The Deep Wealth Podcast - Unlock Your Deep Wealth—In Business and Life

Wealth Advisor Erik Brenner Reveals the Hidden Wealth Strategy the Ultra-Rich Use And You Don’t (#489)

• Jeffrey Feldberg • Season 3 • Episode 489

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“ Persevere and know you’ll get through it.” - Erik Brenner

Exclusive Insights from This Week's Episodes

In this eye-opening episode, Wealth Advisor Erik Brenner reveals the hidden wealth strategy that transforms how the ultra-rich build, protect, and pass on their fortunes. Discover how to legally minimize taxes, design a wealth system that runs without you, and create a legacy that outlives your business.

2:12 How Erik went from family business to leading Hilltop Wealth Solutions

6:45 The biggest financial mistakes entrepreneurs make after success

10:32 Why the ultra-rich never treat tax, wealth, and legacy as separate

14:08 The “Personal CFO” model and why every entrepreneur needs one

19:40 How to prepare years before your liquidity event

24:15 The mindset shift that turns wealth into freedom, not stress

29:03 Building legacy while you’re alive—not after you’re gone

34:17 Erik’s proven framework for integrating wealth, taxes, and purpose

Click here for full show notes, transcript, and resources:

https://podcast.deepwealth.com/489

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489 Erik Brenner

[00:00:00]

Introduction to Erik Brenner and Hilltop Wealth

Jeffrey Feldberg: What if your financial advisor could do more than grow your portfolio?

What if they fundamentally change how you see retirement taxes and legacy?

Erik Brenner isn't just another financial planner. With over three decades of experience he's built Hilltop Wealth and Tax Solutions into a firm that integrates wealth, tax and estate planning in a way most advisors never do.

But his journey started from a more personal place. After selling his family business, Erik realized that finance isn't just about numbers. It's about life transitions, values, and creating impact that lasts beyond the balance sheet. As President, CEO and Private Wealth Advisor, Erik helps retirees, medical professionals, and entrepreneurs navigate the complexities of money, legacy and freedom, guiding them through the moments that most reshape their lives.

His work combines a high technical proficiency with a deep longing for fulfillment to help clients not only reach financial security, [00:01:00] but to use it as a platform to live more meaningfully.

This is a conversation about transformation and what it takes to lead with vision when money, risk, identity, and legacy all collide, and it's about building a financial life that doesn't just feel safe, but truly abundant.

Deep Wealth Mastery Program Testimonials

Jeffrey Feldberg: And before we start the episode, a quick word from our sponsor, Deep Wealth and the Deep Wealth Mastery Program. Here's Bill, a graduate, who says, the Deep Wealth Mastery Program has transformed the KPIs we're using to accelerate growth and profits.

Or how about Emry, who says, and I love this, and I quote, the Deep Wealth Mastery Program helped me create the right mindset for both growing my business and later my future exit. I now know what questions to ask, what to do and what not to do, which is priceless. The team and I have found dangerous skeletons and gaps that we're now addressing due to the Deep Wealth program. Today, our actions have a massive ROI. 

Absolutely love that. 

And now, speaking of [00:02:00] growth and adding value, check out what Bruce says, and I quote, As a business owner, I'm always looking for new programs, systems, CEO peer groups, and strategies to improve my business. Hands down, the Deep Wealth Mastery program is the absolute best. I'm both growing my business and preparing for a future exit at the same time. It doesn't get any better. 

And I gotta tell you, as I hear these testimonials, this is exactly why I do what I do. My mission, the team's mission here at Deep Wealth, is to literally change the social fabric of society, one business owner at a time and one liquidity event at a time.

The Deep Wealth Mastery program, it's the only one based on a nine figure deal. And that deal, that was my deal. You know my story. I said no to a seven figure offer. I created a system that we now call Deep Wealth Mastery and that's exactly what helped myself and my business partners welcome from a different buyer, a different offer, a nine figure deal.

So if you're interested in growing your profits, preparing for a future liquidity event, [00:03:00] Whether that's three years away or 33 years away, and if you want to optimize your post exit life, Deep Wealth Mastery is for you. 

Please email success at deepwealth. com. Again, that's success, S U C C E S S at deepwealth. com. 

We'll send you all the information about the Deep Wealth Mastery Program, otherwise known as the Scale for Ultimate Sales System. Better yet, why not hop on a complimentary strategy call? We'll see where you are at your business and what's standing between you and your financial independence and your dreams.

So that's where you want to be. You want to be with other successful business owners, entrepreneurs, and founders, just like you, who are looking to create market disruptions, whether you're a startup, whether you've been in business for three or four decades, whether you're manufacturing, whether you're a high tech, SaaS, low tech, whatever the case may be.

