The 9 Domains

Yeah. Okay. Very true. Okay. So you have a concept that you talk a lot about.

Go ahead. Other part is, let's say business solution. I experienced this last like several years.

And that business solution part, if your legal structure is not, you know,

aligning with your trust planning or aligning with your goals, it's a big issue where if you don't

integrate all together, you cannot solve it. Even if, you know, you let's say, you know, somebody

talks to the attorney, the attorney will only focus on one thing, which is structure.

So I'm not saying like. I can do myself. It's all teamwork where I need to take help from the

attorney as well. I need to take help from the CPA and with the integrated approach, you know,

being a center point where I can coordinate understanding the client goals and objectives.

It's much better to integrate in all nine domains. Yes. Okay. So tell me,

so the nine domains concept is something unique that I've never heard from another advisor.

So unpack that for me. What is that? What is the nine domains or the integration of nine domains?

What does that really mean? Yeah. So that is a very good question. And mostly I spend more time

with my clients talking about this nine domain. So first is the taxes.

Second is investment. Third is estate planning. Fourth is asset protection and legal structures.

Then business solutions, risk management, generational planning, retirement planning,

and then charitable and legacy planning. So these are the nine domains.

And really they need to talk with each other very well. So once you do that, it may take some time,

but once all are integrated, yes, it is much better planning than silo planning.

So it sounds like you're really addressing things at all different stages of life and just making

sure that you're covering all of the areas in a big picture way.

Yeah, that's great. Right. So if you see like four sections of the life and apply all four,

it doesn't matter the person he's or client he's part of the life he is.

So I normally like break. into four pieces so first is education time then work life then after

work life and then finally the legacy so this domains you know we need to understand this section

very well like where where do they fit and how we can achieve everything you know in all four

sections of the life comparing with all the nine domains

What if you begin working with a client and they're already later in life?

They're maybe already in retirement. Do you just pick up at that point and you can still help them?

Yes. Yes. That is another thing I really want to address where people...

Normally when I interact and first time, you know, people say, okay, you know, we are in the

retirement time and, you know, we are done with your planning. But going into details and,

you know, understanding more about the client, we realize that actually it is more planning needed

at that time. Since retirement is not only like money-wise or financial planning part,

they are more... challenges available time. So let's say,

you know, money is one factor and then it is inflation, the health care,

you know, the legacy, what legacy goals, you know, person has and the protected income in the

retirement time. So if you see like in the retirement time planning, more factors exist in the

retirement time.

That makes perfect sense. You still make a very big impact later in life, even if you haven't

already worked with them all the way through, essentially. That's great. True. Very true.

You say, I guess, one of your beliefs is that wealth planning should begin with taxes and not

investments. Unpack that for me.

Yeah. If you see, like I mentioned in my earlier conversation,

that tax is the biggest factor of lifetime expense for any affluent family,

particularly. So that needs to be addressed first. So not only like you see returns on the

investment. but it should be seen as after tax return. So the tax track cannot be ignored.

And people who are ignoring, let's say, you know, when I do the analysis of any financial statement

or the investment statement, and I see that people are making,

let's say, you know, 10, 11% kind of return. But when you see the tax track,

tax component out of it, then it may be 7-8%. So there is a huge tax bill attached to that

investment and that needs to be removed.

Makes perfect sense for sure. It's just a different way of thinking about it, but it's very

important.

Yes, true. Very true. You often say also, another thing you say is that structure determines

outcomes. Explain that to me.

So when I help businesses and families,

always make them understand that if you see your income may be same for two families one family

who's you know fixing the structure another family is not fixing it the outcome will be different

so when you are doing it i always quote the example that you know you are going up on the ladder

and you need to make sure that ladder is put in the right direction so if you

understand all nine domain see how they are aligned with your goals and objectives and then you go

up on the ladder you know for sure that you know you are going in the right direction yeah that

makes sense for sure um you uh you've mentioned that high income professionals and business owners

sometimes can lose wealth. Despite the fact that they earn well, they still lose wealth.

Is that about taxes as well or unpack that for me?

Yes. Not only taxes. Tax is no doubt, you know,

this bigger component. But at the same time, if it is not structured well or it is not protected,

particularly people, my clients, you know, 50 plus or 60 plus.

