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Hollywood's 25 Top Business Managers of 2017

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THR's seventh annual list of entertainment's top financial advisers - the experts who guide investments, thwart hackers and stop you from buying that helicopter.

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"If it's a big tour and you're a high-profile artist and you gather tens of thousands of people per show, you have to have it," says an attorney who represents Britney Spears and Steven Tyler.

A string of deadly attacks at music events - including the Oct. 1 mass shooting in Las Vegas at the Route 91 Harvest festival - is pushing artists to invest in something most didn't think they needed: terrorism insurance.

"Now more than ever they are targets," says Steves Rodriguez, business manager for Fifth Harmony.

Political violence and terrorism (PVT) insurance policies have been available for decades, but they have been a tough sell unless artists are touring in volatile regions like South America or Eastern Europe. But after the killing of 58 concertgoers in Las Vegas that took place while Jason Aldean was onstage; the bombing outside Ariana Grande's show in Manchester, England, in May; and the 2015 attack on the Bataclan nightclub in Paris, reps are now advising talent to buy the coverage no matter where they tour.

"Not everybody believes it's necessary," says Bill Tannenbaum, a business manager who specializes in representing touring artists. "I'm pretty vocal about taking it with my clients, and luckily we had it with Ariana Grande." The singer canceled multiple stops on her tour after the attack before returning to Manchester for a benefit concert.

Standard nonperformance insurance costs about 2 percent of the artist's guarantee and pays a claim (usually about 80 percent of appearance fees) if shows are canceled for reasons like illness, injury or natural disaster. A PVT add-on costs about an extra half-percent.

"It's usually a battle with the artist to buy it," says attorney Dina LaPolt, who represents Britney Spears and Steven Tyler. "If you get paid a million dollars, all of your tour costs come out of that million. So every penny counts."

Even the threat of an attack can trigger a claim. "The way [policies had] been written previously is, the threat had to be related to the venue," says John Tomlinson, who leads the entertainment group of Lockton Cos., the world's largest privately held insurance brokerage. "We have expanded that language to include threats made to bandmembers," he says. Policies might also cover a show that is impacted by an attack within a certain time or distance, say within a week of the event or within 50 miles of the venue.

LaPolt says she also tries to add terrorism into the force majeure provision in appearance contracts. That way, in the event of an attack, both the artist and the tour promoter's obligations are negated, preventing a breach of contract lawsuit.

While no one could truly prepare for a tragedy like the one in Las Vegas, LaPolt says recent attacks have made terrorism insurance more common. "If it's a big tour and you're a high-profile artist and you gather tens of thousands of people per show, you have to have it," she says.

Nor is the need exclusive to musicians: Other live events, like NCAA tournaments and trade shows, are buying coverage. And Orange Is the New Black showrunner Jenji Kohan told THR recently that she took out terrorism insurance on her office building because she expects a show she's developing about a teenage Jesus to be controversial.

"You're always going to do something that someone doesn't like," said Kohan. "And you don't know how crazy that someone is going to be."
This story first appeared in the Oct. 18 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe.

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Terrorism Insurance in Demand for Concerts Following Las Vegas Attack

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A string of deadly attacks at music events - including the Oct. 1 mass shooting in Las Vegas at the Route 91 Harvest festival - is pushing artists to invest in something most didn't think they needed: terrorism insurance. "Now more than ever they are targets," says Steves Rodriguez, business manager for Fifth Harmony.

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META is a nonprofit organization providing mentorship and college scholarships to Latino youth from Southern California.

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The 25 Most Powerful Business Managers 2016

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THR's sixth annual list reveals Hollywood's most trusted moneymen and women looking after the cast and investments of the industry's stars (and not letting them fly private).

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The Hollywood Reporter just released its list of "The 25 Most Powerful Business Managers" of 2015. It's full of people who are trusted with the money and assets of the biggest names in Hollywood, and they divulged how reckless their clients could be with their cash.

Here are six of the most shocking examples.

