Business Innovators Radio - Interview with Vincent Virga Founder of PFS Wealth Management Group Discussing Tax Planning for Long-term Legacy

Episode Date: July 7, 2025

Vincent has more than 35 years of experience in the financial services industry, growing and developing close relationships with mentors in all areas of financial management, financial planning, tax-efficient strategies, and market alternative investment concepts. Having worked with these individuals in wealth management and asset protection strategies, Vincent has been better able to serve his clients’ needs in a world that demands unconventional approaches to building long-term financial security.The published author of “The S.M.A.R.T. Approach: A 5 Step Process to Life, Leadership and Investing,” Vincent, also hosted a weekly radio show, “The S.M.A.R.T. Approach to Retirement,” on 970 AM The Answer in New York. He lectures extensively about non-conventional wealth accumulation and preservation approaches to other financial advisory professionals and the public through his energetic and entertaining informational workshops.Learn more: http://www.pfswealthgroup.com/Insurance products are offered through the insurance business PFS Wealth Management Group. PFS Wealth Management Group is also an Investment Advisory practice that offers products and services through AE Wealth Management, LLC (AEWM), a Registered Investment Advisor. AEWM does not offer insurance products. The insurance products offered by PFS Wealth Management Group are not subject to Investment Advisor requirements. Investing involves risk, including the potential loss of principal. Any references to protection, safety or lifetime income, generally refer to fixed insurance products, never securities or investments. Insurance guarantees are backed by the financial strength and claims paying abilities of the issuing carrier. This radio show is intended for informational purposes only. It is not intended to be used as the sole basis for financial decisions, nor should it be construed as advice designed to meet the particular needs of an individual's situation. PFS Wealth Management Group is not permitted to offer and no statement made during this show shall constitute tax or legal advice. Our firm is not affiliated with or endorsed by the U.S. Government or any governmental agency. The information and opinions contained herein provided by third parties have been obtained from sources believed to be reliable, but accuracy and completeness cannot be guaranteed by PFS Wealth Management Group. A PR firm was paid to assist with media placement. 3190008- 07/25  Influential Entrepreneurs with Mike Saundershttps://businessinnovatorsradio.com/influential-entrepreneurs-with-mike-saunders/Source: https://businessinnovatorsradio.com/interview-with-vincent-virga-founder-of-pfs-wealth-management-group-discussing-tax-planning-for-long-term-legacy

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 this Vincent Berger, who's the founder of PFS wealth management group, and we'll be talking about tax planning for long-term, legacy. Vincent, welcome back to the program. Well, thanks, Mike, for having me.

Hey, you're welcome. And I know that a lot of times people think, you know, I just got to get enough money for retirement. Well, the problem with that is, how much money do you need? And then how much money, how long are you going to live past retirement? Well, we're talking about long-term legacy, which really extends that, that forecast and vision way down the road. So I love that forward thinking that we're talking about here. So where do we, where do you get started when you're working with clients and your, your prospects that you're working with when you talk about how to plan for taxes? Where's the first thing that you're getting them to understand? Sure. Yeah, I have a saying that fees and taxes are important only in the absence of value,

but really most individuals don't think about the impact of taxes as it pertains to their financial lives today, but quite frankly, over the course of their lives. Everyone is so programmed, most individuals we meet are so programmed to view it from a micro standpoint versus a macro standpoint. It's like, what do I owe this year and that's it? But our focus when it comes to tax planning at PFS is to focus on long term. And ultimately, you know, when it comes to tax planning in our office, it is, as I said, one of the most overlooked aspects of long-term wealth planning. And while investment performance is important, as we just said, you know, offense takes center stage. Taxes can significantly affect the net amount that folks are going to be able to pass onto the

errors or, quite frankly, charitable causes if they haven't. So by incorporating and by adding tax awareness into the planning process, you know, ultimately, such as managing when and how income is realized or using tools like charitable giving vehicles, our clients will be able to make a more informed choice that aligns with their long-term values and legacy goals. And, you know, I had to, if you don't mind me sharing a real quick example of the impact of taxes is I had a client, a dear friend of my family, who happened to do really well with an investment. And, you know, his, his CPA recommended that he hold on. to it because of the potential tax implication. Wasn't looking at it long term, looking at it short term.

