October 30, 2025 • 24 mins
Today, we're diving into the transformative concept of the "family bank" with our guest, Blake Johnson, a recognized estate planning attorney. Blake's approach isn't just about wealth transfer; it's about teaching families how to build generational wealth with intention and prepare their heirs to be responsible stewards of their resources. Through his own journey, Blake discovered that giving children everything can lead to entitlement, which is why he emphasizes the importance of teaching kids the value of hard work and financial literacy. We'll explore how the right financial education can help prevent families from slipping back into poverty and discuss innovative strategies that can foster meaningful relationships while empowering the next generation. Join us as we uncover the principles that can lead to lasting success—not just for individuals but for families as a whole.
Today, we dive into the world of generational wealth with Blake Johnson, a savvy estate planning attorney and creator of the Family Bank method. This episode highlights how we can empower families to build wealth with intention and ensure their children are prepared to manage it wisely. Blake shares his personal journey, illustrating how teaching financial responsibility can transform not just family dynamics but also future generations. We explore the pitfalls of giving kids everything without teaching them the value of hard work, and how a structured approach can prevent cycles of poverty. Join us as we unpack these valuable insights and discover how to create a legacy that lasts!
Blake Johnson, a recognized estate planning attorney, shares his journey and insights into building generational wealth through his innovative 'family bank' method. This concept emerged from Blake's personal experiences, notably when he had to convince his father to hire him after law school. Their partnership led to the realization that financial structures could help families avoid pitfalls in wealth transfer and raise responsible heirs. During our engaging conversation, Blake emphasizes the importance of teaching children financial literacy and instilling values that prevent the cycle of poverty. He compares the successes of families like the Rockefellers, who educate their heirs, against those like the Vanderbilts, whose wealth dissipated due to lack of guidance. Additionally, he discusses the significance of responsibility and creativity in family financial planning. Together, we explore how these principles can transform not only individual families but society as a whole, encouraging listeners to adopt a proactive approach to wealth management and education.
Takeaways:
- Blake Johnson emphasizes that creating generational wealth requires intentional education and preparation for heirs, not just financial gifts.
- The concept of the family bank helps families manage wealth sustainably, teaching kids the value of hard work and responsibility.
- We discussed how financial literacy is often lacking in our education system, contributing to cycles of poverty that can be avoided with proper guidance.
- We learned that successful families pass on values and knowledge, not just money, which helps avoid the pitfalls of entitlement and financial mismanagement.
- Blake shared that creativity in structuring financial agreements can foster better family relationships and teach valuable lessons about money management.
- The podcast highlights that teaching financial responsibility can lead to a more equitable society, where individuals understand the importance of stewardship and accountability.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:40):
Well, hello, everybody, andwelcome to another amazing episode
of Unstoppable Success. I amyour host, Jaclyn Strominger And
today we have an amazingguest, Blake Johnson. And as you
know, on this podcast, we hearfrom amazing business owners, leaders,
and entrepreneurs about theirrise to success and how they help
others also gain thatunstoppable success. So let me just
(01:04):
give you a little bit ofbackground on Blake. And because
he actually, he's a recognizedestate planning attorney, and he's
the creator of your familybank method, which is a legally focused
framework that helps familiesbuild generational wealth with intention,
structure, and sustainability.He has. Blake's legal and business
(01:27):
roots run really deep, withdegrees in finance and law, including
a J.D. and a graduate degreeon comparative law from LSU. And.
And his work is grounded instrategy and real world insight.
He has a podcast, he hasworkshops, and he has a great firm.
And he, Blake, equips hisclients to avoid common pitfalls
(01:49):
of wealth transfer, sidestepfamily conflict, and raise heirs
who are prepared, not justprivileged. Oh, God. And I love that.
So welcome to UnstoppableSuccess, Blake.
Thanks. Yeah, I had a lot ofhelp writing that one. It turned
out really good.
No, it came out really good.But that's so important. You know,
(02:10):
we talk about success andactually, that's actually one of
the things, you know, that Iactually want to touch on, you know,
touch on your story. But, youknow, having success also starts
with the right grounding andof how you operate as a person. So
how, you know, so tell usabout how that's your. What you're
(02:33):
doing helps other people have success.
So it. It's all started from,you know, personal experience of.
Of having to. To kind of gothrough that. Out of law school,
I had two. Two job offers, andby the time it took me to. Drove
to drive from Louisiana to LasVegas, they both withdrew just based
(02:56):
on the economy and so kind ofhad to start from zero. Took me three
months to convince my dad tohire me because he didn't want to
do the training and the hardwork that would go along with that.
But we figured out we ended upbeing partners for a bit. And so
that's a little bit of mybackground of getting into this.
(03:17):
And when we started buttingheads about, you know, I wanted to
grow. And he was at adifferent point in his career where
he just kind of wanted tocoast. He's like, hey, just buy me
out. I'm like, okay, cool. I'dlove to do that, but I don't have
money and I don't think abank's gonna lend to me based on
where I'm at. And so he said,all right, well, I'll be your bank.
You pay me back over time. Andthat's where this family bank concept
(03:40):
really became real for me, wasexperience that. It was a great opportunity.
