Building wealth is one challenge. Preserving it across generations—while navigating an increasingly complex global tax and regulatory environment—is another. For entrepreneurs, investors, and business owners experiencing liquidity events, having the right wealth protection strategy can be just as important as creating the wealth in the first place.
In this episode of Build It to Billions, Brett Swarts sits down with Michael Malloy, Founder and Chief Advisor of EWP Financial and a recognized authority on Private Placement Life Insurance (PPLI), asset protection, and international wealth planning. Together, they explore advanced strategies for protecting assets, improving tax efficiency, and creating lasting financial legacies for families and business owners. Whether you’re preparing for a business exit, managing significant investment gains, or planning for future generations, this conversation offers valuable insights into building resilient, tax-efficient wealth with a long-term perspective.
Episode Highlights Here:
Brett
Before we jump into this episode, I would invite you to join our community to help you become a better steward, scale to billions, and ultimately give more or all of it away. All I want you to do is to click the subscribe button right now. I love your support, it’s incredible to see your comments, and we’re just getting started. I can’t wait to go on this journey with you. Thank you so much for subscribing. It means the world to me. Hello, everybody. Welcome to the Building Billions Podcast, where we got successful entrepreneurs and investors on their journey from millions to billions. We have great guests on every time who come on and share their expertise, so we can all level up, make a bigger impact. My name is Brett Swarts, and I’m joined today by Michael Malloy. He’s the founder and chief advisor of EWP Financial, a global leader in expanded worldwide planning and private placement life insurance. He has over 40 years in the insurance and financial services industry, and he has built a reputation for delivering innovative cross-border solutions for ultra-high net worth families, and so much more. Please welcome again to the show, Mr. Michael Malloy. Michael, how we doing?
Michael
Good, thanks for having me, Brett.
Brett
Absolutely. For listeners, get to know you for the first time, would you give us just a little more about your story and your current focus?
Michael
Well, actually, I started out in property casualty insurance, and that kind of morphed more into life insurance and dealing with high-net-worth families, and then kind of in the early 2000s we started going more international, although we still do quite a bit of domestic and concentrating almost exclusively on private placement life insurance.
Brett
Excellent. Let’s dive right into that. What is the number one secret for ultra high net worthfamilies with private placement life insurance?
Michael
Well, they’re able to engage in both advanced tax planning and advanced estate planning all inone structure. It’s in the US context, you might see it as an unlimited Roth IRA with added benefits, like if it’s structured correctly, it’s excluded from your estate, and you get enhanced estate planning because the jurisdictions we deal with mostly are offshore, so it’s very hard fora creditor to pierce that veil.
Brett
Excellent. So, the big problem people are facing is, you know, above that 30 million married mark or 15 million singles, right? They state debt tax. So, walk us through. Let’s say someone’s worked $130 million They have a big business or real estate property in New York, and they own it free and clear, and they’re fully depreciated, and they. oh, I got a big estate tax. Michael, what would be. what would be kind of the steps to to helping them out?
Michael
Well, first of all, we. we do something similar to what you do in terms of your focus on capital gains tax, so the first hurdle is getting the assets in a, in a policy, so if its own free and clear that that’s there’s no, there’s fewer impediments, as if it was mortgaged, but we still have to address estate capital gains tax issues, so what we do when it’s involved, we do something similar to the deferred trust, an islet with a sale for a note, and so we spread out the if there is capital gains tax, we spread it out over number of years. We don’t use the one the IRS has come down on in recent years, where there’s you don’t pay any state tax, and then you have a30 year bloom payment at the end, hoping that the assets growing, so then you can pay this all off at the end. We don’t, we don’t want any of our clients on the front page of the Wall Street Journal, so, so that’s so. Once the assets are inside the policy and it’s owned by an irrevocable life insurance trust, the assets are not subject to estate tax, so it’s actually fairly simple at that level.
Brett
Okay, excellent. So, it sounds like get the assets into the policy. So, if I had $130 million business in New York, California, wherever, right, big tax state, do I do I sell it or transfer it? While I still own it, or do I wait for a buyer to show up, or what’s the what’s coming? So, if you like this little, short clip of the interview I just did, click over here to watch the full interview, and please don’t forget to subscribe. Thanks so much, everybody.
Watch the episode here:
Important Links:
About Michael Malloy
Michael Malloy is the Founder and Chief Advisor of EWP Financial and a globally recognized authority in advanced wealth planning, asset protection, and tax-efficient financial strategies. With more than four decades of experience, he has helped high-net-worth individuals, entrepreneurs, and family offices preserve and grow wealth through sophisticated planning techniques, including Private Placement Life Insurance (PPLI), international estate planning, and cross-border wealth structuring. His mission is to help clients protect their assets while creating long-term financial security for future generations.
A respected educator and thought leader, Michael is also the author of The PPLI Papers and The Wit and Wisdom of Professor PPLI, where he shares practical insights into advanced wealth preservation strategies. Through his work, speaking engagements, and educational content, he continues to guide business owners, investors, and advisors in navigating today’s increasingly complex financial and tax landscape with confidence and clarity.
Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review, and share!
- capitalgainstaxsolutions.com
- Capital Gains Tax Solutions Facebook
- Capital Gains Tax Solutions Twitter
- Capital Gains Tax Solutions Tiktok