All right, welcome back to The Daily Mastermind, George Wright III with your daily dose of inspiration, motivation, and education. And I'm excited to be here today with a good friend, an expert, someone that's going to be able to teach you a lot, Don Pendleton. How are you doing today? Great. So good. I'm excited to have you here. Listen, if you don't know already, because I've talked about his company a little bit over the years here, but Don Pendleton has trained thousands of people over the last 20, 25 years. His company, Asset Protection, Estate Planning, Summits that he runs are some things that I've talked about. But Protect Wealth is a company that I believe has really helped people to not only grow their wealth, but protect their wealth. And Don, as an individual, I've known him for, oh my gosh, I don't know now. Maybe it's 30 years, but he's written books. He's an expert. He's contributed. He's an author. He's an in-demand speaker. And we'll get into it, but let's just put it this way. He is basically my go-to when it comes to asset tax and estate planning. So Don, I want people to get to know you for just a quick second here. So tell me how you got into this whole arena in the first place. We're going back a little bit here, but what got you into this whole asset protection and estate planning arena? Yeah. And it has been a while. And we've known George a long time and respected him and his energy and his motivation. So I got started in this years ago. It was Rodney, frankly, it was after the Rodney King riots. I was running a recreation park down in Southern California. And the National Guard moved in and the gangs moved out into our little valley. And I was in a little recreation park, miniature golf, batting cages, water slides. We started having gang members. So we started adding security and we had a drive-by shooting one night. I was the manager on duty. We had probably 2,000 people in the park and a bullet came in from the freeway. And it was a drive-by shooting. A little 18-year-old girl got hit in the head. It couldn't have been anything other than the stray bullet. She was behind a car. The bullet went through both sides of the car and hit her in the head. I got sued because I was the manager on duty at the time. I got four little kids at home. I was scared to death. I have no idea. It was three years of hell. And since then, I've been the vice president of multiple companies, vice president of legal and I've written five textbooks. I've, you know what? I've been surrounded by some of the best attorneys in the nation. And I'm not a CPA, I'm not an attorney, but I've learned the lawsuit game. And I think what we bring to the table more than anything else at Protect Wealth is attorneys are really good at what they do. They're not always good at explaining things to people, to business owners, to real estate investors, to medical professionals, we're pretty good at that. Yeah, you guys have a knack for not only helping people to navigate this whole topic of lawsuits and asset protection or even wealth, but you also help to individualize it, right? So whether you're an attorney, a professional, a plumber, an entrepreneur, a business owner, it's not always the same, right? It's always a little bit different. And people don't like to think about these things until it's too late. That's interesting you say that because the basic concepts are the same. Doctors like to be treated like doctors and medical professionals like it. But there are some tweaks and there's certainly some tweaks when it comes to estate planning. There are some tweaks and we do things differently in Florida and Texas than we do in California. Pennsylvania has its own little unique thing, New York. And so there are some nuances, but the general ideas of taxes, estate planning, of income tax reduction, lawsuit protection, they're very much the same. Yeah, and not only that, but then one of the things I love about what you guys do is you do case studies. You have a lot of case studies at your events and in your materials and things. I think not only are individuals different, but at different stages of life, right? I remember when I was first starting out in business, I was structuring things a certain way and I look back and things change over the years. And so maybe someone has looked at the way they structured their business or their trust or their family plan. And now they have more wealth, they have more family, they have family members. Do you find that you have to revisit your true financial plan often? Or do you see that there's like different stages of life that people need to look at it? You know what? That's interesting, especially with the state plan. Yes. But taxes, very different in different stages of life. Investing, very different. You're much more aggressive when you're younger. You're a lot more conservative when you're older. When we're doing the state plans when the kids were little, if me and my wife passed away, we wanted everything to go into a trust and split it equally among the kids. But now they live in different states. Some of them community property states, some of them not. Some of them had good marriages, some of them did not. Some of them were really good with money. Some of them have different talents and different families. And the dynamics change and the estate plan has to change. And it has to be fluid and flexible as we go through. So absolutely, this is an ever-changing thing. And you mentioned case studies. That's how people learn the principles and then can apply them. Tax, legal, can be a very boring subject if all we're doing is studying. Here's the statistics. Here's the rules. People want to know how it applies to