I was able to pay him off overfive years, get on my own. He loved
it because he got paid overtime, reduced his taxes instead of,
you know, recognizing it allat once. And I didn't realize at
the time, but that was. Thatwas the family bank. And then a couple
years later, I was introducedto a guy who. Who gave me the full
(04:03):
version. He's like, oh, you'vealready been doing this. Personally,
I need someone to help createthe legal structure so that we can
do this, you know, for otherpeople. And so that's what we do,
is we create theseopportunities to help other. Other
people who've been successfuland to pass their wealth onto their
kids. Not just giving it tothem, but teaching the kids how to
use it. You know, giving themopportunities to succeed without
(04:27):
just giving them everything.
I absolutely love that. Butso. So when you think about that,
you know, helping kids notjust be given, but, you know, so
that they can actually learnto use money, you know, how do you
see that, that impact? What'sthe greatest impact with that?
(04:51):
I think the biggest thingyou'll see is you have a far less
likelihood of families goingback into poverty. You know, you've
probably heard the. The term,you know, shoestrings to shoestrings.
In three generations, someonepulls themselves up by their shoestrings,
does really well, becomessuccessful, and within three generations,
they're back to where theywere because the values and the work
(05:14):
ethic and all the things thatmade them great weren't passed on.
So that's what we focus on ishow. How can you pass those things
on as opposed to just passingon money? Biggest comparison that
people talk about is you havethe Vanderbilts versus the Rockefellers,
you know, similar timeframes.Both at one point in their lives,
were the most wealthy men inthe world. But at the Vanderbilts,
(05:38):
within three generations, hadnothing left to show for it because
they just spent. They wereconsumers. They didn't teach anything
about business and how toactually provide value. Whereas the
Rockefellers used trust, setthings up. So that way it was, here's
how you become successful.Here's education pieces here you
can borrow from the trustassets, but you're not going to get
(05:59):
the whole thing. And they'restill today One of the wealthiest
families in the world becauseof that. And so we take those principles.
It's done every day in superhigh net worth families, but they
have a private family officeso people think that they can't do
that stuff. And so we takethat, we distill it down and make
it so that, you know, morepeople can implement those tools.
(06:23):
And we're actually working ona program that's kind of an entry
level for even if you onlyhave, you know, a few assets, but
you want to start teachingyour kids these principles. Okay,
we're going to have a programfor that. So that way you get the
entry level and then you buildup to doing the full actual trust
stuff.
I absolutely love that whereyou're, where you're giving people
(06:44):
a starting block because,because wealth, you know, like anything,
it's like wealth can be getwealth but you have to be able to
have that. So you know,somebody might let just, I'll just
say, you know, have like$10,000, which is not a lot. You're
not a huge amount. But ifsomebody who's starting out, if you
take that $10,000 and, and youstart to save that compound effect
(07:08):
of where it can go. And sobeing able to teach that to people
is, and build it is so important.
Yeah, really has become mypassion to teach people about this.
(07:33):
You know, I've got two kids ofmy own and so, you know, I with them
and, and basically what I, youknow, the stuff that I figure out
that works well with them iswhat I'm trying to teach others to
do. Because if we, you know, Isee with their friends, they're just
giving. Given a bunch of stuffand their attitude towards things,
their attitude towards peopleis so different from the one. The
(07:55):
friends who come from areaswhere the, the parents require things
of them. They were, they haveto work, they have to, you know,
contribute. Those, thosethings make all the difference.
Yep, it does. You know, Ialways, I say this term a lot, but
it's. We want people who arenot just participating members of
society. We want, we wantpeople who are participating, participating
(08:15):
members of the family, whichis so important. So tell me how you
think what you're doingactually translates out into the
workforce, into the world.
So I mean, most people aregoing to have kids, they're going
(08:37):
to have families. So you know,you're going to have that opportunity
to, to teach your own kids.But I think it starts with you like
do you understand money? Doyou understand how investing works?
Do you understand, you know,how working hard is A piece of the
puzzle. But it's not the onlypiece. Like how do you apply yourself
in the right direction? So itstarts with that maybe you need to
(08:58):
understand that yourself. Andthen you can turn around and translate
that and teach that to thenext generation or maybe it's younger
siblings or whatever, but itaffects everybody. You know, our
education system unfortunatelydoes not do a great job of educating
on financial literacy andthat's what leads to so many problems
with poverty. And so if we canteach more people about how to be
(09:20):
responsible and learn thesethings and couple that with when
you are successful, teachother people, be charitably minded,
we can bring up society as awhole as opposed to just, just giving
money to the problem. We needto fix the root cause.
Right? Yeah. No, I love that.And I mean, I see this also just
having a really big impact inthe boardroom, so to speak, in corporate,
you know. So what's your takeon that? Like, you know, the kid
(09:44):
to corporate.
There's a lot of people who'vebeen successful with transitioning
businesses to their kids, butthere's also probably three times
as many who did not have thatsuccess. And it comes down to how
early did you involve them inthe process, did you expose them
(10:04):
to it and do they want to doit? You know, is the first question.
Because they've got to, got tohave a desire to be involved in there.
But I think it will, it helpschange how you make your decisions.
You're thinking more long termin how you make your decisions in
the boardroom and what, whatthat's going to look like instead
of just short term needs.
Yeah. And well, I'm looking atthis also from the standpoint of,
(10:25):
you know, somebody who'slistening to this today. There's
a couple of key things. It'slike, you know, listeners, if you're,
you know, looking for thatgreater success and being unstoppable,
it's, it's learning that youknow that you have to be able to
teach and that you know, your,your person, your financial stability
has a huge impact of how youactually act in your, maybe you don't
(10:50):
have your own business, butyou know, in your day to day job
or wherever you're doing foryour work because there's a level
of stress. Right. But youalso, you're, you're, you know, what
you're doing is helpingfamilies educate their kids which
therefore in the long run thebenefit is that they're going to
be able to understand how touse those same principles in the
(11:14):
corporate world. Right.
