Fiduciary Alchemy

An Austin attorney with hundreds of cows sounds like the start of a lighter conversation. But Ellen Dickerson knows ranch life and estate planning have at least one thing in common: waiting until something goes wrong is a bad strategy.

In this episode of Fiduciary Alchemy, Craig talks with Ellen Dickerson, Partner at Hardie Alcozer, about the plans families avoid until the moment those plans are needed most.

Ellen starts with the line that cuts through the discomfort: nobody gets out of here alive. Estate planning is not really about being morbid. It is about making sure your family has a way forward when grief, confusion, illness, or incapacity would otherwise force them to improvise.

That timing matters. Ellen explains why the time to do estate planning is not when you need it. A sudden accident, a medical diagnosis, dementia, Alzheimer's, or a gradual loss of capacity can all make planning harder or impossible if the right documents are not already in place.

Craig and Ellen also get into the difference between documents that protect you while you are alive and documents that move assets after death. Powers of attorney and incapacity documents help someone step in for financial and medical decisions while you are still here. A will handles what happens to your assets after you pass away.

The conversation gets practical fast. Where are the original documents? Who knows how to access them? Is the will in a safe deposit box that nobody else can open? Does the person you trust have the safe combination, or will they forget they have it when the crisis comes?

Ellen also explains why digital access has become part of modern estate planning. Phones, passwords, bank logins, password managers, legacy contacts, and social media accounts all matter. If family members cannot get in, they may not be able to pay bills, find assets, close accounts, or protect a vulnerable person from scams.

For people who think their situation is too simple to need planning, Ellen gives the bare minimum: a will, financial and medical powers of attorney, and related incapacity documents. Without them, the law still has a plan. It just may not be the plan you would have chosen.

Want to learn more about Ellen Dickerson's work? Visit Hardie Alcozer at https://hardiealcozer.com/.

Connect with Ellen Dickerson on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/edickerson/.

You can also reach Ellen directly at [email protected] or 512-374-4922.

Think you'd be a great guest on the show? Apply at https://fiduciaryalchemy.com/podcast/apply/.

Want to learn more about Craig Andrews' work? Check out https://fiduciaryalchemy.com/.

Most owners know they will eventually leave the business. The harder question is whether the only realistic exit is selling to private equity, watching the culture change, and hoping the community, team, and legacy survive the spreadsheet.

In this episode of Fiduciary Alchemy, Craig talks with Austin Smith, Principal, VP, and CIO at Schulz Wealth, about how business owners can create other paths before exit pressure forces the decision.

Austin explains why so many owners arrive at the same problem: most of their net worth is trapped inside one concentrated business asset. The company may be profitable, valuable, and growing, but the owner’s personal balance sheet is still exposed to one outcome. Schulz Wealth calls the broader plan the owner’s “wealth stack,” and the goal is to build meaningful assets outside the business before the exit conversation becomes urgent.

That changes the private equity conversation. If an owner has already built financial strength outside the company, the highest headline valuation may not be the only acceptable answer. A management buyout, family transition, ESOP, or other structure can become possible because the owner is not relying on one buyer to make the whole retirement plan work.

The conversation also gets into the cash sitting inside the business. Austin talks about the difference between necessary working capital and what his team calls “dead money,” excess cash that may feel safe but is not producing much return. Once the real operating needs are understood, some of that capital may be moved outside the company to strengthen the owner’s personal plan.

Craig and Austin spend time on the risk behind management buyouts. Selling to the team can preserve continuity, reward the people who helped build the business, and protect the culture that made the company work. But if the owner carries the note, the owner is still financially tied to whether that team can execute after the handoff.

That makes succession more than a legal transaction. The real test is whether the business can run without the founder before the sale happens. Austin and Craig talk about the value of stepping away, taking a true sabbatical, and seeing whether the team can operate without constant owner intervention.

Austin also shares how Schulz Wealth has applied the same thinking internally. As the firm advises owners on long-term transition planning, it has also built its own ownership transition with intention, alignment, and a structure designed around the actual goals of the people involved.

Want to learn more about Austin Smith’s work? Check out Schulz Wealth at https://schulzwealth.com/.

Connect with Austin Smith on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/austin-smith-cfa-cfp%C2%AE-245551108/.

