2309 - The Operator’s Guide to Thinking Like an Investor with GFG Solutions' Claudio Gambin

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0:58With us right now is Claudio Gambon. And Claudio, you are with GFG Solutions. You're the CEO, you're a financial advisor, founder. You are found on the web at gfgsolutions.com. And this is fun. We're both in Orlando, which I always love talking with a fellow Orlandian. How long have you been in the area? 1995. Wow, that makes you, that is some serious OG cred. Yeah, almost, almost. Pine Hills originally, right? West side, Pine Hills area. and then Winter Park. And then most recently just landed over to Winter Springs. Nice. Well, terrific. So I always love, especially, you know, you here locally.

1:41What do you do for fun in Orlando? Or what have you been into lately? You know, man, I love New Smyrna Beach. Like I have a house, New Smyrna. And any minute that I have, I am fishing. Like tuna fishing specifically is like my jam. love tuna fishing tuna fishing how how big how big are the tuna that usually catch uh they're not huge they're probably somewhere between 50 to 80 pounds here see to me that's enormous you know i grew up in the midwest you know just catching bluegill and yeah yeah but that's the main reason i moved to winter springs like uh you know i used to live in winter park and it's just so crowded There was a lot of great restaurants and Park Avenue and everything.

2:30So I moved to Winter Springs and I picked up 14 acres. So now I just don't leave my compound. Yeah. Why would you got everything you need? Yeah. Love it. Love it. Well, Claudio, share with us a bit about GFG Solutions, who you work with and what you do. Yeah, I appreciate it. Thank you for having me on the show. So GFG Solutions is a firm that we started in 2019. I came from the wealth management world. I was in the wealth management business with a big broker dealer from 2009 to 2019. And great, great experience. Loved it. Was incredibly successful. But I hated the aspect of giving people really good advice and having to sell them a product to make money.

3:15Right? It just felt backwards. I think financial advisors do great. They do a great job. But they're incentivized incorrectly. They're incentivized. They're not incentivized to do good, right? So in my practice, in the wealth management world, I only worked with entrepreneurs because those are like my people, that brain, that type of human, that's who I connect with the most. So that's who I enjoy working with. And when I sold my wealth management business off to start what I have today, I wanted to go deeper into that realm. So today, GFG Solutions specifically helps business owners on strategy and strategy alone.

3:57That's it. So we help create strategy and we help implement strategy for a flat fee. That way the clients know that the advice that they're getting, there's nothing tied to it. They're getting advice. They're paying for advice. The same way if you're going to go get any sort of other advice, whether it's medical, whether it's legal, whether it's anything like that, like you are paying for the advice. The financial services industry is one of the few industries that like, oh, we're going to give you free advice, but here you should buy this product that's that like that's backwards, especially when it comes to money.

4:28It's such a like a sensitive and emotional topic for all of us. Yeah, it's, you know, it's interesting. And I think this is probably a little bit of a hyperbole, but you know, it's like you can hire a consultant and you can pay a consultant for consulting or like you wouldn't pay a salesperson consulting rates, you know, to give you advice if the salesperson is incentivized to move product. I mean, I agree with you. It makes sense. And I understand that, you know, if I'm trying to like just, I surround myself with smart people and this guy's, you know, willing to give me good advice for free. Yeah, I'm going to buy some products on the back end, you know, it really is fairly problematic.

5:15I mean, it's, you know, maybe a percentage of the time that's absolutely the best advice, but not always. Well, most of them are great people and they're going to be relatively altruistic, right? They want to do good. It's just backwards. I think the financial services sector is quickly becoming the used car sales world, right? But at the end of the day, you know, money is such a sensitive topic. And I think our industry and even our clients are so hungry for just transparent, honest advice because there's so much good advice out there. And then secondarily, all too often, financial advisors are not specialists.

5:58They work with everybody. If you are a doctor, if you are an architect, if you are a business owner, as long as you have money, they can help you. But that's just not very efficient. you've got to be able to work with somebody that knows your problems at a level that is better than just understanding. They got to be able to live it. They got to be able to feel it, which is why we only work with business owners with a heavy concentration in construction, the trades, right? So that way, when I meet with somebody in that space, chances are, one, I've already encountered the problems they're having with somebody else and helped them solve, not just once, but probably at least 10 times.

6:38And two, because I have experience working in their realm, I'm going to be so much more efficient in helping them get to where they want to get. And three, I'm charging a flat fee for it. So they know that like the advice I'm giving them has nothing tied to it. So it just provides a much more healthy environment for us to actually accomplish what we're trying to accomplish. Yeah. So let's talk specifically to business owners who, I mean, there's likely, I wonder in your experience, how often you find some layups in terms of tax strategy or savings or opportunities that you are surprised how few business owners are taking advantage of.

7:23Are there any that immediately come to mind? All day. So first and foremost, right, every business owner feels this, and I'm sure your audience will feel this. Don't forget, your business is likely your best performing asset and you're likely your number one asset. Don't forget that. No matter how many other people are going to, I don't know what these balloons are, but I don't know how many other people are going to try and tell you to not invest into whatever you have so that you can invest in what they have. Don't forget that buying your stock is the best stock to buy. Let's just kind of put that out there.