Yeah, they are for sure. It's,there's not a whole lot that's not
applicable in every part ofyour life. You know, most principles
are universal no matter whatyou use it for. And so if you're
looking for stewardship,accountability, all those things
(11:36):
that you want your kids tolearn, that starts with you, are
you living those principlesyourself? Are you doing that in your
day to day job in theboardroom or wherever you're at?
Right. So how do you, asyou're working with your clients,
how does you know how muchdoes the, the, that personal, both
personal and professionalmission come into play?
(12:02):
It's a, it comes in every daybecause inevitably a client lasts.
Well, what did, what do youdo? What, what do you do with your
kids? What are you doing withyour trust? You know, that's where
they want to start as thebaseline is, is because if I'm not
living it, if I'm not doingit, then, then why would I listen
to what you're saying? So Ihave to, to be, you know, practicing
(12:22):
what I preach. And then fromthere it's, you know, I, they need
to feel the passion behind itas well. Because if, if I'm not excited
about it, well, then why wouldthey be excited about it? So I think
those are the, the two mainthings. It, it really is a daily
thing that I have to, to thinkabout. But luckily it's something
that I enjoy and I'm reallypassionate about and feel that it
(12:43):
will have a huge impact. Andso I'm able to share that every day.
So, you know, I love that. Andsomebody shared once, once with me
that whoever you're going tohire, whether it's in a financial
situation or a trust, like,ask them to show you either their,
what they're doing, like,literally show them. Because if they're
(13:04):
not doing that themselves, asyou just said, how can they do it
for you if they're not doingit for themselves? So I'm curious,
like, what are some of thebiggest pitfalls that you see people
doing? Like, like you're like,oh God, if I could stop the world
from doing these three things.
The, the biggest one is tryingto give your kids everything that
(13:29):
you didn't have. It all stemsfrom a good place. People want to
give their kids everything.They think they're helping them by
giving them all the tools,they're giving them the best equipment,
they're giving them, you know,all the, the private lessons and
everything else. Not to saythose things are bad, but if you
just give it to them, there'sno value there for the kid. It's
what you want. And so theystart to build this entitlement attitude
(13:54):
towards things. Well, I shouldjust get it because of, I was born
into this family. I got the,you know, the gene pool lottery or
I, you know, happen to getinto a great family. And so I'm entitled
to always have what I wantinstead of thinking through and being
intentional with it. I thinkgifts are great in certain circumstances.
Obviously, if it's kid'sbirthday or Christmas, yeah, give
(14:16):
them some gifts, but at thesame time, don't give them everything.
You know, my kids want to goto sports camps during the summer
and, you know, we're going tomake them work to contribute to part
of that. My wife and I havealso told our kids that if you want
a car when you turn 16, youhave. We will match whatever you
(14:37):
saved and can put towardsthat. So if they don't care about
it, great. We don't care aboutit either. It's something that they
have to put in that effort.But if they're going to put in that
effort, okay, then, you know,we'll help them with that they wanted.
So one, my oldest son wants toearn more money right now. And so
we came up with a businessplan for his lawn mowing business,
us, and he's borrowing moneyfrom us to buy a bigger electric
(15:02):
bike. So that way he can pulla trailer to carry the lawnmower
throughout the neighborhoodbecause he's only 13 and can't drive
a car. He came to me with thatidea that was super creative. Okay,
here's how it's going to work.And then here's the loan terms. And
we, you know, sign anagreement. This is what you're going
to pay me over the next eightmonths as you do this. So those are
the kind of things you have todo is be more creative with it instead
(15:24):
of just. It's so much easierto just write a check or to just
buy the thing instead of goingthrough those things. So really,
you know, you asked me forthree, but that's the big one that
I see over and over again isjust giving it. And then we, you
fast forward that to, youknow, 50, 60 years down the road
when someone passes away. Allthe estate planning stuff that you
(15:45):
see, everything that theprofessionals do is based on giving
away as much money as possibleto the next generation to eliminate
tax and lower the taxes thatare going to be generated from that.
That, that's a great strategy,but it's not necessarily the best
one for Your kids, if theydon't have any preparation for how
to handle a big influx ofcash, what's it going to do to them?
(16:07):
It's just going to magnifywhatever issues that they have. That's
what money is. It's a toolthat magnifies. If you're a really
good person and you're smartwith money, it's going to magnify
your ability to do that. Butif you're really bad with money and
you're just going to waste iton dumb things, it's just going to
magnify the amount that youcan do that on. And so, you know,
same thing. When you do passaway, just giving it to them because
(16:28):
they are your kids isn'tnecessarily the best aspect. We always
start our planning from does.What would you do if you were still
here? What are the things thatare important to you? Your values
there, that's where yourestate plan needs to start. And we,
we pull, we make the planaround that. And then once we have
that, then we can look at thebest tax strategies instead of tax
(16:48):
strategies and passing on first.
I love that. And all I keptis, you're talking like, what I'm
thinking about is like, you'retalking about people who just like,
you know, don't know how tohandle the cash. It's like the lottery
winner, right? The guy whowins the Uber, blah, blah, blah,
money from the lottery, andnext thing you know, he's still broke.
