[00:00:00] Intro: Welcome to Private Banking Strategies Podcast with Vance Low and Seth Hicks, your secret weapon to protect your assets and never have to start over financially again. Vance and Seth help high net worth individuals, families, business owners, and investors structure and asset protected fortress for their families.
[00:00:21] Intro: Learn how to keep what you earn and use the velocity of money. To create your own private banking system. Join us on this journey as we explore the secret strategies of the rich and political elite and help you take total control of your financial security. Now onto the show.
[00:00:37] Host: Welcome back. I’m Gary Wilson, your host, and we’re glad to have you back.
[00:00:40] Host: We’ve got a great guest today, Seth Hicks. Uh, Seth, first of all, thank you very much coming on board and, uh, sharing your wisdom and your, your valuable time with us today. Thank you, Gary. Glad to be here. Yep. Hey, if you wouldn’t mind, uh, we’ve had a great conversation. And I’ve, I’ve read about you and that this, we could probably have three or four podcasts if we want, but, but what I thought we’d [00:01:00] do is, uh, let, let’s stick with what we talked about a moment ago about you being the private banking alternative to financing and, and buying properties.
[00:01:07] Host: But before we do, would you mind giving people a little bit of a background, like let ’em know how you got to where you are today. That’ll provide some context so we can go into meat and potatoes after that,
[00:01:16] Seth Hicks Esq.: you know? Sure, sure. Yeah. Well, I, I am, uh, legally trained to practice law for about over 20 years, and traditionally worked in a large law firm during secured real estate transactions, and then migrated into a boutique firm in Los Angeles where I, and.
[00:01:35] Seth Hicks Esq.: A few other guys focused on real estate and, uh, business transactions, both in a secured transaction format and then also doing some litigation, some trial work. And what that helped me to, uh, form Gary was the, the planning, the asset, planning, the asset SRU protection structures, and financial privacy, that so many high net worth.
[00:01:59] Seth Hicks Esq.: Clients are [00:02:00] after I met Vance Lowe, my current partner at Private Banking Strategies, who was also here on your podcast half a decade ago and was introduced to private banking strategies and what it really struck me as an amazing. Tool to help create an asset protection plan and financial privacy. And so I’ve become quite adept at structuring transactions and helping people form private banks in an asset protected way.
[00:02:28] Seth Hicks Esq.: It helps them keep what they make, uh, their cash is not out there, uh, in centralized banks subject to, uh, taking through Dodd-Frank or through other forms of creditor attack or, uh, financial, uh, privacy loss. So that’s kind of the, the short. A version of the roadmap that, that got me to private banking strategies.
[00:02:50] Seth Hicks Esq.: It’s just such a great pleasure to work with folks. Mm-hmm. And, and help them get things settled so that they know they can sleep well at night and they know that they’re safe and their assets are [00:03:00] protected.
[00:03:00] Host: Yeah. Well, I appreciate that. I know everybody listening is probably really interested. Now, we’ve, we’ve had a few attorneys on over the years, but really you’re, you’ve got the know-how, so if we could, let’s talk about.
[00:03:11] Host: What that actually is first, so people understand that the, the concept of private banking and what that entails, and then we can go into maybe some examples, you know.
[00:03:19] Seth Hicks Esq.: Sure. Well, well, private banking is where you take the banking equation back in, in your life and normal context. People, they bank their money at generally large, centralized banks, Wells Fargo, bank of America, PNC, whatever the retail banking outlet is, generally because it’s convenient or because for whatever they offer and business banking offer.
[00:03:45] Seth Hicks Esq.: Or who knows what the question may be. But what they don’t know is that their money is actually not safe in a centralized bank. Mm-hmm. And there was a, I say recent, within the past decade, there was something called the Dodd-Frank [00:04:00] Act passed. And what the Dodd-Frank Act did was it interestingly named the Consumer Protection Act.
[00:04:06] Seth Hicks Esq.: And it was in response to the mortgage crisis in 2007 and 2008, where the federal government bailed out financial institutions that were too big to fail. Yep. And taxpayers, they don’t want to fund a private corporation bailouts, so they were up in arms. Everybody who financed that, that would be. Not necessarily consenting that, and it was unprecedented.
[00:04:31] Seth Hicks Esq.: Never happened before. Yep. In American history. So the Dodd-Frank Consumer Protection Act, so-called Consumer Protection Act. What it did was said, okay, we’re never gonna use taxpayer money to bail out too big to fail financial institutions. Instead, if there’s a bank insolvency, we’re going to bail in on the deposits.