Come on in and network with other business owners, with other businesses, just like you, because they all want to lock in their financial freedom and enjoy both success and fulfillment. Again, the 90 day Deep Wealth Mastery [00:04:00] Program, it has your name on it. All you need to do is take the next step. Please send an email to success at deepwealth. com. 


Welcome to the Deep Wealth Podcast

Jeffrey Feldberg: Deep Wealth Nation welcome to another episode of the Deep Wealth Podcast. I am delighted that in the House of Deep Wealth, we have a fellow entrepreneur, an author, a thought leader in Deep Wealth Nation. Let me ask you a question. When it comes to your wealth from the business and elsewhere, how are you approaching that?

Are you approaching that or are you too busy paying higher taxes than you should? Ignoring investment opportunities, really having your money work for you instead the other way around. And I know if you ask the Jeffrey, in my early days of my entrepreneurial journey, I'd say no to all of that, and so many entrepreneurs are there.

We wanna put an end to that today. That's why we have a very special guest. Erik, welcome to the Deepal podcast. An absolute pleasure to have you with us. You know, we heard the official introduction. What's the real story behind this story? What got you from where you were to where you are today?

Erik Brenner's Entrepreneurial Journey

Erik Brenner: So thanks for having me. I'm really excited to be here. My story really begins when I was young. My father was an [00:05:00] entrepreneur, so I grew up in the business family business. I went to work with him when I was off of school and always got that bug, so it was I didn't know any different and really felt like the family business wasn't something that I wanted to continue, so we ended up selling it, kinda looking around, what's gonna be next?

My father wanted to retire and I found the. Financial planning wealth business and found that, you know what, I can be an entrepreneur, I can be a business owner, and I can really make an impact with people's lives. And that's where I latched on 32 years ago. And here I sit today.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Absolutely love that. Let me ask you this just before we get going. Growing up in an entrepreneurial family and your father, he is leading the entrepreneurial way probably even before he is even a word. How did that affect you or did that affect. To being in a household where, hey, your dad is in business for himself and doing what most people aren't doing.

Did that make a splash on you in any way?

Erik Brenner: Yeah, it really, made an impact. I, Didn't [00:06:00] know the other way. But then as I got older and, met people that were more about not taking the risk, wanting to make sure that they have a consistent income I never really was in that camp. And so what it prepared me for was a couple things.

Number one is he taught me a lot on how to lead people and how to lead teams. So that was a really big help. You learn a lot by doing. So. I was able to do that even at a young age. Very helpful. And then it also taught me, you know, we prepared along with some consulting on our experts at the time, we prepared our business for sale.

So I went through all that. I had an interest that from day one, a numbers piece of it always had an interest in finance. And so that really gave me some experience, not just in working in the business but working on the business and, being able to take that to kind of, you know what I launched 32 years ago.

Jeffrey Feldberg: And Erik, let me ask you this before we start getting into the nuts and bolts. 

The Importance of Comprehensive Financial Planning

Jeffrey Feldberg: I [00:07:00] know in our 90 day flagship Deep Wealth Mastery program, when we go to step six, which is an advisory team, and these are hardcore entrepreneurs like you, like me, they're just at it and they have these big visions and dreams, and when we ask, Hey, are you working with someone for your current investments and for the cashflow that you do have, some of the profits perhaps you're putting away.

One of the common things that we hear is, Hey, Jeffrey, no, I don't have enough money. I'm not quote-unquote, wealthy yet to be able to bring on an advisor like that, for someone in Deep, both Nation who's thinking that they're not rich enough yet, they don't have enough money in the bank yet to work with someone like yourself, what are they missing out on?

What would you want them to know?

Erik Brenner: Yeah, I think a couple things. One is it's not just about how much an investor. You know, As an entrepreneur, certainly you probably have a big investment. It's probably your biggest investment is your business. And so you wanna think about it more as the consultant, the comprehensive planning consultant.

And what we've done over the years is we've developed with [00:08:00] clients that we say, look, we wanna be your CFO, your chief financial officer, not in your business, but overall. And so we're gonna help you with all aspects of life, making insurance decisions, the right type, the right amount, making investment decisions once you have enough assets, tax decisions.

So although we do taxes and we have a tax division, so we do taxes for business owners, tax planning and tax planning, mitigation. So if you're successful in the business or gonna be successful, you know, having somebody that's looking forward. For you on the team. So we help coordinate that all for somebody.

So just because it's not just about managing assets, oftentimes people, yes, they manage assets. That's what they do. They don't offer that comprehensive look or guidance for those that are in their own business.

