Smart Money Conversations

Most trusts are great at protecting money and cutting taxes. They do almost nothing to get the person inheriting it ready.

You've probably seen how this plays out. Heirs sit in meetings with advisors and can't follow what's being said. Grown kids still have to ask permission for money at 50. And a founder's "nobody touches this money" rule sticks around long after anyone remembers why it exists.

In this episode, we get into:

• A three-step trust setup where the trustee starts as a mentor, becomes a partner, and then steps aside
• Why making your spouse the trustee for your kids can leave everyone unsure who they're talking to, Mom or the trustee
• Why kids who'll never need a paycheck still need meaningful work

Brett Croft, CFP®, CFA®, CTFA®, and Chris Tabish talk it through with Kristin Keffeler of JFG Family Office. Kristin wrote The Myth of the Silver Spoon and co-wrote Wealth 3.0. She knows this from both sides. Her dad took his company public and then sold it when she was in her early 20s. The wisdom she shares comes partly from lived experience.

Michael Warszawski built Citibank's family office in 1999, ran private banks in London and Zurich, and now chairs Tiger 21 New York while advising multi-generational families through CWM Partners. In this episode, he breaks down the VOICE framework he built to help families move past estate planning mechanics and into the harder conversations about values, decisions, and legacy.

Brett Croft and Chris Tabish dig into the tools Michael uses in real family meetings, including an exercise that surfaces where family members actually agree, the Six Thinking Hats method for group decisions, and what really happens inside a Tiger 21 peer group. Michael also shares his own answer to a question every wealthy family eventually asks: how do you know when you have enough?

website: https://www.cwm-partners.com/

This podcast is a 32Q LLC production.

What happens when an investment portfolio includes a little bit of everything, but lacks a clear strategy?

Brett and Chris examine the “kitchen sink portfolio”, including overlapping mutual funds and ETFs, tiny positions, layered fees, and investments that may add complexity without adding meaningful diversification. They discuss the case for simplicity, the importance of understanding what you own, and how a clear portfolio plan can help investors avoid emotional decisions during volatile markets.

They also recap estate-planning lessons, explore the psychology of money and “enough.”

Suma Nair has spent more than two decades helping families navigate the most important and most avoided conversations around wealth: what happens to it, who controls it, and who's left to carry it out. As a former practicing estate attorney, and now owner of SVN Solutions, and President of the Boston Bar Association,she's reviewed and drafted thousands of estate plans, served as trustee on 250 trusts, and seen firsthand what separates a plan that protects a family from one that tears it apart.

In this episode, Brett and Chris sit down with Suma to break down the real mechanics of estate planning: why so many plans get written and then forgotten, the difference between a will and a trust, how a durable power of attorney can go wrong, and the three questions every family should answer before they ever meet with a lawyer. Suma also opens up about choosing the right fiduciary, why trusteeship is far more work than most people realize, and why she sees a growing gap in fiduciary expertise that families urgently need to close.

Email: [email protected]

Brought to you by 32Q, LLC

Getting a non-renewal letter out of nowhere? You're not alone. Brett and Chris sit down with Madeline Matosian, Director of Personal Lines at Indaco Risk Advisors, to unpack why home and auto insurance have gotten so brutal, and what you can actually do about it.

Madeline breaks down why carriers pulled out of California, what really happens when a neighborhood catches fire, and why she'd rather help clients before a claim than after one. They also dig into umbrella coverage and why anyone who drives a car needs one, how to correctly title a home held in a trust or an LLC so the coverage actually holds up, and the "mysterious disappearance" rule that could make or break a jewelry claim. Practical, a little unsettling, and worth your time if you own anything.

Website: www.indacoriskadvisors.com

Email: [email protected]

Produced by 32Q LLC

Most people don't think about estate planning until something goes wrong. As a professional trustee, Marguerite Lorenz has spent 20 years handling everything from complex situations involving special needs trusts, incapacitated clients, families at war over a rocking chair and what happens when families wait too long — she's seen it all. In this episode, the co-founder of Lorenz Private Trustees breaks down what a professional trustee actually does, why naming a family member can backfire, how distributions really get decided, and why she says not having a plan is essentially suing your own family. If you've been putting this off, this is the episode that will make you stop.

Website: https://nh.mytrustee.net/

Email: [email protected]

Produced by 32Q LLC

Real estate gets a lot of credit for being tax efficient, but most investors don't fully understand the mechanics behind it. Matt Hamilton is a CPA and founder of Surefire Tax and Accounting, a boutique firm built exclusively for real estate operators and syndicators. In this episode he breaks down how depreciation really works — and why he calls it a loan, not a free pass, because the IRS collects through recapture when you sell. He explains bonus depreciation, the passive loss vault, and a strategy he calls the lazy 1031 — where stacking passive losses across multiple investments can offset a gain at exit without jumping through all the hoops of a traditional 1031 exchange. If you own real estate directly or through a syndication, this episode will change how you think about your tax strategy.

website : https://surefiretaxco.com/

email: [email protected]

Produced by 32Q LLC

Dr. Meghaan Lurtz is one of the world's leading experts on the psychology of financial planning — and in this episode, she joins Brett Croft and Chris Tabish for a conversation that goes well beyond the numbers.

Meg is a professor at Kansas State University and Columbia University, a partner at Shaping Wealth, a past president of the Financial Therapy Association, and the author of the Substack Less Lonely Money. She explains the difference between financial therapy and financial planning, why couples fight about money (and what actually fixes it), and why even very wealthy people can feel stuck, anxious, or like they never have enough.

They dig into the psychology of "enough," the hedonic treadmill, the PERMA framework for well-being, and what it really means to use your money to build a life you enjoy — not just a balance sheet you can point to.

Meg also shares what living in Naples, Italy has taught her about how differently people can relate to money, time, and each other. If the math of your financial life looks fine but something still feels off, this episode is worth your time. Find

Meg on LinkedIn or at her Substack: Less Lonely Money.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/meghaanlurtz/

Website: https://www.shapingwealth.com/team

Email: [email protected]

Produced by 32Q LLC

Mark Roth has been investing in real estate limited partnerships for over 20 years — across 10 different operators, through boom markets and rate shocks, through deals that 3x'd and one that came back at 50 cents on the dollar. He's also spent 39 years as a commercial broker advising institutional clients, which means he's seen these deals from both sides of the table. In this episode of Smart Money Conversations, Brett Croft and Chris Tabish get a rare, unfiltered look at how experienced LP investors actually think — how they evaluate sponsors, structure their portfolios, pick their markets, and protect themselves when things go sideways.

This isn't theory. This is 20 years of writing checks and watching what happens next.

email: [email protected]

Produced by 32Q LLC

Most small business owners don't call a lawyer until something's already gone wrong. By then, it's expensive. Matthew Fornaro has spent 23 years in the trenches of business law in South Florida — one of the most litigious business environments in the country — and he's seen the same preventable mistakes play out over and over again. Wrong contracts, LLC's losing that coveted liability protection, missing documents, commingled funds, and employees masquerading as independent contractors. In this episode of Smart Money Conversations, Brett Croft and Chris Tabish get candid, practical legal advice straight from a guy who goes to court for a living.

No theory. No legalese. Just the stuff every business owner needs to hear before they need a lawyer.

website: https://fornarolegal.com/contact-us/

Produced by 32Q LLC