould have a conversation.
I would have a conversationlike a real conversation of a
business owner say, okay, youknow what, these are the people
that I need, right, it's, and itdoesn't come.
Paying the fee is just part ofthe game.
(18:23):
Like, I pay fees.
I've had coaching, likehundreds of 1000s of dollars in
coaching that I've done over theyears.
And I'm not saying this because, like, we just need the people
and I might not have known orcome to the understanding that I
need to learn some things toget me to the next level and if
I don't pay the price, I mightnot pay enough attention to it
(18:44):
and it doesn't have to do withyou've got to have the advisors.
So my point is you've got tohave the advisors and I think
it's the overall kind of stateof the economy that we're not
educating the small businessowner that, hey, you should have
some people.
I call this a three-legged stool.
I say you should have a goodfinancial advisor who does
investments for you, investmentsthat could be multiple people.
You choose right, you shouldhave a tax advisor right and you
(19:08):
should have a good attorneythat protects you, that
understands the state law.
So, coming back to the peopleare not educated.
That's why they don't havenecessarily what it takes to hey
, I need these people to help mein an exit.
I think that the second pieceto that is the people who have
money.
Listen, I have business ownerswith 30, 40, $50 million net
worth and they don't knowprivate banks exist, like I have
(19:29):
no idea what that is.
So you go top morgan at theprivate bank at jp.
Morgan has all the people thatyou just mentioned.
They have an mna specialist,they have the attorney
specialist.
They don't have a taxstrategist in their team.
Yeah, and it's a private bank.
Speaker 2 (19:43):
it's crazy when we first started doing what we're
doing.
Our holding company is calledthe virtual family office hub
vfo hub and what we do is duediligence.
So the due diligence project isinside of the virtual family
office hub and the original ideawas exactly what you're talking
about right now.
Instead of building familyoffices for billionaires, let's
(20:07):
build them for people worth 20,30, 40, $50 million.
Let's custom design the familyoffices so they don't cost
$250,000 a year, where they canmake one phone call.
Who should be the head of thatfamily office?
In our model, it should betheir tax advisor.
In our model, we've beenbuilding this community for over
(20:28):
20 years and we've been usinghundreds of CPA firms and law
firms to peer review.
The top specialists, the topbankers, the top resources, the
top M&A people all thesedifferent people mostly across
income tax planning, capitalgains planning, cost reduction
planning, obviously, financialservices.
But the idea was to find thevery best resources in all these
(20:50):
areas so that a CPA could buildtheir own family office using
Lego pieces, where the bestattorney and that specialty is
not living next door across thestreet or they're also a dad on
the soccer team.
They are in New York and you'repracticing in California and
you have access to the New Yorkattorney, you have access to
(21:11):
Florida attorney, you haveaccess to the specialist in
Minnesota who just lovesMinnesota.
He's never leaving Minnesota.
So if he's never leavingMinnesota and you're in Oregon,
how do you get the Minnesota guyto help?
Well, we have technology thatbinds us all together.
So the combination oftechnology, the combination of
this whole world, is flat.
(21:32):
Now, right, we're able to buildvirtual family offices not local
family offices, but virtualfamily offices with the very
best resources in the country,and the head of those family
offices is their tax advisor.
So imagine you as a tax advisor.
You bring in the M&A people,you bring in the bankers, the
attorneys, and everyone worksthrough you, and now it's a team
(21:55):
.
Now everyone's on the same page.
The client just has oneconnection Because, really, when
the client brings in their ownbanker, their own advisor, their
own attorney, all these people,they all need to be organized
like a team, like they need acoach.
Okay, you're a new player in theLakers?
Well, the coach is going toshow you our plays on offense
and defense so you can play withLeBron James and Luka Doncic
(22:17):
and everyone can actually looklike a team as opposed to hey,
we're a bunch of instrumentplayers, we're getting together,
we're going to riff it up alittle bit, because that's how
the traditional planning works.
The business owner brings intheir own people, everyone's
riffing it up and it sounds likecrap.
It doesn't sound good.
But organizing everyone as ateam under a virtual family
(22:38):
office structure and that's veryeasy to do when you start with
tax, because those other playersdon't know the tax
ramifications and the taxramifications on an asset sale,
we're talking 30%, 40% of thevalue of the asset price.
That is ROI.
If we give that away, it's goneforever.
If we keep it, that's immediateROI.
(22:59):
So wait for the sale before youstart investing in your real
estate portfolio.
