Uplevel Entrepreneur

02/20/2026

02/19/2026

Some of those costs are administrative fees.

Others are fees paid to attorneys and professional service providers who guide your estate through the probate process.

On average, probate costs between 3% and 10% of your total wealth at death.

That’s not taxes.

That’s just the cost of probate.

Depending on the state you live in, you might be closer to 3%.
You might be closer to 10%.

But either way, that’s erosion.

And I don’t like erosion.

I don’t like waste.

That’s exactly why we implement probate avoidance strategies at the very beginning of our asset protection ecosystem.

Because keeping what you’ve built is just as important as building it.

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02/19/2026

There’s a law called the Rule Against Perpetuities, which says that you must eventually distribute the assets.

At some point, a human being needs to own the assets so they can eventually be taxed.

From an income tax perspective, the trust still pays taxes along the way.

But from an estate tax perspective, the government wants to make sure a real person ultimately receives the assets.

That’s why the law forces the trust to distribute at some point.

Here’s how the Rule Against Perpetuities works:

When a trust is created, you identify the youngest person alive at that time.

The trust must fully distribute 21 years after that person passes away.

That is the Rule Against Perpetuities.

Now, it can get more complex, because each state has its own version and its own guiding principles around this rule.

But the core idea stays the same: assets can’t stay outside the taxable system forever.

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02/17/2026

🚫 This post is not accurate.

🏡 When you transfer property to loved ones, there are only two main approaches.

Gifts and Inheritance.

Let’s start with gifts.

That can mean a gift during your lifetime or a gift into an irrevocable trust.

But here’s the key:
there is no step up in basis.

📉 The person receiving the gift takes the same cost basis you had.

So if they sell later and the property has appreciated, they could face capital gains on that increase.

Now inheritance works differently.

There are several channels:
A will, intestate succession when the state writes the will for you, or a revocable trust you set up while alive.

All of those paths receive a step up in basis at the owner’s death.

That means the heir’s basis resets to the fair market value on the date of passing, so there’s no built-in capital gain
on the appreciation that happened while you owned it.

✅ That’s the real distinction.

Gifts carry your basis forward.

Inheritance resets it.

🔑 Understanding this difference can protect your family from unnecessary capital gains.

Credit (IG):
Shawn Kapllan -

SF0756

02/17/2026

Liquidating credit cards to get access to capital and putting that money into a volatile asset like cryptocurrency?

That’s not investing.

That’s gambling.

Don’t do it.

Now, let’s talk about the LLC part.

I hear this all the time:
“I’m just an Uber driver.

Why do I need an LLC?”

But here’s what’s actually being missed.

I’m not an advocate for using an LLC to play credit card arbitrage or to speculate in crypto.

I am an advocate for using an LLC for asset protection.

Because this Uber driver, even as a side hustle, is operating without any liability protection at all.

And when you’re engaging in commerce, especially with the public, that’s a risk you shouldn’t be taking.

An LLC isn’t about chasing returns.

It’s about protecting yourself from downside you didn’t plan for.

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02/15/2026

What percentage of business owners do you think overpay their taxes?
12%?
17%?
27%?

What percentage of business owners in the United States overpay their taxes every year, even with high-priced accountants on their team?

The real number is more than nine out of ten.

93% of all business owners overpay their taxes every single year.

That’s not according to Edward Collins.

That’s according to Forbes.

They’ve done the study and the research.

The reality is that overpayment, that erosion, happens despite having someone on the team, because most business owners misconstrue what an accountant is doing.

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02/14/2026

Probate is the process of administering the assets you own when you die.

But if you don’t own anything when you die, there’s nothing to administer.

If your trust owns the assets while you’re alive and you pass away, the trust still owns them.

And a trust can be designed to outlive you.

In fact, the trusts we design within our ecosystem continue at your passing.

The trusts we build for our project clients are structured to outlive you and your future generations until the Rule Against Perpetuities steps in.

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02/13/2026

The concept of legacy doesn’t happen by accident.
It only happens on purpose.
And it only happens when there is purpose behind it.

Legacy wealth is rare.
Very few people are ever in a position to create it.
And even fewer actually do.

That’s why making the commitment matters.

It has to start with you.

Because honestly…
who else is going to begin it?

And if you truly want to create a legacy, don’t leave it to chance.
Go check out my other videos and start learning the rules of the game.

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02/12/2026

A lot of people focus on the dollars sitting in their bank account.

But time is more important.

And I can prove it.

If I grabbed my briefcase right now and pulled out my checkbook and wrote you a check for $10 million…
You’d feel pretty good about that.

But what if I added one condition:

You can cash it, but you’ll never wake up tomorrow.

Or ever again.

You wouldn’t want the money anymore.

Why?

Because $10 million is nothing compared to one more day of life.

Time is the most valuable commodity you have.

So if you’re spending your time and yes, I mean investing your time, every use of it should be done
with the expectation of a return.

Because time is the asset you can never get back.

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02/12/2026

The erosion of your financial life happens whether you like it or not.

Taxes are the enemy at the gate.

And remember, asset protection doesn’t necessarily stop taxation.

What it does do is protect your assets from every other form of access you never approved like
✅Litigants
✅Creditors.
✅The Oppotunists

This is very real.

There are so many clients come into our ecosystem after they’ve already been impacted by the enemy at the gate.

Sometimes it wasn’t intentional.

Sometimes it was an accident.

That’s why asset protection exists.

So no matter how many enemies show up at the gate, it doesn’t matter.

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02/10/2026

With a Wyoming holding company, when you set it up,
there isn’t even a way to tell the state who owns the LLC.

There’s no box on the form.

No secondary filing.

No requirement in year two to disclose ownership.

I say that very intentionally.

Because there are other states that offer anonymity at the start.

But here’s what most people miss.

When you renew the company in year two, you’re suddenly required to disclose ownership.
So people think they’re protected.

They think they chose the right structure.

Then year two comes around, and their name is right back on the public record.
That’s why structure and jurisdiction matters.

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02/09/2026

In order for someone to sue you, you actually have to create harm
to the party suing you, the plaintiff.

Now let’s talk about holding companies and operating companies.
Those are just terms of art.

There’s nothing in the law that defines them.

When I say holding company, I’m talking about where ownership lives.

It’s an entity created to own things on your behalf.

When I say operating company, that’s the entity designed to engage in commerce.

Buying and selling goods or services to the public.

That’s the entity that can get sued.

Because if you’re not engaged in commerce, there’s no way to cause harm.

And if there’s no harm, there’s no lawsuit that makes it through the court system.

That’s why we intentionally separate ownership from operation.

It’s done by design.

And once you do that, you can start thinking creatively about the protection side of things.

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