[00:04:51] Seth Hicks Esq.: You can take an IOU. In bank stock or some other form of pennies on the dollar value, if any value is there [00:05:00] at all. And so that to me is an unacceptable risk to many of our clients. It’s an unacceptable risk. Some folks may go, well, hey, what about the FDIC insurance? And if you actually do the math and we won’t get.
[00:05:13] Seth Hicks Esq.: Down the rabbit hole there, but you can do your own research. The F-D-D-I-C is not solvent to pay all of the deposits that are out there in American banks. They’re actually solvent to the tune of about 1.30 cents on every dollar. So I place no value in the FDIC insurance as well. It’s a smokescreen and it, it won’t save you.
[00:05:36] Seth Hicks Esq.: So as an alternative to that, we have. Placed people in the private banking world, and that’s a whole life insurance contract that’s carefully structured that has the right terms with the insurance company, and that has performed for over 200 years in a way that’s never failed to pay dividends. It’s never imploded and is financially private.[00:06:00]
[00:06:00] Seth Hicks Esq.: So that’s the, that’s kind of the simple explanation of a private bank. You’re using a whole life insurance contract that’s properly structured to bank your own cash assets. Now, here’s one of the best kickers, Gary, is that in numerous states they have codified law that says These contracts, which we like to call a vault, are completely asset protected from creditors.
[00:06:27] Seth Hicks Esq.: and they’re financially. Private. The IRS is not, uh, required to be notified when you have large transactions in or large transactions out. It’s pursuant to internal Revenue code 77 0 2. Those whole life insurance contracts are carved out when properly structured. Okay? And so you’ve got financial privacy from, from the IRS and within that.
[00:06:52] Seth Hicks Esq.: Uh, private bank, your wealth grows and compounds annually tax free. And when you want [00:07:00] to take it out, it, there’s no tax penalty. Unlike an IRA or some other government sponsored retirement plan, you’re able to put money in and take money out at your own control when you want it, how you want it, without any tax consequence.
[00:07:14] Seth Hicks Esq.: And if it’s, you’re in one of the states that I described a hundred percent asset protected. Mm-hmm. So. Many of our clients say, well, that’s a far superior option for us, and they begin to move their wealth out of centralized banks into their own private bank. So that, that’s kind of the summary on the pri what a private bank is.
[00:07:35] Seth Hicks Esq.: Okay. So let’s
[00:07:36] Host: talk about an example of how a real estate investor can use that. Most of our listeners, I mean, a lot of business owners, lots of professionals, but everybody. One thing in common, they like investing in real estate, so we’re always looking for alternative ways to structure deals and provide the financing as much as possible.
[00:07:53] Host: Even if you have a case study, I mean obviously can’t share the names and addresses, but. But in a, an example, that would be [00:08:00] awesome, you know?
[00:08:00] Seth Hicks Esq.: Absolutely. So let’s take someone who has a hundred thousand dollars in cash value in their private bank that they want to put to work in real estate investment.
[00:08:11] Seth Hicks Esq.: And we’re gonna kind of simplify the hypothetical here so that people can do the math quickly and in their head. Obviously the, the actual numbers would change. And depend on the asset, but they’ll get the picture. So you take that a hundred thousand dollars and you go and you buy an investment property that cost a hundred thousand dollars somewhere in the south, perhaps.
[00:08:31] Seth Hicks Esq.: Mm-hmm. And we’re going to assume that this property cash flows at, uh, net $25,000 a year. Okay. So every, uh, month, you’re pulling in that cash flow and you’re putting it back. Into your bank, just like any borrower would service debt to a third party lender like Wells Fargo or Bank of America, and with every dollar that’s paid back into your bank, your cash value increases inside of your private bank and you can [00:09:00] put it back to work.
[00:09:01] Seth Hicks Esq.: Now, if in this particular scenario, it’s gonna take you a number of years to build up another a hundred thousand dollars or a hundred thousand plus to buy another property, so what. Numerous clients like to do is use leverage and I’m sure our audience is, uh, being real estate investors, familiar with the concept of leverage.
