Unlocking Business Wealth: Exit Planning & Financial Planner Standards with Paul Brahim

0:00 Welcome to Something More with Chris Boyd. Chris Boyd is a certified financial planner, practitioner, and senior vice president and financial advisor at Wealth Enhancement Group, one of the nation's largest registered investment advisors. We call it Something More because we'd like to talk not only about those important dollar and cents issues, but also the quality of life issues that make the money matters matter. Here he is, your fulfillment facilitator, your partner in prosperity, advising clients on Cape Cod and across the country. Here's your host, Jay Christopher Boyd. Welcome to the program and thanks for joining us. I'm Chris Boyd and I'm here with Jeff Perry. We are your co-hosts and we are both of the AMR team at Wealth Enhancement.

0:44 Joining us today is Paul Bram, managing director and financial advisor with Wealth Enhancement in Pittsburgh. With decades of experience guiding CEOs and business owners through retirement, succession planning, financial wellness strategies, Paul brings a wealth of insight to our conversation. He is a CFP and a CEPA for exit planning strategies and currently serves as the president of the Financial Planning Association, where he's leading efforts to elevate the profession and advocate for title protection. Beyond his professional accolades, which by the way, include multiple years as a five-star wealth manager award winner, Paul is passionate about a variety of things, including his active involvement in community leadership and apparently an endurance athlete.

1:42 We'll have to hear more about that at some point. We're thrilled to have him on the show. Paul, thanks for being with us. Thanks so much, Chris. Appreciate being here. Well, Paul, I have so many things I want to talk to you about. Among them is certainly your year as president of the Financial Planning Association during this important 25th anniversary year. I also want to hear about the work you're doing at Wealth Enhancement with regard to business owners and their succession planning and exit strategies. But before we talk about all that, tell us a little bit about your professional journey. How did you become a financial planner?

2:22 I suspect, like most people of our era, it wasn't originally your plan. So what was the path that led you to financial planning and this professional success that you achieved? Contentment is often not a path originally intended and frequently preceded by challenges. So I'd love to hear a little bit about your story. I'm happy to share. You know, when I went to college at Washington and Jefferson, which is the nation's 11th oldest college or university, at least that's what they tell me when they ask for money.

3:05 But when I went to college at Washington and Jefferson, I was a chemistry and English major and a pre-med. Clearly, I didn't get into medical school, right? I did have that. When I graduated college, I didn't get into medical school, still wanted to. So I started a career in pharmaceutical sales. In that time frame when I was doing pharmaceutical sales, I met a couple of physicians that thought I would be a really great doctor. So they sponsored me. I was all set to start at WVU Medical Center, just had a few boxes to check.

3:49 A lot of my doctor customers talked to me about the influence of insurance companies and HMOs on the practice of medicine, and they strongly advised me to avoid becoming a physician and stay in business. And at that point, I was married with a couple of kids, and that seemed like reasonable advice to me. Well, it's a long path to go through medical school too, right? It was a long path, and their view of the profession was not as rosy as I thought it was when I was in college as a pre-med.

4:34 So at any rate, I stayed in pharmaceutical sales and ultimately, at some point, ended up in medical product sales in that career path. But along the way, my father introduced me to a guy named Ron Stiller, and he worked for a company called AL Williams. If you're old enough, you know who that is. And I got the buy term, invest the difference bug in me. And my dad said to me one day, son, when are you going to stop making other people rich, meaning my employer, and make yourself rich, right? Because he was a business owner himself.

5:16 So he wanted me to follow that entrepreneurial path. He introduced me to Ron. One thing led to another, and I left my job in pharmaceutical sales and hung my shingle out as an independent in September of 1987. I think if you're a student of market history, you know what happened in October of 1987. I couldn't get an- Perfect timing, huh? Yeah, I couldn't get an appointment to save my life, Chris. It was a train wreck. I remember my dad, who had sold his business and became a minister, he came to my house after church, right? So we all came to my house after church, and he opened up the refrigerator and about the only thing inside of that refrigerator was a light bulb.