Jeffrey Feldberg: And what's interesting, when I was preparing for today and looking into what you and the team are doing, I'm gonna very deliberately [00:09:00] use the word holistic because all too often we're speaking with one particular advisor and they're in a silo. They're just focusing on this one area, and that's fine.

They're missing the whole other area, just like we're not one part, we're a whole person, an entire body of what's going on there. And so let me ask you this. There's a good old 80 20 principle or what some people call Frito's law, 80% of, in this case, let's call it the challenges or the missteps, are created by 20% usually of the same issues.

Common Financial Mistakes Entrepreneurs Make

Jeffrey Feldberg: So for most entrepreneurs, when you begin to work with AmErika, you and the team, where are they perhaps not getting it, or if I can use the word mistakes or they're just doing things wrong, what would some of those more common issues be that you're seeing?

Erik Brenner: Of them were if from an entrepreneur perspective is, is their business financial house in order, meaning that, you think about even a benefits program, the benefits they offer retirement plans, how does that, help you building a team, if you have employees, how does that [00:10:00] help you build that package?

That's part of it. That's where oftentimes people miss the boat. They also miss the boat. Being a business owner and maybe having a team, If you have the means, can you save more money in those different resources. So really having somebody take a look at from independent as what's best for you there.

And then secondly is thinking beyond the business. So thinking beyond the business, often is your most valuable and highest asset, but you gotta think beyond it. What's your balance sheet look like? What's the cash flows look like? Preparing for a downturn, those kinds of things.

The other piece that's often missed is succession planning. So who, if something happened to you, if you're the key, owner operator, something happened to you, what happens to your business? How does it affect your family? Does your business continue to survive? We see a lot of people don't have any of that really thought out.

They don't have the [00:11:00] documentation to even carry it out. And unfortunately, I've been through some situations where folks didn't have that something happens and it be very devastating to a family situation.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Absolutely. So walk us through, let's go take the curtain. We're gonna go behind the curtain, so to speak, and reveal where your magic sauce is. So I'm coming to you, Erik I'm a typical hard charging entrepreneur and I'm just really focused on the business. I'm not looking so much out beyond that. What are you and the team doing?

What would I expect? How long is this taking? Where is it taking me?

Erik Brenner: Yeah, I mean the first process is, we call it a discovery process. It's nothing that's, special to us, but we gotta find out more about the business itself. What is your goal? Do you have an exit thought process, the timeframe, and how is that going to work into your overall plan?

So we really work through developing the goals. What's your retirement timeframe plan? Do you have others that you're gonna bring into the business? And a lot of [00:12:00] times we start with folks haven't really thought about a lot of those things, so we help crystallize that for 'em. And then we work from, okay, personally, this is your plan.

Now let's, dig into the business itself and determine how are we going to, achieve your plan through. Your business. And so we work through that alongside of making sure that you really have good accounting methods, making sure that if you're now are successful and you're in higher brackets, are you overlooking strategies that maybe are available to you that you just don't know about 'em?

Because you haven't been guided that way that they are available. So that would also be a big piece for higher income entrepreneurs is a big piece of that. And then, as I said, the documentation and just, we have to remind people, talking about a succession plan if you were to die, it's not really a fun discussion, but we're gonna be.

[00:13:00] Working with people to try to get that done for 'em. And just as a reminder, we think ourselves as kind of a quarterback, the CFO quarterback, like we were talking about, working with the other important advisors in the situation to make sure we're all coordinated.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Yeah, there is so much there in Deep Wealth. What I love about this Deep Wealth nation is it all goes back to preparation. When you're doing this well in advance of not having the pressure on you, you have some time to think, to plan, to get the right kind of advisors around you, like Erik and. Team, this is where the magic really happens.

And so I'm wondering, Erik, on your side, when you sold the family business, you're all a part of that now, what was the most unexpected challenge that you faced and how did that shape where you are today?

Erik Brenner: Yeah, I think that the challenges, I think back, I mean it was a few years ago, 34 years ago now, but I mean one of the biggest challenges was. Quite frankly, the negotiation process and making sure [00:14:00] that it was a win-win. How's this all gonna fit? How are we gonna transfer it? Ultimately getting advice on, okay, what's this look like tax wise?

Oftentimes people look at it from gross, this is what your offering is, but what's under the hood, right? Net. And we focus on net a lot. We focus on net when you're investing, net, what are you putting in your pocket? So I think those things were a bit challenging. We had some CPA accountant and certainly helping us that we had a good partner there, but it was challenging kind of coming up with.

