CPAacademy.org Check-In | Episode 5: Carlos Dias Jr.

Autumn

Welcome to another episode of CPAAcademy Check-In. I am thrilled to be here with Carlos Dias Jr. We're going to jump into our questions. But before we do that, I want to tell you a little bit about Carlos. 

Carlos Dias Jr. is a financial advisor, public speaker and president of Dias Wealth in the Orlando Florida area offering strategic financial planning services to business owners, executives, retirees and professional athletes. Carlos is a nationally syndicated columnist for Kiplinger, and has contributed been featured and quoted in multiple plug publications, including Forbes, MarketWatch, Bloomberg, CNBC, the Wall Street Journal, US News and World Report, USA Today and many others. He's also been interviewed in on various radio and television stations, and he is trilingual, both fluent in Portuguese and Spanish. 

I have moderated several times for Carlos, and we are actually from the same town in Orlando, Florida. So a little fun fact, for CPAacademy right there. 

All right, Carlos, let's jump into our questions. On your webinars, you talk about your career path. Can you tell us a little bit more about your background and how you became a financial advisor?

Carlos Dias Jr.

Definitely. So this goes back to my roots. So ever since middle school, I actually had a algebra teacher say, "You know what, you should be an accountant, you'd be great for that profession." But realistically, I didn't want to get into the accounting profession, just from the workload and dealing with certain types of clients. So for the most part, I really didn't have a set career path. And really, I was able, in the, as a financial advisor, I should say, be able to connect both the accounting aspect and the financial planning component together beautifully throughout my career, but I was first introduced into the insurance business in my early 20s. 

I actually ended up going and seeing a presentation for a company and I said you know what, I like some aspects of this presentation. But certain things really looked a lot cookie cutter. And at simultaneously my parents were being solicited by a senior financial services company, which often brings up a lot. Bankers Life and Casualty says, You know what, it'd be great because here I am at the beginning of life, or early early on in life. And the company is working with individuals that are much later on in life, I could really learn a lot about the business both inside and out. And that would help me out with younger individuals as they progress throughout their careers and their lifetime. 

Unfortunately, it didn't end up working out, there were a lot of things that I just noticed. And I would see being in the management business that I did not agree with. But I left there, I went to New York Life, which is what I often bring up as a captive insurance company for about six months. At that point, I really realized that essentially, both are the same. It's just a different business model, one coming from one part of the business, and then the other one coming from basically an all around advertising themselves as a mutual company. 

So really, from there, my wife and I established our own independent firm. And we're going to discuss obviously, about education and getting all those resources are really a lot of it has been a learning process, and then wrapping it back into the accounting profession. I've been able to take a lot of my experiences, bring my passion to CPAacademy, as a result of learning through the financial industry.

Autumn

Oh, nice. I like that. I didn't know that started way back in middle school. I hadn't heard that part of your career path before. Very nice. Next question for you. As I mentioned, in your bio, earlier, you are fluent in three languages. Has that allowed you to expand your client base differently from other advisors? And if so, what opportunities has it offered.

Carlos Dias Jr.

So it's always great to have multiple languages because not only that, and part of that background as well, too, is I lived in Portugal for two years, but learn the language inside and out. My mother's Hispanic, my father's Portuguese. And so being able to be diverse, and know a lot about the world helps you a lot with different clientele. I could say that having multiple languages, specifically Spanish and Portuguese, I would say Portuguese more than anything else has helped me out to a certain degree, with certain types of clients, Portuguese clients specifically. But it hasn't been a focal point of my business. And really, a lot of it I use as an enhancement tool to be able to cross into different language or different language barriers. But I really enjoy working with all types of individuals.

Autumn

Very interesting, cool. Question for you. You've appeared in several media outlets, including CPAacademy, how have webinars specifically helped you educate the profession differently than the other media outlets?

Carlos Dias Jr.

Yeah, and this is what I love about being part of the CPAacademy.org. Team. So to say, it's really allowed me to take a lot of my experiences that I've collected throughout the years, along with new experiences that I get to evolve, or I get to experience with under other individuals throughout the US. And, really, it's helped me not only understand individuals a lot better, but it's also been able to expand my reach. 

And this is something that I bring up quite a bit as well. But I've been on board with the technology component that we've been exposed to in the last three plus years, where now we're able to communicate with individuals, from many hours away many miles away, through platforms such as zoom, GoToMeeting, a lot of these online conference companies. And so I've wanted to develop a system like this, or many years, those that have helped me out. 

And obviously CPAacademy has been able to help me get into some of those markets that I may have not been exposed to in the past. So again, to me, and really bringing this back into the webinars, I put a lot of my own personal touch into it. And again, based on my experiences, a lot of the individuals that reach out to me say things they say, you know, you're you speak with a lot of passion. And I do because I do love this business. It's really a love hate relationship. I love this business from one aspect, but I really hate a lot of other components of it. And so through the webinars, I'm able to convey that message and give my perspective.

Autumn

Great. Well, we definitely appreciate it And your passion does come through on your webinars, I have seen that time and time again. Thank you so much for that information. Another question here for you. How do you stay up to date with the latest trends and developments in the financial industry to better serve your clients?

Carlos Dias Jr.

This is a great question. It really is a lot of ways. One is I really do enjoy hearing from a lot of industry experts out in the financial and tax community, a lot of my business leans towards a tax focus first. And then everything is are centered around that. But very simple things such as reading legislation, that's one reading through material on the IRS website. 

And then of course, listening to other webinars, reading articles, reading, essays, reading a lot of research. And that's one of the things I've incorporated a lot into the webinars, showing your work and showing the work is really using research studies, surveys, into one concentration. And so really, again, to answer that question, it's just a collection of a lot of different things. I'm really passionate about staying up to date with the industry and how I can always be ahead.

Autumn

Fantastic reading and research it sounds like but you do a great job at that. Last question here for you. You often work with other larger companies on your webinars, can you explain what impact these partnerships offer? And why they are important to you and your clients?

Carlos Dias Jr.

This is a really good question. Because as part of the industry, you have to work with a lot of other professionals, I say that there is not one person that can do everything. If there is someone out there that says they can do everything they're either doing things inefficiently, or they're cutting corners in some way, shape, or form. So as professionals and this is also in the tax profession, we all have to lean on other possible subject matter experts or other individuals that will enhance our overall business model. And so using large companies as a third party administrator, or people that do record keeping, or someone in the accounting or legal profession, you need those individuals around you at all times. Because again, they all are in their individual section. So being able to work with them, and utilize them and tap into their knowledge. Again, none of us know everything. It's always good to have those kinds of resources on tap.

Autumn

Always learning something new every day, especially when I moderate your webinars and other ones on our platform. I'm like I learned something new today, always. Well, thank you so much for being with us, Carlos. I've enjoyed this time with you getting to spend that with you outside of our traditional webinars. And we always appreciate your time and thoughts and expertise. Any other final comments before I wrap up? 

Carlos Dias Jr.

No, I just want to thank everyone that's been on my webinars, I want to thank you, obviously, we have a little bit more of a personal relationship just from being in the same city together. And then Scott, the whole CPAacademy.org team. It's been great working with him throughout all of these years. 

And I've been very grateful to be part of the platform and be able to grow part of what you had brought up before. I've been able to do different speaking engagements with different CPA societies, and looking forward to doing more of those. But, again, my whole focus is lean in with the education first. Everything else will fall in line afterwards.

Autumn

Great. Well, thank you so much. And we'll also make sure that everyone has access to your contact information and your upcoming webinars on our website. So with that, I will pass things back over to Christine to wrap up.