1. Paying for pets to fly on private jets ... by themselves

Jeff Bacon of Savitsky Satin & Bacon represents some of the biggest film producers, actors, and studio executives working today. And with those kind of power players come some interesting invoices. Bacon told THR that the oddest thing a client had spent money on was "transporting pets on a private jet ... by themselves."

2. $50,000 on an investment in water that claims to be 'anti-stressful'

Barry Greenfield of Altman Greenfield & Selvaggi works with the likes of Sarah Jessica Parker, Kevin Spacey, Steve Martin, and Jimmy Fallon. All are amazing talents, but sometimes their investments are risky. "A client put maybe 50 grand into anti-stress water two years ago," he said. "I'm still waiting for it to hit the shelves at Whole Foods."

3. A diaper-wearing capuchin monkey and farm animals

Michael Kaplan of Miller Kaplan Arase, who prides himself on helping entertainers with their branding, can't forget the oddest purchase by a client: a capuchin monkey. "I was at their house," he said. "The monkey was wearing a diaper."

He's not the only one. Steves Rodriguez of Freemark Financial recalls purchases of unusual pets by clients. "A cow, a few goats, and a bunch of chickens," he said. "Nothing like receiving an invoice for a bunch of farm animals."

4. Investing in a Hard Rock Cafe

Chuck Shapiro of Shapiro & Co. has iconic figures like Tom Ford on his roster, but he still has to give them one basic piece of advice: Never invest in a restaurant. "Clients have stood in line to invest in restaurants, including Hard Rock Cafes," he told THR. "All of which, after thorough analysis, were discouraged."

5. Dog-massage-therapy school and $200,000 teeth

Lou Taylor of Tri Star Sports and Entertainment has helped Britney Spears get a two-year extension on her lucrative Las Vegas show and Gwen Stefani return as a judge on "The Voice." And she's not shy to say no to her clients.

She told THR she had gotten clients to reconsider investing in a school for dog-massage therapy to train people to soothe dogs; an Aston Martin (because the client already had six cars); and a "full grill of diamonds" for teeth, which would have cost $200,000. Of the dental work, she added: "It was the dumbest thing I ever heard. Sometimes this can be exhausting."

6. $50,000 to walk on hot coals for 30 minutes at a retreat

David Weise of David Weise & Associates calls himself an "outsourced chief financial officer" for artists including The Weeknd, Usher, and Coldplay. And like all great artists, they have unusual interests that Weise sometimes has to question.

"A client wanted $50,000 in cash to go to a retreat to walk on hot coals for 30 minutes," he said. "I told him that for $100 I'd burn some coals in the office and save him $49,900. He almost fired me."

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6 insane things celebrities have tried to buy, revealed by the most powerful business managers in Hollywood

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The Hollywood Reporter just released its list of "The 25 Most Powerful Business Managers" of 2015. It's full of people who are trusted with the money and assets of the biggest names in Hollywood, and they divulged how reckless their clients could be with their cash. Here are six of the most shocking examples.

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Shapiro's boutique firm handles "significant" clients including fashion icon (and Hollywood filmmaker) Tom Ford, sports personalities, writers for Modern Family and individuals who are involved in the X-Men and Star Trek franchises, though he doesn't handle quite as many rock stars as he used to. "In music, there's a lot of hand-holding. You're cleaning up a lot of messes," he says. "It gets old." He's proud of his nickname among clients: Dr. No, a reference to his aptitude for persuading them against spending that could hurt their futures. Does the volatility of the stock market impact his clients? Says Shapiro, who established his firm in 1980: "We recommend diversification and appropriate allocation based on age and career. You never know how long careers are going to last, so we encourage savings and make tax-deferred investments where appropriate."

Spending advice: "A $300,000 car is insignificant when you can afford it, but we still don't advocate it."

Best client investment: "A client bought an Andy Warhol painting for $1.5 million and sold it 20 years later for $35 million."