Really what was fair value and how we're gonna transition it, you know, it was a life's work. I worked in it, my father did it for 25 years, so, he, it was a life work of that. And although he did think about it once I decided, no, it's not for me. it wasn't that we could throw a switch on, like if you're employed somewhere, turning your notice and in three [00:15:00] months you're done.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Sure. And that's something we certainly relate to Erik as we have our community that are going through the Deep Wealth Mastery program, or we're talking about these things in our online community. All of those issues are coming up there. And so I'm wondering where we sit today. So much has changed in terms of geopolitically and the political regime and all those other kinds of things, and not getting political at all on the show.

But looking more at, okay, what's the net for me as an entrepreneur where we sit today, and of course things are gonna change after this recording goes live. Where we're sitting today, what's some areas or maybe the area that most entrepreneurs are overlooking that you and your team, you're gonna help me.

Hey Jeffrey, we should really be focusing on this. You're probably not aware of it. It's gonna have a huge impact of either let's stop doing this, or let's start doing that. What would that be?

Erik Brenner: There is a lot of things that could change as a business owner. So having guidance on that and what has changed, that may affect your business, I think that's a big one. The other one is that. With retirement saving [00:16:00] retirement plans, there are plans that are available and those that are business owners, that you can, put a lot of money away. If you have the cash flow and save a lot of tax, but the challenge is you have to think down the road. You're just deferring a potential problem down the road. So there's just a lot more choice today than there was 30 years ago. Retirement plans many years ago, 20, 30 years ago, was for the large corporations.

the big corporations because they were expensive to run, they just didn't make sense. And I will say that now there are so many choices that you can utilize that can be efficient, save tax, as I said, build teams those things that people really need to consider.

The Role of Legacy in Financial Planning

Jeffrey Feldberg: As they're considering that I'm gonna use the L word legacy, and I know for so many entrepreneurs it's not even on the radar. It's usually an afterthought. So when it [00:17:00] comes to legacy, firstly from your perspective, just from your own experience, from working with so many other entrepreneurs, what does legacy mean to you and what should we be thinking about as an entrepreneur?

As I look to my own legacy.

Erik Brenner: Yeah. So I think a legacy means, what do you wanna see happen if something happens to you? And as a business owner, entrepreneur, you have to think about two things, one is the business.

what truly happens to the business, and if you don't have a plan in place, then you know, it closes up.

It's a fire sale, it's what happens? And then. Entrepreneur, they can think about it personally. And oftentimes that gets put off, most of the people we meet with in initially it's 60% or so, don't even have a plan in place if something happens to them. But when you add in a business, now you have more. To go to. Who do you want it to go to? I always tell people, you have two choices. You can leave it to the ones you love care about charity, or you can leave it to taxes [00:18:00] IRS. Those kinds of things. So what kind, legacy and what does that really mean? And helping people define what is legacy. Legacy doesn't necessarily mean setting up a foundation and, legacy sometimes is very little in money.

It can be a lot of money, but getting people to really think about that, as a step back. And that's one of the things I think that we really bring to the table is people are busy every day working, doing their thing, running their business. It's a time to step back and work on your business, not in it.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Yeah, so true. And it takes on a whole different meeting. And one of the interesting things, Erik, when someone first comes into the Deep Wealth community, we ask a very simple question. And the question is, Erik, does the business run without you? If you were abducted by aliens today and you came back six months from now, or six years from now, would you still have a business?

Yes or no? We hear a lot of excuses, a lot of, well, let me tell you this, or, well, let me tell you that. Usually though, it's no, the business [00:19:00] isn't running without them. And part of what's great about what you're talking about with legacy, it doesn't have to be just when we're no longer here. Hey, I started this business for a reason.

I want a certain lifestyle. Have not been able to do that. I have the golden handcuffs and part of the legacy, what we love about it here at Deep Wealth would love your thoughts about that. When we do it right, we get the business to run without us. We get our time back. We can choose to spend it in the business.

We can choose to do other kinds of things, but the point is we have a choice. Would love your thoughts about that, particularly when it comes to legacy planning and just planning in general.

Erik Brenner: Yeah. No, that's absolute. I think that's right on is you know that if you're not here, what happens? And so you really have to think about, if you want to have. Flexibility, those choices you mentioned, right? Potentially an exit strategy. All of that, you really have to think that through.

Obviously if you're gonna work the business and work the business, and eventually when you're done. You just close it up, different situation. Then you also have to plan [00:20:00] for, okay, if I'm gonna close it up and retire now what? Where have I got money, right? If you're not getting much out of it.

So I think that's 100% true, and it's just really hard. I know this as a business owner growing up in it, it's really hard to work on the business often because things come up. And they come up and you, okay, well you put it aside. So, a couple things that I think about as a business owner, number one, is that when you leave and go on vacation, to me that was a good test.