(17:12):
It's, it's like 95 or higherof lottery winners within five years
are back to being broke. Likeit's a crazy statistic. And it just
shows you have to have someeducation and some knowledge around
it to be able to handle it.And yet we do that to each generation
time after time. It's justestate planning is give the most
(17:34):
money amount you can to yourkids, give it to them when you die,
give them to him when you die.Instead of, let's think about how
we can educate them so they'reprepared for it. So it is ongoing.
There's some families in whohave throughout history who have
mastered that and they doreally well and they're always influential,
they always have money, butthe vast majority don't. And that's
(17:54):
why, you know, you seeproblems created over and over again.
Yeah, no, you know, and it'sinteresting. I, you know, I, I, I
think it's so important todayto teach our kids those, those values
of understanding that they'renot just, not, not everything is
just given to them. They haveto understand that, like, the value
(18:15):
of working for something, itjust doesn't have to happen. I mean,
it's even like your grades,like, you don't just get given a
grade. It's like one of my bigpet peeves is like, don't give everybody.
No offense. And people mightyell at me for this. Do not give
everybody a freaking trophy. Iam sorry. Like the Olympics, there
are three. Have you, have youseen the Olympics, by the way? There
(18:37):
are three medals. Gold,silver, and bronze. Not everybody
gets a participate in, youknow, medal just for going.
And it could be the differenceof 0.01. Like you want to give that
person a medal because theywere so close, but that's not the
way it works.
It doesn't work that way.Like, don't give everybody a medal.
(18:58):
No, work for it. You know, theguy who's the mvp, he's working his
ass off. Like, work for it.Right. And, you know, it's, you know,
it's crazy, you know, that,that mentality. We don't want to
hurt people's feelings. No,actually, no offense, but you kind
of do because if you don'thave something, you have to give
(19:22):
something. So people want toearn it and want to work for something,
and it's same, you know, samething with money. You've got to work
for it and earn it.
Yeah, I do want to be put,like a little caveat or maybe, you
know, a little caution there.Don't cut them off and don't make
them solely reliable. That'snot what I'm trying to say here is
(19:43):
the, the idea of the familybank is give them opportunities to
have those learningexperiences in a safe environment
where they can recover. Ifthey do fail and lose everything
on, you know, a dumb purchasewhen they're 12, okay, that's a good
catalyst for them goingforward, but they're not going to
be out on the street. Like,that's not this type of stuff we're
talking about, right? Yeah,it's about creating opportunities.
(20:06):
And then if you have the fundsavailable, lend it to them, because
then they have an opportunityto get it at better capital rates.
You know, they have access toit a lot quicker than going through
a bank loan or that kind ofstuff. So it gives them great opportunities,
but they're not just givingit. Like, we want to find that happy
medium. And so it's going tobe different for each person, each
(20:26):
kid that you have and eachfamily. So I'm not just saying, hey,
kick them out. They're ontheir own. They don't get any help.
We want to help them along theway and give them the best opportunity
to succeed.
I love that, you know, and I.And I really want to actually emphasize
the idea also of the, youknow, what you're talking about with
the family bank, because, youknow, getting capital for something
today is hard. And if you can,you know, and I guess this is the
(20:51):
question, how would you. Maybea family doesn't have it, but maybe
they've got two families,like, you know, their grandparents,
like, how do you work withthem on. On the, you know, capital
investment from 2.
The best part about this isthere's no single right answer on
how to do it. You know,create. Creativity is king here.
(21:16):
So it really is. You know, howcan you structure these things and
starting to think creativelyof how we can make this work. One
of my favorite stories,success stories, wasn't even about
necessarily the money. It wasabout mending a relationship. And
so, you know, a grandmotherwas lending money to her granddaughter
that she did not have a good,good relationship with for her to
(21:38):
buy a car. And one of thethings she required of her was that
she had to write a letter toher every month when she wrote that
check in and she wrote herback. And so they started this pen
pal, you know, series of goingback and forth, and their relationship
changed, and they became soclose because of that. So, like,
that's the creativity I'mtalking about. It doesn't necessarily
(22:00):
have to be just a straightmoney thing. It can be any number
of things. And so use yourimagination. Think about that. If
you've got multiple familieswho want to help out, great, do that.
Create a little bit ofstructure. Have written agreements,
make it formal. But, yeah,pull from different resources. That's
absolutely fine.
Yeah, I absolutely love that.So, you know, in your practice, like,
(22:22):
how many people do you want toimpact? How many families? How do
you, you know, is there a goallike you like, oh, my God, like,
I'm working with how manytoday, and I would love to.
So I want to scale this. Youknow, the company that we're building
to be, it doesn't necessarilyneed to be just us, our firm doing
the work. I want to have itbe. So we teach other attorneys how
(22:43):
to do this stuff, becausereally it needs to be a national
and then global impact ofteaching these skills, because that's
really the goal is to helpteach financial literacy to everyone
so that we don't have thatpoverty level anymore. Because if
we can teach these tools andhelp people understand this, that
goes away and that's whatwe're looking for is to impact that.
(23:05):
I love that. I love that. Sobringing it to more people, more
attorneys. And. And. And I'mkind of curious. Do you know, is.
Do you see a different inother parts of the world versus United
States versus Europe versus.
(23:27):
So I haven't looked a lot intoto other countries as of yet, but
I was reading an article theother day about Switzerland, and
it was fascinating becausethey have doubled the amount of millionaires
per per capita than the USdoes, and they have almost zero poverty.