They came to me for one reason, focused area, and that is protection. So, and that is,

they are learning either something happening with their friend circle or for themselves.

Somebody filed a lawsuit against someone. And lawsuits may be any kind, right? Not only one kind,

you know. It may be accident or, you know, some kind of business issues and somebody files a

lawsuit. That wealth is gone. If you don't have protected money for yourself or your family,

that entire income, you know, you have earned very hard income that is gone. So that is one thing.

Divorce is another thing. If you don't understand what are the consequences of divorce and what

structure it is in divorce, not for the family itself, it is for the generation also. So let's say,

you know, somebody planned for children a wealth transfer, but they did not protect that wealth.

They will lose their money in the divorce. I'm talking about the children's divorces.

You know, if that happens, they will lose that money. So it is not only tax like tax,

then the lawsuits, you know, then your divorce situation. There are several things,

you know, can come after you if you don't have protection in place.

Yeah. Wow. That's a great point for sure. And scary to think about in a situation like that.

True. Very true. What do you feel like happens when investments,

specifically investments, taxes, estate planning, when they're disconnected? So before people,

you know, if they don't have an integrated approach, like what are some of the things that happen

because of that disconnect?

Yeah. So if somebody is doing estate planning and they are not keeping in mind estate tax and

income tax and gift tax. Like we cannot just say estate tax, this is all four and IRS has that,

you know, one number for using at multiple places.

So let's say somebody is taking advantage of gift tax and they are using that limit for that

purpose. It means person knows for sure that that limit is reduced for the estate tax.

Now estate tax is not only federal tax, there is estate estate tax as well.

we plan we need to make sure that all four taxes what is the impact what is the you know a broad

calculation and again it is not like one-time process it needs to be reviewed every time every

year two years we need to review my practices i normally review quarterly with the client with all

nine domains and see that you know if there is any changes there and we need to make changes but

Again, it is a constant process. So looking into this tax scenario for all four kind of taxes,

it needs to be reviewed constantly and see how it is affecting your width.

Really good. Well said. How does integration create efficiency and multiple uses of the same

dollar? Explain that.

Yeah, that is a very, very good question.

you know very well since you know particularly for families having multiple avenues where along

with the work they are doing businesses or they have multiple businesses if they understand this

very well which is you can say velocity of money the dollar value how we can create the wealth

effect so that same dollar can be used for multiple purposes. So,

for example, in one bucket, your dollar is there and we generally make sure that, you know, we can

get tax advantage there. The dollar is in the bucket where, you know, IRS, whatever tax advantage

giving, we can take that advantage and that money can be used for business opportunities.

And whenever business has surplus, you transfer back into that bucket. So make multiple buckets to

have to and fro transfers. And at the same time, we need to make sure that your client has the

emergency bucket as well. And the non-market-based bucket as well. So when market is down,

use that non-market-based bucket. So making that multiple buckets and see that how it can be

transferred from time to time to see that, you know, they can maximize their wealth, the after-tax

wealth.

That's really good. Great point there. Why do you feel like collaboration between advisors like

you, CPAs, attorneys, why is the collaboration of all of those people so important?

Yeah, that is another very good question. And when I do this collaboration,

I make sure that I am the center point there and then I am coordinating with the estate planner

attorney or the CPA. So collaboration is important because the perfect team,

which I feel, okay, perfect team is financial advisor, CPA, and the attorney.

So I cannot draft the documents. Documents will be drafted by the attorney.

Same thing when it comes to legal knowledge. The attorney has expertise there,

so they can do the advice. I cannot do the advising part. I can educate people broadly about the

concepts. But real knowledge comes from the attorney where, and if attorney is putting his stamp,

then we know that, you know, legally we are in good shape. Same thing, the CPA, you know,

they are the CPAs are most trusted person. You know, I admit that, you know, most trusted people

are CPAs. So family will always trust the CPAs, right? So we need to work with them and see that,

you know, they are also on the board and we are all on the same page. So that way,

you know, client has full confidence that, yes, you know, we are going in the right direction.

So if you meet a new client and they already have a really good CPA that they like, do you work

with them? Or if they work with you, do they have to change to your preferred CPA and attorney? Not

really. They can continue to have their CPA. And if they have it, I rather tell in my initial

conversation that if you have your CPAs. I prefer that introduction to CPA and same thing attorney.

