Intro Speaker 0:00
From Los Angeles, this is the Echelon Radio Network

Jerri Hemsworth 0:15
it’s Jerri Hemsworth here on the Echelon Radio Podcast. And today I’m sitting with Heath Goldman, how’re you doing, Heath?

Heath Goldman 0:22
I’m doing great. Happy to be here.

Jerri Hemsworth 0:23
Oh, I’m so happy to see you’ve got the greatest smile. Did you? Do people tell you that?

Heath Goldman 0:28
No, because I don’t usually do it. I’m not photogenic.

Jerri Hemsworth 0:33
I beg to differ. It’s a great smile, you should do it more often. He does with ICON Wealth and Legacy Partners tell us about ICON Wealth and Legacy Partners.

Heath Goldman 0:43
So icon was formed about 15 years ago, at the time, I did have another partner, and we were looking to create a degree of difference in the marketplace. When you hear financial planning, you often think wealth management, when you hear wealth management, you often think managing of capital assets, funds and all of that. Yeah. And at the end of the day, that was not what we wanted to be known for. We wanted to be known as a comprehensive, multi disciplined financial planning firm, which is an old school philosophy nowadays, people are typically disciplined in one of those areas, not overlooking many different areas of which the clients need assistance.

Jerri Hemsworth 1:26
That’s interesting, because you said old school why what was it about old school that was so different than the individual? What did we do back in a way back then that, that brought you back to that?

Heath Goldman 1:40
When I talk old school, you know, you look at a lot of the 60 Plus, what we would consider financial planners, they were trained differently, they were trained in a multidisciplinary approach to a client’s situation, okay? Nowadays, you know, you manage money, you sell insurance, you do tax planning, you there’s in I think it’s just become that the tax codes become more complicated. The laws have become more complicated, whatever, it’s become more complicated. So trying to become not an expert, but knowledgeable on each of these areas takes a lot of time and effort. And it took me a lot of time and effort, and it took me multiple firms to finally come to this deliverable on behalf of clients.

Jerri Hemsworth 2:25
Gotcha. And, and you and I have talked about when you get into a room and you explain icon, wealth and legacy partners, there gets a confusion they lump you into right away there, they immediately think financial planning and all of that. Why do you think that confusion exists? Is it because they don’t quite understand or they just they shut off? They don’t understand what you do? What is the confusion you encounter?

Heath Goldman 2:55
I don’t think people understand what financial planning is. If you look at the textbook definition of financial planning, it really is a multi disciplined approach to the wealth of a client that includes estate planning, succession, asset protection, investment management, property and casualty life insurance, health insurance, I mean, you have to have at least a knowledge base. And each of these disciplines, in my opinion, to be really considered a financial planner. But the misconception is, is a financial planner is a wealth manager or investment advisor, somebody who manages assets, capital assets, typically on behalf of the client.

Jerri Hemsworth 3:31
And and you and I were in a meeting last night, and it became crystal clear to me exactly what Icon Wealth and Legacy Partners is about. And you said, we are architects, meaning you come up with the strategies, because you have the knowledge of these different disciplines. So you work with a client, correct in order to build a financial stability strategy, if you will, for for their wealth.

Heath Goldman 4:04
So when we work with a client that is typically with the client, the spouse, and then sometimes multiple generations of that family, you know, if you’ve got a family owned business, you could be looking at grandma and grandpa, mom and dad.

Jerri Hemsworth 4:17
Yeah, many, many generations, generations.

Heath Goldman 4:19
And so you can’t figure out what one generation is going to do without taking into consideration the other generations. And it’s not that you need their input is necessarily, it’s that this overall plan takes into consideration all of the wealth, all of the different moving pieces. And it’s important to have the knowledge of all of these people’s beliefs and goals and objectives so that when the plan does get put together, you can take in those considerations,

Jerri Hemsworth 4:49
And you meet with all of them at the same time or over over a process of time in for a client if it’s a multi generational family. How does that work?

Heath Goldman 4:59
Typically start with patriarch and matriarch and they will involve the generations as they see fit. I’m not really concerned about what the other generations really want, if that’s going to differ from patriarch and matriarch, but having that understanding, and there may be a happy medium do determine really what that ultimate solution really looks like. Right?

Jerri Hemsworth 5:20
So you’re really creating a roadmap for these clients.

Heath Goldman 5:24
It is one way of saying it. Absolutely. And that’s the complication of it. Because there’s so many different directions that this roadmap can go, it’s like, well, what about this? What about that? Yeah, that’s you have to take those into consideration. And you have to be able to see, I tell people, I’d love to have your crystal ball. But sometimes you have to see that crystal ball to have an understanding of what could go wrong, so that you can fix that plan today to make sure that those wrongs don’t occur.

Jerri Hemsworth 5:51
And that’s your vast experience has you’ve seen the wrongs occur? So it gives you information that you can then guide your clients.

Heath Goldman 6:01
But I think it’s also being able to understand not necessarily the wrongs, the different ways that this plan could go, you know, the old saying, you come to a fork in the road, which way to go? You can go right, or you can go left, the question is, is really what is the direction that right takes you in, which is the direction left takes you? And what’s that journey look like along that road?

