Kayla Tausche CNBC

Issue 64 JAN 2015
2015 EDITORS
CHOICE
6 UNDER 30
Silent Trends:
Rising Innovations
RED E APP
Disconnected Employees
are a Thing of the Past
Women in Business
14% of CEO Positions are Filled by Women
America:
ISIS is Lurking in The Shadows
Kayla Tausche
2015 Editor's Choice for
Business Leadership

publishers note
ISSUE 64 | JAN 2015
Publisher
Erwin E. Kantor
Managing Editor
Michael Gordon
Editor in Chief
Helen Moss
Editorial
Robert Jordan
Sean Goldstein
Rachel Feinstein
Staff Writers
L. A. Rivera
Robert Jordan
David Gordon
A. Marie Velthuizen
Judy Scinta Magness
Enid Burns
Felix Badea
Peter Suciu
David Stein
Amy M. Armstrong
Annabelle Preston
Illustrators
Paul Kales
Steve Delmonte
Steve Smeltzer
Norman Jung
Marketing / Advertising
Monica Link
Sean Rome
For subscription details, contact:
editorialdept@thesuitmagazine.com
For advertising inquiries, contact:
advertising@thesuitmagazine.com
No part of The Suit Magazine may be
reproduced or transmitted in any form
of by any means, without prior written
consent of the editor.
Due to the nature of the printing process,
images can be subject to a variation of up
to 15 per cent, therefore The Suit Magazine
cannot be held responsible for such
variation.
The arrival of January seems to bring
out the list-making in the media.
There are reviews of the previous
year and predictions for the one we
are now in. Publications commonly create a
list of Top 40 Business People that are under
the age of 40 as top entrepreneur’s to watch
for the upcoming year.
It used to be that 40 was the target for career
establishment. Not anymore. In today’s
aggressive market place, a long track record
of success prior to age 30 is not uncommon.
Credit technology is the empowerment of
the Millennials. The reality is that the age
bracket in which 30 is considered old, don’t
just have extensive resumes – they have already
formed in irreversible impact.
That’s why The Suit Magazine opted to
highlight six of these movers and shakers in
our first edition for 2015. As expected, our
list contains success stories from social media.
There is no denying the changes and
questions the emergence of social media
brings to our world. Yet, our list goes further.
On page 8, Amy Armstrong highlights
the nation’s youngest female billionaire
who doesn’t like needles. Elizabeth Holmes
is a college drop-out but also a chemical and
electrical engineer and entrepreneur. She is
the founder and CEO of Theranos, a health
technology and medical laboratory services
company.
On page 10, Andrea Lehner covers Dustin
Moskovitz who worked late into the night
from his Harvard dorm room on a project
that would later become Facebook. On
page 12, we cover Evan Spiegel, age 24
and the co-founder and CEO of Snapchat.
On page 14, connecting people to the content
they want most is an essential goal in
2015 for Kevin Systrom, the co-founder and
CEO of Instagram. We also bring to you an
awesome woman in technology, Samantha
John, becoming the tech savvy co-founder
of Hopscotch Technologies with her partner,
Jocelyn Leavitt. Read about how their goal
was to help young girls understand and become
involved with technology on page 16.
And finally, on page 18 we bring to you
Kayla Tauche, CNBC reporter and co-host
of “Squawk Alley”. CNBC is currently the
leading source of global business news and
real-time financial market coverage.
In the end the clock has wound down and
2014 has come and gone. As we embark into
2015, with a new outlook on entrepreneurialism,
we embrace young innovators and
experts around the country whom lead us
into further advances. What those advances
are is unknown, but it is exciting. We at The
Suit Magazine are watching and waiting to
bring the next stories to you.
Best,
Erwin Kantor
Erwin Kantor, Publisher

CONTENTS
JAN 2015
8
THE SUIT SIX
Elizabeth Holmes, Nation’s Youngest Female Billionaire
Doesn’t Like Needles Either. She wanted to find a simpler, less
painful – possibly even pain-free – method for obtaining blood.
FEATURES
10
Improving Effectiveness –
and Making a Difference
Dustin Moskovitz, changing the way people of all
ages and demographics interact. The global effect
of modern social media has changed everything
from family correspondence to consumerism and
politics.
12 Keeping Social Secrets
Evan Thomas Spiegel is an American Internet
entrepreneur who co-founded the mobile application
Snapchat.
14 Making it Real
Connecting people to the content they want most is an
essential goal in 2015 for Kevin Systrom, the co-founder
and CEO of Instagram.
16 Making Technology Fun
20 Red E APP
Disconnected employees are a thing of the past.
Red e App connects your field-based and non-desk team members
to corporate, to their manager, and to each other.
Employee communication that’s real-time, relevant and engaging.
Only 14 Percent of CEO Positions
22 Nationwide Filled by Women
CEO of Palo Alto Software and an advocate for women in business,
said that the data proves women are still subject to traditional gender
roles within the C-suite.
24 America: Is Isis Watching US?
Beware America! ISIS is lurking in the shadows. That’s the message
author and historian William Forstchen has sent to the American
public in his suspense novel, “Day of Wrath.”
Samantha John is the co-founder of Hopscotch
Technologies and co-creator of Daisy the Dinosaur
and Hopscotch apps for the iPad that help teach
kids about programming.
CNBC reporter and co-host of
18 “Squawk Alley”
Kayla McCall Tausche is an American broadcast journalist. She has
reported for CNBC since 2011. Tausche has served as a substitute
anchor for Squawk Box, Squawk on the Street and Power Lunch.
22 18
THE SUIT MAGAZINE - JAN 2015

BUSINESS / FINANCE
26 Helping to CURE Analysis Paralysis
When employees receive those 401(k) packets from their companies,
many feel lost, reacting with the classic “deer in the headlights”.
28 Gaining the Most from Letting GO
When it comes to planning an exit strategy, most aren’t
doing enough about it early enough to get the best monetization
out of a lifetime of work.
30 Serious, long-term relationship
Creates Generous Financial Future
32 Finding One’s Own successor
11 percent of those whose livelihood comes from
helping others are actually following their own advice
regarding the importance of identifying and grooming
their own successor.
35 Riding out Market Trends
Tightened regulations in the lending industry after the
Great Recession just don’t appear to be loosening up in
any significant manner anytime soon.
36
44
An Endgame First Perspective
Fresh approach to retirement planning
40
The Importance of True* Knowledge
Learning About What You Don’t Know is Key to Investment
Strategy
FEATURE STORY
42 Silent Trends
Entrepreneurial rates decline and innovation districts rise
If You Don’t Panic Your Clients
Won’t Either
The concept of finding advisers who put clients’
needs ahead of their own is a highlighted theme that
the only surefire way to get advice “in the best interest
of the client” is to work with an RIA.
46 Quality as a critical planning criterion
Commonly held knowledge says that it takes years, combined
with skilled expertise in handling regulatory red tape, to get a
new medical drug or device out of development and into the
marketplace.
47 Maximizing Family-owned Businesses
Making big business deals – sales, mergers and acquisitions
48 Delivering Tough Financial Truth
It has been said that the job of a financial adviser is to be part
money manager and part counselor, with the listening skills
of a bartender, but without serving mind-altering concoctions.
49
The Economic Reality Radio Show
Want to know how the average American feels about the economy,
listen to a radio talk show featuring a respected financial advisers
50 Time is wealth
An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
52 The Dynamic Duo inFinancial Planning
Bringing a substantial amount of professional training, expertise
and experience to their clients.
55
56 The Comfortable portfolio
Investing is not a one-size-fits-all formula
60
Well Beyond 9 to 5
Long gone are the days when financial advisers only met with clients
in the adviser’s professional office.
Building a Community
Re-building Commerce in Chattanooga, Tennessee
61
Trust and Transparencey
Choosing a financial advisor essentially means entrusting that
person with your financial future.
THE SUIT MAGAZINE p.5

TECHNOLOGY / BUSINESS / HEALTH
62 Repairing Broken Underperforming Businesses
A handful of PE firms are opting for a different approach.
A trend being cultivated by a much smaller number of PE
firms.
65 When Insurance Falls Short...
It’s no secret that medical procedures are expensive and that
not all patients have comprehensive insurance plans.
66
68
Recruiting for the Healthcare Industry
Sound advice for job seekers: write your own resume
and save the expense of having a professional firm
create one for you.
69
“Please Hold”
The Cost of Call Center Training
Investments with a personal touch
knowning that your financial interests are being protected
by a seasoned investment manager who puts their needs
before his own.
70
72
A World of coverage
Health Insurance for Home or Abroad
Being a Good Partner to All
Leasing is an option more business owners are taking
advantage of.
73 Repairing A Firm Firduciary Stance
These SEC-registered investment advisors strongly advocate
that the recommendations made by the Dodd–Frank
Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010
finally be implemented – and sooner rather than later.
75 bringing a new idea to consumers
All airports have parking. But what about pets? Where do
they get to stay when you go away on vacation or on a business
trip?
Accountants Take on an Advisory Role
76
Hoping to develop a relationship that will include a
long-term business involving more than just quarterly or
annual filings.
77
Calculated Risk
Beats Inflation’s Wealth Erosion
78
Help Anyone Who Comes to You...
Despite a slow economic recovery – one that makes turtle
racing look speedy – there remains a contingency of investment
advisers who won’t budge from enforcing client
minimums.
79
80
Process Drives Investment Firm Growth
If you can’t describe what you are doing as a process, you
don’t know what you’re doing.
Finding the Errors
Expense Reports: Duplicate, Errant or Fraudulent?
81
Helping Auto Dealerships with Compliance
Regulations for finance and insurance (F&I) services
provided by auto dealerships offering car loans to their
customers fall under its jurisdiction.
82
Tabbies and dividers keep organization
While computing has taken over the bulk of document
processing, there remain some business organizational
needs that can only be met through the use of more traditional
formats.
83
Adapting to ACA with
Technology
Shopping for insurance is both
time-consuming and confusing.
84
Investing in What
They Know
Private equity firms often focus on
specific sectors

THE SUIT MAGAZINE p.7

THE SUIT MAGAZINE EDITOR’S PICK
DISTINGUISHED BUSINESS AWARD
CORPORATE EXCELLENCE
Nation’s Youngest Female Billionaire Doesn’t Like Needles Either
BY AMY M. ARMSTRONG
The knowledge that millions
of people suffered
the daily pain of having
to prick their finger for blood
testing was just too much for
Elizabeth Holmes. She wanted
to find a simpler, less painful –
possibly even pain-free – method
for obtaining blood.
Sounds impossible? Apparently
it is not. Mainstream media
reporters visiting Holmes
on site at her high-complexity
laboratory said they didn’t
even feel the prick when participating
in a blood draw as part
of their visit. Even more revolutionary
is the fact that Holmes
designed a system that barely –
if at all – hurts the patient when
blood is taken but also performs
more tests on a smaller amount
of blood. Company records certify
that only drops – not vial
after vial – of blood can undergo
as many as 70 different tests.
This represents a radical drop
in the amount of blood drawn
from patients whose conditions
make them frequent visitors to
the phlebotomist.
“I really believe that if we
were from another planet and
we sat down to put our heads
together on torture experiments,
the concept of sticking a
needle into someone and sucking
their blood out would probably
qualify as a pretty good
one,” Holmes told CNN Money
in Oct. 2014. “Forty to sixty
percent of Americans today are
not compliant with even the
basic tests that their physicians
give them when they do see
them, because often they can’t
afford it, or they are scared of
needles.”
Her goal is to remove that
fear by ditching the needles.
It is happening via the Theranos
Wellness Center currently
available at Walgreens locations
in Arizona and California
with plans to expand to the
other 8,000 plus store locations
throughout the country. Instead
of a patient sitting in an
uncomfortable chair – often
metal – having a tourniquet
applied to their mid-arm while
being asked to squeeze their
hand into a fist, the Theranos
Wellness Center features comfy,
living-room like chairs, mellow
background music, an assortment
of popular magazines
and books to browse while
waiting and the reassurance
that only a tiny prick to one’s
finger is needed.
Theranos is based in Palo
Alto, California; nearby to the
home to what would have been
her alma mater had she finished
college. Instead, Holmes
dropped out of Stanford at the
tender age of 19 during her
sophomore year to found the
company that now, ten years
later, is not only set to, but is
revolutionizing the highly
lucrative, yet tightly-held diagnostic
laboratory industry.
The two major players in the
past – Laboratory Corporation
of America and Quest Diagnostics
– are on notice that
Holmes and Theranos don’t
just represent a new disruptive
technology with possibilities
to shake up the $73 billion per
year industry: Theranos’ respective
technology is here to
stay as its myriad of venture
capital supporters have taken
a $9 billion bet that blood sampling
will never be the same.
The board of directors includes
two former U.S. Secretaries of
State – Henry Kissinger and
George Schultz – plus William
Perry, U.S. Secretary of Defense
during the Clinton presidency,
two former military leaders –
one a Navy admiral; the other
a Marine Corps general – and
William Foege, former director
for the U.S. Center for Disease
Control and Prevention.
Learn more about Theranos online
at www.theranos.com.
THE SUIT MAGAZINE - JAN 2015

one tiny drop
changes
everything.
THE SUIT MAGAZINE p.9

THE SUIT MAGAZINE EDITOR’S PICK
DISTINGUISHED BUSINESS AWARD
CORPORATE EXCELLENCE
Improving Effectiveness – and Making a Difference
BY ANDREA LEHNER
When Dustin Moskovitz
worked late into the
night from his Harvard
dorm room on the fledgling concept
that would later become Facebook,
he could not have anticipated
the long-reaching impact Facebook
would have in changing the way
people of all ages and demographics
interact. The global effect of
modern social media has changed
everything from family correspondence
to consumerism and politics.
Now, Moskovitz – who notably
sold off his Facebook shares and
quickly became known as one of
the youngest living self-made billionaires
– is using his high-tech
know-how to tackle outdated business
communication systems and
is also using his new-found wealth
to maximize the effectiveness of
philanthropic giving.
Moskovitz’s latest endeavor,
called Asana, replaces traditional
email correspondence. Email can
be cumbersome, even leading to
miscommunication between team
members. By using a new software
technology, Asana streamlines and
integrates communication directly
into the fabric of team communication
and project management.
“The salient difference between
Asana and the software that’s come
before, is that all of the individual
contributors use it. It’s the place
where you have conversations
with your coworkers,” Moskovitz
said in a 2012 interview, following
Asana’s beta rollout in 2011. Today,
Asana is the preferred choice
of tens of thousands of organizations,
and is widely recognized for
its usability and organizational efficiency
tools.
Moskovitz recently noted that
Asana works because it fosters
transparency and accountability.
This is a core concept of both the
software and the Asana team. In
a recent interview about fostering
productivity, Moskovitz indicated
how the corporate culture at Asana
replicates what the software provides
users.
“It’s important for everyone to
be on the same page. It’s really
easy in any company, but especially
in startups, to have mission drift
and to have people with different
ideas of where they think the company
should be going. It’s really
important that you’re able to tell
a unified story that says this is the
direction – this is what we are trying
to achieve.”
By developing and investing
in technological advancements,
including ground-breaking artificial
intelligence learning systems,
Moskovitz remains committed to
creating new platforms that improve
productivity, efficiency and
interpersonal communication. But
his energy does not stop there.
Moskovitz and his wife, Cari
Tuna, are proving they are equally
committed to advancing the
prosperity of human progress
through effective altruistic
giving. As founders of
Good Ventures, Moskovitz
and Tuna have
pledged to give back
half of their reported
5.2 billion dollar net worth “to help
humanity thrive.”
Good Ventures, through the
collaborative Open Philanthropy
Project with GiveWell, seeks to establish
a grant-funding and investment
strategy that helps determine
which charitable organizations will
make the most impact in their respective
categories.
Mirroring the success of his tech
ventures, Moskovitz once again
calls upon transparency and advocates
that by opening discussions,
sharing research, mistakes, decisions
and results, both donors and
recipients can get more mileage
out of the philanthropic process to
“serve the world more effectively.”
In this manner, Moskovitz and
Good Ventures hope to mitigate
the philanthropic pitfalls common
to closed-door protocols of the past
while at the same time, encouraging
innovation and the kind
of openness that can maximize
the use of finite
resources.
THE SUIT MAGAZINE - JAN 2015

Dustin Moskovitz is
an American internet
entrepreneur who cofounded
the website
Facebook along with
Mark Zuckerberg,
Eduardo Saverin,
Andrew McCollum and
Chris Hughes.In 2008,
he left Facebook to cofound
Asana with Justin
Rosenstein. In March
2015 we are reporting
that Moskovitz is still to
be the youngest self-made
billionaire in history, on
the basis of his 2.34%
share in Facebook.
THE SUIT MAGAZINE p.11

THE SUIT MAGAZINE EDITOR’S PICK
DISTINGUISHED BUSINESS AWARD
CORPORATE EXCELLENCE
Keeping Social Secrets
by amy m. armstrong
To say that Evan Spiegel,
age 24 and the co-founder
and CEO of Snapchat,
is becoming adept at navigating
rough social seas might be
understatement. His first brush
with controversy came in May
2014 when a series of raunchy
emails written in 2009 during
his college days were released
publicly by another Silicon Valley
creation, Valleywag. His
next tech media social faux pas
was passing on a $3 billion offer
from Facebook to purchase
Snapchat. Then in December,
his professional emails to Sony
were amongst those reportedly
hacked by North Koreans displeased
by the pending release
of the movie, “The Interview”.
Those emails exchanged with
Michael Lynton, Sony’s CEO
who also sits on Snapchat’s
board of directors, weren’t
nearly as racy as the ones from
Spiegel’s days as a frat brat.
Yet, despite those emails being
without the dehumanizing
comments from the misogyny
of his college days, they still
spilled company secrets – some
of which paint a still self-absorbed
portrait of Spiegel, who
wants to retain a big chunk of
company fundraising for himself
and co-founder, Bobby
Murphy.
In spite of his less-than-gentlemanly
correspondence,
Spiegel built an app from the
meager means of a classroom
project, that quickly became a
social tech standard.
Snapchat reported reaching
100 million users per month in
August 2014 – just one month
from its third anniversary.
Those 100 million users are frequent
snappers – the company
reports more than 400 million
snaps per day. Its future in the
United States looks bright if its
current users remain faithful:
71 percent of its current users
are 25 years of age or younger
and 33 percent of Americans
ages 18 to 34 have a Snapchat
account. Among American
teens ages 13 to 17 who have
a smart phone, this app that
sends photos which self-destruct
is used by 32 percent of
them. Nearly half – 46 percent
– of the high school class graduating
in spring 2014 report
using Snapchat each day. More
than three-quarters of college
students – 77 percent – say they
use Snapchat daily. No wonder
Snapchat grew 67 percent from
Dec. 2013 to May 2014, according
to reporting by Digital Market
Ramblings, based on statistics
released by Snapchat.
Perhaps more noteworthy
for marketing purposes is the
tidbit that 58 percent of college
students using Snapchat said
they would make an online
purchase if they received a digital
coupon via Snapchat.
In mid-December 2014, Spiegel
admitted that the recent
Sony leaks made him want to
cry. He sent a personal note
to all Snapchat employees encouraging
them that the company’s
mission of keeping social
secrets continues.
“It’s not okay that people
steal our secrets and make
public that which we desire to
remain private,” Spiegel wrote
in the personal note now being
published on a variety of social
media websites. He admits to
be extremely angry regarding
the leaks. “When we’re done
being mad and angry and upset,
we’re going to keep doing
exactly what we are doing.
And then we’re going to do it
ten times better. We’re going
to change the world – because
this is not the one we want to
live in.”
Learn more about Snapchat at
www.snapchat.com
THE SUIT MAGAZINE - JAN 2015

Evan Thomas
Spiegel is an
American Internet
entrepreneur
who co-founded
the mobile
application
Snapchat.
THE SUIT MAGAZINE p.13

THE SUIT MAGAZINE EDITOR”S PICK
DISTINGUISHED BUSINESS AWARD
CORPORATE EXCELLENCE
Making it Real
by amy m. armstrong
Connecting people to the
content they want most
is an essential goal in
2015 for Kevin Systrom, the
co-founder and CEO of Instagram.
Even though his firm has
technically been under the
Facebook umbrella since 2012,
when Mark Zuckerberg bought
this rising rival of the social
media world, Systrom remains
at the helm – and Instagram
doesn’t take a back seat to its
new mother company.
If anything, the acquisition
by Facebook has been a massive
blessing, and not one
that comes with a disguise. In
mid-December 2014, Instagram
announced publicly an unprecedented,
massive and pretty
much unheard of increase in
users. In just nine short months
from March to December, more
than an additional 100 million
registered users are logging in
per month to take a visual cruise
through an endless stream of
photos. This brings Instagram’s
total number of registered users
– affectionately dubbed “Instagrammers”
– to more than 300
million.
That kind of success is almost
mind-boggling to Systrom. In
April 2012, when Facebook
made its purchase, only one
tenth of today’s current users
were using Instagram.
“Over the past four years,
what began as two friends with
a dream has grown into a global
community that shares more
than 70 million photos and videos
each day,” Systrom wrote
in mid-December on the Instagram
company blog. “We’re
thrilled to watch this community
thrive and to witness the
amazing connections people
make over shared passions and
journeys.”
Those “amazing connections”
Systrom refers to include
a renewed focus on deleting accounts
that scream “spammy,”
as Systrom dubs them, to rid
the platform of photos, posts
and comments that don’t fall in
line with Instagram’s mission
of providing users with an authentic
photo-sharing experience.
In November 2014, Instagram
added a “People” tab on its
Explore page, with highlighted
suggestions of interesting
accounts for users to follow. A
copy-cat of Facebook’s private
messaging system called Instagram
Direct, added in December
2013, has given Instagram
users even more direct access to
other users.
In keeping with his goal of
bringing his product to the
masses, in late September 2014,
Systrom’s appointment to the
Wal-Mart board as its 15th
board member, assigned to the
board’s committee for Technology
and eCommerce and and
also to its Compensation, Nominating
and Governance Committee,
is a sure sign that the big
box retailer plans to lean heavily
on Systrom’s expertise as it
works toward retaining market
share amongst the tech-savvy
younger shoppers.
Systrom, age 30, hails from
Holliston, Massachusetts. As
a child, he became fascinated
with the video game “Doom
2” and began creating his own
levels. In high school, Systrom
was introduced to computer
programming, and went on
from there to earn a bachelor of
science in management science
and engineering from Stanford
University. Since 2011,
his name regularly appears on
TIME Magazine’s “100 Most Influential
People” list as well as
on Fortune Magazine’s “40-under-40”
list.
THE SUIT MAGAZINE - JAN 2015

