I Want to Pay Less Taxes: What Clients Are Really Asking

I Want to Pay Less Taxes: What Clients Are Really Asking

Summary Every advisor, every CPA, every financial professional has heard it: "I'm paying way too much in taxes." And while that pain is real, I've noticed something important when I dig a little deeper with clients. The taxes themselves are often the most visible and most painful part of a much larger problem. Just like a fever tells you something's off without telling you what, a high tax bill is usually signaling a breakdown somewhere in how your financial life is designed, structured, and coordinated. In this episode, I walk through the four layers of tax strategy and what each one actually requires. More importantly, I talk about what I'm really hearing when clients bring up taxes and what they're usually not saying directly but need to address. Because sometimes the best tax strategy isn't another deduction. It's a better design for how your money is working across your business, your investments, your income, and ultimately the life you're building. Key Takeaways * A high tax bill is often a fever, not the disease. Ask what's driving it before treating the symptom. * Tax prep looks backward; tax planning looks forward. Most people focus on compliance when they should be focused on strategy. * The tax code is full of incentives for business owners and investors. Structure and design, not just deductions, are where the real leverage is. * Having multiple advisors who never talk to each other is one of the most common and costly coordination failures in a financial plan. * The best tax strategy is a better design for your entire financial life, one that's built around the life you're actually trying to live. Links & Resources * Perennial Pride (Website): https://perennialpride.com [https://perennialpride.com] * Wealth Beyond the Numbers by Tom Suvansri: https://perennialpride.com [https://perennialpride.com] Keywords Perennial Pride, Perennial Pride Podcast, Tom Suvansri, financial freedom, proactive tax planning, tax strategy for business owners, tax mitigation, tax planning for high income, tax efficient investing, tax code incentives, wealth strategy, coordinated wealth strategy, Virtual Family Office, financial planning for business owners, Wealth Beyond the Numbers, deductions vs reductions, tax prep vs tax planning, high income tax planning, alternative investing, proactive financial planning Episode Highlights * [00:00:06 - 00:00:38] Tom opens with the most common thing he hears from clients: "I'm paying way too much in taxes." * [00:01:45 - 00:02:32] The doctor and fever analogy, treating symptoms vs. diagnosing root cause. * [00:03:30 - 00:04:38] Tax bill as a cash flow and wealth-building problem, not just a tax problem. * [00:04:39 - 00:05:01] The planning gap: people have pieces but no cohesive strategy connecting them. * [00:06:19 - 00:06:58] Don't let the tax tail wag the dog. Tax mitigation must be integrated, not reactive. * [00:07:19 - 00:08:05] Layer 2: Tax planning, looking forward, setting up your world to be most tax-efficient. * [00:08:47 - 00:10:21] Layer 4: The 'why,' building and sustaining a life that serves what matters most. * [00:12:15 - 00:13:15] CPAs are trusted advisors but often can't cover everything. Collaboration is the gap. * [00:14:33 - 00:15:11] Closing: the best tax strategy is better design, and it starts with asking better questions.

