Wealth that ends with you is success, but wealth that outlives you is a legacy.
In this episode, Corwyn J. Melette sits down with Mark Miller, CEO of Hilton Tax and Wealth Advisors, to provide the tactical manual for dynasty building. Mark is a returning guest where he previously talked about the foundational concepts of wealth preservation and the mindset required to stop the “start-over” cycle. While that first conversation was a primer on financial literacy, this episode dives into the “what’s next”: creating the enduring trust systems and “wholesale” investing strategies used by the Hilton family.
Mark bridges the gap between simply having money and systematizing it. If the first episode taught you how to start the car, this episode teaches you how to build a self-driving vehicle that ensures your great-grandchildren never have to start from zero again.
The Legacy Moment:
True legacy isn’t about leaving a lump sum of cash; it’s about building a disciplined system and imparting the financial wisdom that ensures your family never has to start from zero again.
Key Takeaways
0:00 – Legacy vs. Success: Defining wealth that outlasts you.
5:38 – Why the third generation often loses everything and how to stop it.
7:23 – The “Sieve” Strategy: Using trust structures to prevent “lump sum” wealth destruction.
11:35 – Parenting & Money: How to teach heirs the value of a dollar before they inherit.
15:21 – Retail vs. Wholesale: The hidden 3-4% fees eating your investments.
17:40 – The “Bucket” Concept: Following Warren Buffett’s lead in asset diversification.
24:18 – Safety First: Why the ultra-wealthy prioritize downside protection over high-risk gains.
Catch Up on the Foundation
Missed Mark’s first appearance? Before you dive into the systems, make sure you have the right mindset. 👉 Watch EP 167: Foundations of Wealth Preservation with Mark Miller
Connect with Mark:
Take the first step toward building your dynasty. Visit Mark’s website to grab a complimentary copy of his latest books:
- Website: https://www.hiltonwealth.com/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/markmiller-hiltonfo/
- Featured Books: Hilton Wealth: How to Invest Like an American Dynasty & The Tax-Free Business Owner
Connect with Corwyn:
- Contact Number: 843-619-3005
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cmelette/
Shoutout to our Sponsor: Mellifund Capital, LLC
Need funding for your next real estate flip or build? MelliFund Capital makes it fast, flexible, and investor-friendly. Visit MelliFundCapital.com and fund your future today. Again, that’s MelliFundCapital.com, M-E-L-L-I-L-U-N-D, Capital.com.
Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/corwyn-j-melette/support
CORWYN:
Wealth that ends with you is success, but wealth that outlives you is a legacy. So I want you to take that. And from what we’ve talked about today, the goal isn’t just to make money for your family. It’s to build a system that keeps making money long after you’re gone. Good morning. Good morning, guys, and great morning to you. Welcome to another fabulous episode of Exit Strategies Radio Show. You know who I am, but I’m going to tell you anyhow, I’m Corwyn J Melette, broker and owner of Exit Realty Low Country Group, and I am your host. Hey, look here. Y’all know what this thing is over here. What our mission is, that is to empower our community through financial literacy and real estate education. I always got to give a shout out to those who listen to it faithfully. Jim Kellers out of Lincolnville, Pastor Vanderbilt Evans Sr., his wonderful bride, Miss Evans over there in West Ashley. We thank you. And I got to put that senior on that thing. Boy, he will jack me up. You know, my mom out there in Monkey’s Corner, y’all, and everybody back towards Hollywood, what you know no good. Thank y’all for listening. And I always got to give a shout out to my hometown, my home team, Mullins. Look here. Thank y’all guys for tuning in. Mullins and Marin. I really appreciate you guys tuning in and we’d love to know it. And I always work to make sure that we show it. So look, today I am super, super duper excited. We always make it a point to have the best guests, have the knowledge base and people that are doing things and helping people get better and greater things done. Right? So we have with us today, again, note again, you can go back and check out the first episode that we did with them. It’s a testament to what comes next. All right. Look, we’ve done this. We’re helping people do this, but we want to help people do more. So then what’s next? What are we doing? So I’m super excited to have this conversation today. We have none other than Mr. Mark Miller with us now. Mark, if some of you may remember him, but Mark is a CEO. I always say that is the boss, right? But the CEO of Hilton Tax And Wealth Advisors, he brings a depth of knowledge over 40 years of wealth strategy experience. He’s a trusted advisor to entrepreneurs, executives, and family legacy builders. Nationwide. He teaches the same wealth preservation strategies used by America’s most enduring dynasties. And for those of y’all who remember that TV show dynasty and Dallas back in the day. He definitely does that. He is here. He’s written a new book. So we’re going to talk about that as well. Hilton wealth, how to invest like an American dynasty. So I want y’all guys to give it up. I want you to be tuned in. I want you to get pen and paper. Or pencil and pad, whichever one it is. Cause y’all going to get some of these notes in some of this business today. Mark, thank y’all so much for being on the show with us today. How are you? I’m doing great. And thanks so much for having me again. Well, look, you’re quite welcome. So for our listeners, guys, look, this is what it is. Most people work hard to build wealth, but lose it within one generation. I’ll have that conversation all the time. What if you could build a family system where your children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren never have to start from zero again. So today, Mark is going to help us with that. He’s going to reveal how ordinary families can build, die, fantastic wealth that outlives them by design, not merely by love. So Mark, again, welcome to the show. Mark, give our listeners a high level overview of who you are and what you do.