An American entrepreneur and software
engineer, best known as the co‐founder
and CEO of Instagram, an online mobile
photo, video sharing application and
social networking service for iPhone and
Android that allow users to apply a filter
to a photo and share it on the service or
on other social networks like Facebook,
Twitter, Tumblr, and Flickr.
THE SUIT MAGAZINE p.15

THE SUIT MAGAZINE EDITOR”S PICK
DISTINGUISHED BUSINESS AWARD
HOPSCOTCH: WINNER BEST LIFELONG LEARNING APP,
NYC BIG APPS COMPETITION, JUNE 2013
Making Technology Fun
by judy scinta magness
Samantha John left her
home state of Michigan to
study engineering at Columbia
University in New York
City. While at Columbia, she
purposely avoided the computer
science department. “It was
the one thing I knew I wasn’t
interested in,” said John. But
during her senior year, she volunteered
to create a website for
a club she belonged to. “I really
got into it, and made it much
more elaborate than it needed
to be because I was having so
much fun.”
There was no looking back
for John. She went on to become
the tech savvy co-founder
of Hopscotch Technologies
with her partner, Jocelyn
Leavitt. Their goal was to help
young girls understand and
become involved with technology.
A mobile app, “Daisy
the Dinosaur,” built to teach
the basics of programming to
children as young as four using
drag and drop blocks, was their
first product. Their flagship
app “Hopscotch,” followed in
April of 2013 and is designed to
teach children ages 9 to 13 how
to program games, stories and
animations. Since its launch,
there have been 1.4 million
downloads of the app. Approximately
50,000 projects a week
are created and published by
Hopscotch users and shared
within the app’s community.
“Apple has been very helpful
in promoting Hopscotch in
the iTunes App Store. Many
of these kids probably would
never have thought to try programming,
and seeing them so
excited about programming is
very heartwarming and very
exciting – and makes me very
excited to be working on this
project,” said John.
Hopscotch has also been noticed
by prominent groups,
as well as media outlets. The
app received a Parents’ Choice
Award and, most recently, a
Kapi Award for innovation in
childrens’ media. It has also
been featured in “Fast Company”
and The New York Times.
Teachers using the app in
their classrooms represent a
strong distribution platform
for the popular programming
language. “Kids who use Hopscotch
are really engaged. They
love it. They are rushing home
from school to play it. It is important
to us to figure out how
to get all the new users to that
magic moment where they are
just obsessed with Hopscotch,”
said John, adding that an Android
version is forecast for release
in 2015.
Hopscotch Technologies
raised a round of seed-funding
in August of 2013, which
allowed them to hire staff
members. But prior to that,
their apps were conceived, designed
and coded without any
outside help. “Hiring a team
was a big challenge. As a very
small company, you don’t have
a recruiter or an HR person on
staff. You have to do every process
of hiring yourself, which is
very time consuming. But it is
so important, because the people
on your team make up your
company – each of them is very
important,” said John of the
company’s seven member staff.
“We hope to create a cultural
phenomenon of kids getting
into programming with Hopscotch
at age 9- or 10-years-old,
who are collaborating with
other kids around the world
on different coding projects,”
said John. The company is also
considering a version of Hopscotch
that could be interesting
and useful for adults.
THE SUIT MAGAZINE - JAN 2015

Samantha John is the co-founder of
Hopscotch Technologies and co-creator of
Daisy the Dinosaur and Hopscotch apps
for the iPad that help teach kids about
programming.
THE SUIT MAGAZINE p.17

THE SUIT MAGAZINE EDITOR’S PICK
DISTINGUISHED BUSINESS AWARD
SHE WAS AN AMEEL J. FISHER SCHOLAR, UNIVERSITY
OF NORTH CAROLINA AT CHAPEL HILL
Kayla Tauche, CNBC reporter and co-host of “Squawk Alley”
BY JUDY SCINTA MAGNESS
It was evident at an early
age that Kayla Tausche was
a high achiever. Her idea of
playtime was convincing her
second-grade school chum to
write short stories with her for
hours at a time. One of Tausche’s
favorites was her own
tale about a mallard duck letter
opener that came to life.
Years later while attending
the University of North Carolina
at Chapel Hill, Tausche was
on track for a career in international
business or politics, but
after experiencing the energy
of a newsroom, she turned her
focus to journalism. “Journalists
can often wield much more
influence than other professions,”
she said.
Today, Tausche is seen on
cable news network, CNBC, a
leading source of global business
news and real-time financial
market coverage. In addition
to her on-air reports, she
is part of the ensemble cast of
“Squawk Alley,” which airs
each weekday from the floor of
the New York Stock Exchange
(NYSE). According to the network,
the show covers “the
intersection of Wall Street and
technology.”
“My colleagues and the
guests we have on our show
help me learn something new
every day. We have the unique
ability to add our voices to the
real-time conversation around
markets, policy and innovation
at a time when technology
is front-and-center. In my
opinion, it’s the best seat in the
house,” said Tausche, referring
to the prime location of their
set. She also recalls the excitement
of the biggest-ever IPO
in history when Alibaba went
pubic this past September.
In addition to technology,
the banking industry is also
something that Tausche watches
closely.
“The most arresting trend
I’ve witnessed in my three
years at CNBC is the way the
banks, almost in slow motion,
have fallen out of favor. They
used to be the profit centers of
the US economy, but regulation
after the Great Recession
has placed very costly restrictions
on them,” she said. “College
students once clamored to
get high-paying jobs on Wall
Street, and now they are looking
farther afield in finance,
technology and media. Banks
used to be at the forefront of
innovation in how we store
and spend money and now
that title, too, has been ceded to
Silicon Valley. It’s hard to see
how the banking industry can
regain its stature at this point.”
Tausche would also like to
see the wallets of consumers
less cluttered with currency
and plastic.
“Credit card companies are
really the powerhouses behind
the emerging payments technologies.
I’d love to speak to
the heads of MasterCard, Visa
and American Express about
how they can aid the transition
to a world that’s not only cashless,
but also sans plastic.”
Who is at the top of Tausche’s
list of tech innovators that she
would like to snag for an indepth
interview?
“Facebook is a fascinating
company, and Mark Zuckerberg
is a fascinating executive,”
said Tausche. “In a decade,
he’s gone from being a
precocious college student to a
fearless first-mover in the technology
sector at-large. He’s got
the ear of world leaders and is
the envy of his peers. I’d be lying
if I said there was someone
else at the top of my list.”
THE SUIT MAGAZINE - JAN 2015

Kayla McCall Tausche is an
American broadcast journalist.
She has reported for CNBC
since 2011. Tausche has served
as a substitute anchor for
Squawk Box, Squawk on the
Street and Power Lunch.
THE SUIT MAGAZINE p.19

Jonathan Erwin, you are the CEO of mobile enterprise network
Red e App. What sparked your interest in this line of
work?
I have been a part of 8 different early stage, growing and
changing tech companies for more than 20 years. So, I have
an unusual bent toward building businesses, building teams
and establishing creative strategies that create value in enterprise
businesses.
Company History:
With my extensive background in technology and with so
many types of companies the past twenty years, I had a front
row seat at watching now giant software companies get their
start, and also watch some of those same giants implode.
Technology moves so fast that if you don't stay on top of the
trending changes you will be run over. One thing I did know
is that the enterprise often follows consumer fads and tends
to throw a corporate spin on consumer tools and insert them
into corporate environments.
At the time I started Red e App, there were two massive
trends that you couldn't ignore – social and mobile – both
growing at rates of speed not seen before. I thought there
was a spot for a mobile messaging product that wasn't email;
that took an opposite approach to sharing, collaborating,
posting and "liking". A tool that was good for business.
My hunch was correct – we eventually found the unconnected
workforce that desperately needed to be connected to
their employer – the non-desk workforce. The jobs and behavior
were not that of someone who sits at a desk all day.
Their communication needs were wildly different as well.
Luckily smart devices were growing at such a fast pace that
as they grew, our business began to grow with it.
Large retail, restaurant, hospitality, healthcare and industrial
enterprises with tens of thousands of employees needed
a way to connect to their workforce that wasn't business as
usual (email, passive portals, texting) and Red e App quickly
became the pioneer and leader in the connecting the unconnected
in these industries.
Who is your target market?
Being that we are a startup, there are some tried and true
observations related to new technology adoption that we
are definitely seeing at Red e App. The people who tend to
solve problems first with technology are considered "innovators",
or "early adopters" – we look for signs that companies
who have an interest in learning more about Red e App have
demonstrated a history of trying new things without waiting
to see what their peers are doing.
We also understand our market very well. The industries
that we are focused on predominantly have large non-desk,
mobile and hourly workers. The challenge for us is that
these companies are often the last industries to adopt new
technology overall and are considered "laggards" in terms of
trying new things.
We have found is that we have hit the mark on the product.
We are what they need for many reasons. They want to
work with us because our team is focused on listening, we
are trusted because of our work with large global businesses
and we literally partner with them in their success.
Red e App is not a mass consumer adoption play. It is
a tightly measured and planned approach to reach large
groups of employees and connect, train and educate. It's
been a fantastic partnership with every early customer of
Red e App's.
For the benefit of our readers that may not know what Red
e App is, give us a description of the App and its usefulness?
Red e App is a secure and private mobile communication,
content and file sharing platform for people who do not work
at desks, are highly mobile or are hourly and most likely are
not provided corporate email.
This worker population is massive around the world. And
the thing is, email will never be a good solution for these
folks as they aren't collaborating with others, or have the
need to have an "inbox" that aggregates a ton of business
communication - it simply isn't their behavior.
Therefore, when a company uses Red e App to engage their
teams, we dramatically flatten and strengthen operations.
Typically in these businesses, information cascades down
from the top in a game of telephone, and it is hit or miss at
best. Red e App provides a direct conduit and focused channel
of communication from employers to their employees.
We provide greater access to Human Resource benefits
THE SUIT MAGAZINE - JAN 2015

and information, we help to reinforce training, brand and
messaging. We provide a channel for crisis and compliance
communication. And we measure it all so there is strong accountability
within the operations of these large geographically
disparate companies.
4. Is this App only applicable to iPhone or is there going to
be an Android or Blackberry alternative? Could this App
be used for desktop office environments?
Great question! We are iPhone, Android and Kindle apps
and phones as well as a desktop app for those who may not
own a smart device but do have a computer connected to the
internet. We do have customers who often use the desktop
or browser app to communicate to mobile employees and
external partners because it keeps the communication in a
single channel or platform for security reasons.
5. The application for getting messages or corporate information
out to employees in a timely and cost-effective
manner is clear. However, aren't employers already battling
enough with keeping employees off their cellular devices
during the work day … could this lead to more trouble
in this area?
“Battling” is an interesting choice of words. Those who
battle may be in for a fight of their lives. We are all big boys
and girls who are getting paid to do a job. Anyone who worries
about smart device behavior and is trying to change it
may well be in for a "battle" of a lifetime.
Most early adopters of this technology truly understand
when messaging is appropriate, they have policies that restrict
smart device usage during working or critical functioning
hours and trust that 95% of employees are compliant.
The benefits of access and engagement are FAR more important
to the health and success of a business than telling
an employee they can't look at their phones. So, good policies,
present management and employer/employee trust will
always win over draconian and maybe a bit dated philosophies
and rule sets.
6. Have you considered how this App might be used in an
educational environment? For instance, school administrators
communicating with teachers and staff or teachers
communicating with students? Or school officials communicating
home to parents?
YES! Our minds are going crazy over here thinking of all
of the strong uses of Red e App in educational settings. Education
tends to move just a tad slower on new technologies
and they traditionally have leaned toward education specific
software vendors. But what is nice, is that Red e App kind of
shatters established paradigms of industry vendors, as secure
and private mobile communication works in many different
work environments and we couldn't' be more excited
as the educational market moves closer to our vision.
7. So, yes, we are interested in your predictions regarding
BYOW versus BYOD. Please tell us what you think is coming?
Well, I assume you are referring to Bring Your Own Wearable
vs. Bring Your Own Weed (if in Colorado and legalized
states). Whether it's wearables or devices - we have them.
Statistics show that 90% of us keep our devices within 10-20
feet at all times. They have tremendous capability for security
and privacy and business will adapt and adopt. It just
makes good sense. It's a no brainer for business. The cost
savings, access and empowerment will only help business.
There will be great debate regarding privacy, tracking and
fencing.
8. Not all employees are tech-friendly as this App does
help employers reach employees that do not have e-mail.
What about employees that don’t want this kind of technology
in their lives?
We completely understand. And we are huge proponents
of balance, privacy and equality. Those folks who choose not
to utilize technology should have avenues for getting connected
or plugged into their company. Our stance is that
sometimes business and critical messaging is extremely time
sensitive. Those who don't use the technology to connect
may have to wait or simply be o.k. with getting "the message"
a bit slower than others.
9. What has been your greatest success in this industry and
what has been the failure that you learned the most from?
Goals for 2014 and beyond?
Our greatest success has been to land several global, billion
dollar divisions of a Fortune 10 customer and work hand in
hand with their teams to learn what is important to them
and continue to grow as a software product, a company and
valuable partner to them and all of our customers.
Not sure we have had a classic "failure" (tough for me to
even write the word!) but ... our biggest challenge has been
to temper our enthusiasm while the market has evolved and
matured. We have spoken with many amazing brands that
have come to kick our tires - and of course we are so excited
once they engage that we believe we landed the big one!
We have learned is to pace ourselves and understand that
every prospect contact is not a new customer. Businesses
move slow and carefully with new technology and we need
to keep ourselves laser focused on innovation and success of
our existing customers while this new market chugs along.
So "patience". Elusive and often stressful but sobering and
educational.
10. Is there anything we did not ask you about regarding
this new App that you would like to emphasize for the purpose
of this profile?
We are grateful for the opportunity to share our story and
are appreciative to be leading the charge to create such great
change to some very old corporate structures and paradigms
and finally connect to and value the unconnected for the
good of the business.
THE SUIT MAGAZINE p.21

Data Study:
Only 14 Percent of CEO Positions
Nationwide Filled by Women
Infogroup Targeting Solutions analysis
of female executive titles reveals women
more likely to hold administrative
and non-profit executive roles than
other top C-suite positions
OOMAHA, Neb. – Oct. 13, 2014 – Women hold only
one out of seven CEO positions and one-fifth of executive
jobs in the United States overall, according
to a comprehensive analysis of nationwide business
data conducted by Infogroup Targeting Solutions.
The study of more than 800,000 corporate leadership positions
found that 20 percent of C-suite, president and vice president
roles at American firms are filled by women. By analyzing
business records in its Data Axle database, Infogroup
Targeting Solutions discovered that female executives are particularly
rare at the very top of organizations: Only 14 percent
of CEOs and 12 percent of company presidents are women.
While most positions are dominated by men, female executives
make up the majority in two jobs: chief administrative
officer (55 percent) and executive director (51 percent), which
is commonly the top spot at non-profit organizations. Women
are also better represented in the chief marketing officer
position, with more than a third of CMOs (34 percent) being
female executives.
Sabrina Parsons, CEO of Palo Alto Software and an advocate
for women in business, said that the data proves women
are still subject to traditional gender roles within the C-suite.
“Especially at the top, the glass ceiling certainly still exists,”
said Parsons. “Too many talented female executives are winning
consolation prizes when they should be leading companies.
Even the executive positions largely held by women still
reinforce old stereotypes.”
Infogroup Targeting Solutions found that women hold less
than a quarter of U.S. executive titles for most positions:
• Only 17 percent of chief operating officer (COO), chief
information officer (CIO) and chief technology officer (CTO)
roles are filled by female executives.
• One out of five (21 percent) executive vice presidents,
senior vice presidents or vice presidents is a woman.
• Women make up 22 percent of chief financial officer
(CFO) positions.
To conduct its analysis, Infogroup Targeting Solutions used
its Data AxleTM to pull business records on U.S. firms with 10
or more employees
and specific executive titles. The company then applied its
gender filter to the contact information for those executive positions
to determine the percentage of roles held by women.
The real-time database includes information on more than 24
million businesses nationwide.
“The granularity of the information in the Data AxleTM is
unmatched,” said David McRae, president of Infogroup Targeting
Solutions. “Every day, our research team verifies thousands
of rich data points about businesses across the country
that offer tremendous value to sales and marketing teams.”
THE SUIT MAGAZINE - JAN 2015

Q&A
So many women in the workplace are mothers trying to
balance their work and home life and yet many do not
feel empowered to talk about their home life or even “admit”
it is a priority for fear of appearing less committed to
their jobs. Yet, you are quite outspoken about being the
mother of three and your commitment level to your family
as well as working toward helping other women reach
that point. At this point, how is your message of balance
and the importance of home life being received? Do you
feel that progress is being made in this issue?
I think we’ve made progress but we haven’t gotten nearly
as far as we can. Women are still outnumbered when
it comes to leadership roles. In fact, a study from the University
of Denver found that only 20 percent of corporate
leadership roles are held by women. Additionally, a study
that we conducted at Palo Alto Software found that women
are five times as likely to be discriminated against at work
and twice as likely to be called “bossy.” There are women
out there like Sheryl Sandberg and Hillary Clinton that are
certainly paving the way for women, but we’re not quite
there yet.
The surprising thing is just how far we still have to go. I
would have expected the numbers of women in company
leadership roles to be higher than they are today. What this
tells me is that we still have a lot of work to do in making
the corporate landscape change to acknowledge that working
women can both excel in their careers and be mothers.
The difference is that the system must change -- women just
have to be able to do work on their terms, and not on existing
corporate norms, which, for the most part, have been
set by men.
Perhaps somewhat a follow-up to the previous question,
but how would you characterize for men in regards to the
pressures they feel between work and home life? After
all, they are parents too, right?
I think men face a lot of the same challenges. They also
experience difficulty balancing their home and work lives
because of corporate norms. But, I think there are differences
between men and women when it comes to career-oriented
parents. If a man with children is a workaholic, it’s
often admired. But if a woman with children is dedicated
to her career, people often wonder if she is also able to be a
good mother.
The biggest problem men face is that they are judged if
they want to work and also be involved in their children's
lives. It is harder for a man to take time off for a sick child
or because he wants to go on a school field trip. Expectations
are such that men are expected to be the workaholics
and have spouses to deal with their children. Many modern
men have become much more involved in their kids’ lives
from the day they are born. We need to let men be parents,
and give them flexibility, as well as honor and encourage
their participation in their children’s lives.
You are supportive of your employees bringing their children
to the workplace – what are the limits on that and
what do you hope to accomplish by giving children more
access to the workplace?
I give my employees the choice to bring their children
into the office as needed because I believe that traditional
workplace norms hold working mothers back from succeeding
in their careers. I truly believe that working mothers
shouldn’t have to “balance” their work and home lives,
but rather that they should be integrated. It should never
be family versus work, and women shouldn’t feel that they
need to sacrifice their careers to be parents.
My policies do have limitations, however. Working parents
do not bring their kids to work every day in replace
of daycare--it’s more of a safety net. If school is canceled,
the kids are sick or they can’t find a babysitter, the kids
can come spend the day or a few hours in the office. Also,
mothers with newborns who do not want to take extensive
maternity leave (we of course give maternity leave) are also
encouraged to bring their babies with them to work. We
have a designated space where older children play or do
homework and are expected to be quiet and respectful. Not
every newborn baby will do well in a company environment.
Because of that we also give women the flexibility to
choose where, how and when they want to work when they
have a new baby.
In terms of the current economy, the amount of regulation
and red tape that has to be taken care to even get a
business started and just the general mood of the country,
how would you characterize the opportunities that entrepreneurs
now have?
As we pull out of the recession, the climate for startups is
getting better. The biggest issue a startup has faced in the
last 5-6 years is access to capital to get the business off the
ground. As the lending landscape becomes a little easier,
and more and more companies offer different and creative
ways to help fund startups, the opportunity for entrepreneurs
has increased.
What I would like to see are more examples of working
moms who have successfully started businesses. Too often
women are given the advice that they can’t start a family
and a business at the same time. While being pregnant and
being the mother of a small child is difficult, raising children
in general is difficult. If women use kids as an excuse
to not start a business, they will never take the leap and get
the business off the ground.
Running your own business is hard, exhausting and can
be very stressful. But having the ability to make decisions,
set your hours and work the way in which you want to
work makes work life balance easier. It reduces the stress a
working parent has when their boss calls all the shots.
THE SUIT MAGAZINE p.23

