Regina Campbell, Principal Attorney of the Campbell Law Group, PA has a captivating and informative conversation with one of the most important "rock star" accountants in South Florida, Paul A. Garcia, CPA. The two discuss the state of accounting during the pandemic, as well as, the importance of accounting during a divorce, including collaborative divorce.
Learn about Paul's journey as a Cuban immigrant, his faith, and his passion for golf during this episode of the Campbell Corner!
http://www.paulgarciacpa.com/
https://www.stu.edu/
https://kidsidemiami.org/
https://www.mariancenterschool.org/
Regina Campbell, Principal Attorney of the Campbell Law Group, PA has a captivating and informative conversation with one of the most important "rock star" accountants in South Florida, Paul A. Garcia, CPA. The two discuss the state of accounting during the pandemic, as well as, the importance of accounting during a divorce, including collaborative divorce.
Learn about Paul's journey as a Cuban immigrant, his faith, and his passion for golf during this episode of the Campbell Corner!
http://www.paulgarciacpa.com/
https://www.stu.edu/
https://kidsidemiami.org/
https://www.mariancenterschool.org/
0:17
hi welcome back to the Campbell corner I’m your host and principal attorney Regina Campbell from the Campbell law group and it's my pleasure today to
0:25
introduce to you our rock star accountant from south Florida Paul Garcia good morning thank you thank you
0:30
for inviting me thank you for coming please so first I want to thank you for coming as I know it's also tax season
0:36
and you must be incredibly busy yeah we just finished tax season actually October 15th but there's always
0:43
lingering tax returns and lingering things at the office but yeah it's uh it's never ending
0:51
yes I know how you feel and I know you know often I’m told Regina did you get that in
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Regina did you get that in we're all guilty of and god bless their account our accountants that have a lot
1:02
of patience with us right with the times we need to have that that's for sure you guys are fantastic thank you yes yeah so
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how is the world of accounting well you know the word that comes to mind when you're asking a question like that
1:15
is uh booming I think I think the profession is actually booming not only for the traditional firms that
1:22
just do uh audits and tax returns but you know the specialized firms like
1:30
boutique firms like my firm that not only do tax returns and we have a tax practice we also do a lot of litigation
1:37
support and forensic accounting services it is just booming I mean um
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you know and as you as you know there's a potential
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tax reform that Washington is talking about that's just going to create more tax return
1:55
questions more a needs uh to go to your accounting to tax plan and so forth and so on so the
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profession never stops you know I think it's a it's a great you know I always tell my family
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members and my I used to tell my kids but unfortunately neither of them went into the into my
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world I have an attorney and one in the medical field and the other one is it's a music person but
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anyways I always tell my colleagues and my friends and you know listen think about getting into the accounting
2:28
profession because you always have a job you'll always be busy and it's a very honorable profession
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I agree I do I work with so many accounts you know I’ve worked with you for years and actually I find it
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um it's helpful and it's in every aspect of someone's life from their business to their personal lives
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and you also have um I like numbers you know me yeah you know numbers they tell a story and of
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itself absolutely and you do like numbers and you're one of the few attorneys
3:00
who actually understands numbers you know the attorneys focus in on the law yeah
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and but some of them have a financial background you know and that combination of knowing the law and
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the numbers and if I paint the financial painting for you guys you guys understanding and you go with it and it's really there
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yeah and I think some of it's easier for uh litigants and clients to actually you show them numbers sometimes you know
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they're confused they're not always maybe as savvy with accounting or finances you show them what the numbers
3:30
say right story that it paints and often it actually helps people go okay you know what then maybe we need to think
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about this and do this and it actually is a way to get through sometimes what can be difficult
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emotional conversations that are going on the particularly divorces right um so I