Become tax efficient first,because that 30, 40% it's going
to be hard for you to make downthe road.
Oh, laura, I just sold mycompany for 40 million dollars.
We're going to have a 15million dollar tax bill and I
want you to help me to invest inthe proceeds.
(23:21):
Well, you could have avoidedthat 15 million dollar tax bill
if you called me beforehand.
Speaker 3 (23:25):
Yeah, absolutely.
That's such a great questionbecause it's more proactive than
anything else.
So remember, I want to not betoo late.
Like too late is not goodenough.
I think you could save so muchby not being too late, and I
think you and I had someconversations on this and I
think the reason why I getattracted to all the private
banks and all the scenariobecause ultimately I think the
(23:46):
virtual family office is theideal right, so even as a CPA
firm, that we have so manymoving parts and we have so much
compliance and I think it'salways sometimes it's just, it's
just a weight like it's thatkind of lays at the bottom and
it makes it harder to ascend, todo anything else, just because
there's just so much complianceis the busy work.
That kind of drains you and putsyou and keeps you down many
(24:08):
times, but at the same time it'sa process.
A lot of people I think smallbusiness owners are very easily
overwhelmed because they aredoing so many things.
We're doing a lot of things andrunning a business is hard,
depending what you have.
You're running multiple teams,you've got a, you might have R&D
, you might do all these otherthings that are happening behind
(24:28):
the scenes.
So the idea of a virtual familyoffice, I find it so
overwhelming.
For most business owners itdoesn't matter.
I don't know if it matters somuch the wealth, but it matters
like what's your role they placein the operating company.
Speaker 2 (24:42):
I think the key to what I think the key to the
business owner is they alreadyknow the successful business
owner, just like the successfulcoach of a team.
They know the key to winning isthe people Recruiting the right
athletes, recruiting the rightpeople on your team.
I don't care if your businessis a CPA firm or a manufacturing
(25:03):
firm.
If you hired the wrong peopleon your team, it's going to fail
.
So this idea of building aworld-class team that's going to
lead to victories and winningchampionship trophies like I
have these $3 plastic trophiesbehind me for flag football you
can buy them, but it's more funto win them, and in order to win
(25:24):
them you have to build anamazing team.
And so the challenge is thebusiness owner doesn't realize
what they need on the taxplanning side, so they use a
shotgun approach let's just geta bunch of advisors, or we're
overwhelmed.
Let's just figure this outourselves, because we don't
trust anybody.
And what they're ultimatelytrying to do is they're trying
(25:44):
to create their best version ofdue diligence.
The problem is they're notqualified to do due diligence on
tax strategies, just like I'mnot qualified to do analysis of
a software engineer because Idon't have any software
engineering experience, I haveto kind of use my gut.
And so once people are exposedto the due diligence project,
which is like a peer reviewsystem, like Amazon and Netflix
(26:05):
does peer review movies andbooks and tchotchkes you want to
buy on Amazon we have a peerreview.
But our audience are the taxgeek, cpas, and they're doing
the peer review on the biggesttax geeks in the world, which
are the specialists who aredesigning these different tax
strategies, and the common thingthat we all have is the tax
code.
So our idea is let's havehundreds and hundreds of
(26:27):
independent CPAs reviewing thesame tax strategies, find the
very, very best ones and thenalso find the very, very best
resources.
So now Laura, who plugs in thedue diligence project, can
basically pick and choose fromthe very best tax attorneys,
very best specialists.
Build her own virtual familyoffice and that virtual family
office is like the S&P 500.
Who's the best attorney in thatspace this year?
(26:49):
It might be a different firmnext year because we're the S&P
500.
We're like Amazon.
Who's on the front page ofAmazon?
It's different products fromfive years ago to today.
Every product is being rankedand rated and tested and voted
on by our audience, which is anongoing, never-stopping peer
(27:10):
review, which is Due diligence,so that Laura can bring you the
very best resources, so that shecan take last year's 11 point
whatever in savings and thisyear let's make it 20.
Speaker 3 (27:22):
Yeah, I'm not pursuing necessarily just the
tax saving.
It is so interesting.
I had the masterclass for yearend 2024.
And during the masterclass,what I presented to the business
owners was it's not about thestrategies.
It's not always about thestrategies, because you can take
that great strategy and not beefficient for you.
(27:42):
So, knowing the goal that youhave.