6:06 And he said to me, son, what do you think the Lord's trying to tell you? And I said that if you and mom don't buy us groceries, we're not eating tonight, right? And so I had to detour away from financial services for a period of time. That's when I went into medical product sales, but I just couldn't get this out of my blood. Much of my success, and I had a lot of success in both pharmaceutical and medical product sales, leading the country in sales, right, everywhere I went. Much of that success came from delivering something we call in-service programs in hospitals, where you hold a lunch and learn or a breakfast meeting, and you teach a group of physicians or a group of nurses or other practitioners about a product, about its uses, its indications, contraindications, how to use it, right, what to look for.

7:08 And so I did a lot of, let's call it public speaking inside of hospitals to generate, right, to generate interest in the products that we sold at the time. And I asked myself this question, I wonder if I can do that with respect to financial planning. And so I discovered a company called Successful Money Management Seminars from Portland, Oregon, and right, SMMS, right. So, you know, I kind of bought everything that they made. And, you know, just to tell you how hard this was, right, how crazy this was, right, I had that initial failure in 87, 88, right.

7:51 So I went back to Washington and Jefferson College, and I met with the dean, Howard Burnett. He's since passed. And I had this meeting with him, and everybody called him Howie. And, you know, in this meeting, I called him Dr. Burnett. But I said, Dr. Burnett, do you remember, do you remember your commencement speech when I graduated in 1981? Meanwhile, it's a decade later, right? And you said in that commencement speech that Washington and Jefferson, W&J, you know, wasn't here for you just for the four years that you attended, but it was here for you for life.

8:36 Here it comes. Yeah, that's exactly what he said. That's exactly what he said. So I told him what I wanted him to do. I wanted him to mail 10,000 brochures to people right in the surrounding communities so that I could teach a course in the adult evening education program, which they didn't even have. And lo and behold, he agreed, right? He agreed. So I went out and I bought all this seminar stuff, right? I got everything that I needed. I'm ready to go. I go back and see him to do a planning session.

9:19 And he didn't remember the conversation. Oh, no. Yeah. And I had learned that he was having some memory issues. Oh, no. Right. Exactly. So he introduces me to another dean and it all had to be renegotiated and it was really skinny down. But I did my first program with Successful Money Management Seminars in 1992 at Washington and Jefferson College. I had three people that attended. All three became clients. One of them was a professor of mine, which was fascinating. And the rest is kind of history. And I evolved from that into doing financial wellness training at corporations as notable as Bayer and USX and Alcoa, right?

10:08 Some pretty large corporations where we did financial wellness training programs. And that's really how I built my practice. Ultimately, I became a shareholder in a firm called BPU Investment Management, became its chief compliance officer, then its chief executive officer. And in 2020, we sold our firm to Wealth Enhancement Group. I have to tell you, I love hearing that story. Thank you for sharing that. I think it is inspirational for people who are starting out to hear that even people who've had great success, often that success is preceded by great challenges.

10:53 And here you are telling your story that you almost failed out of the business for a time, that you just were having trouble making it work. And then eventually persistence pays off. I was going to say, I tease and I tell people it only took me 30 years to become an overnight success. I think that's not uncommon, right? It's the reality of life. I also use the people from SNMS. I used their retirement strategy. Financial strategies for success. The one that was even later was for retirees.

11:35 It was lifelong. I forget what it was. Lifelong retirement strategy. I actually developed a program with them called At Work. And it was specifically for people who worked in publicly traded corporations. It was financial wellness training for people who worked in publicly traded corporations, because it included a lot of information around stock grants, stock options, those kinds of corporate benefits that you would only have in a publicly traded corporation. And so we co-developed that program. And I even had the chance for many years to train advisors on how to secure a corporation to teach in and train them on how to deliver these programs.

