How Real Estate Investors Can Protect Their Wealth With Gold

David Beahm (00:00)
So you you’re looking at the marketplace, right? I mean, look at the overall, whatever’s going on in the world, whatever’s going on here in the United States. It it’s a scary time to be an investor because you there’s so much uncertainty out there and we all we all see the horizon coming at us. We don’t know when it’s gonna get here, but we know that there’s some glass balls out there that if just one of them breaks, you we we really don’t know what the ramifications are. But

If you have gold when one of those things breaks, it’s an insurance policy, right? You y you wanna have you wanna have the insurance policy before the house catches on fire, right? And hope that you never need it. So you lock up your gold, you put it in a safety deposit box, you bury it in the backyard, and hopefully you never need it. But if you do, boy, you’re gonna feel good sleeping under that warm blanket.

Scott Bursey (02:13)
Welcome back to the Real Estate Pros podcast powered by Investor Fuel. I’m your host, Scott Bursey And today we’re joined by David Beahm from Blanchard. David leads an elite team responsible for managing billions in legacy wealth and asset preservation assets.

He is the go-to expert for real estate investors focused on portfolio balance, ironclawed asset protection, and the strategic defense of wealth. Pros expect a masterclass today on keeping what you earn and protecting your legacy. David, welcome to the show.

David Beahm (02:51)
Scott, thanks for having me.

Scott Bursey (02:52)
It’s awesome having you here, David. And to help our listeners get up to speed, please give us the ninety second highlight reel and how your career ignited and where you’re pouring your fuel now.

David Beahm (03:03)
Sure. So I started out in banking. I was a commercial lender. ⁓ that gave me some exposure to ⁓ a lot of different industries, including real estate investors. so I’m pretty well versed with what your listeners do. ⁓ and that morphed into me moving to Blanchard and Company, where I currently serve as the president and CEO of the company. But in reality, what I’ve done is over the last two decades or so.

Helping successful entrepreneurs, executives, investors think differently about how to protect their wealth. So that’s what we do here at Blanchard Company. We help in ⁓ listeners ⁓ like yours help ⁓ protect their wealth, preserve their wealth and diversify their wealth.

Scott Bursey (03:41)
That is incredible insight, David. Thank you for highlighting that. And you know, what really caught my attention about you was the way you’ve been able to navigate the complex world of wealth preservation at such a massive scale, essentially building a moat around your client’s assets. That’s not easy.

David Beahm (04:03)
No, it’s not. And and we’ve been around for over fifty years. ⁓ we have over four hundred and fifty thousand clients that we all have the same goal in the sense that, yeah, they want to protect their wealth, they want to build their wealth. But how do you do that? And by just having a just a small percentage of a portfolio in the assets that we sell will help everybody protect their wealth. You know, you go back to the financial crisis and and gold was ⁓ was an asset that acted exactly how it was supposed to.

It was nine hundred dollars. People needed liquidity. They ⁓ they sold it ⁓ and and gold went down to seven hundred and then it went up from there because it was an asset that people had because they needed to protect the wealth.

Scott Bursey (04:42)
David, curious to know what is the biggest mindset shift a real estate investor needs to make to stop just building wealth and start truly defending it, if you will.

David Beahm (04:54)
No, that’s it. That’s a great point. I mean, I’m sure most of your listeners are thinking, what am I going to buy next? How do I raise capital? How do I finance it? ⁓ how do I reduce my taxes? Those are all great questions. But what I hope, one question that I can help with is how do I protect my wealth? And what gold does, it acts as a portfolio protection, whether it’s inflation, whether it’s geopolitical risk, whether it’s the overall economy, the dollar, take your pick. ⁓ gold is is is something that can help protect.

But most importantly, I think it’s a diversification tool. There’s a lot of real estate investors that have a concentration, right? They focus on real estate and they move on to the next project and the next project, and that’s wonderful. But you’re it you’re exposed to one area of the asset class whereas if you had a little bit of of protection from gold, look, I would never tell everybody liquidate your whole real estate portfolio and go into gold. We’re just looking for, you know, five, 10%, 15%, depending on your your risk appetite. And what that does is it gives you protection.

but also gives you liquidity when that other opportunity does come up and you need to utilize that asset to get it.

Scott Bursey (05:58)
That is some powerful stuff. Thank you for sharing that perspective as well. And David, we’d love to get your thoughts and how your team leverages institutional level tools for individual investors.

David Beahm (06:59)
So it’s because we’ve been around as long as we have, we have some great relationships with with with people that give us research, that give us access to stuff that most people don’t have, and that allows us to pass it on to our clients. So not only are we the experts, but we’re being fed even to the next level up. The the the amount of information that we can pass on to make somebody ⁓ comfortable with what they’re doing. Investing in in gold is not a comfortable asset.

