Latest / Financial Survival Network / $crew U -- A Memoir by Jim Masiello #5828

Transcript

$crew U -- A Memoir by Jim Masiello #5828 · Financial Survival Network

• 0:00
  The book, by the way, very bacchal it took me. Look,
• 0:04
  I've been wanting the names or what have you. So while as going on
• 0:09
  on the other shie, the insurance industry, independent insurance industry was undergoing a
• 0:14
  really difficult time. You were listening to Carrie Letz's Financial Survival Network, where
• 0:20
  you get valuable information. You just can't find anywhere else to thrive in today's
• 0:25
  trying times. You need the Financial Survival Network now more than ever. Go
• 0:31
  to Financial Survival Network dot com and get your free newsletter and gift. Financial
• 0:37
  Survival Network now more than ever. And welcome you are listening to watching the
• 0:46
  Financial Survival Network. I'm your host, Carrie Lutts. Well, hey got
• 0:52
  interesting guest on now. As he says, most people's worst nightmare is a
• 0:57
  problem with the IRS and the bank. Jim and Massillo, our guest had
• 1:02
  both coming after him for tens of millions of dollars. He's widely known.
• 1:07
  Jim, you are widely known as the founder of insurance giant SIAA and that's
• 1:12
  Strategic Insurance Agency Alliance. Thanks for coming on. So after having banks in
• 1:19
  the IRS come after you and publishing a book about it called screw you.
• 1:25
  That's screw like the screw and you just the letter you writing the book,
• 1:30
  go what do you learn from all your travails with banking and with the irs?
• 1:36
  Well, well, thanks for having me on number one. It wasn't
• 1:40
  a pleasant experience. But just let me let me set the parameters on the
• 1:46
  book very briefly. It's really then I'll go into the data. But the
• 1:52
  battles with the banks are going on simultaneously, were with my work on creating
• 1:59
  SIAA, which is the natural program. What had happened. We did a
• 2:04
  lot of building offices, residential whatever analogy as a side parting. And the
• 2:12
  banks, the beds changed the tax code. It took several years to catch
• 2:16
  up with us, but they changed it. They changed you couldn't take where
• 2:23
  you could take losses before you had can work that appreciation. So instead of
• 2:29
  taking a loss in the year that's occurred, now you've got to go seven
• 2:31
  years, five years. I don't know what happened to be. So suddenly
• 2:37
  the banks and the banks in New Hampshire they are five and the Resolution Trust,
• 2:42
  which people all remember, they came in one day, took overall and
• 2:47
  they have brought the big banks who didn't care anything about New Hampshire or businesses
• 2:54
  or what have you. They just wrecking the commons. So one day I
• 3:00
  started getting um these letters demand demanding you know, loan balance of performing loan
• 3:07
  balance, um, and there was no way out. Thanks didn't care about
• 3:12
  anything you want before. Fortunately for me, I've always said very solid counting
• 3:20
  and tax advice. And my person at the type WI steal this way.
• 3:25
  Um. You know, he just said, I don't know how you're going
• 3:30
  to do this, but you're insolvent, so young insolvent, you can fall
• 3:32
  bankers. A couple of things I'm going to add. One is a moment
• 3:37
  bankers too. If I'm insolved, I can beat the hell out of these
• 3:40
  banks because they can't get anything. So it sets up a perfect negotiation by
• 3:46
  uh. And you know it was. It was the book, by the
• 3:51
  way, very factual. It took me a long time. I didn't want
• 3:54
  any names or what happing. So while ask going on on the other shy.
• 4:00
  The insurance industry, the independent insurance industry was undergoing a really difficult time
• 4:05
  and arvan act we call it hard market insurance companies more an appointing new agents
• 4:11
  raising their rates significantly low in condissions and become very selective, wanting to play
• 4:17
  just a very large regional urban type. So let it set up a perfect
• 4:24
  situation, because I thought, we're even doing it in New Wayland's as a
• 4:28
  matter of picking it up and taking it out on a broader geographic basis,
• 4:32
  which is what we did very successfully. So I get the banks chasing me,
• 4:36
  I arrested. Is the story under itself and lovell rely that and it's
• 4:44
  the good and the bad, the positive and negative at all coming together one
• 4:47
  time. It was very interesting time for me, I tell you. So
• 4:56
  down the road we marched, and fortunately I was able to negotiate for the
• 5:02
  banks. Having done that, we just tell them to go to house.
• 5:06
  You're you what it's all in the book. You know there's no mystery bankers.
