How a Poor Kid Built Generational Wealth

where a private client wealth practice, and we help families, family businesses, entrepreneurs, live their best life, really try to help them align their vision, perspective, and direction of what they're doing in their career. Shawn W. Phelps is a wealth advisor, entrepreneur,

and the founder of River Tree Well. He helps business owners and families build, protect, and preserve their wealth, through personalized financial planning, trust in estate strategies, and long-term legacy planning.

Is that a client owns a lot of rental real estate? He made a major error in his tax situation. We're not tax advisors, don't give tax advice, but I just asked the question, are you sure you're able to do this?

Just the question around that? He was able to call his CPA,

we're going to avoid a million dollar tax issue.

He would have owed over a million dollars in taxes had we not pivoted around that. Do you have any advice on how people should live their best life financial-wise? Starts with the three eyes.

[MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] Today, Apple is going to reinvent the phone. It's our over, I'm telling our weird. The living your legacy podcast for those who live

to leave a legacy. [MUSIC PLAYING] Open, Chicago is the lead. You said, Paul, is the bottom of the planet? You can live your dreams.

Welcome to the living your legacy podcast on Inside Success TV. I'm Angelina, I'm here with Sean Phelps. Hi, Sean, who are you? Wonderful.

Great. So Sean, you've just filmed your episode with us. How to go?

It was amazing experience.

Yeah. Very reflective on just 30 years of work and 50 years of life. Amazing, we're going to reflect some more. So give us the run-down. What did you talk about?

What did you highlight in your episode?

“What do you want to focus on right now in this podcast?”

Yeah, honestly, it was a chance for me to just take a pause in the business and think about past, present, and future of where we've been, what we're doing now as a team, and what the future might hold. Yeah, I think this is a great experience for all of our clients

to take a step back and kind of reflect on everything they're doing. And it's really a great opportunity for you guys to start fresh. She wear your hat and see what you want to do from here, right? Yeah.

Cool. So Sean, tell us a little bit about yourself. Yeah, so Sean Phelps from a little town that called Newark, Ohio, if you've not been there, a lot of the locals call it, "Nurk, Ohio."

OK. And started off with was raised by a single mom, myself, my brother Justin and my mom, Marsha. And grew up, I guess you would call poor, but I never felt it.

We always had what we needed.

I always had birthday parties. We always went to the park. So just a young kid from the south side of Newark. Yeah, cool. I think it's really funny to see that you never feel poor

until you realize how rich other people really are. You know what I mean? Exactly. I could definitely relate to that.

So what do you do? Firstly in Miami. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. For sure.

But what are you doing now? Yeah. So 15 years ago, founded a company called River Tree Wealth. And now we're a private client wealth practice. And we help families, family businesses, entrepreneurs, live their best life.

Really try to help them align their vision, perspective, and direction of what they're doing in their career. OK. So I know me personally. I want to live my best life.

And I think everyone does. Do you have any advice on how people should live their best life, financial wise, planning all that good stuff? Yes.

“So I think it starts with the three eyes.”

OK. So when we first meet someone and maybe even work with you some day. Yeah. Where is the ideas, investments, and insurance? How do we put that puzzle together for you?

OK. And it usually starts with ideas. So what's your idea of your financial future? Start to think about that. And then we intertwine investments, and insurance around those ideas.

Yeah. All right. So it's kind of like a done for you. Like I know what I want. I don't know how to do it though.

Exactly. And most of the folks that sit across from us, they have a great vision of what they're trying to accomplish. And it's not for a lack of opportunity. It's a lack of understanding of what's possible, what they could do in the future.

And all of the tricks of the trade of compounding interest and wealth and tax and legal, just putting all of that puzzle together, if you will, around their ideas. OK. But I think that's really valuable, because especially in this day and age, we have too much information.

There's so many things you can do, but it's like, OK, what's the right thing to do? What's the wrong thing to do? Maybe I'm doing something now, and it's OK, but I could be doing something way better.

“And you just never know, sometimes until it's too late, right?”

Totally agree. I had an experience this week. OK. That was like that. Yeah.