Now, for some people, like wehave, we classify the strategies
in tax reduction and taxdeferral strategies Very, very
simple and, depending who youare, one might work better than
the other or we don't haveaccess to one versus the other.
So, knowing the goal that you'retrying to achieve, for example,
(28:05):
I'm going to be in business fortwo more years, or I'm going to
exit in three years, or I'mready for the right offer to pop
in and I'm out right.
Different strategies can beyielding different results for
different people, because somepeople might have different
portfolios.
We have people who are stillbuilding even though they're in
their 60s.
I'm building.
I'm not seeing myself outanytime soon.
(28:26):
We have other people in their40s.
They're ready to get out.
I feel like it's this as anadvisor.
So the business owners kind oflike dilemma is not to follow
the shiny object, to just go forthe strategy.
I might tell somebody this isnot the right strategy for you,
even though we'll give you this,because if you tell me this is
your goal for next year, it willdefeat the purpose.
Speaker 2 (28:48):
What you're talking about is marrying the fact
pattern with the combination ofa hundred different strategies
which are all different types ofdeductions.
Some work for W-2s, some don'twork for W-2s.
Does Chad GPT know whichdeductions work for W-2s versus,
k-1s versus?
Do they know that yet?
I don't know.
(29:08):
In 10 years it might know it.
You know what I mean.
Depends on how good theprogrammers are.
We've seen the average CPA'sbrain.
I've interviewed thousands ofCPAs so we know where the
average CPA is and if theaverage CPA programs chat GPT,
chat GPT is going to be garbagetax planning.
If you or me or the top CPAs inthe country all start
(29:30):
programming chat GPT in 10 years, it'll be pretty good.
And my question is how are weprogramming?
So I think what's going on inthe future is you're going to
have these elite tax advisorslike Laura plugged into elite
resources like the Due DiligenceProject, ai, to further
(29:51):
separate ourselves from ourcompetition.
That really is not a tax geek.
Has not dove into the tax code,does not understand the
minutiae in the tax code,because One of the things that
the average business owner doesnot know is how to differentiate
an elite tax advisor from anaverage tax advisor.
Speaker 3 (30:12):
That's a good question, alex.
I'll stop you on that, I'llinterrupt you.
How?
Okay, because you, in yourfamily, you've got business
owners, right, you've gotbusiness owners.
So how do you differentiate?
Speaker 2 (30:29):
You know what?
Asking me that question isprobably better than me asking
you that question, because Iprobably interviewed way more
CPAs than you have, becauseyou're a CPA and my clients are
CPAs.
I'll tell you what I can tell,because this is all I do is talk
to CPAs.
I can tell very, very quickly,with the level of confidence
(30:49):
when we start talking about taxstrategies, there is a massive.
The difference between the top0.01% of CPAs and the average
CPA is the same difference asthe top basketball players who
are at the NBA all-star gamethan the guys you see at the
pickup games at the YMCA.
So people who think that CPAsare very similar, they're not
(31:12):
similar at all.
It's very, very important toget the best ones.
You have to get people who arepassionate and really the
difference in the guy at theYMCA and the guy who's on the
NBA All-Star game is that guy inthe NBA All-Star game.
He just outworked the YMCA guy.
He probably put in 100,000hours more and you don't see
(31:34):
that.
It's like seeing the tip of theiceberg.
So you can see Laura, she seemsreally smart, she seems really
bright, but let's look under thesurface.
How much work has she put inthe tax code.
How much work.
There's so much work behind thescenes that you don't see.
Tax code how much work.
There's so much work behind thescenes that you don't see.
But it pops up in conversationsbecause that energy pops up.
I just don't think the averagebusiness owner will ever be able
(31:57):
to differentiate until they seethe bottom line.
How much tax do I owe at theend of the year?
Speaker 3 (32:03):
Yeah, it's the ROI.
Speaker 2 (32:06):
So they would have to take their tax return to a
million different CPAs and belike what would it look like
with you, you, you and you?
But if they took it to a duediligence project member and
said I'm making a million tothis year, what can you do for
me Versus an average CPA?
Basically, our network of CPAswould run circles around not
just average CPAs but elite CPAs.
(32:27):
So I think that's a reallygreat question, laura.
I think it's very difficult forbusiness owners to just to know
the answer to that question,because the tax geek world is
just like such a private worldand CPAs do a great job of
protecting their clients andgoing behind the curtain and
they all seem really, reallysmart and conservative.