AMERICA:
Is ISIS
Watching US?
by robert jordan
Beware America! ISIS is
lurking in the shadows.
That’s the message author
and historian William
Forstchen has sent to the
American public in his suspense
novel, “Day of Wrath.” It argues
that ISIS, one of the most
menacing terrorist groups in the
Middle East, makes the Nazis
look like traditional conservative
Quakers. “The campaign by ISIS,
in its seizure of northern Iraq, is
one of cold-blooded systematic
THE SUIT MAGAZINE - JAN 2015
genocide. Their leader has promised
that their next target is us –
the United States – our civilians
and our children,” he insists.
“The storm is coming. It is not a
question of ‘if,’ it is a question of
‘when’ and we must prepare for
it now.”
Forstchen's inspiration for
the novel about ISIS basically
emerged during his academic
research as he mulled over
countless documents. What he
unveiled, is indeed not only
troubling, but even more so, alarming. “When
ISIS is going to inflict a killing blow on the United
States,” he said. “Your opponent will strike your
emotional weakness. Our children are the most
vulnerable side.”
In his novella, Forstchen wrote that his protagonist,
Bob Petersen, arrives with his daughter at the
Middle Grade school in Maine where he teaches,
expecting another day as usual. He seems concerned
about what recent threatening news reports
might portend. Unexpectedly, the Middle Grade
school – along with many others across the United
States – suddenly comes under attack. Gunmen
burst in, slaughtering children and adults alike.
This story is ripped straight out of the headlines of
major newspapers in United States. In early September
of this year, Forstchen noted that when an
Islamic militant group released a video showing
the second beheading of an American hostage in
two week, the militant group blamed President
Obama for the killing. In fact, the killing increased
pressure on the president to order military strikes
on the group in its sanctuary in Syria. “ISIS said
we are the next generation,” Forstchen added.
“They flat out promise to bring a terrorist rampage
here in U.S.”
Forstchen’s genesis for the novel is based on cold
hard facts. He noted how, in 2004, a radical Islamic
national group struck in a Russian school in
the province of Chechnya. “Over three hundred
children and teachers were slaughtered,” he said.
“Let’s look at Sun Tzu’s ‘The Art of War.’ If your
opponent knows you and you do not know yourself.
You have a problem,” he said, adding, “Because
your opponent will not strike you at your
point of strength, but at your point of weakness.”
In fact, ISIS has launched surprise offensives in
Northern Iraq. Forstchen said that the organization
has committed some of “the most barbaric
mass murderers of the 20th century, comparing
(their) actions to Nazi death camps, the Gulag of
Stalin, the killing fields of Cambodia and the massacres
in Rwanda.”
In early November, President Obama said he
would seek specific authorization from Congress
for a military campaign against the Islamic State,
opening up a chorus of debate over American engagement
in Iraq and Syria.
“ISIS didn’t come on our radar until the journalist
was killed. When someone in our profession is
killed in such way – that’s when we start to take
notice,” Forstchen observed from his home in
N.C. “They have been doing that for years. At that
point, that’s when America started to realize what
was going on.”
Meanwhile, the number of journalist executed under
fire is shocking. According to the Committee to
Protect Journalists, Syria is still the world’s deadliest
country for journalists for the third consecutive
year. The report arguably states, “at least 60
journalists have been killed this year in relation to

their work, compared with 70 in 2013.
But the 2014 figure could change. The
group said it was still investigating the
deaths of 18 journalists to determine
whether they were work related.”
Forstchen arguably states that when
four hijacked commercial jets on 9/11
resulted in three thousand deaths, it
permanently changed America. “The
weeks after 9/11, there were countless
fingers pointing in United States,” he
said. “We had the intelligence reports
in the palms of our hands. Why didn’t
we react?” he queried, adding, “We
should have seen this coming. It’s easy
to spot it before the event. We should
have seen this. But that happens
throughout history.”
Forstchen is the author of more than
forty books, including the award-winning
“We Look Like Men of War,”
a young adult novel about an African-American
regiment that fought at
the Battle of the Crater.
Forstchen, a professor in N.C., at Montreat
College accidentally stumbled
onto th ISIS project. “I had recently
completed another series I was working
on,” he continues, “I was planning
to take the summer off. And we
were talking about ISIS and Iraq, and
the southern border. Because they are
promising that they are bringing it
here”
According to the elaborate plot of
Forstchen’s novel, the Syrian terrorist
group goes on a murderous rampage
throughout the U.S. The novel reveals
how this kind of panic and terror can
bring a mighty country to a near-standstill.
Petersen's fight to save lives and
stop the merciless gunmen provides
edge-of-the-seat drama. “ISIS – unlike
Al-Qaeda – these guys are masters of
social media. These guys are incredibly
savvy,” he said.
Forstchen acknowledges that issues of
immigration and protecting U.S. borders
will inevitably be coming to the
forefront as a major issue in preventing
future terrorists attacks. “What is
wrong with securing our borders,”
Forstchen said. “There are Middle
Easterners coming through. Immigration
is a heartbreaking problem. But,
we have to start filtering who comes
across our borders. If ISIS is in contact
with the drug cartels, I think that’s
two-plus-two equals four.”
CHAPTER ONE
7:25 a.m., near Portland, Maine
“We have lived with the abnormal
for so long, we believe it to be normal.”
Bob Peterson gazed at the screen for
a moment, not sure if he should continue.
He had long ago come to the
conclusion that blogging and posting
commentary on Facebook was
a supreme act of self-indulgence. A
few friends might read it, act polite,
and give a thumbs up.
There had been a time, before he
made the wiser career choice of going
into IT education versus creative
writing, that he fancied he might
make it as an author. After all, he
lived in Maine, home to a lot of writers,
and had even attended a few
writers’ workshops. The workshops
were finally enough to convince him
to pursue a more stable line of work,
especially after he met Kathy, married,
and started to think about a family.
Facebook for him was not a place to
vent…. But today, this morning…?
The news echoing from the kitchen
where Kathy was preparing lunches
for their daughter Wendy and him to
take to school, was yet another overwhelming
litany of bad news and it
triggered a sense of foreboding.
The offensive by ISIS in Iraq was on the
march again. More images of mass executions,
beheadings, and Christians
being crucified. These were the horrors
committed under the guidance of
the one who had declared himself to
be the returner of the caliphate, a man
who, to himself to be the returner of
the caliphate, a man who, to Bob, was
every bit as threatening as a Hitler or
bin Laden.
Bob’s younger had died over there back
in 2004. For what, in light of this latest
news?
Reports echoed from the television in
the kitchen about the border along Texas:
not all trying to cross were refugees
from impoverished Central America.
New indications were that it was a route
Middle Eastern terrorists were using to
infiltrate…. But for what? A commentor
on his preferred news network just late
last night stated that he felt the “perfect
storm” was about to explode.
THE SUIT MAGAZINE p.25

y enid burns
HELPING TO CURE
ANALYSIS PARALYSIS
When employees receive those 401(k)
packets from their companies, many feel
lost, reacting with the classic “deer in
the headlights” look. “With so much information
out there, it can be very intimidating,” said
Kevin Coppola, President of Compass Investors.
“Employees suffer what we call ‘analysis paralysis’
and have no idea what to do next. They are advised
to put away as much as they can afford, but it is
mathematically impossible for the vast majority of
Americans to save their way to retirement income
security,” Coppola said.
For busy people, planning for retirement too
often falls to the bottom of their to-do list. Having
experienced just this sort of frustration himself
many years ago, Coppola formed a group he called
Compass Institute. He then studied hundreds of
simulated investment models, arriving at a reliable
single algorithm that would produce the largest
portfolio size with the least amount of risk, time
and effort for the investor. “My goal was and is
to transform individuals into confident investors
who can attain a secure retirement,” said
Coppola.
The Concern is the Return
It is paramount that a retirement savings
approach consider not just contributions,
but the rate of return on the money once
it goes into the account. “High school
mathematics taught me that growth rate—
or in this case, investment return—has
the greatest impact on the bottom-line.
I knew there had to be a smarter way to
create growth than simply spreading my
assets across a large number of investment
categories, virtually guaranteeing that some
part of my portfolio would be losing money
at any point in time.”
Confident in his research, Coppola started
Compass Investors, a company dedicated to
helping individuals make better-informed
decisions when managing their own 401(k)
or IRA. Compass’s flagship program—the
Horizon Action Report—is an electronic
publication sent to subscribers every five
weeks. The report provides analysis of a
subscriber’s investment choices already
within their company’s plan or offered by
their fund provider. Customers can use the
specific information in each report to guide
their investment decisions. The report
automatically calculates the buy, sell and
exchange transactions needed to quickly
align their portfolio with Compass’s
research.
The Five-Week Marker
The five-week cycle of Compass’s
Horizon Action Report was determined
from research conducted at the Compass
Institute. “We studied dozens of “what-if”
scenarios regarding rebalance frequency,”
said Coppola. “Our goal was to determine
the optimal time period between portfolio
review and adjustment that would both
THE SUIT MAGAZINE - JAN 2015

enhance investment rate and minimize risk. Based on the
research, the optimal review frequency ended up being between
four and six weeks.”
“We chose five weeks, not only because it’s in the middle of
the ideal interval, but five weeks works very well, given that
many mutual funds and ETFs require a 30-day minimum
holding period,” Coppola explained. “Our 35-day reallocation
frequency gives customers a five-day window in which to make
changes to their accounts without incurring transaction fees.”
“
This isn’t about maximizing
‘money under management.’
We are providing the analysis,
tools and instructions as aids for
anyone looking for real financial
security.” – Kevin Coppola
Compass Investors’ annual customer satisfaction surveys
indicate success with the approach. According to Coppola, his
Horizon Action Report performs better than popular retirement
plan offerings, such as target date funds (TDF) and other
key benchmarks (see chart on previous page). A simulation
of a $100,000 investment made in 1997 showed significant
differences in the ending account balances, ranging from a low
of $326,000 with Fidelity’s best TDF to a high of $879,000 with
Horizon. “Our long-term, back-tested returns have produced
account balances that are often more than double the very
popular and well-performing American Funds’ Balanced Fund,
and close to 2 1/2 times the best Fidelity target date fund,” he
said.
Getting With the Program
Most people are first introduced to Compass Investors at
their workplace. Employers contract with Compass to offer
its Horizon program in tandem with their existing 401(k)
plan, leaving the current plan intact. As an opt-in subscription
service for employees, it is paid for directly by those who
subscribe, unless their company offers to subsidize the service.
Individuals can also use Horizon for investments outside their
employer’s retirement plan.
Once a person starts working with Compass, their
subscription rates are locked in as part of its “customer loyalty
program.” “We offer a life-time fixed-fee subscription ensuring
that for as long someone is our customer, they will know
exactly how much they will pay every year to use our service,”
Coppola told The Suit Magazine. The company also offers an
unprecedented subscription-refund guarantee to demonstrate
that it stands behind its research.
When subscribers receive each Horizon Action Report,
Coppola says it takes just a few minutes to adjust a portfolio.
The program is targeted at busy people “who
want to be more involved in managing their
assets to ensure they can provide a more
secure retirement for themselves and their
families,” he said. “Because Horizon is selfmanaged,”
Coppola added, “the customer
is always in control of the investment
decision. We don’t manage the account for
them and we don’t collect any sensitive
financial information. This isn’t about
maximizing ‘money under management.’
We are providing the analysis, tools and
instructions as aids for anyone looking for
real financial security.”
Horizon Candidates
Compass Investors is able to
provide analysis services for
anyone. “Because our system is
so straightforward, effective and
affordable, we can help people
regardless of their age, experience
or portfolio size. They just need to
be willing to take an active role,
and by active role, I’m talking about
spending maybe 10 minutes every
five weeks,” said Coppola. “And
once subscribers get on a regular
schedule, they are no longer the ‘deer
in the headlights.’ They are the ones
driving the car.”
www.compassinvestors.com
THE SUIT MAGAZINE p.27

y andea lehner
Gaining the Most
from Letting GO
usiness owners love what
they do. They spend years
working, sacrificing and
growing successful businesses.
But when it comes
to planning an exit strategy,
most aren’t doing enough about it early
enough to get the best monetization out of
a lifetime of work.
Without proper advanced transition
planning, business owners might not be
able to maximize the valuation of their
businesses, put proper transition-oriented
leadership teams in place or avoid paying
excessive taxes. Considerations like having
vested partners, new acquisitions or transferability
of talent, add complexity and
also affect cash worth during transitions.
Jane Johnson and Kathleen Richardson-Mauro,
partners at Richardson-Mauro
and Johnson, Inc., and Business Transition
Academy, are committed to helping business
owners figure out how much they will
need and when, and then develop a strategy
to ensure that those needs will be met, a
process that can take years.
“It takes time to create value, and you
don’t know what you’ll need the value to
be unless you go through the planning
process,” Richardson-Mauro said. “A lot of
things can be done to benefit the outcome,
but these things don’t happen overnight.”
Proper planning is multi-faceted and
needs to start years in advance. “Not everything
can be done instantly or simultaneously.
Some steps are consecutive
and need time to implement,” Richardson-Mauro
cautioned.
Johnson explained that most owners resist
advanced planning because they don’t
like thinking about leaving their companies.
“Part of our process is helping clients
Jane M. Johnson,
CPA, CBEC, CM&AA
Kathleen Richardson-Mauro,
CFP, CBEC, CM&AA
envision a life outside the business,” she
said, adding that it’s important for owners
to know that planning does not equate to
being forced out prematurely. It’s a matter
of using the same strategic thinking and
planning used to build a successful business
over time, but with a focus on a longrange
exit strategy instead – one with safeguards
for immediate transitional needs
due to unforeseen life events.
A lack of advanced planning leads to
costly mistakes that can delay or negatively
impact an owners’ retirement – or
worse. Johnson explained that problems
are further exacerbated when an unanticipated
life-changing event leaves a company
vulnerable and families unsure of the
owner’s wishes or whose hands the company
should transfer into.
Contingency plans are imperative. Partners
and family members, even those uninvolved
in daily operations, need to be
made aware of the owner’s intended successor.
Through Business Transition Academy,
Richardson-Mauro and Johnson’s educational
Internet portal – as well as through
3-day workshops offered several times
throughout the year – the pair seeks to
provide business owners with a wealth of
information and resources that can help
them get started with a successful retirement
transition.
“Most people are only going to sell one
business in their lifetime – and it’s usually
the largest financial transaction of their
lives,” Richardson-Mauro said. “The sooner
they plan, the greater the outcome.”
Business Transition Academy
(844) 469-3948
www.BusinessTransitionAcademy.com
THE SUIT MAGAZINE - JAN 2015

y felix badea
generosity in the financial future
The relationship between client and adviser is increasingly becoming one of greater intimacy, especially
in terms of the private and personal details an adviser knows about a client. It is an intimacy characterized
by advisers immersing themselves in the hopes and dreams of clients – to the extent that advisers
aren’t merely guiding the economic aspects of their clients’ visions, but are facilitating their realization.
This is so similar to the role a cheerleader might play. Financial and wealth managers are branding and
customizing each client’s experience, not based on what the firm is, but on what the client’s values are.
This is the path being
taken by Michael
P. Brady,
president of Generosity
Wealth Management,
based in Boulder,
Colo. In an effort
to help clients better
visualize more fully
what their written goals look like,
Brady has hired an area artist to create
artwork for each client based on their
financial goals. It serves as Brady’s gift
and also is an incentive to keep clients
focused on the reasons behind the financial
goals.
“Most financial advisers are going to
throw out the number of assets they
have under management or adding so
many new clients or meeting a particular
revenue growth when asked about
goals,” Brady said. “Mine is a little different.
Mine is about the client experience
and creating some distinction this
next year. It is really important to me.”
Brady believes the artwork in the client’s
home and the copy of it he keeps
decorating the walls in his offices,
serve as a vision board to keep clients
motivated and focused. “It is an
abstract methodology,” he said. But it
is also a distinctive approach, providing
a real picture of what goals such
as, “wanting to retire and spend time
with the grandchildren” or “wanting
to go to Hawaii every holiday” or “not
wanting to run out of money before
death,” really look like in visual terms.
In practice management terms, Brady
is a believer in the “four percent rule”
to answer the big question of how
to ensure that monies accumulated
in savings during a client’s working
years are more than enough to cover
the expense of the kind of retirement
THE SUIT MAGAZINE - JAN 2015

years that are likely to be
significantly more active
and last much longer
than previous generations.
Brady does not
want his retired clients
to withdraw more than
four percent per year
from their retirement
savings accounts.
“If a portfolio, on a rolling
four-year time frame,
dips down lower than in
the previous four years,
it means the withdrawals
are eating into the principal
– and the probability
of running out of money
in 20 years is quite high,”
Brady said. “That is a
very important measurement
to watch out for.
It is something I really
watch.”
Yet, he continuously
monitors the accounts
because the “sleep at
night” factor is very important
to him – and
because it matters to his
clients’ well-being.
He is a fan of using annuities
with guaranteed
withdrawal benefit riders. These
generally provide an annual return
of the base principal as a
baseline security, no matter what
market activity may occur.
“It can work well for some people,”
Brady said. “It should not be
overused, but is a tool in the tool
box that can help build a more secure
retirement.”
Brady easily recognizes client insecurity
regarding financial matters.
He entered the financial services
industry in 1991 and worked
as a junior partner in an RIA firm
for several years, leaving the industry
in 2006 for a two-year hiatus
doing charity work in Africa.
When the market crashed and
the housing bubble burst, he was
completely out of the industry.
But he had done a lot of serious
thinking during those two years in
Africa, and came to the conclusion
that most people want to do good
things in the world with their finances,
but simply do not know
how to make that a reality.
He formed Generosity Wealth
Management in 2008 for two
reasons: His former clients were
scared by the unfolding of the
Great Recession, and he wanted to
help them create financial futures
in which they could be generous
with themselves, with their families
and with their communities.
To make this happen, Brady seeks
clients who are serious about their
financial goals.
“I am looking for attitude and
behavior,” Brady said, regarding
the characteristics he seeks in his
clients, “I will work with those
in their 30s who might not have
many assets now, but who are
serious about treating themselves
like a business, because I know
that over the next 20 to 25 years,
it will be a mutually beneficial relationship.
On the other hand, if
someone in their 60s has lots of
money, but they have unrealistic
goals or their attitude is not serious
and they are not interested in
a relationship with me, then I step
back. I am not a vendor. I am here
to work with people long term to
add value.”
www.generositywealth.com
THE SUIT MAGAZINE p.31

y felix badea
Finding One’s Own
SUCCESSOR
It seems a bit like the cleaning lady whose house is a
perpetual mess, and yet according to a recent survey
of financial advisers, only 11 percent of those whose
livelihood comes from helping others are actually
following their own advice regarding the importance
of identifying and grooming their own successor.
Eric D. Brotman, president and
managing principal of Brotman
Financial Group based in
Timonium, Maryland, is a member of
that wiser 11 percent.
“I was the sole owner of this firm
when I started my own succession
planning by selling ten percent of the
interest in the firm to another CFP®
who had been with me for eight
years,” Brotman said.
A couple of years later,
Brotman sold five percent to
another employee – the COO
who had been with the firm for
11 years. This move made him
an 85 percent owner, but has
also assured him that the process
is well underway for a smooth,
seamless succession when he
retires.
He takes the concept of
succession well past his own
replacement, applying it to the
employees of the firm and the respective
clients for whom each employee works.
“One of the things we have been very
successful at building is an ensemble
type firm with a team approach, where
all of our clients have access to multiple
advisers,” Brotman explains. “We have
been highly successful in transforming
young people into excellent advisers
who are technically and incredibly
proficient and – this is key – they are
younger than our clients, which means
these advisers will be around when
our clients need them the most, in their
retirement years.”
This type of far-sighted planning puts
Brotman, his firm, its employees and
its clients far ahead of other financial
planning groups. That same survey,
conducted by Signator Investors and
reported by Insurance News Net, not
only indicates that a mere 34 percent
of financial advisers report they have
some sort of plan in place for their own
replacement, but also that they have
not completed its implementation.
Admittedly, it is a painstaking, costly
and time-consuming process to create
a succession plan and identify the
appropriate successor. But as pointed
out in the Wall Street Journal, those
advisers who fail to do so risk having
their firms sold to larger
conglomerates and traditionalstyle
banking operations now
offering financial advising. This,
the WSJ contends, undermines
the more personal culture that
firms such as Brotman’s strive
to achieve for their clients.
That more personal culture
at Brotman Financial includes
the use of very simple
models for planning and
retirement hypotheticals.
“The goal,” Brotman said,
“is to make financial goals
readily understandable and quickly
customizable so that plan modifications
can be ‘made on a dime.’ ”
Brotman is a big believer in risk
modification.
“We believe very firmly that you
have to dig the moat around the castle
THE SUIT MAGAZINE - JAN 2015