me. And so case studies, let's take an average person. Let's take, let's plug in the principles. Case studies are one of our best ways to be able to teach people. Yeah, it's one of the things you guys are gifted at because it really helps people to break down the scenarios. And guys, listen, if you're listening to this episode, the reason I'm bringing this up is because we're going to try to get interactive with Don Pendleton and his partner, Kendall, several times a month or at least once a month where we can really break down these asset tax and estate planning topics and keep you in the loop. Don, you guys have a phrase. I think it's a lifetime to create and three days to protect because you do this three-day summit. And I think that's a really important thing, not only because I think people realize, they'll realize that they work their whole life to create stuff. And it can go very quickly with a lawsuit or with some type of thing that can be preventable. And it leads me into what I wanted to talk to you about today. You've talked about many times this idea of four tornadoes. And I want you to explain to me what you mean by that and what it involves. And we can break it down a little bit for people. But these are core areas that you talk about that you feel are important for people, whether they have a business or not, to keep in mind. So tell me about what that means. Tornadoes if you right now we seeing a lot of tornadoes right now in the Midwest I live in the mountains of Utah I don experience tornadoes but I know enough about them to know that they can be very selective They can miss your house, jump over five houses, hit the bank or the schoolyard, or they can wipe out it. But when they hit, they're almost always devastating. So very selective, devastating when they hit. So we consider the four financial tornadoes for most people to be number one, income taxes, if you don't understand the game, can just absolutely devastate you. Capital gains taxes is another one. That would be number two. And capital gains taxes, there are so many free roads available. You remember that, okay, I've lived in a state with toll roads and free roads. And the police officers don't care which road you take as long as you obey the laws on the road. that the income tax system has so many free roads built into it, but they never put big blinky signs on the free roads, only on the toll roads they want you to pay. And so income taxes, capital gains taxes, I'm sorry, unless you learn to play the game, you're always going to lose. Hey, and Don, I want to, and I'm sorry, I don't mean to interrupt you, but one of the things I want to make sure people understand is that we talk a lot on this show and in our academy about business and money and the structure around money. And I think you're right. I think taxes become a topic that people don't wanna think about. But when it comes to income taxes and capital gain taxes, it can affect your growth of your wealth as much as your strategies to win. And so I'm having you listen to this and I want you to talk to Don about this because income and capital gains can compound over time and make such a huge impact on your wealth overall. Yeah, you really don't understand that until you see it on charts and graphs where this is my growth and here's my growth without taxes. And it is huge. And you wonder why you get to retirement age, gray hair like me, and you don't have any money. You didn't understand the game, clearly. And those that do over time, wow, saving 10%, 5%, 8%, 20% on your taxes along the way makes all the difference in the world as to whether I'm going to retire happy or whether I'm going to retire broke. Yeah, absolutely. And then tornado number three, we consider to be estate taxes and probate. And what most people don't understand, probate is the process, if you don't have a better plan for your estate, it's not laid out, it's not signed, it's not notarized, if it's not done legally, then when you pass away, everything that's in your name is going to go through this horrible process called probate, which is lengthy, it's time consuming, it's expensive. The only ones that went out of probate are the attorneys. It's a lengthy process, and everything that goes through probate becomes a matter of public record. Probate and estate taxes are 100% optional, in our opinion, if you will use the proper tools in a timely fashion. You can avoid that. Jackie Kennedy reported that she had a $94 million estate. We know that because she reported it, not because it went through probate. But you know what, Georgia, you know what she paid in estate taxes? Zero. You know what she paid in probate? Zero. She avoided it legally. And there's many examples that were the opposite, right? There are many examples of people that thought they had everything handled and then they did not. And they didn't. And you hear of celebrities all the time. And it went through probate because, and it was tied up for years. And in some cases, decades, their estate has figured out. And then it leads to quarreling and fighting. And you're leaving your kids in a mess. And the fourth tornado we consider to be lost. Well, and Don, let me pause you for just a quick second, because I was going to ask you. I have so many people tell me, they say, I don't think about estate planning until I have wealth, until I have stuff pulled together. And I've heard you say before, because when you talk about asset, estate planning, tax planning, growing your wealth, you've always in the past talked to me about starting with the foundation. And so you actually talk about estate planning in advance of all of those topics, whereas most people listening to this might be