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you know me I love numbers yeah the financial painting especially you know divorce is very important yes and it
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kind of sets the tone down divorce is all about sometimes very
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you know um you know you got children's issues and psychological issues and all the
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intangibles and then you throw in the financial aspect of the case and it's just you know an atomic bomb
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right so I try my divorce cases Regina to just make it as simple as possible
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paint the picture and make it so that they have one less problem right yes to deal with so
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yeah and I think you do a great job uh some of the cases we've had together you also make sure
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people understand what it what they're actually getting after the fact because not every asset's the same you know cash
4:36
is cash you know we can understand it's a value and the present day value so to speak but what does a business mean does
4:42
it have any tax implications like when you go to sell it down the road are there other issues uh what are the
4:48
capital gains on you know if one you know party gets the asset versus another right it is one thing to divide assets
4:54
now equitably it's another thing okay what are you going to do with the assets that you're getting in the divorce how
5:00
are they going to be producing for you what are you going to be depending on what is the income flow what is the tax
5:07
implication what is the value of that asset going forward so it's yeah
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it's a lot of stuff that's what I do and that's one of our you know specialty in
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my office that I started what 30 years ago or so and there's not
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a lot of us in town that specialize in what we do but we all get along and we're very busy
5:31
yes yes yes and I know you're also very busy with the courts you also help the judges understand financial issues and
5:36
attorneys as well yes we do I established a national report with the judges many years ago and it's
5:42
continuing you know I teach them some financial concepts and we have seminars for them and they're
5:49
very appreciative you know the way that the system works they rotate the judges
5:55
so you may have a new judge coming in from criminal may not have a financial background
6:01
family in itself it's not easy to understand some of the rules and the laws and the statutes and you throw in
6:09
some financial concepts and you know yeah you know it's tough for them so I try to um you know teach them and
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let them know at the very least the general concepts um you know um
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I’m allowed to talk to them and they call me and I even have set up seminars in my office for them
6:28
and in the court systems also we do lunch and learns for them with some of my colleagues so yeah that we do that
6:35
all the time that's why we call them the rockstar I’m far from that
6:42
I just have experience that's all yeah and a lot of great here and a lot of great hairs from the experience I’m sorry
6:48
well that's that that's a sign of uh yeah so yeah
6:53
so you know so I want to ask you also um how has the pandemic affected your firm
6:59
uh actually you know logistically probably like every other firm
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you know at first you know we were dealing with something new in the world you know
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I was kind of scared about it and getting sick you know and getting other people sick so
7:16
a lot of protocols in the office at first you know with the mask and obviously the clients not seeing people
7:23
in the office had a couple of scares here and there with my with my staff
7:28
nothing major no one luckily has gotten sick we're all vaccinated
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um from so from that that aspect you know listen we have to deal with it
7:39
right it's gotten better but from a business perspective
7:44
it I’ll be honest with you it hasn't affected the firm at all
7:50
um from the tax compliance aspect it's fine
7:55
everybody has to file returns and everybody needs accountants and CPAs from a litigation support perspective is
8:01
is the one that has been logistically affected why we have zoom
8:07
now instead of in in-house hearings or trials we have zoom mediations they take
8:14
longer they do you have to plan for them a little bit more you have to now show your analytics on the screen you have to
8:21
be proficient in the zoom at first you know I didn't know how to work that thing now you know I’m a zoom expert
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like everybody else's yeah I imagine you guys here too so yeah it's been a little
8:33
bit of a challenge but guess what everybody I think has gotten used to it yeah and I think a lot of uh
8:40