12:20 It was an amazingly wonderful relationship with successful money management seminars. I was glad to say that they did it well and that it was more of a financial planning structure, a cost up. But a big investment to get those seminars off the ground with the lead time. It was. It was a very long cycle to make things work. And I remember in 1997, when I joined a firm called Berkowitz Pruchowski, which became BPU Investment Management, the firm I was ultimately CEO for, they were incredulous that I would teach a program over four weeks and then prepare financial plans and meet with people and not even get close to a penny of revenue for at least 13 weeks.

13:20 They were incredulous. Until they weren't, right? Yeah. Until it worked. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, all right. I want to turn our attention to the Financial Planning Association. 2025 represents the 25th year of the Financial Planning Association. It was preceded by two successor organizations, the IAFP and the ICFP. But the FPA has become the industry's home for financial planning professionals. This is a momentous year to enjoy being at the helm of the organization.

14:02 Tell us about your goals for your term and how it is going. Yeah. Well, thanks. I appreciate it. And by the way, I became a CFP in 1995, among other things that makes me very old. But and I was also a member of both of those organizations, the IAFP and the ICFP. Yeah. I was an IAFP before. And even back then, my focus was on this idea of advocacy. I thought it was important to advocate for the profession and advocate for how the profession could enhance the lives of its clients.

14:48 And so even back then, I was on those advocacy committees at a local level. Yeah. So, you know, one thing led leads to another and chapter president here in Pittsburgh, and then committee service at a national level on the Public Policy Committee in the Member Advocacy Council. And then this board position, which has been one of the great joys of my life, because it's that place where I believe that we're really making impact and making a difference for certified financial planners, for people committed to that financial planning process.

15:31 Right. That process over product. Right. That relationship over a sale. Right. That that notion of becoming a trusted advisor to a family, maybe even for multiple generations, because we think holistically about their financial life and how it all impacts their personal life goals. I had lots of them coming into my term. Right. And some of the more internal right. Making sure that we had alignment between committees and board. Right. Executing on our strategic plan, which during my board term, we spent about 18 months as a board building our strategic plan.

16:18 Right. Which was around, you know, practice development, practice management. Right. Learning. So that would be continuing education, the journal. Right. Financial planning. Right. Even conferences, advocacy, and of course, networking. Right. And strengthening local chapters and strengthening the bond between the national board and those chapters. Title protection for financial planners is very high on my list. I've been I've tried to be a voice for that almost my whole career. And I and I, you know, I, you know, why do we talk about that?

17:01 Well, today, from a legal or regulatory perspective, there is no education, continuing education, experience or ethics requirements for anyone on a legal and a regulatory basis for anyone to call themselves a financial planner. So I, I could, you know, pick any vocation or profession that you would be in. And the next day, I could hang my shingle out as a financial planner. And nobody could say a word. Right. There's no prohibition from a legal or regulatory perspective for me doing that.

17:44 Now, the CFP board has done a great job in terms of its public awareness campaigns of the difference between a certified financial planner and everyone else who professes to be a financial planning professional. I think they've done a tremendous job in that public awareness campaign. But for us as an association, we would like to see that go a step further. We think it's different from, say, the accounting profession where, you know, the public recognizes the difference between someone who does their taxes, who they might call themselves an accountant, and a CPA or enrolled agent who has a credential that makes them a financial planner, or an insurance professional, right?

18:52 them a little more of a specialist or a professional. You'd think that it needs its own title protection in this, in our industry, is that? In ours, I believe it does, right? So if, for example, like, you know, if, if I'm, if I have a degree in accounting, and I hang my shingle out and say, I prepare tax returns, I do bookkeeping, right? Right. Wonderful, right? Yeah. But that person with a degree in accounting can't hang their shingle out and say, I do audits, or I do certified valuations, right?

19:37 Can't say that. There's a difference. Think about, think about medicine and think about the division of labor in medicine and what that hierarchy looks like, right? So a physician, well, I can do the whole ball of wax, right? And, and there are two, and there are two, there are two schools, right? There's Doctor of Osteopathy and Medical Doctors. So there's two schools. Both of them get licensed to practice medicine. A physician assistant, well, they can do certain things that a doctor can do, but they can't do all of them, right? You can't hang your shingle out and say, I'm a doctor, if you're a physician's assistant, right?