The culture in the United States, there’s very few people that actually own gold within the United States. Worldwide, it’s a one of the most popular assets out there. but because it’s mysterious and people don’t understand it, there’s not a lot of people that that are in the United States that that have it in their overall portfolio. So they use us as the information source to say, Hey, I feel okay about investing in gold because it will give me that protection and it’s pretty easy to do. And these guys have been in business for fifty years. So somebody’s doing it right.

Scott Bursey (07:54)
Well said. Well said. Thanks for breaking that down. And let’s ⁓ let’s dig a little deeper into this. What is the most common vulnerability you see in typical real estate portfolios today?

David Beahm (08:08)
So I think what ⁓ what I would say would be just because you’re diversifying within the real estate ⁓ your real estate portfolio, whether it’s multiple family, shopping malls, office buildings, whatever it is, that’s wonderful, but you still are exposed to just real estate. And it would be the equivalent of buying stocks, right? You have a different different types of stocks, so you’re exposed to different types of industries, but the stock market can go down all at once.

Real estate can can do that as well. So you might be ⁓ diversified within your real estate holdings or your portfolio. But I think what would be a great thing to have would be gold as that defensive asset that you can have that can protect your wealth. And I keep bringing it up, but it gives you so much liquidity. And because you’re not just sitting in a bank and you’re losing money because of interest rates are so low that they’re paying you, you know, the price of gold pretty much, you know, we’ll we’ll we’ll we have that those dips every once in a while, but the trend line

It’s certainly in the favor and it gives you liquidity. You know, what what we sell to to investors, they can sell back to us and it’s ⁓ a check in the mail. I mean, it’s it’s very simple and and ⁓ that that liquidity for a real estate investor is key.

Scott Bursey (09:18)
Thank you for being so candid. It certainly is key. And tell us, in your experience, where are the biggest opportunities for wealth defense in the current market cycle?

David Beahm (09:30)
So it it I I obviously have rose colored glasses on, right? So I’m I’m I’m saying precious metals in in in general. But I think alternative assets overall are are a great place to be. I mean, the the the fluctuations in the stock market, you know, and I mean, don’t even get me started on on digital currencies. I mean, my goodness gracious, you look at what’s going on in Bitcoin recently, that that’s enough to to to say, you know what, I want to invest in gold. ⁓ so

You’re not going to get rich quick with gold. You know, that’s not an asset that’s that’s that’s ever gonna ⁓ do that. But what you can do is you your purchasing power remains. And ⁓ as the dollar moves down, gold moves up, they have that inverse relationship. So when you go to liquidate your gold, you’re going to get more dollars back. That’s the goal, right? You’re not gonna, you’re not gonna you’re exchanging one currency to another currency. That’s all we’re doing.

Scott Bursey (10:19)
What should pros be focusing on right now to capitalize on that?

David Beahm (10:23)
So you you’re looking at the marketplace, right? I mean, look at the overall, whatever’s going on in the world, whatever’s going on here in the United States. It it’s a scary time to be an investor because you there’s so much uncertainty out there and we all we all see the horizon coming at us. We don’t know when it’s gonna get here, but we know that there’s some glass balls out there that if just one of them breaks, you we we really don’t know what the ramifications are. But

If you have gold when one of those things breaks, it’s an insurance policy, right? You y you wanna have you wanna have the insurance policy before the house catches on fire, right? And hope that you never need it. So you lock up your gold, you put it in a safety deposit box, you bury it in the backyard, and hopefully you never need it. But if you do, boy, you’re gonna feel good sleeping under that warm blanket.

Scott Bursey (11:39)
Most certainly are great point. Thanks for clarifying. And kind of on that note, we’re interested in how you view the current risk to asset protection, David. What is the biggest threat people are perhaps ignoring?

David Beahm (11:54)
I think the the the biggest threat that we have right now, we we’ve got inf inflation. We know it’s out there. Your listeners know. I mean, the cost of upkeep, the cost of of of labor, the cost of supplies for for real estate investors has certainly gone up. I don’t think there’s anybody that that that can say otherwise. And I don’t see that trend ⁓ not going away anytime soon. So it will continue and that inflation paired with you know the geopolitical unrest that we have. I mean, we made we struck a deal one day, the next day we’re bombing each other.

I mean, that’s something that your investors need to pay attention to because yeah, it may not it may not impact that real estate holding right now, but it could. And if you if you think that there’s any chance that it can affect interest rates, which it could, or access to capital, which it could, or just third po party counter risk, gold’s one of those few assets that doesn’t have that that party risk other than yourself. We actually ship it to the individual and they hold it in their hands.

He who has a gold rules, right? That’s the new golden rule.

Scott Bursey (12:55)
Looking ahead, I wonder how do you see the future of wealth preservation changing for the next generation of investors?

David Beahm (13:02)
So as as as so generationally, ⁓ typically gold is is is toward the end of the investor’s life lifespan, right? It’s a it’s a conservative asset. ⁓ it’s doesn’t produce any ⁓ returns. It’s not gonna go up a hundred percent. Well, actually it did within the last year, but it usually doesn’t go up a hundred percent in a year. ⁓ so I think what’s happened is people that are in the younger generations appreciate what gold has done for their families, for their their parents, for their their the their

mentors that have that in their portfolio that realize that hey, I need to start now because once again, all I’m doing is accumulating gold that hopefully I’ll be able to to sell for more dollars. And people realize how valuable that is right now.