Worst client investment: "Clients have stood in line to invest in restaurants, including Hard Rock Cafes, all of which, after thorough analysis, were discouraged."

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The 25 Most Powerful Business Managers 2015

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Who talked a client out of walking on hot coals? Who dissuaded another from buying a $200,000 grill full of diamonds? Meet the most trusted moneymen and women (who manage assets and help make smart investments) in Hollywood on THR's list of those protecting the future.

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These confidants to Hollywood royalty act as financial advisers, therapists, purchasing agents, real estate brokers, family members - even rabbis.

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Accounting offices aren't supposed to be this zen, are they? But the newly designed headquarters of Freemark Financial, located in the east Beverly Hills nexus where Wilshire Boulevard, San Vicente and La Cienega collide, is rendered with the kind of elegant restraint that the Japanese apply to brush paintings and rock gardens.

In the lobby, stacks of books on art and architecture are perfectly flush with the edges of a glass and sheet-metal side table; a cleanly lit display of iconic chair miniatures designed by the likes of Frank Gehry, Frank Lloyd Wright, and Charles and Ray Eames, along with the odd vintage Rolleiflex camera, are meticulously spaced to give each item maximum impact; an L-shaped Tuxedo Sofa from the Herman Miller showroom gives visitors a gallery-like corner to collect their thoughts; and potted orchids provide the occasional splash of organic color.

"I signed a client and she said, 'By the way, I know your couch from Instagram; a friend of mine is an actress and she posted it," recalls Freemark's Andrew Meyer.

Meyer and his CPA partners Steves Rodriguez and Anthony Peyrot specialize in entertainment business management and advisory services for clients ranging from actors to filmmakers to producers on such shows as "True Blood," "Girls," "Breaking Bad" and "Orange Is the New Black," as well as film franchises including "Star Wars" and "The Fast and the Furious."

Their 11,500-foot office space, situated on the penthouse floor of 8383 Wilshire Blvd., was recently stripped down to the concrete pillars and given an extreme makeover by architects Shubin + Donaldson, known for designs that combine function with efficiency. For example, the custom-made upholstered bench that lines the outer rim of the conference room raises the eye line, obstructing a view of the less-than-attractive roofs beyond. The bench, made by Cisco Brothers, is of a gold-and-green fabric that brings to mind a classic sharkskin suit, but more luxurious to the touch.

The conference table itself is fashioned from walnut, the same material as the hardwood floor beneath, surrounded by 12 aluminum-and-black leather Eames chairs from Vitra, where those miniatures were procured. Floating glass doors of such a scale that they had to be craned into the building separate the meeting room from the lobby, with drop-down panel shades providing both privacy and a shield from the considerable natural light that floods the building.

Metal mesh doors discreetly conceal an adjacent wine bar that stocks 160 bottles. Although this oenological feature is downplayed by the partners, the naming of their firm was at least partly inspired by the Freemark Abbey Winery in Napa.

The kitchen and lunchroom are inviting enough so that inhouse breaks don't feel confining. The former is accented by a countertop of Caesarstone, with cream-and-taupe tiles that form triangular patterns; and actual dishware as opposed to paper and plastic. A hand-blown Jug Lamp provides just the right punctuation mark. A German-made WMF 1400 espresso maker fit for a barista serves up an appealing alternative to the nearby Coffee Bean.

"We did an analysis of how much it would cost for half our staff to drink half as much coffee as I do from pods, vs. buying beans in bulk," Meyer explains . "The differential was about two years, three months to pay off the machine."

The design is open flow, with walls removed or glass partitions affording a sort of congenial transparency. Fifteen-foot-high ceilings and exposed concrete beams and ducts give the place an airy, post-modern industrial vibe. The Walter Knoll desk in Meyer's office, utterly free of clutter, provides further testament to the Spartan aesthetic.

