Wealth Formula Podcast Podcast By Buck Joffrey cover art

Wealth Formula Podcast

Wealth Formula Podcast

By: Buck Joffrey
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Financial Education and Entrepreneurship for Professionals Economics Personal Finance
Episodes
  • 557: The Legal Structure That Can Make—or Quietly Destroy—Your Wealth

    557: The Legal Structure That Can Make—or Quietly Destroy—Your Wealth
    May 3 2026
    There's a strange paradox when it comes to wealth. The more you have, the more invisible risk you carry. And most people don't see it until it's too late. I've seen this play out in a lot of different ways. A physician builds a multi-million dollar net worth over decades—real estate, brokerage accounts, maybe a business or two. Everything looks solid. Then one lawsuit hits. Or a divorce. Or even just a poorly structured partnership dispute. Suddenly, assets that felt "owned" aren't really protected at all. On the flip side, I've also seen people with less wealth sleep better at night because their structure is airtight. Everything is compartmentalized. Risks are isolated. There's a system. The difference isn't intelligence. It isn't even an investment skill. It's structure. Most people think trusts are something you set up when you are ultra-wealthy or you're older… maybe as part of an estate plan. But that's barely scratching the surface. A well-designed trust isn't just about passing assets when you die. It's about: – Who actually controls your assets while you're alive – What a creditor can (and can't) touch – And how much of your financial life is exposed vs. insulated In other words, it's about whether your wealth is fragile… or antifragile. And yet, this is where a lot of people get it wrong. They set up a trust… and then completely ignore the rules that make it work. They treat it like their personal checking account. They mix funds. They sign things incorrectly. And without realizing it, they've essentially built a paper shield that disappears the moment it's tested. So this week, I wanted to dig into this topic with someone who has spent decades designing these structures for high-net-worth individuals. On this week's episode of Wealth Formula Podcast, I sit down with Mark Pierce, an attorney who specializes in asset protection, trusts, and advanced legal structures. We talk about: – What a trust actually is (and what it isn't) – The real difference between revocable and irrevocable structures – Why timing matters more than most people realize – How asset protection trusts actually hold up in the real world – And the biggest mistakes people make that completely undermine their own planning If you've ever wondered whether your current structure actually protects you… or if it just makes you feel better on paper… this is a conversation worth paying attention to.
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    35 mins
  • 556: Investing in Movies?

    556: Investing in Movies?
    Apr 26 2026
    When it comes to investing, boring is good. In fact, in most cases, boring is exactly what you want. The fewer moving parts an investment has, the fewer ways it can break. You're not relying on perfect timing, you're not depending on some heroic execution, and you're not sitting there hoping everything lines up just right. It just… works. That's why a lot of the stuff I like—cash-flowing real estate, simple structures, things with predictable outcomes—tends to look pretty unexciting on the surface. But over time, that's where wealth is built. But… boring rarely creates outsized wealth. The biggest wins almost always come from things that are the opposite of boring. If you bought Bitcoin ten years ago and held it, that wasn't a conservative decision. That was a bet. A bet on something with massive uncertainty that most people didn't understand. Same thing in Silicon Valley. Most startups fail. Everybody knows it. But the ones that work? They don't just work—they hit so big that they make up for everything else. And then there's this other category of investments. Investments that you make not just because of the potential return—but because they're interesting. Because they give you access. Because they give you experiences. Because, frankly, they're kind of fun. Being able to say you're a Hollywood film investor and you showed up at the premiere… maybe even made a cameo? That's a different kind of return. Is it the safest place to put money? Obviously not. But not everything in your portfolio has to be purely clinical either. Know the risk and decide if it's worth it. That's what this week's Wealth Formula Podcast is about. I sat down with Jeff Deverett, and we kept it pretty simple: film investing is high risk. Most of it doesn't work. But it's also one of those areas where the upside, the structure, and frankly the experience itself can make it worth understanding—if you go in with your eyes open. If nothing else, it'll change the way you think about what you're actually investing in… and why.
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    38 mins
  • 555: Iran, Bitcoin, and What It Means for Gold

    555: Iran, Bitcoin, and What It Means for Gold
    Apr 19 2026
    If you want to understand where money is going… don't listen to what people say. Watch what happens when the system is under stress. Right now, in the Strait of Hormuz—arguably the most important energy chokepoint in the world—Iran has effectively taken control of transit and, in some cases, is demanding payment in bitcoin for passage. Why? Because when you're operating under heavy sanctions, the traditional system stops working. Payments can be blocked. Assets can be frozen. Transactions can be tracked and shut down. So you move to something that doesn't rely on permission. In this case, that means digital assets—Bitcoin, stablecoins, anything that allows settlement outside the banking system. This isn't theoretical anymore. It's happening in the middle of a real geopolitical conflict—one that has already disrupted a massive portion of global oil flows and pushed prices higher. Now step back for a second. That core idea—avoiding counterparty risk—is not new. That's exactly why gold has existed as money for thousands of years. No counterparty No issuer No reliance on a system But Bitcoin introduces a different version of that same idea. It's: digital highly liquid instantly transferable No shipping. No storage. No borders. So now you have two assets solving the same fundamental problem—just in very different ways. Of course, the pushback on Bitcoin is always volatility. "It's too volatile to be a store of value." But think about that carefully. Bitcoin is still small relative to gold. It doesn't take much capital to move it. So is the volatility the problem… or just a reflection of its current market capitalization? And what happens if that changes? Meanwhile, gold—the original hard asset—has quietly been doing exactly what it's supposed to do. After years of going nowhere, it's been one of the biggest beneficiaries of everything we're seeing right now: Geopolitical instability Central bank accumulation A growing lack of trust in the financial system So the question for investors is: Has gold already made its move… or is this just getting started? That's what we get into on this week's Wealth Formula Podcast. My guest is David Beahm, President and CEO of Blanchard and Company, one of the oldest precious metals firms in the U.S. We talk about what's actually driving gold, the debate between physical gold and ETFs, the real-world issues around liquidity and taxes, and how to think about gold in a world where Bitcoin is no longer theoretical—it's being used in real geopolitical situations.
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    28 mins
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