efore you ever start building the castle,” Brotman said.
“We talk about the ‘what ifs’ and do the contingency and
disaster planning. We deal with a lot of insurance issues,
legal issues and tax issues to protect a family prior to
worrying about what a portfolio might look like.”
His next step is to facilitate an on-going dialogue with
each client. It helps him keep tabs on whether they have
an employment or housing change, or a change in their
family structure such as birth, death, marriage or divorce
that will affect the overall financial planning.
Brotman isn’t an aggressive responder to activities in
the markets.
“We rarely adjust things based on what is happening
on Wall Street or the markets anywhere else in the
world,” Brotman said. “What we do is to regularly make
adjustments based on what is happening in someone’s
home or family life.”
This in part is due to the qualities Brotman seeks in
the firm’s clients. He knows the bulk of his clients are
part of what popular culture has deemed “the sandwich
generation” or those people in their 40s and 50s who
have to balance raising their children with caring for
their aging parents. That’s okay with Brotman. He wants
clients who are active family stewards.
“We want to work with people who are highly interested
in the well-being of their families,” he said. “Most of our
clients are families in which we represent two to three,
and sometimes even four generations of their family. We
like working with extended families where we take the
whole ‘it takes a village’ concept to an entirely different
level.”
This sets Brotman apart from other firms, because they
work only with families. Brotman does no corporate
financial work.
The firm does not have a minimum asset base for new
clients. Instead, Brotman uses a starting yearly fee of
$4,500 to begin financial advising work. Most of the firm’s
clients have between one and ten million in manageable
assets. Yet, he will also work with those currently holding
less, because he believes in potential.
And Brotman approaches 2015 with potential already
on his plate. He is seeking a merger with, or to acquire,
another financial advising firm, preferably one headed
by someone in their 60s or 70s looking for a glide path
out of the industry or a succession plan to facilitate their
retirement. “2015 is going to be another growth year for
us,” Brotman said. “We see a huge opportunity in the
marketplace to not only grow by acquisition but to wind
up working with additional staff who come to us having
great experience, who can be helpful to our existing
clients and the new ones we acquire.”
Eric offers securities and investment advice through
NFP Advisor Services, LLC, member FINRA SIPC. NFP
Advisor Services LLC is not affiliated with Brotman
Financial Group.
Eric D. Brotman, CFP®, AEP®, MSFS
Brent M. Weiss, CFP®, ChFC®
16 Greenmeadow Dr., Suite 201
Timonium, MD 21093
PH: 410-252-4555
ebrotman@brotmanfinancial.com
www.brotmanfinancial.com
THE SUIT MAGAZINE p.33

y felix badea
RIDING OUT
MARKET TRENDS
Tightened regulations
in the lending
industry after
the Great Recession just
don’t appear to be loosening
up in any significant
manner anytime
soon. But for savvy accredited
investors – those having a net
worth of a million dollars or more – this
isn’t necessarily negative news.
Just ask Caleb Preston, director of
marketing and a partner/owner with
McKinley Mortgage and with Alaska
Financial Company, a McKinley Mortgage
affiliate.
“Our take is that, as we look at the
overall macroeconomics, it seems we
are going to be experiencing a slow,
stagnant growth not just in the United
States, but also worldwide for
well beyond the foreseeable future,
and are likely going to see continued
low interest and probably even deflation.
How long that is going to last,
I don’t know,” Preston said. “Maybe
for three to five years plus. What I do
see is that this slow interest rate environment
is the ideal time for an investor
to consider alternatives. Real estate
income investments, such as trust deed
investing, can offer above market yields
over what typical fixed income investments,
such as bonds or the cash equivalent,
can do in these environments.”
Alaska Financial provides investors
access to a pool of first position real estate
loans for investment purposes. This
pool is characterized by loans featuring
a 35 percent or more equity protection.
It is a tactic – or perhaps more appropriately
phrased, an investment criteria
– that has helped these two firms not just
stay afloat, but calmly navigate the ups
and downs of the economy. Economic
fluctuations have tremendous impacts
on the real estate and stock markets, easily
rivaling the height of the waves in the
treacherous Gulf of Alaska waters near
Anchorage, where both firms are headquartered.
“When we are buying a real estate note
or lending against a commercial piece of
property, we want to make sure to have
at least, on average, a 40 percent margin
of equity. Our loan value is typically
at least 60 percent or less,” Preston explains.
“It allows us to have that cushion
of equity that gives some margin to handle
the ups and downs of the real estate
market.”
Taking calculated risks is nothing new
to Preston. His family hails from a commercial
fishing background and they
remain active in the summer harvest of
wild Alaskan salmon.
His parents started McKinley Mortgage
in the mid-1980s, during their college
days at the University of Alaska
campus in Fairbanks. The pair saw an
advertisement for a seminar on note-buying
and decided to attend.
“Being entrepreneurs, they got started
out, right out of their college dorms,”
Preston said. “They started brokering
the company’s first note out of the college
dorm and now today, our firm is the
largest note broker in the state of Alaska
and one of the largest in the nation.”
Learn more about McKinley Mortgage
online at www.mckinleymortgage.com
and more about Alaska Financial Company
online at www.akfinancialco.com
THE SUIT MAGAZINE p.35

y andrea lehner
AN ENDGAME FIRST PERSPECTIVE
FRESH APPROACH TO RETIREMENT PLANNING
Retirement planning includes added risk factors and considerably less room for
error. If early decisions lead to a faltering cash flow during retirement, there is no
room for recovery, and the results could be disastrous. That’s why it’s important to
approach retirement planning with an endgame-first perspective.
And, according to Theresa Yarosh,
founder and president of
Macro Wealth Management,
LLC, understanding the truth of how
money works is critical to successful
retirement planning.
“The traditional model,” Yarosh
said, “lacks a level of sophistication
that would facilitate a client’s ability
to create an income stream.” Her
solution draws from 25 years of economic
education and expertise to
teach clients why and how to develop
multiple sustainable income streams
that will last throughout retirement.
“The key,” Yarosh explained, “is
using an economic model grounded
in the utilization theory of finance,
rather than in the more commonly
used accumulation theory. In this
manner, planning works backwards
from the endgame – retirement – to
ensure the right income streams are
being established to mitigate common
wealth-eroding factors such as inflation,
taxation, technological changes,
planned obsolescence, market volatility,
long term care and the anticipated
consumption of resources.”
She likens this approach to that
of mountain climbing. Most people
know they need a guide going up the
mountain, but they forget they still
need a guide for the most dangerous
part of the trek – going down. Macro
Wealth Management’s mission is to
guide their client not only to, but also
through retirement safely.
Yarosh does this by first helping
her clients achieve a savings rate of 15
percent per year, which she says is the
ideal goal. “It is important to remember
that savings is essentially delayed
expenditures,” she said. “Therefore,
this savings rate must be rules-based
in order to take into consideration all
of the eroding factors in the plan.”
Stressing the importance of understanding
the difference between
money and math, Yarosh explains
that money, like fruit, is a commodity
which erodes over time. Using
straight mathematical equations of
savings found in traditional accumulation
plans creates a false projection
of usable wealth.
In reality, the focus needs to be centered
on understanding the efficiency
of money, so that wealth created over
a period of time can be used when
needed without depleting capital resources.
“Because we are working
from the framework of utilizing the
efficiency of how money works, our
clients are better positioned in terms
of longevity,” Yarosh added.
In today’s social environment of
better healthcare and increased life
spans, longevity is an economic risk
multiplier. “The longer you live,” she
explained, “the more you are going to
confront market volatility, sequence
of return risk and healthcare expense
risk.”
Macro Wealth Management employs
several strategies to ensure
clients have the funds necessary to
maintain a standard of living with
provisions for long-term care expenses
for the duration of their golden
years, including annuities, long-term
care insurance, hybrid policies that
earmark a portion of the benefits for
long-term care and life insurance pol
THE SUIT MAGAZINE - JAN 2015

“The great enemy of truth is very
often not the lie – deliberate,
contrived and dishonest, but the
myth, persistent, pervasive, and
unrealistic. Belief in myths allows
the comfort of opinion without
the discomfort of thought.”
~ John F. Kennedy
icies with accelerated benefit riders.
With more and more baby boomers
entering retirement, these concerns
about having a sustainable source of
retirement income continue to deepen
amongst a population long conditioned
to the accumulation theory of
financial planning – many of whom
suffered tremendous losses during
the Great Recession. Yarosh’s model
prescribing to the utilization economic
theory helped her foresee the handwriting
on the wall. She was able to
reposition her clients before the worst
of the recession hit, saving them from
similar fates.
Following that crisis, Yarosh said
that the majority of baby boomers
“now recognize that they cannot endure
a repeat of 2008 and are taking
this time in the market to reposition
assets accordingly.” This mirrors a
general approach that is less risk-oriented
and more capital preservation-minded
that she’s now seeing
among investors of all ages.
It’s also a philosophy she sees becoming
more widely adapted by
Morningstar, at least in terms of retirement.
“Conversations that pertain
to alpha and beta have foundations in
the accumulation theory of finance,”
Yarosh explained, adding, “This was
the alpha we saw during 2008 with
beta being the associated risk. The
alpha approach is fraught with problems
when you are going to take money
out.”
“However,” she continued, “you
can create alpha without beta by using
annuities and various insurance
products.” She further explained that
such retirement income streams shift
the allocation framework from asset
to product; therefore, gamma quantifies
the type of product being used.
“Gamma, in this case, is being associated
with the utility theory,” she
added, illustrating the paradigm shift
now happening. “[Morningstar] is
moving in the direction of the model
we work with, which is built entirely
on the utilization theory of finance.”
Yarosh’s background is firmly rooted
in the conservative teachings of the
Austrian School of Economics, Irving
Fisher and Hyman Minsky. She remains
personally committed to academia,
pursuing both ongoing knowledge
for herself and imparting it to a
new generation of younger people as
a guest lecturer at the University level.
Her key goal for 2015 is to ensure
that Macro Wealth Management remains
focused on helping those in
need of retirement income stream
planning. Most people, she explained,
have up to five advisors while building
wealth, but only one during their
retirement years.
Yarosh said, “We want to be that
one advisor guiding them from the
summit of their wealth and down the
mountain in order to enjoy a satisfying
retirement while simultaneously
giving them a rich legacy to leave behind.”
Macro Wealth Management, LLC
115 West Century Road Suite 360
Paramus, New Jersey 07652
O: 201-690-3031 Cell: 973-479-4220
www.macrowealthmanagement.com
THE SUIT MAGAZINE p.37

y peter suciu
The Importance of True*
KNOWLEDGE
Learning About What You Don’t Know is Key to Investment Strategy
Young Kim believes that the biggest key to successful investing
isn’t your portfolio or the markets. After suffering great losses in
the financial debacle of 2008-09, like many people, Kim discovered
the true reason for his failure.
“
It’s easy to point fingers, to blame
the market, the financial institutions
or the government, but the
truth is that you have to take responsibility.
I realized that I didn’t know
what I didn’t know at the time.” Kim,
who is a managing partner with web,
told The Suit Magazine. “Studying
true data is critical. You’ll know if it’s
true data when you use it and you’ll
get the desired result. If doesn’t, it is
false data. You must continue to get
the right knowledge and apply it.“
To that end he allocates – or rather invests
– at least one hour each and every
day to studying and increasing his
knowledge.
His firm launched in 2011 in the
aftermath of the Great Recession and
after the second industry debacle
that was the Bernie Madoff scandal.
While Kim acknowledged that this
wasn’t an easy time to make a go of it.
THE SUIT MAGAZINE - JAN 2015
Yet knowledge gave him power – the
power to succeed.
“Every person needs to take responsibility,”
he added. “If you are investing,
you have to ask yourself, “Who
controls my money? Does the investor
control my money or do I?” After all
it is your money.– Do you want more
government control or more freedom
? Giving away control is rarely in your
best interest.”
Kim’s goal today is to share this
knowledge and his empowering investment
strategy with those who are
willing to change their lives. “You can
bring the horse to water, but you can’t
force it to drink,” Kim admitted, adding,
“I’m only interested in taking on
clients who are interested in taking
that drink, so to speak.”
As a result, Blue Sky focuses on
income planning for those who are
willing to learn and to control their
financial situation. The firm has been
growing cautiously yet steadily by
giving their clients control over their
financial matters whilst educating
them in the process.
“By providing our clients the correct
data, they can make educated decisions
regarding their investments,”
Kim noted. “With traditional investing
people would just hand over their
money, giving away their power to
the investor. That didn’t turn out to be
very successful to say the least.”
The other aspect of Blue Sky’s
strategy is mitigating risk against
downturns – so that a 2008-09 type
of downturn need not be such a scary
situation.“ It is about risk tolerance.
Some clever investors understand it,
but most people get confused. They
think that when a market goes down
that their investment must go down
with it.”

“The goal of education is the advancement of
knowledge and the dissemination of truth.”
~ John F. Kennedy
* Definition of True – Exact Time,
Place, Form, Event
“We learned with the 2009 subprime
crisis that anything you don’t
know is something that can not only
hurt you – it can haunt you.”
It was at this point that Kim realized
just how much he didn’t know,
and that having a coach and mentor
is a must. Once he became better educated
thanks to his study and the
experience of his mentor and coach,
he learned to invest more wisely and
how to lower risk on his money. In
addition he started using powerful
time-management software called
TimeMaker® that has helped him to
become more efficient, serve his clients
better and create time to study.
“I observed what big companies
were doing to hedge their money.
By modeling what they are doing
it doesn’t matter where the market
goes, my investments are protected.
The problem with the stock market
is that you can’t control it and that’s
why I don’t recommend it.”
Another facet that contributes to
the success of Blue Sky’s clients is
that Kim makes sure they understand
the plethora of jargon. “We
start by making sure the client
understands the meaning of the
words. This may sound very simple
and it actually it is, but you would
be amazed to discover how much
confusion and problems arise when
people don’t understand the meaning
of the words. It’s an easy way to
avoid unnecessary mistakes.”
“Investing should never be confused
with saving, because ‘saving’
already implies that you are expecting
to be poor one day.” stressed
Kim. Kim advises his clients to allocate
their money and plan ahead by
determining what they want their
future lifestyles to be. “Once funds
are allocated they cannot be touched
except for that purpose,” said Kim.
Kim doesn’t see a need for government
advisors overseeing the
world of investing – even in the aftermath
of the 2008-09 and the Madoff
fallout. “ It won’t change the
conversation,” Kim said to The Suit.
“Instead, we’ll have less freedom.
It’s much more important that people
get educated, learn how to protect
themselves, and find an ethical
mentor and coach who teaches them
how to apply the right knowledge
than get more involvement from the
government.”
To help more people improve
their financial future Kim is working
with #1 Best Selling Author and
founder of WorldClassWriting.
com, Shamayah Sarrucco to write
his book. “Once you know the true
data, data that works and gives you
the expected results you will have
the power to create prosperity.”
Kim motivated the reason for publishing
a book.
THE SUIT MAGAZINE p.41

feature story
by judy scinta magness
Silent Trends:
Decline in Entrepreneurial Rates
and Rise in Innovation Districts
Gates Vascular Institute and the Clinical and Translational Research Center: The $291 million facility, opened in 2014, joins Kaleida Health physicians
and University at Buffalo researchers in a collaborative effort delivering leading clinical care and major breakthroughs in vascular disease.
It seems these days, that if you are
not running a startup company
– well, you’re just not cool. Your
company is probably based on a
stodgy vertical business model accented
by suits, cubicles and more people
over 40 than you care to admit.
The tech industry readily comes to
mind when thinking of startups, but
healthcare, green initiatives, education
and other sectors have logged
significant increases in new business
launches. During 2013, an estimated
476,000 new businesses were created
each month in the U.S., or to put it
another way, each month, .28 percent
of the adult population started a new
business.
These national entrepreneurial
trends were published in a report released
last April by the Kauffman
Foundation entitled, “Kauffman Index
of Entrepreneurial Activity: 1996-
2013.” Remarkably enough, this represents
a steady decline from 2011 and
2012, posting monthly rates of new
business creation at .32 percent and .30
percent respectively. While this downward
trend may surprise casual business
observers, or even be interpreted
as a sign of doom and gloom, this trend
must be viewed through a wider lens.
The Great Recession spanned 18
months starting in December 2007 and
THE SUIT MAGAZINE - JAN 2015
ending in June 2009, according to the
U.S. Bureau of Economic Research. A
weak labor market caused a spike in
new business creation through 2011,
but as the economy started to recover,
the rate of new startups slowed. In fact,
the current rate is in step with the rate
of new businesses started in 2006, just
prior to the recession.
Robert Fairlie, author of the Kauffman
Foundation report, offered this
perspective: “The decline in business
creation over the past year is likely due
to improved labor market conditions,
putting less pressure on individuals
to start businesses out of necessity.
Trends in the share of business starts,
presented in this report for the first
time, indicate that the share of new
entrepreneurs who are not coming directly
out of unemployment was much
higher in 2013 than the share at the end
of the Great Recession.”
While the Kauffman Foundation reported
on business creation, the Brookings
Institution, a Washington nonprofit
public policy organization, billed as
the world’s most influential think tank,
examined the emergence of innovation
districts in urban areas all across the
country. These districts are replacing
traditional business parks built over
recent decades, typically in suburbia.
Companies operating in these office
parks rarely interact. Conversely, innovation
districts thrive on connection,
collaboration and community.
In the June 2014 report entitled, “The
Rise of Innovation Districts: A New
Geography of Innovation in America,”
authors Bruce Katz and Julie Wagner
share key findings of the Brookings Institution’s
research.
“A new complementary urban model
is now emerging, giving rise to what
we and others are calling ‘innovation
districts.’ These districts, by our definition,
are geographic areas where
leading-edge anchor institutions and
companies cluster and connect with
startups, business incubators and accelerators.
They are also physically
compact, transit-accessible and technically
wired, and offer mixed-use
housing, office and retail,” stated the
authors.
Innovation districts are well underway
in downtown areas of Atlanta,
Buffalo, Cambridge, Cleveland, Chicago,
Houston, Philadelphia, San Diego
and other major cities mentioned in
the report. In Boston, Chicago, Providence
and San Francisco, innovation
districts are being developed in underutilized
areas such as older industrial
sites. And, in yet another example,
Raleigh-Durham’s Research Triangle
Park, the country’s largest research

park, is being transformed to keep pace
with this urban trend.
Offering economic, physical and networking
assets, innovation districts
provide regions withsustainable development
opportunities. “At a time of
sluggish growth, they provide a strong
foundation for the creation and expansion
of firms and jobs by helping companies,
entrepreneurs, universities, researchers
and investors – across sectors
and disciplines – co-invent and co-produce
new discoveries for the market,”
concluded Katz and Wagner.
One such scenario is playing out in
Buffalo, New York, a city struggling to
find its way ever since its stance as a
key railroad hub – and as a major player
in the grain milling and steel industries
– diminished significantly by the
late 1970’s.
The Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus
(BNMC) was established in 2001 as
consortium including the region’s leading
health care, research and medical
education institutions in partnership
with local government and area neighborhoods.
To say that the BNMC has
pumped new life into Buffalo, bolstering
the city’s reputation, is an understatement.
Katz described the regional impact of
BNMC in a recent article appearing in a
Brookings Institution newsletter.
“The potential of this type of development
to supercharge urban revitalization
– centered on distinct innovation
assets – can be seen in Buffalo. A
little over a decade after the Buffalo
Niagara Medical Campus was brought
downtown, the district has seen broad
revival, with $400 million in private
development and up to 20,000 jobs projected
by 2017.”
Vic Nole is the director of new business
development for Buffalo Niagara
Medical Campus, Inc. (BNMC, Inc.),
the umbrella organization of the anchor
institutions of the BNMC, and operates
out of the Thomas R. Beecher, Jr. Innovation
Center located on the 120-acre
campus.
Some 60 companies list this Innovation
Center as their address, with just
over half of those physically located
there. The others are primarily virtual
companies. “We don’t have equity in
any of those companies. We act as facilitators
to give these founders, inventors,
researchers and investors what they
need to get their companies launched,”
explained Nole.
The fact that most of BNMC’s tech
startups are founded by millennials
should come as no surprise, but Nole is
excited by the synergistic collaboration
he sees taking place. “You see a lot
of those lines blurring between life
sciences, technology and manufacturing.
For the first time since I can remember,
you see a lot of those folks sitting at
the same table,” he explained. “On the
life sciences side, it tends to be people
from their mid-to-late 30’s to their mid-
50’s – typically researchers, people who
have been at the bench or in the lab for
many years. They have a product, or
an idea, or a technology that they think
has commercial viability, and now they
are starting to plug into this emerging
entrepreneurial community to get their
companies launched.”
BNMC, Inc. recently established “Ignite,”
a business development program
to help entrepreneurs through education
and mentorship. Ignite brings together
a team to understand a proposed
business concept, identify intellectual
property needing protection and determine
market viability and competitive
dynamics, along with other considerations
that go into developing a business
model. The program has access to
limited funds for small amounts of capital
through First Niagara Bank, which
granted $100,000 in 2014 earmarked for
starting pre-seed ideas having limited
resources.
“We would like to be recognized as
the job generator on the Buffalo Niagara
Medical Campus,” said Nole, adding
that they are not interested in selling or
licensing technologies. “We would prefer
to start companies that grow jobs in
Buffalo.”
Left to right: Hauptman-Woodward Medical Research Institute opened in 2005, and the NYS Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics & Life Sciences opened in 2006.
THE SUIT MAGAZINE p.43

y amy m. armstrong
If You Don’t
PANIC,
Your Clients Won’t Either
It sounds like an obvious item to be included on the checklist when seeking a financial
adviser these days, yet the concept of finding advisers who put clients’ needs ahead of
their own is making the rounds again as if it were a brand new ideal. From the Wall
Street Journal to the Washington Post to U.S. News and World Report, most of the mainstream
media ran articles during the fourth quarter of 2014 addressing this topic. The
highlighted theme was that the only surefire way to get advice “in the best interest of
the client” is to work with a registered investment adviser.
Dennis Gibb, Principal Shareholder
This is not a fresh thought for Dennis Gibb.
It’s one he’s thought about and practiced
during his 41-year career as an investment
and financial adviser. The current national
discussion about establishing a uniform fiduciary
standard for all types of financial advisers
is one he watches with a little amusement
– and much more concern for the future of his
industry.
Laughing with a knowing, yet nearly frustrated
chuckle, Gibb says, “This is the hot
button issue. There is only one fiduciary standard.
It is one in which the best interest of the
client is placed first at all times – and advisers
should avoid any conflict of interest or any
perception that there could be a conflict of interest.”
Gibb said that he knows brokers tell their
clients they are fiduciaries. He also said they
are lying when they do so. He believes firmly
that brokers can not put client interests first
because they are under a tremendous amount
of pressure to get the assets under management
that generate commissions.
And he ought to know. Gibb spent the early
portion of his career working as a broker.
When he began his career in 1973, it was one
of the only viable options for a wounded
Vietnam War helicopter pilot recuperating in
Texas. Gibb was ambulatory but still hospitalized,
when an orderly told him there was
someone to see him. Curious, since he didn’t
know anyone there, Gibb went to meet his
mystery visitor.
“Here was this guy with a short buzz cut
like a military cut, wearing a black suit, black
tie, white shirt and black shiny shoes,” Gibb
recalls. “I figured he was either with the FBI
or was a Mormon .”
As it turned out, Gibb’s visitor that day was
a former Navy officer who, working for Ross
Perot, was recruiting military personnel for
THE SUIT MAGAZINE - JAN 2015