And so I seem really reallysmart and conservative and so I
(32:50):
don't know how would you goabout differentiating CPAs?
Speaker 3 (32:53):
That is such a good question because I get asked a
lot and I think my kind of valuethat I bring to the table is
the defense.
I got a text from a person thatI represented.
They had a practice up in LA 10years ago over 10 years ago and
(33:14):
I got a text.
I'm interviewing.
I couldn't find you, I don'tknow.
I lost your number and I reallylike the direct way that you
were telling me and I remember Istarted every single audit case
with.
Best case scenario is this thisis your worst case scenario.
Everything in between is a win.
That was my line every singleone of them.
I said I want you to know whatto expect and it was very direct
(33:36):
.
I'm not protecting you.
I'm telling you, I'm veryhonest with you, what's bad,
what's good and what's ugly.
I think so.
She comes and she's an attorney, but she comes after so many
years and follow you and thequestion is why she's got so
many different CPAs that theycan use.
Why would they come back afterso many years?
(33:57):
And I've had an experience withthem and I feel like one of the
pieces that really makes a hugedifference for a business owner
is when you talk to them theydon't need sugar coating like I.
I might be very rough sometimeswith people.
Maybe again I tell him I tellmy stuff.
Listen, you guys forget I'm.
I was born in a communistcountry and sometimes it just
(34:18):
comes very rough right, but yougotta be in countries.
We're very direct and sometimesvery direct you got it I prefer
that.
Speaker 2 (34:25):
I'm from there too.
I like very direct because it'sI'm to the point, yeah, so yeah
, I.
Speaker 3 (34:32):
My opinion is that a business owner who is after an
roi, who goes beyond the bottomline, really can see that they
appreciate somebody who can bereally transparent, like caring.
It doesn't mean that you'redirect, you you're not caring
and you don't care about theirbusiness and their outcome, but
you can be so direct and you canactually see and paint the
(34:55):
picture of what's coming If theydon't do something or if they
do something.
That is my opinion.
The serious business owner goesthat way.
A business owner who isbuilding one foot in, one foot
out, like borderline with theiremployees probably they're just.
I can't communicate as wellwith W2 employees because I
don't identify as well with them.
(35:15):
Right, and they want it all butthey don't want to be there.
They don't have the grit manytimes and there's nothing wrong
with a W2 employee, but the gritand the hard work to build a
business builds something in youthat nothing else can Maybe
having kids, everyone isdifferent.
I'm still working on the kidspart.
Speaker 2 (35:34):
Yeah, the W-2s are interesting because some of you
have you know, sometimes we havethese W-2s that are making
millions of dollars of W-2s, andthen you have a business owner
is making a half a milliondollars.
As a business owner, theirmindsets are completely
different Absolutely a half amillion dollars.
As a business owner, theirmindsets are completely
different.
Their risk tolerance isdifferent.
(35:55):
But at the end of the day, theyneed you, they need an elite
tax advisor, they need duediligence, they need a network
of support that they don't evenknow what's out there.
And interviews like this givebusiness owners or highly paid
W-2s insight into the back endof the tax planning world, into
the tax geek world, so they canlearn a little bit more.
Because everyone's trying toget to the same result.
Everyone wants to be moreefficient, everyone wants less
(36:18):
risk, and so we'd like to dothese podcasts and we'd like to
introduce the most elite taxadvisors in the world to our
community so that people can geta real taste of how hard it is
to be a tax geek.
We're dealing with a tax codethat no one knows how many pages
there are.
Clients expect you to knowevery change, every line, every
strategy in there.
(36:38):
It's impossible to do, and theonly way we know how to do it is
eating the self, one bite at atime, by building the largest
independent peer reviewcommunity of tax geeks.
So it's good to have one CPAand attorney review a strategy.
It's better to have 600 eliteCPAs and attorneys review a
strategy, give their feedbackand then have a tremendous level
of confidence of no, thisstrategy has been peer reviewed.
(37:00):
We know exactly what the IRS isgoing to do.
We're comfortable signing thetax return and we're comfortable
because we have at least 10,50,000 hours of audit experience
, or tax code experience, whichgives us a way to look at this
tax return, look at the strategyand ask meaningful questions
and give meaningful advice,versus someone who has no
experience of audit, noexperience of tax court, never
(37:24):
read the tax code, look at astrategy and go.
That seems a little risky to me.
Based on what?
Based on the feeling in yourtummy?