Building Wealth and Building Family

Summary There's a certain kind of financial education that never shows up in a classroom or on a balance sheet, and that's what Tom set out to give his son on a recent trip to the Raleigh, North Carolina area. Alongside touring a multifamily syndication investment, Tom used the experience to open the door on how real investors evaluate operators, read markets, and make decisions with significant capital on the line. It turned into something far more than due diligence. In this episode, Tom unpacks what he observed about the Raleigh market, why meeting operators in person is non-negotiable when it comes to passive investing, and how a trip to tour 150 to 200-unit workforce housing communities became a lesson in business, trust, and family legacy. He makes the case that the most undervalued part of estate planning is not the transfer of assets, it's the preparation of the people who will receive them. If you've ever thought about how to get your family more involved in your financial life, this one will give you a real framework for doing it. Key Takeaways * Meet the operators in person before investing in any private deal. Transparency, contingency planning, and integrity only reveal themselves face to face. * Visit the markets where you invest. Seeing the property, the neighborhood, and the team in their environment gives you a feel no spreadsheet can. * Including your kids in real investment conversations, even when they're young, builds the financial confidence and decision-making instincts they'll carry for life. * Legacy is not just about transferring dollars. It's about transferring values, philosophy, and the perspective to manage wealth responsibly. * Money is a tool. Normalizing the conversation around it within your family removes the taboo and puts wealth in its proper place. Links & Resources Perennial Pride (Website): https://perennialpride.com/ [https://perennialpride.com/] Wealth Beyond the Numbers by Tom Suvansri: https://perennialpride.com/ [https://perennialpride.com/] Keywords Perennial Pride, Perennial Pride Podcast, Tom Suvansri, financial freedom, wealth strategy, proactive financial planning, alternative investing, Wealth Beyond the Numbers, Virtual Family Office, real estate investing, multifamily syndication, real estate due diligence, passive investing, legacy planning, multi-generational wealth, financial education for kids, wealth building for business owners, private real estate investing, Raleigh North Carolina real estate, workforce housing investment Episode Highlights * [00:00:05 - 00:01:02] Tom introduces this as Part 1 of 2, sharing that he brought his college-age son along on a due diligence trip to the Raleigh, NC market to evaluate a multifamily syndication and spend quality time together. * [00:01:27 - 00:02:18] Tom explains the purpose of bringing his son: financial education is largely missing from schools and family conversations, and seeing real deals firsthand gives young people exposure they can't get anywhere else. * [00:02:49 - 00:03:19] Tom reflects on why investments feel abstract until you see them in person, and why he believes going on-site is essential for his own money and valuable for the rising generation. * [00:04:20 - 00:05:10] Tom shares his impressions of Raleigh, noting strong population and job growth, proximity to major universities like Duke and NC State, and a friendly, welcoming culture. * [00:05:10 - 00:06:10] The group toured properties by bus with the CEO and leadership team, giving Tom a real sense of how the operators think, communicate, and evaluate their market. * [00:06:10 - 00:07:36] Tom explains why rising interest rates froze deal flow for years, and how the specific acquisition they were evaluating came through an off-market relationship with a West Coast seller who wanted a quick, clean exit. * [00:08:18 - 00:09:51] Seeing 150 to 200-unit workforce housing communities through the lens of the operators showed Tom and his son what a vertically integrated real estate business actually looks like from sales to maintenance to renovation. * [00:10:33 - 00:12:24] Tom makes the case that the operator is the most critical variable in any passive investment, more than the property or the market, because they control how challenges are handled over a three to seven-year hold. * [00:12:04 - 00:14:19] Tom explains how in-person due diligence goes beyond spreadsheets: you see how operators communicate under pressure, whether they operate with transparency, and whether you can trust them with significant capital. * [00:15:23 - 00:16:50] Tom connects the trip to a broader point about legacy: estate planning often focuses on transferring wealth but neglects preparing the people who will receive it. Trips like this transfer knowledge, experience, and investment philosophy. * [00:17:39 - 00:18:22] Tom observes that many people don't even know what they might inherit because money is treated as a taboo topic in their families, and argues that wealth should be talked about openly as a tool. * [00:19:16 - 00:21:01] Practical investor takeaways: meet the operators, visit the markets, ask the hard questions about past failures, and look for operators who have gotten smarter over time. * [00:21:23 - 00:22:54] Practical parent takeaways: include your kids in financial conversations and decisions earlier than you think they're ready, let them see how you think analytically, and help normalize money as a topic. * [00:22:54 - 00:23:46] Tom closes with his core philosophy: wealth is not your identity. It's the tool that supports the life you want to lead and the people and causes you want to impact.

You Don't Have a Money Problem. You Have a Design Problem.

