Business Innovators Radio - Interview with Greg DuPont, Founder of Advocate Wealth Solutions Discussing Avoiding Unintended Consequences

Episode Date: January 13, 2026

Greg DuPont is an estate planning attorney, comprehensive financial advisor, and entrepreneur dedicated to helping families protect what matters most—while making confident, informed decisions about their future.As the founder of DuPont Law Group and a leader behind The Wealth Solutions Network and Advocate Wealth Solutions, Greg works with individuals and families who want more than documents or disconnected financial advice. His work focuses on clarity, protection, and long-term stewardship—helping clients reduce financial loss, avoid unnecessary conflict, and align their wealth with the lives they actually want to live.Greg is known for taking complex legal and financial topics and translating them into clear, practical guidance. His approach is intentionally different: instead of selling products or pushing pre-packaged solutions, he leads with education, diagnosis, and trust. Clients often describe him as calm, strategic, and deeply invested in helping them think clearly before acting.Over the course of his career, Greg has advised thousands of families on estate planning, wealth protection, retirement strategy, and legacy design. His work emphasizes proactive planning—addressing risks before they become crises—and helping clients make decisions today that still make sense decades from now.At the center of Greg’s philosophy is a simple belief: good planning isn’t about money—it’s about people, responsibility, and peace of mind. Whether working with young families, business owners, or retirees, his goal is the same: to replace uncertainty with confidence and help families move forward with intention.Greg lives and works by a mission to impact one million families by protecting legacies, reducing avoidable financial loss, and elevating the way people experience planning. When he’s not working with clients or building new initiatives, he is focused on teaching, mentoring advisors, and creating systems that make high-quality planning more accessible and human.Learn more: https://www.advocatewealthsolutions.com/The information provided by Greg DuPont is intended for general informational and educational purposes only and does not constitute legal, tax, investment, or financial advice. Nothing discussed should be relied upon as a substitute for individualized advice from qualified legal, tax, or financial professionals. All planning strategies and concepts are general in nature and may not be suitable for every individual or situation.Any references to financial strategies, investments, or planning concepts are not intended as a recommendation, solicitation, or offer to buy or sell any securities or financial products. Advisory services are offered only pursuant to an advisory agreement and where permitted by law. Past performance is not indicative of future results.Participation in this content does not create an attorney-client or advisor-client relationship. Outcomes depend on individual circumstances, applicable laws, and market conditions, which are subject to change.Influential Entrepreneurs with Mike Saundershttps://businessinnovatorsradio.com/influential-entrepreneurs-with-mike-saunders/Source: https://businessinnovatorsradio.com/interview-with-greg-dupont-founder-of-advocate-wealth-solutions-discussing-avoiding-unintended-consequences

Welcome to influential entrepreneurs, bringing you interviews with elite business leaders and experts, sharing tips and strategies for elevating your business to the next level. Here's your host, Mike Saunders. Hello and welcome to this episode of Influential Entrepreneurs. This is Mike Saunders, the authority positioning coach. Today we have back with us Greg DuPont, who's the founder of Advocate Wealth Solutions, and we'll be talking about avoiding unintentionaliener. consequences in retirement. Greg, welcome back to the program. Thanks for having me, Mike. I'm

looking forward to a conversation. You know, I think that we all hope and pray that we're on the right path to doing the right thing in every area of our life, especially retirement, but at what point do you, in the path do you want to be told the outcome you're looking for is not going to happen? And the answer to that question would be as soon as possible. You know, let me know. I want to backtrack or I want to change a course. Talk about some of these unintended consequences that you see in financial planning, maybe because in the landscape of financial planning as a whole or clients that come in and meet with you and they show you what they've been doing.

