Issue 76

Issue 76
JAN 2017
2016 EDITORS
CHOICE
The Real Deal
Tilman Fertitta: Billion Dollar Buyer
Rising Dragon Hidden Dangers
Investing in Vietnam Enormous Potential
Penny Parasites
Wall Street Institutions & Regulators
The Shaman of Wall Street
Redefining The Investment Experience
publishers note
ISSUE 76 | JAN 2017
Publisher
Erwin E. Kantor
Managing Editor
Michael Gordon
Editor in Chief
Helen Moss
Editorial
Robert Jordan
Sean Goldstein
Rachel Feinstein
Peter Greenberg
Sam Jones
Writer-at-Large
L.A. Rivera
Staff Writers
Robert Jordan
A. Marie Velthuizen
Jude Scinta
Matthew D. Edward
Amy M. Armstrong
Annabelle Preston
A.M. Lehner
Contributors
Steven Selengut
Illustrators
Paul Kales
Steve Delmonte
Steve Smeltzer
Norman Jung
Marketing / Advertising
Sean Rome
Eric Daniels
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 Unicorns are Coming
or the past 50 years, technology has

changed the world. And now the
Unicorns are coming with a brand-newcorporate swagger. Take for example,
RapidSOS, a high-tech company that
is making big headlines globally in the
international market.
The two founders, Michael Martin and
Nick Horelik, have created a tremendous
company with a mission to transform a 911
emergency communication system, take a
look reporter Judy Scintas cover story on
page 22.
Another company thats altering the
hi-tech paradigm is Airbnb. Founder Brian
Chesky is opening doors to strangers
goldmine, the online marketplace for listing
and booking accommodations around
the world, pitching his idea of sharing an
airbed-in-his-living-room concept with
20 angel investors in 2008. According to
Chesky, half of them didnt return his
emails. Read the report on page 8.
Then there are the paradigm shifters,
who are leading the steam toy trend,
connecting the dots and youll find that
Debbie Sterling is a real trendsetter in the
toy industry, read our story on page 12.
Certainly, Social Security changes are in
store for 2016. According industry analysts,
chances are good that the Social Security
you experience in retirement wont be
anything like a clich. Perhaps, as corny

as it may be, it is apropos of the changes
coming to the national economic safety net
this year.
In the corporate world, your emotional
IQ matters. How to increase your
leadership development programs
designed to increase emotional intelligence
have matured during the last 15 years.
So why havent we seen a big change in
the way executives relate to one another.
Despite reading books and articles, taking
assessments and attending seminars,
leaders still lean toward old habits. Read
our story on page 19.
Lastly, most investment errors are caused
by misconceptions about securities and
invalid performance expectations, when
markets are totally unpredictable, but they
do have consistent cyclical patterns that can
be dealt with productively. Read our story
about the ten investment risk minimizers in
The Suit Magazine.
Happy New Year,
Erwin Kantor
Erwin Kantor, Publisher
Issue 76
CONTENTS
JAN 2017
JAN 2017
2016 EDITORS
CHOICE
The Real Deal
Billion Dollar Buyer
Investing in Vietnam Enormous Potential
Penny Parasites
Redefining The Investment Experience
The Infrastructure of The World

Jmmy Wales, founder of the worlds most popular online encyclopedia
Imagine a world in which every single person on the planet is given free
access to the sum of all human knowledge. Thats how Jimmy Wales
describes his vision for Wikipedia, one of the Internets most popular and
frequently visited sites.
FEATURES
10
Shark With A Heart
Mark Cuban, billionaire investor and philanthropist

balances investing with giving. Self-made billionaire
and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban might have
built an empire through shrewd business acumen,
but the Shark Tank co-stars brash bite often hides his
softer side.
12
Stephen Klasko Embracing Innovation
If embracing innovation could be written on a prescription

pad, Stephen Klaskos pen would go dry doling it out as
the treatment plan for what ails todays medical systems.
14
22
24
30
20
The Rise of the Deluxe Corporation
Penny Parasites

Class Action Suit: Cause of Action Number Three
p.4
THE SUIT MAGAZINE - JAN 2017
Redefining the Investment Experience
Sustainable Lifestyles
Everything was going fine between banks and their

customers for years.
The Real Deal: Tillman Firtatta
Tilman Fertitta, CEO of Fertitta Entertainment, Inc. and Jim Ackerman, executive vice president of CNBCs evening line-up, had
been talking for some time about creating a concept
A california real estate firm goes green, attracting international investors. Fifty percent of carbon emissions in this country
come from buildings. Not coal-fired power plants or factories, but the regular glass and steel office buildings people
work in, and the concrete and wood homes they inhabit.
16
Investing in Vietnam holds enormous potential, but can trap the unwary
10
BUSINESS / FINANCE
34 Taking Money Off THE STREET
Wisconsin wealth managers build true relationships with clients
37 Ramen and Peanut Butter Dreams:

Helping his clients live their dream
38 Conscience - Based Investing
Investing in sustainable, ethical business doesnt kill returns
40 Transitioning Within Retirement
Its not just about a comfortable beach chair, its about supporting change
44 Retirement Planning? Think Taxes
Western New York advisors take unorthodox approach to help clients thrive
48 Technology to The Rescue
Wisconsin firm uses early warning system to protect client wealth
50 Retirement Planning Beyond the Numbers

Funding the nest egg is only the first step to a successful retirement
52 Does Your Advisors Really Know You

if not, neither one of you are stepping up
Every Dollar Counts

54
Dont leave any possible monetary gains on the table
56 Adapting to a Changing World

A concierge boutique-type services
57 Presenting The Case

Schuyler Roche Crisham LLP
Trump Vs. Trump
THE SUIT MAGAZINE EDITORS PICK
THE INFRASTRUCTURE OF THE WORLD JIMMY WALES
FOUNDER OF THE WORLDS MOST POPULAR ONLINE ENCYCLOPEDIA

BY ANDREA LEHNER
Imagine a world in which every single person on the planet is given free access to
the sum of all human knowledge. Thats how Jimmy Wales describes his vision for
Wikipedia, one of the Internets most popular and frequently visited sites.
wned by Wales nonprofit organization, Wikimedia Foundation,

Inc., Wikipedia thrives because of
collaborative editing. That means
a vast community of volunteers, donors, and
users keep the content fresh, informative and
accessible.
For Wales, keeping the content free was
of paramount importance. Wikipedias free
licensing model allows anyone, including
entrepreneurs to repurpose site content for
their own benefit. Overcoming the digital
divide the gap in Internet connectivity,
device ownership, and technological fluency
between the rich and poor empowers people to make better choices regardless of background, education, wealth, or location. Free,
accurate content can help the poor overcome
the divide. Wikipedia currently has more
than 41 million articles available and is published in 288 languages worldwide, although
English articles are most common.
Wikipedia is part of the infrastructure
of the world, Wales said. Considering that
Wikipedia was founded in 2000 the same
year most of todays high school juniors were
born we are now seeing an entire generation raised on a diet of collaboratively edited
articles and information pages. Wikipedia
has become their go-to for homework assignments and research. Wales, a 50-year-old
Alabama native who now lives in London
was educated in the self-directed Montessori
approach, which gives students a choice of
learning activities within a prepared environment. For Wales, this included reading
encyclopedias lots of them and created
an appreciation for the value free access to
knowledge can provide.
p.8
Wales studied finance before founding

Wikipedia, entering a doctoral program but
later withdrawing before graduation. He has
since received several awards and honorary
degrees, and serves on a number of research
and academic advisory boards. TIME
Magazine included Wales on their 2006 100
Most Influential People list of scientists and
thought leaders.
Wales has overcome continued doubt over
Wikipedias validity, with critics charging
that a collaboratively edited site will be
infested with bias, factual errors, and false
information.
There has been lots of research on the
accuracy of Wikipedia, and the results are
mixed some studies show it is just as good
as the experts, other show [that] Wikipedia is
not accurate at all, Harvard Business School
professor Feng Zhu told Forbes in 2015.
Zhu, a technology and operations professor,
chronicled in a paper the rise and fall of the
Encyclopedia Britannica, which many argue
Wikipedia supplanted.
While critics claim the site cannot be accurate, Wales vision of a peer-reviewed, volunteer-run model has proven far more reliable
than naysayers care to admit. The scientific
journal Nature compared Wikipedia and
Britannica in a 2005 study and found them
both to contain roughly the same number of
factual errors.
Thats because a devout community of
contributors takes pride in ensuring the website provides factual information, accurate
and thorough source citations, civil discourse, and above all, fun. The sites editing
processes and protections have undoubtedly
contributed to its success, which currently
boats 5.6 million page views per hour.

Beyond managing Wikipedia, Wales also
remains an ardent advocate of freedom of
information and expression. He continues to
fight speech and Internet restrictions under
oppressive governments through his UKbased non-profit, the Jimmy Wales Foundation. Wales started the foundation in 2015 to
assist imprisoned bloggers and activists.
When speaking about Wikipedias global
web presence at the BBVA Compass Bright
Perspectives Forum, Wales jokingly pondered what people who dont visit the site at
least once a month are doing online.
How do you avoid it? Its right there with
almost every search in Google, Wales said.
Much of this, Wales explained, is attributed to non-information seeking web users
those who only use the internet to communicate with friends and family or to make
online purchases. The greater concern, he
added, is increase in mobile technology and
users who predominantly only use mobile
devices to access the web.
The challenge, he explained, is not in reading Wikipedia on mobile devices, but rather
from the contributor side writing and
editing for mobile is a different game from
desktop publishing. Wales said the site still
needs to adapt more effectively to mobile
technology. The shift to mobile is huge,
he said, adding that Wikipedia recently saw
a landmark moment when over half of its
daily visitors came through mobile browsers. Fortunately for us thats mostly been
additive. We arent losing desktop traffic. We
are getting more traffic.
www.immywales.com
JIMMY WALES,
CEO AND FOUNDER
OF WIKIPEDIA
THE SUIT MAGAZINE JAN p.9
SHARK WITH A HEART - MARK CUBAN
BILLIONAIRE INVESTOR AND PHILANTHROPIST

BALANCES INVESTING WITH GIVING
BY ANDREA LEHNER
Self-made billionaire and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban might

have built an empire through shrewd business acumen, but the Shark
Tank co-stars brash bite often hides his softer side.
uban, a Pittsburgh native

from a middle class home,
made his first millions
selling bootstrapped
tech start-ups MicroSolutions and
Broadcast.com in the 1990s. Now
known for being an outspoken,
keen venture capitalist and probing
investor on Shark Tank, Cuban also
is an active philanthropist.
Cuban donates to a diverse range
of charitable causes. Through the
Mark Cuban Foundation, he provides support and funding for cancer research, disaster relief, education and patent law reform. Cubans
support for wounded veterans
prompted him in 2013 to found the
Fallen Patriot Fund. The fund has
awarded more than $5million in
grants, and solicited donations from
third parties, to assist the families of
veterans wounded or killed during
the Iraq War.
Even before Cuban created
his own foundation, giving back
accompanied the entrepreneurs
growing success. One of his earliest
philanthropic interests was Junior
Achievement a charity that
partners with local businesses to
teach financial readiness, entrepreneurship, and other skills to school
children which he credits with
preparing him during high school
to reach his adult goals.
But writing checks isnt Cubans
style. Despite his considerable
giving, Cuban told Reuters recently
p.10
that he finds charities inefficient,

and often burdened with too much
overhead. Cuban prefers a more
hands-on approach, he said.
Instead, I pay peoples bills and
help solve problems, Cuban said.
I think Im able to more readily
and directly help people who need
it and not pay for the commercials
and administration of all the duplication that exists across charities.
Cuban, known for being able
to cut to the chase with would-be
entrepreneurs, said he learned long
ago to be wary of anyone trying to
sell him a sure thing. In his experience, easy usually equates to scam.
Very competitive by nature,
Cuban stays at the top of his game
by continuing to learn about rapidly
developing industries such as
machine and deep learning to
inspire fresh business ideas. He
strongly believes that success means
holding knowledge and understanding how and when to use it.
The risk is to be prepared. The
more prepared you are, the less risk
there is, Cuban offered advice to
new entrepreneurs in a University
of Common Knowledge interview.
If someone else knows more than
you do about your business or
industry, what are you doing? How
can you think youre prepared?
Having made his first millions in
the tech sector, its not surprising
that Cuban still follows technology
trends. He recently, publicly urged
President-Elect Donald J. Trump

to commit $100 billion to robotics
research and development, as opposed to traditional infrastructure
spending, something the incoming
administration has said will be a
priority. Robotics spending, Cuban
claimed, is both forward-looking
and necessary if America wants to
maintain its technological and competitive advantage globally.
We have to win the robotics
race. We are not even close right
now, Cuban wrote in a Dec 18
Blog Maverick blog post. America
lags because policy-makers have
underinvested in domestic robotics
firms. China, in contrast, is currently spending $3 billion annually
on robotics research compared to
U.S. spending of $100 million, only
half of which goes to domestic
manufacturers. The cause closest
to Cubans heart, however, is his
family. A father of three, Cuban has
said he works hard to raise his kids
grounded, and ready to earn their
way. And the television shark is
not trying to instill a cutthroat mentality into his kids. Instead, Cuban
prefers to involve his kids in his
philanthropic ventures.
Thats not how I run my businesses, so no, thats not what I pass
along, Cuban told Reuters. Nice
goes much further than mean.
www.markcubancompanies.com
MARK CUBAN,
OWNER DALLAS MAVERICKS
CO-HOST SHARK TANK
THE PEN IS MIGHTIER THEN THE SWORD
EMBRACING INNOVATION
BY AMY ARMSTRONG
If embracing innovation could be written on a prescription pad, Stephen