[00:09:19] Seth Hicks Esq.: Let’s say that now we’ve got five different real estate assets that we want to acquire that are all a hundred thousand dollars and we can qualify for 80 20 financing where we put 20% down and we use third party. Financing at 80%, we’re gonna buy five properties. We still put that same a hundred thousand dollars to work in the acquisition of those five properties, and the bank funds the other 80%.
[00:09:44] Seth Hicks Esq.: But now, instead of having $25,000 per property and cash flow, we’ve got five times that and $125,000 in cash flow in that first year. So we can actually take out the third party financing on property number one [00:10:00] and part of property number two. In year number one, and instead of having a first and a second, the first, let’s say to Wells Fargo and the second to our private bank, now all we’ve got is a completely equity stripped property to our private bank.
[00:10:16] Seth Hicks Esq.: Okay. And that private bank, just by the way it’s structured, is in a way such that. We’re in an arms length transaction. Mm-hmm. Our private bank is an entity and that entity is dissimilar from our borrower, and so the borrower actually services the debt back to our private bank and continues to service that debt.
[00:10:37] Seth Hicks Esq.: But in effect, it’s all intrafamily income, and that’s what we call the velocity of money. You’re getting multiple touches on that dollar. You financed your bank with that dollar, you lent it out to purchase a property, you’ve got a cash flow on that same dollar and rental income coming right back to your bank.
[00:10:56] Seth Hicks Esq.: Mm-hmm. And you can put it right back to work. So that, that’s the velocity [00:11:00] of money that’s created and you get a, uh, multiple touches with your private bank and real estate.
[00:11:06] Midroll: Did that story feel like it was about you? Do you feel like you are generating a lot of revenue but are not moving forward as fast as you would like?
[00:11:16] Midroll: Do you feel you should be making more progress toward your financial goals? Do you feel stuck? Let us help you get unstuck. Are you ready to take action and get your own private bank? Please visit us at www.privatebankingstrategies.com.
[00:11:37] Seth Hicks Esq.: Yeah.
[00:11:37] Seth Hicks Esq.: Now, let’s go into , year two. Just real quick. Mm-hmm. I got another $125,000 in year two.
[00:11:43] Seth Hicks Esq.: You’re able to pay off property too. And property three, and you’ve got three properties that are effectively free and clear of third party financing, and your bank still has all of that cash flow coming in. With that, you’re piling up and pretty soon you’ll be able to rinse and [00:12:00] repeat and go into the next set of properties or an apartment or whatever other type of asset that you, that you want to target.
[00:12:08] Seth Hicks Esq.: And as that trajectory grows, Gary, the sky’s the limit. So yeah. I
[00:12:13] Host: tell you what, this has sounded pretty interesting. We, we basically build up the cash value and the life insurance policy we borrow against it. So we leave the money in there. We’re just borrowing or leveraging, we’re borrowing against it to buy the property or you, or even make a down payment on a property.
[00:12:27] Host: And then when we pay it back, so the rents are coming on the property we use to rent proceeds to pay back the loan. That’s a loan against the cash value. So does that mean the cash value still sitting there building up? Like in other words, is it earning money internally through the life insurance company?
[00:12:43] Host: Its own dividend or return could be 3%, 6%, something like that. Is that still going on while we’re doing the borrowing?
[00:12:50] Seth Hicks Esq.: Absolutely. Yeah. It’s called a non-direct recognition structure. Mm-hmm. And they treat it as. There was no money loaned out of the bank in a [00:13:00] non-direct recognition policy so that the dividends are accruing based on a hundred thousand dollars even when you put that a hundred thousand dollars out to work for you.
[00:13:09] Seth Hicks Esq.: And the companies that we use haven’t failed to pay a dividend since the Civil War. So before the Civil War, the never failed to pay dividends. So that’s one of the things that we like to accentuate. I mean, this is a slow and steady. Some people go, well, I could go make more money in this investment or that investment.
[00:13:27] Seth Hicks Esq.: You actually, you can’t. When you analyze these internal rates of return and use the the velocity of money here, you’re not gonna be able to. Beat that. And it’s not asset protected. Right. And it’s not secured and it’s not financially private. So for the folks that use this, there’s nothing comparable out there.
[00:13:45] Host: Yeah. Okay. Now we’re borrowing us the cash value using that, let’s just say a hundred thousand to buy a property. No, no other loan. We just flat out we’re pay. Essentially well pay, pay the for the property outright. The interest that you pay on the loan. Now, does that go back to [00:14:00] you since technically or the banker?
