BUSINESS & PROFESSIONAL

money a a i

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WEALTH OF ADVICE from page B3

"People think and plan their retire-
ment; it comprises about 65 percent of
our business."
Jim Hiller, owner of Hiller's Markets in
Oakland and Washtenaw counties, likes
the way the Blooms handled the market
crisis. "They showed a great sense of
responsibility, acted quickly and with
confidence and stemmed some of the
losses," says Hiller, who has been a
Bloom client for five years.
"I used to have a New York adviser,
but I've gotten better results after
switching to the Blooms. They're very
intelligent and have great integrity.
They're conservative, always provid-
ing a range of an investment for you to
decide."
Dr. Meyer Arbit of West Bloomfield is
retired. A Bloom client since the 1980s,
he agrees that the Blooms are person-
able and responsive.
"My wife, Charlotte, said, 'Let's give
some money to Rick and let him play
with it.' We've been coming out more
ahead on his investments than when
we make investments ourselves. I like
his motto: The money always looks
better in your pocket than someone
else's. —
The recent market crisis produced
another oddity. Fearing an adverse
reaction from their clients because of
falling portfolios, many financial advis-
ers were simply afraid to phone them
and discuss the situation.
"I received calls from many prospec-
tive new clients who said they hadn't
heard from their
advisers at all dur-
ing the many months
of the market slide,"
says Jonathan Citrin,
founder and CEO of
the CitrinGroup in
Southfield. "Some of
them switched over
Jonathan
to us."
Citrin
"For many years,
when the portfolios were booming, the
clients didn't care if they never heard
from their advisers. But it's amazing
they're not calling them in the current
environment; actually, they just don't
know what to say.
"But we advise clients to stay the
course if their plans are diversified and
not risky. Besides portfolio manage-
ment, we give advice on investment
planning and wealth management."
Citrin's grandfather, Jacob, founded
the Citrin Oil Co. in the early 20th cen-
tury. Jonathan Citrin, 33, of Birmingham
obtained degrees from Tulane and New
York universities and opened his firm in

B4 June U.2009

2003. He and three co-workers handle
about "100 select clients with personal
funds ranging from $500,000 to $5 mil-
lion.
"We choose to handle only a small
number of clients, and we get to know
them pretty well," he explains. "Despite
the market crisis, we experienced sig-
nificant growth in the past year."
The Citrin Group relies heavily on
statistical analysis and historical data
and employs a paid, eight-member
investment policy board composed
of third-party industry professionals
and respected academics to pro-
vide portfolio advice. Citrin also is an
adjunct professor of finance at Wayne
State University's School of Business
Administration in Detroit.
"Jonathan was a stable force dur-
ing the recent market crisis and spent
an inordinate amount of time with me;
he stuck to the basics and didn't get
caught up in the 'churning' of the mar-
ket; he didn't let emotions get the best
of him," says Bill Liberson, an attorney
from Bloomfield Hills. "After interview-
ing several financial planners three
years ago, he really impressed me as
the person to handle my investments."
Lyle Wolberg of Huntington Woods
says he and his partners at Telemus, a
term for an ancient Greek "seer of the
future," are unafraid to call clients in
bad times or, better yet, call prospec-
tive new clients.
"Of course, it's
hard to talk to peo-
ple whose portfo-
lios are dwindling;
but that's the way
to keep your cli-
ents. They appreci-
ate it and some
give you referrals.
It's easy to phone
them when the
market is flourishing. We don't just sit
on our hands and worry during the
downturn; we've added more clients
than we lost."
Telemus, which labels itself as a
"financial services boutique," has
almost 300 clients and $2 billion
under management or advisement.
Wolberg's partners are Gary Ran of
Bloomfield Hills and Robert Stone and
Steven Greenwald, both of Bloomfield
Township. New on the team are
Bernard Kent of Franklin and John
Stein of West Bloomfield.
Explains Wolberg, "There's a huge
concentration of family wealth in south-
eastern Michigan, not from attorneys
and other professionals, but from peo-