Klaskos pen would go dry doling it out as the treatment plan for what ails
todays medical systems.
e is the president and

chief executive officer of
Thomas Jefferson University and Jefferson Health in Philadelphia, Pa., but his influence in
terms of changing the way medicine is delivered and physicians
are trained extends much further.
Klasko is heralded as the loudest cheerleader for a bipartisan
approach to healing health care.
In his latest book, We Can Fix
Healthcare Now, co-authored by
Michael Hood and Gregory Shea,
Klasko lists 12 disruptors that
he considers key to repairing the
nations health care system. Each
disruptor begins with the thou
shalt phrasing with its reverent
tone to indicate the seriousness of
the nations health care situation,
but also provides a sort of Monty
Python comedic relief to a topic
that even Klasko himself indicates
is draining the fun and life blood
out of modern medicine.
Some of those thou shalts
include removing the volume
incentive from the payment
system and replacing it with
incentives based on optimal outcomes, providing the right care
for patients across a coordinated
system taking the patients conditions, services rendered and time
factors in to account and creating
a vendor-driven, patient centric
p.12
system of health-oriented apps

that are derived from just as much
research as goes into shopping on
Amazon or selecting movies on
Netflix.
If it sounds as if he is bucking
the traditional system, then your
hearing is excellent.
He took on the bureaucracy of
Medicare at the nations largest
retirement community The Villages in Florida where he created a model that made Medicare
accountable to the patients versus
doctors being accountable to
Medicare. The result was an innovate geriatric model of delivering
primary care that is patient-centric
and assertive in helping senior
citizens remain as healthy as their
longevity rates increase.
Today much of his work focuses
on training physicians in medical
school to be more than just accurate diagnoses of disease: Klasko
wants them to be leaders in their
industry and extended community. His book, The Phantom
Stethoscope: A Field Manual for
an Optimistic Future in Medicine, is standard reading at
nearly every medical school in the
United States due to its content
addressing health care leadership
and its support of technology in
modern medicine.
He is a trustee with the Certifi-
cation Commission for Healthcare

Information Technology as well
as being a faculty member of the
Governance Institute and the
American College of Physician
Executives.
He stays in touch with day-today medicine as a professor in the
Dept. of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of South Florida College of Medicine. Klaskos
medical career began in obstetrics
with his residency in obstetrics
and gynecology at Health East
Teaching Hospitals and became
a diplomate of the American
Board of OB-GYN in 1984 after
receiving his medical degree from
Hahnemann University in Philadelphia.
In strengthening his support
of the 12 disruptors, Klasko said,
Today what were seeing are the
pressures of opening up access to
an inefficient, ineffective and, in
some cases, failed system, then
being amazed that cost hasnt
decreased and quality hasnt
improved. These are things that
could be changed that would really help solve that.
Read more about Stephen Klasko online at:
www.leadership.jefferson.edu/about
STEPHEN KLASKO,
PRESIDENT AND CEO
SUSTAINABLE LIFESTYLES REQUIRE GREEN BUILDINGS
A CALIFORNIA REAL ESTATE FIRM GOES

GREEN, ATTRACTING INTERNATIONAL INVESTORS
BY MATTHEW D EDWARD
Fifty percent of carbon emissions in this country come from buildings. Not
coal-fired power plants or factories, but the regular glass and steel office
buildings people work in, and the concrete and wood homes they inhabit.
hris Jafarieh thinks that needs to change,

and hes working to make it happen. If
people want to reduce their impact on
the environment, inhale fewer toxins and drink
cleaner water, they are going to need to live
in eco-friendly buildings. Jafariehs California-based Green Diamond Group a division
of Blaqk Diamond Group advises investors
in how to put their money behind sustainable
developments across California to deliver those
buildings.
The goals behind green building or living
buildings include water and energy production on site (not yet completely achievable,
as Jafarieh noted), considering the impact of a
building on the land, mitigating climate change
and promoting the health and wellness of those
inside.
My goal is to work only with projects that
make sense, not only financially, but for the
environment as well, Jafarieh said recently. He
said that improving the environment, while the
right thing to do, does not mean sacrificing the
bottom line, adding that theres a business case
to be made in addition to the moral one.
Jafariehs comments are backed up by the
World Green Building Council a network of
national organizations encouraging sustainable
construction in more than 90 countries which
wrote in a 2013 report that eco-friendly structures feature several unique benefits, including
reduced operating costs and better health outcomes for the people inside with fewer toxins
polluting the air inside. The report also noted
that the WGBC expects real estate investors
soon will see the value of sustainable buildings,
which will give eco-friendly properties a boost
in value relative to traditional structures.
He was well-positioned to enter the green
p.14
building market. Jafarieh spent years in commercial real estate, starting in 2007, just before
the financial crisis sent shockwaves through
the property market. As the crisis played out,
Jafarieh realized he needed a change and left
southern California to think for a while. He
tilled farmland owned by his cousin, wellknown health and wellness author, David
Avocado Wolfe.
It taught me that I really need to get into
something, and learn something that wouldnt
give me too much exposure to the market dictating if I have a career or not, Jafarieh said. At
the same time, the 50 percent statistic regarding
carbon emissions was stuck in his mind.
I couldnt believe what Id read. I had to
fact-check it, he said.
The facts checked out, however. Most buildings are wasteful in terms of energy, and the
materials used in construction often are toxic.
These old, inefficient buildings pump carbon
dioxide into atmosphere 24 hours per day,
seven days a week.
Jafarieh re-entered the commercial real
estate market in 2012 when he founded the
Blaqk Diamond Group with his partner, Nicole
Jadelrab. He started cutting deals immediately,
but took a careful approach to the clients he
worked with.
You cant just bring a deal to a client
because it has a good cap rate or you think the
market is going to shift that way you need
to make sure its something your client can
handle, Jafarieh said, noting that hes pulled
$50 million and even $75 million deals off the
table because he felt the match between project
and client wasnt quite right.
After establishing Blaqk Diamond, Jafarieh
went back to being a financial green thumb,
creating Green Diamond as a division within

the company. Green Diamonds purpose was
to jumpstart sustainable projects in southern
California which in recent years has faced
severe drought, among other environmental
challenges and match investors with projects
that consider more than just the bottom line.
And although Jafarieh does work with
investors from abroad (a large number of
clients are EB-5 investor visa-holders who
receive a visa in exchange for creating 10 jobs or
investing $500,000), he believes a local touch is
vital to ensure a good match between projects
and funders. After all, the disconnect between
developers and host communities is what can
be partly blamed for the destructive nature of
development.
We need to make sure we know who is
investing in our area, he said. I cant have
a fund from New York or London building
something in my community if they dont have
skin in the game long-term.
For foreign investors, Green Diamond goes
through projects with a strainer and makes
sure to get through the language barrier to fully
answer all of the questions. The EB-5 program
is a great way to inject money into the U.S.
economy, Jafarieh noted.
For 2017, Jafariehs goal is to spark a desire
in more firms for building green. He said
that he will work with anyone, anywhere, on
projects that prioritize sustainability. Jafarieh
also often writes on the subject, highlighting the
need to put the planet first. In a recent Green
Diamond blog post he wrote:
Earth is the only planet in our solar system
with a sustainable ecosystem, providing us
with every resource we need to survive. We are
blessed to live here.
Blaqk Diamond Group

19800 MacArthur Blvd, Suite 300
Irvine, CA 92612
Phone: 949.724.4535
www.blaqkdiamondgroup.com
Principal
Chris Jafarieh is a
Founding Member
of Blaqk Diamond
Group and the creator
of Green Diamond,
an environmentally
conscious division of
Blaqk Diamond Group.
The Quiet Rise of
Deluxe Corporation
BY JUDE SCINTA
verything was going fine between banks and their customers

for years. Sure, things became
routine and each took the other
for granted at times, but that happens in
relationships. In recent years, however,
the twenty-first century itch set in when
something irresistible strutted onto the
scene; they called it digital technology. It
had everything intrigue, discretion, and
convenience and from that point on,
banks and their customers wanted to try
new things.
Deluxe Corporation found itself in a
precarious situation as digital technology
p.16
continued to turn heads. Since they had

invented the first personalized flat-pocket
checkbook in 1915, they had grown into
one of the largest bank check suppliers in
the U.S., but the demand for their flagship
product was steadily eroding.
Lee J. Schram was new to Deluxe when
he was named CEO in 2006. On his first
day, he held a management meeting and
asked for the financial report to be presented to the team. The monthly recap was
not good; they were off 9-cents a share and
the forecast for recovery in coming months
was dismal.
After the CFO delivered the news, an
awkward silence filled the room. Think

cricket chirps. Or, Schram puts it a different way.
It was the longest Jeopardy moment
I've seen, he said, referring to the classic
tune played during the game shows final
round that poses the most difficult challenge to the contestants.
It was at that moment, Schram saw that
his team lacked accountability and though
he was disappointed, he was not disheartened. Armed with his background as controller turned CFO of NCR Corporation,
and having run a few tech businesses, he
set out to direct the future of Deluxe by
using digital technology to transform two

major business units, financial services and
small business.
Five Phases
The close of 2016 marked the seventh
consecutive year of revenue growth for
Deluxe with the trend expected to continue
throughout 2017. On our cash flow, which
is important to investors and to people that
want to invest in the stock and the company, 2016 is our eighth consecutive year of
growth, said Schram.
Often asked about the companys transformation, Schram describes it methodically, much like his approach to leading the
company. He packages the journey as the
Five Phases.
The first phase, Assess and Act, began
immediately in 2006 with an evaluation of
Deluxe's processes, products, and services
to determine the companys strengths and
weaknesses. The Strategy and Focus phase
followed.
I tell the story of who wanted to come

to a dying check company other than me.
Not a lot of people. And so, I had to create a
strategy to focus on what we were all about
the idea that we were a growth engine
for small businesses and financial institutions which today still is our vision, said
Schram.
Phase 3 Concentrated on Leadership and
Culture, and Schram recruited a management team that is still intact today with
little turnover. By 2010 they were ready for
Phase 4, Revenue Growth, and since 2013
and through 2018, Phase 5, Transformative
Revenue Growth has been in full swing.
banks attract, acquire, and retain

customers. Company acquisitions
strategically and consistently
made over the years have played
a major role in providing these
services.
At the close of 2013, Deluxe
acquired Destination Rewards,
a leading provider of customer
rewards and loyalty programs.
Today, these programs have not
only been embraced by banks,
they have also helped Deluxe
enter other markets.
Our largest company on the
bank side is Citi, and we have a
program with them that allows
Citi customers to get rewarded
from everything from using their
debit or credit card, opting to
recieve electronic statements, and
other services that help consumers and Citi with efficiency. These
are all online digital rewards that
weve come up with for them,
Schram said, adding that Deluxe
has also developed programs for
Verizon, Allstate, and AARP.
In 2015, Deluxe acquired Datamyx, a provider of integrated information, technology and analytics to help
financial institutions target loan candidates.
And, with a proprietary product called
SwitchAgent, Deluxe makes it possible for
consumers to switch banks electronically.
To date, Chase Bank, Citi, and U.S. Bank
rank as Deluxes largest banking customers,
and since Schram has been at the helm,
Deluxe has made some 20 acquisitions to
support their overall
strategy.
Financial Institutions
As Deluxe challenged itself to create
innovative digital solutions for financial
institutions, they also had to figure out
how to get banks to listen to what they
had to offer. In a new technological era,
why would banks think that their traditional check printer could also provide
online banking services? Tough paradigm
to shift. But Deluxe stayed on point and
developed a suite of services to help
Small Businesses
While financial services were evolving,
an equal effort was fueling the transformation of Deluxes small business unit
which traditionally provided customers
with checks and forms. Through surveys
and other touch points, Deluxe learned
that business owners were struggling with
areas of branding, promotion, and selling,
so Schram decided to test-drive these
services. And found a favorable response
from customers. Company acquisitions
followed and included businesses that provided logo design, website design services
and hosting, email marketing, and search
engine optimization and marketing.
Think of all digital services that are
helping small businesses brand themselves,
promote themselves, and sell to their
customers. That was our initial focus,
said Schram, adding that Deluxe currently
works with 4.5 million small businesses,
and hosts over one million websites.
Amanda Brinkman, who joined Deluxe
in 2014 as chief brand and communications
officer shared her perspective.
Weve helped small businesses operate
their business for over 100 years, and about
ten years ago we wanted to evolve those
offerings. We saw that they were struggling
with the marketing side of their business.
We wanted to give them the opportunity
to have that one-stop service partner that
p.18
can help them operate their business with

things like payment solutions, checks, and
other services, but also help them market
their business because we see how important that is and it can make such a difference in the success of small businesses.
Brinkman has been instrumental in
directing Deluxes own rebranding effort
using content marketing. With rich stories
told through Brinkman's brainchild, the
Small Business Revolution, Deluxe is forging relationships with small business owners online and in person by providing an
innovative learning platform. The initiative
is shifting the perception of Deluxe from a
has-been to a company to watch.
For us, we were really struggling with
brand awareness. People either haven't
heard of Deluxe, or when they have heard
of us they know us just as a check printing
company. We're so much more than that,
said Brinkman. I was very proud that this
idea could advance business goals of
raising awareness about Deluxe, but
do it in a very genuine way.
According to Schram, one of
Deluxes leadership principles
states, Its hard to look smart
with bad numbers. Considering their consecutive years of
growth and future projections,
the St. Paul, Minnesota based
company is looking quite
bright.
Deluxe Corporate Headquarters

