What happens when someone who built one of the country’s first home inspection companies in the 1980s, flipped over 70 real estate deals, spent nine years in boot camp under a mentor with a photographic memory who taught him everything from tax planning to financial structuring, sold his first firm to a private equity fund in 2014, and now co-leads a practice with $840 million under advisement decides that the most important thing he can do with four decades of knowledge is make sure business owners and physicians stop handing over to the IRS money they were never required to give?

In this episode of the Trustcast Show, Zane Myers speaks with Ken Himmler, co-founder of One Wealth Map, about the silent campaign that major financial institutions run against Roth conversions — not because Roth conversions are bad for clients, but because when a client converts a million-dollar IRA and pays 25% in taxes, the advisor’s fee base just dropped by $250,000 — and why the online Roth calculators at Schwab, Fidelity, and Vanguard are built with a fundamental flaw that will give you the wrong answer every time. Ken explains why your IRA is not worth what it says on the statement because there is a tax lien on it, what a 664 trust did for a client with charitable intent that allowed him to convert a million-dollar IRA completely tax free, and why running a Roth analysis for just husband and wife misses two of the three scenarios that actually matter — what happens when the first spouse dies and files single, and what happens when the kids inherit an IRA under Secure Act 2.0 and face a ten-year distribution window that can push them into a 65% combined federal and state bracket.

They also discuss why the C Corp is systematically ignored by CPAs despite never having produced double taxation in 42 years of use when structured correctly, why Apple sits on $900 billion in retained earnings without paying the 20% surcharge that CPAs warn about, why most business owners are working with the equivalent of a little league coach when they need a pro-level team, what multi-tiered structuring actually looks like and why it requires both a C Corp and an S Corp working together, how the Monte Carlo simulation that every major financial institution relies on is programmed with a conflict of interest baked in to keep you spending less and leaving assets under management longer, and what Fitnomic — launching in late 2026 — is designed to do that Mint, Monarch Money, and every other financial aggregator has failed to accomplish.
Ken Himmler is the co-founder of One Wealth Map, a financial planning and tax strategy firm with $840 million under advisement, serving business owners, physicians, and high-income professionals nationwide.
Connect with Ken Himmler:

onewealthmap.com

One Wealth Map — contact form for Fitnomic AFM waitlist
Chapters
00:00 Introduction to Ken Himmler

00:42 The Rothinator — why major financial institutions run a silent campaign against Roth conversions

01:30 The fee math — why an advisor loses 25% of their fee base the moment a client converts

02:30 The IRA as a house with a mortgage — why you don’t actually own the number on your statement

03:13 The 664 charitable trust that allowed a million-dollar IRA conversion at zero tax

04:08 Why does converting a Roth mean losing assets under management for the advisor

05:29 Devil’s advocate — when does a Roth actually not make sense and who are the 30%

06:31 The financial propaganda campaign — why money stays in IRAs 79% longer than anywhere else

07:41 A profitable business owner who never has any money — what is actually going wrong

08:45 My CPA files my return and says I’m fine — why that is not enough

09:30 Tax planning versus tax preparation — what Joe the CPA told Ken about his monthly process

10:41 The biggest expense of your life is not your house — it is income tax

11:01 Structure first — why the S Corp default is costing business owners 13% in FICA taxes

12:15 The C Corp objection — double taxation and retained earnings — and why both are wrong

13:30 Apple’s $900 billion in retained earnings and the annual projection that prevents the 20% surcharge

14:30 Multi-tiered structuring — C Corp holding company plus S Corp operating company

15:15 KPIs, measurement, and Peter Drucker — the second problem after structure

15:45 Upgrading your coaching as your revenue grows — little league to the pros

16:40 The $10 million business still using the same CPA from day one — what they are missing

17:03 What the first meeting with a new client actually looks like — culture fit before financials

18:00 The cost benefit analysis — charging $25,000 to save $100,000 as the basis for a relationship

18:58 The Rothinator versus a standard Roth calculator — why the online tools give you the wrong answer

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