[00:14:01] Host: Is that in addition to. The fact that your cash value is still actually making a return too. In other words, you’re paying yourself back.
[00:14:08] Seth Hicks Esq.: Right. Can you, and, and that’s one of the things that, that my partner Vance loves to teach people about is that you have to think like a banker and as a banker that’s putting money to work and, and lending transactions.
[00:14:24] Seth Hicks Esq.: You want the highest interest rate possible and you want the cash flow that’s cycled on that. So. Absolutely you’re thinking, right Gary, you wanna ramp up interest rates as as high as you possibly can, and that is all, uh, tax free. So it it’s subject to your cash flow. If you’ve got rentals that are really screaming and rental cash flow and you can set a mortgage instrument up at 20%, there’s nothing to prohibit you from doing that.
[00:14:53] Seth Hicks Esq.: And all of that interest accumulates tax free compounds annually, tax free as well. [00:15:00]
[00:15:00] Host: It’s amazing. So you really, you’re making money three different ways. You’ve got the, in the internal return from the whole life, from the life insurance company giving you a essentially, I call it a dividend, but a rate of return on your cash value.
[00:15:11] Host: Then you borrow against it. You’re making money on the interest on that loan. It ’cause it’s your money that you’ve borrowed. You also acquired an income producing asset, a physical, tangible asset, brick and mortar building somewhere. It’s going up in value and throwing off revenue through rents,
[00:15:28] Seth Hicks Esq.: you know?
[00:15:29] Seth Hicks Esq.: That’s right. And you’ve got all the depreciation benefits that are so valuable with real estate. Now, what are some,
[00:15:35] Host: some alternative uses? Like my wheels are spinning, so, so could I borrow against my cash value in now, whatever the, whatever that rate is, and I borrow that. I borrow with, um, the interest rate and make that a low rate, but then lend it out to an investor.
[00:15:49] Host: Who wants to invest that doesn’t want to use your traditional bank, and they’re willing to pay me 10%. So maybe I borrow it at 5%, lend it out at 10%, and then those payments go back in to my [00:16:00] account ’cause it’s my money. Is that a legitimate or an alternative use of the the cash value?
[00:16:04] Seth Hicks Esq.: Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely.
[00:16:06] Seth Hicks Esq.: And there’s many folks that that do precisely that. And one of our associates that had over a hundred different policies that that’s what their family focused on was just third party lending. And they made it a family business. They became private lenders, and that was that velocity and cyclical flow.
[00:16:26] Seth Hicks Esq.: And unlike a centralized bank that is, you know, that’s. Highly, highly leveraged or what some people call, you know, derivative lending where we deposit, you know, $10 and they’re able to lend out a hundred. And that’s actually conservative. It’s probably more like we deposit four and they lend out a hundred or perhaps even more.
[00:16:46] Seth Hicks Esq.: And so that funny money that’s just printed out of thin air, they’re making interest on, well, this is a more healthy economy because these life insurance companies, they’re not allowed to play by those same funny money rules.
[00:16:58] Host: What Seth is talking about [00:17:00] is a way for you to separate yourself from all of that mess where you have no control, zero control, and in here.
[00:17:07] Host: From what I’m hearing, Seth, we’ve got plenty of control.
[00:17:10] Seth Hicks Esq.: You’ve got all the control, you’ve got complete liquidity. You’re the one making the decisions. You’ve got no taxable event, putting money in or taking money out. And as you acquire wealth in your private bank, obviously people use that to structure a retirement.
[00:17:25] Seth Hicks Esq.: And unlike a 401k or other government sponsored plan, you know, you say I need $25,000 a month. When can I take it out? If you take it out too early in a government sponsored plan, you’re gonna be penalized. Take it out too late, you’re gonna be penalized. And no matter when you take it out, you’re gonna be paying taxes on it.
[00:17:43] Seth Hicks Esq.: So when you stack this up against a private banking structure where there’s no taxable event in no taxable event out, no penalty in no penalty. And you can use it for investment and you can use it for retirement. You’ve got absolute control and liquidity. [00:18:00] It, it just doesn’t make any sense to someone who can actually count those being side by side and then stack the asset protection on top of it.
[00:18:08] Seth Hicks Esq.: And that’s what people are, are after. They want to keep what they make. Gary, I mean, and in fact, with the Hyperinflationary environment that we’re in, you have to put your money to work and create cash flow and passive cash flow with investment assets and vehicles that are going to far surpass inflation or you’re losing.
