One City Built to Last

THE FINANCIAL COCOON
Ensuring Irreplaceable Capital Isn’t Lost
The average career for most people
today can be upwards of 40 years,
but for professional athletes and
celebrities, a career can be much shorter.
Paradigm Financial Partners LLC works
with these clients to develop a personalized
holistic roadmap for building
wealth and financial security within a
shortened timeframe.
Over the years the firm has developed
a niche clientele – working entrepreneurs,
business owners and high net
worth individuals. A large percentage
of the firm’s business is also with physicians
and medical groups, but during
the last six years Paradigm Financial
Partners branched out and diversified
the practice by working with
individuals in the music, entertainment,
professional sports,
film and television industries.
“The practice has become a
lot more diverse and these clients
really need a lot of guidance,”
said managing partner
Lee Rawiszer. “They come into
money very quickly and they
don’t have any idea about how
to handle it.”
“This is especially true,”
Rawiszer said, “of professional
athletes, where it is all too common
for many – notably in the
National Basketball Association
– to file for bankruptcy within two to
three years of their career ending.”
With these high net worth clients,
more money often means more responsibility,
and Paradigm Financial Partners
has developed what Rawiszer explained
as a “financial cocoon” for this irreplaceable
capital earned by individuals who,
although they may have short careers,
still need the money to last a lifetime.
This financial cocoon is built by far
more than following traditional investment
strategies such as an alpha or beta
approach.
“We’re looking at life beyond sports
or beyond your entertainment career,
which may fade,” he told The Suit Mag-
azine. “If this money has to last a lifetime,
you look far beyond alpha, beta
and standard deviation, and look at
the whole big picture. What is the goal
of this portfolio and what is the goal of
the client to achieve not only in the next
three to five years, but 10 or 20 years and
beyond. So they have financial security
when their career is over – and they have
financial security, not only for themselves,
but for their children and for the
next generation after that.”
by peter suciu
Unlike his clients with
short careers, Rawiszer
has been in the business
since 1979, when he started
working with his father
at the New York Life Insurance
Company. In 1984
he took the security exams
and learned the investment
side of the business,
realizing quickly that
he was more passionate
about the money management
side of the practice.
As partner at Paradigm Financial Partners,
Rawiszer said, “Financial planning
doesn’t happen in a vacuum. To this end,
the firm – which is not product-oriented
or transaction-oriented – gets involved
in every aspect of the dangers as well as
the opportunities that might keep a client
up at night.”
“We become the quarterback and want
to make their lives easier!”
59 Wilton Road
Westport, CT 06880
Phone: 203-221-3085
www.pfpartners.com
THE SUIT MAGAZINE p.67