7:56Now again, that's most, right? And two, everybody has a business partner in Uncle Sam. Uncle Sam is your business partner and he could be your business partner at 37%. He can be your business partner at 10%. And the equity that Uncle Sam has in your business is completely up to you. So I talk about taxes. I'm talking about like at the end of the day, whatever your net income is, you're going to have to give something to Uncle Sam. And the biggest layup of all, Josh, is being proactive, being proactive. That's it. If you can just take that one piece of advice. It's September of 2025. For us, it's tax season.

8:39We are meeting with every single one of our clients, projecting out their 2025 income, identifying what the tax bill is going to be, and we are implementing solutions now so that by the time the year is over, we know exactly what their tax landscape is going to be. Because if you wait until next year, like most, most CPAs are going to call you next year. Most CPAs are going to want to have a conversation about taxes in February, right? So if you wait until that time, you're relatively out of options on what you can do to mitigate your partnership with Uncle Sam. So that's the biggest layup is be proactive.

9:16And then on top of that, right, I'll give you the formula that I go through with every single one of my clients. Step one, identify the problem. It's, you know, you're almost at the end of Q3, take what how much you've made, multiply that by the annualization rate. So figure out what you're going to make this year. Multiply that by your effective tax rate from last year. You take what you made versus what you paid. That's the percentage. That's your effective tax rate. Identify the problem. Let's just say your tax bill is$200 ,000. Then you follow this math. The first thing you do is you look at tax credits.

9:50Identify all the tax credits that are available to you and your industry. It could be grants. It could be research and development tax credits. There's so many different kinds of credits that could apply to you and your industry. Those are the best because those are dollar for dollar off of your tax bill. Step two, depreciation. What assets can be depreciated on an accelerated or a bonus depreciation basis, especially with a new tax bill that just passed? Do you own real estate? Do you have heavy equipment? Did you buy SUVs? Look at depreciation and maximize appreciation. Once you've done that, go to deductions.

10:24Identify all the deductions. Deductions are dollars you have already spent that need to be classified as a deductible expense, not as a distribution to you, right? So identify those pieces of the puzzle. And then last is deferrals, like 401ks, IRAs, that sort of stuff. So that's the formula that we take to just truly maximize the tax value so that you're truly getting what you, to keep what you're making. Yeah, great. And so, Claudio, you're based here in Orlando. I would imagine your clients are kind of all over the place. What does engaging with GFG usually look like for someone who's not worked with, you know, kind of a fee-based advisor?

11:07Like, what do you do together? And like, you know, eventually, yes, there's, you know, likely some decisions. Maybe there's some products that are going to be appropriate. But what does that typically, What does that journey typically look like? A big piece to it is understanding what the client is, right? We only work with about 30 clients at a time. So we're definitely not a big firm by any stretch of the imagination. It's very boutique and very hands-on. So first and foremost, it is doing a big in-depth, deep dive into where they are, where they want to go, what's happened in the past. We collect a bunch of documents, tax returns, balance sheets, P &Ls to get a really good understanding of who the client is.

11:46So from there, we're then going to go build all the solutions. We're going to go build the asset protection plan. We're going to go build the tax strategy. We're going to build their growth plan. We're going to build their exit plan. Exit could mean a lot of different things, but we're always going to recommend that every business is built to sell. Now, whether you choose to sell it or not is a completely different conversation. But if you build your business to sell, you are building a business that has enterprise value that does not need you in the business so that you're no longer an owner, you're an investor.

12:18Okay? So those are the four things we're going to build. We're going to come back to them and present to them. Say, hey, here's everything we want to do. Here's why. Here's how it works. Here's the pros and cons. And here's how much it costs. we will not take a client on unless we know for a fact that we can 4x our fee so it's like a positive roi engagement it has to be that yeah and then we we we talk about their team we want to meet their cpa we want to meet their financial advisor we're going to bring the whole team together to make sure everyone is speaking the same language moving in the same direction that we have complete and total alignment from all the professionals.

12:58And that's the truest way for us to be able to be as impactful as possible because people don't pay us for ideas. They pay us for execution. Your business owner audience, they're too busy to have 16 other things to be put on their plate. So we don't add to their plate. We take things off the plate. We execute. We don't just talk about it. All right. So, Pauwdio, your website is gfgsolutions.com. Where should people go from here? They want to get a hold of us. GFG Solutions is great. Claude Gambon, at Claude Gambon is my Instagram. We put a bunch of content out there. It's super educational. So everything we're talking through on socials is about like actual specifics and tactics on how to implement stuff.

13:45My goal ultimately through social media is to give away enough information where someone doesn't have to hire us. But as always, right, it's very general because we're talking to the general public. So website, social media, LinkedIn, those are some great places to find us. Now, again, gfgsolutions.com is links to everything. We've got those links as well in the show notes for this episode. Been a great conversation. Claudio Gambon, again, CEO of Financial Advisor, gfgsolutions.com. Thanks, Claudio. Yeah, man. See you.

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