Here’s a number that doesn’t get much airtime…

It’s one of the largest line items in the federal budget: the interest payment on America’s national debt.

Jim Rickards, editor of Strategic Intelligence, believes this figure helps explain many of today’s economic and market trends.

His reasoning is straightforward: the federal government spends roughly $2 trillion more each year than it takes in.

There’s no realistic path to closing that gap through spending cuts or tax increases alone. So history tells us what comes next:

• Financial repression…
• Rates held below inflation…
• The purchasing power of savings quietly eroded…
• And wealth transferred – not dramatically, but steadily – from families who aren’t positioned for it to those who are.

“The families that understand this are preparing,” Rickards wrote. “The ones that don’t will absorb the cost.”

WorthNet Partner Adviser John Parise has spent decades on the practitioner side of that statement.

As a principal of Copper Beech Financial Group, he works with business owner families on the kind of multi-generational planning that determines which side of Rickards’ ledger a family lands on. Not investment picks. The structural decisions – trusts, succession plans, estate documents – that either protect a family’s wealth from what’s coming or leave it exposed.

And right now, he says, the planning urgency hasn’t gone away. If anything, many families are misreading the current environment as a reason to relax.

Earlier this year, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act permanently raised the federal estate tax exemption to $15 million per person – $30 million per couple – eliminating the sunset that had threatened to cut it roughly in half.

For many families, that felt like good news – and a reason to stop thinking about it.

Parise would call that the wrong read…

“The law changed,” says Parise, “but the math didn’t.”

State estate taxes – in states like Massachusetts, New York, and Maryland, for example – remain unchanged, with thresholds far below the federal level.

And for business owners, the core arithmetic of transferring wealth never changes.

“You want to move assets out of your estate when they’re worth less,” Parise has told clients, “not when they’re worth more. Every year you wait, you’re gifting the IRS a bigger number.“

The urgency is arithmetical. A business worth $8 million today growing at 7% annually could be worth roughly $22 million in fifteen years.

“We run those projections for families,” Parise says, “and the reaction is always the same – shock that nobody ever showed them this before.”

Every year of inaction is potentially a year of compounding that stays on the taxable side of the ledger.

Parise described a real case that illustrates what happens when families get this right – and what it costs when they don’t.

The client was a sole owner of a specialty manufacturing business. His children had no interest in running it, and a key executive – the man who effectively kept the lights on day to day – had given no firm commitment to stay if something happened to the owner.

Parise’s team helped him transfer 49% of the business into a dynasty trust, lock in a favorable third-party valuation, and put a phantom stock plan in place to give the executive a meaningful stake in the company’s future sale proceeds – enough to make staying worth his while.

A year after the plan was complete, the owner died of a heart attack leaving a hockey game.

The insurance claim was paid within three days. The executive stayed. The business had its best quarter the following year. The family – entirely unprepared to manage any of this on its own – had a team already in place, already knowing the files, already knowing the children.

“That’s the role we take with families,” Parise said. “To make sure they stay out of trouble. So that when something happens – and something always happens – the plan works.”

This example is provided for illustrative purposes only and reflects one client’s unique circumstances; it’s not representative of all clients or outcomes, and similar planning strategies may not be appropriate for every individual or business. Results will vary based on each client’s specific facts and circumstances.

Although many factors can affect business performance, in this particular example, you can see the difference between a plan… and a wish.

Rickards’ fiscal argument plays out over years. The wealth transfer happening across America – as the Baby Boomer generation passes businesses, real estate, and portfolios to the next generation – is already underway…

The question isn’t whether your family is part of it.

The question is whether you’re on the right side of it when it arrives.

As Rickards put it: the families that understand this are preparing.

If Rickards’ argument gives you pause – and it should – perhaps it’s time for an important conversation with one of WorthNet’s Partner Advisers.

WorthNet connects self-directed investors with experienced financial advisers who specialize in exactly this kind of planning. Some of our partner advisers, including John Parise of Copper Beech Financial Group, work specifically with business owner families on multi-generational wealth strategies.

Click the button below to complete WorthNet’s brief 90-second questionnaire to see whether a conversation with an independent adviser from our network may make sense for your goals and interests.

Note: WorthNet has a financial relationship with the advisers in our small, curated network – including Copper Beech Financial Group – and may receive compensation in connection with introductions made to the firm. Nothing here constitutes personalized investment, tax, legal, or financial planning advice. Our goal is to connect self-directed investors with advisers we’ve carefully selected.

John J. Parise

Founder & Managing Partner of Copper Beech Financial Group

Your Generational Wealth Partner

John J. Parise is a seasoned investment adviser who has helped families optimize their investments for taxes and developed cross-generational plans to preserve wealth for nearly 40 years. His firm, Copper Beech Financial Group (CRD #313156), is a proud member of the WorthNet partner adviser network.

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Last Revised: August 4, 2026