work after discharge, and he set Gibb on the basic career
path he has followed ever since. In 1989, Gibb left the broker
side of the financial advising field to form Sweetwater
Investments, Inc. of Redmond, Wash., his own independent,
fee-only firm. Gibb is the president.
“There were limited civilian opportunities at that time
for military people such as myself,” Gibb said. “There was
a huge recession on and I really did not want to fly helicopters
out to the offshore oil rigs .”
Starting his training in the fall of 1973, he graduated at
the end of Jan. 1974 – just in time to witness the bankruptcy
of Perot’s brokerage firm. Instead, Gibb went to work for
Dean Witter. He clearly remembers that first day of work
on Feb. 11, 1974, the day the market started at 886.83, ending
in a dismal 575 .
“It was a great way to get started,” he said pronouncing
the word “great” with a mocking emphasis. “But it did
teach me a lot.”
Not panicking is perhaps the most important lesson
Gibb took from that time. And it has served him well, as
several market corrections have marked his four-decade
career. Despite Gibb’s experience however, the correction
now being referred to as the Great Recession, lasting from
2007 to 2009, gave him a scare.
“I was somewhat convinced the financial world as we
knew it was coming to an end, and in some respects it did,”
Gibb said. “But I think if you can survive in a bear market
– especially a long-term bear market, you can survive anything
that the markets in the financial industry can throw
at you .”
He nearly left the industry in 2008, thinking he didn’t
“have the chops” for the emotional roller-coaster the stock
market was riding. Gibb’s personal life was also in turmoil,
with his marriage of 33 years in divorce court and a diag-
nosis of bladder cancer .
Then clients began calling, but they weren’t screaming
at him regarding market activity. And they didn’t know
about his personal saga, because he kept that to himself.
Yet, they were asking him if he was sleeping at night and
if he was feeling okay.
“They wanted to know if I was taking care of myself, because
they told me that they were going to need me on the
other side of this market correction,” Gibb recalls. It was
exactly the kind of boost he needed. “I had not realized
until then just how much trust people had in me and how
powerful that is. It humbled me and made me recognize
that these people had worked all their lives for this money,
and they were willingly going on with their lives and not
worrying about their portfolios because of the confidence
they had in me.”
At that point, he knew he couldn’t leave. Even today, at
age 68, he has no plans to retire. And he likes watching the
end product of his work, too.
Just recently, a long-time client who worked for 37 years
for Boeing in Seattle as a wing attachment engineer came
by Gibb’s office. This man had lived within his means,
never doing anything extravagant during his entire working
life. Thus, Gibb was slightly surprised to see him drive
up in a snazzy BMW Z series convertible.
“He was smiling to beat the band,” Gibb said. “We talked
about some stuff and then he left. As he drove off, I said
to my assistant, ‘That is what we do for a living.’”
16398 NE 85th Street, Suite 201
Redmond, WA 98052
Phone: 425 861 0112
www.sweetwaterinv.com
THE SUIT MAGAZINE p.45

QUALITY AS A CRITICAL PLANNING CRITERION
Commonly held knowledge says that it takes years, combined
with skilled expertise in handling regulatory red tape, to get a
new medical drug or device out of development and into the
marketplace. To say it is a tremendous amount of work is an
obvious understatement.
Yet, headway is being made toward reducing time
frames as well as in adding product value during
the complicated regulatory process. A 20-yearold
Hayward, Calif.. company called Pharmatech
Associates specializes in solutions and processes that can
move products envisioned by biotech firms, medical device
and diagnostic companies and pharmaceutical laboratories
out of the mere idea and concept stage, turning them
into market-ready products and services evaluated and
approved by the Federal Food and Drug Administration.
“Our work is considerably different from what a lot of
others in this industry do since they deal primarily with
theory during the developmental stages,” Warren Baker,
CEO of Pharmatech, said. He notes that instead, his firm
takes an evidence-based approach from the beginning of
a new product’s life cycle, ultimately reducing the amount
of time and testing needed to bring a product into compliance.
“Everything done on the front end will be of benefit
to a company when it goes to file the applications. We have
been able to show our clients how to expedite their development
and approval processes.”
Baker and Pharmatech use a system called “Quality by
Design” – or QbD – to expedite this process. QbD was first
introduced by Joseph M. Juran in the late 1970s and was
later embraced by the U.S. auto industry during its labor
crisis in the 1980s. The FDA gave its nod of acceptance to
QbD in 2004, noting its basic premise that quality can be
planned and could have time and cost-saving implications
for both pharmaceutical and medical device development.
Baker sees plenty of potential for startup success, even
though the economic recovery from the Great Recession
from 2007 to 2009 remains slow and tepid at best.
“Despite our current economy, with the biotech industry
exploding the way it is regarding targeted therapies for
specific diseases, and with products advancing through
the approval process, there is plenty of room for startups
to find success,” Baker said. “The regulatory side is getting
more complex, but we have the insight to help startups understand
the opportunities and what it will take to get a
product through the process and to market.”
www.pharmatechassociates.com

y andrea lehner
Maximizing Family-owned Business
Value and Wealth
Making big business deals
– sales, mergers and
acquisitions – is often
thought to be reserved for high
profile, publicly traded companies.
But times have changed, and
according to Mark O’Brien, CEO
and President of Chicago M&A
Advisors, Inc., family-owned businesses
can now profit from this
lucrative growth and transition
strategy.
Starting his career as a third generation
stakeholder in a successful
80-year-old family-owned business,
O’Brien learned firsthand
the rewards and challenges of not
only making the decision to sell a
business for the long-term good of
both the family and the business,
but also how to maximize the value
of that business so that all parties
involved benefited from the
transition.
The process was so intriguing
and rewarding, that O’Brien decided
to use his MBA and real-world
knowledge to help bring similar
opportunities to other owners of
family businesses – those who
may or may not be aware that strategic
acquisitions are now a viable
exit strategy for businesses in the
$5 million to $100 million bracket.
There is tremendous interest
in manufacturing and distribution
from financial investors. Overall
we are seeing more interest in
businesses that manufacturer in
the US.
“Growing a family business using
a strategic M&A plan executed
by a professional management
team who use capital markets efficiently
is not only a compeititve
advantage but also a huge opportunity
to generate wealth and
business value for the owners.
This is especially important
to the owner
that’s been running
their business essentially
by themselves
for a long time using
their own capital,”
O’Brien insisted.
Chicago M&A Advisors
specializes in
creating long-term
M&A & exit plans
for business owners,
primarily those involved
in manufacturing
and distribution,
with an exit strategy that can
bring top dollar. O’Brien said that
this often includes first accelerating
growth and/or recapitalization
so that the valuation will hit the
target when the time is right for a
buyout, merger or transition plan.
“What this means for most people,”
O’Brien detailed, “is an opportunity
to grow at a much faster
pace while often the owner will
continue to lead the business with
equity allowing a second bite at
the apple down the road. There’s
more opportunity in today’s market
than there has been in the past
for the lower-middle market segment
to take advantage of this opportunity.”
Solid planning requires more
than fast growth to create high
exit values. “Values are measured
from a buyer’s perspective,” he
said, and sustainable growth is
essential for achieving optimal results.
“It’s not what you take away
from a deal. It’s what sustaining
value you bring to the deal that
generates the highest deal value
for everyone,” O’Brien emphasized.
A slow growth economy presents
some challenges – but those
aren’t insurmountable for owners
wanting to retire within the next
few years. He noted, “You need
to be a little more creative, a little
more professional, in how you attack
growth.”
As O’Brien pointed out, “One
of today’s more advantageous
growth strategies is to grow
through acquisitions. And, the
time for using a merger and acquisition
transition strategy is ripe,
since private equity investors and
family offices are looking at the
lower mid-sized market more so
now than ever before.
THE SUIT MAGAZINE p.47

y michael gordon
Delivering Tough
FINANCIAL TRUTH
Money itself isn’t an emotional
object. But once you
pair it with human beings
who are so terribly dependent
on its efficacy as a tool to fund
not only their daily needs but also their
hopes, dreams and aspirations, money is
suddenly surrounded by a great variety
of strong emotions. It has been said that
the job of a financial adviser is to be part
money manager and part counselor,
with the listening skills of a bartender,
but without serving mind-altering concoctions.
Instead, the kind of mind-altering a
financial adviser facilitates should be
doing is to
foster
controlled
reactions versus the out and out
the panic that can happen in response to
market corrections.
So says Matthew Hanshaw, owner
and president of ARK Wealth Management
based in Harrisburg, PA. His first
profession was as a counselor for emotionally
disturbed children living in a
group home setting. Thus, he has seen
more than his share of outbursts, tantrums
and meltdowns.
Hanshaw’s training and experience
working as a counselor adds a deep understanding
and empathic dimension to
his financial advisory capabilities.
It is also what got him into the financial
services business. One of the counselors
he supervised while at the group
home, went on to become a successful
stockbroker, and on a return visit to
Hanshaw, he encouraged his former
co-worker to consider making a career
change.
Hanshaw decided to do just that. He
interviewed with the same firm, and
found that being a stockbroker wasn’t
his first, or even his best interest.
Hanshaw landed as a financial
adviser at The New England
Company, later purchased by
Met Life, where his work put
him in contact with the two
co-workers who would later
become his partners in
an ensemble firm lasting
for 17 years. In 2013, that
partnership broke up and
Hanshaw formed ARK
Wealth Management, with
ARK being the initials of his children.
He knows his clients have families and
he directs the financial advice he gives
toward them, aiming to provide them
with a secure future. He wanted even
the name of his new firm to reflect his
own emphasis on family values.
Hanshaw is also a straight shooter
when it comes to giving out advice. His
counseling background, chock full of
“tough love,” is a big help to him in this
area, he believes.
“There is a very real need in my business
to tell people the truth even it isn’t
what they want to hear,” Hanshaw said.
Recommendations such as, “maybe you
need to work another year,” or, “that is
too much income to take each year if you
want this to last your entire retirement,”
aren’t easy to deliver. Yet, he does it anyway,
because he not only believes, but
knows, it is the appropriate course of
action. “Caring enough to be honest and
tell people what isn’t necessarily pleasing
or what they expected or hoped to
hear isn’t always easy to do, but it is the
right thing to do if you as a financial adviser
are putting their needs first in the
relationship.”
1250 N. Mountain Road, Suite 322
Harrisburg, PA 17112
Phone: 717-695-2617
www.arkwm.com
THE SUIT MAGAZINE - JAN 2015

y david stein
THE ECONOMIC
REALITY RADIO SHOW
If you want to know how the average
American feels about the economy,
listen to a radio talk show featuring
a respected financial adviser who allows
numerous on-air calls from listeners.
“The Smart Investing” radio show that
airs live every Saturday from noon to 2
p.m. on KQNT in Spokane, Wash., does
just that. Host Mike Wren, president of
Wren Investment Management, using a
dash of humor splashed across a plateful
of realistic financial advice, has kept
listeners faithfully tuned in for the past
decade.
He hears the general public’s concern
that the economy could hit another big
bump in the road at any time. And the
mood he hears from callers is one of
guarded optimism.
“Their optimism is most generally focused
on the fact that they can see the
market went up last year much more
quickly than they thought it would,”
Wren said. “But they are still scared of
another decline. The year 2008 is still
ringing in their heads and they are wondering
when the next bomb is going to
drop. They are looking for leadership.”
Wren’s advice to callers – and to the
clients of his firm – is to stop being so
concerned with the ups and downs of the
stock market. Instead, Wren believes their
best bet for long-term financial security is
to either own their own business, or own
a piece of someone else’s business, or to
own real estate.
After 25 years in the financial and investment
services industry, Wren said
that those strategies are the tickets to
building the wealth that can create personal
economic security.
His radio show steers clear of the noise
featured on other mainline media by
skipping the jargon, the analysis of daily
market fluctuations and the strategy behind
asset allocation.
“I try not to talk about anything that
any other financial show or news magazine
talks about – because they all talk
about the wrong stuff,” Wren asserted.
“What I do talk about is owning companies.
I talk about dividends and I talk
about true long-term ownership. That is
what matters.”
www.smartinvestingshow.com

y a. marie velthuizen
TIME IS WEALTH
An ounce of prevention is
worth a pound of cure. It is
an old saying, and one perhaps
even tritely overused
in society. Apply it to the financial
world though, and that pound of cure
should more accurately be increased
to a ton of cure – curated precisely for
avoiding loss – specifically loss of value
in retirement portfolios.
Preventing that kind of loss is what
drives the work of Cubby Bice. He is
the president of Bice Wealth Management,
based in Mooresville, N.C.
“I tell my clients I am a preventer,”
Bice said.
To explain what that means, he
brings up the analogy in the recent hit
movie “Taken” starring Liam Neeson.
His character must rescue a somewhat
estranged daughter from kidnappers.
The daughter asks him where he was
when she was growing up and her father
tells her that he was a preventer
– someone who stops bad things from
happening yet rarely, if ever, comes
out from behind the scenes.
Bice made the comparison that, similar
to foiled plots of terrorism, people
outside of counter-terrorist circles are
only informed after the fact
THE SUIT MAGAZINE - JAN 2015

He noted that plots to
blow up gas lines running
underneath JFK
Airport, attempts to
take down the Brooklyn
Bridge, a scheme to fly an
airplane into the Golden
Gate Bridge and more –
have all been thwarted
by preventers.
“All of those were prevented,
and when you
read about them in the
newspaper, you might
think about it for a day,
but you move on,” Bice
said. “When you think
about 9/11, which did occur,
and its devastating
impact, you don’t move
on so easily.”
Bice believes the concept
carries over into the
financial world and the
work of his firm in particular.
He said that his
biggest successes are the
ones in which that most
people have no idea he
was even involved.
Yet this protective approach
does not indicate
a lack of communication
with his clients. Bice is
highly committed to a
constant dialogue with
the client families served
by his firm. He sends a
weekly market review email newsletter
detailing his thoughts and reactions
to market activity in the week
just completed, along with his expectations
and predictions for the coming
week. Changes in the tax law, moves
within the economy or political activity
with economic implications,
all prompt Bice to write a white paper
that he sends to every client. Each
quarter, clients receive updates on
their account activity as well as tax
law reviews. He uses a systematic
schedule of two to four face-to-face
meetings per year to stay informed of
what is happening in the lives of his
clients and to keep them up-to-date
on the status of their accounts.
He isn’t just serious or religious
when it comes to client communication:
he’s committed – and Bice expects
the same from his clients. And
he isn’t afraid to end his relationship
with clients who don’t take this level
of commitment seriously, either.
“I have had to fire clients who do not
take the responsibility of being informed
about their finances seriously
enough,” Bice said. “They may have
said to me, well, everything is okay,
you are doing okay and I don’t really
need to meet. That is just not acceptable
for this firm. This is not something
that you can just set on autopilot.”
When all the emails, mailing and
meetings are tallied up, Bice said his
clients are receiving at least 100 touches
per year from his firm. Some of
those touches are friendly check-ups
and others are reality checks.
Bice gives an example of a client
saying that he or she would like to
retire in ten years. He then gives the
client specifications of what they
have to do financially speaking – including
giving up their daily trip to
the drive-thru coffee stand and other
seemingly insignificant minor luxuries.
This level of detail creates a tally
with impact. It’s the tough truth
he is providing, but it also provides
a solid platform on which clients can
make informed decisions and set realistic
expectations, even if they don’t
always get a warm and fuzzy feeling
after hearing Bice’s advice.
“They might say to me, ‘Well, I don’t
really want to do that,’ ’’ Bice relates.
“So then I have to tell them that we
might have to redefine goals because
they cannot have both.”
This is where Bice’s philosophy that
money is not one’s wealth enters the
picture. Instead, Bice believes that
time is one’s wealth, and that money
is simply the tool allowing choices to
be made regarding how to spend that
time pursuing the passions of life.
“What we at Bice Wealth Management
endeavor to do is help our clients
live a life of passion by helping to
refocus the client on what is important
to them in their life,” Bice said.
“They are doing those things that
make them want to get out of bed in
the morning.”
It is the mission of Bice Wealth Management to provide
innovative financial solutions for our clients by
managing risk. We endeavor to create an experience
that inspires our clients to make informed decisions
through continuous communication, education and a
level of service that surpasses their expectations.
121 Rolling Hill Rd. Suite 225
Mooresville, NC 28117
Phone:704.696.1030
Toll Free: 800.229.8776
www.bicewealth.com
cubby@bicewealth.com
THE SUIT MAGAZINE p.51

y judy scinta magness
The Dynamic Duo in
Financial Planning
In the financial planning industry, a Certified
Public Accountant (CPA) who is also credentialed
as a Personal Financial Specialist (PFS), is
viewed as someone bringing a substantial amount
of professional training, expertise and experience
to their clients.
According to the American
Institute of CPAs,
the world’s largest
member association representing
the accounting profession,
“A CPA/PFS is more
than a financial planner. He or
she is a CPA with the powerful
combination of extensive
tax expertise and a comprehensive
knowledge of financial
planning.” The Institute’s
PFS program provides CPAs
with rigorous training in the
areas of estates, taxes, retirement,
risk management and
investment planning. Upon
completion of the program,
participants must pass an extensive
final exam in order to
earn the PFS credential.
Chuck Morris, owner of
MLM Wealth Management
Group and a Registered Principal
with LPL Financial,
holds both the CPA and
PFS designations. From the
beginning of his career as
a CPA over 30 years ago,
the needs of his clients
drove him to expand
into financial planning
and wealth management
services. While
reviewing annual taxes
with his clients,
Morris saw that for
many, there was no
coordination between
their current goals,
tax savings practices,
and planning for the future.
By increasing his
services and building
on his professional expertise
with PFS training,
Morris greatly increased
the value he brought to his
Chuck Morris,
Owner of MLM Wealth
Management Group
THE SUIT MAGAZINE - JAN 2015

clients’ financial future.
MLM Wealth Management Group’s philosophy is
based on the principle that client education and an understanding
of a client’s current financial situation are vital
to successfully making prudent decisions concerning
their future financial condition. The firm’s products and
services include investments in stocks, bonds, and IRAs;
financial planning for college, retirement and tax plans,
401(k) and 403(b) plans, estate planning, and profit sharing
plans; and insurances including disability, life, and
long term care insurance.
Long term care insurance is discussed with clients at
company stock or assets.
Currently, one hot button issue in the investment industry
is whether a uniform fiduciary standard to govern the
activities of all financial advisors under one set of rules
and regulations will be established. Morris believes that
establishing such a standard is a positive move. “In the
CPA world, from the east coast to the west coast, we all
follow the same standards, and I think that is also proper
in the financial advisory industry, so that the playing
field is level and that clients know what they are receiving,”
said Morris. He added that advisors should not be
afraid to divulge what compensation they are receiving
“We work together with you to make smart choices about your money, allowing you to
pursue goals that are important to you. Through a careful evaluation of your needs, we
will map out the right course for you to reach your desired destination.
the beginning of the relationship so they can make informed
decisions about whether to include it as part of
their overall financial plan. “Long term insurance helps
people offset some of the cost for long term care,” said
Morris. “You have insurance on your car and your house,
and most likely health insurance on you as an individual,
but what you don’t have is insurance on your portfolio –
and that’s where long term care insurance would come
in.”
Determining the particulars of retirement planning,
such as where sources of cash will come from and tax
planning, are also a part of the initial planning process.
“Financial planning is a work-in-process that needs to
be reviewed and modified as things change in a person’s
life,” said Morris, citing inheritances, the number of children
and medical life-changing events as examples. Along
with his CPA and planning expertise, Morris collaborates
with attorneys, bankers and other professionals to help
clients achieve their goals. Once a plan is implemented,
the educational process continues throughout the relationship
with the client, and in the case of a married couple,
both spouses must be present to understand exactly
what is being designed and prepared for the family unit.
MLM Wealth Management Group also assists business
owners with exit planning strategies by helping them to
determine the tax ramifications resulting from a sale of
for products and services.
Located in Mission Viejo, CA, MLM Wealth Management
Group’s advisors are registered representatives
with LPL Financial, one of the largest independent broker/dealers
in the nation. LPL provides a weekly commentary
providing insight on market and economic news
prepared by their financial research team, which is made
available on MLM’s website.
“The greatest success is to see a smile on a client’s face,
knowing that we’ve defined their problems, helped them
with a solution and that we are moving forward,” said
Morris.
Morris has also served as treasurer for the Fullerton
Museum Center for 25 years and has a 2nd degree black
belt in Tae Kwon Do.
27405 Puerta Real Suite 380
Mission Viejo, CA 92691
Office: 949-502-8530
www.mlmwmg.com
THE SUIT MAGAZINE p.53