And it's because they teach alot of these skills about delayed
(23:50):
gratification, stewardship,you know, living within your means,
those kind of things, and soyou have very little problems there.
They're one of the mostaffluent countries in the world because
they take that stance and theyeducate that, you know, in the family,
first and foremost, it has tohappen at home, but then there's
a lot built into theireducation system around that, and
(24:11):
then it's just a culturalshift that they've made. So it's
an, you know, nationwide, theyhave that. So it's really cool to
see that if you can do thisthe right way, it can have a huge
impact on the nation as awhole. So, you know, that they'd
be a system to model.
I absolutely love this. So,listeners, you need to connect with
(24:32):
Blake, because first of alland foremost, at the end of the day,
we're also talking aboutending poverty here in the United
States and bringing up thevalues of every family, right? So,
listeners, do me the favor.Connect with Blake, learn, and get
in with the family bank,because it is so important. And then
(24:54):
I want you to do me a favor,and I want you to share this episode
with your friends, families,and colleagues, because the more
people we can have workingwith Blake and his system, the better
we all will be. So please dome that favor. Reach out and make
sure you're connecting withhim. Blake, thank you for being a
(25:14):
great guest. And listeners,thank you for listening. This is
the unstoppable successhelping you be unstoppable.
Well, hello, everybody, andwelcome to another amazing episode
of Unstoppable Success. I amyour host, Jaclyn Strominger And
today we have an amazingguest, Blake Johnson. And as you
know, on this podcast, we hearfrom amazing business owners, leaders,
and entrepreneurs about theirrise to success and how they help
others also gain thatunstoppable success. So let me just
(01:04):
give you a little bit ofbackground on Blake. And because
he actually, he's a recognizedestate planning attorney, and he's
the creator of your familybank method, which is a legally focused
framework that helps familiesbuild generational wealth with intention,
structure, and sustainability.He has. Blake's legal and business
(01:27):
roots run really deep, withdegrees in finance and law, including
a J.D. and a graduate degreeon comparative law from LSU. And.
And his work is grounded instrategy and real world insight.
He has a podcast, he hasworkshops, and he has a great firm.
And he, Blake, equips hisclients to avoid common pitfalls
(01:49):
of wealth transfer, sidestepfamily conflict, and raise heirs
who are prepared, not justprivileged. Oh, God. And I love that.
So welcome to UnstoppableSuccess, Blake.
Thanks. Yeah, I had a lot ofhelp writing that one. It turned
out really good.
No, it came out really good.But that's so important. You know,
(02:10):
we talk about success andactually, that's actually one of
the things, you know, that Iactually want to touch on, you know,
touch on your story. But, youknow, having success also starts
with the right grounding andof how you operate as a person. So
how, you know, so tell usabout how that's your. What you're
(02:33):
doing helps other people have success.
So it. It's all started from,you know, personal experience of.
Of having to. To kind of gothrough that. Out of law school,
I had two. Two job offers, andby the time it took me to. Drove
to drive from Louisiana to LasVegas, they both withdrew just based
(02:56):
on the economy and so kind ofhad to start from zero. Took me three
months to convince my dad tohire me because he didn't want to
do the training and the hardwork that would go along with that.
But we figured out we ended upbeing partners for a bit. And so
that's a little bit of mybackground of getting into this.
(03:17):
And when we started buttingheads about, you know, I wanted to
grow. And he was at adifferent point in his career where
he just kind of wanted tocoast. He's like, hey, just buy me
out. I'm like, okay, cool. I'dlove to do that, but I don't have
money and I don't think abank's gonna lend to me based on
where I'm at. And so he said,all right, well, I'll be your bank.
You pay me back over time. Andthat's where this family bank concept
(03:40):
really became real for me, wasexperience that. It was a great opportunity.
I was able to pay him off overfive years, get on my own. He loved
it because he got paid overtime, reduced his taxes instead of,
you know, recognizing it allat once. And I didn't realize at
the time, but that was. Thatwas the family bank. And then a couple
years later, I was introducedto a guy who. Who gave me the full
(04:03):
version. He's like, oh, you'vealready been doing this. Personally,
I need someone to help createthe legal structure so that we can
do this, you know, for otherpeople. And so that's what we do,
is we create theseopportunities to help other. Other
people who've been successfuland to pass their wealth onto their
kids. Not just giving it tothem, but teaching the kids how to
use it. You know, giving themopportunities to succeed without
(04:27):
just giving them everything.
I absolutely love that. Butso. So when you think about that,
you know, helping kids notjust be given, but, you know, so
that they can actually learnto use money, you know, how do you
see that, that impact? What'sthe greatest impact with that?
(04:51):
I think the biggest thingyou'll see is you have a far less
likelihood of families goingback into poverty. You know, you've
probably heard the. The term,you know, shoestrings to shoestrings.
In three generations, someonepulls themselves up by their shoestrings,
does really well, becomessuccessful, and within three generations,
they're back to where theywere because the values and the work
(05:14):
ethic and all the things thatmade them great weren't passed on.