Summary There's a version of financial success that looks good on paper but feels off in practice. You've got money coming in, multiple advisors in your corner, and accounts growing in the background — but you can't shake the sense that something isn't quite working. That unease, Tom argues, is almost always a design problem, not a money problem. In this episode, Tom walks through exactly how financial fragmentation shows up: a CPA handling taxes without context for your broader wealth plan, a financial advisor managing investments without connection to your insurance or estate strategy, a handful of policies you have but don't fully understand. Independently, each piece might be solid. Together, they're a junk drawer — and junk drawers are expensive. Over time, they drain wealth through unnecessary taxes, missed compounding, trapped liquidity, and exposure you didn't know you had. The fix isn't more activity. It's a system that's intentionally designed around your actual life. Key Takeaways * Fragmented advisors create a fragmented financial life. Having multiple specialists is not the same as having a coordinated system — and the gap between the two is costing you. * The biggest wealth drainers are often invisible: excess taxes, idle cash losing purchasing power, and building up assets just to liquidate them instead of letting them compound. * Most people are forced into the role of "director" of their own financial system without the training or time to do it well. That gap is where opportunities disappear. * Proactive planning beats reactive decision-making every time. The goal is to have more options to pull from, not fewer — especially when life doesn't go as planned. * Design your life first, then build the financial system to support it. Money is a resource, not the goal. Links & Resources Perennial Pride (Website): https://perennialpride.com/ Wealth Beyond the Numbers by Tom Suvansri: https://perennialpride.com/ Keywords Perennial Pride, Perennial Pride Podcast, Tom Suvansri, financial freedom, wealth strategy, proactive financial planning, coordinated wealth strategy, Virtual Family Office, Wealth Beyond the Numbers, financial planning for business owners, wealth building, tax strategy for business owners, proactive tax planning, siloed financial advisors, financial system design, capital efficiency, legacy planning, alternative investing, risk management, asset protection Episode Highlights [00:00:27 - 00:01:39] Tom opens with the junk drawer analogy — how a financial life can start organized and quietly become a disconnected mess of accounts, advisors, and strategies that no one is managing as a whole. [00:01:39 - 00:02:56] The problem isn't that anything you've done is wrong. It's that the pieces aren't working in concert — and that creates stress, inefficiency, and risk that often shows up at the worst possible time. [00:03:37 - 00:05:02] A picture of the fragmented advisor world: a CPA focused on taxes, a financial advisor on investments, someone on insurance, maybe an estate attorney — all working in isolation with no one connecting the dots. [00:05:02 - 00:07:24] How disconnection shows up in real terms: tax strategies not tied to wealth-building goals, investments on set-it-and-forget-it mode, insurance policies people have but can't explain, and no clear system tying it all together. [00:07:44 - 00:08:28] Tom's personal reckoning — realizing he had a mishmash of things in his own financial life and had to step back, think like a designer, and ask how each piece fit into the larger picture. [00:08:29 - 00:11:21] The three biggest silent wealth drainers: overpaying taxes without a coordinated plan, holding excess cash that quietly loses value to inflation, and building up assets just to liquidate them — cutting compounding short. [00:11:54 - 00:16:57] The advisor chessboard: each specialist is focused on their own piece of the board. No one is looking at the full game. And for successful people, taxes alone can consume thirty to sixty percent of what flows through their financial life. [00:16:58 - 00:19:52] The director vs. doer distinction — the industry is full of doers executing their function. What's missing is a director: someone designing how all the pieces work together, coordinating the system, and thinking several moves ahead. [00:19:54 - 00:22:11] What coordination actually means: every financial decision made in the context of the whole system. Tax savings that flow into a wealth-building plan. Liquidity positioned for opportunity. Protection designed around your actual life. [00:22:12 - 00:23:40] The mindset shift: money first vs. life first. Tom argues your life — what you're building, what matters to you, how you want to live — has to be designed first. The financial system exists to support that, not the other way around. [00:23:41 - 00:26:40] Practical starting points: ask what all of this is actually for. Ask how the pieces connect. Ask your advisors how they're thinking about the bigger picture. And zoom out before making any significant financial decision. [00:26:41 - 00:27:46] Closing on intentionality: wealth isn't built randomly. It's built with a system, a direction, and the right people helping you hold it together.

