Alex Sonkin is the founder of The Due Diligence (DDP) Project™ and The Virtual Family Office (VFO) Hub™.
Mr. Sonkin has authored a book, called “The Due Diligence Project™” and has been published in “Money Matters-Volume #2”, both available on Amazon. Alex has been quoted in a number of articles regarding the evolution of the CPA industry published in “Accounting Today” and has been interviewed on popular radio programs, including “It’s Your Money and Your Life!” Alex also hosts The Due Diligence Project Podcast™.
Highly sought after, Mr. Sonkin has been invited to provide thought leadership throughout the United States, Canada, Germany, Switzerland, United Arab Emirates, and Norway. Mr. Sonkin began his career as a derivatives (options) trader and market maker as a member of the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT), Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), and the Chicago Board of Options Exchange (CBOE).
Mr. Sonkin is a partner in San Diego Social Venture Partners, and actively supports a number of other charitable organizations around the country. Mr. Sonkin lives in San Diego with his wife Jola and their four children. Mr. Sonkin is a graduate of University of Michigan Business School, in Ann Arbor, where he received a Degree in Finance and the Branstrom Award, a prestigious designation assigned to the top 5% of each graduating class.
Episode Highlights Here:
Alex Sonkin:
We’re gonna give them the notes, the oxygen, all the warmth, all the warm clothes, they need to complete that rest of the journey by going to Taxco going in our notes, and then going directly with some of the specialists, some of the thought leaders in the space.
Brett Swarts:
Because let’s dive right into the topic at hand, which is getting ahead of the curve with the due diligence project. So, Alex, what’s the number one secret to getting ahead of the curve with any kind of due diligence?
Alex Sonkin:
Well, the key is, look, doing due diligence on investments, I think is very tricky. You know, peep, there’s a whole vert family office club that we’re actually partnered with that our presentations are part of that that family office club, and their focus is they support 2700 Plus family offices, and they’re helping these family offices, complete due diligence on actual investments, which is very, very tricky to do, it’s arduous work, because there’s just so many moving parts to evaluate risk with with particular investment, you really have to understand that space, you have to understand the players, you have to understand there’s there’s a lot and plus you have to understand market risk. When looking at a tax strategy. Our solution is to show this tax strategy to hundreds and hundreds of independent CPA firms tax folks, we lovingly call ourselves tax geeks, tax focused CPAs, who are going to look at that strategy. We’re going to meet that strategist, that specialist, ask them a million questions, or as many questions as they need to ask to get comfortable to understand the risk to understand how the IRS could attack this to understand the weakest part of each structure to understand, is this going to stand up an audit? Is this going to stand up in tax court? How what are we doing to add value to the structure to make this stronger to be able to stand up to the tax code, and then going into the tax code going back into our notes. So what we do as a community is we compile q&a notes, FAQs, going back 1015 years on some of these strategies, we share those notes with each new member. Coming from the big four smaller firms, medium sized firms, as they join our community, they take those notes, they go into the tax code, and then they complete the rest of the due diligence themselves. So our facility kind of acts like a Sherpa, we take them three quarters of the way up the mountain of the Himalayas of due diligence, they’re going to have to complete that last quarter of the journey on their own. But we’re going to give them the notes, the oxygen, all the warmth, all the warm clothes, they need to complete that rest of the journey by going the tax code going in our notes and then going directly with some of the specialists, some of the thought leaders in the space and asking those questions directly or communicating with our other CPAs in the community or other tax trainees in the community to go, why is it Why are you comfortable here? Why are you comfortable when we think the IRS is going to do this, this, this and this. So really, we do this as a community of tax geeks, and having hundreds and hundreds of members who are who are mostly CPAs tax focus CPAs and some former tax attorneys and specialists in their areas. Those people working all together on a consistent basis really refines the strategies and allows our snowball of due diligence to continue to get bigger and bigger, stronger, more powerful and more refined in the quality of due diligence that we’re able to find.
Brett Swarts:
Excellent. Okay, so it sounds like it’s a team approach. So due diligence, it feels like it’s everyone in it together to uncover challenges, potential risks, ask good questions. And then it’s, it’s it also seems like sounds like it’s a place for new people to come into. And a lot of it’s already been paved the way or a lot of the research has been done. A lot of the notes are there, and it gives opportunity for people to quickly that are moved through different tax strategies. Is that a fair summary Alex? Yeah, that’s a great point.
Watch the episode here:
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About Alex Sonkin
Alex Sonkin is the Founder of Virtual Family Office Hub, Fact Pattern Analytics (FPA) and Virtual Family Office Academy. Mr. Sonkin has been focused on building Virtual Family Offices and supercharging Multi-Family Offices around the country, by helping them to differentiate and dominate their competitors.
Working closely with many of the world’s leading Family Office CEOs, CPAs, Tax Attorneys, and specialists who support multi-billion-dollar family offices, Alex created the Certified Virtual Family Office Professional Designation (VFO), that elite CPAs and Family Office professionals can earn by successfully completing the Virtual Family Office Academy.
Mr. Sonkin works closely the VFO Academy Board of Directors in selecting only the very best specialists and thought leaders to become Teaching Professors on the VFO Academy Platform.
Mr. Sonkin also works closely with VFO Hub Facilitators and Fact Pattern Analytics ™ Senior Analysts in analyzing complex fact patterns, while ensuring that the appropriate Best-In-Class ™ Specialists are chosen in designing the perfect solution(s) for each specific set of challenges. Alex has been quoted in a number of articles regarding the evolution of the CPA industry published in “Accounting Today” and has been interviewed on popular radio programs, including “It’s Your Money and Your Life!”
Since 1994, Mr. Sonkin’s work has focused on optimizing financial portfolios, while mitigating risk and taxes.
Highly sought after, Mr. Sonkin has been invited to provide thought leadership throughout the United States, Canada, Germany, Switzerland, United Arab Emirates, and Norway. Mr. Sonkin began his career as a derivatives (options) trader and market maker as a member of the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT), Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), and the Chicago Board of Options Exchange (CBOE).
Mr. Sonkin is a partner in San Diego Social Venture Partners, and actively supports a number of other charitable organizations around the country. Mr. Sonkin lives in San Diego with his wife Jola and their four children. Mr. Sonkin is a graduate of University of Michigan Business School, in Ann Arbor, where he received a Degree in Finance and the Branstrom Award, a prestigious designation assigned to the top 5% of each graduating class.
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