Risky Assets

Five years ago Greyhawk was an idea in a car on a golf trip. Two guys from the same agency who did not know each other all that well, and who knew exactly one thing for certain: their strengths covered each other's gaps. Today it is more than twenty people, a full studio, and a building they are in the process of buying. But in between all of that, it almost ended twice.

On this anniversary episode Charlie Deaver and Daniel Clarke go back through all of it. The house Charlie sold to fund it. The year everything they had built was on the line. The staff who doubled down instead of walking out. And the way the Lord kept putting the next piece in front of them in seasons when the math did not work on its own. It is an honest look at what building something actually costs, and what the two of them would tell themselves five years ago if they could.

TIMESTAMPS
0:00  Intro
0:38  Five years, and two near misses
2:40  The car ride that started it
9:28  Two people who barely knew each other
17:21  What they thought it would be
20:00  The year it almost ended
30:27  The people who would not leave
43:33  What the next five look like

ABOUT RISKY ASSETS

The Risky Assets Podcast is produced by Greyhawk Premier Insurance Solutions. Every episode is an honest conversation with entrepreneurs about building businesses, taking smart risks, and protecting what you create.

FOLLOW THE SHOW
Instagram: @greyhawkinsurance

Subscribe so you never miss an episode. New episodes weekly.

#RiskyAssets #Entrepreneurship #SmallBusiness #FounderStory #Leadership #FaithAndWork #Anniversary #SantaClarita

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For a few years the answer for a lot of California homeowners was the FAIR Plan or nothing. Carriers stopped writing, premiums climbed, and people who had spent decades paying off a house found out their insurer was letting them go. That market has quietly started to move again, and most homeowners have no idea what is available to them now.

Edgar Corona and Ashley Macedo, who run personal lines at Greyhawk Insurance, get into what actually changed, including the two carriers nobody expected to show up in California, what the FAIR Plan was originally built for and why it was never meant to carry this much of the state, and the two coverages people skip that cost the least and protect the most. One of those comes down to a question most homeowners have never been asked.

Contact Us: https://www.greyhawkinsurance.com/contact/

TIMESTAMPS
0:38  Where the market broke
2:15  The last resort that became the only option
6:38  Why the market is moving again
11:44  Why carriers left
13:18  The bill that looks like a mortgage payment
16:18  The coverage that protects everything else
22:21  The one nobody thinks they need
29:31  Why they left where they came from

ABOUT RISKY ASSETS
The Risky Assets Podcast is produced by Greyhawk Premier Insurance Solutions. Every episode is an honest conversation with entrepreneurs about building businesses, taking smart risks, and protecting what you create.

FOLLOW THE SHOW
Instagram: @greyhawkinsurance

If your company's health plan runs through Health Net, the clock is already running. The carrier is exiting the small group and large group market in California, and the notices have gone out.

Wesley Deaver, who runs employee benefits at Greyhawk, walks through what actually happens next: how much runway you have, what losing a low-cost competitor tends to do to everyone else's pricing, and the handful of creative options most employers never get shown.

This conversation reflects the personal opinions of the hosts and is for general discussion only. It is not legal, tax, or financial advice, and nothing in it confirms coverage under any plan. Carrier decisions, effective dates, and plan availability can change and are governed by the carrier and the plan documents as issued. Talk to a licensed professional about your specific situation.

Work With Us:
https://greyhawkinsurance.useindio.com/sign-up/xcxL2I6nQQRRgEFMgxWF

TIMESTAMPS
0:56  What just happened
1:52  Why a carrier walks away
3:50  The clock you did not know was running
5:46  The plan that was too good to last
7:51  Who is next
10:12  The options nobody shows you
15:22  Acting like your own insurance company
20:23  The conversation your broker should be having

ABOUT RISKY ASSETS
The Risky Assets Podcast is produced by Greyhawk Premier Insurance Solutions. Every episode is an honest conversation with entrepreneurs about building businesses, taking smart risks, and protecting what you create.

FOLLOW THE SHOW
Instagram: @greyhawkinsurance

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Everyone manages risk every day without calling it that. We put on a seatbelt. We buy homeowners and auto and life insurance. Then we skip the part where the tap stops running for a week and the phones go dark. After the 1994 Northridge earthquake the freeways were on the ground and the local water supply was contaminated for days. In 2021 the Texas grid came within minutes of a collapse that would have taken weeks or months to reverse. Preparedness is nothing more than the bridge between the moment the system stops working and the moment it comes back, and most families have never built one.

Aaron Rose starts with the rule of threes: you can survive three minutes without oxygen, three days without water, and three weeks without food. From there he gets into what has to already be in your house, how you reach the people you love when the phones are down, why counting on help arriving is a plan with a hole in it, and the one thing hardly anyone in California buys until it is too late. Aaron's channel  @DontForgetYourLunch35   is linked below.

https://www.youtube.com/@DontForgetYourLunch35

TIMESTAMPS
0:00  Introduction
1:16  The 94 quake and the road to the fire service
5:37  The rule of threes
11:43  Why nobody wants to think about this
14:01  When three days is not enough
22:07  The insurance most people skip
23:55  Reaching your family when the grid is down
28:57  The help that is not coming
34:44  The last car out of the neighborhood

ABOUT THE GUEST
Aaron Rose is a firefighter and paramedic in Southern California with more than ten years in the fire service, eight of them as a paramedic. He started as an EMT on a 911 ambulance at 18, served in the Navy in aircrew rescue and trained at its survival school, and now runs the YouTube channel Don't Forget Your Lunch, where he builds compact survival kits and reviews gear so families can put together their own.