If I can leave for a week, they don't need to call me. They can run it for a week. Start small increments. Just see if it's runnable working on the business, maybe not doing that at the business. You have somewhere else you can go home, a little whatever restaurant, get away from the business and you know, it's, I'm not available for this afternoon.

Those kinds of things. I think also and then the [00:21:00] last thing is you have to be truly honest with yourself. I've seen a lot of people, well, my business is worth this. It's worth, you have to really be honest with yourself on if it is worth that, why is it? Is that really the case? And I think just having reality and being honest with yourself.

Jeffrey Feldberg: And as you're talking about that, you're reminding me of something that we go really a lot of depth into in the Deep Wealth Mastery Program. But I want to ask you from what you're saying, oftentimes not making a choice whether we realize it or not, it is making a choice. And as entrepreneurs, we can become so busy that when it comes to things.

Perhaps it's taxes or it's our retirement, or it's estate planning, we're not really aligned with it. Or I'm gonna over exaggerate on this. Yes, my brothers. Best friends. Second cousin removes Uncle is an expert in this one area. I'm just gonna use them. They're not expensive, and they'll just get the job done.

And so where I'm going with that ridiculous example, but to bring it home and [00:22:00] get your thoughts on that. What are the hidden costs when we're not doing these things properly? Or maybe not even doing it at all, both financially, personally, what have you seen?

Erik Brenner: Well, I mean, I think about it in a couple ways. One is making sure that people do have some expertise, experience in the area that they're working in. What is the history, what's the expertise? And yeah, you may pay a little bit more, but you know, typically it's gonna be worth it.

So that's one piece of it is kind of how I think about it, is if I'm gonna go for a heart surgery, I wanna have a heart surgeon that does more than one a month or one every few months. I'm gonna want someone that has done a lot, seen a lot, has the great technology to give them the data to go in and do my surgery, all of that.

So what's the experience and expertise there? Which I think is really important. And then on the planning piece that I think is often missed, and we talk about this a lot, but [00:23:00] mitigation, there's planning. And doing a budget with through your business and all of that.

But then there's mitigation. 

Mitigation Strategies for Reducing Taxes

Erik Brenner: And so, and mitigation really is the unknown gem because mitigation simply means that you're using the tax code and the tax laws to mitigate, which means reduce tax this year and never pay it back. So there are so many mitigation strategies that can be available.

And they're different for different folks. They just don't know how to utilize 'em. And so typically their CPA or accountant, and although they may have a good CPA accountant, they're busy, with the laws, the current laws doing the, tax returns, doing the accounting work, right? They don't have time.

Nor do they have the experience of working with strategies like that. So I see a lot of entrepreneurs give up. That I [00:24:00] was just working on a case with a client that's having a big exit strategy, massive exit strategy selling the business and also taking stock. I mean, we're moving the needle.

This year of almost $7 million less in federal taxes by not doing it and doing it. So we're talking, those kinds of things. You just don't assume take the sale and then there's nothing to do. So, that is also often overlooked, especially on exit strategies.

The Importance of Proactive Tax Planning

Jeffrey Feldberg: In de palpation, I want you to think about what Erik just shared, and for starters, we're busy running the business. We don't know what we don't know, Erik and the team they do, and whether it's $7 million, whether it's $7,000 or $70,000, if we can save that, not just this year. The year after that. The year after that, you have the compounding effect.

So what would that mean? That every year, an extra $7,000, let's just play it down an extra [00:25:00] $7,000, Erik, that I normally wouldn't have. But now I'm working with you and the team. You show me some strategies. I'm able to legally and above board save this money and I can now set it and forget it. I'm investing it, I'm putting it off to the side, the compound effect.

Warren Buffett said, this is the eighth wonder of the world. That's huge in terms of what it can do. So deportation, lemme ask you this. What is it costing you? To not do this, to not be sitting down with someone like Erik and team and going through what you can do that's going to, again, everything's above board, everything's legal, save you from having to pay more taxes or structure it in such a way that down the road is gonna be a huge boon to your family or to your business.

You're gonna change things up. What's the true cost of that? Because oftentimes it's invisible. We don't see it. Or if we do see it by the time we do see it, it's too late. We can't be done. One of the things that we see so often, Erik, when it comes to our exit, whether we're taking some of the chips off the table now, or all of them.

Uncle Sam has been around the block pretty much and has seen it [00:26:00] all. And so we can't, six months before or six days before a liquidity event say, okay, we're now gonna do it this way. We're gonna save all these taxes. Oftentimes these instruments, these strategies have to be in place for years for them to take effect.

We'd love your thoughts on that and some of your insights.

