The Millionaire Next Door

CPA: The Millionaire Next Door’s #1 Advisor

Mr. Arrow was profiled in my last blog.  How much does Mr. Arrow charge for his financial advice?  There is never a charge.  Actually he gets great satisfaction out of helping his physician clients.  He never read my book, Networking with the Affluent, nor has he reviewed the material on the audio version, Networking with Millionaires.  If he had he would have found that there are actually 8 faces of networking with the affluent and their advisors.  Mr. Arrow personifies face 4, The Mentor.   


Most millionaire next door types employ a CPA who provides more than traditional accounting services.  If I were starting a business all over again one of my first objectives would be to hire an enlightened accountant.  And here is a case study of such a person.  Joe and his two partners started a CPA firm 35 years ago.  Today they have over 1,000 clients, most of whom are self employed business owners, aka millionaire next door types.  A good minority are high income producing professionals.  Recently Joe’s partners and their clients held a retirement party for him.  It seemed that every one of the clients at the party had his/her own experience with one or more of Joe’s networking faces.


The first thing [Joe] did when we met was to ask me for a dozen of my business cards.  He sent me plenty of business from his stable of clients. [In essence he acted as a Revenue Enhancer.]  He told me that his objective was to help generate more revenue for my business than I had to pay him in fees.


When I told Joe that my son’s application for his first choice of colleges was ‘sitting on a bubble’ he called a client who is an alum of the school and a major donor.  This client endorsed my son’s application.  And then my son was admitted to the college.


In this context Joe acted as the Family Advisor, face 6. 


Also among the crowd that night was a neurosurgeon.  He once contacted Joe about the tax obligations associated with selling some of his stock holdings.  He needed some extra money because he was about to sign a contact for building a $2M vacation home.  After learning the details, Joe explained that the physician was about to be overcharged on the cost + deal.  Consequently he took charge of negotiating the contract with the builder.  He saved the neurosurgeon over $150,000.   Call this face the Purchasing Agent.


Other faces include the Talent Scout, the Advocate, the Publicist and the Loan Broker.  Hopefully your accountant will provide you with at least one of these auxiliary services.  I believe that the best accountants are the ones who have a high portion of millionaire next door types as clients.  CPA’s are the number one source of advice for the millionaire next door types.

4 thoughts on “CPA: The Millionaire Next Door’s #1 Advisor”

  1. Dr. Stanley, I have listened to your audiobook “Networking with Millionaires” multiple times and the information is outstanding. It has motivated me to reach out within my local networks and seek to be the apostle of the industries.

    I have one question: how does one analyze the pockets of wealth within one’s community?

    Many thanks in advance.

  2. I 100% agree with this post. The CPA is without a doubt our #1 “money” advisor aside from our CFP. She continues to save us thousands of dollars annually in taxes which enables us to reallocate those dollars to tax-smart investing. We’re quickly adapting to the PAW lifestyle…Thanks Dr. Stanley!

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