[00:18:30] Seth Hicks Esq.: Purchasing power, you have no ability to plan. How much money do you need to retire? And people go, well, you know, they generally underestimate that. Yeah. And especially since the government has printed literally I think over $10 trillion within the last. Decade and that may be a conservative investment.
[00:18:49] Seth Hicks Esq.: I’m not looking at those numbers, but I have in the past and it staggers, it’s staggering. Yeah. It’s over $30 trillion in debt right now. Our, our country and, and with [00:19:00] nothing backing those, that fiat currency, you’ve got this hyperinflationary environment and so these are ways you have to have a velocity of money.
[00:19:10] Seth Hicks Esq.: You have to have your assets protected to be able to protect yourself against that coming onslaught.
[00:19:16] Host: I agree. It’s interesting, and I’m, I’m, I’m not making a political commentary here, I promise, but, but if you think about that number, 30 trillion, it’s certain very quickly it’s gonna be 33 trillion and there’s about 330 million people in the United States.
[00:19:32] Host: So just imagine what that means mathematically, that the, the debt load on the shoulders of the American people, you know, it’s just insane. If you and I, Seth printed money like the government does, we’d be in federal prison. You know, and it’s full statement backed by the full faith and credit of the United States government, and it’s meant to be our GDP, our gross domestic product is what’s the backing?
[00:19:56] Host: And if you don’t have it, you don’t print it. It’s just like any household, you [00:20:00] can’t live on debt. It eventually is gonna collapse. There’s, there’s some real reasons guys to really listen to this and. I’m doing it. Um, everybody I’m involved with, we’ve been, we’ve been studying this for the last year, few years.
[00:20:12] Host: It’s whole life insurance has been around for a long time. When I first got started. Some of my, my friends and their parents and some early on, some of my clients already were using whole life policies for a number of reasons. And this was one of ’em. It just wasn’t like, wasn’t like commonplace, but now it’s becoming commonplace because people realize that anybody can participate in this.
[00:20:32] Host: You know? So what, what’s, uh, what’s the, what would someone do set that they want to actually take advantage of this? What’s the first three things they need to do? I mean, how can they, can they get a hold of you? Is there something they can read, a website, anything like that you can help. Sure.
[00:20:47] Seth Hicks Esq.: Yeah, yeah, sure.
[00:20:48] Seth Hicks Esq.: Absolutely. Um, yeah, we’ve got a website, Gary, and it’s, uh, private banking strategies.com. Mm-hmm. Uh, once again, private banking strategies.com and [00:21:00] on our website, we offer folks that are interested in learning more what we like to call a red pill book. And this red pill book tells you about. Secrets. The banks don’t want you to know how to increase your wealth with some of these secrets.
[00:21:14] Seth Hicks Esq.: And we get into some of the same things we’re just we’re describing on this show. And free to you. You can read it or you can listen to it on audio there. Mm-hmm. And then in exchange for your email address, we’ll begin to. Give you value added email content, which varies in different subject matter, from cryptocurrency to asset protection, to how to keep your financial footprint off the radar and just really want to provide value for folks so that they can learn more and spot issues.
[00:21:45] Seth Hicks Esq.: And if those things are resonating with you, then. What you do is you schedule a call with, with our team and, and generally Vance, who’s my partner, has those appointments with folks and really gets to know somebody’s circumstances and lays out a [00:22:00] framework for them and their particular circumstances as to how it would work for them.
[00:22:05] Seth Hicks Esq.: And ultimately, if they become a client, we lay out an eight year roadmap. Gary that tells them step by step exactly what they need to do. If they’ve got a lot of third party debt, let’s say, to other mortgage companies that they want to take out and begin to possess that equity in the real estate. We show ’em which ones to tackle, when to tackle it and and how to do it.
[00:22:27] Seth Hicks Esq.: And Vance really gives them a hands-on roadmap that tells ’em exactly what they need to do. So
[00:22:33] Outro: that’s how it starts. Did that story feel like it was about you? Do you feel you should be making more progress toward your financial goals? Do you feel stuck? Let us help you get unstuck. Are you ready to take action and get your own private bank?
[00:22:51] Outro: Please visit us at www.privatebankingstrategies.com. Thank you for listening [00:23:00] to the Private Banking Strategies Podcast. Click the subscribe button below to be notified when new episodes become available.