a lot of like for example uh some of the hearings and some of the uh you know uh non-evidentiary type
8:48
hearings are going to continue and zoom you know you save traffic time it's going to be cost effective for the
8:54
clients and I and you know motion calendars I don't think you're going to have motion calendars anymore in your life
9:01
yeah so it's been a challenge but it's okay you know I’m fine with it
9:06
now it's a matter of I think adapt adaptation resilience you know sort of just being dynamic and I think that's
9:13
where most of the people have done really well it sounds like you've done well yeah you know
9:18
you meet the problem head on you move on you can't you know you can sit back and
9:23
feel sorry for yourself about all this pandemic oh this this thing is that you know that's fun
9:29
absolutely we do the best that we can that's it that's it wonderful so I want to ask you we're going to talk a little
9:35
bit about collaborative divorces and for people that do not know what that is it is a different type of divorce that
9:40
exists in Florida and it's basically outside the court systems it's designed to bring in a combination of different professionals
9:46
from accountants to therapists to lawyers to try to tone down the litigation and maybe some of the issues
9:53
of the negative rhetoric so to speak behind litigation and deal in a more collaborative manner that's healthier
9:59
for families so Mr. Garcia is actually part of a collaborative group and he's one of the
10:04
accountants I wanted to talk to him to talk a little bit about what he does right so the collaborative process uh
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started back in the state of Florida I want to say about 10 years ago but it's now part
10:16
of the Florida statutes uh approximately about two years ago so yeah
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and it uses a team concept to try to settle
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a divorce a case out of court so the court system doesn't
10:31
enter the process and you have a team approach what do I mean by that you have one financial
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professional you have one mental health professional and you have two attorneys representing
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the parties and the parties and the way it works is that we have meetings and sessions collaborative
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sessions uh throughout the process it's a transparent process without
10:54
transparency it does not work right there's many other protocols that that the process has and if you follow the
11:01
protocols and if you go through the process 90 90 some odd percent have forgotten
11:07
now the actual percentage of the cases that begin in the collaborative process
11:12
end up in a settlement very few cases I mean I’ve had
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two cases in my career and I’ve done a lot of collaborative cases that have gone from collaborative has haven't
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settled and gone to litigation so I’m very active in that process I teach it I we have training
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sessions now we have accreditation of collaborative professionals I’m
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one of few financial professionals in the state of Florida I think there's only like four of us
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that are accredited in this area um you know I try to push it a lot
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as more attorneys get trained in the process and know about it I think it's going to
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be a very good alternative pretty much part to part down the line I
12:04
I hope to to the litigated cases yeah I i'd find i'm part of the
12:09
collaborative group as well because I believe in it I believe in that approach it's much usually much more healthier for families to go that direction
12:16
litigation is usually reserved or it seems to be when like you're saying the few cases that
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just they're so contentious and there's usually mental health issues also going on there that are not able to be helped yeah can be helped
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you'll be surprised I always i always say this to clients every case could be a collaborative case
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yeah you know regardless of how contentious are the issues whether they're big financial cases
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small financial cases big children's issues it doesn't matter you the collaborative concept can work
12:48
on any case yes and I think it helps because sometimes we take the approach anyways even in in cases that are in court we bring in a co
12:55
parenting therapist we bring a family therapist we bring in a forensic accountant but I think here in a collaborative
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approach you're starting off with professionals that already believe in the process you have certain protocols and processes in place
13:06
and it's clear from the beginning to the client this is transparency yeah you can't I want to hide this I want to put
13:12
this underneath the table it's everything it's one of the top protocols you sign off on it