3680 Victoria Street North
Shoreview, MN 55126-2966
651-787-1068
www.deluxe.com
Amanda Brinkman
Chief Brand and Communications Officer
Deluxe Corporation
BY STEVEN SELENGUT
PENNY PARASITES:

Class Action Suit: Cause of Action Number Three
Did you see the 1999 comedy
"Office Space"? It describes a
software scheme to embezzle
pennies from random financial
transactions and funnel them
into a hacker's bank account. A
year later, Wall Street changed
its pricing protocol from an ancient fractional system to a state
of the art decimal methodology.
"Watch the pennies, and the dollars will
take care of themselves, Ben Franklin.
Some conspiracy theorists suggest this
was a "front runner" for an institutional campaign to steal millions in decimal
dollars from investors. But, why would the
"Masters of the Universe" bother when they
can perpetrate their larceny in plain sight,
shamelessly, every trading day... and with
regulatory blessing.
Most "Office Space-ish" of all the insidious
fees tacked on to commissions and One Flat
Fee Only Accounts (OFFOAs) is the "Activity
Assessment Fee" deducted from every "sell"
transaction on Wall Street...
Google "SEC Fee - Section 31 Transaction
Fees" to learn how these "regulator and
exchange fees" find their way onto your confirmation notice... even your OFFOA.
At approximately five million "sell" trades
per day, roughly $200,000,000 pennies are siphoned from our investment and retirement
portfolios into Wall Street's already deep
enough, don't ya think, pockets.
Investors big and small (the largest bloc of
taxpayers), are paying twice to regulate Wall
Street...the regulatory posse stands idly by,
approvingly, as the industry boomerangs
SEC Fees targeted at the securities markets
right back at consumers... two million bucks
per day.
p.20
Yes, we're just getting started.

Most individual equity investors recognize the benefits of including top tier
foreign companies in their portfolios.
Individual MCIM portfolios, for example, may contain one or more of a select
group of ADRs (American Depository
Receipts)... those meeting the fundamental quality and dividend income
requirements of IGVSI companies.
The withholding of foreign taxes on
dividends is as much a tax on the middle class as it is on the rich 'n famous,
while the latter are most likely to benefit from an income tax credit. Foreign
taxes paid may be used as such unless:
You fail to file the proper paperwork,
or (go figure), the ADRs are housed in a
tax deferred portfolio (IRA, 401k, etc.).
ADR dividends earned in your "deferred taxation" IRA and 401k accounts
are taxed as ordinary income when taken at retirement, even though you paid
the foreign income taxes upon receipt...
Questions: When taxing the frugal,
those who have planned for retirement,
why do we punish them with 100%
"ordinary income" tax rates when we
have the technology to separate the
distributions into lower tax rate categories. Should they and Social Security
recipients be taxed at all?
And then there's the Custodian's
"Office Spacey" hand in your pocket....
If your ADR does not pay a dividend,
your custodian takes a fee of from one
to three cents per hundred shares (but
never less than $2.00), directly from
your investment account, pretty much
just because they can. If there is a dividend, the custodian "pass-through
fee" is deducted from it.
One can only imagine how
many billion pennies this process
produces. Conservatively, I'm
guessing that my average six
figure client holds 200 shares
of 5 different ADRs per year.
If there are 25 million similar
portfolios, that's roughly 50
billion more pennies annually to the
"Masters".
Why is it more expensive for more
shares? Why can't these pennies be part
of the total cost to the broker dealer of
doing business with the custodian?
For IRA accounts, custodians also
charge annual maintenance fees, and
termination fees if you have the audacity to move your account... or die.
Approximately 50 million households pay roughly 55 maintenance
fee dollars each, per year, in custodial
fees...275 billion more pennies for Wall
Street, at $9,000 per second.
So, in reality, there is no such thing
as a flat fee only or a commission only
arrangement... there is always another
fee, just like the $34 I just paid for the
checks used in my "no fee" bank checking account.
Question: If we pay for every conceivable custodial action, shouldn't the
custodian have fiduciary responsibility, at least as much as the generous
employers who provide the benefit programs (how backasswards is this)?
Observation: I'm beginning to understand how Wall Street Institutions can
afford to pay executives as outrageously as they do... it's our damn pennies!
Aren't you about sick of the "service
fees and charges" that slap you around
almost everywhere: utility bills, rental
cars, hotel rooms, ad infinitum? If you
added all of these consumption and
usage charges to your federal state and
local taxes, what would your actual
income tax rate become? The king of
England may not have been such a bad
guy after all.
Why not one consumption tax for
each political subdivision, just think of
the bureaucracies that could be eliminated, including the IRS!
Wall Street, as you might expect,
picks our pockets without any explanation whatsoever. Their creative and
versatile "Service Fee" is paid by almost
all investors, even those who have an
OFFOA... I know of only one OFFOA
arrangement that excludes nearly all
"service" fees.
No, these are not the "Postage and
Handling" charges of the distant past
(Google Investor Bulletin: Broker's
Miscellaneous Fees):
The SEC explains that these fees
"help to reimburse the broker for
expenses incurred in performing the
transaction or a service for you." It says
nothing of P & H, and your "broker"
probably gets absolutely none of it.
Shouldn't the flat fee or commission
cover "expenses incurred to perform
transactions and/or services"? Are
"Service Fees" necessary because the
institutions don't know how to calculate management fees or commission

charges accurately?
Service fees vary from "as little as"
$3.95 per trade to as much as $7.50...
dependent, it seems, upon the size
of the institution. All brokers (yes,
discounters too) charge service fees and
it is difficult to find evidence that they
are, in any sense, "pass-through's" from
custodians.
They are charged whether or not you
opt for "on-line" confirmations, quarterly reports, class action notifications, etc.
If you get three paper confirmations
stuffed into one envelope... how many
fees should you pay?
The only good news about them is
that they are variable expenses, dependent upon account activity. I have been
unable to find any information about
the specific additional transactions or
services we are paying for.
There are roughly 6 million trades
per day on the New York Stock Exchange. At an average $5 per trade,
that's three billion more pennies a day,
every trading day, variable expense
or not, taken from your pocket and/or
retirement account... with the absolute
approval of Uncle Robin Hood, and his
band of merry regulators.
There are additional service fees that
can be traced to actual client initiated
expenditures, the $2.95 monthly charge
for extra statement copies comes to
mind, check fees, wire transfer charges,
direct payment fees, etc. If the statement fee applies to you, why not just
let your accountant/trustee/spouse
access your information themselves on
line, for free.
Questions: Are all of these fees
assessed as ruthlessly on transactions
within Mutual Funds, ETFs, and other
Wall Street products? How about when
firms trade within their own accounts?
NOTE: I purposely didn't include
NASDAQ in the analysis... my calculator doesn't have enough zeros.
The final two articles will deal with
commissions, on-line trading within
full service firms, institutional kidnapping of 401k accounts, and the impact
of ten years of artificially low interest
rates.
BY MATTHEW D.EDWARD
Rising Dragon
Hidden Dangers
Investing in Vietnam holds enormous potential, but can trap the unwary
forest of cranes rises skyward. The

sight of the unfinished towers and
neighborhoods immediately seen by
drivers emerging from the Th Thim Tunnel
connecting the rest of Ho Chi Minh City to
now-bustling District 2 delivers a clear
message. Despite the 2010 downturn here,
Vietnam is growing again, and growing fast.
I think theres still a good ten years of
steady growth, simply because the base was
so small to begin with, said Matthew Lourey,
founder and managing partner of Domicile
Corporate Services, which helps companies
p.22
enter Vietnam.
With less than half of nearby Thailands per
capita GDP (about $2,100 versus $5,800, according to 2015 World Bank figures), Vietnam
only recently began moving toward a needsand wants-based society, Lourey said.
Exports, real estate, insurance and consumption all are growth sectors, said several
market watchers interviewed by The Suit
Magazine. Those same people also cautioned
that Vietnam, in many ways, remains a highrisk investment.
Investing in this complex market takes
careful planning.
The next big thing?
Vietnam often draws comparisons to China
circa 2000. Fast growth, low labor costs and
rapid development all characterized the middle kingdom 15 years ago, until everything
slowed down. But many experts dispute the
inevitability of the country repeating Chinas
mistakes.
Vietnam, Id like to think, can learn quicker
than China, and evolve, said Eddie Thai,
venture partner with 500 Startups, a leading
global venture capital seed fund and startup
accelerator. Thai recently

spoke at a December forum
titled Is Vietnam the next
big thing?
The answer? It depends.
Vietnam relaxed limits on
foreign ownership in recent
years, but local idiosyncrasies often confuse foreign
investors. For example,
an LLC in Vietnam lacks
shares, and accounting
procedures differ from the
developed world, Lourey
said. Government bureaucracy, while moving in the
right direction, still a one
step forward, two steps
back mentality, often with
an inexplicable no given
in answer to foreign business proposals. Those are
becoming rare, however,
Lourey noted.
Locals have recently
become quite pessimistic
about the economy. Foreign
experts, meanwhile, describe a brighter, wealthier
future. Domiciles Lourey said that both are
right. Thats because Vietnams growth potential remains locked in foreign-dominated
sectors like exports, creating two perceptions
of economic performance.
The local view tends to see Vietnam in a
vacuum as well, said Sven Roering, managing partner of Tenzing Pacific Investment
Management, a financial services provider in
southeast Asia. The mid-2000s saw annual
GDP growth above 8 percent until a downturn in 2010 pummeled the economy. Post-rebound expectations of returning to unsustainable growth fuel frustration, Roering said.
If Im Vietnamese and I know that in the
mid-2000s we had a major expansion, and
then a downturn and now were at 6 percent,
Ill be disappointed, he explained. Its still a
fantastic growth story.
Frontier market
Investing in Vietnams two stock exchanges Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi, the capital
requires active management, Roering
emphasized. And investors need to know
theyre buying more than just stock.
The biggest issue when you invest in any
emerging market, especially Vietnam, is that
youre investing in the market and the currency, he said, adding that the U.S. dollars
post-election surge prompted Tenzing Pacific
to divest from the Market Vectors Vietnam

