The Legacy Builder

Jared welcomes Katie Braun to the Ascent team. Katie will work as Myron Erstad's administrative assistant. Learn more about Kate in today's podcast. Welcome to Ascent!

Jared and Myron talk about ways they can genuinely help people prepare for retirement. People look at climbing a mountain as a big challenge, but rocker climbers will tell you the path down is often more treacherous. When people enter retirement, having a strategy will allow their funds to sustain them through the years ahead.

Join Jared and Myron, discussing tax strategy post-2020 election. How can you be more tax advantageous? Taxes are probably one of the most significant impacts on retirement planning. Ascent's ultimate goal is to make sure that a person with limited resources, receives the best value. Myron brings the "Power of Zero" book to the discussion. A book that provides its readers with a road map of how to get to the zero percent tax bracket., virtually eliminating the tax risk. How does COVID-19 impact out future taxes? Take a listen.

When designing a transition plan for your business, there are a lot of components to keep in mind. One of them is making sure that the plan is tax efficient. Today, Ascent shares four tax planning mistakes to avoid when creating your transition plan.

Tax planning after the election may seem daunting, but Ascent is here to help.

In this episode, Ascent Financial takes a look at living benefits and how they can be a great asset for many families.

Every person has a behavioral style. Understanding our behavioral style, and the styles of those on within our organization or family, can drastically improve communication and relationships. In this episode, we focus on a specific assessment called the DiSC. Learn how the different behavioral styles within each of us can be used to build powerful teams.

Life insurance planning is different for business owners. In this episode, Ben Bernard, the Managing Insurance Director at Ascent, talks about some of the myths surrounding life insurance planning for business owners, and the best practices to consider.

It is almost inevitable that given enough time, there will be conflict in a business or in a family. Al Bennett, a Business Planning Consultant at Ascent, talks about how to professionally address conflict, and get the team back on the track to success.

In this episode, Al Bennett explains how an organization can establish ground rules for successors to enter a family business. Developing these rules provides guidance to the successors, while preparing them to one day lead the company.

Jeanne Scharf discusses the benefits that businesses are realizing when they create budgets, forecasts, and enterprise analysis reports. Completing these tasks are helping businesses spot trends sooner, realize weaknesses, and make the necessary adjustments to improve their financial performance.

#16 In this short episode, Jeanne Scharf shares her perspective on how to think about risk management, and how to go about reducing risks in an organization.

Ben Bernard, Insurance Planning Director at Ascent, joins Jared to share some of the common myths and misconceptions he hears from people when he's helping design life insurance plans for business owners. Ben talks about these myths, and what to think about when one is trying to protect their business and family.

Peter Drucker once said "Culture eats strategy for breakfast". In this episode, Al Bennett and Jared talk about how to build a strong culture by designing a mission, vision, and core values that inspire the entire team.

Ben Bernard, Ascent's Insurance Planning Director, joins Jared to share something he's realized after working with thousands of business owners and families.

Jeanne Scharf, a business planning consultant with Ascent, talks about how to drive employee engagement by creating transparency, goals, and a sense of purpose.

Jared and Jeanne talk about what a business owner should expect when they want to build a first class financial reporting system. The duo talks about how much time a business owner might expect to invest when one wants to build a budget, an accurate balance sheet, and management reports.

Budgeting is becoming a must for businesses who want to fine tune their profit model and know where they're trending. In this episode, Jared and Jeanne discuss the value in setting up budget, and the importance of understanding where every dollar in your business goes each year.

A strong relationship with a lender is a must for most businesses. In this episode, Jared and Jeanne talk about the steps to creating a solid relationship with a lender by providing good documentation, setting clear expectations, and asking great questions. The duo talks about how to tell your story to a lender, and how to manage your company to a level that gives the lender confidence in your business.

Whenever people get into business together, they should understand how they can get out if they have to, or are forced to. Jared and Al talk about the importance of having a good buy-sell agreement in place to protect the business owners and the business. A buy-sell plan addresses what happens if an owner in a business dies, becomes disabled, wants to exit the business, or is asked to exit the business. The duo shares best practices, and how to set up the buy-sell agreement based off the business' goals and economics, not just a template.

Creating an advisory board can be a way to bring in outside experience and perspectives to a small business, without changing ownership, management, or executive decision power. Businesses are learning that the complexities to running a successful organization are always increasing, and an advisory board is a great way to fill the gap. Jared and Al talk about how to set up a board, the benefits that businesses are realizing, and how an advisory board can ultimately benefit the bottom line.