Lane Kawaoka, PE | Media kit: oil and gas tax strategy guest
thewealthelevator.com/oilspeaker
Pronunciation: Kawaoka = kah-wah-OH-kah. Goes by Lane.

== Talking points ==
- Why high earners without real estate professional status run out of tax options, and where oil and gas fits
- Intangible drilling costs in plain English: what they are, and why ownership structure decides whether they can offset active income
- Working interest vs royalty interest: risk, liability and tax treatment
- What an engineer checks when vetting an operator
- Oil and gas as a diversifier, not a bet on oil prices
- The mistake of chasing the deduction and ignoring the economics
- How oil and gas pairs with real estate depreciation over a career
- Why oil and gas rarely comes up with financial advisors

== Suggested questions ==
1. Who is oil and gas a fit for, and who should skip it?
2. What is an intangible drilling cost, and why does the tax code allow the deduction?
3. How is this different from the depreciation people get in real estate?
4. What's the difference between a working interest and a royalty, and why does it matter for taxes?
5. How do you tell a good operator from a bad one?
6. What happens to the investment if oil prices drop?
7. What's the most common mistake you see investors make in oil and gas?
8. Why don't more financial advisors talk about this?

== Extra talking points ==
- Timing: why when you invest in the tax year matters, and what happens in year one vs later years
- Depletion allowances and what income looks like after the drilling phase
- The questions to ask about a sponsor's track record, dry hole rate and fee load
- How energy demand from data centers and AI connects to domestic drilling
- Why a licensed engineer looks at geology reports and decline curves differently than a salesperson
- What happens when you sell or exit: recapture and planning ahead with your CPA
- Oil and gas inside a wider plan that includes real estate, private companies and cash reserves

== Extra questions ==
9. You were an engineer for 12 years. How does that change the way you look at a drilling project?
10. What should someone ask their CPA before investing in oil and gas?
11. How much of a portfolio would you ever put into this kind of investment?
12. How does the AI and data center buildout affect energy demand?
13. What does a year-one tax picture look like compared to year three or four?
14. What are the red flags in an oil and gas pitch?
15. If someone already invests in real estate syndications, how does this fit alongside it?

== Lightning round ==
- Best book you've read on money that isn't your own?
- One tax mistake high earners make every year?
- Stocks, real estate or energy if you had to pick one for 10 years?
- What's something you believed about investing at 25 that you no longer believe?

Note: Lane keeps every episode educational. He does not discuss specific funds, offerings, wells or returns on air.