ETF as the Vietnamese dong plummeted
[as of this writing, $1 equaled 22,727 VND].
Thats the big issue foreigners need to take
heed of, you are buying a currency as well as
a stock.
The Vietnam dong is pegged to the dollar,
meaning the currency gradually depreciates,
averaging about 2 percent annually.
Entering the Vietnamese securities market
currently means going through an ETF like
Vectors, which declined significantly last
year, down 26.8 percent from 2014-2016.
Vectors has been criticized in the past for
exposing investors to Vietnams largest, and
most inefficient state enterprises. Other ETFs,
such as the DeutschBank Extractors ETF,
have fared somewhat better, but investing
there requires double currency conversion
for U.S. investors, creating extra complexity. Unfortunately, the ETF universe here
remains small, Roering noted.
Its very hard to get access to these
markets directly, he said. You could invest
directly in these markets through a Vietnamese broker, but thats a huge leap of faith.
Trading directly in Vietnam requires a
locally denominated account. The market
here, for foreigners, also trades on a T+2
model, meaning trades go through two days
after they are made. Thats one reason why
Tenzing keeps its Vietnam-related trading in
New York, where trades are immediate, and
in dollars.
Roering pointed out that the liquidity in
Vietnams market make it a stock-pickers
dream. The opacity of information the
market is rife with insider trading and speculation also allows people to come in and
beat forecasts. And major brokerages have set
up reliable research operations in-country,
Roering noted, adding that analysts often see
through the exaggerated information common to Vietnams market.
Real property, real problems
Booming development in recently gentrified District 2 home to affluent expats
and Vietnamese elites is just one sign of
progress. Other areas, such as District 7,
another expat haven, has seen prodigious
growth over the past decade. Meanwhile, real
estate speculators are snapping up tracts of
land on the city outskirts near Long Thanh,
where a new international airport is planned.
Woodland Realty sales manager Long Phi
said that an unfinished metro system (slated
to open in 2020) and infrastructure projects
also are driving up property prices along the
citys eastern edge.
Beyond Ho Chi Minh City still Saigon to the locals, who never accepted the
hubs post-war name the country has seen
industrial expansion in suburban towns and
non-stop real estate development in coastal
communities such as Danang, the countrys
third-largest city, and Nha Trang, a centrally
located beach town. Hanois market, meanwhile, was described as more complicated;
the city also is less central to the economy
than Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnams commercial hub.
Long Phi remains positive about the
property market, despite 130,000 new Ho
Chi Minh City apartment units reaching
completion over the next four years. Prices
might dip temporarily, he said, but those
apartments still wont meet demand.
Real estate ownership pitfalls abound for
foreigners. While Vietnam began allowing
anyone with a valid visa to buy property
in 2015, foreigners often fail to understand
Vietnams definition of ownership. Vietnam
is still a communist state, meaning that technically property cannot be owned. Buyers instead receive what amounts to a 50-year lease
on the property, with the option to extend.
The property can be sold during that time.
This kind of information asymmetry puts
buyers at a disadvantage in Vietnam.
Most of the real estate information comes
from developers and agents themselves
so I believe that you can find quite a lot of
information bias, Roering said, adding that
Vietnams demographics and rising incomes
are positive signs for the real estate market,
but that housing over-supply will be a serious problem.
Still, the profit potential can be high,
Long Phi said. Owners can expect a 5
percent-of-value annual average return on
rental properties, and condotels a developer-managed but owner-rented serviced
apartment can return 50 percent over the
first five years, although the returns drop
significantly afterwards.
Walk, dont run
Vietnams tremendous growth potential
can benefit foreign investors greatly, but navigating the countrys bureaucracy and culture
can be difficult. Domiciles Lourey said that
local expertise is essential to success in the
country. Still, the growing southeast Asian
nation of 90 million has much to recommend
it.
Its still growing more than most places,
Lourey said. Vietnam is one of the few hubs
in the world that is really exciting.
CNBC
MAKING IT
THE REAL DEAL

BY JUDE SCINTA
TILMAN FERTITTA:
BILLION DOLLAR BUYER
p.26
ilman Fertitta, CEO of Fertitta

Entertainment, Inc. and Jim
Ackerman, executive vice
president of CNBCs evening
line-up, had been talking for some time
about creating a concept for a business
show starring Fertitta that would fit
the cable news networks alternative
primetime format which includes such
shows as The Profit, Jay Lenos Garage, and American Greed. Fertitta,
who describes himself as a serious Wall
Street guy also wanted the show to fit
his approach to business. After all, he
has serious Street cred as the sole owner
of Fertitta Entertainment, Inc., which
owns and operates Golden Nugget
Casinos and Landrys Inc. with over 50
restaurant brands including McCormick
& Schmicks, Bubba Gump Shrimp Co.,
and Mortons The Steakhouse. With
revenues of over $3.4 billion, Fertitta
is viewed as an international dining,
hospitality, entertainment and gaming
industry expert and ranks as the worlds
richest restaurateur.
Offering customers the best-of-thebest at his venues is just one way Fertitta stays on top, but it comes at a hefty
price. A peek at some of his annual expenses shows that he spends $11 million
on vodka, $7 million on t-shirts, and $1
million each on bedding and soap.
The idea arose to create a reality show
where businesses could vie to make a
deal with Fertitta and place their products within his empire. In collaboration
with Endemol Shine, a production
company behind such shows as NBCs
The Biggest Loser and FOXs MasterChef franchise, CNBC and Fertitta
developed the Billion Dollar Buyer
which debuted last March. With season
two currently airing, a more confident
and rhythmic stride is apparent as the
show come has come into its own and
has developed a loyal audience.
In each episode, Fertitta meets owners
from two different small businesses who
are hoping to receive a purchase order
from him. If I think they can deliver,
Ill place an order that can change their
lives forever, Fertitta is heard saying
as the voiceover during the shows
opening credits. As the show unfolds,
he questions the owners and tests their
products, but he doesn't let first impressions get in the way of his final decision
to make a deal or not. Often, he makes
Tilman Fertitta is the sole owner, chairman and CEO of Fertitta Entertainment, Inc., which
owns both the restaurant giant Landrys, Inc. and the Golden Nugget Casinos and is
recognized today as a world leader in the dining, hospitality, entertainment and gaming
industries.
The Company today has revenues over $3.4 billion and assets of more than $3.5 billion.
Landrys operates more than 500 properties in 34 states and owns a number of international
locations. It is also one of the countrys largest employers, with more than 60,000 employees. Landrys owns and operates more than 50 different restaurant brands, including
McCormick & Schmicks, Chart House, Landrys Seafood, Rainforest Cafe, Saltgrass Steak
House, Bubba Gump Shrimp Company, Claim Jumper, Mitchells Fish Market and many
more award-winning concepts. Landrys Signature Group of restaurants includes some
of the worlds premier fine dining concepts, like Mastros Steakhouse and Ocean Club,
Mortons The Steakhouse, The Oceanaire, Vic & Anthonys, Brenners Steakhouse, Grotto,
La Griglia and Willie Gs just to name a few. What is further unique about Landrys is that
it operates all of its locations and doesnt license or franchise any of its domestic units.
up his mind at the final meeting that

takes place in his boardroom.
It's real, when you see me make a
deal in the boardroom. That product, if
it can be, is in the restaurants, hotels, or
the casinos the next day. Our deals are
real deals.
Some of those real deals are doing
quite well. From season one, Liber &
Company offering cocktail syrups,
and hot sauces by Bravado Spice
Company are a big hit within Fertitta
Entertainment venues. Season two is
off and running with high performing
deals from swimwear creator Nicolita,
Rossmore jewelry, and cosmetics from
KISMET.
Fertitta wants viewers to learn
marketing, operations, and financial
aspects of running a business from the
show. Each episode includes supporting charts and illustrations that he
summarizes to help make it a more
complete learning experience.
Its a great feeling, its part of giving
back, he said. We decided we were
going to make it more of a mentoring
show this season where were teaching
people more, instead of just getting up
p.28
in their butt. I think its coming across

that way and people like it. I have
entrepreneurs walking up to me everywhere telling me that that they love
watching the show because of what
they learn.
Asked about his outlook on the upcoming Trump administration, Fertitta
is quick to shut down the rhetoric
surrounding political correctness, or
moreover, the lack of it by shown by
President-elect Donald Trump. He
chooses to view the issue strictly from
a business question: is America going
to be better off?
Let's just talk about it from having
a business guy in the White House,
nothing else. Let's get rid of all the
other noise. There's nothing like having
a business person, we look at things
differently. We know how to deal, and
we know how to make a deal, he said.
Fertitta has met President Obama
and describes him as a nice gentleman, but as someone who only had
experience in legislation when he was
elected, not decision making. That's
why governors make better presidents.
Theyve been a chief executive and
the buck stops with them, he said.

Everything that is good for everybody
is if you have good American capitalism. Take all the other noise away from
Trump. What's best for what's going
in the pockets of Americans is having
a president who knows how to make
a deal and understands American
capitalism.
So to help entrepreneurs make it in
our capitalist society, Fertitta offers this
advice:
Most people in small business fail,
not because they don't have a good
product or a good location, it is because they don't know where they are
financially. Everybody underestimates
the numbers from every aspect; from
the budget to build something, to the
amount of working capital they need,
to understanding their financials and
knowing if they're making money or
not in the first sixty to ninety days. So,
the one thing you better do if you're an
operator and you have a good product,
is get a partner that knows numbers.
Somebody on your team better know
numbers.
by matthew d. edward
THE
SHAMANof
WALL STREET
Redefining the Investment Experience
Many people live as though they are asleep, drifting through

life unaware of their purpose, their reason for being and thus
missing their true impact to society and to those around them.
Daily activities and obligations are done as if on autopilot and
they spend all day in an office with their thoughts constantly
leaving the present moment. Being present is to be mindful
of ones actions and impact and if were not present to realize
our true potential then we are selling ourselves short and not
truly sharing our gifts.
Stop and look at what you are thinking, said Lawrence Ford,
AIF, known as the Shaman of Wall Street. Our minds are
obsessively thinking about the past or the future so we are
literally not here, he explained.
p.30
ord, the founder, CEO and Whole AdvisorTM of

Conscious Capital Wealth Management, awakens
clients to the power of money and how to use
money to make the world a better place. To Ford,
money is just a tool. It helps people achieve true wealth.
He added that, beyond meeting basic needs, money is
useless. Money is there to power our dreams and passions; to fuel us, but not rule us, he said.
Conscious Capital works with clients to build more than
just money, it is about understanding and developing
dreams, wellness and a persons whole life. The firm is
revolutionizing the industry with their whole approach to
investing, which focuses not only on building wealth, but
also supporting all aspects of a persons life and wellbeing.
Our philosophy is based on Souls First, states Larry,
we work with clients through our Live WholeTM process
to better understand how they align their doing with their
being and their being with their purpose. Ford noted that
the Glastonbury, Connecticut based firm is poised to grow
across the country and, uses a Connect - Dream - Empower model to help determine what clients truly want
and they train their advisors through the same process
thus insuring the culture is strong and relational to those
they service. Ford's unique proprietary methodology
represents a bridge between the intellectual, emotional,
relational and spiritual worlds. Its a coming together of
Wall Street and an individuals awakening and renewal
into their purpose and direction.
Ford has stood with a foot in both worlds for some
time, having spent a career in financial advising before
discovering within himself a gift for healing. He studied
shamanism in Nepal, only to return later to the world
of finance. He explained on NPR in 2008 that theres no
contradiction in this. Quoting Lao-Tzu, he said, Before
enlightenment, chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood, carry water. This concept may be
best explained through a story of an old monk who was
sweeping a floor in the hot sun and a student saw the
master and asked why after 87 years and all that you
have mastered are you still sweeping a floor in the hot
sun? The monk smiled and responded, because the floor
is dirty and the sun is here.
Many of us get caught up in the end results of what
we're working toward or the way things will be when we
finally achieve something. But the truth is its the journey,
not the destination that brings happiness, says Ford. And
remaining true to your souls longings along the way, is
the way.
There's a Zen philosophy that says the way a person
does one thing is the way they do everything.
As the 2008 financial meltdown tore through the financial markets, investment portfolios and lives, Ford lent his
shamanistic power for healing to Wall Street. Pictured in
the Washington Post blowing a conch shell to help awaken
THE SUIT MAGAZINE
JAN
p.31
the New York Stock Exchange of

its addiction to fear and greed,
Ford attracted numerous media
mentions and some derision from
former industry colleagues.
Ford gave his detractors little
credence, however.
What is cuckoo, you tell me
Helping people as a shaman?
Ford told The Post. Or creating intricate financial vehicles to
perpetuate greed and corruption
Theyre caught up in their own
paradigm.
From between these two worlds,
Ford insists that he can help guide
clients to both live in the present,
and build their future, while they
live in the now. Conscious Capital maintains no firm minimum
to invest, since Ford believes the
high-touch, high-tech firm has a
p.32
model scalable enough to accommodate a wide variety of clients

and that is not in his nature to turn
away people in need.
Typical clients include those in
transition like - empty nesters,
recently divorced, aging couples,
widows, newly found money due
to a death, personal injury settlement or lottery winnings. In addition people come who are tired
of lacking a full life and those
wanting to align investments with
their own values. Being naturally
different has attracted attention
as Conscious Capital has clients
nationwide, Ford said.
In addition to his shamanic
training, Ford holds numerous
licenses and registrations including FINRA Series 63, 66, 7 and 24,
Variable Annuity, Life and Health,
Investment Advisor Representative and Accredited Investment

Fiduciary (AIF).
After graduating college, Ford
took the unusual step of striking
out on his own instead of signing
on with a major Wall Street firm.
I decided when I got out of college that money controlled people
and it should be the other way
around, Ford said.
Mr. Ford has had a long estimable career as an entrepreneur,
financial advisor, and consultant,
helping both large organizations
and individuals through transition and crisis. In 1998, Ford was
named one of six people to form
the Citigroup Advisors Committee, which was tasked with
overseeing the marketing and
cross-selling challenges result-
ing from the $70 billion merger of