Jerri Hemsworth 6:22
The pros and cons of going each direction, or just going straight down the middle.

Heath Goldman 6:27
If you could be sitting here with two twin brothers or sisters and have the exact same family dynamics. The plan may be very different. And you say, well, they’re identical. How can it be different in something down there? You know, it may be that the grandchild does not want to take over the company and one grandchild may want to take over the company completely changes the direction of the plan apps and you got to be able to change the directions as you go.

Jerri Hemsworth 6:53
I love now understanding everything that you do, because now it’s it makes complete sense. complete sense to me.

Heath Goldman 7:02
Hopefully after everybody else hears this to them as well.

Jerri Hemsworth 7:08
Let’s switch gears, where did you grow up?

Heath Goldman 7:12
Jerri, I was born in Dayton, Ohio, which is where my parents were also born. The family came to Dayton, Ohio in the late 1800s. And eventually, my parents found their way out to Phoenix, Arizona in ’85. Grandma and grandpa were snowbirds from Dayton to Phoenix as opposed to Dayton to Florida like everybody else in the family had bet they went west, not east. Well, they went west and I came to find out the story. My dad’s oldest brother was stationed in San Diego in the Navy. So once he was done with the Navy, he went to Phoenix. So they wanted to see their grandchildren grow up. And so they ended up going Dayton, to Phoenix. And so eventually, my dad’s younger brother than my father, then my mom’s parents and then my mom’s sister. Eventually, everybody ended up in Phoenix.

Jerri Hemsworth 7:54
So you were in Phoenix too, or did you come straight up to California?

Heath Goldman 7:57
No, I was moved to Phoenix middle my freshman year in high school.

Jerri Hemsworth 8:00
Oh, that was an adjustment.

Heath Goldman 8:01
It was four years there four years down at the University of Arizona and then came out here to go to law school. Back in 2003. Where do you go? No, excuse me. 1993

Jerri Hemsworth 8:12
Oh, my, where’d you go to law school?

Heath Goldman 8:13
Came out here to go to Southwestern, I was exceptionally close with my grandparents, all four grandparents were still living at the time back in Phoenix. And I wanted to stay as close as that I could to them. And Southwestern in LA was the closest finish first year law school and realize that that was not the direction I wanted to go with my career. But I’d already met my then girlfriend, who now has been my wife for 27 years.

Jerri Hemsworth 8:35
Oh my gosh, where do you go after law school? Where did you What did you end up?

Heath Goldman 8:39
Before I left law school, I took a job at Smith Barney for the summer to put a little extra cash in my pocket that was in Beverly Hills, and proved myself to one of the senior partners and he brought me on as a junior partner. And so I did manage money for six and a half years. Although that is not a deliverable that we provide today. It was how I started in this business.

Jerri Hemsworth 9:01
So what deliverables does Icon Wealth and Legacy Partners deliver? You know, other than the strategy and the roadmap

Heath Goldman 9:11
Two deliverables—on the right side of the ledger, we do provide life insurance solutions for those families, whether they own a construction real estate company or whether they own you know, they would call it distributors or manufacturer company. And then on the other side is a fee based financial planning model where we provide 365 days of service as in a retainer basis.

Jerri Hemsworth 9:35
Awesome. So you are in California, you’re close to your grandparents. And you and I were talking at a meeting about your passion, your favorite game as a kid, and what did you tell me?

Heath Goldman 9:55
Basketball. I still play weekly,

Jerri Hemsworth 9:57
Weekly, and you started playing bass But when I was four, and did you have a family member that played or how did you get into basketball at four?

Heath Goldman 10:09
I think back in Ohio, it was an indoor sport. So in the wintertime, my parents said found a sport that makes sense. threw me out on the basketball court. I’ve always been a pretty tall kid, and it’s gonna ask you were you a tall kid? Yeah, I was always a tall kid. I stopped crawling about that when I was about 14, though.

Jerri Hemsworth 10:26
And how tall are you?

Heath Goldman 10:27
I’m 6’3″.

Jerri Hemsworth 10:28
6’3″. Did you play ball in school?

Heath Goldman 10:31
I did not play basketball. I did. I was on the track team. I did throw shotput at Arizona at the University of Arizona.

Jerri Hemsworth 10:36
Really? Really? And did you come you competed against other universities? How’d you do?

Heath Goldman 10:43
I was not very good. When I got to college. One thing a lot of people don’t know, it’s a game of basketball game of softball game of baseball, it’s all the same sport when you get to a just a different level. Shotput was a 12 pound shotput. In high school, it was a 16 pound shotput. But when you got to college, and while you see you see when you sit here and think about four pounds not being a lot. When it’s part of a metal ball that’s supposed to travel long distance. It’s a big difference. I didn’t I didn’t equate well to the college game. Although I would have never in my wildest dreams given up my experience of being a college athlete.