y felix badea
Well Beyond 9 to 5
Long gone are the days when financial advisers only met with clients in the adviser’s professional
office. Today’s adviser is more likely to review financial plans over dinner at the client’s
house, at a pizza joint after the client’s children finish playing their basketball game or well
past normal working hours at the client’s office.
The above are scenarios not
unfamiliar to advisers such
as Peter J. Market CFS, who
know that most of their clients simply
cannot do the type of meetings
necessary to maintain financial and
investing plans during traditional
work hours.
“If I maintained that all meetings
were to occur only in our office and
only during set hours, it would
make it nearly impossible – if not
impossible – for many of our clients
to ever be able to sit down and review
their goals,” Market said. “I have lost track of the number
of times that I have sat and eaten dinner with a client at 10
p.m. in their home while reviewing their accounts with them.”
He recognizes that this might sound a bit extreme, but he
also acknowledges it as the level of accessibility he must provide
busy clients in order to
have a successful working relationship
with them. He knows
his clients are constantly pulled
in opposite directions between
the never-ending demands of
their work places, the long commutes
to and from work, activities
with their children and
spouses, as well as the needs of
aging parents. He doesn’t want
to be yet another tug on their
time and he knows he has to
squeeze into their schedules at
their convenience and not his.
As president of Market
Wealth Management, LLC,
based in Clifton, Virginia, Market also knows his extended
availability policy also provides him unique insights into the
lives and subsequent needs of his clients.
“What better way to truly learn about your clients than
spending time with them outside of a conference
room – in their own surroundings,” he
said.
Market’s intuitively personal approach lays
the foundation for his greatest professional
success and his clients’ greatest security. He recalls a phone
call many years ago from a client who had just received a diagnosis
of pancreatic cancer. Told by his doctor that he had
only months to live, Market was the first call that client placed
after receiving the difficult news. He wanted confirmation that
planning done in the past would be enough to provide for his
soon-to-be widow and son. Today, Market still guides that client’s
widow through the myriad of financial issues she faces.
However, because she and her late husband had done significant
planning – and because Market opted to be extremely
engaged in outlining their needs and meeting with them at
their convenience – her husband’s tragic death was not accompanied
by financial trauma.
“By making myself more available, this opens up opportunities
to address issues that otherwise may go neglected for
some time,” Market said. “It prevents these important issues
from being relegated to the ‘I’ll do that later’ category.”
Sometimes, “later” is too late.
*Securities offered through
Parkland Securities, LLC.
Member FINRA/SIPC. Investment
advisory services offered
through Sigma Planning Corporation,
a registered investment
advisor. Market Wealth Management,
LLC is independent of
Parkland Securities, LLC and
Sigma Planning Corporation.
12644 Chapel Road Ste 111
Clifton, VA 20124
www.marketwm.com
THE SUIT MAGAZINE p.55

y peter suciu
Reprinted from The Suit Magazine, www.thesuitmagazine.com
THE
COMFORTABLE PORTFOLIO
Investing is not a
one-size-fits-all
formula where every
investor who uses
the same strategy
makes gains. Vomund
Investment Management
recognizes that fund
management means
understanding the risk
tolerance specific to
each client as well
as understanding the
market conditions.
Financial markets have changed
over time, especially in recent
years, and money managers
have had to adapt in order to
protect their clients as well as their own
businesses. Vomund Investment Management
was formed in 1998 by company
founder and president, David Vomund,
after several years of publishing
the newsletter called VIS Alert.
“If you look at the time that I’ve
been a money manager, the market
environment has really changed,” said
Vomund. “It started out as perfect for
growth investors. Technology stocks
were hot. Then we had two huge bear
markets, and now six years of a near
zero interest rate environment. What
clients want to know and want to see is
that you have the ability to offer a good
service in all market conditions.”
Vomund believes steady growth is
more beneficial to the client than seeking
large gains. “I’d like to have the
simple goal of doing the best that I can
for my clients,” Vomund told The Suit
Magazine, in an interview. “Providing
them with steady, relatively steady and
consistent returns. That’s what they’re
THE SUIT MAGAZINE - JAN 2015
after. I find most people are very happy
if you provide an 8 or 9 percent
return, instead of providing a huge return
during up years and a huge loss
during down years.”
It also helps when clients commit
to Vomund for the long haul, though
most financial planners would agree.
“What really doesn’t work is the type
of client where they’re just chasing the
hot money manager, or the guy with
the recent hot hand, and then constantly
switch to the new manager that has
David Vomund,
Founder and President
the hotter hand,” explained Vomund.
“Switching from manager to manager
really doesn’t work out for anyone.
We’ve learned that instead of offering
what I call the ‘thrill of victory and
agony of defeat’ type of portfolio, we
want much more consistent investments.”
To give Vomund’s strategy a baseball
analogy, the fund manager says,
“We’re scoring by hitting singles and
doubles instead of swinging for home
runs.”

One vehicle Vomund uses to provide steady and comfortable
growth for clients is exchange-traded funds, or
ETFs. “ETFs became a very important part of our business,
and that gave us the flexibility to deal with market environments,
too,” said Vomund. “When growth investing
is in favor, you can overweight portfolios with growth
ETFs. When value investing or dividend-paying stocks are
in favor, you can make a very easy switch to value-dividend
paying ETFs, the same thing with large caps and
small caps or even international ETFs.”
Steady growth is proving better for clients, many of
whom are living longer. Vomund Investment Management
focuses solely on investments, and not on other aspects
of financial planning or selling other services. “I am
a little different than some other managers in that I really
believe in focus,” Vomund said. “I don’t wear a lot of hats.
And so my full focus is on managing people’s portfolios,
and making sure that they grow as much as they can, given
their risk tolerance. That’s all I do.”
That risk tolerance has shifted over the past several
years. Many investors who used to be more aggressive
now take a more conservative approach.
“There was a time when clients were seeking returns
well above what the market provided,” said Vomund.
“They really wanted the hot performance.” Two bear markets:
the burst bubble that occurred during the 2000 to
2002 tech boom and the financial crisis of 2008 have shifted
investors and fund managers alike.
“It has really changed people’s perceptions of the stock
market. I find that most investors aren’t trying to beat the
market, because they look at the market as being too volatile,
and too uncomfortable. What they want is a comfortable
portfolio that provides relative, consistent returns.
That said, they still need to own stocks.”
A typical portfolio under Vomund Investment Management
includes stocks – though the type and volume depends
on risk tolerance – and most clients also own fixed
income instruments and preferred stocks. The key is to adjust
to the client’s risk tolerance and not be too aggressive.
“If you invest too aggressively, people don’t stay invested
during the entire cycle,” said Vomund. Many clients exit
and look for new money managers during low times if the
volume of losses is too great.
“If you provide a comfortable portfolio, then they remain
invested when times are bad, so that they can benefit
during the recovery and the next bull market .” said Vomund.
Aggressive investing has a dark side, too. Vomund
notes that many investors left the market in 2008 during
the economic crisis. “If you bailed in 2008 – and a lot of
people bailed in 2008 and never did get invested again –
they missed a huge bull market simply because of being
just too aggressively invested in their portfolios. Being
comfortable with your portfolio is really the key.”
www.etfportfolios.net
THE SUIT MAGAZINE p.57

y andrea lehner
BUILDING Community
RE-BUILDING Commerce in
Chattanooga, Tennessee
For over eighty years, Herman
Walldorf Commercial, Inc. has
been actively involved in Chattanooga’s
real estate development. Between
successful revitalization efforts
– and now with the addition of major
employers like Volkswagen and Amazon
– the area is primed for even more
commercial growth and development.
At the helm is Rudy Walldorf CCIM,
president. As a commercial real estate
professional for 44 years, and son of the
company’s founder, Walldorf grew up
not only in the region, but also in the
business as well. He has spent his lifetime
trying to help build Chattanooga
into the vibrant city he sees today.
“In the 1970s, Chattanooga had a
reputation as being one of the dirtiest
cities in country, due to its reliance on
foundries,” Walldorf recalled. “But that
is no longer the case.” Now the region
is filled with natural beauty and outdoor
activities and is home to the many
regional events that boost tourism and
bring ample business to the downtown
hospitality industry. And Chattanooga,
being the first to offer gigabit Ethernet,
brought a number of tech startups to
town. “We’ve gone from being known
for the steel industry to being known
THE SUIT MAGAZINE - JAN 2015
for innovation and high-tech business.”
Chattanooga’s change was deliberate
and took time. Walldorf, working with
Chattanooga’s Chamber of Commerce,
visited successful inner city revitalization
endeavors around the country and
helped implement in Chattanooga the
best of what they saw elsewhere. He
said their efforts were so successful that
now other cities visit Chattanooga for
revitalization and redevelopment strategies.
“One of the milestones in the riverfront
clean up and development was
the 1992 opening of the freshwater
400,000-gallon aquarium,” Walldorf
said. “At the time it was the largest in
the U.S. and attracted a million visitors,
and that was big.” An adjacent saltwater
aquarium was added in 2005.
While the recession took its toll on
the region, in many ways Chattanooga
fared better than much of the country.
“Chattanooga has never been a boom
or bust economy,” Walldorf explained.
“We weren’t hurt as badly as other areas;
we were more deliberate and had
less speculation.”
And commercial real estate activity
was not impacted as badly as residential.
According to Walldorf, Chattanoo-
ga’s downtown area remained relatively
strong due to office employers and
tourism. “A strong retail market developed
downtown, initially building off
of tourist traffic. The retail presence, in
turn, made downtown attractive for residential
markets, and, both condo and
apartments have increased with huge
demand for apartments right now Living
in downtown Chattanooga is very
attractive,” he states, “The residential
base is returning and that makes Chattanooga
more attractive to businesses
looking to locate in the Southeast..”
“Volkswagen’s arrival had a huge
psychological impact on the city,” Walldorf
said. “Some commercial and residential
growth north of the plant may
have happened anyway, but growth in
general certainly was spurred by VW.”
With the new Amazon distribution facility
and with the building of a second
Volkswagen plant for a brand new SUV
line, Walldorf is confident that the combination
of these plants will make Chattanooga
a desirable location for suppliers,
moving Chattanooga “from being a
second tier city to a major force” in the
near future.
Walldorf said emphatically, “Getting
where we are took deliberate effort and
really goes back decades. Chattanooga
is really a great place to be with a great
future, and we, going forward, are excited
to be a part of it.”

y andrea lehner
Trust and Transparencey
TOP the LIST
Choosing a financial advisor essentially means entrusting
that person with your financial future. It’s a scary decision
for anyone – and it’s a decision the team at Wealth
Management and Business Concepts does not take lightly.
“The dollars we manage
for our clients represent
their goals and
aspirations,” said David
Coles, Chief Compliance
Officer (CCO).
“It’s our responsibility
– our opportunity – to
assist by ensuring that their assets are
structured in a way that will allow them
to leave the legacy they envision.”
Coles’ father started the firm in 2003
with a mission of helping clients build
legacies for future generations, be it for
heirs or to organizations that promote
the betterment of society. And they do
so by ensuring that clients know they’ve
found a financial partner they can trust.
According to Coles, transparency is
the first step in creating the trust and
confidence clients need in order to
weather the ups and downs of the market
without making costly mistakes like
succumbing to panic during dips, or
missing investment opportunities.
In an industry sometimes tainted with
negative headlines, Coles understands
why there’s a need for national fiduciary
reform. However, the outcome could
result in added cumbersome red tape
for trustworthy advisors, possibly detracting
from the level of attention that
can be given to clients if they don’t have
processes in place to handle new regulations.
“For our company,” Coles said, “we
don’t feel that it’s really going to change
much in the way we conduct our business,
because we’ve always held ourselves
to that higher fiduciary standard.
We’ve created systems that allow us to
uphold a higher standard while maintaining
efficiency from the very beginning.”
An essential part of the Wealth Management
and Business Concepts process
includes setting the tone for trust and
transparency with a code of conduct that
establishes what clients should expect
from the relationship, along with full,
comprehensive annual reviews to look
at past performance and revise strategies
for the coming year.
“We notice that many advisors shy
away from comprehensive planning because
it can be costly and time consuming,
but we are a little more old school in
that area. It’s a disservice to clients if you
can’t perform that level of financial planning
with them,” Coles explained, adding
that beta, gamma and alpha have a
place within the planning structure but
don’t override the client’s unique situation
and needs.
“If you only create one plan upon
meeting a client and then never revisit it,
then the plan becomes useless,” he said.
Through the firm’s personalization
tools – such as their Family Index Number
and Financial Stress Test – clients
have the added peace of mind in knowing
their portfolios are structured to
accomplish their needs and goals even
through the fluctuating markets.
www.wmbci.com
THE SUIT MAGAZINE p.61

y a. judy marie scinyamagness
velthuizen
Buying and Repairing Broken and
Underperforming Businesses
Most private equity financing firms retain the businesses they invest in only until enough improvements
have been made for the firm to turn a respectable profit when the business is sold. Yet a handful of PE
firms are opting for a different approach. In a trend being cultivated by a much smaller number of PE
firms, distressed businesses purchased with the goal of restoration to profitability are being kept for significant
periods of time – sometimes indefinitely – since a financial harvest different from the standard
“return on sale” is sought by investors with rather long-term goals.
Industrial Renaissance (IR) is one of these firms opting to
keep, rather than sell, the struggling or underperforming
businesses they acquire. Eric Hamburg, the firm’s
president explains.
“It is difficult to build a significant business that is running
well. This can take plenty of money and many years,”
Hamburg said. “Once that has finally been done, it is our
preference to continue to own that business and continue
to work with it.”
In fact, Hamburg said that his goal is to make such a
marked improvement in the working and profitability of
a struggling business his firm acquires, that selling it just
would not even be considered an option.
IR’s website provides an extensive list of characteristics
sought in a potential purchase. Fifteen descriptions make
up this list, ranging from the absence of a management
leader, a liquidity-constrained balance sheet, little or no
earnings, long lead times, slow revenue growth, and a high
cost and overhead structure. Other characteristics include
fractured relationships with lenders, high inventory levels
with low inventory turnovers and a documented need for
operational improvements.
“Our list is a bit lengthy,” Hamburg admits. “Yet, the
more of those check marks that a business hits, the more
we tend to like them as a potential investment purchase.
This makes us different from other investment firms that
look at historical performance as a gauge to judge future
performance. We tend to look forward with a business –
and look toward what can be created with it.”
Perhaps the most important characteristic on that list is
a quality product offering the ability – proven or unproven
– to capture market share. If a firm has that, Hamburg’s
interest is piqued. Add positioning in an industry with consolidation
potential, and expect that Hamburg and IR are
taking a good long look.
While he regularly approaches a potential investment as
an interested buyer, at other times Hamburg approaches
from the perspective of a CEO looking to take over and run
THE SUIT MAGAZINE - JAN 2015

a business.
In industry terms, it is called a “CEO-driven acquisition.”
“Many times, we find a great CEO – or he or she
finds us – and they have a vision for an industry
with the potential to create substantial value,”
Hamburg explains. “We conduct thorough research,
develop, validate and document an investment
strategy and contact companies because they
fit our strategy and not necessarily because they
are actually for sale at that time.”
Other strategies include seeking businesses that
have a “disruptive technology” but are unable to
effectively market it. IR’s definition of disruptive
technology is a breakthrough invention or innovation
that changes the rules of competition within a
particular industry by being so forward-thinking
that it displaces the rest of the competition by setting
everyone else back to zero.
In this scenario, Hamburg said that velocity is
the key to success.
Much of the time, the disruptive technology is
owned by a small company lacking the experience
or ability to harness explosive market growth.
“We come in and help small companies accelerate
through that growth curve by creating velocity and
the execution of their business plans before the window of
opportunity closes on that breakthrough,” Hamburg said.
Seizing opportunities and fixing “broken” or underperforming
companies are the hallmarks of Hamburg’s
two-decades plus career buying companies.
From July 1985 to March 1993, Hamburg was a senior
manager with New York-based Accenture, where he led
the design and implementation of business turnarounds in
the United States and Europe. In 1993, Hamburg became a
partner with Kidd, Kamm & Company, a firm specializing
in middle market leveraged buyouts.
“I wanted to put myself in the laboratory environment
learning how to acquire businesses,” he said. “But I always
wanted to work for myself. So, three years later, in 1996,
Industrial Renaissance was formed by putting two worlds
together – my operating background and the experience I
had gained in purchasing businesses.”
“The name “Industrial Renaissance” was chosen,” Hamburg
said, “because it symbolizes transformation, rebirth
and rebuilding.” According to Hamburg, that’s what his
firm and the work of its employees are about.
This is best evidenced in the firm’s real estate division.
Hamburg, a master cabinet maker who put himself
through college running a commercial cabinet business, is
also passionate about old brick buildings.
Our mission is to buy and build
successful businesses. We are buyers
and builders of businesses, not
buyers and sellers of businesses. We
are focused on the acquisition of
companies that are underperforming,
or possess a disruptive technology,
where value can be created by
fundamentally transforming the
companies we invest in or the industry
segments in which they compete.
“I am on the lookout for vacant, brick buildings with
good “bones” that can be transformed into income producing,
multi-family and multi-use properties,” he said
with an upbeat voice. “I love working with my hands and
building things. With the financing capabilities that Industrial
Renaissance brings, we can put the entire project together.”
The fact that neither Hamburg, nor anyone working for
IR has ever worked on Wall Street, he considers to be a
major asset for his clients.
“We do not come across as purely financially oriented,”
Hamburg said. “We are highly approachable, normal people.
We come across as operators – and we communicate
with the seller much like we are talking to a fellow team
member.”
.
2140 Sturges Highway
Left Building
Westport, Connecticut
06880, USA
www.indren.com
THE SUIT MAGAZINE p.65

y michael gordon
This is where Healthcare Finance Direct (HFD)
is able to help.
“Patients are more than just a credit score,”
Nancy Coy, the founder of the Bakersfield,
Calif., firm said. “We provide financing for people
when their insurance coverage falls short and when
other sources based solely on credit scores cannot
help.”
Citing the fact that a large percentage of credit reports
in the United States contain errors, Coy said
that her firm relies more on job history to make financing
approvals. HFD is a loan processor working
directly with the accounting side of doctors’ offices
and also with veterinarians. Processing fees do apply,
but the firm does not charge interest on the payment
duration of accounts.
The firm uses what it calls “The Essential Piece Program”
to determine the eligibility of patients seeking
services. It is a simple, one-page application requiring
the standard information: name, address, phone,
employer, pay and social security number. Yet, applicants
should not be scared off by that last requirement.
According to the HFD website, 92 percent of
applicants are approved for financing. Most financing
packages do require a down payment.
This unique financing opportunity doesn’t just help
patients, Coy insisted. It helps doctors as well.
“When you can approve the majority of patients for
financing, you can make a real difference in the bottom
line of a healthcare practice – and change lives,”
Coy said. “Our system does just that, without having
to deal with bankers. My passion is to empower all
types of providers to say to their patients, ‘Yes, you’re
approved.’”
WHEN INSURANCE
FALLS SHORT...
It’s no secret that medical procedures are expensive
and that not all patients have comprehensive insurance
plans. In fact, most plans – including those
covered under the Affordable Care Act – come with
co-payments and deductibles that can range upwards
of thousands of dollars. Combine this with
the credit crunch squeezing many Americans and
the end result is difficulty in not just obtaining, but
also in paying for, procedures such as eye surgery,
dentistry and hearing-related services.
www.healthcarefinancedirect.com
1201 24th Street, Suite B-200,
Bakersfield, CA 93301
Phone: 877-874-3877
THE SUIT MAGAZINE p.65