• 5:11
  You know you have a tendency to always name an institution like that or
• 5:15
  you know that bank. Well, there's people, and as the FEDS game
• 5:21
  in more prominence, these people started displaying their competence. So I can't tell
• 5:29
  you it was fun, because it wasn't fun, but they were satisfying moments
• 5:31
  when I meet the banks one on one and I restricted the time that they
• 5:35
  could contact me that they had real call the court, and by the time
• 5:41
  we get the court, we were able to get the bank and agree position
• 5:46
  relative. I didn't you know that? That's generally the essence of the books,
• 5:51
  so you get parallel stories that really were occurring at some time. All
• 5:57
  right, So how long did this fight go on? For? Three?
• 6:00
  Two years? Pretty intense two years? Okay, he must have spent a
• 6:05
  lot in legal for you. Huh. Now, now you're going in the
• 6:11
  right direction. I had a former congressman who was an attorney with a close
• 6:15
  friend who I had done some things for prior years him, I'll write my
• 6:24
  own communications and I'll be able directly with the banks' bo it's going to have
• 6:28
  you or whatever. Um. And I did that, and you know it
• 6:34
  was it was pretty strong. I mean I could be in two chords in
• 6:39
  the same day, one lend of look people a couple million dollars, another
• 6:43
  Lendon looking another out. It was done. As I reflect on it,
• 6:49
  you know, fortunately, good advice. You can't put a dollar side because
• 6:55
  the good advice early on I see yeah and uh and and also attorney for
• 7:03
  attorney they staid, and you need to put your operating businesses into the irredicable
• 7:09
  price or your FAMILYM well, four year that's when all this happened. You
• 7:15
  can't get out. My core businesses were going by you, growing them and
• 7:24
  lead banks and the irs just to become a battle right probably of that?
• 7:31
  Yeah? Interesting? Interesting? So what about the IRS? What how did
• 7:35
  you deal with them? How did you beat them? Well, they came,
• 7:42
  okay, Ellen, I don't meet people one on one. It's just
• 7:46
  not my style. And so I had my my lead castle and my league
• 7:54
  gain them powers of attorney to people. The I arrest and a drive.
• 7:59
  Yeah, her sister meeting, he said, no, go to hell.
• 8:05
  You know I've got but it's an authority with my representatives. One of the
• 8:11
  members of that accounting firm had been an IRS manager. He called me one
• 8:16
  day he said, look, Jim, I know that this isn't anything you
• 8:20
  want to do, but I think it could be bad. Social said,
• 8:22
  so can we meet? We meet in your office in your corfence room.
• 8:26
  Will limit who can be there, and you can meet this first. And
• 8:30
  I, at first, I said I need to think about it. Said
• 8:33
  okay, fine. Person walks in the dancer RS manager and it was a
• 8:41
  she and she came up to me and we shook hands, and she said,
• 8:43
  and mister mass say hello, I can't tell you he's dime to meet
• 8:46
  you, not thinking that back in my head and you're a million that all
• 8:50
  this pleased to meet me. So she said, you know, I have
• 8:56
  to tell you, I am so crazy that you would do this for mean
• 9:00
  man. This is an IRS agent. You don't know whether they're going.
• 9:03
  You are in phoenix, and it's should she said, phoenix. I mean
• 9:09
  that registered. You know in other ways. You may have problems now,
• 9:13
  but you're going to come back. And when you come back, I'm gonna
• 9:15
  be here with my hand. That's what the phoenix is. If during the
• 9:20
  course of the meeting, this person said, well, have you considered filing
• 9:26
  chapter seven? Finally, chapter seven. I didn't cause the problem. I
• 9:31
  will, you know, I'll make these problems go away all the time.
• 9:35
  But I'm not filing chapter seven. He said, well, that's pretty remarkable,
• 9:39
  but if you did, I'm half of your that of what you all
• 9:45
  would disappear. Now the person and we see the gap him I mentioned before
• 9:52
  about went under the paper pages. You've never seen a film, yeah,
• 10:00
  said, you don't have to pay me yeah, in fact, that just
• 10:03
  doesn't happen. So um, she said, well would you she said,
• 10:07
  I, whatever you tell me, I'm taking your words, and I know
• 10:11
  I know you. So she said, would you agree to four hundred dollars
• 10:16
  a month? There's a million? Five? Okay, one hundred dollars a
• 10:18
  month or ten years and then I think it's going to give me ten years
• 10:24
  to you know a little away. But ten he has paid or four hundred
• 10:28
  dollars paid the high arrest dollars a month. You the math room, you
• 10:33
  know it's uh eight thousand dollars. Yeah. So now we had about about
• 10:41
  six months to go, and my councilor hes all right. At one point
• 10:50
  he's probably like his office chapter payment when it's due. Jared revenue Way and
• 11:01
  Cory and they came back said there is no battle, and uh called me.