Think you’d be a great guest on the show? Apply at https://fiduciaryalchemy.com/podcast/apply/.

Learn more about Fiduciary Alchemy at https://fiduciaryalchemy.com/.

Average returns make retirement planning look cleaner than it really is.

Clients do not retire into averages. They retire into real markets, real tax bills, real spending needs, and real fear when one bad stretch shows up at the wrong time.

In this episode of Fiduciary Alchemy, Craig talks with Jack Oujo, Financial Advisor at Oujo Wealth Strategies, about why retirement planning has to account for the inning that can change the whole game.

Jack spent eight years as a professional baseball umpire before building his advisory career. That experience gives him a plain way to explain risk: a team can play well for eight innings and still lose because of one bad inning. A retiree can save for decades and still get hurt by one badly timed market, tax, debt, or insurance decision.

Craig and Jack dig into why advisors should be careful with smooth projections and average-return promises. A plan that only works in the average case may look good in a meeting but fail when the client needs it most.

The conversation moves through tax-aware planning, mortgage decisions near retirement, and insurance conversations that too often start with a product instead of the client's full situation. Jack's position is practical: tax planning can create more dependable value than chasing returns, but tax savings should never override sound judgment.

They also talk about the advisor's job as a communicator. The best advisor in the room is not the one who proves how much they know. It is the one who helps the client understand the decision clearly enough to own it.

This episode is about protecting clients from the avoidable loss, planning for pressure before pressure arrives, and making complex financial decisions feel manageable instead of intimidating.

Want to learn more about Jack Oujo's work? Visit Oujo Wealth Strategies at https://www.oujowealthstrategies.com/.

You can also learn more about Jack's book, Too Smart to Be an Umpire, at https://toosmarttobeanumpire.com/.

Connect with Jack Oujo on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/jack-oujo-cpa-cfp-ms-tax-97906810/.

Think you'd be a great guest on the show? Apply at https://fiduciaryalchemy.com/podcast/apply/.

Want to learn more about Craig Andrews' work? Check out https://fiduciaryalchemy.com/.

Most families assume the important information is “somewhere.” A folder. A drive. A password manager. A safe. A filing cabinet. A shared document. But when someone dies suddenly or becomes incapacitated, “somewhere” is not a plan.

In this episode of Fiduciary Alchemy, Craig talks with Jeffrey Shavitz, Co-Founder of FamVault, about the gap between having documents and having a real family access process.

Jeffrey explains why the old paper folder problem has become a digital folder problem. Families may have estate documents, passwords, wills, safe codes, pet records, attorney contacts, vaccine records, social media accounts, financial details, and other critical information scattered across tools that no one else can reliably reach. FamVault’s work is built around making those details organized, findable, and accessible to the right people when the moment comes.

The conversation gets practical fast. Jeffrey shares the story of a cardiologist friend who died suddenly after seeming healthy and high-functioning, a reminder that success does not automatically mean readiness. He also tells the story of a family facing a wall safe after a death, with no one knowing the code. Craig connects it to his own experience of watching a family member try to hack into a password vault even though access had technically been provided.

The lesson is simple: storage is not the same as succession. Google Docs, Dropbox, password vaults, and shared folders can all fail if the next person does not know what exists, where to find it, or how to get in.

This is not just an ultra-wealthy family issue. Teachers, police officers, firefighters, veterans, business owners, retirees, and everyday families all leave behind complexity. The question is whether that complexity becomes manageable or whether it lands on grieving people as a scavenger hunt.

Jeffrey and Craig also push back on the idea that families need to fix everything at once. The better move is to start small, build a process, sit down with the people who will matter in a crisis, and make the right information findable before it is needed.

Want to learn more about Jeffrey Shavitz's work? Check out his website at http://www.famvault.com.

Connect with Jeffrey Shavitz on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffshavitz/.

Think you'd be a great guest on the show? Apply at https://fiduciaryalchemy.com/podcast/apply/.

Learn more about Fiduciary Alchemy at https://fiduciaryalchemy.com/.

Most people think better financial decisions come from better math.

Ross Powell sees it differently.

In this episode of Fiduciary Alchemy Podcast, Craig Andrews sits down with Ross Powell, Wealth Manager, to talk about the emotional side of money decisions, why technically smart people still make painful financial mistakes, and how shame keeps people from fixing the problems that are already costing them.