ABOUT RISKY ASSETS
The Risky Assets Podcast is produced by Greyhawk Premier Insurance Solutions. Every episode is an honest conversation with entrepreneurs about building businesses, taking smart risks, and protecting what you create.

FOLLOW THE SHOW
Instagram: @greyhawkinsurance

Follow so you never miss an episode. New episodes every Monday.

#RiskyAssets #DisasterPreparedness #EmergencyPreparedness #Earthquake #Wildfire #Firefighter #California #insurance 

Tim Kane has held ownership positions in seven businesses and been part of roughly a dozen more, from one of the internet's earliest email marketing companies to a startup Apple bought in four months. But the story Daniel Clarke digs into here is the one most owners never manage. When Tim's wife was diagnosed with cancer, he walked into his Amazon delivery business, roughly 100 trucks and more than 100 employees, told the leadership team he had spent three and a half years training that he was leaving to take care of her, and left. He worked about one month that entire first year. The business kept running and it stayed profitable.

Tim and Daniel get into how you build a team that can do that, why he put employees first and profitability third, and what nearly 900 hires taught him about work ethic. 

TIMESTAMPS
0:43  Meet Tim Kane
1:27  Seven companies, a dozen swings
10:27  What actually makes a salesperson
25:11  What he put ahead of profit
33:02  The year he was not there
38:32  The California problem
53:36  What he knows now

ABOUT RISKY ASSETS
The Risky Assets Podcast is produced by Greyhawk Premier Insurance Solutions. Every episode is an honest conversation with entrepreneurs about building businesses, taking smart risks, and protecting what you create.

FOLLOW THE SHOW
Instagram: @greyhawkinsurance

#RiskyAssets #Entrepreneurship #SmallBusiness #Leadership #SalesLeadership #WorkersComp #AmazonDSP #california 

Joshua Driskell went from a town of 1,200 people in rural Ohio to leading Lagerlof, a Pasadena law firm of more than 120 people that guides high net worth families through tax, estate, real estate, and the sale of the businesses they spent a lifetime building. In this episode of the Risky Assets Podcast, Charlie and Joshua get into the honest work behind that climb.

They dig into why fair is not always equal in a family business, how to actually prepare a company for sale, building a brand that outlives the founders' names, hiring to your weaknesses, and the hardest skill for any owner: learning to say no and protect your time.

Joshua Driskell: https://www.lagerlof.com/teams/joshua-r-driskell/
Lagerlof, LLP: https://www.lagerlof.com/

TIMESTAMPS
0:00  Meet Joshua and what Lagerlof does
2:11  Selling a business the right way
4:45  When family and business collide
9:29  From Ohio to California
23:36  Going solo and one lucky lunch
31:58  Merging up: build a brand, not a name
43:43  Leading a firm: one voice, the right team
49:19  Why the right clients beat more clients
56:31  The exit, giving back, and the long game

ABOUT RISKY ASSETS
The Risky Assets Podcast is produced by Greyhawk Premier Insurance Solutions. Every episode is an honest conversation with entrepreneurs about building businesses, taking smart risks, and protecting what you create.

FOLLOW THE SHOW
Instagram: @greyhawkinsurance

Subscribe so you never miss an episode. New episodes weekly.

#RiskyAssets #Entrepreneurship #LawFirm #EstatePlanning #FamilyBusiness #ExitPlanning #SmallBusiness

On September 1, 2026, California is raising the workers comp dual wage thresholds for contractors again, and this one is a big jump. In this episode of the Risky Assets Podcast, Charlie and Daniel break down what the dual wage threshold actually is, why paying an employee more can end up costing you less, and how to plan for it before your renewal and your year end audit catch you off guard.

If you run a construction business in California, this is the kind of change that can quietly cost you thousands, so we walk through the real math, the ten year trend, and exactly what to do about it.

RESOURCES
Dual Wage rate sheet (PDF): https://drive.google.com/file/d/1nOEHc-Zob4opeUO_1QjPiVmSg4KFLl7Q/view?usp=drive_link
WCIRB dual wage (official): https://www.wcirb.com/products-and-services/classification-search
Talk to Greyhawk / onboard: https://greyhawkinsurance.useindio.com/sign-up/BAu9UDjo6U9SLPaSXrur

TIMESTAMPS
0:00  What you need to know about Dual Wage
4:00  The math: pay your people, not the insurer
10:35  A decade of rising thresholds
12:45  Finding your break even point
17:57  How Greyhawk can help

ABOUT RISKY ASSETS
The Risky Assets Podcast is produced by Greyhawk Premier Insurance Solutions. Every episode is an honest conversation with entrepreneurs about building businesses, taking smart risks, and protecting what you create.