So I don't need to bring, you know, other expertise from outside unless it is required. So that

way, you know, they can continue with their existing connections. That's good. That's great. Do you

feel like comprehensive planning is only necessary at this level for the ultra affluent?

Absolutely. Like any stage of the life.

Comprehensive planning, holistic planning is much better than going into silos.

So it's not just something for the ultra wealthy. Anybody benefits from having this.

That is true. Yeah, that seems accurate for sure. When you,

in your practice, when you're working with someone in this way and you do what you call a 360

degree review, what does that entail?

360 review is the same thing, like integration of all nine domains.

So people are not thinking only a certain degree. 360 is complete holistic approach.

Okay. So that's taking a step back and looking at all of those areas together in a 360 degree.

And you said earlier that that's something that you do on an ongoing basis. How often would you do

that with somebody? No, it is a continuous process.

Continuous. Okay. That's good. So let's say, you know, so I start with one client today and I will

study and understand their goals and objectives. And we make maybe two years plan to achieve,

you know, everything. It cannot be done in overnight or one week, two weeks. We make two years plan

and see that how we can go step by step so we can integrate all together and make it a 360

solution, the holistic approach. That's great. I love it. If you're talking to someone who's never

done this kind of integrated planning, maybe right now they do have things in silos, what is the

first step to get a more integrated approach?

First step is no doubt I need to spend time to understand their objectives,

goals, their current situation, what they have done so far. Then I make recommendations in each

domain and it's up to the client to take which step. you know,

first, you know, which is aligning with their goals and objectives.

Okay, so just getting to know them and talking to them, it sounds like. Right,

right, right. True. One of the other things that you talk about is wealth with purpose.

What do you mean by that? What does that mean to you personally? That is,

all these domains should be well aligned with their goals and objectives. So that is always in the

center. to make sure that, you know, it is meeting their goals and objectives.

So whatever they have the purpose and it should meet that purpose. Wealth creation,

accumulation or preservation, whatever, you know, it should be all around that purpose.

And that's different for everybody. For example, many people say, you know, we don't care about

legacy. We want to focus on our lifetime. And not only like they are thinking,

children are saying like, no, no, no, we are not worried about, don't worry about our wealth or

think about your life first. And some people are very concerned about the legacy.

They want like, okay, you know, we want to pass on to the legacy. And again, when we talk about

legacy, it is not you just think about legacy. We need to think in terms of how they are preparing

their legal heirs. So it is not simple wealth transfer. If you prepare your legal hours very well,

it goes for generations. And that's how I say it's generational planning. One of the domain is

generational planning.

Everybody's got different priorities. And so you start with figuring out what they want to

accomplish and building out the plan from there. Right, right, right. Yeah, that's really good.

I like the personal approach. If people want to learn more, anyone watching this video wants to

learn more about your work, Prem, your philosophy, you know, get to know you, what would be their

first step?

Yeah. First step is they can go on the website and check more details and at the same time set up

appointment with me. And I don't charge for the, you know, consultation.

So it is free consultation. That's great. Email or phone or whatever.

people are comfortable, they can have a appointment with me. I think your approach is very,

obviously, very comprehensive and holistic, and it's very personal and tailored to people. And I

also love that you've got a very educational approach with people. So that's great. And I know that

they're in good hands. Anything else about the nine domains that you feel like is really important

that we didn't cover today that people should know? I think we covered everything.

But, you know, important thing is if I just say taxes, no, it is every domain is important.

And mostly I am seeing that business community, they are lacking. I know,

you know, CPAs are taking care of the taxes and maybe they have good, you know, investment advisor

taking care of the investment. But mostly people are lacking in the generational planning.

the retirement planning and the business solutions so when i ask people that okay you know what is

your existence exit strategy or if they have partners, whether you have protected yourself in case

somebody dies out of the partners, what happens to the business continuation? They have that in

their goal to protect that part, but they are not taking the action or they don't know what is

action required. So business exit strategy, everybody knows that they want to do something,

but they are not taking steps. So getting that education and implement is really helpful.

That's great. Well, very good information here. And I know over the coming weeks, we're going to be

unpacking a lot of these different topics and diving deeper into each one of the domains.

So for people watching this, definitely stay tuned because there's more good stuff to come.

And thank you so much, Prem, for your time. Thank you. Thank you, Kelly.