Erik Brenner: Yeah, no, that is true. I mean, that, that is true, that things do change, tax laws change. We just had the big, one big, beautiful bill. There's some changes in there that happened for the positive. And you need to get guided and think about that. look at it as while you're working, while you're doing your, growing your business, working in your business, and then also, you know, if you're eventually gonna exit and it won't happen if you don't take a proactive approach.

So, it just, you, if you just kind of go along. And what I've found is, those that have the income now and have higher taxes and entrepreneurs are successful, they have the income to pay the tax. So if you're going along, you can pay the tax. So, you get your taxes, pay [00:27:00] quarterlies, let's work all that out.

But, they have that to pay the tax. So they just pay it,

So they just look at it and go, well, I got the money to pay it and I still got extra. And we're living a pretty good life. Okay, well I can tell you that the ultra wealthy they don't typically become satisfied with, because they just pay it.

They often have teams of people that work for 'em and they are really, really smart. And they also know the code and they know how to work the code. And like you said, Jeffrey, it's, we're not talking here strategies that are questionable and you're pulling 'em off Twitter.

We're talking about true strategies that are available, and they think about that, what you were saying, if I can save X amount the next year, it's compounding right? Their wealth grows. So really important to be proactive and be guided proactively.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Absolutely. 

Unlearning Conventional Wisdom in Business

Jeffrey Feldberg: And let me ask you this. I mean, you've been doing this for over three decades, and I'm [00:28:00] wondering what have you had to unlearn from the quote-unquote conventional wisdom, which usually is not so wise, not so smart, usually wrong. What have you had to unlearn that you can share with us today?

Erik Brenner: Yeah, I mean, I think a couple things. One is that one of the things I had to unlearn is I would say earlier on I kind of settled, coming up with a solution and just okay, first solution and kind of settled. I think that's the best. So I had to unlearn to really dig in more on, let's make sure this is the best. The other thing is that now I realize there's not just one way to do things. there's, several ways someone can get to their goal. And so, often two or three different strategies. And then what's the comfort level, the client, how we gonna get there?

That's another thing I had to unlearn versus, this is the way you can get there. There's one way to get there. There's multiple ways to get there. And what I've learned in being involved with. [00:29:00] Sales, acquisitions, mergers not just with clients, but also in my own business as well, that now there's just, so much more that has transpired with the business owners that deals every deal is different.

Pretty much. And so just understanding as the seller in this case every deal's different, what's it gonna look like? And so I kind of had to unlearn that versus it's not cookie cutter.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Absolutely, and as you're talking about, it's not cookie cutter and new things. Were on the scene. We talked about the big beautiful bill that's now come onto the scene. What's typically being overlooked that isn't getting enough headlines or people aren't talking about enough that has an entrepreneur, it's a big impact for me.

Overlooked Opportunities for Entrepreneurs

Erik Brenner: I would say that, you certainly can dig into the business on, there are things that can use Section 1 79, this or that, so you can dig into those kinds of things. So you know that, and that's important. And oftentimes a very skilled CPA accounting, [00:30:00] right? They know.

The law and what you can deduct, what you can't deduct, in those types of situations. I think what gets what really gets overlooked is sometimes people thinking they're not big enough meaning size. In this, business to, offer, a co a retirement plan. I'm just not big enough.

It's too costly, so they just don't look at that and that's missed opportunity. One of the things I look at is it's not just about building. The business owner's net worth. It's also about building the team and then leading to what you mentioned earlier, can you leave or what if you go for six months.

Is that team there? And that's a whole package. Compensation's important, but it's a, and I've found that, it's not just about compensation anymore, it's about the whole package. And so I think often that's overlooked.

Jeffrey Feldberg: I love how you're looking again at the big picture, taking a step back. Okay. What's really. [00:31:00] Going on here, over here, over there. It's not just, let's just look at the one small area here. Everything has impacts, everything has intended or unintended repercussions, and it is terrific at how you're able to do that.

So, Erik, let me ask you this. When you started Hilltop, I mean you could have been doing any number of things in the beginning, what was the big problem that you said to yourself, Hey, this really is not being handled out here. Let me be the one to do this. And how has that vision changed, if at all?

Erik Brenner: Yeah, I mean I think, well first off it was really rough. You think, okay, I'm a nice person. Initially it was way investment focused and although we still have certainly investments is very critical thinking it was gonna be easier. Than what it was. Our business, we just can't, throw up a sign and have a sale and people just come in the door.

So that was really tough. And of course we didn't have the internet. And so all of that was really tough. And then what we determined was there was just a lot of people that would sell you something. Make an [00:32:00] investment, sell it to you, you invest, and we really wanted to, and I wanted to be more comprehensive as we've talked about, a differentiator that it's not about a product, and this is why many years ago we went fully independent.