The original art that adorns the walls is tasteful if inconspicuous, including Slim Aarons' posh aerial images of the French and Italian Rivieras in the '60s; a clutch of photographs from Jesse Alexander, known for capturing the Monaco Grand Prix; and a classic Steve McCurry print ("Taj and Train") cropped vertically to adhere to its geometric confines.

In Peyrot's office, a couple of signed lithos by Joan Miro and Banksy command attention. And an earth-toned cityscape behind reception, by Victor Hugo Zayas, is one of the few nods to pre-modernism.

It's all very curatorially subdued so as not to distract from the business at hand. But if you're an agent, manager or entertainment attorney invited to one of Freemark's mixers, this is one wine-and-cheese opportunity you'd be foolish to ignore.

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Offices of Freemark Financial Celebrate Airy, Post-Modern Makeover

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Accounting offices aren't supposed to be this zen, are they? But the newly designed headquarters of Freemark Financial, located in the east Beverly Hills nexus where Wilshire Boulevard, San Vicente and La Cienega collide, is rendered with the kind of elegant restraint that the Japanese apply to br...

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Savvy Showbiz Handlers: Variety's Business Managers Elite

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Celebs, execs and athletes put their fortunes and their day-to-day lives in the capable hands of these trusted advisers.

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BELVA ANAKWENZE
Principal and business manager, Abacus Financial Group
Expertise: Full-service business management, including bill payments, insurance and real estate transactions for personal and business affairs.
Clients: Professional athletes, coaches, executives, actors, TV hosts, editors, producers and directors.
Client stories: "Giving an NBA player honest feedback about his career was one of the toughest things I have had to do as a business manager," says Anakwenze. "As with most NBA players, he was surrounded by an entourage of would-be advisers. His dream was to become a singer and he wanted to invest upwards of $300,000 on creating an album while (at the same time) looking for a new team. I gently reminded him that he was approaching 30 and was a relatively unknown professional athlete. Further, I provided him with personal contacts in the industry to reduce production costs. My soft approach was not well received and soon he could no longer afford our services."

ANDREW B. CROW
Partner, WG&S
Expertise: Business management in the high-net-worth arena.
Clients: Talent and entertainment executives, high-net-worth individuals. Names include Richard Gere, Shailene Woodley, Jared Leto and his band 30 Seconds to Mars, and Adrianne Palicki.
Client stories: "I face the challenge of integrating the experience and best practices from the firm's high-net-worth, A-list clients and applying the same skill set to my young Hollywood stars with respect to preservation of capital and building wealth," Crow says. "I challenge my clients to institute disciplined budgeting and set up automatic saving mechanisms to their retirement plans. Having a solid foundation allows for creative feedom to choose projects that have meaning to them as well as hedging for the future."

BRANDY DAVIS
Business management practice leader (partner), SingerLewak
Expertise: Media, entertainment, high-net-worth individuals and private businesses.
Clients: Actors, producers, writers, agents, managers and directors. Also production studios and companies, high-net-worth individuals, entrepreneurs and family-owned businesses. Names include Roberto Orci of K/O Paper Products, the production company he co-founded with writing partner Alex Kurtzman; and " Hawaii 5-0" showrunner Peter Lenkov.
Client stories: A client once called Davis as a fire was racing toward the client's home in the hills. "She wanted to know if she was adequately insured, and I told her she was insured to the nines and that she needed to evacuate her home immediately," says Davis. "I told her to get her animals and essential things and leave. It didn't matter where to; she could come to my house, or I could refer her to a hotel, but she needed to leave immediately."

MICHAEL KAPLAN
Partner in charge of business management, Miller Kaplan Arase
Expertise: With offices in Los Angeles; Seattle; Las Vegas; San Francisco; and Portland, Ore., the Miller, Kaplan firm provides a range of services, says Kaplan, "whether it's buying cars or boats or planes for clients, or doing royalty and licensing audits," a service most firms farm out. "Every day brings something out of the ordinary."
Clients: Actors, producers, writers, directors, musicians, athletes and executives, including many from the U.K., Australia, the Far East and other overseas locations.
Client stories: Kaplan once counseled a client who thought he had found the car of his dreams. "The client said, 'Make out the check and take care of this,' " Kaplan remembers. "We took care of it, then just as we were finalizing the transaction, the client calls and says, 'I just went across
the street and found an even better car.' Of course, we had to cancel everything we'd done and start over."