And ultimately, he took the advice of his accountant, and what happened was that investment dropped by almost 60, 70 percent. So my argument there was, what relevance does it have now to the overall portfolio if you lost, you know, if you didn't pay X in taxes, but now lost to Y in value of your of your investment. So it's important from a long-term stand position that clients are more aware of the impact of taxes, not just on what next year's tax return says, but over the long-term and legacy that they leave behind. Yeah, I think that, you know, it's always like you play chess and you leave your finger on the piece and go, okay, is this a good move? Let's make sure. Let's double check, triple check. Okay, yes, it is. Or, oh, no, I forgot this aspect of it.

So there's so many things and it's not something that the average retiree or pre-retiree is going to know all of the implications all of the time. I think that's great. Or Mike, if I may reject or more often than not, their typical advisor at one of the institutional firms is even going to be able to have a discussion with them about. Yeah, because they are so limited. They can only talk about certain things and recommend certain products. Yeah, that's a good point. Yeah. So I know you've got a really specific smart approach. Talk a little bit about how your approach helps to maximize tax efficiency because it is such a huge point in retirement planning. Yeah, sure. As I mentioned in an earlier conversation, you and I had, you know, our smart approach

planning process is premised around a book I published a few years back called The Smart Approach, a five-step process to life, leadership, and investing. And our smart approach allows it. individuals truly to methodically evaluate their decisions through a clear lens of tax efficiency. And, you know, our acronym smart is simplicity. Simplicity in understanding and identifying appropriate strategies could be potentially Roth conversions or qualified charitable distributions. Measureability. You know, measuring outcomes will help assess the impact of those strategies over time. accountability to make sure we're sitting down and having discussions about not only from our vantage point of accountability, but from the client's standpoint of accountability, if there's

any changes that have occurred that could be impacting taxes in the long run. Realistic results, we talked about ensuring that the approach is tied to a current life circumstance and ultimately teamwork. This isn't about any one individual individual advisor, but here at PFS, we kind of run our practice similarly to a virtual family office where we have some of the best specialists to help us and help our clients in really unique specialized manners when it comes to tax planning. And realizing one example of capital gains may be more advantageous is one little example. So ultimately, Mike, this framework really helps our clients think more proactively about taxes rather than reacting to unexpected liabilities

after the fact because it's too late at that point. Yeah, I 100% agree. And I love how you just ran as quickly through that smart approach framework because it reminds me of, it's like when you mentioned earlier about the pilot, you know, an airline pilot, I'm confident that they've got a checklist of probably three dozen things that they're making sure, check, check, check, yep, we've done these. Now we're ready to take off. Well, if you are filtering several and many facets of financial recommendations through your

smart approach framework, your clients are really confident that they're getting the best, you know, really a full holistic approach, right? Yes, that's correct. And you're absolutely correct. There is a lengthy checklist that we've, we've, work and walk our perspective clients through to make sure we have absolute clarity in those five areas of value that we bring income planning, tax and fee efficient investment planning, healthcare planning.

You know, most typical advisors won't sit down at least once a year and talk to their clients about Medicare, Medicare supplement, long-term care, long-term care alternatives. We talk about tax planning and then ultimately a state and legacy planning. So, yeah, these are, and there's checklists for each one of those pillars. It's pretty extensive. And there's a, you know, there's a game book that we have, a playbook that we have that's created for each one of our clients. I love it. That is awesome.