thinking, I don't have a whole lot to protect right now, but I will. And when I get to that point, I'm going to do it. What would you say to people like that? At what point in time is estate planning critical for you in your overall financial blueprint? Look, everyone over 18 needs a last will and testament. Everyone needs a power of attorney, financial power of attorney, a medical power of attorney. Just think of a medical power of attorney. I'm incapacitated and my wife doesn't know whether to pull the plug or whether she doesn't. She doesn't have a do or not resuscitate order. I've got three kids and two of them are going, you know what, let's pull the plug. And one goes, no, you're killing dad. Are you kidding? These are wounds that never get healed. I'm sorry. The simplest things, powers of attorney, wills, everyone needs that. In over 18, I can't give legal advice, but I am. But beyond that, a trust is a powerful tool to avoid probate. Anytime you have real estate, even your personal residence, those things are going to go through probate if those assets are tied to your name. There's simple things that we can do to help you avoid probate. It doesn't have to be a trust. We teach six different ways to avoid probate. Estate taxes are completely optional. And in some states, there's also, people think the estate tax is around $13 million. My state's not nearly big enough, but there's a lot of states that have a pickup tax. They have their own inheritance tax or their own estate tax. pickup because if the federal government's not going to charge it, then they do. Sometimes you're not as exempt as you think you are. I don't know. We teach basic principles on estate planning. Absolutely. Yeah, don't leave it to chance. Don't leave it to chance. Okay, so income taxes, capital gain taxes, estate taxes, and probate, and then what's our fourth tornado? Lawsuits. This is one that is very different than the others. The others are upside down, money-sucking toilet bowl kind of things but this one comes along bangs you on the head one day and we do live in a lawsuit epidemic we do live in where where people are willing to sue i was down in louisiana a couple years ago right before covid and i was teaching a group of oh they own convenience stores and one guy owned two convenience stores three car washes he says at any one time I'm facing 20 to 25 lawsuits. Louisiana has become the gimme state. He says, we've got pictures. We got a camera showing a lady throwing her 44 soda on the floor And she runs through it slips and falls She gets down she looks around looks at her in the cameras and bangs her head and goes, pow, my head. He says, we cannot win this lawsuit. The insurance company would rather pay her $35,000, let it go away. My insurance rates go up. They will not fight it for me. We live in a different world than most of us grew up in. where the society has become more, it's changed. When I grew up, you had to do something wrong to get sued. That is not the case anymore. And what are simple things that we can do to protect assets? And so we teach five basic rules for avoiding lawsuits. Keeping safe assets separate than unsafe assets. Keeping your real estate protected from the operation. We teach keeping business interests, always having a succession plan. I helped a lady not too long ago. They had a water drilling company, her and her husband. He dies in a rodeo accident, leaving her as a 38-year-old widow, four little kids at home. And, oh wait, they didn't own the business. He did. It was a single member, LLC, who owns the business. Now it's worth $4 million when he dies. After a year of Texas probate, it may not be worth $4 million. We always take your interest, your interest in a corporation, your stock of a corporation, your interest in an LLC. We always tie those down to a succession plan. Very important. But your home, we take your bank accounts, your brokerage accounts. We always tie that to a succession plan of some kind. So anyway, those are the basics of what we teach, George. It's interesting because I think that they're, first of all, whether people are planning for these things or not, they're going to affect them and lawsuits are going to come out of left field. You may be operating thinking you got everything covered and those are things you have zero control over. But also I think that you've shown me over the years as well that being somewhat strategic in your planning, because there's preparation and then there's planning, two different things. can really significantly impact the end game. And I think you hear terms like, maybe if you're listening to this show, you've heard me say things like success leaves clues. And these are what we would call secrets of the high net worth. And if you really think about that statement, what it means is the reason it's secrets because people just don't try to learn about it. They just don't know about it. But I can promise you the people that grow wealth know about these things and you can't leave it until you feel like you have the wealth to do it. And it's beneficial to help you get there if you'll plan ahead of time. So I know you have lots and lots of stories and case studies and things we'll share over the coming months, but what would you say to somebody that's listening to this episode and says, you know what? I don't know if I'm doing any of that kind of stuff other than doing my taxes. And I'm probably not doing a great job at really being proactive on that. Where do I start? Where does somebody start with all this? First of all, know that it's not your fault. We do a lousy job in America teaching financial education. Yeah. You graduate from high school, not know how to balance a