Travelers and Citibank. He also
served as an executive of Direct
Advice, one of the nations first
robo-advising models created in
the early 2000s. At the same time,
he built his advisory practice to
nearly five thousand clients, he
enjoyed working with the esteemed
Dr. Harry Markowitz, the Noble
Prize winning Laureate for Modern
Portfolio Theory, and served as the
Co-Chair Membership Committee
and consultant to the Governance
Board for the Retirement Income
Industry Association.
All at the same time as I was
flying in to do this kind of work,
I was doing an exploration of my
own longings and what I wanted
in life, Ford said. With that, he
surrendered and moved with
his family to St. John, in the U.S.
Virgin Islands. The move was one
of the most difficult and exhilarating decisions he ever made, Ford
recalled.
In St. John he began to embrace
his calling as a shaman, serving
clients at the Rockefeller Resort.
Later, he traveled to Nepal. But
after finding enlightenment, it was
back to chopping wood.
It was the last thing I ever
thought Id do, Ford said.
Over the past four years, Ford
has managed Conscious Capital, an

RIA that is redefining the investment
experience, in fact the life experience.
The firms philosophy of live a life of
passion and purpose and that each
of us are Here for a Reason stands
at the core of their service model.
Through the Live Whole process individuals understand how to connect
to their true self and find they can
talk about money, meet with wellness coaches, therapists and receive
massages all provided at each center
as well as virtually when possible.
One cannot have true wealth without
overall health, stresses Ford.
Clients often feel deeply moved
and thrilled by Conscious Capitals
approach, Ford said, people often say that they had no idea that
someone like Conscious Capital even
existed.
This new paradigm earned Ford
the 2016 Business Person of the Year
award from The Peace Island Institute.
He also received a commendation
from Connecticut Senator Christopher
Murphy for his work at Conscious
Capital. Murphy called Fords work,
"Remarkable, both for the financial
prosperity it has helped so many peo-
ple achieve and for the unique spiritual vision that he has brought into this
field.
But its not about accolades for Ford,
who believes this mission is much
bigger than him and that his firms
biggest success is yet to come. We are
a movement, not just a business, we
exist to help make the world a better
place by using the power of money,
explains Ford. Its about awakening
people to the reality around them and
moving them into their own power.
Its about pursuing lifes works and
realizing the totality of who we are.
Transitions, wake ups, or initiations, stir us from our slumber and
give us a gentle tap, or not so gentle
slap, to remind us that there is more
to life than the mindless march from
work to home. When we are gifted
with a life event that wakes us up, we
often see ourselves in the world for
the first time and it can be a shock;
hence, our reason for creating a model
to support individuals through this
journey, states Ford.
For more information about Conscious
Capital see: www.consciouscapitalwm.com
Advisory Services offered through Conscious Capital Wealth Management, LLC (CCWM).
Securities offered through J.W. Cole Financial, Inc. (JWC) Member FINRA/SIPC. JWC/JWCA and
CCWM are unaffiliated.
THE SUIT MAGAZINE
JAN
p.33
TAKING MONEY OFF THE STREET
wisconsin wealth managers build true relationships with clients

Middle Americas unease with Wall Street fat cats and seemingly unpunishable big banks
leaves many asking the question whom can I trust to invest and protect my money?
he answer, for many, is Heck Capital

Advisors, a suburban Wisconsin firm
that holds small-town values near
and dear.
The biggest key is that were not affiliated with any bank or brokerage firm or custodian or mutual fund, said Kenneth Heck,
CFO and senior director of portfolio
management for Heck Capital Advisors. The investment we select for
clients is what we believe is the best
for them. Its not because were getting
a kick-back from the firm.
The firm a Registered Investment
Advisor (RIA) descended from the
firm founded by Kenneths father,
Robert Heck provides portfolio management services and financial guidance tailored to investors goals. The
firm provides three types of portfolio
management: asset allocation, equity and fixed income securities, and
indexing. The firm works with each
client to match their goals and needs to
an appropriate strategy.
Robert Heck began his financial career
on Wall Street in 1958, starting as an
analyst and eventually building up a
client base across 30 states. In 1990, Robert Heck was joined by his son Kenneth
and David in 1992 and they formed the
Heck Group in 1993. At that time, the Heck
Group was tied to a Wall Street company.
The Hecks, however, developed a distaste
for how Wall Street conducted itself and
decided in 2007 to found Heck Capital Advisors as an independent firm.

Heck Capital Advisors serves clients
across the country, but that service remains
influenced by the small-community Wisconsin values the Hecks grew up with. The
firms employees dedicate considerable time
to community involvement projects such as
serving on the board of a local hospital, the
school committee and the municipal airport.
The market moves at such a fast pace
now that investors often want both up-tothe-minute information at the same time as
simplification.
They want somebody to put it all together, and thats what were trying to do for
them, Heck said in a recent interview with
The Suit Magazine.
Were looking for clients who really want
that long-term guidance, he added. Trust
and communication is one of the cornerstones of our firm and of our success.
Heck Capital Advisors recently launched
a service called CapitalCENTRAL24/7 that
allows clients on-demand access to their financial information. But that doesnt mean
the human advisor is out of the picture,
Heck said, adding that a client-advisor relationship is more essential now than ever as
information overload presents the need for
hands-on advising.
I dont think youll ever get away from
a true advisor. You can place things online
as much as you want, but unless people
understand it you wont be able to make
Integrated Financial Guidance and Investment Solutions delivered with the special
care, attention and high tech resources needed to protect and grow your wealth.
p.34
the right decision at the right time, Heck

added.
Heck Capital Advisors prides itself on
giving clients that personal touch; its
something theyve done from the beginning. The industry, however, has only
recently moved away from the old-school
alpha approach to investing.
The financial industry is in the midst
of a paradigm shift, Heck noted, on a par
with the previous sea change from commission- to fee-based payment structures.
Now youre seeing the shift from true
investment to true relationship, Heck
said.
Their true relationship approach
quickly collected accolades from financial
publications. Heck Capital Advisors was
rated in the top 100 U.S. independent
advisory firms by Financial Advisors
Magazine from 2009-2013, and was rated
by Financial Planning Magazine from
2014-2016 as a top 100 RIA firm and
among the top 50 Fastest Growing Firms
in its class in 2015. Forbes also listed the
firm among its top 50 wealth managers for
April, 2013. Advisor One included Heck
Capital Advisors on its 2012 list of the
top 100 U.S. independent advisory wealth
management firms and WealthManagement.com recognized Heck Capital
Advisors as a Top 100 Retail RIA from
2014-2016. Additionally, in 2012, Robert
Heck was also lauded by Conquest Press
as one of Americas top advisors.
Breaking away from Wall Street in 2007
proved prescient. As the financial collapse shook world markets, Heck Capital
Advisors clients proved well-positioned
to weather the effects. The firm acted
defensively to stave off the worst of the
crisis as well. Heck told Financial Advisor
Magazine in 2009 that the firms strong
bond portfolio helped it survive, and even
thrive, during the crisis.
The key is dont panic remember
what the money is there for, Heck said at
the time.
Strong relationships with clients also
paid off during the financial crisis of 2008
as the firm made adjustments while put-
ting investors needs front and center.

Heck Capital Advisors eschews cookie-cutter approaches, and instead seeks
a deep understanding of each clients
needs. Heck said the firm also acts as a
fiduciary for clients.
You can have two clients who look
very similar, but their needs and wants
are different. What is the best strategy
for them? Heck asked. That is why they
prefer to start with a financial plan.
That high-touch personal care might

be a different paradigm than what investors find on Wall Street, but in suburbia,
its just called normal.
Years ago it was alpha, it was investment, it was strictly based on those types
of things its not anymore, Heck
emphasized. Now the relationship,
guidance and simplification is key: What
does that client truly need? What is that
client truly investing for?
833 E. Michigan Street Suite 1460
Milwaukee, WI 53202
414.509.6630
15 E. Anderson Street PO Box 738
Rhinelander, WI 54501
715.361.1500
www.heckcapital.com
Amanda Brinkman
Chief Brand and Communications Officer, Deluxe Corporation
Amanda Brinkman
Chief Brand and Communications Officer, Deluxe Corporation
Robert Herjavec
Business Entrepreneur, The Herjavec Group
Robert Herjavec
Business Entrepreneur, The Herjavec Group
by amy armstrong
Ramen and
Peanut
Butter
Dreams:
Helping His
Clients Live
Their Dream
onsuming buckets of
ramen noodles and
countless peanut butter-and-jelly sandwiches when
he first launched his wealth
management business, Michael
C. Dickerson, CFP, the CEO
of Dickerson Wealth Advisers
knows first-hand about economic hardship. At the time, he
lived almost solely on ramen
and peanut butter-and-jelly
dreams, because thats all he
could afford.
That is why Dickerson truly
understands the struggles
clients face as they negotiate the
world of keeping todays needs
met while at the same time creating savings for the future.
He also knows the value a
dedicated Financial Adviser
can bring to a client who is
truly working toward his or her
financial goals.
I want to work with people
who are truly serious about
working toward their goals
and not folks who just want to
see what the market can do for
them, Dickerson emphasized.
Financial planning has characterized his entire career. At
age 39, Dickerson sits in the unusual position of having more
than 16 years of experience
along with the credentials as a
Certified Financial Planner to

back up the advice he gives to
clients.
Operating his business in a
fiduciary manner is a paramount principal for Dickerson. He isnt bothered by
new fiduciary definitions and
regulations the Federal Dept.
of Labor plans to introduce in
April 2017.
It combines the Golden
Rule with legal enforcement,
he said. Hopefully, it will
get rid of the bad apples out
there.
He sees some improvement in the way clients are
informed regarding the costs
associated with their financial
transactions. But he still does
not believe the current 401k
fee disclosures are enough
to fully inform clients of the
expenses associated with their
accounts. Dickerson said, The
companies have found ways
to build the fee into the account in other ways, and have
figured out ways to hide the

fees. Even when the fees are
disclosed, the clients do not
realize what these fees actually mean anyway. But he isnt
bothered so much by all of
that, especially since he thinks
the fees are fairly low for what
the client is receiving in most
cases. The only exception may
be in the case of smaller plans
where costs are spread across
fewer participants.
Dickersons main concern
is with building authentic and
strong client relationships that
will weather market events
such as the 2008 to March 2009
Great Recession, and personal
events such as the death of
a spouse, which can send a
clients family into a tailspin.
Your job as a financial
advisor is to tell them how it
is going to affect them, what
the alternatives are, and to
give them advice and listen
to their needs during these
difficult times, Dickerson
said. These types of events are

going to happen things from a
spouse passing away to an adult
kid needing money, which is
a big problem nowadays. As
their advisor, you just have to
listen to what they are going
through and talk them through
it, knowing that you have their
best interest in mind.
Learn more about Michael C.
Dickerson and his firm, Dickerson Wealth Advisers, online at
www.dickersonwealthadvisers.com
CEO Michael C. Dickerson

Dickerson Wealth Advisers
www.dickersonwealthadvisers.com
CONSCIENCE - BASED INVESTING

investing in sustainable, ethical business doesnt kill returns
. Benjamin Bingham lets one

thing guide the investments he
recommends to clients his conscience.
The standard we set for ourselves is
to achieve market-rate returns while
having as much of a positive impact
on society and our environment as we
can, Bingham recently told The Suit
Magazine. Binghams firm, 3Sisters
Sustainable Management, LLC,
practices socially responsible
investing that prioritizes aligning
clients values to assets.
Socially responsible investing
considers the impact of an investment
on the environment or society for
example, big oil companies are typically
out along with defense contractors.
Often called ESG for environmental,
social, and corporate governance
investing, this brand of asset allocation
is becoming more common among large
financial firms and a cottage industry of
consultants have sprung up to advise on
which investments make the
cut.
Socially responsible
investors usually pursue
one of two options. They either
invest in socially responsible companies
or products, or they put their money into
companies that create a negative social
or environmental impact, and then work
to change them from within. Activist
investors pursue the latter option.
Bingham, whos written a book on the
subject entitled Making Money Matter:
Impact Investing to Change the World,
pointed out that socially responsible
does not mean a lower
return. A metaanalysis of
100 studies
on
p.38
the effect of ESG by Deutsche Bank

found that just 2 percent of the reports
concluded socially responsible investing
hurts returns. In contrast, more than 50
percent of the studies Deutsche Bank
considered showed ESG investing may
boost returns (the remainder showed no
difference).
3Sisters helps clients invest sustainably
through its Scarab Funds, which offer
short duration microfinance, high yield
private debt, a diversified real asset fund,
public impact stocks and a developing
series of private equity strategies. These
diversified funds serve philanthropic
and traditional advisors whose clients
who want to see strong returns, and high
social impact, within their risk profiles,
Bingham said.
Binghams reliance on conscience made
traditional finance work difficult, he
said. At Citigroup in 2006, he couldnt
believe the firms attitude toward
mortgages, and saw hard times ahead.
He left the firm for an RIA where he
could match client values to investments
and his portfolios only lost 5 percent,
on average, during the 2008 crisis.
Investing off the street also
complicated protecting clients, he said.
Bingham described Hansens Natural
Soda as one of his best investments in the
early 2000s; the company wasnt tracked
by analysts, but grew 2000 percent in two
years. It took considerable convincing
to get Legg Mason to approve putting
Hansens in clients portfolios, Bingham
said, adding that its an example of how
powerful analysts and the Wall Street
Universe are.
The prevalence of ESG investing
will only grow as a new generation of
investors consider their conscience before
sinking money into an asset, Bingham
said.
I would say the whole market is
thinking about this right now. Its a
multi-trillion dollar market and
theres multiple opportunities for
innovation, he said.
INTRODUCTION TO
MAKING MONEY MATTER