• 11:07
  I don't know what's going on. He says, but hi, resident,
• 11:09
  you owe them anything? Yea for you have pinions? You Well,
• 11:16
  that's certainly the anything. Well are you going and darroling? What happens if
• 11:22
  you do a deal with the irs? You owe them money? They have
• 11:26
  to both the process. It's called eighteen at you you individually and also what
• 11:33
  they brought up skips, so they they never updated by statue. So at
• 11:39
  the end of ten years, been paying forty eight thousand dollars, still old
• 11:43
  them like about a million and four. They went away, Wow, and
• 11:48
  that's like the irs that country western music song, uh saying take me off
• 11:56
  your mailing list to the irs? Right, Well, it was, it
• 12:00
  was interesting, and they are kind of an overly zealous agent working on us,
• 12:09
  you know, to a point where I basically told him going to dowla
• 12:13
  one bother than me. Yeah right, you can't tell travel refer you.
• 12:22
  Is the end of that, all right. So, so what you learned
• 12:26
  from all this? Damn lucky. Better to be lucky than smart. Uh
• 12:33
  well, you know people use that word luck a lot when you're doing enough
• 12:39
  stuff about that dumb blocks awhere. Yeah, well, you know what Thomas
• 12:45
  Edison said, what some people call luck, I call overall and uh hard
• 12:50
  work, right, that's what it is. Hard work. Enery's luck for
• 12:56
  sure. So people starting out now in similar businesses or in any business,
• 13:01
  what would you tell a young entrepreneur premire a vantage point experience? You know
• 13:09
  it, this isn't this is a little bit pob I have to elaborate.
• 13:13
  I'm never starting. I had my agency and I wanted to grow it.
• 13:22
  Warps in small state, but you know where I was located at fifty my
• 13:24
  alessil elevation, that market and experience and so you know, my agency is
• 13:35
  doing very well. It was a bad time for insurance agencies and companies,
• 13:39
  yet my reputation was strong and repossible business and our companies I asked them to
• 13:46
  do something. They did it because the few organizations and I never started it
• 13:54
  to cash out. I never started it. That's never my goal period because
• 14:00
  I think that that then takes you off course. Last year, lucky h
• 14:05
  doesn't, I don't know, you know, I started selling life insurance.
• 14:09
  Uh. I worked seven weeks for PPG as bricklay Glass out of college manaking
• 14:16
  trainee. This is a woman long too. I pittually left that one morning
• 14:28
  again I had cat back, So you know, so I started selling life
• 14:35
  insurance. As they stole life insurance out the opportunities one advice and well I
• 14:41
  wouldn't fall into them because an opportunities, it's just it is that an opportunity
• 14:46
  you can only you know, utilize it you any places. But I got
• 14:54
  very successful and yeah, you know, if you start trying to starting,
• 15:01
  I lost to be the type of you can get your get your personality and
• 15:09
  relationship building. That is the Harry what uh you know ball and just persist
• 15:22
  uh that And it appened. It's just a it's really hard to tell because
• 15:28
  what I did is kind of ACU. I went against the green on most
• 15:31
  stop and I loved it because the football situation, I never considered it difficult
• 15:39
  forty years and I'm like Escort in the middle of maybe different called the lives
• 15:45
  goodness and I would buy I can't tell you that the just stare at that
• 15:48
  pot. Yeah, not saying here about what can you do? Get me
• 15:54
  going? All right, Chance, It's been great having you on the show.
• 16:00
  We'll have a link in the show notes to your book Screw You,
• 16:04
  available on Amazon. If you've got a question her James or myself, shoot
• 16:08
  me an email platcarry Lutz dot com and you'll find the link of the show
• 16:15
  notes of the interview on Financial Survival Network dot com. And while you're there,
• 16:19
  please please sign up and get your free newsletter. James wish you the
• 16:26
  best of luck on the book and we'll talk to you again. Thank you.
• 16:29
  Carry Thanks for listening to Carrie Lutz's Financial Survival Network, your solution to
• 16:34
  today's trying times. For the latest, go to Financial Survival Network dot com.
• 16:41
  Financial Survival Network now more than ever,