MARK:
Sure. Absolutely. So I’ve been in the business financial consulting business for almost 40 years. I came out of college, went into the financial planning industry with that small little company called American Express and did really well there. Into the nineties, I wrote some nationally published books. One was a bestselling book, part of the Idiot Series. I hope people don’t think I’m an idiot, but I did an Idiot Series book that people have probably seen on the bookshelves before on how to save and invest, then started my own business financial planning firms and just over time, kind of went from that retail side of the business, more kind of the brokerage stocks and bonds and mutual funds and started meeting a lot of higher level people in the industry. A lot of high net worth individuals eventually got hooked up with the Hilton family, been working with them for a long time and my main partner is Jay Bradley Hilton, who is the grandson of Conrad Hilton, who started Hilton Hotels and we’ve built several different financial services companies together. I am the manager of the Hilton family office and also the CEO of Hilton Tax and Wealth Advisors, which is basically a spinoff of the family office, kind of teaching people how to invest like the wealthiest of the wealthy, like the Hiltons, how they invest as opposed to how retail investors invest. And it is a totally different world. Been very fortunate to be hooked up with the Hilton family for a number of years and just excited about what the future has to bring for us at Hilton Tax and Wealth Advisors.
CORWYN:
So Mark, I’m going to jump in here with the first question and this is, and just bear in mind that this is a conversation I’ve been having and I keep having, right? So the question for you to answer for our listeners, the first one is why do most families lose generational wealth? I mean, I literally just had this conversation recently within my own family that, Hey, look, everything that we had was gone before it was gone. Now, basically we got to start over and why? So why is it that you see or otherwise have experienced that most families lose the generational wealth by the second generation and how do families, people of means, wealth, rich, or you want to put on it, how do they prevent it?
MARK:
Yeah. And how does that almost always happen? Well, because it has to do with striving. It has to do with building and that first generation that strives and builds has the most appreciation for the wealth. And as the generations go now, often those are the initial strivers will have offspring that they’ve taught really well, brought it into the business when there’s that still initial striving phase. And those individuals tend to kind of get it to understand and to want to preserve the wealth the best they can. You start getting into the third generation and they were not part of the original building, the original striving. And even though there might be some really good people in that generation, they don’t have that deep appreciation for what it took to build the dynasty or the legacy. Okay. So that’s kind of what happens when we work with kind of higher net worth individuals, that legacy tends to start to really dwindle in the third generation, just because it’s too far away from that first generation. So, you know, what I always tell everybody is the best thing to do with very large amounts of wealth is to build a trust system that is going to last generations that allows the money to kind of come out at set times over say a 50, 60, 70, 80, a hundred year period of time, as opposed to the money just dumping into each generation’s lap. The other problem is about education, about money, those first generation people, if they’re the ones that built the legacy and built the money, they generally are the smartest about keeping the money too, and it gets kind of lost in translation as the generations go on. So really what we try to do, we just try to build enduring trust systems that can last a long time to where there’s not a possibility that can be just blown by one generation in the process or kind of in that lineage.
CORWYN:
Let’s take a short break.