20:21 You would get a cease and desist really quickly from the state, right? As a licensed nurse practitioner or a certified nurse anesthetist, you can't call yourself an anesthesiologist. You're different. And it's not to say that one is better than the other, right? But it's, it goes to the level of what you can do in terms of how you practice. And it's a recognition of that additional training, right? And retraining that you go through in order to stay current in your profession. And so I think you think about what we do, Chris, in people's lives. You think about the nature of the relationship that we have and the impact that we could have on that family potential for potentially for two, three generations.

21:08 It's serious business. What's more important to people in their life than their money? Often they put their money ahead of their health, which I don't advocate for, but it's pretty darn important. It's important to them and making the right kinds of decisions, right, has significant impact. And I happen to believe, right, that people who are credentialed in financial planning, right, do that better than others. It's a little minor, yeah, of the training, of the experience, yeah. Yeah, yeah. But yeah, so at any rate, it's important. So is that best done through a national effort or a state level effort?

21:55 You've been giving this a lot of thought and attention. Yeah. How has the association decided to tackle this? So we've spent the last couple of years having some pretty in-depth conversations with key stakeholders. And what do I mean by key stakeholders, right? Maybe we've had conversations with those custodians like Fidelity and Schwab. We've had conversations with the AICPA. We've had conversations with the CFP board. We've had conversations with other professional associations, right? NAFTA, NEPA, right, inside of our ecosystem.

22:38 We've had conversations with SIFMA. We've had conversations with the SEC. We've even had conversations with legislators at the state and the federal level, trying to get some perspective on what's the best path forward. And each path forward, state, regulatory, say through the SEC, federal through legislation, each has a set of pros and cons. And we're currently in the process of evaluating what that best way forward looks like. And we have public policy counsel, right, legal counsel that's assisting us in that assessment.

23:22 And it's the work, it's the ongoing and continuous work of our public policy committee. What we've determined, especially after a conversation with FP Canada, which went through a title protection exercise in Canada for financial planners, and it was a very long journey. It was a very expensive journey. And due to the strength of lobbyists who, let's just say, opposed this, right, the requirement to call yourself a financial planner was dramatically watered down.

24:06 And so that title protection doesn't carry as much weight as they would like. And so our face-to-face meetings with them and our Zoom calls with them has, you know, they gave us their whole playbook and, you know, on a 20-plus year journey that they went through for this. And we've learned a lot from that. We're synthesizing that along with the listening tour that we've been on and all those key stakeholders to try to find the best path forward. And we know one thing, ain't going to be easy, and it's going to take a minute. It's going to take some time. Well, I'm glad you have quite a quality guy in the succession of leadership following you at the FPA.

24:56 Dan Galley, we're big fans of him around here. He's spectacular. He's spectacular. So that'll be great. But I'm sure it's going to take, you know, many years of quality. Yeah, it really is. And I got to say this, Chris, you know, yesterday we sent out a press release about Dennis Moore becoming the permanent CEO of the Financial Planning Association. Wanted to talk to him about that. Yeah, sure. What do you want to know? Well, I mean, you know, I mean, as we do all kinds of planning as planners about leadership and succession and, you know, the unexpected.

25:43 And this year we had a very sad and untimely death of Patrick Mahoney, and someone that I think all of us thought very highly of. I think he was an institutional leader as CEO. And so, yeah, I'm sure it was felt by everyone and probably challenging. The skill set that you bring in your professional life probably was very helpful as the organization deals with the transition like this. But tell us a little bit about how that all played out with Dennis, who is a past president and certainly a quality individual who knows the ropes, so to speak.