What are some of those unintended consequences that you're even seeing? Well, we'll start with the granddaddy of them all, right, which is the unintended consequence of being a good saver and taking advantage of the four-weigh, 1K programs, maxing them out because of the false promise or false premise, whichever way you want to look at it, that personal income tax rates will be lower in retirement than they are during your earnings years, which was something that was clearly defensible back in the 80s when we had dozens of different tax brackets and we could arbitrage in those tax brackets, which, you know, that became increasingly untenable as we moved into the Reagan Revolution

in the Bush era with the marginal tax rates being simplified. And so now, you know, we thought we were doing the right thing. We're putting our money in. We're getting a tax break now. And we're now waking up and saying, holy moly, this is a completely different picture than I, than I thought I was going to be looking at. So that's the granddaddy of them all. And that's compounded by, you know, making further decisions like that when you don't have to.

So, for example, the client that is in their late 50s into 60s, and they are coming out of putting their kids through college and all that stuff. and they now have free cash flow again. And they're looking and saying, okay, I got to goose it for retirement. And they turn around and put that in tax deferral instead of putting it into some other type of savings. And so now they didn't realize and recognized that, you know, if they would have been saving that money in a tax-free environment and paying a little bit more tax-offrent, that's going to have more bang for the buck for them down the road and be able to, offset what was so heavily invested into tax deferral. So, you know, those two run together as unintended consequences with the same theme of

we're going to get taxed. Let's figure out the way to do this the best way instead of the way that we're induced to doing it. That's a really big point. And I think that, you know, it's like you don't know what you don't know. And I think that, you know, you mentioned 401K and, you know, you get out of college, you start your job, you have HR shoving papers in front of you, sign this, sign this. And up 401k, yeah, I heard about that, sign that, sign that. And it's like, A, what are the allocations? And B, do I even need it? Or C, can I do a Roth IRA? All these questions that people don't know. And then they just assume, well, my grandpa had one. So I guess I get one. And then the ticking time bomb of taxes. You know, you know, that's going to come due. And we know that that's going to. to come do, but people don't realize the full import. What are some of those warning signs when you're meeting with families toward the end of their 50s that are looking to put together this retirement

plan? What are some warning signs that could have helped families anticipate some of these unintended consequences earlier? Well, I want to kind of make a public service announcement first on that, because you mention in passing something that is very near and dear to my heart, and that is the younger savers. And this is a message I tell all of my clients to pass on to their kids. Because we are living in a different world. And those young savers that are starting work are getting a regular paycheck now. And putting money into a 401K at that point in time are probably making a very bad financial decision.

I'm not saying they shouldn't be saving it, but they're at a point in their career where they are earning less than they will be throughout their career. They're in a lower tax bracket. They are getting very little tax benefit from that. And instead of saving money that they can use to create the foundation for their future as an employee, then they're saving it for this mythical retirement that for young people may never happen. It's just a completely different world, let alone at the age of 65. So they need to start thinking a little differently. And if they put their money into savings so they can buy a house and those kind of things,

aren't they potentially much better off than having that money behind the tax wall of the retirement plan? So that's the public service announcement. I digressed. Back to your question. To the extent I remember it because I went on a rampage there. But, you know, another thing that the unintended consequences I see a lot of people have to deal with. And this is one of my experiences from continuing to be a practicing attorney and seeing people in the ramifications in probate in the aftermath of one dying is. You know, when we are through our earnings years and when we have a company that's giving us potentially group life insurance and those kind of things, we're doing that because we know that if we die, one of us dies, the survivor needs to have some capital to replace my wages.

and I see a lot of people as they go into retirement shed life insurance as an expense because they don't recognize the fact that it's just as important at that point in time, if not more important, for the surviving spouse. Because a retirement plan that looks beautiful when we have two spouses receiving Social Security, totaling $5,000 or more a month looks a whole lot different when one passes away and half of that goes away.

Yep. And the unintended consequences there is my spouse that I have supported and loved and lived with for 40, 50 years at that point in time, now has to move to a different district because they can't afford to live where we've been living. because we were short-sighted with a very nominal expense going into retirement.

Well, an expense that can be looked at as an investment not only in that spouse, but also in legacy. And so I really, that's where, you know, you've asked me how these all come together, you know, when we are looking at that sweet spot between 60 and 73. I've got many people that, go ahead, please. I was thinking, I was thinking like, okay, I'm going to put my hat on hearing, you know, interviews with people like yourself and thinking, okay, what's another unintended consequence? And tell me, here's a quiz. So am I right or am I close?