Scott Bursey (13:46)
That’s visionary. Thank you for highlighting that. And David, where do you see Blanchard in the next, let’s say, twelve to twenty four months?

David Beahm (13:56)
So 12 to 24 months, we we’ve had a very nice run with gold and silver. So we’ve brought in a number of new clients because of the fact, you know, gold’s a counterintuitive asset, right? People want to invest when it’s going up and they want to sell when it’s going down, which is almost polar opposites with real estate and everything else out there. But we deal with it and it’s fine. And so what we’re doing over the next 12 or 24 months is we’ve established relationships, the very beginning stages with these new new clients. And what we’ll do is we’ll find figure out what their goals are.

And we will help build the relationship and the lifetime value of their portfolio by getting to know what they who they are over the next twenty twelve or twenty four months, making sure that they have the pathway that they need that they’ve told us about, that they’re on track to to to to hit.

Scott Bursey (14:39)
And David, if somebody’s listening, they’re saying, hey, this is somebody I really like and they like to dig a little bit deeper into the business plan shirt, what would you like them to know first about the company?

David Beahm (14:50)
So we’re over fifty years old and it was one of the greatest stories that has ever come out of Blanchard. it was illegal to own gold. So you and I and your listeners couldn’t own gold after nineteen thirty-three, ⁓ when they had the big gold confiscation. ⁓ so it was illegal to own until about nineteen seventy-five. And what our founder did, it’s a great story. ⁓ our founder rented a plane.

That had a banner behind it, very similar to all you can eat crabs that you see at the at the beach for eleven ninety-nine. And he he actually put a banner that said legalized gold. And he flew it around President Nixon’s inauguration. And I mean, we t we think about it now. It’s like, how in the world do they even get wheels up without being shot down? Well, back then you could do it. You couldn’t get close now. so the he ran this plane the entire inauguration and

Sure enough, a year later he legalized gold. So you, me and our and your listeners can now own gold. And we started that fifty one years ago.

Scott Bursey (16:27)
Wow, what a remarkable story. That is fascinating. And David, this is the deep dive here. If you were sitting down with a high net worth investor today who is worried about losing their legacy to market volatility or litigation, perhaps, what is the one wealth defense move they should execute before the end of the year, in your view?

David Beahm (16:50)
So l legacy is a very important thing for our clients. The pass down of generational wealth is something that a lot of our clients key in on it and we can do that. And gold and silver are a way to pass wealth down from one generation to another. It’s a way to build legacy because you know it’s gonna be there. It’s a real asset just like real estate. It’s not a piece of paper or a promise. And so what our clients think about is not just what’s happening right now, but how am I preparing for the next generation?

my heirs, whatever you whatever you’re trying to accomplish long term, you have to start now because you don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow. And we never we none of us know. The price of gold could be double. ⁓ something could happen to you. So if you have that that legacy, that generational wealth passed down that you’re trying to achieve, real estate’s great. But I’m telling you, precious metals is going to be just as great.

Scott Bursey (17:44)
Absolutely. That is some great gold knowledge right there. And you have dropped gold knowledge bomb after bomb today. But is there any other words of wisdom, any other golden nuggets that you could leave with our listeners here today?

David Beahm (18:00)
And you know, one thing I think w we can say to to real estate investors is that businesses create wealth, right? Real estate grows wealth and precious metals actually protects that wealth. So if you’re a business owner, real estate investor, all that is wonderful. You’ve created a wonderful, wonderful portfolio. And I just don’t want to see you giving it up by not having something defensible like ⁓ gold or silver in your ⁓ in your overall portfolio.

Scott Bursey (18:25)
I love that. David, thank you for that words of ⁓ excellent wisdom there. And for those of our listeners that want to keep this conversation moving, stay in your lane or collaborate with you on future deals. What’s the best way for them to plug into your pipeline and reach you directly?

David Beahm (18:42)
So a lot of our investors want to sell themselves first, right? They don’t want to call one of our portfolio managers up and sell and get sold. So I would encourage people to go to blanchardgold.com and do any amount of research that you want. And when you’re ready to pull the trigger, give us a call. The numbers on the website and you’ll speak with a portfolio manager. And that person that you speak with will be the relationship that you not only start with with at Blanchard, but that they’ll maintain the relationship. So you’ll talk to one person throughout your gold and silver career.

Scott Bursey (19:10)
David, you have really brought the fuel here today. Thank you for joining us. And to our listeners, we appreciate you. If you receive value from today’s episode, please subscribe. We’ll be fueling your tanks with a lineup of elite guests, just like David, who are accelerating and setting the pace for the rest of the industry. Until next time, keep your standards high and your vision clear. We’ll see you in the next episode, everyone.

David Beahm (19:16)
Thanks for having me.