Discovering the Research and Development Tax Credit and Building an Advisory Practice

Have you ever wondered how successful companies manage to scale their businesses by creating and leveraging high-performing sales teams? Today's interview is with Jon Lacasse, an entrepreneur who is an expert in scaling companies by building such teams.

Jon shares his unique career path, which took him from concrete work to building a team of over 100 people within a division of Citigroup. He also discusses his decision to break free from the Citigroup umbrella to launch a healthcare brokerage firm. While helping owners with their health insurance, Jon and his team had an eye opening experience  to the lack of proactive advanced tax planning for business owners. This realization led to the inception of his company, Lifetime Advisors.

Jon emphasizes his success is rooted in understanding - and aligning - the motivations of each stakeholder—client, sales rep, and the company delivering the services. He explains the importance of education, and the role of delivering repeatable solutions using scalable systems and processes, and highlights the need for an insane discipline of tracking results.

We wrap up with a discussion on the changing landscape of the business advisory sector and how Lifetime Advisors offers a unique business model that's designed to take advantage of emerging opportunities, disrupt an old industry, and enhance the advice and service business owners receive.

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 Three Big Takeaways:

• Building and Managing Effective Teams: A major theme is Jon Lacasse's philosophy of creating sales teams that are effective and efficient. He believes that leaders should understand and help clarify each team member's motivations, assist in building plans to achieve their financial goals, and educate them on complex subjects such as insurance, mutual funds, and mortgages, so they can make it simple for the client. He stresses the importance of accountability and meticulous tracking to refine the sales process. 

• The Opportunity in Proactive Tax Planning: Jon's discovery of the potential of offering proactive tax planning, which started with Research and Development (R&D) tax credits. He found that many businesses were eligible but unaware of these credits due to a lack of specialized knowledge among, or too busy, CPAs. This led him to creating Lifetime Advisors with a few other partners, dedicated to helping business owners save money via proactive tax planning, going beyond immediate planning to cover a comprehensive set of products and services, including R&D tax credits, capital gains strategies, advanced estate planning, and exit strategies. Jon views this unique business model as a response to industry changes and a means to capitalize on the emerging opportunities.

• The Business Model of Lifetime Advisors: Jon's current business, Lifetime Advisors, uses a unique business model in which they take over operational tasks and allow their Field Consultants (the sales people) to focus on building relationships and setting up appointments. This is revolutionary because Lifetime Advisors aims to unburden their consultants from administrative duties, allowing them to focus on relationship-building and truly understanding what the client needs and wants are. Each consultant is backed by specialized teams within different areas like insurance, tax, investment, and business consulting like Arkona. This approach differs from the common model in the advice world where individuals often wear many hats trying to do it all.

Bio:

Jon LaCasse is a seasoned business executive with over 35 years of experience serving business owners.

He is currently the Chief Executive Officer of Lifetime Advisors, a leading advisory firm specializing in strategic proactive tax planning and advanced tax credits for businesses and high net worth individuals.

Prior to joining Lifetime Advisors, Jon spent a decade running branch locations for a division of Citigroup, where he honed his skills in financial planning and management.

He has also held various leadership positions in the financial services industry, including serving as President of Business Development for a leading insurance agency.

Throughout his career, Jon has demonstrated a deep commitment to helping business owners achieve their financial goals and navigate complex financial landscapes. He is known for his strategic thinking, analytical skills, and ability to build lasting relationships with clients.

Interview Quotes:

18:40 - “Know your why, know your why. It really truly does come down to that.” - John LaCasse

21:40 - “When you find that like-minded people uh, then um the leveraging effect really starts taking over because then you're not the one running everything. You're not the one motivating [everyone] every day. You're not the one they are. The team is.” - John LaCasse

24:37 - "It should never be a sales process. It should be an education process." - John LaCasse

25:14 - “Most people do not understand their insurance, their mutual funds, their mortgage, and now their taxes.” - John LaCasse

30:27 - "It [sales process] all started there. It starts with the client and it works back." - John LaCasse

1:02:38 - “Our core offering is proactive tax planning... most of the time business owners look back instead of forward on their tax planning.” - John LaCasse

Links and Resources:

Lifetime Advisors

Intentional Growth™ Vision Board

Intentional Growth™ Online Training

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