PETER MAINSTAIN
Senior partner and co-founder, Tanner Mainstain Blatt Glynn & Johnson
Expertise: Full business management and home office responsibilities; comprehensive tax, financial and estate planning and implementation, including asset protection techniques, analysis of investments and financial transactions; coordinating with other advisers; review of existing and proposed insurance coverage; and interacting with the entertainment guilds to ensure that accurate benefits are paid.
Clients: Sports and entertainment and community members, including studio executives, writers, directors, producers, cinematographers, composers, recording artists, set designers, costume designers, talent agents and agencies, attorneys and law firms, production companies and lifestyle brands.
Client stories: "One of the strangest occurred in late 1993 during a meeting with new clients. The discussion turned to earthquake insurance and my recommendation was to get it. They had never had it and were very reticent to now be covered. I was able to prevail and, of course, in January 1994 we had the tragic Northridge earthquake. They were able to rebuild their home from the insurance proceeds, and I felt that I had done my job."

STEVES RODRIGUEZ
Partner, Freemark Financial
Expertise: Music and production.
Clients: Touring artists, major studios that own touring properties, commercial, television and film production companies, feature film and commercial directors. Names include touring properties for Fox ("Glee") and Sony/Viacom (" Big Time Rush"); the Droga5 advertising agency; production company Smuggler; and the producers of the Tony Award-winning "Once."
Client stories: "A high-net-worth individual had a real spending problem and we tried multiple approaches in getting them to rein it in. We ultimately asked the client to hand over all their credit cards except for their ATM card, which we lowered the limit on. The net result was that the client reached out to me for any large purchases, and although it was a lot of work, it had the desired effect, and we finally altered their spending patterns."

MICKEY SEGAL
Managing partner. Nigro Karlin Segal & Feldstein
Expertise: Full-service business management practice focusing on entertainment, corporate executives, families, high-net-worth individuals. Entertainment clients comprise about 65% of the business.
Clients: Athletes, writers, directors, producers, actors, musicians. Names include Dwight Howard, Madonna, Matt Kemp, Bruno Mars.
Client stories: Once a client wanted to invest millions in an oil and gas deal with a long-time acquaintance. Segal advised him to make the investment part of his overall investment strategy "as opposed to 'this is my get-rich-quick scheme.' And if the guy does a great job with what he's supposed to do you 'll make a lot of money, and if he doesn't, you won't be looking for a gun to kill yourself." With that logic, Segal was able to talk the client down in terms of how much he wanted to invest. He still lost money, but "fortunately he didn't put in a tenth of what he wanted to. That's what they need us for."

Business Managers Elite Report 2012
High tech puts coin in bizzers' coffers | Commitment to clients and philanthropy | Guardians of Hollywood lives

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BELVA ANAKWENZE Principal and business manager, Abacus Financial Group Expertise: Full-service business management, including bill payments, insurance and real estate transactions for personal and business affairs. Clients: Professional athletes, coaches, executives, actors, TV hosts, editors, producers and directors.

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During the recent economic meltdown, a successful 45-year-old director with a mid-seven-figure portfolio - 60% of which was in stocks - saw his holdings drop in value by about 20%.

Against the advice of his financial adviser, Freemark Financial's Steves Rodriguez, the anxious helmer sold everything and moved into cash, fearing that equities would continue to fall.

"There's a visceral reaction," says Andrew Meyer, another partner at Freemark, a Santa Monica business and wealth management firm. "You want to jump out of these things that have pulled back in value."

In fact, stocks extended their decline. From the Lehman Bros. bankruptcy in September 2008 though the market bottom in March 2009, the S&P 500 index tumbled more than 40%.