ple who created wealth by starting their
own businesses. We call this 'money in
motion,' with family businesses being
sold or cashed out and inheritances
passed along.
"We help them by developing inno-
vative investment ideas, such as real
estate, not only regular stocks and
bonds."
"Wealth" seems to be the key word in
the world of financial
planning today. The
word appears often in
the titles of financial
planning companies,
such as Schechter
Wealth Strategies
of Birmingham,
Robert
founded in 1971 by
Schechter
Robert Schechter of
Bloomfield Hills. He
gave up an engineer-
ing career to become
a life insurance entre-
preneur, following in
the footsteps of his
uncle, Rudy Leitman,
who started an insur-
ance firm in 1939 in
Jason
downtown Detroit.
Zimmerman
Schechter has quali-
fied almost every year
for the Million Dollar Roundtable, con-
sisting of the top 20 percent of insur-
ance professionals in the United States.
He's still chair-
man of the com-
pany, but his son,
Marc Schechter,
42, of Bloomfield
Hills, and son-
in-law, Jason
Zimmerman, 40,
of Huntington
Woods, are senior
-Marc Schechter
managing direc-
tors, heading a
team of 30, including four attorneys.
They focus on high-net-worth clients
in a manner unlike most other financial
planners.
"We have a unique strategy; we focus
on the life insurance portfolios of fami-
lies, not stock and bond investments,"
explains Marc Schechter. "We utilize life
insurance annuities to accomplish our
objectives. They're not as risky as regu-
lar stocks and bonds, and much more
popular today because they avoid the
wild market gyrations.
"Our annuity arbitrage strategy com-
prises almost half of our business.
This has unique alternatives, affecting
transfer of wealth from generation to
generation, easing tax implications and

"We focus on the life
insurance portfolios of
families, not stock and
bond investments."

just efficiently managing life insurance
premiums in general, usually decreas-
ing the premiums."
Basically, annuity arbitrage is an
aggressive financing plan enabling
older debtors in good health to fully
fund life insurance for their benefi-
ciaries while generating cash flow for
themselves.
Schechter Wealth Strategies also
continues to emphasize "wealth trans-
fer strategies, business succession
and charitable planning initiatives,
such as managing the endowment
fund investments of several local
synagogues and other Jewish orga-
nizations," adds Schechter. "And we
provide what we call 'uncommon solu-
tions' to insurance situations."
One of the firm's clients, Mitchell
Mondry of Bloomfield Hills, works with
the entire Schechter team and says,
"They all understand our family objec-
tives; they explain the choices well
and present the pros and cons of the
options required to reach our goals."
Mondry, whose family operated the
Highland Appliance stores in the area
from 1939-1992, is now president of
the M Group, a real estate investment
firm in Birmingham.
"Our main interest is in wealth man-
agement, preservation and transfer,"
he says. "We need detailed answers
to our questions and the people at
Schechter always provide them. We're
worked with them for 16 years; and
they're always available, have an easy
approach and are excellent to do busi-
ness with."
In a testimonial on the Schechter
Web site (www.schechterwealth.com )
—Dan Gilbert of Franklin, founder and
chairman of Quicken Loans in Livonia,
says, "These guys are not 'fast-talk-
ing' insurance people ... They bring
creative solutions to our family wealth
planning and our corporate insurance
programs. I've known them for over 20
years and I trust the Schehter name
implicitly."
In view of the current turbulent
market, Paul Harris, a 22-year veteran
of the securities industry and now a
financial adviser at Oppenheimer & Co.
Inc., in Birmingham, is telling clients to
"learn to tune out the noise."
He adds: "That's not to say you
shouldn't stay informed. But remem-
ber, that as talented as some of the
television 'talking heads' are, they
aren't the ones managing your portfo-
lios.
"Find an investment professional
you're comfortable with and, together,