BY G. BENJAMIN BINGHAM
ay 2014 marked the end of the world as I knew it. Along with a
number of economists and thought leaders, I traveled to St. Augustine, Florida, for a gathering called Finding Ethical Alpha. Hazel
Henderson, the grande dame of new economic thinking, had brought
us there. After predicting much of what has unfolded since the 1970s,
now Hazel beams out rays of hopeful data from her website (www.
ethicalmarkets.com ), where she tracks the new Green Economy
global spending is already in the trillions and accelerating.
www.makingmoneymatter.cash
But the news in the room that day was

not all warm and fuzzy. We realized that
we are witnessing a time of global change
that could prematurely end what Hazel
calls the Age of the Anthropocene. Humankind may become as extinct as the dinosaurs.
It seems there are two ways out of this
dilemma: one following the simple wisdom
of nature and Hazels exponential growth
in consciousness, and the other employing
a plethora of technological solutions. This is
a time of global reckoning. The future is not
known, but is more than ever in our own
hands. The question is whether we will
support the proliferation of ready solutions
or continue to invest in the problems like
prudent lemmings heading for a cliff.
If we embrace the energy of the sun, the
wind, and the rising tides (together able

to provide twenty-four times the energy
we currently consume), will we do it in
a way that remembers the soul? Will the
future of humanity be wedded with the
living and dying rhythms of nature? Or
will we be mechanized and digitized
to the point that human error becomes
redundantand cyber- biotic beings
replace our gentle genus?
Katherine Collins, the former head of
research at Fidelity and author of The Nature of Investing, elegantly demonstrated
that there is too much uncertainty about
the future to depend on data from the
past. We had better order our investments
with policies, procedures, and processes
that are in harmony with Naturein the
how and the why of our investing.
It is abundantly clear that our relationships define the quality of our life, especially our relationship with nature and
spirit, however we choose to define it.
Because we have lost touch with nature,
we find ourselves in the current predicament: destroying our own home planet.
Dennis Bushnell, Chief Scientist at
NASA Langley Research Center, brought
our attention to the chilling fact that
natural disasters are likely to wipe us out
unless we act now. In fact it may already
be too late. In the 1980s, he predicted
that, given the rate of global warming,
all Arctic ice would melt by 2100. So far,
his theories have been proven correct.
Moreover, the global buildup of methane
is increasing the likelihood that tsunamis
will form. But Bushnell claims we already
have the means to solve most of our prob-
lems. For example:

1.
Halophytes, plants that are prolific when irrigated with seawater, could
green the Sahara and provide sufficient
biomass to replace all fossil fuels, feed
the hungry, and provide fresh water for
human use.
2.
Hydrogen power is ready to go,
with the first large-scale utility already
built in South Korea.
3.
Joule Unlimited has created a
synthetic gasoline alternative, produced
cheaply by exposing CO2 in brackish
water to sunlight. (Audi is a partner.)
4.
LENR (Low Energy Nuclear
Reaction) holds extraordinary promise,
but is still risky and controversial at the
moment. (Recently an explosion in the
NASA lab melted the glass in the windows.)
We have the means to power the world
harmlessly, yet 85 percent of our current
energy use is needlessly harmful to the
planet, which speeds up the rate of global
weirding. Will we wake up in time?
Will we invest to survive, or better, for
future generations to thrive? You will
decide with your money! How it is spent,
loaned, borrowed, gifted, or invested will
determine the planets future. Welcome to
the new economics: prosperity will only
be realized if we take care of ourselves
and the planet.
www.3sistersinvest.com
by amy armstrong
transitioning within retirement
Its not just about a comfortable beach chair, it's about supporting change
Gary P. Gardner
President
Life&Wealth Advisors
Life&Wealth Advisors prides

itself in helping our clients
create lives full of possibilities.
Through our processes we
stretch your imagination to discover and create both opportunities and solutions. We help you
overcome feelings of unease,
confusion, or constriction that
you might be experiencing on
your journey.
ife is full of
transitions. Most
of these transitions
require us to figure
out how finances
will support that
change while
our emotional
needs are met.
Based on years of research and work a
newly-introduced certification within the
financial services industry the Certified
Financial Transitionist (CeFT) is
all about training financial planners on
how to guide clients through the various
adjustments that life brings. This is a
new concept. The idea is that transition
oftentimes with retirement being the most
challenging one should be included
in the technical analysis and numbers
crunching.
But why not?
www.lwadvice.com
p.40
Call it the financial industrys

reversal of the old adage that old dogs
cannot learn new tricks. Who says that
experienced financial planners cannot
learn to use new tools to better assist their
clients?
Certainly not Gary P. Gardner,
president of Life&Wealth Advisors based
in Walnut Creek, Calif. After 40 years of
working as a financial planner, Gardner
earned yet another new certification
in April 2016 the Certified Financial
Transitionist (CeFT) granted by
the Sudden Money Institute based in
Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. Earning the
certification is in keeping with Gardners
goal of staying on the cutting edge of
what is available to the financial planning
community. There are two sides of
financial planning the personal side and
the technical side. I am good at both, but I
have a bias toward working with people,
trying to understand what it is they really
want out of life and how to help them

get there, he said. Now that I have the
transition tools that come along with a
CeFT, I want to incorporate those into
my practice more and more.
Life transitions, such as the death of a
spouse, divorce, a change in employment
or even the blessing of an unexpected
windfall, can each bring stresses to a
persons life for which he or she is most
likely unprepared. Most men and
women are not really ready to make
significant life decisions when these types
of events occur, Gardner said. And in
every case, each person is going to react
differently. Getting a perspective on
the range of reactions to change is a big
part of what he values from the CeFT
training. As the financial planner who
pays attention to the larger picture of how
lifes transitions impact a clients finances,
he serves his clients as the cool head and
rudder in the storm.
His training as a CeFT gives him
insight into aspects of spousal death, for
instance, that arent necessarily financial.
He tells the story of a widowed client. She
was a tremendous partner in her spouses
life during their 55-year marriage, but she
didnt handle the finances at all. Now
that she has to make those vital
decisions, Gardner isnt simply
advising her he is teaching
her. We are
working
on things
that are
important to her as well, from an emotional

standpoint, he said. Some of those
issues are issues not usually handled by
a financial planner. For instance, her
husband was a do-it-yourselfer with five
sets of treasured work boots in the garage.
Their symbolic value made it difficult for
the widow just to give them to Goodwill.
I was able to help her work through the
issues surrounding disposing of his boots
and other items containing precious
memories.
This concept of smoothing the path
through transition applies to other life
events as well. Market downturns, such as
the one experienced in the Great Recession
of 2008 to March 2009, are another
example in which taking a long-term, calm
viewpoint is the best strategy. During the
period, Gardner had not yet become a
CeFT, but his approach to navigating
that storm could be characterized as
preparation for the coursework he would
later complete. He didnt lose any clients
during that volatile time frame, because the
strong relationship he built with each client
was established long before the downturn
occurred.
Gardner likes to work with clients for

whom he can make the most difference.
It is his approach to being a fiduciary
a guiding principle to which he has
adhered throughout his career. This is
why the pending changes scheduled
to be implemented in April 2017 by the
federal Department of Labor regarding
the definition and responsibilities of being
a fiduciary dont threaten his work ethic.
When asked what he thinks the financial
services industry would best change about
its current operations, he immediately
indicated that the fiduciary model should
be implemented across the board to all
individuals and institutions providing
financial services to the public.
He values increasing his clients financial
literacy including teaching them what a
fiduciary actually does and what nonconflicted value that brings to the client.
He sees the myriad of online platforms
waving the banner of financial education,
but isnt sure just how effective interacting
only with a computer could be in terms
of upgrading a clients financial IQ. I am
not clear on how you can transmit wisdom
via computer code, Gardner said. How
are you going to get people to connect

to 40 years of experience and how does
a computer work through the situations
that happen in life with a client? How is a
computer going to be able to do that?
For now, he realizes just how much the
personal goals of clients have changed.
The traditional life trajectory of education,
followed by work and then retirement
is no longer the mainstay. Clients often
have what he calls a second adulthood,
in which they may begin work in a field
completely unrelated to their first career,
start a business or take a non-career job to
bring in some cash. He likens it to the lyrics
by Tom Petty in the song, Last Dance
with Mary Jane, in which the crooner
delivers the words, Well, I dont know,
but Ive been told, you never slow down,
you never grow old. Just like those lyrics,
Gary Gardner keeps moving forward and
learning for the benefit of his clients. His
goal is to work with clients well into his
80s.
Learn more about Mr. Gardner and
Life&Wealth Advisors online at
www.lwadvice.com
THE SUIT MAGAZINE NOV p.43
RETIREMENT PLANNING? THINK TAXES

It can be difficult to find a
wealth manager who treats
clients like family. At Prosperity
Wealth Management, thats not
a problem.
I began my career hoping I
could help my clients achieve
those dreams my dad was
never able to funding
their childrens college
educations, achieving financial
independence, and leaving a
legacy someday to their loved
ones, said Lauren Gidley,
president of Prosperity Wealth
Management.
Achieving financial
independence presents a
serious challenge for even
the most diligent retirement
saver. But the freedom to
enjoy life, travel, and deal with
financial complications such
as long-term care throughout
retirement make overcoming
that challenge an essential part
of investment planning.
But most savers, even the
careful ones, often fail to
consider one serious hurdle to
effective retirement planning
taxes. After all, as Benjamin
Franklin once said, the only
certainties in life are death
and taxes. Because taxes are
a certainty, investors need to
think about how to reduce
them.
People are missing the
bigger picture of the impact
of taxes, Gidley said. Taxes
have a far greater impact on
clients ability to achieve goals
than they realize. I focus on
mitigating taxes and applying
those savings to helping my
clients achieve and enhance
financial independence.
Gidley recently shared with
The Suit Magazine her views
on retirement planning, the
need to reduce investors tax
burdens, and how financial
independence is within reach.
Many of Prosperity Wealth
Managements clients are
doctors or business owners
two groups that chafe under
heavy tax burdens. The firm
does not set a hard minimum
to invest, but clients values
should align to the companys
belief in integrity, genuine
caring, and loyalty. The firms
belief in loyalty means they
safeguard clients money, even
if it means explaining difficult
or unorthodox changes to a
portfolio.
One aspect of loyalty is
protection, Gidley said.
Those who work with us
know that twice within the past
two decades we proactively
President Lauren Gidley