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it doesn't work if somebody's hiding anything if somebody's playing games with discovery because I’m the
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the connoisseur let's say of the discovery process because the financial neutral is the
13:31
person that handles the discovery you don't give me the discovery and it just doesn't work correct doesn't work
13:38
yeah and ultimately when you're in court you know people will play games with hiding discovery you got motion to
13:43
compel you the costs are just astronomical and ultimately it's going to come out it's going to come out yeah so you might as well just you know put
13:49
your cards on the table let's see what we got here and then you have the battles of the forensics yeah you
13:55
know two forensics against each other thinking oh well I need this well you don't need that you know and then the
14:00
process just is yes you know how it is yes I do know how it
14:06
is which is why I do suggest a collaborative absolutely oh I’m all for it too yeah
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so wonderful so I wanted to also uh I know you're very involved in philanthropy you're also the trustee of
14:18
the St. Thomas University trustee of the St. Thomas university you're involved with the Marian center and also kid side
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yeah listen um you have to give back yes you have to give back um
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I’m a Cuban refugee and uh you know if I didn't I if I
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didn't get the help that I got from those charities when I came to this country I won't be
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here yeah so um you know I’m a I’m a firm believer
14:48
that that we have to give back to society my schedule sometimes makes it very difficult but
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somehow we manage it yeah somehow I managed to uh function as a trustee at St. Thomas
15:01
university I now lead the um the finance committee of the university
15:07
as a pretty big job there yeah I was going to say yeah and uh you know I’m also
15:13
active in kid's side yes which was uh which is a great organization in the court system
15:19
that uh targets underprivileged kids going through a divorced appearance going through a divorce and you know
15:26
supervised visitation and other services are provided to
15:31
the to the underprivileged kids going through the wars and then you mentioned the Marian center who is a wonderful
15:39
place for um for children with mental disabilities
15:47
down syndrome children for example my brother-in-law went to that school for 20 some odd
15:54
years and they uh he had down syndrome he passed away and you know they just
16:00
you know you go into that school and they're run by nuns and uh they just take your heart away so
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those are my three major characters that I am involved St.
16:13
Thomas being the one that takes a lot of my time but frankly is the one that
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currently has given me a lot of satisfaction to be honest with you education is very important
16:24
you know I you know I’m all for education uh saint Thomas has 4 500
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kids in campus and about another 1200 outside of campus
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we have a tremendous law school yes you know and very active it's growing
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uh we're private so we're competing with uh with the public school systems and sometimes the stuff it's all about
16:50
budgeting and grants and increasing our reserves and
16:56
contributions so it's a it's an interesting world it keeps me very busy I can only outside of my
17:02
practice but yeah I really enjoy it I’m glad I really I really really enjoyed it that's really important that you get
17:08
back so many people don't give back and they don't realize that's actually got to give back yeah you know got to get back I was I came here when I was
17:15
five years old and I was helped out so I I you know have that sense of responsibility to give
17:22
back to this to this country yes and you can see you can I mean you can only imagine sometimes the difficulty that people are you know like
17:28
you said under you know um sort of underprivileged children that parents that may not be able to afford you know therapy or
17:34
potentially drug treatment or anything of that nature absolutely because at the end of the day who suffers the children right the
17:41
children's so kid side targets the children yes going through that you know
17:46
unfortunate divorce uh period so we try to accommodate kid site has a lot of functions we raise money for that
17:54
um for the charity and you know I was president at one time now
17:59
I just sit on the board and they have great board members and a lot of activities
18:05
it's wonderful that's good it's great and the Marion is a center it sounds you know so many people don't have an
18:11
understanding of what maybe down syndrome is or what you know maybe what kind of help the you know person might need or the children may need so it's
18:18
really good to bring light to that maybe people can learn about it and understand it more and maybe help donate money to