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CORWYN:
So I’m a come back on part of that, but I want to interject like something right here. So I want to, I guess, put a ramp, ramp in right here, right. And you know, the conversation, because again, I don’t exclude myself when I’m talking, so I’m literally right now, same thing. So trying to have the conversation with the generation coming behind. So for our listeners who are experiencing the same thing, maybe they came in, they inherited property or they’re trying to leave property and they don’t want the children, quote unquote, you know, I’m a firm believer in market. I’m going to say this real brief. And for our listeners, Hey, if each generation adds to, then each generation has, if you add, if you create wealth now and teach your children to add to it, not to just consume it, but add to it. And each generation does the same thing that continues to add. Then five generations down, there is a tremendous amount of wealth that has been created because everybody’s added to, but oftentimes we see people just consume, they take a property, you know, inherited property, move into it. They don’t keep it up. And next thing you know, they lose it all. So let me ask you this, Mark, how do people, normal everyday people have this conversation because we want to create. MARK:
Well, let me just give you my own personal example, because we’re building a legacy. My wife and I are, I’ve got two kids. They’re 21, 23, just getting out of college, just figuring it all out and everything, and they still don’t really 100% understand the value of a dollar. And my daughter who works in our business is probably going to hear this podcast, but she would probably agree that it’s a learning curve. They’ve got to get out in the world and they have to kind of figure things out. And so it’s about me kind of gradually teaching them. And when they were younger, we did teach them a lot about money with the different piggy banks and they’re put money away, they’re put money aside for charity, they’re put money aside for themselves and all that. We taught something. So they’ve got some basic ideas, but it’s not until they get out in the world where they start making their own money, where they can really start learning these things. So I think what it’s just incumbent upon us as parents to try to teach them as much as we possibly can, me impart as much wisdom as I can to then wisdom about saving and investing, setting money aside, doing all of those things to kind of, and here’s our goal. I don’t want our kids to think, and really the reality is I am not one of the Hiltons, although I work with the Hiltons, but I didn’t inherit a bunch of money. I want to teach my kids how to build their own networks because then they’re going to be more apt to when I don’t expect I’m ever going to die, but when I do, when mom and I die, I’m hoping that technology comes out and we can live forever, but I know that’s not how life works, but when we’re not here, they’ve already got a great foundation. They’ve already built a pretty good financial foundation and they understand money, so when they get that money, when it’s imparted to them, which it’ll still be in trust and we’ll set some of those boundaries and some of those guardrails in, but when they get it, they’ve got a foundation and they understand and even the money they get, they’re not going to just go out and blow because it seems like free month, so that’s part of building the dynasty, but it’s very important, I think for every generation to try to build and the Hilton’s have done that, frankly, a lot of people don’t know this, but Conrad Hilton gave almost all his money to the Hilton foundation, which people may have heard of that. It’s one of the biggest foundation gives away billions of dollars a year. Jay Bradley Hilton, who’s my partner is actually on that board and Jay Bradley has learned these things over time and Conrad did not take all his money and just give it to everyone, neither did Baron, who was the one that really built and especially launched Hilton hotels and did a lot of great things that Jay Bradley is actually head of it for Hilton hotels for a long time. He was very instrumental in building the very first online hotel reservation system, so he was in the business. He understands the business and he grew up with that and he kind of grew up with that kind of the mentality and guess what he’s had to make his own way. And it’s been great because he did and he’s been able to do amazing things in his life, but he’s also had his predecessors were smart enough not to go, Hey, here’s a billion dollars. Sure. Hope you don’t lose it. That type of thing. So, but we can all take lessons from that, that we need to impart wisdom onto our children and onto our heirs that may invest so they don’t go and just, Hey, thank you for money. I’m going to go out and buy a Lamborghini. Which is a lot more common than you think, because the strivers have been so, so involved in striving that they forgot or didn’t spend enough time, not totally forgot, but they didn’t spend enough time instilling that striving mentality and that legacy mentality into their children.
CORWYN:
So let’s twist this. I want to kind of start bridging and getting into the book. So if you don’t mind, Mark, tell our listeners, you know, again, the title of the book, and then let’s get into some discussion there, but what I want to kind of touch on is talking about tax structures, our trust and all this other stuff, positioning and essentially not leaving a lump of cash, but leaving control over assets. So let’s talk about that. Let’s talk first about the book and then let’s get into that.