Ross shares an early-career story about getting into $45,000 of vehicle debt even though he had the accounting education to know better. That story becomes the doorway into a bigger conversation: money mistakes are rarely just math mistakes. They are usually identity, pressure, fear, and psychology showing up in financial form.

Craig and Ross also dig into estate planning paralysis. Families often stall because they believe every decision has to be perfect forever. Ross explains how shrinking the timeline can help people make responsible decisions now instead of leaving their family exposed while they wait for certainty.

They also cover why tax planning can be one of the most direct ways to increase net worth. Market gains are never guaranteed, but reducing unnecessary tax drag can create real, permanent gains that stay working for the client.

This conversation is about getting past shame, making the next responsible move, and treating wealth as something to steward instead of something to perform with.

Learn more about Ross Powell: http://rosspowellcpa.com

Connect with Ross on LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/rosspowellcpa

Think you’d be a great guest on Fiduciary Alchemy Podcast? Apply at https://fiduciaryalchemy.com/podcast/apply/

Want to learn more about Craig Andrews and Fiduciary Alchemy? Visit https://fiduciaryalchemy.com/

The papers were signed.

The estate documents existed. The legal work was done. On the surface, the client had handled the responsible part.

Then he asked William Bissett a better question: what happens when I am gone and my wife and daughters do not know where anything is, who to call, or what to do first?

In this episode of Fiduciary Alchemy, Craig Andrews talks with William Bissett, President and Senior Client Advisor at Portus Wealth Advisors, about the planning work that begins after the obvious boxes are checked. William works with business owners, especially blue-collar and trades business owners doing roughly $10M-$50M in revenue, and he sees a pattern many people miss. A business can look simple from the outside while carrying real financial, family, and succession complexity underneath.

William shares how he started in insurance and annuities, rejected product-pushing, learned planning from the back office, wrote 160-200 financial plans, worked under Michael Kitces, and eventually founded his own firm in 2019. That path shaped how he thinks about advice. Planning is not a product. It is a process that has to make sense when life stops cooperating.

The conversation turns practical when William tells the story of building a detailed organizer for a client whose family would have been lost even with proper estate documents in place. The lesson is blunt. Documents matter, but they do not help much if the surviving family cannot act on them.

Craig and William also talk about why clients often want simple, fast solutions to complex planning problems, why William starts with what is on fire before returning to the broader plan, and why educated clients ask better questions. They also dig into AI in wealth management, from note takers and agents to the risk that vendors and custodians wall off data to protect their turf.

Near the end, William pushes back on a future where bots do everything and people sit idle. Work still gives people purpose. Human connection still matters. And in a world chasing automation, crafted human experiences may become more valuable, not less.

Connect with William Bissett on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/williambissett/.

Want to learn more about William Bissett’s work at Portus Wealth Advisors? Visit https://www.portusadvisors.com.

You can also reach William Bissett directly at [email protected].

Think you'd be a great guest on the show? Apply at https://fiduciaryalchemy.com/podcast/apply/.

Want to learn more about Craig Andrews' work? Check out https://fiduciaryalchemy.com/.

Financial advisory growth can expose every weak spot in the business.

In this episode of Fiduciary Alchemy, Craig talks with Sean Kuttin, Business Development Manager with Kuttin Wealth Management, about what it takes to build a firm that can serve 27,000+ clients, support 250+ team members, and steward more than $18B in assets without losing the human work at the center of advice.

Sean shares how Kuttin Wealth became a safe haven for retiring advisors, why leadership has to multiply through other leaders, and why the future of financial advice will not be won by stock picking alone. The conversation moves from family legacy to tax strategy, faith-based portfolios, advisor training, AI, emotional intelligence, and the 53-step process Kuttin uses to prepare advisors before they ever sit in front of clients.

The through-line is simple: better planning starts with better questions.

Including one Sean learned to ask often: what do you want for yourself?

Learn more about Kuttin Wealth Management: https://www.kuttinwealthmanagement.com/

Connect with Sean Kuttin on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sean-kuttin-ba931b1bb/

Think you'd be a great guest on the show? Apply at https://fiduciaryalchemy.com/podcast/apply/.

Want to learn more about Craig Andrews' work? Check out https://fiduciaryalchemy.com/.

Everyone loves the headline number on a business exit.