18:23
the center as well and they also treat children with other mental disabilities
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you know that are in the spectrum for example and other types of disabilities
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and you know they have a they have wonderful teachers
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wonderful concepts you know they went through a rough period there during Coldwell like everybody else but
18:47
but they're back you know and I actually uh encourage people to go
18:52
visit them it's around uh um the airport in Opalaca
18:58
okay it's right next to it so it's a beautiful campus and it's awesome
19:03
so we'll get the information so we can put it up on the uh on the podcast if anyone's to have you look into the Marion center or kids side or St. Thomas
19:10
also is as a university which is a fantastic university we'll have the information on the podcast so that you can look into it and uh something I
19:17
wanted to bring up I always like to know what drives you what's your passion what drives me wow that's uh that's a
19:23
that's a great question um you know at this I guess at this stage of my life I think my you know serving
19:29
people serving people through my training what I do for a living
19:35
serving people by giving them my life's experience um
19:40
you know I think my faith is very important too and helping uh promote my faith and
19:47
you know it's a combination of everything you know life is a journey yeah you know and I’m
19:53
63 so at this stage of my life uh I think I have a lot a lot of experience
19:58
to give back so that's I guess it's my driving force stay healthy yes you know of course it's
20:05
important but right now towards you know towards this you know it's funny I I
20:11
I told my kids that I feel like I’m in the fourth quarter of the football game
20:17
oh goodness well you know and you know I think at 70 of
20:24
maybe in the in the last two minutes before no no no no no no but you never know but anyways that that's what
20:31
drives me i guess right now it's just you know applying life's um
20:37
experiences and what I’ve learned uh apply it to everyone in my profession
20:43
my friends and it sounds like you want to help people get through it or understand it or in any way that you can yeah yeah
20:48
yeah so I’d like to ask this question who uh you know especially about successful people
20:54
who is the person that's most influenced you in your life wow that's uh that's a that's an incredible
20:59
question I wish that the question would say would be who are the two
21:05
okay who are the two or more influential people in in your life because frankly I
21:11
think I have two okay so yes so I’m an only child okay
21:17
and uh you know my mom was very very close very special to me
21:22
you know she came to this country uh alone with me my father was a
21:28
political prisoner in Cuba so we came um you know he stayed behind obviously
21:35
he came he came later on after I think we were here maybe 10 years or
21:40
so and then he was able to get out of jail in Cuba and come over but
21:46
you know she was uh she was everything she was a mom she was a dad yes you know and
21:52
you know with a with a five-year-old kid in New York City a new country yeah new country you know we she got a lot of
21:59
help from brothers and sisters but she was a provider she was a hard worker
22:04
woman of faith she was a giver i think that's where I get my my
22:09
giving aspect of giving back you know she struggled a lot you know not knowing the language and
22:17
working in factories and just making it happen so she was she was my role model then my father came and
22:24
they set up a business together the business flourish for 40 years I mean so
22:29
so she helped my dad and my dad was a nursery man so um you know I saw my mom
22:36
through all those stages and she was my hero to be honest with you yeah um then I have to give uh the
22:44
simultaneous the simultaneous one to I think everybody knows is my wife who I know
22:52
people say that I don't function without her people are probably right
22:57
you know and uh it's funny because people say that in case I ever get divorced which is
23:03
very unlikely after 41 years of marriage right um that um
23:10
probably I would not find an attorney in this town that would represent me because they would want to represent
23:16
money right so that's how much people like her and
23:22
she's the office manager but she's also she does a lot of things in the office yeah she holds the
23:28
family together she's a woman of faith she's a hard worker very smart
23:33
juggles a lot of stuff she's really uh you know my second hero too I love that
23:39
I love that uh just recently in colin power Colin Powell, General Powell passed
23:45
one of his last interviews came out with uh Mr. Woodward and he was asked a similar question
23:51
and it was his wife yeah you know out of all the uh leaders and presidents he you know and people
23:57
he's been around which he admired as well and gave him a lot of accolades but it was his wife that was his rock she's
24:02
been there through thin and thick you know she's she was there when I started my practice in 1985
24:09
you know she helped me she was working and then you know once I was able to um
24:15
you know four or five years after I started and I started getting busy she jumped with me and