So that's what we focus on ishow. How can you pass those things
on as opposed to just passingon money? Biggest comparison that
people talk about is you havethe Vanderbilts versus the Rockefellers,
you know, similar timeframes.Both at one point in their lives,
were the most wealthy men inthe world. But at the Vanderbilts,
(05:38):
within three generations, hadnothing left to show for it because
they just spent. They wereconsumers. They didn't teach anything
about business and how toactually provide value. Whereas the
Rockefellers used trust, setthings up. So that way it was, here's
how you become successful.Here's education pieces here you
can borrow from the trustassets, but you're not going to get
(05:59):
the whole thing. And they'restill today One of the wealthiest
families in the world becauseof that. And so we take those principles.
It's done every day in superhigh net worth families, but they
have a private family officeso people think that they can't do
that stuff. And so we takethat, we distill it down and make
it so that, you know, morepeople can implement those tools.
(06:23):
And we're actually working ona program that's kind of an entry
level for even if you onlyhave, you know, a few assets, but
you want to start teachingyour kids these principles. Okay,
we're going to have a programfor that. So that way you get the
entry level and then you buildup to doing the full actual trust
stuff.
I absolutely love that whereyou're, where you're giving people
(06:44):
a starting block because,because wealth, you know, like anything,
it's like wealth can be getwealth but you have to be able to
have that. So you know,somebody might let just, I'll just
say, you know, have like$10,000, which is not a lot. You're
not a huge amount. But ifsomebody who's starting out, if you
take that $10,000 and, and youstart to save that compound effect
(07:08):
of where it can go. And sobeing able to teach that to people
is, and build it is so important.
Yeah, really has become mypassion to teach people about this.
(07:33):
You know, I've got two kids ofmy own and so, you know, I with them
and, and basically what I, youknow, the stuff that I figure out
that works well with them iswhat I'm trying to teach others to
do. Because if we, you know, Isee with their friends, they're just
giving. Given a bunch of stuffand their attitude towards things,
their attitude towards peopleis so different from the one. The
(07:55):
friends who come from areaswhere the, the parents require things
of them. They were, they haveto work, they have to, you know,
contribute. Those, thosethings make all the difference.
Yep, it does. You know, Ialways, I say this term a lot, but
it's. We want people who arenot just participating members of
society. We want, we wantpeople who are participating, participating
(08:15):
members of the family, whichis so important. So tell me how you
think what you're doingactually translates out into the
workforce, into the world.
So I mean, most people aregoing to have kids, they're going
(08:37):
to have families. So you know,you're going to have that opportunity
to, to teach your own kids.But I think it starts with you like
do you understand money? Doyou understand how investing works?
Do you understand, you know,how working hard is A piece of the
puzzle. But it's not the onlypiece. Like how do you apply yourself
in the right direction? So itstarts with that maybe you need to
(08:58):
understand that yourself. Andthen you can turn around and translate
that and teach that to thenext generation or maybe it's younger
siblings or whatever, but itaffects everybody. You know, our
education system unfortunatelydoes not do a great job of educating
on financial literacy andthat's what leads to so many problems
with poverty. And so if we canteach more people about how to be
(09:20):
responsible and learn thesethings and couple that with when
you are successful, teachother people, be charitably minded,
we can bring up society as awhole as opposed to just, just giving
money to the problem. We needto fix the root cause.
Right? Yeah. No, I love that.And I mean, I see this also just
having a really big impact inthe boardroom, so to speak, in corporate,
you know. So what's your takeon that? Like, you know, the kid
(09:44):
to corporate.
There's a lot of people who'vebeen successful with transitioning
businesses to their kids, butthere's also probably three times
as many who did not have thatsuccess. And it comes down to how
early did you involve them inthe process, did you expose them
(10:04):
to it and do they want to doit? You know, is the first question.
Because they've got to, got tohave a desire to be involved in there.
But I think it will, it helpschange how you make your decisions.
You're thinking more long termin how you make your decisions in
the boardroom and what, whatthat's going to look like instead
of just short term needs.
Yeah. And well, I'm looking atthis also from the standpoint of,
(10:25):
you know, somebody who'slistening to this today. There's
a couple of key things. It'slike, you know, listeners, if you're,
you know, looking for thatgreater success and being unstoppable,
it's, it's learning that youknow that you have to be able to
teach and that you know, your,your person, your financial stability
has a huge impact of how youactually act in your, maybe you don't
(10:50):
have your own business, butyou know, in your day to day job
or wherever you're doing foryour work because there's a level
of stress. Right. But youalso, you're, you're, you know, what
you're doing is helpingfamilies educate their kids which
therefore in the long run thebenefit is that they're going to
be able to understand how touse those same principles in the
(11:14):
corporate world. Right.
Yeah, they are for sure. It's,there's not a whole lot that's not
applicable in every part ofyour life. You know, most principles
are universal no matter whatyou use it for. And so if you're
looking for stewardship,accountability, all those things
(11:36):
that you want your kids tolearn, that starts with you, are
you living those principlesyourself? Are you doing that in your
day to day job in theboardroom or wherever you're at?
Right. So how do you, asyou're working with your clients,
how does you know how muchdoes the, the, that personal, both
personal and professionalmission come into play?
(12:02):
It's a, it comes in every daybecause inevitably a client lasts.
Well, what did, what do youdo? What, what do you do with your
kids? What are you doing withyour trust? You know, that's where
they want to start as thebaseline is, is because if I'm not
living it, if I'm not doingit, then, then why would I listen
to what you're saying? So Ihave to, to be, you know, practicing
(12:22):
what I preach. And then fromthere it's, you know, I, they need
to feel the passion behind itas well. Because if, if I'm not excited
about it, well, then why wouldthey be excited about it? So I think
those are the, the two mainthings. It, it really is a daily
thing that I have to, to thinkabout. But luckily it's something
that I enjoy and I'm reallypassionate about and feel that it
(12:43):
will have a huge impact. Andso I'm able to share that every day.
