Business 8( Professional
Money
Meets
Ideas
Four partners take financial
management to the next level.
Bill Carroll
Special to the Jewish News
T
elemus, the mythical
Greek "seer of the
future probably wasn't
Jewish; but four local Jewish
financial experts have used his
name to create what they call a
"financial services boutique" to
take advantage of a financial
services boom in Michigan —
arid a trend away from broker-
ages and banks.
They offer wealthy clients a
selection of stocks, bonds-and
real estate.
Telemus Capital Partners LLC
launched last February in a
small office; received approval in
June from the National
Association of Securities Dealers
and in July moved into sleek
headquarters in 14,000 square*
feet of space in the Two Towne
Square building in Southfield. It
already his 300 clients, 22
employees and $1.2 billion
under management or advise-
ment.
Three of the four are brothers-
in-law: Gary L. Ran of
Bloorhfield Hills, the chairman
and CEO; Lyle M. Wolberg of
Huntington Woods, a managing
director; and Robert A. Stone of
Bloomfield Township, also a
managing director. Ran and
Wolberg are married to Stone's
sisters.
The fourth partner is Steven J.
Greenwald of Bloomfield
Township, president and COO.
The four range in age from their
mid-30s to mid-40s.
The company operates three
subsidiaries within Telemus
Capital Partners: Telemus Wealth
Advisors, which offers financial
planning and services; Telemus
Investment Brokers, which pro-
vides stock and bond trading,
and Telemus Investment
Management, which creates and
manages equity and fixed-
income portfolios.
"We work with individuals, as
well as small businesses and
institutions, who have at least $1
million in investable assets; and
that covers a lot of wealthy
Jewish families:' said Ran, the
grandson of the late Philip
Stollman, a well-known real
estate developer and philanthro-
pist in the local Jewish commu-
nity.
Ran got interested in the
financial business at an early
age, tripling his $10,000 bar
mitzvah money in three years.
He recently was named one of
"America's Top 100 Brokers" by
Barron's magazine.
"Our new setup allows us to
provide customized, tailored, •
high-end service to people who
pay on a fee-for-service basis:'
said Ran. "We like to call this
office a meeting place between
good ideas and money; if the
client has the money, we have an
idea."
"We try to come up with inno-
vative investment ideas, such as
real estate, not just the regular
•
stocks and bonds; and our
clients like dealing with inde-
pendent brokers:' added
Wolberg, whose father, Jerry
Wolberg of Huntington Woods,
is a CPA in Southfield. Stone's
father, the late Ron Stone, was an
•
advertising executive in the
Lyle Wolberg, Gary Ran, Robert Stone and Steven Greenwald . pose in "the pit" area of Telemus
Capital Partners in Southfield. The pit is where employees monitor news events on large-screen
TVs and trade stocks and bonds.
Detroit area.
Explains Wolberg, "There's a
huge concentration of family
wealth in southeast Michigan,
not from attorneys and other
professionals, but from people
who started their own business-
es and created the wealth. I call
this 'money in motion; with
family businesses being sold or
cashed out and inheritances
passed along. This has created
quite a bit of opportunity for
financial services firms like
ours:'
Through The Ranks
Ran, Wolberg and Stone were
executives at Merrill Lynch & Co.
Inc. for several years and were
known as the "Ran Group:' until
they left to join UBS Financial
Services Inc. (formerly
PaineWebber), where they were
senior vice presidents. Green-
wald, originally from St. Louis,
had spent 14 years at UBS and
was a senior vice president and
local branch manager.
At UBS, Ran, Wolberg and
Stone managed about $1 billion
worth of client assets.
The partners say they left
Merrill Lynch not on the best of
terms because of philosophical
conflicts.
The group then got into a legal
skirmish with Merrill Lynch in
1999 over whether their clients
belonged to the company or to
them. The partners say they left
UBS on amicable terms.
Impressed by the trio, many of
their clients have moved with
them through the years and are
now at Telemus.
One is Michael B. Serling of
Orchard Lake, who has a law
office in Birmingham.
"I've been with Gary Ran and
his team for 10 years, and they're
very. service-oriented and acces-
sible Serling said. "They're also
very multi-dimensiorial; I can
buy anything from them., not
just equities. They keep a keen
eye on the market, and they
guided me when the market
went through some rough times.
At Telemus, they're able to offer
even more diversified products:'
Serling is a member of-the
Michigan State University Jewish
Studies Advisory Board and
recently endowed a chair in
Israel studies at MSU.
The Service Area
The Telemus services include a
"family financial suite" — com-
plete with a concierge — that
insures privacy for investors and
even electronically scans and
stores important documents
owned by clients, such as wills,
trust agreements, etc. "It's like an
electronic safe deposit box:' Ran
said.
There's a large trading area in
the center of the office, called
"the pit:' where seven employees
monitor news events on large
screens, and do daily trading of
stocks and bonds.
"I pop in several times a day
to see what's new and how some
jig
breaking news might help us
make a quick investment:' said
Ran. "When Hurricane Katrina
struck the Gulf Coast states, I
bought stock in a building prod-
ucts distributor, which quickly
rose,from $9 to $14 a share.
"In fact, the biggest challenge
we now face in this business is
the 'time factor:' Ran said, "hav-
ing enough time in the day to get
things done:'
Assisting the four partners are
six Jewish employees with exten-
sive financial backgrounds:
managing director Andrew Bass;
directors Jonathan Eber, Randy
Otis and Ronald Turett; and
associates Matthew Lash and
Joshua Levine.
The partners also are active in
local communal and charitable
programs. -Ran, who attended
Lawrence Technological
University in Southfield, is active
with the Jewish Federation of •
Metropolitan Detroit, Bar-Ilan
University and ORt.
Stone, a University of
Michigan graduate, is on the
board of the Detroit-based
Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer
Institute. Wolberg, a graduate of
the University of Michigan busi-
ness school, is on the board of
the Berkley Education
Foundation. Greenwald, who has
a B.S. degree in engineering
from the University of Kansas
and an M.B.A. in finance from
Washington University in St.
Louis, is active with Variety —
The Children's Charity. [1]
December 15 * 2005
55