So we don't work for anybody, we don't do commissionable type things. Unfortunately, a lot of times the advice is really to lead someone down the path of buying a product, and it should be about the strategy. It's not the product. Determine what product will end up fitting.

And so I wanted to differentiate ourselves. And then as things have gotten more complex a lot more investment choices many more, tax bills continue to change. I wanted to be for a client that kind of resource that, we could provide instead of just one focus investments or not product driven.

The Role of AI in Financial Planning

Jeffrey Feldberg: And as [00:33:00] you're speaking about that in terms of why you got in the business and the direction that you're heading, artificial intelligence, I'd be remiss if I didn't ask about that. And full disclosure, after this publishes, I'm sure most of what we see. Said is gonna be obsolete. But that said, let's just go along with it.

How has AI begun to affect or already changed the way things are working for you and the team, and where do you see it heading? What would you want Deport Nation to know about this as entrepreneurs from the financial perspective?

Erik Brenner: Yeah. Yeah, that's a great question. I mean, I can't go a day without talking about it, hearing about it. And so if you're following anything along, it's. here and you know, it's not a fad. And so how I see it is that we're in the early stages of it. we're not kind of in the latter stages of it.

And so, it's gonna be integrated, no doubt, and just about every area that we touch as people and then also an entrepreneur. We're seeing it as the ability to be able to. [00:34:00] Bring things together quicker to summarize it. So we're already using it for documents, as an example. So succession agreements, estate planning agreements.

It's not there to tell us nor the client exactly what to do and give advice, but you know, that dock can be scanned in a matter of. 30 seconds and it can summarize everything in the document and then it can give us here's some high levels, maybe look at this and then we can dig in more.

And so we're looking at it from a standpoint of it certainly isn't gonna replace us in what we do personally and how to implement, but it's just another tool. That's gonna help us efficiently. Just like when computers came out and we started using computers more. And so how do we integrate that and be more efficient in what we do?

And the advice that we give to clients and the every day in our work with clients it's gonna help with that [00:35:00] efficiency.

Jeffrey Feldberg: And so what I'm hearing you say is it's not that it is doing. It'll work for you, but it allows you to save some time that you can apply yourself to the areas that really count. It can do the heavy lifting, it can do the summarizing. It can wade through mountains of data and that frees you up to, okay, Jeffrey, with the extra time, let's talk about this.

Perhaps before in the past we wouldn't be able to do that, or now we can go into more details, so I'm really hearing it as a value add for you.

Erik Brenner: And it also, so we can take information off of what it's pulled and then it'll crosstalk, to a client relationship manager or something along that lines instead of having that information keyed in. It'll crosstalk and I don't really think about it as replacing people as much as if we're doing the right thing, we actually should be growing with people because it's gonna make more efficient.

Yeah some jobs, some, could be eliminated. For sure. But in the end, it's gonna be just a huge [00:36:00] efficiency. For, what we do in running our business and the entrepreneurs out there as well.

Jeffrey Feldberg: And still early days, but I'm liking what I'm hearing there and we'll see where it goes. But it all goes back to, hey. What's the big picture? What does this look like? What do I need to know now? What should I be thinking about for tomorrow and beyond? And again, when we surround ourselves with the right kind of advisors, this is where it makes a difference.

Choosing the Right Advisor

Jeffrey Feldberg: And Erik, before we start going into rapid mode, just a few more questions for you. When it comes time to look for an advisor, I'm not able to work with you and the team, which would be unfortunate, but if I can't do that, what would be some red flags that I should be looking for? That if I hear this, if I see this, I'm running as fast as I can in the opposite direction.

Erik Brenner: Yeah, so I think the first one is, they should really in the process ask a lot of questions about you, the potential client, finding out really each. Truly, deeply, what do you wanna achieve Your business, legacy, all of those types of things we've talked about. Some of them on that side of it I'm also a belief in the advisor is are they a true fiduciary [00:37:00] advisor?

So, you know, are they really a true fiduciary, meaning that they by law must act in the best interest of the client. Not all advisors are that. The other thing I think about is, does this advisor seem to be the fit for you going forward? So I think about it, Jeffrey when I was younger, I just had my general practitioner.

I'd go in, I'd get my physical, every now and then. It was fine as I got older and then my knee started hurting, right? I needed an orthopedic surgeon, eventually had to do surgery, do my knee replacements, right? The specialists now are coming into play. So what got me right, my general practitioner through my younger years, right?

Although I still go for a checkup, but a lot of now is, Hey, you're good, but you need to go see this person. What got me there and what's gonna carry me forward is someone different. That's often where we come in and say. A general practitioner got you here. Now, do you have the specialist right, with the [00:38:00] expertise to kind of take you through to the next stage of life?