So, you know, I love that. Andsomebody shared once, once with me
that whoever you're going tohire, whether it's in a financial
situation or a trust, like,ask them to show you either their,
what they're doing, like,literally show them. Because if they're
(13:04):
not doing that themselves, asyou just said, how can they do it
for you if they're not doingit for themselves? So I'm curious,
like, what are some of thebiggest pitfalls that you see people
doing? Like, like you're like,oh God, if I could stop the world
from doing these three things.
The, the biggest one is tryingto give your kids everything that
(13:29):
you didn't have. It all stemsfrom a good place. People want to
give their kids everything.They think they're helping them by
giving them all the tools,they're giving them the best equipment,
they're giving them, you know,all the, the private lessons and
everything else. Not to saythose things are bad, but if you
just give it to them, there'sno value there for the kid. It's
what you want. And so theystart to build this entitlement attitude
(13:54):
towards things. Well, I shouldjust get it because of, I was born
into this family. I got the,you know, the gene pool lottery or
I, you know, happen to getinto a great family. And so I'm entitled
to always have what I wantinstead of thinking through and being
intentional with it. I thinkgifts are great in certain circumstances.
Obviously, if it's kid'sbirthday or Christmas, yeah, give
(14:16):
them some gifts, but at thesame time, don't give them everything.
You know, my kids want to goto sports camps during the summer
and, you know, we're going tomake them work to contribute to part
of that. My wife and I havealso told our kids that if you want
a car when you turn 16, youhave. We will match whatever you
(14:37):
saved and can put towardsthat. So if they don't care about
it, great. We don't care aboutit either. It's something that they
have to put in that effort.But if they're going to put in that
effort, okay, then, you know,we'll help them with that they wanted.
So one, my oldest son wants toearn more money right now. And so
we came up with a businessplan for his lawn mowing business,
us, and he's borrowing moneyfrom us to buy a bigger electric
(15:02):
bike. So that way he can pulla trailer to carry the lawnmower
throughout the neighborhoodbecause he's only 13 and can't drive
a car. He came to me with thatidea that was super creative. Okay,
here's how it's going to work.And then here's the loan terms. And
we, you know, sign anagreement. This is what you're going
to pay me over the next eightmonths as you do this. So those are
the kind of things you have todo is be more creative with it instead
(15:24):
of just. It's so much easierto just write a check or to just
buy the thing instead of goingthrough those things. So really,
you know, you asked me forthree, but that's the big one that
I see over and over again isjust giving it. And then we, you
fast forward that to, youknow, 50, 60 years down the road
when someone passes away. Allthe estate planning stuff that you
(15:45):
see, everything that theprofessionals do is based on giving
away as much money as possibleto the next generation to eliminate
tax and lower the taxes thatare going to be generated from that.
That, that's a great strategy,but it's not necessarily the best
one for Your kids, if theydon't have any preparation for how
to handle a big influx ofcash, what's it going to do to them?
(16:07):
It's just going to magnifywhatever issues that they have. That's
what money is. It's a toolthat magnifies. If you're a really
good person and you're smartwith money, it's going to magnify
your ability to do that. Butif you're really bad with money and
you're just going to waste iton dumb things, it's just going to
magnify the amount that youcan do that on. And so, you know,
same thing. When you do passaway, just giving it to them because
(16:28):
they are your kids isn'tnecessarily the best aspect. We always
start our planning from does.What would you do if you were still
here? What are the things thatare important to you? Your values
there, that's where yourestate plan needs to start. And we,
we pull, we make the planaround that. And then once we have
that, then we can look at thebest tax strategies instead of tax
(16:48):
strategies and passing on first.
I love that. And all I keptis, you're talking like, what I'm
thinking about is like, you'retalking about people who just like,
you know, don't know how tohandle the cash. It's like the lottery
winner, right? The guy whowins the Uber, blah, blah, blah,
money from the lottery, andnext thing you know, he's still broke.
(17:12):
It's, it's like 95 or higherof lottery winners within five years
are back to being broke. Likeit's a crazy statistic. And it just
shows you have to have someeducation and some knowledge around
it to be able to handle it.And yet we do that to each generation
time after time. It's justestate planning is give the most
(17:34):
money amount you can to yourkids, give it to them when you die,
give them to him when you die.Instead of, let's think about how
we can educate them so they'reprepared for it. So it is ongoing.
There's some families in whohave throughout history who have
mastered that and they doreally well and they're always influential,
they always have money, butthe vast majority don't. And that's
(17:54):
why, you know, you seeproblems created over and over again.
Yeah, no, you know, and it'sinteresting. I, you know, I, I, I
think it's so important todayto teach our kids those, those values
of understanding that they'renot just, not, not everything is
just given to them. They haveto understand that, like, the value
(18:15):
of working for something, itjust doesn't have to happen. I mean,
it's even like your grades,like, you don't just get given a
grade. It's like one of my bigpet peeves is like, don't give everybody.
No offense. And people mightyell at me for this. Do not give
everybody a freaking trophy. Iam sorry. Like the Olympics, there
are three. Have you, have youseen the Olympics, by the way? There
(18:37):
are three medals. Gold,silver, and bronze. Not everybody
gets a participate in, youknow, medal just for going.
