Thomas Kopelman 💵

I am a financial planner that works with the wealthiest 1% of people in their 30s and 40s I wish everyone understood these 10 critical lessons about finance:

@jonahtinajero Super strange

@TKopelman Funny you bring this up today. I ran into a client that had an umbrella policy. It had the wife and the trust listed under the the insurance… but the husband was only on there as a driver of one of the vehicles. Something I’ve never ran into before.

Umbrella insurance has to be the most overlooked part of asset protection I have worked with 5-10 clients who have been in car accidents and been sued for $1mil-$2mil Umbrella insurance saved them You never know when you or your kids could have something like this happen Umbrella can help protect against this for such a small cost

@WallStHoops @MitlinFinancial @markcecchini So fair! That’s a super valuable skill I wasn’t saying that to downplay it Not everyone is made for that side

@TKopelman @MitlinFinancial @markcecchini Indeed. But man his care factor, integrity factor, attention to detail, work ethic, and leadership is very high as well as his people skills communication & charisma. It’s just, asking people to do business with him/us. It all breaks down. He needs to run a book not build a book.

Doing a favor for an advisor of mine who is looking for a few new people to join his growing independent RIA. (Last time I did this, it led to a new hire) If you are interested, click the link in the comments. Two open roles: 1. Associate Advisor (Remote Position) 2. Client Service Associate or Operations Lead (Remote Position) Description: --High growth RIA led by founder with a 20-year institutional investment background who has MBA, CFA, CPA. --The firm is around 5 years old, so the future growth opportunity of the role does not have limits. >$400M AUM and adding >$100M per year --Looking for learning machines who are passionate about partnering with clients, continuous improvement and teamwork. --Open to any experience level but at least 2-3+ years of related but not exact experience and with an independent RIA a plus. --Business owner niche with tax efficient and investment-led focus. HNW to UHNW client partners. --No sales responsibilities but not opposed to it.  The funnel does not require additional prospects. --Flexible on taking the positions to whatever makes sense for the person’s interests and capabilities. --For Associate Advisor, CFP, CFA or CPA/EA preferred as well as Bachelor’s degree and ability to take over $1-5M+ AUM clients as lead or team approach over the coming years.

@TKocher33 Yeah, it’s a great move

@TKopelman I’m liking the new trump accounts as well, then converting to Roth IRA when they’re 18 and pay very little tax. Great tax free jump start for their retirement! I think I will be splitting my contributions for my kids between the 2 accounts when I have them.

Why I like 529 plans for my clients: - tax free growth (they pay 23.8% capital gains at a minimum) - ability to superfund and get a lot in when kids are young - can change beneficiary to other kids - $35k Roth conversion - can use $20k/yr for private school - can use for room and board - can use for SAT, ACT, tutoring, etc - can use for trade school - worst case pay 10% penalty and income taxes on the growth which is the same as the capital gains tax would be for them

@WallStHoops @MitlinFinancial @markcecchini This is the truth for 9/10 advisors Getting clients is the hardest part

@MitlinFinancial @markcecchini @TKopelman My former FA who didn’t work out w us would be great in a role like this. I swear by him and swear he would be a better advisor than both me & my wife. Problem is sales skills aren’t there and we ran out of money before be built his book. If interested hit me i sent him the link.

For most high net worth individuals, you can save a lot on insurance costs by making one change Increasing your deductibles With most insurances, this is one of the largest costs And for you, your risk is not paying $500-$10,000 You can handle these expenses with no issues That is why higher deductibles can be a great move

@cjbaug5 Yup! Of course

@TKopelman Be careful on state recapture rules on 529 plan to Roth if you received state tax credits or deductions. Especially in Indiana.

@jennyrozelle @WeAreWealth Well said!

This week, I received a beautiful, massive bouquet of flowers from @WeAreWealth. You might be thinking: “Wait… you’re an estate planning attorney - aren’t you supposed to despise them?” Let’s talk about that… 🧵

@Eli_Albrecht See this so much with small to mid size firms Big firms quality of work goes down fast in law, tax, financial advising, etc

We closed an M&A deal or a family office that previously used BigLaw for all their deals. Today, the client told me, while the price was half as much, the quality was double. He said, even if the price was double, we would have been happy.

@averagemoneymd Completely agree Why not allow just to deduct child care expenses for day care ya know

@TKopelman Should be more like $20k per child…but yes better than nothing

Friendly reminder the dependent care FSA limit went up to $7,500 I know, I know It still won't cover all the costs But a few thousand in tax savings is still great

I really don’t think it would our clients have no issue paying large fees for the planning we do. They literally pay $1500-2000+ a month from their bank account and stay for a reason I have a little over a 100 clients right now and our monthly cash flow billing is over $140k a month and aum is $26k a month

@TKopelman But my whole point is if you had to actually present an invoice to the client and them write you a check for what you actually did would you not agree that would materially change your business? No Recurring revenue just billed work to the client that you had to collect.

Advisors just do index funds, there’s no reason to hire one The most average advisors, sure Great advisors literally help on every part of your financial life Here’s my most recent signed client: - owns 3 businesses - makes 2.5mil a year - has 2mil in cash on the sidelines - has no tax planning strategy - has large underpayment penalties yearly - no estate plan - same basic insurances since they were a young low income earner - planning to buy land and build but no idea what they can afford, how much to put down, etc - plans to sell main business in 3 years But sure… they just need help from us on index funds We will probably talk investments for 5 minutes of the first year and 40+ hours of planning on everything else

It’s exactly why you don’t But that’s not the hourly rate as we have to prep for the call ahead of the time Financial planning isn’t a show up and talk. You have to know everything going on and do the background work And I have a client who just signed for this this week Our minimum fee is $18k I added just about 60 households last year at that minimum fee

@TKopelman Your time is worth $3,000/hr? Show me how many hours you’ve actually billed at this and clients have paid in the last year. If that was the case you would be crazy not to do hourly billing on everyone.

@Skidd28925417 @baparish Lol fair. I as in my firm and team All businesses have levels of people working on things to do the work well

@TKopelman @baparish That went from ‘I’ to ‘we’ pretty quickly. Even so, 30–40 hours per client is beyond the point of diminishing returns for added client value.

@baparish It would cost them way more for sure You get a discount to be on a yearly model then billed hourly My one meeting model for 90 minutes is $4,500

@TKopelman I’m not disputing that at all and not saying you don’t provide a ton of value. My point is you do 35 hours worth of work-Why not just send your client a bill and they pay you?

@Skidd28925417 @baparish How now? Me a director of ops and a full time planner/enrolled agent total spends that amount Revenue will be post $2mil I see 0 issues with that at all haha

@TKopelman @baparish 30-40 hours per client per year isn’t realistic at any scale. If that’s the number, something’s being double-counted or the model doesn’t scale.

@baparish I can understand that

@TKopelman Point is (not saying you) often use the current % AUM to extract the maximum in fees for what often times amounts to a trivial amount of work. Otherwise, why would it not be billed hourly universally? Is it fair to charge someone more just because they have more money?

All the highest performers I know have one specific quality They figure shit out And they do not make excuses