“Please Hold”
The Cost of Call Center Training
by judy scinta magness
Everyone has experienced the
frustration of trying to settle a
billing or service issue over the
phone. Being placed “on hold” or
transferred from one department to
another, or even being disconnected
without any reason – let alone a resolution
to a problem – is all too common.
While it is easy to blame a customer service representative
on the other end of phone, perhaps inadequate training and
company support are the underlying issues.
Customer Think shared the results of a recent survey by
Benchmark Portal, who interviewed over 5,000 contact center
agents in North America. The reports states that while
over 90 percent of agents gave high marks to their new-hire
training program, just 60 percent “felt their transition from
training to the contact center floor was adequately supported.”
Experts say that that a well-trained customer service staff
can actually save companies money in the long run, and
Michael Lauro, President of Lauro Consulting Inc., (LCI)
agrees. LCI provides professional services and consulting
for contact centers, call centers, customer service and IT help
desks.
“A well-trained staff can reduce abandoned calls, reduce
handle time per call, chats and emails – and it improves customer
satisfaction,” said Lauro, adding that there is different
training for various levels within an organization. “Training
is very important, especially for front-line representatives
who are talking to or interacting online with customers every
day.”
Based in Florida, LCI specializes in designing high performance
contact centers and call centers for its clients using a
method Lauro calls the “Integrated Approach.” This process
includes assessing a client’s current practices and goals as
well as assisting with the design and building of the center.
The last phase is implementation. “Our approach is to stay
with a client after going live to tweak and adjust whatever
is necessary, and to ensure that they have efficient and effective
operations,” said Lauro.
LCI also offers a short assessment entitled a “Focused Appraisal
SM ”, producing either a list of areas with potential opportunities
for improvement, or a high level review of one or
two specific areas of an operation.
www.lauroconsulting.com

y judy scinta magness
RECRUITING FOR THE
HEALTHCARE INDUSTRY
Larry White, President of
Larry White Associates,
Inc., has some sound advice
for job seekers: write
your own resume and save
the expense of having a professional
firm create one for you. His simple and
proven resume format starts with contact
information followed by an education
summary, and a summary of skills
that match the position of interest.
Next comes a chronological listing of
work experience with dates, locations,
responsibilities and accomplishments.
“Any other fluff is worthless,” said
White, adding that honesty is the best
policy. “It has to be honest, because
you’ll get caught if it isn’t. And if you
get caught faking your resume, your
credibility can become permanently
damaged ..”
Based in central Louisiana, Larry
White Associates (LWA), a healthcare
recruiting firm, contracts virtual recruiters
throughout the country who
work exclusively for LWA. The team
searches for candidates to fill positions
for LWA’s direct clients and for their
third party recruiter affiliates, who
have their own clients but need assistance
finding the best people available.
“We don’t contact our affiliates’ clients,”
said White, explaining that his
firm is very fussy about who they take
on as an affiliate partner, because the
recruiting industry is based on trust.
They must have an exemplary ethical
record, a solid client base and an efficient
and productive recruitment process.
According to White, the healthcare
industry continues to grow, even in
the face of Obamacare and other issues.
Uncertainty and fear have dampened
hiring efforts, but he sees a shift
toward the positive. “I think that the
overall effect of Obamacare is going to
be positive. And I don’t see a chance
that the Republicans may get rid of it
at this point. I think they know that,
because there are too many people
who are benefiting from it,” White explained.
Many hospitals and other healthcare
facilities conduct their own candidate
searches to save recruiting expenses
with an outside agency, but frequently
they hit a dead end. “They can’t always
do it on their own,” said White.
“Even an in-house recruiter is limited.
We have access to many database, we
cold call candidates, and we conduct
deep internet searches. which most
healthcare companies and providers
do not.”
LWA also recruits for IT positions
for their healthcare clients and the firm
has just expanded into finance recruiting
with the launch of a new website
geared to this specific niche. They are
also seeking to establish relationships
with recruiting affiliates outside of the
healthcare and financial fields.
Commenting on the need to fully
utilize social media, White noted that
all LWA websites have been recently
redesigned to be “responsive,” meaning
they are mobile-device friendly.
They also integrate with popular social
media platforms so that job postings
receive heavy exposure.
“We are where the candidates are,
including Facebook and LinkedIn,”
said White. “It is a strong contrast from
when I started the firm in 1997, with a
landline telephone and a fax machine.”
www.larry@healthcarejobs.net
www.larry@lwafinancejobs.com
www.healthcarejobs.net
www.lwafinancialrecruiters.com
THE SUIT MAGAZINE - JAN 2015

y andre lehner
INVESTMENTS WITH
A PERSONAL TOUCH
In the often confusing world of investment and financial management, clients of Paul Merritt,
a partner (principal) of NTrust Wealth Management, know that their financial interests
are being protected by a seasoned investment manager who puts their needs before his own.
Merritt, a 21-year veteran of the
U.S. Army, spent a decade
working in a big firm before
opening NTrust in 2009. Being able to
build one-on-one client relationships,
educating clients and helping them
make smart financial decisions are the
top reasons why Merritt says being
independent is so worthwhile. Independence
offers both Merritt and his
clients more flexibility and a broader
array of services than working in one
of the big wire houses ever could.
A great believer in fiduciary responsibility,
Merritt takes his role as
a partner in the client relationship as
seriously as he hopes his clients do.
“I expect the discussion to be us presenting
a series of options and coming
up with the best bet for those clients,”
Merritt said, adding that it is critical
for clients to have the final say in their
investment decisions.
“I take a lot of responsibility for the
recommendations I come up with, but
ultimately it’s the clients’ money,”
he explained. This is why he wants
clients to understand his recommendations
along with all the associated
risks and benefits first, before making
decisions.
When it comes to the SEC implementing
uniform fiduciary standards,
Merritt supports reform but sees both
sides. “I act as a fiduciary for my clients,”
he emphasized, saying that as
an independent, he can put clients’
needs first.
“In publicly traded firms, you have
shareholder interests competing with
client interests. At wire houses it’s
much more difficult, but not impossible,
for advisors to achieve a pure fiduciary
standard,” Merritt explained.
“Conversely, the challenge with
adopting pure fiduciary standards is
that people with limited amounts to
invest, particularly in the retirement
sector, will have a much harder time
getting educated advice.”
Despite an influx of new industry
buzz words, like alpha and beta
risk assessment, Merritt believes in
explaining the choices to his clients
without using excessive jargon. He
is particularly vigilant when it comes
to advising clients nearing retirement
age, explaining that they don’t have
the same recovery time as younger
investors during periods of market
correction. Diversification remains
key, but knowing when to transition
a client to cash is equally important.
“You have to look at everything to
protect clients the best you can – and
to provide a good rate of return without
over-stressing one area of the market,”
he said.
According to Merritt, building those
one-on-one relationships with clients
and getting to know them on a personal
level not only helps him responsibly
grow his practice, but it makes
him a better wealth manager, because
he fully understands the unique needs
of each person sitting across the table.
Securities and Advisor Services offered
through Commonwealth Financial
Network®, Member FINRA/SIPC, a
Registered Investment Advisor
Windwood Centre
780 Lynnhaven Parkway
Suite 190
Virginia Beach, VA 23452
www.ntrustwm.com
THE SUIT MAGAZINE p.69

y peter suciu
A WORLD
OF
COVERAGE
Health Insurance for Home or Abroad
For many individuals confusion still exists over health insurance, especially under the recently
enacted Affordable Care Act (ACA), and being properly informed and insured isn’t easily achieved.
Fortunately, Phil Dougherty, president of OnlyHealthInsurance Marketing and ITG Worldwide Insurance
Agency, helps people find the right coverage to meet health insurance needs whether they’re
looking for domestic insurance in California or international coverage when traveling abroad.
Dougherty cut his teeth in
the world of insurance
shortly after college but
not before pursuing a
different career path. After going
through the Hyatt Regency’s management
training program, he became
a banquet manager. “It was
in banquets that I learned a lot about service, presentation
and the importance of first impressions,” Dougherty told
The Suit Magazine. “Long story short,” he continued, “banquet
management provided me the creative challenges but it
lacked stability.” The elements of the job Dougherty liked fit
well in an unexpected calling – selling insurance. Dougherty
added, “A phone conversation, even about health insurance,
can provide an opportunity for a creative moment.”
The opportunity to enter this industry came from a reliable
source. Dougherty’s father was a successful life insurance
agent and had branched out into individual health insurance
during the 1980s. Phil joined his father in 1991, and together
they continued to grow their health insurance business,
Dougherty Health Insurance Sales.
“We started to grow the domestic health insurance segment
pretty rapidly. It was that market I wanted to expand when
I took over the business from my Dad in 1994,” said Dougherty.
He added that his firm, now called OnlyHealthInsurance
Marketing, is one of the largest producers of individual
and family health insurance, and Medicare supplement sales,
in California. .
Dougherty and his team’s success come from a unique approach
to the business of selling insurance. “It’s more about
educating than selling. Few people need to be convinced they
need health insurance,” he added. Dougherty shared, “What
people want is an honest assessment of the market based
on their personal needs,” he continued, “we’re really good
at deciphering an individual’s needs, offering appropriate
solutions and guiding them through the enrollment process
efficiently.” Dougherty quipped, “For many the task of obtaining
insurance is right up there with a root canal. We take
pride in our ability to make the discussion painless and even
enlightening.”
With the introduction and expansion of health care reform
THE SUIT MAGAZINE - JAN 2015

in California, this approach has made OnlyHealthInsurance
very popular and client referrals continue to be their main
source of business.
But that is just part of the story for Dougherty.
“In an effort to diversify, I started a second agency in 1999
focused exclusively in the international health insurance market,”
he noted. “We found a need that wasn’t being adequately
promoted or addressed. Most travelers are unaware their
domestic plan provides little, if any, coverage while outside
the U.S. and Medicare stops at U.S. borders,” Dougherty explained.
This new venture became ITG Worldwide Insurance Agency.
Dougherty added, “ITG Worldwide is one of the few general
agencies in the world dedicated specifically to international
health and travel medical insurance for individuals and families,
as well as global employers.”
Now a seasoned agency in a niche market, ITG Worldwide
continues to serve individuals and companies engaged in international
travel and long-term expatriate assignments. The
firm has long-standing relationships with the top international
health insurance carriers, and Dougherty stated they can
solve virtually any international insurance need.
Specifically, ITG Worldwide caters to global employers, individual
expatriates, business and leisure travelers, missionaries,
and even students and visiting scholars. Essentially, anyone
who sets foot outside their home country for short-term
travel, work assignments, or living abroad and wants health
insurance benefits that travel with them. Additionally, there
are products for those who want to protect themselves against
financial loss in case of a trip interruption or cancelation.
ITG Worldwide also offers specialized contingent coverage
such as insurance for kidnap and ransom, political evacuation,
or acts of terrorism, as well as coverage in high-risk war
zones. Dougherty added, “There is an ever-growing demand
for these unique products.” Despite the turmoil and tension
around the world – from terror threats in the Middle East to
health warnings in Africa – Dougherty tells The Suit there are
still those who want to see and experience the world firsthand.
ITG Worldwide can provide travelers with peace of mind, including
peace of mind for those traveling to regions that are
anything but peaceful.
“In today’s global economy, traveling abroad has grown tremendously
both for both business and pleasure. With over six
million Americans living in 160-plus countries and over four
million trips abroad per month, the need for international insurance
coverage and global benefits continues to grow.”
International health and travel insurance isn’t limited to
those heading abroad. Travel products are also available for
foreign visitors to the U.S. Whether traveling for vacation,
business, school, or for training purposes, incoming visitors
can purchase plans to help defray the high cost of medical insurance
in the United States.
International insurance gives travelers portability and freedom,”
he noted. “With the right plan, expatriates can get treated
anywhere in the world as well as in the United States. We’re
positioned not only to assist our own clients, but as a managing
general agency, we also support our partner brokers and
affil iate agencies in placing this coverage across the country
and the world.”
Helping clients, and prospective clients, navigate the com-
plexities of the California health insurance marketplace
and international health insurance has been made
simpler through each company’s website, www.OnlyHealthInsurance.com
and www.ITGWorldwide.com.
Both websites offer extensive information about the products
offered and provide self-help and online quoting and
purchasing tools.
“Content is king, as they say, but many people still want
a professional to help them with their specific needs,”
Dougherty emphasized. “Our team of experts, in both the
California individual/family and Medicare market, and
the international insurance market, place the utmost value
on providing our clients with personalized service to
ensure they choose the best plan to meet their insurance
needs.” And, yes, that may include a root canal.
To learn more, visit Dougherty’s websites listed above
and subscribe to his healthcare blog by clicking here. For
the latest information about Medicare and other related
topics, click here to subscribe to his newsletter, JustforSeniors.
International Insurance Specialist
www.itgworldwide.com
www.onlyhealthinsurance.com
500 Professional Center Dr., Ste. 515
Novato, CA 94947
www.ITGWorldwide.com
www.OnlyHealthInsurance.com
THE SUIT MAGAZINE p.71

y david stein
LEASING FINANCING IS A
PROFITABLE PARTNER
David Urban, CEO
Leasing is an option more
business owners are taking
advantage of, as its taxation
advantages remain entrenched in
the tax code. Tighter regulation of
the traditional banking industry
make that type of financing much
more difficult to obtain. According
to the Small Business Administration,
more than 80 percent of small
businesses opt to lease versus buy
all kinds of equipment, ranging
from vehicles to computer systems.
In a recent survey by the Equipment
Leasing Association, 65 percent
of respondents said that their
ability to have the latest equipment
was the number one perceived
benefit of leasing. The second
benefit was the ability to have a
pre-determined monthly line item
to guide future budgets.
Both of the above are reasons
David Urban, CEO and owner of
Lease Finance Partners, says he
hears from the clients served by
his business. Although based in
Wichita, Kansas, he handles transactions
from across the nation.
“I think what we are
seeing is that businesses
are starting to understand
that the traditional bank
cannot do everything,” Urban
said. “Business owners
are seeing the importance
of having a relationship
with the bank and a leasing
company – just as they
have a relationship with
an accountant, an attorney
and an insurance agent – as
part of an overall business
plan. We are seeing a time
now where leasing companies
are becoming part of
that overall plan as well.”
Lease Finance Partners
serves a broad range of customers.
The firm has customers
ranging from those whose only
lease item might be a $5,000
copy machine from one of the
vendors working with his firm,
to a business leasing several
million dollars of equipment
and vehicles.
No matter what size the contract
may be, Lease Finance
Partners uses the same approach
with each client. Urban
emphasized, “We try to be consistent
with all of our customers.”
He looks for customers who
want to build a relationship
with his firm that is more than
just a transaction. Urban wants
clients who are looking to form
a long-term business relationship
that helps them grow their
business – and Urban supplies
the equipment financing needed
to facilitate that goal.
Lease Finance Partners began
in 1959 as Bob Moore Leasing,
supporting a group of auto
dealerships owned by Moore.
When Urban’s stepfather, David
Anderson, left the banking
industry to become president
of Bob Moore Leasing, the company
name was changed to
Dealers Leasing to better reflect
its new mission of supporting
more auto dealerships than just
those owned by Moore. In the
late 1980s, Urban was asked to
join the firm and head up its
newly-formed equipment leasing
division. Two years ago,
Urban purchased the firm and
made yet another name change
to better represent the firm’s
niche in leasing.
“Market segments come and
go,” Urban noted, reflecting the
fact that, although the firm has
dabbled in other types of leasing,
it has remained true to its
ideal of being a partner to business
owners seeking quality,
affordable equipment. “We are
always looking for where we
can fit the niche.”
www.leasefinancepartners.com
THE SUIT MAGAZINE - JAN 2015

y judy sincta magness
While the Securities and
Exchange Commission
(SEC) continues to evaluate
recommendations for establishing
a uniform fiduciary standard
of conduct for investment
advisers and broker-dealers alike,
the owners of Chatham Wealth
Management (CWM) are crystal
clear about their own stance on
the issue. While these SEC-registered
investment advisors are
strong advocates for the Fiduciary
stand that is part of the Dodd-
Frank Wall Street Reform and
Consumer Protection Act of 2010,
they do not agree with many other
parts of the bill.
“All advisors and all brokers
should be held to the same standard
of putting their clients’ interests
before their own,” said Daniel
Moskowitz, president and chief
investment officer of the Chatham,
New Jersey fee-based investment
advisory firm. “Brokers
who currently only have a suitability
hurdle are working hard to
water down this standard. We feel
that any weakening of the current
fiduciary standard does not serve
the public’s interest.”
Building a business model
based on relationships, service
and trust has been the foundation
of Chatham Wealth Management’s
growth. The firm’s portfolio
managers provide unbiased
advice as they involve each client
in a customized financial planning
process. “We’re not trying to
grow our business or our clients’
assets at a rate where we have to
take excessive risk to reach our
goals,” said Moskowitz.
The CWM investment team of
Moskowitz, John Raab, John Lui,
Gregg Shaw and Beth Wahlig has
deep roots in the old trust bank
model, which makes for a deep
bench of talent and experience.
Like the old trust companies, Chatham
Wealth Management builds
customized portfolios consisting
of individual securities to meet
specific client objectives. CWM
A Firm Firduciary Stance
clients have direct access to the investment
professionals who are making decisions
on their behalf. This separates
them further from the model-based,
mutual fund-heavy portfolios that most
advisors are using today. The firm also
feels strongly about the fiduciary standard
because it is built into their DNA.
That is why CWM is a “Fee Only” advisory
firm – meaning they don’t get paid
to sell any products.
With a minimum investment
of $500,000, the
firm’s typical clients are
nearing retirement or
newly retired. Moskowitz
refers to this cohort as “the
sandwich generation”
since many are concerned
with financing their children’s
college education,
as well as handling elder
care issues for aging parents.
As the average client
is now living into their
80’s and beyond, Chatham
Wealth Management has a series
of methods, tests and analyses that can
be run on client portfolios. These tools
provide investors with a clear understanding
of possible scenarios in times
of market stress, along with the likelihood
of attaining their financial goals.
Six years after the economic crisis of
2008, Moskowitz observes that clients
are finally starting to become more comfortable
with risk.
During college, Moskowitz interned
on Wall Street and was fascinated by the
dynamic and fast paced environment on
the floor of the commodities exchange.
After graduation, he worked for Bankers
Trust before joining his stepfather,
John Raab, who started one of the first
fee-only advisory firms in New Jersey at
that time. In 2000, they launched Chatham
Wealth Management
together and Raab
now serves as chairman
emeritus. The firm has
been evolving ever since.
In 2015, Chatham Wealth
Management’s clients can
look forward to an improved
user experience
when accessing the firm’s
website, including viewing
their accounts and
statements in real-time
on an interactive, customized
user-friendly online
platform.
10 Town Square Suite 100
Chatham NJ 07928
800-472-8086
www.chathamwealth.com
THE SUIT MAGAZINE p.73

Built for the road ahead.
Designed for living. Engineered to last.
Vertrek Crossover
w/ Ford’s Kinetic Design
Eco-Boost Engine
Hybrid Regenerative Braking
w/ Auto-Stop-Start Technology

y amy armstrong
BRINGING A NEW
IDEA TO CONSUMERS
All airports have parking. That’s a bit of an obvious statement. People
taking off on a jet plane have to leave their vehicles somewhere, right?
But what about pets? Where do they get to stay when you go away
on vacation or on a business trip? And is this location convenient for
travelers during the mayhem of getting to an airport and getting bags
checked in?
In an expanding trend toward
catering to the needs of travelers
and their four-legged friends, the
developers of on- and off-airport
parking facilities are adding pet
boarding or kenneling to their list of
services. Most pet kennels serving airport
travelers are located near a particular
airport but with only a very few
exceptions, are not actually located on
airport property. Ads state that their
pet facilities “serve xyz airport” or are
“at xyz airport” – but they are not on
the grounds of the airport itself. Some
private companies operate off-airport
for airport parking or on-airport for
pet boarding but not both.
According to PetTravel.com, several
major U.S. destinations now have
parking and pet boarding services in
the same location. Currently, these
locations include Jacksonville, Fla.,
Houston, Charlotte, NC, New Orleans,
Chicago, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Atlanta,
Seattle and Portland, Ore.
It is this trend that Bradley Scott has
noticed and is implementing at his
latest venture: An on-site parking and
pet boarding facility utilizing 64 previously
undeveloped acres at Austin
Bergstrom International Airport. Scott
is an enormously successful entrepreneur
who revolutionized the auto
salvage industry. Beginning in southern
California, he eventually took the
auto salvage company public on NAS-
DAQ and then extended the business
throughout the country before selling
his stock in Insurance Auto Auctions
(IAAI), the firm he created.
Scott is the founder, president and
majority owner of Scott Airport Property,
a subsidiary of Scott Group Investments.
His first airport parking
venture, located in an off-airport site
in Austin, was sold to a national chain
in 2007 just before the stock market
crash. He then developed airport parking
at the first major airport built in the
United States since the terrorist attacks
of 9/11, located in Panama City, Fla.
Not a large market, Scott concedes,
but the experience helped define some
of the issues involved in developing
and operating a facility for a third party,
i.e. in this specific case The St. Joe
Company (NYSE:JOE). Now Scott is
able to apply that experience to his relationship
with the City of Austin.
It didn’t take long for him to look
around the country and notice the pet
boarding trend, too.
Austin Bergstrom officials weren’t
even considering pet boarding, but
Scott asked if he could add services
to his bid, confident the idea was a
winner. He did what he has always
done with new ideas: talked to people
around town to find out what they
thought.
“That is a big part of what being
an entrepreneur is about,” Scott said.
“It is about double checking the ideas
you come up with. Sometimes, as an
entrepreneur, you live in the vacuum
of your mind of previous ventures,
thinking that every idea you come up
with will be a success. But you are better
served if you go out and have mini
focus groups (and plenty of them)
with others in the community who
will be served by your ideas. That is
where you will find out if your idea
might be a winner.”
The resulting Scott Airport Property
project, called Parking Express for
Austin airport parking customers, is
an on-airport property. The 24/7 pet
boarding facility – branded The Pet
Hotel – will be located on-site at Austin
Bergstrom International Airport,
making it the only combined on-site
airport parking and pet hotel business
operation in the US.
The first phase of the new Scott
Parking facility at the Austin airport is
expected to open during the first quarter
of 2016. At about the same time,
Scott and his wife Tiffany Thurston
Scott (pictured together above) plan
to launch their charitable foundation
supporting causes ranging from college
and high school athletics to academic
research.
299 South Main St # 1300
Salt Lake City, UT 84111
Phone: (801) 532-7599
THE SUIT MAGAZINE p.75