And it could be the differenceof 0.01. Like you want to give that
person a medal because theywere so close, but that's not the
way it works.
It doesn't work that way.Like, don't give everybody a medal.
(18:58):
No, work for it. You know, theguy who's the mvp, he's working his
ass off. Like, work for it.Right. And, you know, it's, you know,
it's crazy, you know, that,that mentality. We don't want to
hurt people's feelings. No,actually, no offense, but you kind
of do because if you don'thave something, you have to give
(19:22):
something. So people want toearn it and want to work for something,
and it's same, you know, samething with money. You've got to work
for it and earn it.
Yeah, I do want to be put,like a little caveat or maybe, you
know, a little caution there.Don't cut them off and don't make
them solely reliable. That'snot what I'm trying to say here is
(19:43):
the, the idea of the familybank is give them opportunities to
have those learningexperiences in a safe environment
where they can recover. Ifthey do fail and lose everything
on, you know, a dumb purchasewhen they're 12, okay, that's a good
catalyst for them goingforward, but they're not going to
be out on the street. Like,that's not this type of stuff we're
talking about, right? Yeah,it's about creating opportunities.
(20:06):
And then if you have the fundsavailable, lend it to them, because
then they have an opportunityto get it at better capital rates.
You know, they have access toit a lot quicker than going through
a bank loan or that kind ofstuff. So it gives them great opportunities,
but they're not just givingit. Like, we want to find that happy
medium. And so it's going tobe different for each person, each
(20:26):
kid that you have and eachfamily. So I'm not just saying, hey,
kick them out. They're ontheir own. They don't get any help.
We want to help them along theway and give them the best opportunity
to succeed.
I love that, you know, and I.And I really want to actually emphasize
the idea also of the, youknow, what you're talking about with
the family bank, because, youknow, getting capital for something
today is hard. And if you can,you know, and I guess this is the
(20:51):
question, how would you. Maybea family doesn't have it, but maybe
they've got two families,like, you know, their grandparents,
like, how do you work withthem on. On the, you know, capital
investment from 2.
The best part about this isthere's no single right answer on
how to do it. You know,create. Creativity is king here.
(21:16):
So it really is. You know, howcan you structure these things and
starting to think creativelyof how we can make this work. One
of my favorite stories,success stories, wasn't even about
necessarily the money. It wasabout mending a relationship. And
so, you know, a grandmotherwas lending money to her granddaughter
that she did not have a good,good relationship with for her to
(21:38):
buy a car. And one of thethings she required of her was that
she had to write a letter toher every month when she wrote that
check in and she wrote herback. And so they started this pen
pal, you know, series of goingback and forth, and their relationship
changed, and they became soclose because of that. So, like,
that's the creativity I'mtalking about. It doesn't necessarily
(22:00):
have to be just a straightmoney thing. It can be any number
of things. And so use yourimagination. Think about that. If
you've got multiple familieswho want to help out, great, do that.
Create a little bit ofstructure. Have written agreements,
make it formal. But, yeah,pull from different resources. That's
absolutely fine.
Yeah, I absolutely love that.So, you know, in your practice, like,
(22:22):
how many people do you want toimpact? How many families? How do
you, you know, is there a goallike you like, oh, my God, like,
I'm working with how manytoday, and I would love to.
So I want to scale this. Youknow, the company that we're building
to be, it doesn't necessarilyneed to be just us, our firm doing
the work. I want to have itbe. So we teach other attorneys how
(22:43):
to do this stuff, becausereally it needs to be a national
and then global impact ofteaching these skills, because that's
really the goal is to helpteach financial literacy to everyone
so that we don't have thatpoverty level anymore. Because if
we can teach these tools andhelp people understand this, that
goes away and that's whatwe're looking for is to impact that.
(23:05):
I love that. I love that. Sobringing it to more people, more
attorneys. And. And. And I'mkind of curious. Do you know, is.
Do you see a different inother parts of the world versus United
States versus Europe versus.
(23:27):
So I haven't looked a lot intoto other countries as of yet, but
I was reading an article theother day about Switzerland, and
it was fascinating becausethey have doubled the amount of millionaires
per per capita than the USdoes, and they have almost zero poverty.
And it's because they teach alot of these skills about delayed
(23:50):
gratification, stewardship,you know, living within your means,
those kind of things, and soyou have very little problems there.
They're one of the mostaffluent countries in the world because
they take that stance and theyeducate that, you know, in the family,
first and foremost, it has tohappen at home, but then there's
a lot built into theireducation system around that, and
(24:11):
then it's just a culturalshift that they've made. So it's
an, you know, nationwide, theyhave that. So it's really cool to
see that if you can do thisthe right way, it can have a huge
impact on the nation as awhole. So, you know, that they'd
be a system to model.
I absolutely love this. So,listeners, you need to connect with
(24:32):
Blake, because first of alland foremost, at the end of the day,
we're also talking aboutending poverty here in the United
States and bringing up thevalues of every family, right? So,
listeners, do me the favor.Connect with Blake, learn, and get
in with the family bank,because it is so important. And then
(24:54):
I want you to do me a favor,and I want you to share this episode
with your friends, families,and colleagues, because the more
people we can have workingwith Blake and his system, the better
we all will be. So please dome that favor. Reach out and make
sure you're connecting withhim. Blake, thank you for being a
(25:14):
great guest. And listeners,thank you for listening. This is
the unstoppable successhelping you be unstoppable.
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