24:21
she's been you know it's not easy to work with your wife right uh yeah no it cannot be but uh you know we've managed
24:26
it for whatever 30 years and she has her duties her offices at one end of my office
24:34
she's wonderful yeah she she's everything you all know her and yeah and
24:40
everybody loves loves my wife more than me no no don't no no no no no
24:45
no no no no no I just you guys are two different personalities you know what I mean but you're both wondering yeah yeah we do we do have a different
24:52
personalities but yeah she's my second hero I love that yeah wonderful to hear so two women yes two women two women two
25:00
women you have you have an American story you know I have a story
25:06
definitely so uh you're actually your wife specifically told me to be careful with
25:11
this question and to you know put it maybe limit the time for the answer
25:17
uh so uh what is it that you love oh I’m sorry but what it is with you with your love
25:23
of golf so I guess so what is it that what does it make off listen so for many many years you know I was
25:30
I was a baseball player when I was growing up basketball player even though I’m short and growing up in New
25:36
York I played a lot of contact sports I would view golf as a game of
25:42
persistence right for for for for you know a lot I mean are you
25:48
kidding me you know who who's going to like off play golf yeah
25:54
yeah let me tell you about 30 years ago I guess 25 30 years ago that i started playing golf it
26:00
it really really changed my mind about it yeah yeah it is a very challenging
26:05
game yes it's a game of basically discipline yes yeah it's a
26:11
game that requires practice flexibility
26:18
challenging yeah you know people say well you know you don't sweat in the golf course really
26:25
you sweat and then you sweat and you have a workout in there of course yes especially if you walk
26:32
yeah it's a game that when you think you have it down pack
26:37
it'll kick you in the butt yeah and uh so I’m always learning it yeah
26:43
I’m down to a good handicap I want to I want to see if I can lower it even more
26:48
and I would like I’ve never gotten a hole in one yeah and I like to be a single digit
26:54
player I’m almost there so those are my goals now in the future
27:00
I play I try to play as much as I can I play twice a week okay and I wish I could play more but
27:07
uh it's a passion golf is a passion and you know I like also basketball and
27:14
all sorts of sports but golf is my passion you know it's amazing everyone I that actually plays golf more regularly
27:21
um they do say it's a sport that you don't have to actually be good at to love or respect yeah although of course you want
27:27
to that's the frustration yes it's not that easy to it looks easy but it's not that it's not easy yeah
27:32
and everyone talks about golf specifically with a level of respect of intensity in their eyes and just sort of like I’m
27:39
looking at myself in the mirror so it's like it's with me you know it's me it's my it's an it's my it's a head game
27:45
yeah and also I forgot to also mention something important that I thought golf is attracting me to golf
27:51
integrity yeah it's got rules and regulations very
27:57
uh it challenges you in the sense of you know do you want to
28:04
nudge here and there and and and if you really are true to the game
28:11
you stick to it and you don't you know you don't use that eraser when you're walking down your scores you don't move
28:19
the ball when you have a bad lie you don't you don't do all sorts of things you stay focused and the integrity aspect
28:27
of the golf obviously goes hand in hand with my profession so so that's why I like it too it's
28:34
perfect yeah yeah it's good to hear I was warned to be careful with that question yeah well I can
28:39
I can keep on talking about it want to thank you very much for coming
28:45
in you know this has been a wonderful number my pleasure thank you for the invitation um you know you're you are a great attorney
28:52
thank you I must say also and thank you and I thank you you are an up and
28:57
coming star thank you thank you about being a star thank you the star is really you Regina I hope so
29:04
and it's been a while since I’ve seen you so it's great to see you thank you and I’m glad you're healthy and everyone thank you very much and same here wish
29:10
you the best thank you thank you so it's been a pleasure to be with Mr. Garcia we want to thank everyone for watching this
29:16
episode and if you've missed any of the prior episodes this is episode four uh please go back and take a look at them
29:22
and keep an eye on our future interviewers I think you'll enjoy every single one of them
29:28
hopefully you know this has been helpful and you get to know myself and ask myself with my guest more
29:34
I think it's important that people get to know people in the community professionals what they go through in their life what
29:40
their passions are so I want to also encourage everyone please follow us on our social media accounts uh we're new
29:45
to tik tok they're very exciting we're going to have a little bit of fun with that also subscribe to our podcast and our
29:51
YouTube channel and we look forward to seeing you in the next uh episode thank you so very much everybody and Mr. Garcia
29:57
for coming you're welcome thank you for inviting me