At first it looked like the director had made the right move, but then stocks came roaring back.

"Changing strategy at that point just does not work," Meyer says. "You're going to lose all the upside."

The director is still in cash today, having missed the entire 2010 market advance. Meyer notes that he's the firm's only client who didn't fully recover from the 2008 decline.

"It's very rare that making an emotional decision is going to turn out well for you," adds Rodriguez. "At the end of the day, you want to be true to whatever strategy you employ."

Although nobody could foresee the extent of the downturn, many wealth managers were getting uneasy well before 2008. Stephen Prough, co-founder and managing director of Salem Partners, a Los Angeles-based wealth management and investment banking firm, began telling clients in 2006 that "prices of certain assets were unsustainable."

Prough's clients were nervous, especially a 40-year-old entrepreneur who had sold his entertainment-related business for "tens of millions of dollars" just before the crisis hit.

By fall 2008, the firm had reduced the average equity exposure in portfolios from about one-third to 15%. "We didn't miss all of the 2008 meltdown, but we missed a lot of it," Prough adds.

The entrepreneur's portfolio fell about 10%, but "we certainly made up for it the next year," Prough says. The firm saw value in both convertible bonds and municipal debt, which had tumbled as investors across the country were forced to liquidate holdings to raise cash. Salem started to put clients' money to work in those asset classes at the end of 2008. It also made opportunistic buys of stock options. That positioned clients for the market rebound, yet risked only the relatively small option premium.

For Jason Romano, a financial planner and partner at Moss Adams Wealth Advisers, protecting clients' financial health comes down to structuring an asset allocation so that "regardless of what happens - whether it's a good or bad market - you're going to be OK."

In 2008, Romano, who specializes in entertainment clients at the firm's Los Angeles office, had a portion of clients' assets in alternative investments that have low correlations to U.S. stocks. A small position was in a fund that could sell short, thus rising as stocks plunged.

Although clients suffered modest losses, says Romano, the key technique was to rebalance portfolios - selling part of a position that had advanced to buy more of an asset class that had declined.

One of Romano's clients, a successful TV writer in his mid-50s, had a portfolio of 20% stocks and 80% bonds, mostly California munis. Although the muni market also sold off, Romano reminded the writer that he held individual bonds that would eventually mature at face value. (In contrast, bond funds have no maturity date.) Meanwhile, the income from the individual bonds would continue unchanged.

Romano reminded the writer, whose portfolio is in the range of $7 million to $10 million, they were not investing for that one year. The writer's portfolio was rebalanced and recovered with the market.

"We highly encourage clients to continue adding money to their investments," he says.

Financial advisers say entertainment industry clients can't be lumped together as one group. While studio execs have a steady paycheck, talent often lives from job to job. Having a large cash cushion is imperative for someone with a variable income stream.

That can limit the amount of money available for investing in stocks or other "risk" assets. "I don't put any money in that they're going to need within the next three years," says Rich Winer, prez, Winer Wealth Management in Woodland Hills, Calif.

The intensity of showbiz can also affect the money management process. "I find that entertainment clients are so focused on their careers they are not following their financial stuff as closely as other clients," adds Winer.

He and other advisers who work with showbiz pros try to overcome that with frequent communication.

But the key is having that plan. "If we can avoid losing (much) money in these big market declines that come every three to five years, then we don't have to take as much risk during the bull runs."

SHOWBIZ WEALTH MANAGEMENT REPORT
Helping hand lifts bizzers | Segal gets kudo as biz manager | No boom, no bust | How to avoid the downside of Westside wealth | Social media money trail

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During the recent economic meltdown, a successful 45-year-old director with a mid-seven-figure portfolio - 60% of which was in stocks - saw his holdings drop in value by about 20%. Against the advice of his financial adviser, Freemark Financial's Steves Rodriguez, the anxious helmer sold everything and moved into cash, fearing that equities would continue to fall.