The outcome would be like, oh, I've heard about long-term care and the need that so many people these days will need it and it's super expensive. So I'm going to go out and Google long-term care policy and buy that policy and pay those premiums. But isn't it true that the unintended consequence is you're paying these premiums, and if you never used it for one, two, three, four years, those premiums are gone, whereas there might be other better alternatives to put those funds that still check the box of handling long-term care, but yet is still building that legacy and all that. Is that another example, though, would be good? Yeah, and, you know, that, we've, we've, we've, I've, I've parsed between knowledge and

wisdom, you know, and once we go out into the Googleverse and try to get answers, we go down those paths. And things that are factually accurate may not be the right wise decision, right? It is, if I go down the path on long-term care and I see it's expensive and I see all this history that have, that long-term care insurance has a checker. history of raising premiums, all this stuff, because all this stuff's going to pop up. Then we close the books on that. And then kind of going back into that golden zone between 60 and 73, you know,

many people that come to me and say, hey, Greg, here's my plan. I'm going to retire and I've got all this money in my bank account. And I'm going to use that. So I don't got to pay any taxes for. the first couple years of this, and then I'm going to take Social Security now, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. When if you look at that period of time, and instead, you think, okay, Bob, do you recognize that at 73, you're going to have to take out $20,000 a year of RMD?

Yeah, I see that now. Okay. And Bob, do you see that, you know, if you decide to use your bank account to cover this period of time until you take Social Security, you're missing an opportunity to instead of funding your life with $100,000 coming from your bank, that $100,000 coming from your 401K. at a very low tax cost that we can affect that 20,000 that you're going to have to take off down the road. Oh, I didn't see that connection. Okay. Now, Bob, so you got a problem here that you're going to leave your, that if you pass

away, which we guys statistically do. Yeah. You know, they're going to be done. How about if we take some of that R1K money out during these 10 years and buy a permanent a life insurance policy that could refill the bucket after a long-term care insurance or long-term care system or situation happens. That could be used to access funds for paying for that long-term care. And if we don't have any of those issues, then it could be tax-free benefit to your wife

that could be able to use to maybe do a Roth conversion down the road. So now everything left is tax-free for her and the kids. or could go to the kids tax-free, as opposed to what seemed to be a very sound plan. I'm going to sit here and I'm going to use the money from the bank. Then I'm going to start taking my Social Security. I'm not going to take it early. We take it on time.

And then I'm going to keep leading the 401K grow because I've been told to get to a number. Yep. If I am chasing that number, then I am ignores. ignoring what is really the most important thing in retirement. And that is the income that that number generates and the alignment between the income that my savings generates in my desired lifestyle. And make sure there's no gaps. No gap.

Yeah. And that makes me think of another point. What about some of the things, you know, unintended consequences makes me think of things like things I don't have control over, which in life is most things. What about laws that change? What about taxes that go up? What about market volatility? What about my health?

What about the cost of health? Family circumstances? What strategies do you or how do you help people approach that kind of thing with change to stay resilient and to have everything put into place the right way? Well, first of all, when you start isolating those risks and I always like to push to the market, because I'm a safe money, guy. That's just the way that I'm wired and the way my practice is. And love it or hate it, that's who I am. And if you don't like it, that's not, you know, we're not good fit. But from that central position, you know, when you, when you're now saying, okay, I've got my income needs met, I still have money set aside for growth for

inflation. And if I'm not needing that money immediately, for lifestyle, then that is resilient enough. The market over time always does go from L.A. to New York. It always goes up. But there are long periods of time where it doesn't. And we just need to be able to have a strategy that we know that's in place, that we can maintain that period of time when the market is not being our friend and wait until we get to the other side of it until we start needing those funds again.