26:36 But tell us a little bit about this process. Sure. And I want to give much credit to our board and to Patrick Mahoney. We brought up the issue in a board meeting, in executive session around the need to have a written succession plan, right. Because life happens, right. Life happens. You know, in my exit planning practice, we tell I tell business owners when we do a workshop that 50 percent of you in the room will exit your business involuntarily from one of the five D's death, disability, divorce, disagreement or distress.

27:22 Right. Life happens despite our best efforts. So it's important to have a very clear internal succession plan and a very clear process in case something happens. And so Patrick and the board worked over a period of time to build the qualifications for the next CEO. Should Patrick either resign or have to leave due to disability or death? Right. We built internal succession in the event that, you know, there would be an emergent situation. And all of that was in place, thankfully, when Patrick's illness really accelerated and ultimately and tragically took his life much sooner than any of us expected, way sooner than any of us expected.

28:20 And including, obviously, him. So so Dennis was prepared to step into the role. All of the legal documentation that was necessary to put him in place in that role was already done. All we had to do was sign off on it. Right. And that allowed the association to continue to function on a day to day basis in a pretty seamless manner. Right. Notwithstanding the emotional duress that everyone went through due to Patrick's passing. Right. And then we looked as we formed a search committee and talked to lots of different search organizations.

29:05 We built out a profile for the next CEO working with those folks and came to the conclusion that we had the perfect guy. Nice. Right. We had the person in that right seat. Yeah. Yeah. He really is uniquely suited for this role. First, he's actually a certified financial planner and the certified financial planner is our core member. Right. So he's he's actually a CFP and he's currently enrolled in the Ph.D. program for financial planning.

29:46 So he's clearly committed to the profession of financial planning. Right. With the loss of experience from. Yeah. And his chapter experience, two different chapters, an alumni association for financial planners. Right. At his college. Importantly, he also has an MBA and had a leadership role. Right. As a chief operating officer in a very large firm. So so he's got business acumen like crazy. Yeah. And and so when you think about his qualifications for this role, well, he's us.

30:29 He has that experience. He's worked out here in the financial planning profession. He has executive level experience and executive level training with the MBA. Right. And he's got an unimpeachable reputation among the chapters and among our members. So I am thrilled that we could elevate him to this role of CEO. I'm really thrilled. And I know that he's going to lead the charge on title protection and lead the charge on elevating the profession, not just the association, but the profession as a whole. We're very excited about that. Excellent. Well, before we you hit on a variety of things that I gosh, another time I would have loved to have talked more about just the idea that you emphasize some of the importance of the relationship between national and the structures, the various constituencies.

31:24 I really think that's important. And I think we saw that a couple of generations ago with the SBA efforts and how important that was. And so I'm glad to see that that's not being lost. You know, change leadership evolves every time. Yeah. You mentioned you mentioned Dan Galley. So last year as president elect, I was the board liaison between the FPA's advisory council and the board. And it was kindly and gently a frustrating role. Yeah.

32:05 Right. Yeah. And we knew that we needed to really dig in and find a better way to connect with chapters. So my suggestion was that the advisory council executive committee, the ACEC, build a strategic plan that aligns with the FPA strategic plan. And that strategic plan is how do we better connect chapters with national and get the kind of communication loop and the kind of alignment that can be really good for our profession and our members.

32:47 So that process started at chapter leaders conference this year. And I was able to work with Ben Lewis to begin that process. A strategic plan was put in place during this year. Dan Galley served in that role as board liaison and advanced that strategic plan. And a primary aim of his presidency, right, is all focused on these chapters. And so you see there's a progression of right discovery, recognition, planning, execution. Where did we learn that? Right. In order to create better alignment with the board and with chapters.

33:30 And we think that will be great for membership. We think that will be great for partnerships. Right. We think that will be great for how we get better and better at what we deliver to our clients. Yeah. I think it's really important to think vertically, not horizontally, inside out, outside in, not top to bottom, you know, kind of mindset when it comes to communication. So love hearing that. I have this. Call me crazy, Chris, but I have this belief. There's no financial planning association if we don't have chapters and members. Right. You have the annual conference in a couple of days as well.