How to Sell Your CPA Firm for More and Regret It Less

Summary Tom opens this episode by flagging one of the most expensive planning gaps he sees among business owners: the assumption that there is always more time to figure out the exit. His guest, Steve DeTray, CEPA and founder of Freedom Path Planning, brings a sharp framework to the conversation built on years of working directly with CPA firm owners who come to him too late, or just in time. They walk through why entrepreneurs, CPAs especially, tend to delay exit planning until it has already cost them, what push and pull factors actually drive most exits, and why 75 percent of business owners who sell end up regretting it within 12 months, not because of the check, but because they never thought through what comes next. The second half of the conversation gets into the mechanics: the five Ds that force half of all exits to happen involuntarily, the two-to-seven-year runway that separates a solid exit from an expensive one, and what buyers actually look for when they evaluate a CPA firm. Steve and Tom also dig into why price is not the only thing to optimize for, how proactive service offerings change a firm's valuation, and the first assessments every business owner should run before they even think about going to market. Key Takeaways * Start exit planning before you think you need to: the minimum effective runway is two years, but five to seven years gives you the best chance at a happy, financially optimized exit. * Fifty percent of business exits are forced by one of the five Ds: death, divorce, disability, disagreement, or distress. Having a plan in place protects your family and your legacy no matter what. * Owner dependence is the biggest value killer in a CPA firm: if the relationships leave when you do, buyers will discount or walk away from your business. * Price isn't the only thing that matters in a sale: employees, community, and what the buyer plans to do with your firm all determine whether you'll look back on the exit with pride or regret. * A wealth gap analysis is your first move: knowing the gap between what you have saved and what you need from the sale gives you a clear target to plan around. Links & Resources * Perennial Pride — perennialpride.com [http://perennialpride.com/] * Wealth Beyond the Numbers by Tom Suvansri — Available at perennialpride.com [http://perennialpride.com/] Keywords Perennial Pride, Perennial Pride Podcast, Tom Suvansri, financial freedom, wealth strategy, proactive financial planning, alternative investing, Wealth Beyond the Numbers, Virtual Family Office, exit planning, CPA firm exit strategy, selling a CPA firm, business exit planning, CPA firm valuation, owner dependence, five Ds business exit, exit planning for business owners, tax strategy for business exit, private equity CPA acquisition, earn-out strategy, Steve DeTray, Freedom Path Planning, Opportunity Lost Episode Highlights [00:01:36 - 00:02:37] Steve explains what drove him to write Opportunity Lost: CPAs repeatedly told him they wished they had known this sooner. [00:03:00 - 00:04:02] Steve breaks down why business owners delay exit planning: they get the financial freedom but never build in the time freedom, so the exit stays on the back burner. [00:05:38 - 00:07:05] Steve introduces push vs. pull factors: negative pressures like burnout push owners out, while a clear vision of the next chapter pulls them toward a more fulfilling transition. [00:08:12 - 00:09:55] A study by the Exit Planning Institute found that 75% of business owners who sold deeply regretted it 12 months later, not because of the price, but because they had no plan for what came next. [00:11:15 - 00:12:27] Tom and Steve walk through the five Ds of forced exits: death, divorce, disability, disagreement, and distress, which account for 50% of all business exits. [00:13:21 - 00:15:03] Steve shares his own exit: he sold his wealth management practice in three months and left six figures on the table because he had no plan in place. [00:16:17 - 00:18:12] The timeline framework: two years is the minimum, five to seven years is ideal, and starting at the beginning of the business is best of all. [00:18:13 - 00:19:10] Certain IRS-code strategies can effectively eliminate capital gains taxes on a business sale, but only with at least five years of lead time to set them up. [00:20:58 - 00:22:09] Owner dependence is the single biggest value killer in a CPA firm: if the owner holds all the client relationships, buyers see that as unacceptable risk. [00:22:10 - 00:25:29] Differentiated, proactive service offerings make clients stickier and the firm more valuable, because 74% of business owners are already open to switching CPAs. [00:25:30 - 00:27:24] Selling a business is far more complex than selling a house: Steve's due diligence process includes 150 non-financial questions that most owners cannot fully answer. [00:32:25 - 00:34:38] Exit planning is just good business planning: the same setup that makes a firm attractive to a buyer also makes it more enjoyable and sustainable for the owner right now. [00:36:08 - 00:38:25] Steve breaks down buyer types, including strategic buyers and private equity, explaining how each buyer's business model should shape deal structure and what the owner prioritizes in the negotiation. [00:40:52 - 00:42:19] The first step: run a personal assessment, a business assessment, and a wealth gap analysis to find out where you stand and how much the business needs to sell for.