So I had a client, great vision, great perspective of where he is in that vision, owns a lot of rental real estate. He made a major error in his tax situation, a major problem. And we're not tax advisors. Don't give tax advice.

But I just asked the question, are you sure you're able to do this? And the direction we were able to give him, and just the question around that. He was able to call his CPA, get solid advice from them. We're going to have another follow-up call next week.

We're going to avoid a million dollar tax issue.

He would have owed over a million dollars in taxes, had we not pivoted around that. And it's just taken the time to slow down. Understand what he was really trying to accomplish and just getting the right people around the planning table to help him. Amazing.

So it's great. Could be very valuable to important people, right?

“You become a big asset in business owners' lives, right?”

We try to. That's great. But tell me, how did you get into this? Yeah. How did it start?

Yeah. So a quick story. There was no financial planning in my life growing up. OK. My mom's version of financial planning and God Lover was which bill can I pay out of this paycheck?

Yeah. I literally remember seeing mom line up the bills on the kitchen table and what mom called the Cracker Jack House. I didn't feel that way. But it was small.

It was cozy. And so mom, that was our version of financial planning. So when I got to go to university through football and athletics and then eventually start in banking, I just, I thought there might be a different way, a better way, a more abundant way to kind of look at wealth.

And I just, I was a consumer of information, a consumer of experiences. So I watched bankers. I watched attorneys. I watched accountants, how they interacted with their own money, but also how they interacted with their clients money.

OK.

“And just trying to understand and learn what's the best way to help people really think about”

their wealth. Yeah. Cool. And at the beginning of this podcast, you mentioned like start, you know, current and then future.

Yeah. So what was your start like? And then, how do you think you are from between your start and now and what do you plan to do next? Great question. So I think for me, the past, I was fortunate to become a banker pretty

early on in my early 20s.

So when I sat in helping people with their money for 30 years, the first part of my career

was as a banker. Yeah. And then this part now is a private wealth advisor, founder of a company. And now a partner. I have partners in the business, which is another blessing.

Yeah. For us, it's delivering on the promises that we've already made to our clients and making sure those promises get maintained for the next generation or even the next next generation. And when I think about that, and I start to think about how our clients have trusted us and brace us, worked with us around their legacy goals.

For us, when we were asked, are you a legacy maker?

“I'm like, well, I think I'm a legacy, I want to maintain those promises about their legacy.”

I want to make sure I understand their vision and their perspective and we give them great direction on how are they going to accomplish their legacy? How are they going to leave their legacy? Through that, it oftentimes turns into a conversation where some of our clients are the one person in their family that's going to make a seismic shift in the financial future for

the family. And I get excited when that one sits across from us on the table. Amazing. So it seems like for you, you were that one person in your family. And I saw in your story, you spoke about your sons and you want to continue that legacy

for them. Can you tell us a little bit about that, how often your family is in your business now? Amen. What a blessing. And I get a little embarrassed when you say, Sean, you're the one, like, I don't feel

that way. Yeah. I don't look at myself that way.

I try to, we always want to be humble in guys eyes, but if I'm the one, or if we're

the one as a family for that, you asked a question of how I want that legacy to be passed forward. Well, humble, I think true men of faith, because I have boys or women of faith as they bring you know, other cami and others into our world, and for them, I just, I want them to live their own life.

You know, it seems like there's this natural path for them to follow that in the family business. Yeah. But that's not a necessity. Maybe they want to be a football coach.

Maybe they want to be a stay at home dad who knows what they're going to be when they grow up. But if they choose to, and they're in the right to be a part of our practice, I don't want them to just be in charge of it either. I want them to sit around the table at the business with other great young men and women.

Yeah. I want to have, I would love, if I had a magic wand, my wish is that they're part of the ownership, but not the ownership. Yeah. I really want them to sit around the table with diverse individuals, men, women of all kinds

of people to really sit at that planning table of river tree and deliver on the promises that we've made, help the second and third generation of our clients really pay it forward to who invested in us. I love that. Thanks.

