the financial world — it's the finan-
cial center of the world. And I also
really liked the work ethic of the peo-
ple here in Manhattan — I really
thrive on a challenge," Ken says.
Not that people in Michigan aren't
motivated. The brothers love their
hometown roots, but thrive on the
city streets of New York.
On an average day, Ken and Jeff
get to work at 6:30 a.m. and don't
stop until near midnight. Out of a
training class of nearly 60 people,
they are the only two left in the busi-
ness, Ken confirms.
"We've just been able to meet the
right people. We understand value
real well," he says.
The brothers moved to Manhattan
on Oct. 17, 1994. Almost a throw-
back to childhood, they lived togeth-
er for the first eight months. "What
broke us .up was my marriage," says
Ken, a University of Michigan gradu-
ate. "My wife moved in."
Ken and his wife, Elise, don't have
children yet. "Probably at the rate I'm
working, if things continue to go as
well as they have been, I'll have them
pretty soon," he says.
Jeff, who is single and a graduate
of Ohio State University, is very
involved Jewishly. Back from a few
summer weeks studying in the Or
Somayach yeshiva in Jerusalem, he
davens regularly at the Murray Hill
Synagogue.
Their lives are mostly work, with a
little bit of play mixed in.
"We started working with certain
analysts and got into hedge funds,"
says Jeff. "We're working still as
retail/institutional stockbrokers,
which probably is where we're going
(- to be for at least the near-term, but
hedge funds is something we're also
going to be involved with."
They slip into Wall Street lingo
almost as if it were their native
tongue. "A hedge fund is a limited
partnership set up for high-net-worth
individuals with a high minimum
entry, long-term investment objec-
tive. The day-to-day operations are
managed by general partners and the
profits or losses are participated in by
limited partners," explains Ken. "It's
for somebody who's looking for a
low-risk, value, high-return invest-
ment, where they feel comfortable
with the market niche that the fund
managers are investing in."
Jeff's turn. "A mutual fund is a
♦ public company, a hedge fund would
be a private enterprise.
They work for a boutique invest-

ment bank in midtown Manhattan.
Says Jeff, "One of the reasons we
came here instead of staying in
Detroit, one of the main parts of the
business, is research — when you go
to one of the big wire houses, a
national firm, you go on the house
research, that's all; it doesn't allow
you to work with any independent
analysts. Working independently
allows us to focus on the bigger pic-
ture."
Ken says they chose a smaller firm
for its inherent flexibility, especially
in allowing them to sell whatever

products they feel are most appropri-
ate for each investor.
When the Wittenbergs started,
they had no clients. But in the three
years since they began pounding the
proverbial pavement, they have built
up a client base, mainly through cold
calling, Jeff says.
"We wanted to be successful on
our own," he says. "Now, we have
hundreds of clients from coast to
coast."
They came to the Big Apple with
contacts — family and friends, many
of whom had a fair amount of money

to invest. But Ken says, "We weren't
willing to ask the people that we
knew for money until we understood
what was going on and how to best
provide these people with a money-
making vehicle."
Adds Ken, "We tailor our clients'
portfolios to their specific personali-
ties — if someone seems to be real
conservative, we try to show them a
very slow, conservative growth rate. If
they seem to be a little more risky,
willing to ride the roller coaster, we .
strive to find them the roller coaster
that's going to make them the most
amount of money."
The brothers don't beat each other
up, give wedgies or noogies, and they
never tell Mom or Dad when they do
something bad. But both quickly
quip that it's not always easy to work
together.
"It can be an absolute pain, no
doubt about it," Jeff says. "There's no
break — as far as the arguments, [we
can be] fighting like cats and dogs,
but even when that's the case, it's still
fun."
Ken agrees. "It's challenging, as it
would be ... to be in any relationship
with anybody that you're with every
single day."
But Jeff counters that there are
"more pros than cons ... But there's
no partner besides a blood partner.
There's a certain trust factor that I
don't know if others can achieve, a
goal that you have together, sharing
the same last name."
"I think it's a blast," Ken says. "I
would never do any business that
wasn't with my brothers — I always
wanted to do business with my fami-
ly. It's not only a trust factor —
you have the good and the bad with
anything, with anybody. I grew
up with traditional family values,
dinner at the table served every
night, 7 o'clock, Monday through
Friday, Shabbos dinners on Friday
night.
"When good things are going to
happen in business, I want to share it
with my brothers."
They say there's no competition,
just shared goals.
Says Jeff, "When one's doing well
and one's having a down day, its a
boost up. It's great to see [Ken] hav-
ing a good day, it's not, 'I want to do
better."'
"We have a checks and balances
system," Ken says. "Jeff and I look at
things differently — he could see
something I totally missed. We have a
good mix."

10/31

1997

89

