Episode 8: The Portfolio Framework the Ultra-Wealthy Actually Use

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In this Wealth Strategy Deep Dive, Dave Wolcott introduces the Pantheon Wealth Pyramid, a smarter, more strategic way to visualize and structure your wealth. Rather than relying on Wall Street’s pie charts, Dave breaks down how this pyramid framework helps investors minimize risk and maximize returns—starting with a solid foundation through infinite banking and then layering in cash-flowing, tax-efficient assets like real estate, energy, and private credit.

Dave also explains how to think about higher-risk assets like crypto and public equities in your portfolio and why traditional advice often misses the mark. If you’re ready to step away from the Wall Street model and create a portfolio that serves your long-term goals, this episode will reshape how you approach your wealth strategy.

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How’s it going, everyone? And welcome to a special solo series of Wealth Strategy Secrets Of The Ultra Wealthy. I’m your host, Dave Wolcott. We get a lot of the same questions from our investors about infinite banking, tax efficiency, asset protection, strategy stacking, and how to actually build wealth outside of Wall Street. And we get it.

We know you’re busy. So in this series, I’m breaking down complex wealth strategy topics into short tactical episodes that you can actually use to build legacy wealth. Whether you’re just starting your journey or fine-tuning your portfolio, these episodes are designed to give you high-impact insights in just a few minutes. So let’s dive in. In today’s deep dive, we’re going to talk about the Pantheon Wealth Pyramid and how you can actually structure your portfolio in a purpose-driven way.

Now, typically, we see portfolios in a pie chart type fashion, and the old paradigm from financial planners was this sixty-forty type split between securities and bonds. This doesn’t really make sense in today’s environment anymore, and we challenge the status quo for you to start thinking about your portfolio really in the shape of a pyramid. And what’s great about a pyramid is that you actually think about that base layer where you can build a foundation, and then you can start moving up the pyramid based on your risk tolerance and based on what you are looking to accomplish. I think that’s another really important thing when building out a portfolio that’s often not done by you know, except for endowments and really top family offices that give a lot of thought into how much cash flow is needed. You know, what is the risk level in a particular asset?

Right? What’s the actual purpose of the investment that you’re looking to do? Is it is it growth? Is it cash flow? Is it tax efficiency?

So when we look at this construct of a wealth pyramid on a risk-adjusted basis, let’s start with the bottom. Right? And for us, we believe that the most solid place to preserve your capital and really get a multiplier on your capital and build that solid foundation is infinite banking or cash value whole life insurance policies. And we’ve seen this time and time again with family offices and ultra-high net worth, because they realize the benefits of putting this here. I believe that even in today’s, you know, financial markets where even banks, have a lot of instability to them, but you have mutual insurance companies that are paying dividends since, for a hundred and fifty years, That to me is something that, you know, helps me sleep at night.

So I can store capital in here and know that it’s safe, number one. I also know that I’m doing tax-free compounding by utilizing the policy right, that capital is going to compound completely tax-free or tax deferred, really, but ideally, you can use it in a tax-free way, which increases that compounding for you. You also have asset protection in here because it’s basically inside a life insurance vehicle, so creditors can’t access your money. So that’s another big benefit. We also have the ability to do estate planning here, where you can pass these proceeds on to your future heirs without paying taxes or probate.

Right? So it’s this great component of estate planning. And, of course, one of the things that we really like is the ability to basically, take collateral or basically borrow against the policy, so where you’re using the same dollar twice by borrowing against the cash value of your policy and then deploying that into another asset that can grow in a higher rate. Right? So you’re creating an actual arbitrage on your capital.

And also, this is the place where you can keep that money, whether that is, you know, six months, one year, or whatever you feel comfortable with, to have those cash reserves and have that liquidity that you really need. Right? That’s the first layer. And then the second layer can be that dry powder that you’re looking to accumulate for that next best opportunity. So we really like that as layer one, really establishing that foundation.

And now on top of this, our investment thesis really revolves around three core sectors: real estate, private credit and debt, and also energy. And here’s why we really like these three sectors. Number one, they’re completely non-correlated to the stock market. Number two, they provide this trifecta of a return where you can actually get cash flow, you have tax efficiency to them, and then you have forced appreciation in the asset. And I’ll also add a third one, I think that’s really important in today’s market that people just really aren’t talking about.

I recently interviewed one of the top, macro economists, in the world who is really just talking about, you know, the the flux of, you know, interest rates, fiat currencies, all of the changing of the world order, you know, what’s really happening, what is the impact. And really, it’s all boiled down into monetary debasement, right, is really what’s happening. So when you can start getting into some of these real hard assets, such as you know, real estate and energy, some of these things that we’re talking about, you’re actually completely hedging against this monetary debasement, which is really a great strategy of where you want to be positioned. Now, on top of this is where I would put the riskier type assets, such as public equities, angel investments, crypto, and investments such as that that are much more speculative in nature. We also don’t have control, and we’re also having the highest amount of taxes.

I also think a lot of these assets can be one-dimensional in nature, so you might be able to hit it out of the park with that next venture capital investment that you do, and that’s great. You wanna allocate some capital there, but if you realize that this is on the top of your pyramid, you know, it it’s going to give you pause and give you some thought to say, hey, maybe I only wanna allocate five to 10% of my portfolio towards this riskier asset class. Right? And I wanna build that foundation with 20 to 30%, and then I wanna start having, you know, these assets that are gonna perform for me at multiple levels, you know, at maybe the other 60%, right, of your portfolio. So this way, you’re really balancing out that risk that you have.

You’re very focused on what you’re looking for, whether you’re looking for growth, whether you’re looking for that passive income, today, or you’re looking for getting that tax efficiency, which is so important to also drive additional growth in our overall portfolio. So hope that was a helpful breakdown and basically a different way to look at portfolio construction outside of conventional thinking. Thanks for tuning in to our special solo series. If this episode sparked something for you and you’re ready to learn more, head over to holisticwealthstrategy.com and download a free copy of my book. You’ll also get access to our investor community where we share exclusive educational content, new opportunities, and resources designed to help you accelerate your path to freedom.

And if you wanna take it even further, book a call with our team to learn about our virtual family office services, or join our mastermind group where we go deep into building true generational wealth. I’ll see you in the next episode.

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