The sale price. The valuation. The story that makes the room go quiet.

But Brett Swarts wants owners looking at the number that comes after tax. Because a big exit can become a quiet surrender if the tax plan shows up after the deal is already moving.

In this episode of Fiduciary Alchemy, Craig Andrews talks with Brett Swarts, founder of Capital Gains Tax Solutions, about the planning that high-net-worth entrepreneurs need before selling a business, real estate, stock, or other appreciated assets. Brett breaks down why owners need to know the rules of the game before the exit, not after the wire hits.

They discuss why a CPA who reports history may not be the same person who builds strategy, why QSBS can be worth exploring years before a sale, and how deferred sales trust planning can create flexibility for owners who want the next chapter to be active, passive, or something in between.

Brett also makes the estate-tax problem hard to ignore. For families with significant wealth inside a taxable estate, the issue is not abstract. It can determine whether the next generation keeps the asset, sells under pressure, or watches legacy get converted into a tax bill.

Craig and Brett close on a practical point: nobody will care more about your taxes than you. The right team matters. Timing matters. And the conversation should start before the exit is close enough to feel real.

Want to learn more about Brett Swarts' work? Visit Capital Gains Tax Solutions at https://capitalgainstaxsolutions.com/.

Connect with Brett Swarts on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/brett-swarts/.

Think you'd be a great guest on the show? Apply at https://fiduciaryalchemy.com/podcast/apply/.

Want to learn more about Craig Andrews' work? Check out https://fiduciaryalchemy.com/.

Most people spend their working years building the mountain. Then retirement arrives, and nobody has taught them how to come down without handing the IRS a bigger share than expected.

In this episode of Fiduciary Alchemy, Craig Andrews talks with Erik Brenner, Private Wealth Advisor at Hilltop Wealth & Tax Solutions, about the tax problem hiding inside retirement planning. Erik explains why the old assumption that taxes automatically go down in retirement can fail, especially when income sources, withdrawals, and required minimum distributions start colliding.

They dig into why IRA and 401(k) balances can act like a joint account with the IRS until a real plan is built. Erik also breaks down how up to 85% of Social Security can become taxable, why provisional income matters, and why retirees can get caught off guard when RMDs rise later in life.

Erik draws a sharp line between tax preparation, tax planning, and tax mitigation. Filing a return tells you what already happened. Planning looks ahead. Mitigation asks what can be done now so the future does not arrive with a tax bill nobody saw coming.

Craig and Erik also talk about Roth conversions, and why they can be powerful when used correctly but dangerous when treated like a magic trick. The bigger point is simple. A fiduciary advisor who claims to do comprehensive planning should understand the client's tax return, because the return often tells the truth that the portfolio alone cannot.

They close with a practical look at AI in advisory work. AI can help with document review, notes, and planning support. It cannot replace judgment, context, or the trust built inside the advisor-client relationship.

Want to learn more about Erik Brenner's work? Visit Hilltop Wealth & Tax Solutions at https://hilltopwealthtax.com/.

Connect with Erik Brenner on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/erikbrenner/.

Think you'd be a great guest on the show? Apply at https://fiduciaryalchemy.com/podcast/apply/

Want to learn more about Craig Andrews' work? Check out https://fiduciaryalchemy.com/

Peter Culver, co-founder of Wealthrive, joins Fiduciary Alchemy to explain why proactive tax strategy can create more real-world value for entrepreneurs than small gains in investment performance. Drawing on decades of experience across asset management, tax planning, and work with high-net-worth families, Peter breaks down how thoughtful tax moves can unlock measurable savings while helping business owners make better financial decisions.

In this conversation, Peter shares why he and his team leaned harder into tax strategy, what entrepreneurs should expect from their advisors, and why too many CPAs fail to bring forward even basic planning opportunities. He also walks through examples like the Augusta Rule and home office strategy to show how seemingly simple tax ideas can have meaningful impact when applied correctly.

Want to learn more about Peter Culver’s work? Visit Wealthrive at https://www.wealthrive.com/.

Connect with Peter Culver on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/pculver/.

You can also reach Peter directly at [email protected].

Think you’d be a great guest on the show? Apply at https://fiduciaryalchemy.com/podcast/apply/

Want to learn more about Craig Andrews’ work? Check out https://fiduciaryalchemy.com/