No, so bottom line is thebusiness owner is the one we're
trying to protect.
Let's help them complete theirvirtual family office teams.
If they have that liquidityevent where they have that
(37:45):
capital, whether they're earninga half million, a million, two
million a year, let's make themmore efficient.
Let's help them achieve theirgoals, keeping that money within
the hands of transparentbusiness owners who are
(38:08):
efficient, who are being audited, where every dollar, we see
where it's actually goingbecause they're being audited
and they're staying in ourcommunity.
We're following the code andreally put people in a much
better place.
So I want you to leave ouraudience with one final thing,
maybe one piece of advice.
You built a very tremendousbusiness.
(38:28):
You're super successful.
Something interesting piece ofadvice you might want to give
our audience.
It could be about anything.
Speaker 3 (38:35):
I'll identify with the business owner.
I know most of the CPAs.
I think my life's journey istied to the business owner and
that's those are the people thatI serve the most.
And I think one of the piecesthat I tell everyone is anything
that you choose to do, you haveto have enough understanding.
Don't dismiss things just basedon the comfort zone.
(38:56):
Many times, a lot of peopledismiss something new, dismiss
the AI, the VRs.
We dismiss a tax strategy, evena piece of tax code that exists
, just because it's somethingnew.
We just don't know enough aboutit.
And what I tell my kids and Ihave three of them very
different I would tell all mybusiness owners, because they're
(39:18):
very much the same sometimes isgive yourself the benefit of
the doubt, expand your mind tojust a little bit so you can
have a basic understandingbefore you can dismiss something
, because that could go a longway, anything that comes up.
We're seeing right now such ashift in the economy, such a
shift in how things are beingdone, and if we don't allow
(39:42):
ourselves to think a little bitoutside the box, to go into the
unknown, to go into theuncomfortable for just a tiny
moment, so we can have thatassurance and then you can trust
your gut, because your gut isgoing to say no to something
that doesn't know and has neverseen before.
But if you give it enough to atleast have a basic overview and
(40:03):
understanding of what's goingon, it doesn't matter.
It could be a tax strategy, itcould be an AI, it could be
giving my son a phone the samething, it's exactly the same
concept, and I feel like once weget that basic understanding
that, hey, it just opens up adoor of curiosity.
If we are really in tune towhat we're trying to do and we
know the goal, then it opens adoor for us.
Speaker 2 (40:25):
Okay, tell me more and then you go into the details
.
If you've been tracking thisconversation between Laura and I
, this is really the history ofthis whole conversation.
Laura started she liked numbers.
The numbers led to math.
The math led to accounting.
The accounting led to taxstrategies.
The tax strategy led tocreating massive value for
(40:46):
business owners and all of asudden, she's created this
incredible life, incrediblebusiness, where she's created
massive value for these businessowners, got compensated fairly
for it, and now we're sharingthis, these incredible insights,
with our audience.
Laura, thank you so much for ourtime.
Your clients are extremelylucky to have you.
Your future clients, who aremeeting you right now on this
(41:09):
podcast, are extremely lucky tobe meeting you and I'm sure
they're going to be reaching outto you.
And it's really our pleasureand our privilege to have you as
an elite member of the DueDiligence Project and have you
just be part of our community,and I think our audience today
has realized why we're soexcited to have you as part of
our community.
So thank you so much for yourtime today.
Speaker 3 (41:28):
Yeah, thank you so much, Alex, and I do.
I think one of the things, likeI said, I appreciate is look
for the relationship, because AIcomes, ai goes, it gets built,
vr will come and I think therelationship will still stay,
because as long as we're human,unless we lose that, the
relationships will matter, andwho's got your back back is
always going to be a human.
Speaker 2 (41:46):
That's a great point to finish on.
Relationships are so important.
I'm so grateful for ourrelationship and that's a great
point to leave on and for all ofour audience to take home.
So thank you so much.
This was a great meeting andlet's have a great day and great
rest of your week.
Speaker 1 (42:03):
Thanks so much.
That's all for this episode ofthe Due Diligence Project
podcast.
Thanks so much.
That's all for this episode ofthe Due Diligence Project
podcast.
Be sure to visitduediligenceprojectcom to access
the resources we have availablefor qualified CPAs and family
office leaders.
Our mission at the DueDiligence Project is to help you
deliver more significance andvalue to your very best clients,
while shifting your traditionalpractice into the firm of the
(42:26):
future.
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