34:12 Just maybe give that a plug. Yeah. We're very excited about the annual conference. It's going to be in Las Vegas because what better place to celebrate 25 years than Las Vegas. Right. We've got a tremendous lineup of speakers. But most importantly, we're going to be celebrating us. Right. It's the 25th anniversary and we have lots of things planned in the at the conference. Right. To celebrate those 25 years and to look forward to the next 25 years. Right. And I think it's going to be really great that we're going to enter this conference with Dennis as the new CEO, where he'll have a chance to really connect with people and outline his vision for the association over the next 25 years.

35:07 And it's a fantastic vision. So it's going to be a lot of fun. Our silver anniversary. We have a few surprises. So if you haven't registered, register. Very good. I want to take a minute and change directions. So we're talking again with Paul Brown. He's the managing director and the financial advisor with Wealth Enhancement and CFP and CEPA. And I want to take a little time and talk a little bit about your work in dealing with exit strategies and planning. It sounds like this has become an important focus of your efforts in your professional work with Wealth Enhancement.

35:51 You lead a practice in Pittsburgh, correct? I did. Tell us a little bit about the focus of your efforts when it comes to helping business owners. We've got this generation of business owners kind of reaching a point where they might be thinking, I'd like to retire. I just don't know how to extract my wealth or have the right leadership in place behind me. So tell us a little bit about your efforts as it relates to the sport. Sure. There's a number of statistics that are somewhat alarming about that, Chris, that have been the driver for me.

36:37 You see a problem, let's find a solution. Right now, for most small, mid-sized business owners, 80 to 85% of their wealth and sometimes higher of their total net worth is tied up in their business. If you think about their business, it is a highly concentrated, low basis, illiquid position. If we think about everything tied up in that business, because we constantly reinvest, we're constantly trying to grow, and we think exit is some point down the road. Well, for a large part of the US ownership population, down the road is today.

37:23 There we are. And a few other numbers that are somewhat alarming, I mentioned it earlier, half of those owners will exit involuntarily, and they won't get that value for their family when that happens. If we look at those involuntary exits, we end up with a rather diminished value if we get anything at all out of that business for our families, particularly if we haven't built the right succession. Another couple alarming statistics are that about 75 % regret selling their business after the first year.

38:06 So, something's not working, right? Just something isn't working. And so, one of the things that we see that hasn't worked is owners tend to think linearly about exit. Inherit a business, start a business, buy a business, grow a business, sell a business, figure out what to do with the money, figure out what to do with my life. A very linear kind of a process, right? Very sequential. Those who are satisfied with their exits take a very different approach. They think first about what life after business will look like for them, and they develop a clear vision of what they want for their life and their family after business.

39:00 It becomes their true north, right? Their guiding star, what are their why? Call it what you want, right? Their reason. Once they have that, they can then begin to align their business decisions and their personal financial planning decisions with that true north, with that real kind of vision of what life looks like after business. And it causes them to simultaneously build the right financial plan, risk, tax, investment, retirement, estate, trust, right? On an integrated basis and align their business decisions for making that business ready, attractive, and valuable through the lens of a buyer.

39:49 And that's really critical. When they start looking at their business through the lens of a buyer, it helps them understand what they have to work on to make it ready, attractive, and valuable. And if they're smart about this, as we guide them through that, they'll figure out how to create liquidity from the business that goes over into their financial plan along the way so that they can actually make business ownership optional. What is life like for a business owner when they have enough liquid assets to support the vision for their life without having to sell that business? What does that look like?

40:29 And so our work in exit planning focuses on those parallel paths. And so I've spent the last year and a half or two years training wealth enhancement advisors on the value acceleration process for business owners, making it ready, attractive, and valuable, and how to integrate that back to the financial plan that's all focused on their personal why. So we're getting people, certified exit planning advisors certified, and we're doing internal training programs, and we've provided them with the software tools that are necessary for business valuation, for assessing the business through the lens of a buyer, and providing a framework for business owners to work on that business to prepare them for exit, all the while simultaneously building an integrated financial plan for them.