Prosperity Wealth Management.
p.44
recommended for our clients

to step out of the stock market
when risk was high, avoiding
two crashes in which the stock
market lost half its value.
Another aspect of loyalty
is Gidleys insistence that
client money be treated as if it
belongs to a family member.
This is non-negotiable for
Gidley, who worked her way
through college after a bad
investment left her father
unable to fund her education.
Gidley gravitated toward
finance at a young age, after her
mother died of cancer. Gidleys
father invested his late-wifes
life insurance to fund Gidleys
education. Unfortunately, the
investment collapsed. That
experience left Gidley with a
desire to help others achieve
their goals through wise
investment choices.
Gidley began her finance
career in 1989 after graduating
from Texas A&M University.
During Gidleys nearly 30
years in the finance industry,
she saw the stock market rise
and fall repeatedly. When the
market was hot from 1995
until 1999, Gidley prioritized
portfolio growth. She did the
same during mid-2000s boom.
But when the market began
western new york advisors take unorthodox approach to help clients thrive
falling apart after each growth
period, she made sure to
move her clients out of stocks
and into safer investments.
People fail to realize how
difficult recovering money
lost to a stock market crash
can be; consider that if the
market loses 50 percent, an
investor needs to make back
100 percent to break even. For
older investors, thats a tall
order.
Most of these investors
will not be able to postpone
retirement long enough to
try to recover their losses and
grow their money back, she
told Forbes Magazine in 2014.
Gidley founded Prosperity
Wealth Management in 2004
after realizing she could better
serve investors if she was free
from corporate mandates.
I wanted to be able to
recommend the products
and services that would
best help my clients achieve
their financial goals, Gidley
said. I wanted my advice
to be based on the unique
needs of each client rather
than the directives of my
employer; affiliating with an
independent brokerage firm
gave me the freedom to put
my clients needs first.
Gidley is a registered
representative with First
Allied Securities, Inc., a
Registered Broker Dealer
and member of FINRA/
SIPC as well as a registered
investment advisor consultant
with First Allied Advisory
Services, a Registered
Investment Advisor. She is
also an Accredited Investment
Fiduciary.
Prosperity Wealth
Managements focus on taxes
allows Gidley to unlock extra
funds to reinvest into clients
financial independence.
Clients often remain ignorant
of this model.
For example, the required
disclosures surrounding
401(k) accounts are helpful,
Gidley said, but people rarely
consider what the tax burden
on those savings will be.
Investors often lose a third
of their 401(k) to Uncle Sam,
which can be a huge blow
for people expecting to fund
retirement, long-term care,
and other late-life needs.
Lowering the tax burden
on any investment frees up
money thats otherwise tossed
down the drain as well, she
added.
I have not met anyone who
Our Team:
Patricia Staples, Caitlin
Buehler, Luke Buehler,
Karin VanZile, Lauren A.
Gidley, Rhonda Frank,
Douglas Schutte, James
Taylor, Sarah Dickinson,
Kristin Hofgren
Our Mission
is to develop long lasting, meaningful personal relationships with our
clients by providing dynamic and effective strategies to safeguard their
portfolios, grow their investments, and secure their income to help
provide lifetime financial independence and a legacy to those they love.
thought tax rates would be lower in
the future, said Gidley, who started
her career nearly 30 years ago. Yet
they choose to defer tax on a smaller
amount of money at a known tax rate
today for a relatively minor current
tax savings, only to face a major
tax bill at an unknown tax rate on a
considerably larger expected amount
in their 401(k) account in the future.
Gidley says, At Prosperity Wealth
Management, we focus on helping
our clients by specializing in tax
reduction and long-term planning.
Good investment planning is more
important now as people live longer,
with retirements stretching out to 30
or even 40 years. Prosperity Wealth
Management considers the possibility
that a retiree could live to 100 or need
expensive long-term care and plans
accordingly.
One way Prosperity Wealth
Management does that is by taking
advantage of the tax-favored status
of whole life insurance. Prosperity
uses a special kind that grows taxdeferred while allowing clients
to access their funds meaning
they can access their savings taxfree for large expenditures like a
college education. These plans can
provide tax-free income for life,
when structured properly, Gidley
said, adding that the guaranteed
growth of a whole life insurance plan
sidesteps the volatility of the stock
market. (These guarantees are based

on the claims paying ability of the
issuing insurance company.) Having
access to their life insurance proceeds
during their lifetime also allows
investors to absorb the draining costs
of long-term care, she said.
When a client entrusts me with
savings that took them decades to
build up I will always put my
clients interests above my own in the
management of their portfolio, she
said.
New Department of Labor
fiduciary rules which mandate all
conflicts of interest be disclosed to
potential clients as well expanding
the definition of fiduciary to include
insurance salespeople and brokers,
among others are how Gidley has
operated since the 1980s. She has
always put the client first, even when
that proves challenging.
Prosperity Wealth Management
might take a generally more
conservative approach to wealth
management than a traditional
alpha approach firm, but the longterm gains can really pay off for
clients. Gidley described her biggest
professional challenge as countering
market exuberance during boom
times; communicating with clients
that a bust is on its way can be a
difficult conversation that requires
courage.
My greatest challenge was
persuading clients to lock in

their profits and safeguard their
portfolios in 1999 after five years
of the most out-sized gains in
stock market history, she said.
My recommendation has proven
prescient when the stock market
peaked early in 2000 and then
proceeded to lose half its value over
the next three years.
Gidleys careful approach
has earned Prosperity Wealth
Management a number of accolades.
The firm has earned media coverage
from Forbes Magazine, Business First
of Buffalo, Buffalo Spree Magazine,
and numerous television programs.
Gidley also is publishing two books
this year 10 Most Expensive Tax
Mistakes That Cost Business Owners
Thousands and 10 Most Expensive
Tax Mistakes That Cost Doctors
Thousands. A third book, 5 Keys to
Achieving and Enhancing Financial
Independence, is in the works.
Accolades are nice, but taking care
of hard-earned money and helping
clients meet their goals is better.
My greatest reward is being told
that I made a difference in the lives
of the clients I serve, that I assisted
them with pursuing their financial
dreams, Gidley said.
For more information see http://
prosperitywealthmanagement.com/
8201 Main Street, Suite 9 | Williamsville, NY 14221 | 716-633-8000| Toll Free: 888-838-8688 | www.prosperitywm.com
Securities offered through First Allied Securities, Inc. Member FINRA/SIPC. Advisory services offered through First Allied Advisory Services
p.46
technology to the rescue
Wisconsin firm uses early warning system to protect client wealth
onitoring the
markets daily
convulsions can leave
investors stressed and
overwhelmed and
bringing in a financial
advisor on short notice
to troubleshoot after a sudden loss isnt
always possible, either.
Point Wealth Management, LLC,
protects clients from unexpected market
swells with WealthGuardTM, a powerful
early warning system designed to detect
drastic portfolio fluctuations and loop
in an advisor when needed. The system
often allows advisors and investors
to communicate and act before losses
accumulate.
It starts the conversation before [a
downturn] even becomes a problem,
Jeremy Reif, founder of Point Wealth
Management, LLC, told The Suit Magazine. Reif, who values the role technology can play in wealth management,
believes WealthGuardTM allows his firm
to shore up clients wealth faster than
competitors can.
Reif leads Point Wealth with partner
Jere Smith, CFP, CLU. The Wausau,
Wisconsin, firm serves clients throughout the state, but Reif wants to expand
their success to clients nation-wide. Reif
and Smith specialize in creating financial independence for pre-retired and
retired clients. The typical minimum to
invest is $100,000.
Reif originally drawn to wealth
management by a fake stock market
game in his high school economics class
made his first investment during high
school. The late-1990s dotcom bubble
pushed Reifs first few dollars through
the roof that is, until the market
turned.
I thought I was a genius, originally.
And then when I went to college and
2001 happened, I realized I didnt know
as much as I thought I did, Reif said.
Reif spent several years post-college
successfully working for a large broker-
p.48
age, a life insurance company, and a registered investment advisor. Experience

taught him that technology can enhance
the client-advisor relationship; success
taught him to trust his own instincts.
But to enhance doesnt mean to replace, Reif is careful to point out.
Younger, do-it-yourself types may
gravitate toward robo-advising and
online solutions. But even digital natives
who grew up in the cloud will want
questions answered or life will become
hectic enough that they need help. The
older generation, meanwhile, still wants
to speak to an advisor, but the technology is there to help.
WealthGuardTM develops a risk profile
for investors and creates a red line at
the largest loss they are willing to take.
Once a portfolio dips below the red line,
alarms ring for both the advisor and
client.
The risk profile provides each investor
Point Wealth, LLC is an independent, fee-only

company. We are specifically founded on helping
retirees or soon-to-be retirees with their financial
independence by embracing the latest technology by
being smarter in their way of investing
with a tailored solution something Reif
strives for.
Since every client is different, the advice for the situation should be equally
different, he explained.
Technology remains just a tool, however. Reif who prides himself on acting
as a fiduciary to clients said that creating custom retirement plans for clients,
developing long-term care strategies
and asking whether he would recommend investment choices to his parents,
still require that human touch.
Yes, the technology is great, but it
certainly has its limitations, Reif noted.
For more information about Point Wealth

Management, LLC, visit:
www.pointwealthmanagement.com
To learn more about WealthGuardTM see:
www.pointwealthmanagement.com/
wealthguard
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Strategies
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RETIREMENT PLANNING BEYOND NUMBERS
Funding the nest egg is only the first step to a successful retirement
ith advancements in
healthcare and
lifestyle choices,
todays retirees
face a real threat
of outliving their
finances. According
to the Social Security Administration, a
quarter of all 65-year-olds will survive
past 90, and one in ten will live past 95.
Unfortunately, for many the numbers
simply dont add up.
According to Debbie Craig, CFP,
MBA, CRPS, Branch Manager of
Craig Wealth Advisors, weve reached
a juncture where Americans can no
longer rely on either the government
or pensions from employment to fund
retirement. Neither of these things
happen anymore, and everyone needs
to be able to prepare and save on their
own behalf, she said. In order to ask
an individual to do that, you have to
give them an education.
Craig, who strives to make financial
conversations accessible and easy to
understand for all involved, continually
tries to educate her clients not only
on how to save but also on why its so
critical for them to be preparing for an
eventual retirement.
Client education also includes
guiding them through making strategic
decisions about when and how to
make financial decisions that carry
a greater impact, such as hitting the
sweet spot in taking social security
benefits. According to Craig, every
individual and couple has a different
break-even point when deciding if
its more advantageous to take longer
distributions of lower amounts, or wait
and receive more money over fewer
years. Twelve to 15 years is the average
break-even point.
Having entered the financial services
industry during the tumultuous 2000s,
Craig excels at managing risk and
helping to ensure that her clients have
the funds they need for retirement. Her
p.50
investment philosophy is summed up

in three steps: income today, income
tomorrow and flexibility.
You have to be able to generate
a nest egg in a conservative and
consistent fashion, she emphasized,
adding that the ultimate goal is to have
a plan that generates enough income
from interest, dividends and bank
guaranteed products to replace the loss
of a paycheck.
But Craigs retirement education plan
goes far beyond straight fiscal facts and
figures. As part of her client outreach,
she is implementing a new educational
series, including webinars, aimed at
diving deeper into helping people
prepare for the psychological and
emotional impacts of retirement as well.
Emotionally, its really hard, Craig
said. Everything about a persons life
changes routine, friends, income,
purpose and health. Work is not just
about money, she added. There has
to be something we are looking forward
to that will fill in the blanks. Time with
grandkids, hobbies, charitable works
and travel are all good forward-looking

goals.
As a strong proponent of both
education and communication, Craig
appreciates the increased access to
online information and tools now
available to the public, noting how
it helps clients and advisors have
conversations with more meaning and
impact right from the start.
10709 Coy St PO Box 369
Alden, MI 49612
231-331-5500
2915 Garfield Rd N Suite A
Traverse City, MI 49686
231-943-2920
www.craigwealthadvisors.com
Craig Wealth Advisors is an independent firm. Securities are offered through Raymond James Financial Services, Inc. Member
FINRA/SIPC. Any opinions are those of Debbie Craig and not necessarily those of RJFS or Raymond James. The information has been
obtained from sources considered to be reliable, but we do not guarantee that the foregoing material is accurate or complete. There is
no assurance any of the trends mentioned will continue or forecasts will occur. Any information is not a complete summary or statement of all available data necessary for making an investment decision and does not constitute a recommendation. Investing involves
risk and you may incur a profit or loss regardless of strategy selected.
DOES YOUR ADVISOR
REALLY KNOW YOU?
if not, neither one of you are stepping up
inancial advisors may have thorough

industry knowledge, but if they
dont have a full and complete
understanding of you, your motives,
personal plans and legacy goals, Craig
Pesce, CFP , Vice President and Director
of Marshall & Sterling Wealth Advisors says
theyre simply not doing their job to the best
of their abilities.
Fiduciary competency is a must. That
p.52
goes without saying. says Pesce. But if we

dont take that knowledge and apply it in a
specific and custom manner tailored to what
our client has worked his or her entire life
for, what good is it?
The Poughkeepsie, New York, firm is a
division of a 150-year-old risk management
company, currently ranked 33rd among
privately held insurance companies in the
US, according to Insurance Journals 2016
Top 100 Independent Property and