FOLLOW THE SHOW
Instagram: @greyhawkinsurance

#RiskyAssets #Greyhawk #WorkersComp #DualWage #Contractors #Construction #California #SmallBusiness

Brett Sachs is a California personal injury attorney who built his own law firm from an apartment and 20 thousand dollars in savings, scaled it to nearly 100 employees, then made the hard call to rebuild it leaner, down to 28 people while doing more volume with AI. In this episode of the Risky Assets Podcast, Charlie and Brett open with a Hot Ones style hot sauce challenge, then get into betting on yourself, being comfortable being uncomfortable, and the mindset that carried him through the scariest stretches of ownership.

They also go deep on the money behind the legal and insurance worlds, from the costs some firms quietly pass to clients to an honest, two sided look at insurance, litigation, and tort reform.

MVP Accident Attorneys - Brett Sachs: https://www.brettsachs.attorney/

TIMESTAMPS
0:00 How Charlie and Brett met
1:40 Hot sauce challenge before golf
4:25 From Indiana to a California law firm
8:00 Fired for challenging his boss
16:24 Scaling to 100, then downsizing to 28
24:35 Charlie's tough love: exit or commit
28:20 Cutting his team with AI
34:27 Interest and fees he won't pass to clients
42:00 Do lawyers really drive up insurance costs?
55:50 Golf and M19

ABOUT RISKY ASSETS
The Risky Assets Podcast is produced by Greyhawk Premier Insurance Solutions. Every episode is an honest conversation with entrepreneurs about building businesses, taking smart risks, and protecting what you create.

FOLLOW THE SHOW
Instagram: @greyhawkinsurance

The Fed just held interest rates steady, and three members actually voted to raise them. So why does it feel like everyone is getting squeezed harder than ever? In this episode of the Risky Assets Podcast, Charlie and Wesley sit down as two self described financial nerds and everyday guys to break down what the decision means for real people, not Wall Street.

TIMESTAMPS
0:00  The vote nobody expected
0:24  Two financial nerds, everyday guys
0:56  Why we're talking Fed
1:50  Why they held, who voted to raise
2:34  Locked in at 3 percent
3:10  Home prices are softening
3:36  Everyone bet on cuts. Wrong.
4:00  Oil is driving inflation
4:52  Sitting on more cash
5:24  One income, kids, California
6:25  Car prices meet high rates
7:05  Commission beats salary now
7:27  The 85k debt trap
8:08  The business owner squeeze
8:44  Healthcare costs roll downhill
11:10  The AI spending bubble
13:25  4 percent vs the 2 percent norm
14:30  The real number since 2020
15:33  So why not just cut?
16:16  Who really wants a crash
17:13  Supply is the real problem
19:46  A framer's rising costs
20:23  Wildfire and property insurance
21:46  Apartments are getting crushed
23:09  The workers comp wage shock
25:00  Blue collar wages squeezed
27:07  The case for self insurance
27:49  Control the controllable
28:11  Education is your best defense

ABOUT RISKY ASSETS
The Risky Assets Podcast is produced by Greyhawk Premier Insurance Solutions. Every episode is an honest conversation with entrepreneurs about building businesses, taking smart risks, and protecting what you create.

FOLLOW THE SHOW
Instagram: @greyhawkinsurance

Subscribe so you never miss an episode. New episodes weekly.

#RiskyAssets #Inflation #FederalReserve #InterestRates #Economy #PersonalFinance #SmallBusiness #California

Chris Hamilton gets called when the money disappears. He is a forensic accountant, which means fires, fraud, and figuring out what a business was worth the minute before it burned.
Charlie and Daniel sit down with him for the stories most accountants never get to tell, and the harder lessons from 32 years of building a firm.

TIMESTAMPS
0:00   The pile of ash: what a forensic accountant walks into
0:33   Meet Chris Hamilton
2:35   Fires, fraud, and disasters: the work behind forensic accounting
6:06   The FBI case: a 1 a.m. informant and a truck full of records
13:09   Starting the firm and a partnership where everyone earns the same
18:58   What actually breaks partnerships: too much money and not enough
22:51   Ownership is who you are today, not who we hope you become
24:07   Family, ministry, and work: priorities are on a wheel
34:36   Turning down Congress, and the strength that became a weakness
45:50   Leading a business like the church, and where fraud creeps in
51:57   No bad decisions: the deal that nearly ended the firm
1:05:38   Succession, California, and working for the love of the game

ABOUT THE GUEST
Chris Hamilton is a CPA, certified fraud examiner, and certified valuation analyst who has spent his career in forensic accounting and complex civil litigation. He started his firm in 1994, teaches forensic accounting certification around the country, and has served as an elder at Grace Community Church for more than two decades.

Connect with Chris Hamilton: https://arxisfinancial.com/about-us/chris-hamilton-cpa-cfe-cva/

ABOUT RISKY ASSETS
The Risky Assets Podcast is produced by Greyhawk Premier Insurance Solutions. Every episode is an honest conversation with entrepreneurs about building businesses, taking smart risks, and protecting what you create.

FOLLOW THE SHOW
Instagram: @greyhawkinsurance