41:30 It's exciting work. It's really exciting work. Do you want to comment? It just sounds like right up your alley, Jeff. Well, you know, we see so many people who just strive for that number, that dollar number without focusing on what's their numbers, how much do they need without thinking about all these other things, Paul. I do have a question that I've been dying to ask you because of your successes and your period of time that you're in your life. If you could go back and talk to your 30-year-old self, what advice could you give that person? Well, you know, that's something that you think about when you're 66 years old, right?

42:15 You think a lot about it when you're 66 years old. I think there's a few things that I would tell my 30-year-old self make sure that you have the right priorities and the right objectives for a complete life, not just a business life, right? Our lives are multidimensional, right? They're physical, our health, right? They're emotional, they are spiritual, they are financial, right? They are career, they are family, we have a multidimensional life. And I think I would tell myself to think carefully and to plan so that, right, all of those elements of my life were attended to with the same degree of care, right?

43:12 So not just all business, right? But to think about those other dimensions. Now, I'm very fortunate, my wife is an amazing woman, and we have been married for 44, almost 45 years. And she saw everything that we did as a partnership and supported my business efforts. God bless her. I don't know that many spouses would have done that. But she was great at it. So think about all the dimensions of your life, not just your business life. And the second thing that I would have told myself, right, from a business planning perspective, is it's all about the long term where you can have the greatest impact on people's lives.

44:04 And make that your singular focus, right? Where can I have the greatest impact on people's lives and build that specialty, right? Become best in class in that specialty, where you feel emotionally satisfied in your work, and you see the greatest impact in people's lives. Those are the things that I would think about. All of the dimensions of my life, right? And where can I get the greatest degree of emotional satisfaction with my work, because I'm having impact in an area where I'm a specialist.

44:47 Thank you. That sounds right on point. And my bet is that you've done well following your own advice. I think I did okay. All right. Well, that seems like it's a pretty good place for us to wind down our conversation. I want to just say thanks for making so much time for us. Yeah, absolutely. With regard to the work that you're doing with the wealth enhancement and this exit strategy, are you encouraging advisors to get the designation that you have yourself, the CEP here? Yeah, Certified Exit Planning Advisor. I most certainly am.

45:29 Gentlemen, according to the Bureau of Labor and Statistics, right, BLS, just in the boomer generation, there's about $20 trillion of unlocked value in boomer businesses. Now, if you think about that statistic that 50% of them exit involuntarily and only 20% of them actually sell and most are dissatisfied, it's really possible that those actual valuations may never be unlocked.

46:12 And they may never be unlocked because that owner doesn't know how to do it and their advisors don't know how to advise them to do it. Right? So, I think as a Certified Financial Planner who is a Certified Exit Planning Advisor, if you develop that skill set, it opens up an extraordinary market to you where you can differentiate yourself from other advisors, big differentiator, right? And if you do your job right, you can have substantial impact on people's lives and maybe even help them and be part of creating multi-generational wealth with the right governance plan in place.

47:07 So, I strongly encourage advisors in our firm, any firm, to look at that Certified Exit Planning Advisor designation and see if your personal skill set matches right with that kind of work and look at that as an opportunity to impact and change lives in a truly exceptional way. Thanks for being with us and best of luck as you continue with the remainder of your term and all the important work you're doing through the association as well as in our industry. Thanks so much. You're quite welcome. Thank you, gentlemen. Thank you for listening to Something More with Chris Boyd.

47:50 Call us for help, whether it's for financial planning or portfolio management, insurance concerns, or those quality of life issues that make the money matters matter. Whatever's on your mind, visit us at somethingmorewithchrisboyd .com or call us toll free at 866 -771-8901 or send us your questions to amr-info at wealthenhancement.com.

48:42 before making any financial decisions.