Moving Money Through Our Kids, Not To Them

Executive Summary A college tour with his son gave Tom Suvansri an unexpected lens for examining some of the most important principles in personal finance. In this episode, he draws five lessons from the trip—on exposure, cost vs. return, legacy, comfort zones, and life design, and connects each one back to the wealth decisions his listeners face every day. The episode's central idea: most people think about moving money to their children, paying for college, leaving an inheritance, funding a future. But the families that build lasting, multi-generational wealth think about moving money through people, using it to shape values, capabilities, and purpose across generations. That difference, Tom argues, is the distinction between wealth that lasts and wealth that disappears. Key Takeaways * Constantly seek exposure to new financial ideas, staying in your bubble means making decisions with limited information and leaving real opportunity on the table. * Stop defaulting to cost-consciousness alone; evaluate every financial decision by its long-term return, not just its up-front price tag. * Shift your thinking from money to your children to money through your children, the difference is whether you're funding a moment or building a foundation. * Wealth transfer isn't just about moving dollars, it's about passing down the wisdom, values, and capabilities to steward those dollars across generations. * Growth, in life and in your financial strategy, happens outside your comfort zone. Discomfort is a signal you're in the right place. * Design your financial life intentionally. Facing hard questions (legacy, mortality, purpose) is what moves you from autopilot to a coordinated wealth strategy. * Gratitude first, then optimization, start by acknowledging what's working before you identify the gaps worth addressing. Links & Resources Perennial Pride — perennialpride.com [http://perennialpride.com/] Wealth Beyond the Numbers by Tom Suvansri — Available at perennialpride.com [http://perennialpride.com/] Keywords Perennial Pride, Perennial Pride Podcast, Tom Suvansri, financial freedom, wealth strategy, proactive financial planning, legacy planning, multi-generational wealth, wealth transfer, college planning, money as a tool, wealth stewardship, family wealth, Infinite Banking Concept, alternative investing, Wealth Beyond the Numbers, financial mindset, estate planning, Virtual Family Office, wealth building for business owners Episode Highlights Timestamp Highlight 00:00:30 Tom shares how a college tour with his son prompted him to examine five financial principles he'd been thinking about. 00:02:19 Why exposure—to schools, strategies, and financial ideas—is the foundation of better decision-making at every level. 00:04:41 The danger of confirmation bias in wealth-building: staying comfortable means making decisions with limited information. 00:06:36 How cost-consciousness without long-term ROI thinking leads to missed opportunity—in education and in financial planning alike. 00:09:35 The insurance blind spot: most people don't know what protections they actually have until the moment they need them. 00:11:40 The shift from money to vs. money through—and why that difference defines whether wealth lasts or disappears in a generation. 00:13:40 Legacy isn't just transferring dollars. It's transferring the wisdom, values, and purpose to use those dollars well. 00:15:37 The Rockefeller vs. Vanderbilt contrast: one family has perpetuated wealth for generations; the other watched billions dissolve. 00:18:10 Why comfort is the enemy of growth—and why meaningful progress in life and finance requires stepping into discomfort. 00:22:29 Facing the hard conversations—mortality, legacy, purpose—is how you move from financial autopilot to intentional life design. 00:25:02 The core question Tom leaves listeners with: are you moving money to your life, or through things that create lasting meaning?