Accountants Take on an
Advisory Role
James Hamilton, a
partner at Chicago-based
accounting
firm Weiss & Company,
isn't just looking
to file your tax return
this year. He's hoping to develop a
relationship that, along with the regular
IRS business, will include longterm
business involving more than
just quarterly or annual filing. This
client relationship includes advisory
notices about changing laws, as well
as best practices information through
a monthly newsletter and regular contact.
Many people think of an accountant
as someone who does nothing
more than put together a tax return.
But for businesses, an accountant can
offer more than just that one service.
While an accountant or accounting
firm, can help keep businesses up-todate
on new rules and laws, in Hamilton's
case, as a generalist, he is able to
offer advice to clients on a wide range
of concerns. “I come in some days and
handle international questions for my
clients – and some days I'm just handling
a regular payroll issue here in
THE SUIT MAGAZINE - JAN 2015
Chicago,” said Hamilton. At Weiss &
Company, he enjoys the dynamic nature
of working with the widely varying
needs of his clients.
“I like being in public accounting,”
Hamilton told the Suit Magazine in
an interview. “I like helping different
types of clients with all kinds of problems.
I like being a trusted advisor to
people and have them call me about
everything from a personal issue to a
business issue.”
As a public accounting firm, Weiss
& Company has adapted to the evolution
of the industry, as well as to new
technologies such as social media, yet
the firm still holds on to some important
traditional approaches, like phone
calls and personal meetings.
“I can have a 15-minute phone conversation
with [clients] and we can get
to some of their concerns,” Hamilton
said.
On the social media side, the firm
issues a monthly newsletter via email,
sending updates more frequently when
necessary. The firm also uses texts as a
form of communication when appropriate.
Those forms of communication
are well suited for quick requests and
approvals, but cannot replace direct
contact. “You can learn a lot more by
listening to [clients],” said Hamilton.
Email, texting and social media has
made Weiss & Company more available
to clients. “There's a lot more
coming through email and texts, and
with that we have clients contacting us
24 hours a day, seven days a week,”
Hamilton explained. “Whereas before,
you generally would get the call
on Monday morning, now they're not
waiting for that. As soon as something
comes to mind, they want to let us
know about it.”
According to Hamilton, those urgent
contacts – or even possibly casual
ones – are indeed quite welcome, and
can also open the lines up for a larger
dialog on the phone to bring up and
tackle troubling issues directly.
2700 Patriot Boulevard, Suite 400
Glenview, Illinois 60026
www.weisscpa.com

y michael gordon
CALCULATED RISK
Beats Inflation’s Wealth Erosion
I
If there is one trend that has remained constant since the
nation’s emergence from the Great Recession’s market
corrections of 2007 to 2009, it is that today’s investors
do not merely desire transparent transactions from their
financial advisers – they expect such.
“People have become disenchanted with the constant
marketing, the push toward sales of products and a lack of
transparency that still pervades too much of this industry,”
Phil Bollin believes.
As president of his own firm,
Bollin Wealth Management
based in Perrysburg,
Ohio, Bollin’s statement can’t only
be accredited to his status as a
Midwesterner. He is talking from
the perspective of a financial adviser
whose career in the financial services
industry began as a broker. He
himself became disenchanted with
the approach he was told to take with
clients, becoming more of a sales
person than working as a consultant
who could help clients identify the
best strategies and products for
their personal investing goals. After
starting Bollin Wealth ten years ago,
he hasn’t looked back since.
“The people seeking out our firm
are people who want a Certified
Financial Planner; they want
somebody who is fee-only in terms
of their compensation, because that
is transparent and allows for a more
holistic approach,” Bollin noted.
He actively seeks out clients who
are willing to be coached away from
what Wall Street has drummed into
investors for more than 80 years.
Bollin admits it is difficult work to
retrain an investor well enough to
overcome preconceived notions of
being active, trend-driven traders
rather than long-term, moderately
passive investors who are willing to
ride out market corrections.
“Yet that attitude is what is
required for a successful transition
from wealth accumulation during the
working years to wealth preservation
through retirement, as well as being
prepared for a wealth transfer to
the next generation or a charitable
interest at life’s end,” Bollin said.
“What we found is the clients
that are most successful and able
to retain the lifestyle they wish to
live were able to maintain it if they
also maintained their investment
discipline, even during severe market
corrections. If they did not panic
and move everything to cash or go
completely conservative, they were
fine,” Bollin explained. “Markets
rebound. It does take some time and
it may not be overnight, but within
two to four years, clients had earned
back everything they lost and then
some, and were further ahead than if
they had waited for that alarm to get
back into the market – which no one
is ever ringing anyway.”
He recognizes that it takes
perseverance to remain invested
when markets are down. But he also
knows it takes coaching from him
and a few short trips down memory
lane with clients when markets are
up. Without assuming any risk, there
is no gain, he explains to clients –
especially those in retirement.
“Retirees face a higher level of
inflation than most of us working
people because of the extremely
high rate of inflation for health care,”
Bollin said. “My clients quickly
begin to understand that risk and
reward are related and that by
taking a smart and reasoned risk
with their portfolio, we can also
provide a measure of safety through
diversification.”
www.bollinwealth.com
THE SUIT MAGAZINE p.77

y felix bedea
HELP ANYONE WHO COMES TO YOU...
Despite a slow economic recovery – one that makes turtle racing look
speedy – there remains a contingency of investment advisers who won’t
budge from enforcing client minimums. They adhere to the traditional,
even as other money managers opt for a more flexible approach in regard
to the subject of just how much money a new client ought to bring to the
investment table.
Damian Bell, a founding manager
and partner with Rockbridge
Wealth Management
in Daphne, Alabama, is one
of those more flexible financial advisers.
He admits that he and partner,
Mark Baggerly, revisit this question at
least once a year, particularly after going
to training conferences, hearing yet
another so-called “expert” tell attendees
about the importance of establishing
client minimums.
“We just keep coming back to the
fact that some of our very best clients
came to us with less than what most of
the recommended minimums are,” Bell
said. “We came to the conclusion that
we are a better firm – and better people
– when we agree to help whoever comes
to us. We help anyone who comes to us,
no matter what the account size is.”
Bell began his career in financial planning
in 1992 when the branch manager
of the financial services firm he used for
his own retirement savings encouraged
Bell to visit the offices – not as a client,
but for a job interview.
Bell was in auto sales at the time. His
friends, family – and even his wife discouraged
him. At 37 years old, they told
him, it was too late to start another career
from scratch. But when he met with
the branch manager, Bell quickly discovered
that he had a great deal of interest
in the financial services industry.
He decided to prove them all wrong.
Initially joining Prudential Securities, a
mere two years later Bell went to work
for Merrill Lynch, where he met Baggerly.
The pair worked together as a
team at Merrill Lynch for several years
before deciding to form their own independent
firm in 2001. Shortly thereafter,
Bell said that the pair were able to add
an office manager. Today, three other
advisers work for Rockbridge clients.
“We feel blessed every day that we
made the decision to run our own firm
and to take care of our clients in the
fashion that we do,” Bell related.
That fashion includes “the plain, unvarnished
bottom-line truth,” no matter
how bleak the immediate situation appears.
It included some very frank discussions
during the recent Great Recession
from 2007 to 2009, when markets
dropped precipitously. “Contrary to
other advisory firms, Rockbridge grew
during that tumultuous time period,”
Bell told The Suit.
“We were getting so many referrals
from our existing clients,” Bell said.
“The one recurring theme was that
these prospective clients understood
that markets can drop and that there are
risks – but that their adviser at the time
was simply not communicating with
them. People just want to be informed
of what is happening.”
Learn more about Rockbridge Wealth
Management online at www.rockbwm.
com.
9812 Millwood Circle
Daphne, AL 36527
www.rockbwm.com
THE SUIT MAGAZINE - JAN 2015

y felix bedea
Process Drives Investment Firm Growth
W. Edwards Deming, American scholar and quintessential business consultant,
once said, “If you can't describe what you are doing as a process,
you don't know what you're doing.”
Russ Piazza, president and portfolio manager of
Front Street Capital Management, Inc., as a Registered
Investment Advisor, has built his firm by
following this Deming principle. Instead of setting
goals, he developed a management structure based on
mastering process.
“Deming’s concept was that – if you start focusing on
goals – there is a big incentive to try to take shortcuts. Every
day we try to make our process as good as it can be,
and the thought is, if we do that,
then the results are going to be
as good as they can be. If you are
process-oriented, you learn every
day,” Piazza explained.
Front Street Capital Management
provides management services
for personal accounts, IRA
and retirement assets, 401(k)
plans, trusts and foundations.
Their primary investments include
stocks, mutual funds and
bonds. Clients of the Missoula,
Montana-based firm have one
thing in common with each
other – they subscribe to a longterm
perspective on investing.
“Unless you are investing long-term, you are not investing
– you are just speculating,” said Piazza.
Most clients come to Front Street by referral. New clients
go through what Piazza calls a “gauntlet process,” which
is the firm’s first step in building a trust-based client-advisor
relationship. Before any money is invested on behalf
of the client, the team at Front Street thoroughly discusses
everything that can possibly go wrong in the future,
and they help clients understand investing concepts and
strategies such as volatility and risk, and the difference between
them.
Since the Great Recession, which Piazza refers to as “the
financial panic,” interest rates have dropped to their lowest
level in decades, and he says that the greatest risk right
now is in fixed income securities. “It’s a bubble of somewhat
biblical proportions,” he said.
“Everyone is looking for risk in the rearview mirror as
to what occurred with both the housing situation and the
stock market in 2008 and 2009. If you look through the
windshield, it is obvious that the next risk people don’t
understand is associated with interest rates and fixed income
securities,” explained Piazza. “The last time that interest
rates peaked was 1982, so people have no memory
of interest rate risk, and no understanding of it to speak of.
That’s the greatest challenge going forward when working
with clients.”
Front Street Capital Management
founded the Tarkio Fund,
a no-load mutual fund, based
upon its investment criteria
used over the previous 25 years
of managing portfolios. Front
Street serves as the Investment
Advisor to the Fund and believes
its future is focused on
the Fund’s success. According
to the fund overview, the Advisor
“pursues long-term capital
appreciation for its shareholders
with a disciplined bottom
up, fundamental approach to
identify attractive equity investments
based on quality and price.” With its $2,500 minimum
investment, this fund attracts young professionals
just starting their investment careers, who Piazza feels are
under-served as a market.
www.frontstreetcap.com
www.tarkiofund.com

y felix bedea
Finding the Errors
Expense Reports: Duplicate, Errant or Fraudulent?
While recent announcements
of hacking and
cyber theft at large
companies have become commonplace,
one organization is
helping companies identify and
prevent fraud by taking a closer
look at their travel and expense
(T&E) data and reports. By
applying forensic analytics to
expense report data and delivering
instant access to specific
insights that translate the findings
to plain language actions,
Oversight Systems is able to
help non-technical financial
executives and their teams
prevent, pinpoint and reduce
fraudulent activity, as well as
correct inevitable, innocent errors.
According to the analyst firm,
IDC, only a small fraction of
business people use powerful
analytics tools as part of their
decision making today. Oversight
intentionally designed its
sophisticated analytics to be
easy to acquire and use, and a
good place to start seeing immediate
results is in the area of
T&E.
In a recent benchmark report,
the company conducted
an analysis of billions of dollars
worth of travel and expense reports
from clients amounting to
roughly 10 million individual
T&E expense line items. From
this data, Oversight Systems'
Insights on Demand found .75
percent duplicate items across
the analysis. 10 percent of the
160,000 travelers analyzed for
the report had at least one duplicate
item on an expense report.
“Certainly a portion of the
activity we uncover is innocent
mistakes,” said Oversight Systems'
CEO Patrick Taylor. “We
will find with any company,
hundreds of thousands of dollars
worth of duplicates, even
when some are unintentional,”
Taylor adding, “of course if we
see a pattern, if it happens more
than once, it's probably worth
digging into to see if there is
something there – and, at the
very least this encourages employees
to change their work
habits and creates an environment
of accountability.”
Taylor warned that at other
times, finding errors in expense
reports could mean that
something nefarious might be
happening. “It's very often a
smoking gun for other issues,”
Taylor told The Suit Magazine.
In one case, Insights on Demand
pointed to an employee
submitting a number of expenses,
while further investigation
showed he was also stealing
goods from company loading
docks.
Beyond T&E, Insights on
Demand currently analyzes financial
data in two other areas:
purchase cards and accounts
payable. Companies can choose
one area or all three. Insights on
Demand then looks at company
data under the microscope
to identify trends, patterns and
suspicious claims.
“We look for fraudulent issues,
for example, suspicious
out-of-pocket expenses and/or
duplicate submissions,” said
Taylor. “We encourage clients
to think first about which of
these are the most meaningful
and if acted on, could positively
impact their organizations
and often
after they get started
they realized
just how expensive
it is for them to not
monitor expenses on an ongoing
basis. Our hope is that companies
can leverage this type of
analysis to make a difference at
their organizations.”
Data are typically analyzed
monthly. Originally, Oversight
Systems wanted to analyze client
data more frequently, such
as weekly or daily, but found
that typically, clients' time constraints
dictated monthly time
allotments for reviewing expense
claims made by employees.
Recognizing that monthly
reports fit the cadence of business
life, Oversight Systems
then integrated the time frame
into Insights on Demand.
“Historically we would have
been pushing the point of using
the analysis continuously
and saying, ‘Let's go find real-time;
let's nip that problem
in the bud,’ ” said Taylor. “All
of that is intellectually correct,
but when we went to an on-demand,
cloud-based analysis
model meaning zero software
is installed, we found that it
made the most sense and fit
better into their business for our
customers to get analysis once a
month.”
Getting started with data
analysis, no matter what the
frequency is or how much data
exists, isn’t as intimidating and
difficult as people think. With
the right tools, data analysis is
easy and can quickly provide
insights that can be used to
identify fraud, save money and
impact positive change in an organization.
www.oversightsystems.com
TAYLORPatrick
THE SUIT MAGAZINE - JAN 2015

y judy scinta magness
Helping Auto Dealerships
with CFPB Compliance
In 2010, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
(CFPB) was established as an independent
U.S. government agency in response to the country’s
economic collapse two years earlier. Regulations
for finance and insurance (F&I) services
provided by auto dealerships offering car loans
to their customers fall under its jurisdiction.
Kevin Halverson is president of Vantage Finance,
LLC, a consulting firm providing turnkey F&I services
to small- and medium-sized auto dealerships who do
not have an internal F&I department, or who are already
partnered with outside lenders. Halverson said
that, while the dealerships that Vantage works with
are pros at helping consumers find the car best suited
to their individual needs, dealership owners don’t have
the background, staff or time to maintain compliance
with the heavily regulated F&I industry.
“That’s where we can step in and help them with CFPB
compliance, and we keep their customers right there at
the dealership instead of watching them leave to find
another funding source. Ultimately, we are helping to
make the dealership more profitable,” said Halverson.
He observed that many dealerships are unaware of how
many sales have been lost due to potential customers
interrupting the sales cycle, to check funding options at
local banks and credit unions.
“There is a degree of understanding of what the CFPB
is wanting on every deal, and we have found that the independent
car dealerships may not have complete comprehension.
We handle all that for them. We are taking
care of the adverse action, the risk-based pricing and are
taking all the appropriate steps,” Halverson noted.
Based in Omaha, Vantage Finance does not pre-qualify
buyers, but it does look at their credit and then works
with an appropriate lender who determines where the
rate needs to be. “We control the rate from the bank and
we don’t allow the dealer to mark it up. We make sure
everything is consistent. If anything deviates from what
we get back from the bank, we document everything
and do that on behalf of the dealer. We are hands-on
for the dealer, who doesn’t understand the compliance
world,” said Halverson, adding that his clients do not
pay monthly fees or have the overhead expenses of a
traditional F&I operation.
Vantage Finance offers their clients the benefits of a
full line of national lenders. The firm, with its approach
to protecting both dealerships and consumers, has built
a loyal base of dealerships.
Halverson said that his goal is to have 1,000 committed
dealers by the close of 2015. As the country’s economy
is rebounding, he has observed an increase in dealership
auto sales – and, since Vantage Finance launched
in 2009, it has continued to grow every year.
17410 Burt St. Ste. B
Omaha, Nebraska 68118
www.vantagefinance.com
THE SUIT MAGAZINE p.81

MANUAL FILING
SYSTEMS KEEP
COMPANIES
ORGANIZED
While computers have taken over the bulk of document processing, there remains some business
organizational needs that can only can be met through the use of more traditional formats.
by felix badea
While most companies keep
track of their customers
with computer programs,
many still prefer the old-fashioned
manual filing system. Anyone who
has checked into a hotel has seen it: a
metal box with dividers, cards for each
guest, and color-coded tabs for easy
retrieval.
Yet there is still a company that
sells such systems: Finance Business
Forms which even in this electronic
age, continues to successfully market
easy-to-use organizing products to
accountants, banks, car dealerships,
cemeteries, doctors, finance companies,
hotels, lawyers, medical offices, savings
and loan companies, schools and rental
stores — and even to individuals who
want to organize their files, media, or
Bibles.
Even Fortune 500 companies that are
“card-less” still use the manual filing
system for problem accounts that need a
lot of follow-up, explained Fran Griffin,
who has been CEO of FBF since 1988.
Finance Business Forms’ first products
were legal forms for loan companies
and banks, which the founder, Dan
Griffin personally designed and printed
in the company’s own print shop. As a
sideline product, Griffin developed a
system of organizing customer files by
the use of index tabs affixed on ledger
cards in a metal box that separates clients
by either the last two digits of their
account number or by last name.
Sales of the manual filing system
overtook the production of loan forms
by the 1970s. The concept of a visual
identification system attached to the
top of ledger cards or file folders was
revolutionary. Griffin even sold the
idea to car repair shops (and oil change
dealers) who loved the idea of affixing
a color-coded tab to their customer’s
windshield so that they could be
identified as they were driving in.
Unlike labels which lie flat on a folder,
index tabs (or “Finance Tabbies” as they
call them at FBF) have a clear plastic
extension that props them up from the
surface, so they can be immediately seen
in a posting tray or file drawer.
Finance Business Forms has many
kinds and styles of index tabs, including
color-coded numerical tabs, alphabetical
tabs, solid color flag tabs, gold-edged
Bible tabs, medical, and legal tabs —and
even write-on tabs of different widths
and color schemes.
“Our customers are happy that we
still offer a complete manual filing
system,” Fran Griffin explained. “It’s
not easy to find the green pressboard
dividers, and the sturdy metal posting
trays these days.”
It was the company’s founder, Dan
Griffin, who came up with the clear and
simplistic boxes in today’s loan forms
that let the consumer know exactly
what the total cost of their loan and
the annual percentage rate will be. He
presented his design to the U.S. Senate
Banking Committee during hearings
on Truth-in-Lending legislation years
ago. The Senate subsequently made
this clear display mandatory on all
loan forms. As a result, Senator Jake
Garn (R-UT), Chairman of the Senate
Banking Committee, praised Griffin as
an “innovator in the industry.”
“Following this tradition of simple
efficiency, Finance Business Forms
continues today to provide color-coded
tabs and filing equipment that help
businesses quickly and easily locate
their customers’ files — and keep paper
records organized,” FBF CEO Fran
Griffin concluded.
See product photos and more
information at www.financetabbies.com
www.financetabbies.com
THE SUIT MAGAZINE - JAN 2015

Adapting to ACA with Technology
BY ENID BURNS
Shopping for insurance is both
time-consuming and confusing.
Insurance brokers such as
San Diego-based Auerbach &
Gussin, use experience to reduce time
and cost, as well as to find the right fit
for the company or individual seeking
insurance. The firm works with clients
on individual and family plans, company
health insurance plans, life and
disability insurance, as well as busi-
ness insurance.
“My clients rely on me for my knowledge
and expertise to tell them what's
going on and what they need to do,”
Craig Gussin, president of Auerbach
& Gussin Insurance and Financial Services,
told the Suit Magazine in an interview.
Auerbach & Gussin advises clients
on a range of insurance plans, such as
health, disability and life insurance. The
firm also deals in business insurance,
to help companies when a proprietor
becomes disabled or dies. In addition,
Auerbach & Gussin works with individuals
ready to retire, or families seeking
elder care advice.
Those retiring at age 65 or older are
able to use Medicare and purchase a
supplemental plan to cover the gaps.
“Those retiring before the age of 65
have to take a very hard look at the
cost of health insurance,” advises Gussin.
“You're going to have to pay for all
of it,” he said. “In today's world, you
may pay a premium of $500 a month or
more, as opposed to the $100 a month
you paid when you were working and
the employer paid the difference. You
need to be aware of that.”
Recent legislation, such as the Affordable
Care Act, has signaled a change for
brokers. “The negative aspect of it was
that, when it came to our business, they
reduced what agents were paid by almost
50 percent,” Gussin explained.
Some agencies just stopped servicing
these clients or they left the individual
health insurance market.
Instead, Auerbach & Gussin deployed
technology to increase efficiency and
continue operations at the same rates
as before. That efficiency is passed on to
the client, and the firm aims to pick up
more clients as the open enrollment for
ACA plans takes place in November.
Better technology and electronic communications
with clients helps the firm
reach a broader audience.
Gussin said, “We did that to increase
our broker business and also to help
more people.”
4330 La Jolla Village Drive #330
San Diego, CA 92122
(800) 287-4467
Corp Lic. #0E24650
www.auerbachandgussin.com
THE SUIT MAGAZINE p.83

Investing in What They Know
by enid burns
Private equity firms often focus on specific sectors such as
technology or manufacturing. One firm, Consumer Growth
Partners, looks specifically at specialty and consumer products.
Consumer Growth Partners counts a number of retail
companies in its portfolio, such as Wild Things Gear, Peruvian
Connection, B Cellars (vineyards and winery) and Harris
Originals jewelry.
“First, we focus on investing exclusively in specialty retail
and non-perishable, branded consumer products companies,”
explained managing partner Richard Baum. “We
know what we know and we steer clear of everything else.”
Baum and his partners founded Consumer Growth Partners
in 2005 after the founders worked together on the Build-
A-Bear IPO. All three partners focused on investments in the
consumer retail sector.
“We have specific investment criteria against which we
invest, but in terms of ‘qualities’ we like clients who, like
ourselves, know what they know – and, just as importantly,
know what they don't know and where they need help,”
Baum said.
Many of the firm's target investments include family-owned
businesses. “Frequently these are well established
companies that have grown as far as the family or the founder
either wants to or can,” explained Baum. “They are ready
for some sort of liquidity event but the concept still has a lot
of growth left in it.”
Most investments are held for between three and five
years, although that length
can vary, depending on the
market.
While investing in its portfolio
is the main goal for
Consumer Growth Partners,
sometimes the firm takes on
an advisory role. “An increasingly important aspect of our
work has been to serve as strategic advisor to a company
that may not quite be ready to take in outside institutional
capital but clearly intends to do so,” said Baum. “On a
selective basis, we work closely with these companies to
help them develop and execute important strategies and/or
strengthen their infrastructure in a variety of ways so they
will be well positioned to take in outside investors when the
time is right.”
445 Hamilton Avenue, Suite 1102,
White Plains, NY 10601
Tel: 914-220-8337
www.consumergrowth.com