MARK:
Sure. So Brad and I together wrote a book called Hilton wealth, how to invest like an American dynasty. And in it, we make the distinction between how more retail investors invest and the retail world of investing, which is a very big world. Fidelity’s built the big towers in wall street. They didn’t do that off of just taking a quarter percent from people. Okay. Teaching people that there’s lots of fees taken away from them on the retail side. So it can power the whole retail system. And there’s massive amounts of money that those institutions make from retail investors, big money, because in many cases, I don’t mean to say this in a negative fashion, but generally retail investors don’t know any better. They’re just like, Hey, I know I need to go to the fidelities of the world, the vanguards of the world, the T-Row prices, the swabs, the E-Trade, whatever. Go there. And I’m kind of at their mercy to invest. And those folks between market makers and mutual funds are a great example. People think they pay half a percent, 1%, but there’s actually internal fees inside where most mutual fund companies make anywhere from clarity work from three to 4% per year. And that comes directly off the top of your investments. People have no clue on that. And it’s in the law. They can do that. They’re not stealing your money. It’s all part of just how wall street and the regulators have been in bed together for decades and decades, really since the 1930s. So Hilton wealth talks about how you can get out of that world and get more into the world of the smart money, what we call the wholesale side, as opposed to the retail side, where you pay less fees, it’s safer to invest, meaning there’s less volatility. And because there’s less volatility, you’ll make more returns over time, which is how the smart money does it. And very fee averse on the smart money side, smart money folks will not pay fees on most of what they do because they already know the products that they’re buying, there’s fees built into them and the institutions or the issues are already making money. So we kind of educate people about that and how it’s a different and we believe better world. That’s what Brad and I created Hilton tax and wealth advisors for was to bring these kinds of more advanced strategies from the family office, more down to so people that have a quarter million, half a million, whatever can invest in these types of things and know how to, and then structure a portfolio like the wealthiest structure it so they can really build their wealth faster, just like the wealthiest of the wealthiest do every day.
CORWYN:
Now you guys really talk about and teach diversification. Yes. What does that look like?
MARK:
And so kind of what I was talking about was being able to kind of be more in the bucket concept that somebody like a Warren Buffett, the reason why he stays on the Forbes list at the top of that list is because 60% of his portfolio or more is in very safe, secure types of assets, and then he’s making money and continuing to grow his billions with on that other side, which has more equity exposure. He’s taking some more risk, but if something is just horrific happens in the economy, he’s not going to lose all his money. And that’s why you always see people that they don’t fall off of those lists. In other words, they’re not rolling the dice on one company that they’re invested in or something like that. They’re highly diversified. And we use that bucket concept to basically mimic how the wealthiest of the wealthiest invest. And that bucket concept gives us great diversification and allocation and helps us way on the side of safety and security, but still allows us to get and allows them to great returns long-term.
CORWYN:
I know that is one of the principles that is key to building long-term. Obviously you don’t want to be risky. Obviously you want to take some chances, but you want to be strategic. And the chance is the risk, et cetera, that you take, but you also want to be able to teach this beyond. So Mark, I think is extremely important. And for our listeners, guys, I think it’s extremely important for you all to understand that if you’re not, quote unquote, if the car hadn’t already been started and you’re not just taking over and shifting the gear, so to speak, if you’ve got to start by easing the clutch out yourself, you need to understand that you got to teach somebody else how to drive this car. So you want to make sure that you have a thorough understanding. You want to make sure that not only do you have a thorough understanding that you leave specific instructions, because that is something that we see all the time, because as Mark, if you don’t mind, let’s touch on this briefly. But there’s a quote unquote, a theory of starting over curves. Like you see people, families, each generation has to start over. So do you guys in the book anywhere, or is there any example of that that you have maybe in the first book that you guys wrote that kind of touches on that?
MARK:
We talk a little bit about legacy, but honestly, legacy is about preservation of assets. Okay. So like when we’re working with our really ultra wealthy people and the helping family office, what we’re really focused on is how can we build as much safety and security in the portfolio? So we know that we, it’s going to be there to pass on and then do some advanced trust structuring, and I’m not talking about doing a living trust in just a regular estate plan, but advanced structuring to where when you pass away, let’s say there’s this use example, million dollars there that it, again, it’s not just a lump sum dropped in someone’s lap that it can come in over a period of time to help them adjust and help them learn the things they need to learn to be able to manage that kind of money. In many cases, we even just have an outside trustee with Northern Trust or one of these big trust companies that’s there to guide those, those heirs. If let’s say the person that’s leaving the legacy was in the manufacturing business and they leave their money to someone that doesn’t know anything about the manufacturing business and more so maybe they don’t even know and don’t even understand how to accumulate wealth and how to keep wealth. So then if they don’t have any knowledge of how the money works, then there needs to be somebody there to help them. Now the trust structure in general will do that because again, it’s more of, it acts as kind of a little bit of a sieve of the money coming in. Okay. I think the key is obviously you need to build the money. But again, I go back to the fact that I think it’s important in our most successful folks that have left legacies and the way we’re going to do it is allow those individuals to have their own careers. If that person’s a doctor and they’re going to make money of their own, they have their own career, but then they have a giant chunk that drops into their lap. Well, doctors are a little infamous for not handling money very well. And they need, again, some education. They might need a trust structure to basically help them manage a large chunk of money that comes through.