And similarly, when we look at things from a tax planning perspective and we try to get ourselves to a close alignment, if not a position where we have zero taxes in the future, a close align between what our needs are and what our taxable income that's required is, then we are able to be resilient against future tax changes. And then if we look at the things like the health care and all those and other inevitable for many people, again, just having the right money set aside and the right strategy to protect against that gives us the ability to withstand those events. Yeah, 100%. So let's think about you had said, I made a comment a few minutes ago that, you know, what seems like a sound plan, meaning here comes a client with this, you know, they feel like they're doing great because they've got this plan that they were given. Why is it dangerous when

financial decisions are driven by products versus guidance, objective guidance? And then how can people tell the difference what they're getting? Are they just getting recommendations in that plan that are product driven or, you know, 30,000 foot objective guidance driven and, and that's what's driving that plan. That's the million dollar question, Mike. Yeah. That, you know, there are so many strategies, I'll call it, that people think that if they follow these and they're going to get guidance.

And my favorite is, you know, the people that ask, well, well, are you a fiduciary? Yeah. Because that's what the marketing message is. days. And as I was explaining to a client the other day, that in my opinion is a bunch of hogwash. You know, the joke that the industry is playing on the consumer is that they're holding that up as some type of standard that is above and beyond any others. and in reality what that means in the industry is that the person that has a series 65 is a quote unquote fiduciary under the SEC laws, which means that they sell based upon an asset under management and not a commission. And that's supposed to make them somewhat better.

Now, don't take me wrong. I am a fiduciary, but I believe that I was a fiduciary before being a fiduciary was cool. And why do I say that? I say that because when I decided back in the day that I was going to start offering these ancillary products and services to my estate planning clients, I had to do a lot of research on whether or not I was even able to do it because of the restrictions against an attorney, going, quote, unquote, into business with their clients. And so there is a very bright red line that is there. And so I had to be very clear that what I was doing isn't the best interest on my clients.

And that's not really what the fiduciary standard has ended up being as it's been implemented in the industry. So that's one strategy. people say, you know, how do we find out whether this person is giving us good advice? Well, we're going to ask me with their fiduciary. Okay. So I've debunked that. Okay, that in and itself is not going to do it.

Second is, okay, well, many people come upon an advisor and they say, tell you what, I'm going to give you a plan. Let me give you a plan, an income plan or an asset or an investment plan, whatever. Well, inherent in that is that that is basically they're selling whatever that plan is pushing. And unless they are, you know, a fee-only advisor or something like that that is clearly just putting together a plan that's putting in all the pieces, then you can see that it's geared toward one thing or the other. And the question becomes, was the process that you went through one that identified what your needs and your concerns were? And the ultimate plan that was produced was a reflective of a deep understanding of what you have said you wanted to have done. Now, I've been guilty of this throughout my career as well, just as like the next guy, because as I mentioned in our prior conversation, you become an acolyte.

You've become so enamored with what you've got. Sometimes you step over the line, and you become an advocate for the product, not the person. And that is what really has to be the keystone is that the plan represents advocacy for the best interest of the client as that process has uncovered it. And that there's a comfortable feeling like, you know, I'm at the end of this thing and it just doesn't feel right for me as a client. So what's happening at that point in time? Is it an acceptance and acknowledgement and saying, okay, let's back up and regroup. Let's make sure this is really what you wanted to be. Or is it more pressure to go forward with the solution that was there?

So the consumers know it. They feel it. Yeah. They don't know the answer, but they just feel something's just not right. It just doesn't fit right. Right. Yeah. So if someone is feeling that, thinking that, wondering that, or worried about it,

and they would like maybe to have a second opinion on their plan to see if it's product-driven or maybe, you know, results, guideline, objective-driven, and would like that second opinion. What's the best way that they can reach out to you, Greg? They can reach out to me by email at gregg at advocatewealthsolutions.com. They can also check me out our websites, advocatewealthsolutions.com, as well as my law office, DuPontlawgroup.com, and many other places out there on the internet when you start Googling Greg DuPont. Yep, perfect. Well, thank you so much for coming back on. It's been a real pleasure chatting with you again, Greg. Mike, thank you for these conversations. I really enjoyed

them. You've been listening to Influential Entrepreneurs with Mike Saunders. To learn more about the resources mentioned on today's show or listen to past episodes, visit www.com.