Jeffrey Feldberg: Yeah, so interesting. The team, the people that perhaps got us where we are today aren't necessarily gonna be the same team to get us to where we need to get to. And with that said, that's some golden advice there. Before we go into rapid mode, Erik, I know there's a lot of questions I haven't yet asked. Is there one particular question, a theme or topic that I haven't covered with you that you wanna share with Deep Wealth Nation before wrap mode?


Erik Brenner: One of the things as a leader, and this is more as the entrepreneur, is , I learned years ago, culture eats process for lunch every day. So, if you don't have good culture within your team, your business, right?

You can have all the processes that are really solid, but it's not gonna lead the way. And so that's what I think about as being a business owner and being successful in helping people run the business.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Some terrific advice there and culture all about that. In fact, in our nine-step roadmap, step two X-Factors culture is one of the [00:39:00] foundational X-Factors. That's how important it's, so I'm right with you there. So that said, Erik, we're gonna go into wrap up mode. It is our tradition here on the Deep Wealth Podcast.

It's my privilege and pleasure. I ask the same question to every guest. It's a fun question. Let me set this up for you. 

Life Lessons and Final Thoughts

Jeffrey Feldberg: When you think of the movie Back to the Future, you have that magical DeLorean car that will take you to any point in time. So Erik, imagine now is tomorrow morning, you look outside your window.

Not only is the DeLorean car curbside, the door is open, it is waiting for you to hop it in, which you do. You're now gonna go to any point in time, Erik, as a young child, a teenager, whatever point in time it would be. What would you tell your younger self in terms of life lessons or life wisdom, or, Hey Erik, do this, but don't do that.

What would it sound like?

Erik Brenner: I would like to go back to where back into the thirties. The reason why is that, not that I would wanna experience it, but being in the business what to see what families really went through during the Great Depression and how they, fought through it, [00:40:00] did the work, and it was just a real trying time.

And so I would like, I think it would be a real life. Experience to be able to go back and see how people got through it and achieved a whole lot during that period of time.

Jeffrey Feldberg: And what do you think you'd be telling yourself coming out of that? So you saw that you had some takeaways in a sentence or two, what would you be telling the younger Erik?

Erik Brenner: I would probably be saying, it's not as bad, so no matter what happens, it was a really bad time. And then secondly is persevere. Don't give up. And those would probably be the two. And how rough it was when many of us have heard from family members.

That most of them now are deceased, but that lived through that period. Grandparents and so forth. And I think We can persevere, we can get through it.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Persevere. We can get through it. It's not as bad as it may seem. Some terrific advice. And Erik, [00:41:00] all that said, someone in the Deep Wealth Nation, they have a question for you. They wanna speak with you or the team. Where would be the best place online to reach it?

Erik Brenner: So they can go to our website. I wrote a book that's called The Personal CFO Revolution. So they can grab a book, they can go to hilltop wealth tax.com/podcast. That's hilltop. Wealth tax.com/podcast right there, Jeffrey. They can grab a book download it, start reading. It's a nice easy read.

We call it. You can read it on an airplane ride, but I think it's got some really good information.

Jeffrey Feldberg: And Deep Wealth Nation. Great news is it doesn't get any easier. Go to the show notes. It's a point and click. It's all there. Erik, it's official. Congratulations, this is a wrap and as we love to say here at Deep Wealth, may you continue to thrive and prosper while you remain healthy and safe. Thank you so much.

So there you have it, Deep Wealth Nation. What did you think? 

So with all that said and as we wrap it up, I have another question for you.

Actually, it's more of a personal favor. 

Did you [00:42:00] find this episode helpful? 

Have you found other episodes of the Deep Wealth Podcast empowering and a game changer for your journey? 

And if you said yes, and I really hope you did, I have a small but really meaningful way that you can actually help us out and keep these episodes coming to you.

Are you ready for it? 

The dramatic pause. I'll just wait a moment. Drumroll, please. Subscribe. Please subscribe to the Deep Wealth podcast on your favorite podcast channel. When you subscribe to the Deep Wealth Podcast, you're saving yourself time. Every episode automatically comes to you, and I want you to know that we meticulously craft Every one of our episodes to have impactful strategies, stories, expert insights that are designed to help you grow your profits, increase the value of your business, and yes, even optimize your post exit life and your life right now, whatever you want that to look like.

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So all that said. Thank you so much for listening. And remember your wealth isn't just about the money in the bank. It's about the depth of your journey and the impact that you're creating. So let's continue this journey together. And from the bottom of my heart, thank you so much for listening to this episode.

And as we love to say here at Deep Wealth, may you continue to thrive and prosper while you remain healthy and safe. 

Thank you so much. 

God bless.


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Jeffrey Feldberg

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