Casualty Agencies report. Marshall
& Sterling Wealth Advisors are
a registered investment advisor
offering financial planning,
investment advice and Retirement
Plan consulting.
To be effective, investing and
financial planning has to be a
collaborative effort. Investors and
advisors need to work together
to develop tailored investment
solutions. Pesces team is very hands
on. Their client relationships always
begin by asking a lot of questions.
We know each and every one of our
clients. he says.
But you as the investor also have
responsibilities . . . be open and
speak up. As an investor, your
input is essential for your advisor
to properly guide you. Leaving
your advisor to interpret what your

goals are is a losing proposition
for everyone involved. We look for
individuals and businesses that are
engaged in the process, recognizing
its not just about earning. Its about
planning, growing, and protecting
their wealth. said Pesce. When
a client gets that and values our
guidance and support, its a powerful
combination.
Working with clients to find
a custom solution recently has
taken on new importance with the
industry shift away from the alpha
approach. Many clients come to
Marshall & Sterling seeking alpha,
but the conservative approach
delivers more consistent rewards
over the long-term. Pesce said. And
our team is in it for the long term.
Building customized solutions
requires knowing investors,

particularly from one generation
to the next. Approaching newer
investors such as millennials who
grew up watching the market lurch
up and down, often with disastrous
consequences for their parents
requires new tactics like online tools.
The industry is changing as well,
with new Department of Labor
fiduciary rules going into effect this
April and additional 401k disclosure
requirements complicating
compliance. Increased longevity also
complicated the planning process as
now clients must contend with 30
or 40 year retirements something
Marshall & Sterling deals with by
projecting longer life expectancy and
increasing medical expenses in its
models to provide a cushion, Pesce
said.
None of the changes affect Marshall
& Sterlings basic promise to put
investors first, Pesce said. A placard
in his office lists the top three rules
of wealth management; all three are:
Always do right by the client.
Its that simple, he said. If you
look yourself in the mirror at the end
of every day and know that you put
the client first, then we all win.
For more information see:
www.ms-wealth.com
The opinions voiced in this material are for

general information only and are not intended to
provide specific advice or recommendations for
any individual.
Securities offered through LPL Financial, Member
FINRA/SIPC. Investment Advice offered through
Marshall & Sterling Wealth Advisors, a registered
investment advisor. Marshall & Sterling Wealth
Advisors, Marshall & Sterling Wealth Management, and Marshall & Sterling Inc. are separate
entities from LPL Financial.
by amy armstrong
Every Dollar
COUNTS
MARC AGEL, SUSAN HART, LORI MURPHY, KARI SALERNO, CHRIS KIRK, ROBERT AGEL
ont leave
any possible
monetary gains on
the table. This is the
goal behind active
tax loss harvesting,
a technical financial
maneuver allowing
an investor to sell a losing investment,
and then collect or harvest a
capital loss which can be used to
offset capital gain for tax savings.
It sounds complicated, but for those
who know how to use the formula, it
is viewed as just math that needs to
be completed in order to bring a more
productive return to clients.
Active tax loss harvesting could
also be considered the financial
version of the practice of gleaning,
in which people go back through
the fields to pick up any fruit and
vegetables left behind after the main
harvest is completed.
p.54
The bulk of those fruits and

vegetables have nothing wrong with
them from a nutritional standpoint: It
just takes some extra effort to gather
them up.
I am just amazed at the number
of advisors managing taxable funds,
who just leave that money on the
table, Marc Agel, a partner in the
Albany Advisor Group based in
Albany, New York noted. As part of
upstate New York, agricultural ideals
like gleaning in the fields are not
only understood, but are also part
of the culture. In the past year, Agel
and his team have saved the firms
clients more than $95,000 by using
the active tax loss harvest method.
He says, somewhat jokingly, that
perhaps it is better to be lucky than
good, in terms of timing the buyback
into the market after selling a loser.
Either way, for Agel, it just doesnt
make sense to leave those dollars
laying there. This is one aspect of

the financial literacy of clients that
he strives to improve. Agel sees it as
part of his job as a financial advisor to
not just help clients avoid mistakes,
but also to teach them why certain
choices arent good ones to make.
It includes the amount of risk to
take in a portfolio in order to achieve
set goals. It also includes learning
how to avoid debt a step his
Millennial and Generation X clients
often mention to him.
The advice he gives is best
summarized by his firm belief in
being a fiduciary for his clients first,
before having any other interaction
with them. Agel says it is easy for him
to preach the fiduciary model because
it is the only model hes ever used.
I feel it has the highest propensity
to alleviate conflict of interest on the
clients behalf, Agel said. Nothing
is perfect as long as human are
involved, but as long as money is
changing hands, the fiduciary model
offers the greatest amount of potential
for eliminating any conflict of interest
that can damage the client.
Learn more about Marc Agel and
Albany Advisor Group online at
www.albanyadvisor.com
18 Corporate Woods
Albany, NY 12211
518-689-3577
AlbanyAdvisor Group is a division of PKS
Advisory Services LLC, an SEC Registered Investment Advisory Firm.
Investments and insurance products are
made available through Purshe Kaplan
Sterling Investments and are: NOT FDIC
INSUREDNOT BANK GUARANTEEDMAY LOSE VALUENOT A DEPOSITNOT
INSURED BY ANY FEDERAL OR STATE
GOVERNMENT AGENCY. Securities offered
through Purshe Kaplan Sterling Investments,
Member FINRA/SIPC, Headquartered at 18
Corporate Woods Blvd., Albany, NY 12211
Elite N.Y. attorneys with over 40

years of combined experience!
The Law Office of
Civil | Commercial | Financial

Securities | Healthcare
140 Grand Street, White Plains,
New York 10601
P: (914) 686-1500 M: (914) 686-1504
E-mail: russell@yankwitt.com
Please visit us a: www.yankwitt.com
Attorney Advertisement
by amy armstrong
Adapting to a
Changing World
There arent a lot of concierge boutique-type services available for people with
investable assets of less than a half million.
orking with those who

have assets worth
$100,000 just isnt profitable for most wealth advisors who
take the fiduciary approach and
work on a fee-only basis. Yet, people
who fit into the second category
still need financial advice, and do
indeed have assets that are worth
protecting and growing.
Fortunately, wealth advisors
such as Leo Daprile of Gem-Young
Wealth Advisors, LLC, based in
Youngstown, Ohio, not only recognize this need, but have also found
a solution that creates a profitable
avenue by which they can provide
services for the less affluent, but
more importantly, also provide an
entry point for those with a lower
financial standing to begin investing
with some level of professional
guidance.
Daprile and his team call their
secondary distribution channel
gWealth Select, and it offers online advice to investors with $10,000
or more.
We are very excited about this
new opportunity, Daprile told
The Suit Magazine. We call it our
light version of what we do for
our clients in the gWealth Premiere
program. There are many investors
in the market today who do not
need that level of full comprehensive planning, but still do require
financial advice.
Daprile describes it as a hybrid
between digital advice and a robo
advisor.
He is constantly on the look-out
for opportunities to differentiate
his firm and its services from the
competition. In retrospect, that is
how Gem-Young Wealth Advisors
came into existence.
Daprile recalls having lunch
with a friend and two other wealth
advisors when he suddenly had an
a-ha moment. He realized that
they each pretty much looked the
same: they talked the same, they
wore the same type of suit they
Gem-Young Wealth Advisors LLC

A family business doing business with individuals and families.
even walked the same.

He thought to himself, How
does a potential client know which
one of us to choose, as we all do the
same thing and appear the same?
Dapriles question was the genesis
of the boutique firm he runs today.
That is how we morphed into
the company we are today, Daprile
explained. We wanted to provide
comprehensive risk management to
our clients for their wealth and their
assets. Our clients want professional
advice at a fair value. That is what
we have become.
Today, his work is characterized by client education, including
teaching how the concept of buy
low, sell high actually works,
and identifying emotional money
triggers that often lead clients to
make financial mistakes. Daprile

helps clients identify investments
that best meet their individual plan
goals, rather than the ones that
beat the S&P 500 or the Dow Jones
Industrial. He also makes liberal
life expectancy estimates to give his
clients a complete look at how aging
will impact their finances. Daprile is
poised to make necessary changes
immediately on his clients behalf.
I no longer stay married to an
idea forever just because it worked
a couple of years ago, Daprile
emphasized. We have to be able to
adapt to our changing world.
Learn more about Leo Daprile and
Gem-Young Wealth Advisors, LLC,
online at
www.gemyoungwealth.com
Leo Daprile, ChFc, CLU

President of Gem-Young Wealth Advisors, LLC
3792 Starrs Centre Drive
Canfield, OH 44406
P (330) 533-6936
leo@gemyoung.com
p.56
PRESENTING THE CASE

by frank graziano
s a young lawyer, charles

cole
was
drawn
to
trials. I liked being able to
talk to juries and see the courtroom
almost like a theater, a form of performance art, he told The Suit. Its a philosophy that, as a trained dramatist,
he employs with success. In fact, 55 of
the 60 cases Cole has tried before a jury have won favorable or projected outcomes.
In his 13 years at Schuyler, Roche, & Crisham, hes been
instrumental in expanding the firms size and scope. In
2008 he spearheaded a merger that added 10 lawyers to
the roster and opened the practice to medical cases. Now,
in addition to commercial litigation, Schuyler, Roche &
Crisham also handles malpractice defense for physicians,
specialists, and medical device manufacturers.
Cole is a shareholder in the firm and has been practicing law since the 1970s. He has also trained at Chicagos
famous Second City, a comedy club and school of improvisation. It helped me greatly in terms of my courtroom
skills and being able to and entertain and stimulate jurors, keeping them engaged in the argument Im presenting, he says.
Lately, theres one change in the field of law thats been
bothering Cole: a growing lack of civility in the courtroom. As a man with unwavering faith in the judicial
system, Cole believes that when opposing parties behave
amicably and professionally, its a more efficient machine.
Maybe thats a pie-in-the-sky kind of view, a very optimistic kind of view, but thats sort of been my M.O.,
he said.
One Prudential Plaza | Suite 3800

130 East Randolph Street
Chicago, Illinois 60601
312 565.2400
www.srzlaw.com
ORDER YOUR PRINT EDITION OF THE SUIT MAGAZINE TODAY!

On demand print to The Suit Magazine provides you with a complete package for all of
your business analysis, finance news and current events. Stay up-to-date on key
National topics so youre always in the know.
http://www.magcloud.com/browse/magazine/233862
THE SUIT MAGAZINE - SEPT 2011
2016 EDITORIAL
TSM
January
Game Changers in the Financial Industry
Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015
Key Economic trends to watch in 2016
Suitability Vs. Fiduciary Standards
Choosing the right Financial Advisor
March
September
Small and Mid-sized Business Growth

Educating our Kids
Financial Literacy
Markets & Personal Finance
Innovation and Leadership

Estate and Succession Planning
Inspiring Comeback Stories Small businesses
have faced
May
November
Big Data and Cloud

Monetizing the Web
Information Privacy and Cyber Security Trends
Do-It-Yourself Models Expand
Role of Technology & Outsourcing
Business of Presidential Politics

Reading Between the Lines
PACK Money Misappropriated
Recovery and Growth of the Middle Market
July
Important Trends and Challenges for Executives
Startups Overvalued Silicon Valley Bubble
Retail Financial Advice
Consumer Changes in Attitude & Behavior
Wealth Concentration
Editorial Department
Michael Gordon
The Suit Magazine
718.619.8520
editorialdept@thesuitmagazine.com
www.thesuitmagazine.com

Issue 76

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The Real Deal

Tilman Fertitta: Billion Dollar Buyer

Rising Dragon Hidden Dangers

Investing in Vietnam Enormous Potential

Wall Street Institutions & Regulators

The Shaman of Wall Street

Redefining The Investment Experience

ISSUE 76 | JAN 2017

The Unicorns are Coming

or the past 50 years, technology has

anything like a clich. Perhaps, as corny

Happy New Year,

Erwin Kantor, Publisher

The Real Deal

Billion Dollar Buyer

Rising Dragon Hidden Dangers

Investing in Vietnam Enormous Potential

Wall Street Institutions & Regulators

The Shaman of Wall Street

Redefining The Investment Experience

The Infrastructure of The World

Shark With A Heart

Mark Cuban, billionaire investor and philanthropist

Stephen Klasko Embracing Innovation

If embracing innovation could be written on a prescription

The Rise of the Deluxe Corporation

Wall Street Institutions & Regulators

THE SUIT MAGAZINE - JAN 2017

The Shaman of Wall Street

Redefining the Investment Experience

Everything was going fine between banks and their

The Real Deal: Tillman Firtatta

Rising Dragon Hidden Dangers

34 Taking Money Off THE STREET

Wisconsin wealth managers build true relationships with clients

37 Ramen and Peanut Butter Dreams:

38 Conscience - Based Investing

Investing in sustainable, ethical business doesnt kill returns

40 Transitioning Within Retirement

44 Retirement Planning? Think Taxes

48 Technology to The Rescue

Wisconsin firm uses early warning system to protect client wealth

50 Retirement Planning Beyond the Numbers

52 Does Your Advisors Really Know You

Every Dollar Counts

56 Adapting to a Changing World

57 Presenting The Case

Trump Vs. Trump

THE SUIT MAGAZINE EDITORS PICK

THE INFRASTRUCTURE OF THE WORLD JIMMY WALES

FOUNDER OF THE WORLDS MOST POPULAR ONLINE ENCYCLOPEDIA

wned by Wales nonprofit organization, Wikimedia Foundation,

THE SUIT MAGAZINE - JAN 2017

Wales studied finance before founding

boats 5.6 million page views per hour.

THE SUIT MAGAZINE JAN p.9

THE SUIT MAGAZINE EDITORS PICK

SHARK WITH A HEART - MARK CUBAN

BILLIONAIRE INVESTOR AND PHILANTHROPIST

Self-made billionaire and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban might

uban, a Pittsburgh native

THE SUIT MAGAZINE - JAN 2017