checkbook. We don't teach how to fill out a 1040 form or the difference between simple and compound interest. You graduate from college and not know ever having filled out an earnest money agreement for real estate. And so stop beating yourself up over not knowing. But you have to be proactive. I get too many people go, I just, I don't do taxes. I just leave that to my accountant. Are you kidding? You have to be active in this. We have to be planning. I have had a chance a couple of times last year to interview Kevin O'Leary and talked about his tax planning. Mr. Wonderful Shark Tank guy. He is active planning. He doesn't have to like his accountants or his attorneys that he meets with them. It's all, it's an active plan. what can I do to reduce my taxes? If we don't actively manage things, I know death and planning for estate planning is not an attractive thing. I get that. Nobody wants to think that. But I'll tell you, I've seen hundreds of people that created such a mess by not having a plan. Some of these things are simple rules and simple strategies. Have a trust, have a will, have a power of attorney. I'll sit down with your accountant, know the difference between a tax preparer and a tax planner. Somebody can help you strategize. And what if we did this different? What if we had an LLC in place? What if we taxed the S-Corp as a C-Corp? Somebody that can sit down and strategize. And there are basic, simple rules that frankly, we don't teach in America, could the weak teach it protect wealth? That I believe every business owner, every real estate investor, everyone in America needs to know the basics. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, and you know what? There's another perspective I like to put on this because I think a lot of people out there right now, they're looking at the marketplace, they're looking at politics, they worry when the tax laws are gonna change. They worry when, who's gonna be the next president. They worry about the marketplace. They worry about pandemics. Like everybody's so worried. And the reason is because there's so much uncertainty in the world. You don't know what to expect, lawsuits, whatever it is. And one of the reasons I really wanted to emphasize this topic is because I think financial planning allows people to create certainty in an uncertain world. In other words, in your health, you may not be able to control a lot of things in your environment, but there are things you can do with your habits, with your health. There are things you can do with your eating. There are things you can control with your financial planning. And so when you can create a level of some level of certainty in an uncertain world, what happens is you all of a sudden, it's not just about having a plan. You're a little more confident. You're able to take more risks. You're able to stretch yourself. And these principles really are, whether it's asset protection, estate planning, tax strategies for your business, personal tax strategies. Guys, listen to me. When you create a little more certainty in an uncertain world, all of a sudden, you can also be happier. You can actually live life a little bit more. There's always going to be things, but you can take a little bit of a sigh. Don, do you feel like, and I know this is why you do the summit, and do you feel like people that have a solid bulletproof plan are just able to have a little bit more peace of mind? If you just nailed it right there, those last three words, that's exactly what we teach. Walk through your house at night and make sure the windows are locked and doors are locked and the alarm is on. And now I can go to sleep knowing that there's a little bit of, I can rest now. I wouldn't go to bed without checking the alarm and checking the doors and windows. That's exactly what we're doing here. You know what? I could be saving a little bit more money on taxes but you know what I doing I being responsible I got this business activity I so it from this activity If something goes wrong here my home my retirement account my family is still taken care of. I've locked the doors. I've set the window. Everything is set up. I've got an estate plan. More than anything else, George, what we're teaching by teaching defense. George, you're great at teaching offense. We teach defense. And with the defensive strategies that we teach, it brings for our students more than anything else. There's a sense of peace of mind. I can't explain to people, but when the trust is in place, when the businesses are, when everything is in place, there's a peace of mind that comes going, not that I'm ready to die. I'm not being morbid here, but there's a peace of mind going, you know what? I can rest. And there is a sense of happiness, George. It just is. Yeah. And you can become focused on the more important things like your family, relationships, growing your business and whatnot. One of the things I really love that you guys do, and it's the reason you're so good at what you do, is you put on this three-day summit. And the reason I like this summit is two things. If you're listening to this, one thing is that Don has assembled some of, we're talking literal rock stars in the area of wealth and asset protection and former IRS attorneys, stock, real estate, asset protection, law. He's got just an amazing group of individuals that have come in to teach. But the other reason is because if you're like many of us, we're just busy and you procrastinate and you put things off and you don't know when to do and where to start. One of the easiest ways to do that is to block out some time and go to an event where everyone has come together in one place. And the reason I bring this up is because as I've