Thank you. I think you're very thoughtful and intentional with everything you do. And it's displayed here now, but clearly you're a successful guy, you've done good for yourself. So it seems like you know your clients feel the same way as well.

Yeah. Wow. That was amazing. So let's see. Anything else, is there anything that you want to share with us today?

Anything that you want anyone watching this podcast to know, to see?

Let's talk about that. No, open for business. Yeah, absolutely. And in a lot of different ways, so you might be somebody that's listening, watching the

“podcast and think, well, can I start my own business?”

Yeah. Am I the one? I don't know. Let's have a conversation about that. Let's talk about that.

Yo, let's give us a call, reach out to us, send us a DM, and let's have a conversation about that. Or if you're already established, you've already have the business. But you don't understand how to go from paycheck to paycheck. You don't know how to actually exit the business.

We're open for business for that, too. Let's have a conversation, let's sit across the table from each other, really understand vision, perspective, and direction of where you're trying to take the company. And then let's figure that out together.

And if we don't have all the answers, because we don't always do, we'll bring other

team members, other joint work partners, other legacy makers, if you will, and other industries to help us understand how to accomplish that goal. Cool. It seems like a one-stop shop, and it seems like you accept people at any stage of their

“business life, you know, if that, initial idea fees, whether the idea is, you know, start”

up bare bones, or if they already have something big there. Yeah, Angelina, we're in the friends business. The more friends we can make, the better off life will be, we have a big strike zone on purpose. A lot of private wealth advisors, and no knock to them, they have a very specialized business.

They only work with doctors, they only work with business owners. We're pretty open to good people. Now, we've earned the right in our business to surround ourselves with good people. If you're honest, hardworking, ethical, and you're really trying to move forward with your legacy, we're open for business.

We're ready to help you. And thankfully, it's not just myself, Brandy Justin, who are the partners in the business that can set across the table, we have other advisors too.

We have second generation advisors who are getting their CFPs and their CFAs, they're getting

their designations, their MBAs. They can help as well. So yes, we're open for business and a big strike zone out. If you're a good person, give us a call, hopefully we can help you. Cool.

We can definitely relate to that here. Yeah, we accept all good people, right?

“We want to work with everyone who has a good story to tell, who wants to make their mark”

on their legacy. Now we have different shows for different types of people and industries, but everyone's kind of here for the same purpose, to either share their story or progress their business, themselves, their lives, their families, stuff like that. So you can definitely overlay on that part.

I can tell from just my interactions virtually and now in person, that's true. There's the women in power segment that I was able to watch a couple episodes of truly inspiring women. You get raised by a single mom.

So powerful women, I've been surrounded by powerful women, my entire career, my entire

life. And I started watching some of those episodes. I get goosebumps to them about just awe-inspiring situations. Yeah. No, it's cool to hear about it.

Yeah. And just truly humbled and thankful to be here. Well, that's true as a woman myself, and you know, I meet all the women here. They are amazing. I don't know how they do it.

They're superstars. Yeah. And I will say they produce amazing kids. Even their kids are, you know, future legacy makers. I will say a lot of them.

So I'm sure your wife is a woman in power as well. But thank you so much for that. Yeah. Anything else? I guess I would just end with just a humble thanks.

Yeah. To our clients, our thanks to my family who raised me right, thanks to the Northwest Jamutual and River Tree team members who support us every day and pour countless hours of education, help support to us. You know, a lot of times I get the limelight, a lot of times I get to be on the podcast.

Yeah. But there's a dozen of folks behind and a hundred behind them that really love and support us and take care of our clients every day. So I guess I would end with just thanks. Well, thank you so much for coming.

It was great to have you. And that's the wrap. Oh, working people find you. Oh, online. Go to just rivertree-wealth.com, send us a message on the website.

You can also find us on socials, just look up rivertree-wealth. You can find us everywhere. Send us a message. We'll love to interact. Even if it's just an encouraging word, or again, we're in the friends business, just reach

out, introduce yourself. Love to make a friend. Amazing. Thank you so much, Sean. Thank you.

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