So now thinking about some of these tax planning, you know, strategies, what are some of the things that you have seen over the years that are either overlooked tax strategies or actually? mistakes that have been made that clients have made, of course, before coming to you and you're seeing them and you're working directed by them. But what are some of those kind of landmines? Yeah. The first big, big one is procrastination or hope. And I always say hope, with all due respect, isn't a plan. But aside from procrastination and hoping that things will improve regardless of the various levels of risk. You know, some of the oversights that we see is, you know, biggest one is delaying planning until retirement begins.

It's almost too late at that point. You can fix some things and you can make some major, potentially major adjustments, but waiting to plan until after retirement is a big mistake, number one. Not coordinating withdrawals from the different. types of accounts in a tax-efficient manner is another way, you know, that most people don't think about. The other is overlooking the impact of RMDs or required minimum distributions from their retirement accounts. And the other point I'll say is failing to evaluate charitable

giving strategies that may also offer some tax benefits. And ultimately, Mike, these often come down to coordination, integrating, you know, tax planning with investment, income and estate planning rather than treating each one of them as separate silos. Yeah. And it's almost like I would think that this is an accurate assessment. It's like if we looked at these silos on a whiteboard and really talk through them, once silo number one is really tweaked and polished and you can check the box and go, okay, we're good on that one.

That's going to amplify the impact as you move to silo two and silo three. So they almost, it becomes, you know, just an. amplification process because what's the old saying some of the parts is greater than, you know, the whole. The whole. That's right. Yeah. Yeah.

And again, Mike, I'll just keep saying it. It's not about any one product, anyone's solution, anyone's strategy. It is truly a holistic and comprehensive approach to planning. And this is, you know, again, you know, our whole lives, we've been accustomed to thinking planning and diversification is just a pretty pie chart that we see on our, uh, our brokerage accounts every month. And unfortunately, as we are nearing the proverbial retirement mountain summit, we need to have all aspects and all five of these pillars, all five of these silos intertwine. So they're moving in unison with one another. And then periodically

reviewing them to make sure nothing changes or we have to adapt. Because there's always going to be levels of adapt. Yeah. And it's not like, oh, well, we made a bad. decision when we did this. So let's change it. It's more likely your life circumstances might have adjusted. Inflation, taxes, external type things might have adjusted. So now what is that due to our plan? Let's make some tweaks. So it's never set it and forget it. Yeah, bingo. That's exactly the case. Absolutely the case. So you've mentioned charitable giving, which we could probably do a three-day weekend seminar just on that one point alone. But from a 30,000 foot view, talk a little bit about how some of those strategies can help maybe create a more tax-efficient legacy.

Yeah, let me touch on this. Most people don't realize this. And when I would do public educational events, their attendees' eyes bulge that, you know, earlier I referenced RMDs or required minimum distributions. And, you know, I would challenge each and every one of your listeners to, when they look at their retirement statements, their IRAs, their 401. their, you know, retirement statements. You know, they have a life partner, and it's not their significant other.

They got Uncle Sam as their life partner. And most individuals don't realize that there are three potential hidden tax liabilities that could come into play as it pertains to their retirement assets. And, you know, the first one I just gave the answer, RMD. So when, if someone, you know, any of your clients are over 7.3, obviously now they're taking R&D required minimum distribution. That's paying that percentage out of your IRAs. Now, if your clients or individuals are in a position where they do not need to utilize the RMD

to sustain their standard of living, potential tax number two comes into play if you're going to reinvest that money in the form of potentially dividends and capital gains taxes. Then if their advisor is working efficiently and things are looking really great over the course of their lives, and when they leave this earth and they want to leave these proceeds, these retirement assets to their children, that's potential tax number three, estate and inheritance tax. And oh, by the way, children, when they inherited their parents' qualified accounts, they were able to take their RMDs over the course of their life expectancy. Well, a couple of presidential administrations ago in the middle of the night, they changed that rule.

