Plans for his firm’s Memorial Day festivities were uppermost on Andrew Samalin’s mind when we sat down to discuss “positivity” for this issue.
Last year, the activities at King Street’s “old Crown House,” home of the award-winning investment advisory firm Samalin Investment Counsel, LLC, drew a few hundred people, and this year it’s going to be even better, Samalin said. Think face painting, balloon animals, cotton candy and more. Most of all we are lucky to have Maurice the Magician (who in his words, “is the best magician in his price range!!!”)
In part, Samalin is simply preserving the tradition of the former Crown House owners, but with two young ones of his own (Matthew, 6 and Talia, 4) he has his own special incentive! “It’s great for little kids,” noted Samalin. “It’s tough to be in a bad mood while eating cotton candy…” noted Samalin, who bought and renovated the Crown House in May 2010. The project was featured in the New York Times and highlighted Samalin’s ability to focus on a positive outcome in a difficult environment.
Great too are the accomplishments at Samalin which manages $130 million in client assets custodied at Fidelity Investments, with underlying client net worth of about a ½ billion, according to Samalin, who has been named in multiple arenas as one of the country’s Top RIAs. He developed the “BridgeProcess,” a proprietary wealth management process “by which we look to manage three essential goals: risks, returns, and income.” His firm’s success, he said, revolves around its ability to expertly address these essential tasks with its clients.
“Our market niche is attorneys and their clients; we offer unbiased, fee-only independent financial analysis and management without any corporate agenda.” If the financial crisis taught us anything it’s that advice may not reside solely in the providence of corporate behemoths; rather, it’s between people. Samalin noted that virtually everyone has blind spots in life, be it professional, personal or financial. “Our clients hire us to identify and help them find those financial blind spots, and manage through them.”
A strong focus at the firm is in the arena of divorce financial planning. He views his role as helping couples both understand their assets and income so that they can knowledgeably assess them, and in doing so, minimize the stress in the divorce process. In divorce, he noted, there’s frequently a financial knowledge disparity between the money and non moneyed spouse. “We help bridge that gap so that both parties come out feeling protected. It’s a delicate process but can radically change the outcome,” he said.
“Our goal is to help them achieve a positive financial outcome both pre and post divorce,” Samalin noted. “We are all faced with circumstances that we might prefer to be different; it’s how we hold and manage through them that makes all the difference.” In the interim, cotton candy and snow cones on King Street on Memorial Day is positively a great choice.
– Grace Bennett