CORWYN:
Wow. Okay. All right, good. Cause we want to get that information out, you know, Mar to people from all walks from one end of the spectrum to the other, because some are just starting to have this thought and this conversation. Some of them are well into it. What does that look like? And I’m super excited. I’m after, give me a copy of the book. Cause again, you’re talking legacy dynasty, all that. That’s extremely important. I believe so. Mark, this is probably a great time to get your contact information out. Where can people connect with you?
MARK:
Where can they go to our website? Real simple hiltonwealth.com. I invite everybody if they want to learn more about some of these advanced money strategies and again, how the wealthiest invest and how people, the more average investors can, they can order the book. We’ll send it to you. A complimentary Hilton wealth. We also have a book called the tax-free business owner. So if you’re a business owner looking to get yourself to a zero tax bracket, there’s a lot of strategies we have from the Hilton family office to be able to do those things too. Awesome. Awesome.
CORWYN:
Well, so Mark, let me ask you this one. Well, it’s kind of that big mic drop or that hindsight, all that stuff. You’ve learned a tremendous amount in your years of providing wealth building and financial services, if you will. What do you believe? And obviously we’ve talked about a lot of things that are like mind blowing. And if I’d have known this, but what is that biggest, if I would have known this or in the beginning, I would have done for myself or I’ve had people doing day one. And I know you’re still getting exposed to things. So, but what’s kind of your largest, if you will, takeaway thus far that you can give somebody on this show for advice?
MARK:
That is a great question. And I learned it because when I got out of college and I started going into the industry, I was what’s called the stock hawk. I was like, I love stocks. It’s exciting up, down, all this kind of stuff, sock socks. And I was like, why I’m meeting really wealthy people and they have all these bonds. Why do they want to be in bonds? They can make all this money in stocks and everything. So the biggest thing I learned when I started hanging out with wealthy people, ultra wealthy people was again, I go back to what I said earlier is about the level and degree of safety that they’re focused on. And here’s a great example. And just, I’ll kind of leave you with this. Like, and when we do things at Hilton wealth, generally the Hilton’s are very risk averse. So often we’re going to figure out ways and we do figure out ways to do things that are maybe relatively like a private equity offering or something relatively risky. Maybe have a, if you looked from, if the risk level was from one to 100, maybe these have a risk level of 80 or even 90 and then structure into them, work with the issuers to get some backstop protection. So that just tells you a little bit about how the wealthiest or the wealthy do it. They’re first of all, going in, tell me my degree of safety. Sure. I know I’m going to make money there anyway. You’re great at what you’re doing. All that. Tell me what you’re going to do for me to make sure that I don’t lose big chunks of money. So that’s probably the biggest thing that I learned. And the biggest thing that I want to part on onto your listeners is that look at safety and security first. And then look at returns, not like you would with the mutual funds that are sold by one, three, five, 10 year performance. Don’t look at that. Okay. Look at your downside risks. What are my drawdowns? What’s the upside here first? What is my exposure here first and then go from there. So that’s the biggest lesson that I learned when I started transitioning and working with the wealthiest of the wealth.
CORWYN:
Awesome. Awesome. Well, Mark, I want to thank you again for taking time out of your schedule to be on with us today. I really appreciate it. I got two takeaways and for our listeners, number one, I want you guys to get into this frame of mind. Wealth that ends with you is success, but wealth that outlives you is a legacy. So I want you to take that. And from what we’ve talked about today, Mark, a great takeaway, I believe is the goal isn’t just to make money for your family. It’s to build a system that keeps making money long after you’re gone. So Mark, again, I want to thank you for giving that wisdom to our listeners today for being on the show with us today. Thank you for being a part of the exit strategies radio show family. I really appreciate it. Well, thank you, Corn. It’s been a pleasure to be on. Awesome. So if our listeners one more time, look here, y’all know what it is. Y’all know how I feel. You know what I say? I always put the two of those things together and I give it to you this way, which is to tell you that I love you. I love you. And we’re going to see you guys out there in those streets.