And now they're going to fast track children who inherit qualified accounts and force them to take it out over a 10-year period, basically liquidating the accounts over a 10-year period. So three potential taxes that most individuals aren't aware of. Yeah, that's huge. So you mentioned, you know, hinted at tax laws. And obviously those are things that are external that we cannot control. You know, there's something that we all should keep in mind is we can, you know, mostly control our effort and our attitude, you know, but so many other things in life,

we cannot control like taxes and laws. But when we think about like that long-term legacy and tax laws, you know, there's some people that have more than a buck or two and have a little bit more higher net worth, how should those higher net worth families be looking at some of these tax law changes around estate planning? Yeah. So, you know, and it's kind of funny, you know, sometimes we'll see in D.C. and, you know, our congressmen and women complaining that company A and company B don't pay their fair share of taxes. Well, I can tell you that these organizations, these companies, have one floor dedicated to tax attorneys.

And all they're responsible with doing is reading the tax codes and the tax laws and utilizing those laws to their benefit. You can't blame them. It's written in black and white, and it's in existence. So what we focus on is when it comes to tax planning for our clients, ultimately what we're going to do

is we're going to have specialists, We don't have a whole floor dedicated to tax attorneys, but we're going to take and utilize some of those tax strategies, some of those tax codes, some of those tax laws, and utilize them in favor of our clients. It's legal and it's in the black letter of the law. But ultimately, I would say this, Mike, is a comprehensive plan that includes tax awareness can undoubtedly help reduce the element of surprise in anyone's life. Imagine waking up January and having a tax bill you weren't planning on. But the only way you can do this is by forecasting potential tax implications, by making decisions accordingly and early. So you're better prepared. Yeah, that's a huge thing.

And it's kind of like what people have said in the past, like, you know, how early should I start planning? Well, as early as possible. So that's, that's pretty huge. But when you do start putting a plan into place to make sure your tax plan is as good as it possibly can, is, early enough, talk a little bit about when you know that that's as good as it can be, how it eliminates the fear of maybe some of those unexpected tax liabilities, because things can pop up, but if you've addressed it ahead of time, shouldn't that help you kind of rest a little bit easier? Yeah, clarity, in my opinion, clarity eliminates fear.

If you know exactly where you're going, my opinion, fear should be eliminated. on a spiritual sense, fear I kind of consider, I kind of, people like are amazing, I'm like, fear is a form of atheism. If, you know, if you don't believe, if you have fear, that means you don't believe. So I will just say that ultimately with clarity eliminates fear, you know, we can get, we can, we can kind of isolate it even as even more like individuals, you know, that, you know, may feel more prepared, you know, like an example, Mike, Medicare search. charges. You know, like when you can prepare and plan, things like Medicare surcharges or tax

bracket creep or capital gains, they don't become an issue because we're better prepared. Now, I will say that while no strategy can anticipate any tax law change or market condition, again, I've beat this to no end. Planning ahead will provide an opportunity to identify. scenarios and then allow us to build in that flexibility. And this will or should reduce anxiety and support a more confident decision-making process. Yeah. Oh, yeah, for sure. I love it.

And I think that the whole point is everyone's situation is different. There's not one scenario that fits every single person and start as early as possible. So, you know, Vince, this has been so helpful to have some of these points to to be thinking about and putting together a good solid tax plan so that you've got a solid retirement that you can pass on to your heirs and family and create that legacy. If someone is interested in learning a little bit more, what's the best way they can do that and reach out and connect with you? Sure.

They can reach out to us. I think the easiest would be to reach out to us on our website, pfswealthgroup.com, and just go to contact us page. and a little gift for me to your listeners that reach out to us on the contact page. I will give them a copy of my second edition of The Smart Approach, Five-Step Process to Life, Leadership, and Investing book. It would be my gift to your listeners. Excellent. Well, thank you so much, and thank you for coming back on.

It's been a real pleasure chatting with you. Likewise, Mike. 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. www. influential entrepreneursradio.com