Jerri Hemsworth 11:21
What, how did your weekly basketball game here now come to be

Heath Goldman 11:31
A buddy of mine, actually, his parents, and my mother in law went to University of Illinois together. And that’s how I actually met my now wife, Wendy. He had. He got married in datapoint. And one of the gentlemen who was there we were sitting by the pool a couple days before the wedding. And he said he’s got a basketball game in Sherman Oaks. And I said, I’d love to come play and he said, Come play. And so that’s how the game started for me here in in locally, and they’ve been playing together for 27 years

Jerri Hemsworth 12:02
Is it the same set of guys?

Heath Goldman 12:05
Lost a few of the older crowd injuries took their toll and we filled in with some younger although you know, dependent, my oldest is 73. And my youngest is 18. Wow. So now, the 18 year old is a son of one of the other regulars

Jerri Hemsworth 12:22
Who talks the most smack?

Heath Goldman 12:26
I do that pretty well at the court.

Jerri Hemsworth 12:29
And the 18 year old 18 year old holds?

Heath Goldman 12:31
He can hold his own but he’s very quiet. He’s very quiet and it’s but it’s fun. It’s a it’s a great game, and we’re all out there just to try to get some exercise and just play the game we love still.

Jerri Hemsworth 12:43
You mentioned your lovely wife Wendy. You have children.

Heath Goldman 12:48
22 year old daughter who’s in graduate school. She’s in chiropractic school. She wants to put athletes back together again. She was a college athlete as well.

Jerri Hemsworth 12:55
Does she visit the weekly basketball game? She’s down in Dallas.

Heath Goldman 13:00
Could use her here but now she’s down in Dallas,

“Honey when you’re out? By this Friday, I hope.”

Yeah, for sure. So she has already been recruited to be the team doctor for the Israel national softball team. You’re kidding, of which she played for a couple seasons when she was done playing college ball. So that’s that’s what she wants to do. Fantastic. And then Riley is 18 He just is getting ready to graduate college high school and he’ll move on to Emerson College in Boston and he’s gonna play volleyball.

Jerri Hemsworth 13:29
So you’ve got these sports-minded kids too.

Heath Goldman 13:33
the whole households. Wendy, my wife was a college rower until she unfortunately blew her back out. And then obviously, we talked about me already and then Riley and Sydney. So it’s, it’s a fun sports household.

Jerri Hemsworth 13:44
Oh my gosh. So growing up when they were teenagers, were you guys just shuttling to the different sports and different club events for the kids?

Heath Goldman 13:53
Yeah, I’m a passionate softball father. But I will tell you this volleyball thing is pretty cool. I don’t have to worry about sunscreen and I don’t have to worry about multiple layers of clothes and changing throughout the day and carrying meals because everything’s inside and they’ve got you know, they’ve got a snack bar. But it’s I enjoyed both sports immensely.

Jerri Hemsworth 14:11
And Wendy has her own business. She does pretty infamous business. What is her business?

Heath Goldman 14:17
Wendy started as a commercial real estate underwriter at major financial institutions and one day decided she was going to start a gourmet cookie and Brownie company based on her grandmother’s great excuse me, great grandmother’s family recipe and so here we are a number of years later and just voted Best L.A. two years in a row and arguably we think they’re one of the best brownies in the world if if you’d like a fudgy brownie.

Jerri Hemsworth 14:41
Yeah, Bertha Mae brownies. Absolutely phenomenal. How is it that you’re you operate and run your business and Wendy operates and runs her business? Do you guys compare notes? Do you guys kind of just go along in your own lanes, how is it because they’re very different businesses. And I’m and I’m only asking because as you know, I’m in business with my husband, you guys aren’t in business together. But I’m curious how that works in your household.

Heath Goldman 15:14
To keep the marriage together, it is best that we stay separate when it comes to those businesses. I do provide some input, because I do do a lot of marketing and a lot of networking. And that’s not her strength. And her strength really is being a people person, once she gets a chance to meet them, she does not go out and meet a lot of people. So that’s my job. So it’s the one thing that I do help her do is to meet those people who might be interested in corporate gifts or whatever it may be, or sending a thank you when when necessary. And it seems to have worked,

Jerri Hemsworth 15:46
And how does she help you and your business?

Heath Goldman 15:50
Very little. Yep, she’s got her own business. She’s running. So my business is, I mean, while she’s a numbers person, it was not. It was not her discipline. I mean, when I have a client who has a real estate deal they’re looking at, she may do a little bit of underwriting just as a favor to the client, just to give a second set of eyes and ears, but it’s not what she does on a day to day basis.

Jerri Hemsworth 16:13
But that’s got to be kind of at least she can speak your language and work in speakers when it comes to real estate. Absolutely. Yeah, that’s got to be quite a comfort to both of you. And you can connect that way but pretty much you stay in each other in your own lines because it can be deadly if you don’t

Heath Goldman 16:29
That is absolutely correct.

Jerri Hemsworth 16:31
Well, he thank you so much for sitting down with me today. It’s such a pleasure to talk with you.

Heath Goldman 16:35
Thank you for the time.

Intro Speaker 16:45
Presented by Echelon Business Development, more than just networking, way more!

Transcribed by https://otter.ai