mentioned it before, but Don, you and your partner have made it possible for individuals that might be listening to this to attend the three-day summit, which is worth thousands of dollars, the ticket. But tell me just a little bit about what the goal is of the summit, because we're out of time. But I want people to maybe say, hey, I don't know where to start, but this might be a good place. We're doing this. You're doing this as a favor. We're doing this for people that are listening to the show because we want to help you. And so what do you try to accomplish at this three-day summit if it's something that they want to attend. You mentioned it before in the theme of our class is a lifetime to accumulate, three days to protect. Take everything you've accumulated, let's bring it together. And we're bringing in the best of the best in tax, legal, estate planning, in wealth creation that we have. We're absolute experts in their fields in oil and gas, in real estate and wealth creation, but also tax and legal. We're bringing them together and all to learn the techniques used by wealthy people to avoid taxes, to legally, to avoid headaches, to avoid lawsuits. This is what we teach. So the three-day summit is taught now by Zoom. and when we opened it up, this used to be a $3,000 class to attend. We can open up to a Zoom and we can put an extra 100, 200, 300 people on the call and it doesn't cost us any money. We're not traveling. Most of the attorneys are sitting at their home or in their office. They're teaching. So we can make this available to anybody because you don't have to travel and there's also no tuition for this. Now, when you think that you go, oh, then this has to be a sales pitch. No, I tell you, this is the greatest education financial anywhere in America. That's why we are the longest running asset protection class, three-day class anywhere in the nation is because we're very good at this. And we've trained, as you mentioned, tens of thousands of students over the years. So not only that, but because I want people to understand not only that, but these people that are teaching, they're not trainers. These are executors. These are people that own like top asset protection attorneys, top real estate investors, hundreds of millions of dollars in real estate, hundreds of millions of dollars in stock portfolios. Like we're talking about people that are doing the strategies. And one thing I teach a lot is that when you surround yourself with the right people, and these are people that have had success, failures and successes, you get a little something called belief transference. meaning when you know it's situational investment strategies, when you know what to do in the right market at the right time with the right strategy, you are just going to be more successful than trying to figure it out on your own because everyone can't be everything. There are people that are experts in tax prep, tax planning, asset protection, tax. There's just so many advantages to that. So I do appreciate that. And I know that's going to be a great topic. And I also want to be able to break down some of these topics in future episodes. I know we're going to have you break down business structures in our academy, but is there any like last piece of advice or something maybe we could leave, anything you want to say for the group? And I'll make sure I put a bunch of links in the show notes as well, but is there anything else you'd like to leave us with based on these topics before we go? Kevin, come within one of our summits. We've had thousands of people. Five-star reviews. I don't know that we've ever had a really bad review. Nobody, there's such great information and we are bringing the best of the best. Former senior trial attorney from the IRS who's turned around and sued the IRS over 2,000 times, doesn't lose cases. We're bringing people that own not just one or two pieces of real estate, but hundreds of pieces of real estate that own gas pipelines that own thousands of acres of oil mineral rights we're bringing on the best of the best of what they do and they're teaching this not from an ivory tower but from a very realistic here's how we make it work point of view and i'll tell you george i've been very blessed to be surrounded by some of the i'm not very smart myself but dang i'm connected to some of the best people in the nation. And I've been very blessed and we want to pass that on to you as well. Yeah, that's my line as well. I tell you, man, I don't claim to know anything. And I know a couple of things you have kids and grandkids, you start to be able to at least be able to say that. But I do know a lot of people that are really good at what they do, like Don Pendleton. So I appreciate you being here, Don. We will definitely put some links in the show notes. We'll have several resources and guys, listen, here's the thing. You hear me say it all the time. time, I'm going to say it again, especially with this topic. It's never too late to start living the life you were meant to live, but you've got to take action. You've got to do what you need to do. You've got to learn to create certainty in an uncertain world and surround yourself with the right people. Today, you've been hanging out with George and Don, and hopefully that's made you a little bit better. Do me a favor and share this show. Share it with somebody that's out there. You don't know who may benefit from this, but it'll help them. It'll help you. And we look forward to having you here. We appreciate your support in the show and look forward to talking with you a little bit more tomorrow. Once again, my name is George Wright III with Don Pendleton. This has been The Daily Mastermind.
