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Offices of Freemark Financial Celebrate Airy, Post-Modern Makeover – Variety

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Offices of Freemark Financial Celebrate Airy, Post-Modern Makeover – Variety

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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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As Hollywood Business Managers Retire, Replacements Are Needed – Variety

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As Hollywood Business Managers Retire, Replacements Are Needed – Variety

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Hollywood stars rely on business managers to handle their personal affairs and advise them on investments so they can stay financially healthy and solvent.

But what about the business managers themselves - and their firms? Will they also continue to enjoy the same financial well-being they bring to their clients, or will they face a rocky period as a generational shift begins to take place?

Execs at most such firms agree that an unprecedented wave of partners who are the top tier of executives are nearing, at, or past retirement at many small and mid-sized firms - and there's a scarcity of middle-age or younger execs in place to smoothly take charge.

This represents a risk for boutique firms that manage personal money and map out financial plans for entertainers, athletes, content creators and Hollywood executives.

"I have probably met with 10 firms to talk about this," says Mickey Segal, managing partner at Nigro Karlin Segal Feldstein & Bolno, which is willing to acquire other business management firms with retiring partners.

But negotiations always seem to hit impasses over control issues because, as Segal puts it, "they were the boss, they built their businesses and so it's hard for them to let that go."

Segal, whose NKSFB firm is large, with 330 employees, says 40 to 50 business management firms that serve Hollywood clientele have partners mostly of retirement age and lack internal successions options.

"They were the boss, they built their businesses and so it's hard for them to let that go."

"There's a huge gap in the ages of business management partners at the moment," agrees Adam Yorkshire, partner at business manager firm Richman Yorkshire Management. "It's a pivotal time for the industry."

The desire of most retiring partners is to cash out - essentially getting paid for the businesses they built - but such an outcome requires clients to stay on after their long-time advisers retire.

"That's the challenge for their firms and I don't think they all know exactly how to accomplish the transition," says Todd Gelfand, managing partner of Gelfand Rennert & Feldman, which has a staff of 300.

Brandy Davis, who joined Macias Gini & O'Connell in April with a mandate to grow its Hollywood practice - including through acquisitions - believes three to five years are needed for clients of smaller merged firms to fit in comfortably.

"It takes time," Davis says. "You can't buy a practice and expect the clients to transition in just one year. ... You have to introduce the clients to other team members and gradually the older partner steps away." MGO has 250 employees and also specializes in non-Hollywood sectors such as health care and aerospace.

Transitioning is a delicate matter because "this is a personal-relationship business," says Ronald Nash, partner at Gelfand Rennert.

There is no concensus on what the generational transfer will eventually look like, or even if it will be orderly. Potential buyers of smaller business management firms include:

" bigger Hollywood business management firms, which would absorb the smaller ones;

" broad-based accounting firms looking to get a foothold in Hollywood and also increase their billings;

" banks and similar financial firms seeking to enlarge their assets under management;

" private equity investors seeing profit opportunities as aggregators.

Only pure financial companies - i.e., hedge funds and investment vehicles with no particular allegiance to the entertainment industry - haven't yet been seen in the business manager sector, though, interestingly, such firms have invested in Hollywood talent agencies in recent years.

In earlier corporate activity unrelated to the current generational transition, big Hollywood business managers, commercial banks and broad-based accounting firm have bought out or into business managers, such as First Republic Bank acquiring a minority 24.5% stake in Nigro Karlin in 2013.

A possible implication from the generational transfer could be a very pronounced youth movement at business management firms. Clients - especially youngish Hollywood performers - may gravitate to business managers closer to their own age.

Michael Kaplan, the partner who heads up the private enterprise group and business management group at Miller Kaplan Arase, believes some will "look to younger managers who can be with them for the rest of their careers."

Most agree that the business-manager sector has to do a better job of recruiting college graduates with financial smarts to build out middle-management ranks that are now thin.

"There needs to be a pathway for our industry to recruit, develop, mentor, elevate and retain young talent, but it takes work," says Eric Wasserman, managing partner at WG&S. "There is so much competition in finance for young college grads - such as venture capital, technology, investment banking and asset management."

Another item on the sector's to-do list is to upgrade infrastructure from old-school paper reports to digital technology such as apps that clients can use to participate in managing their financial affairs.

Indeed, digital savvy is now a requirement for good business management as clients increasingly ask business managers to evaluate opportunities to invest in or lend their name to digital media ventures - especially at a time when Silicon Valley is courting Hollywood for both money and glamour.

Andrew Meyer, partner at Freemark Financial, says advice covers "both the upside as well as downside. Frankly, much of what we are seeing now is opportunities in app development for our clients. Once we assess an opportunity, we see how that aligns with their personal risk tolerance."

Meanwhile, business managers wonder how their sector will cope with the impending generational transfer. "The consequence of not having exit plans at these firms could be a problem for all of us," says NKSFB's Segal. "It could be a messy thing. Then what happens to the clients?"

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New Generation is Poised to Take Over Hollywood's Business Management Firms

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Hollywood stars rely on business managers to handle their personal affairs and advise them on investments so they can stay financially healthy and solvent. But what about the business managers themselves - and their firms? Will they also continue to enjoy the same financial well-being they bring to their clients, or will they face a rocky period as a generational shift begins to take place?

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The 25 Most Powerful Business Managers 2015 | Hollywood Reporter

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The 25 Most Powerful Business Managers 2015 | Hollywood Reporter

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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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Freemark Financial. 8 likes. Founded by Partners Andrew Meyer & Steves Rodriguez, Freemark is a preeminent Wealth & Business Management Firm for individuals as well as their companies.

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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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Business Managers Elite: Managing Money for the Rich and Famous – Variety

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Business Managers Elite: Managing Money for the Rich and Famous – Variety

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The torrent of technological and economic changes that have reshaped the industry over the past decade means that showbiz pros and stars are earning fewer dollars and more dimes - and the dimes are flowing in from an ever-increasing array of sources that span international borders and a multitude of distribution platforms.

This puts ever more pressure on business managers - the custodians of these individuals' private wealth and personal affairs - to make sure the coin is accounted for and maximized.

This is especially true in the music business, where radio is being usurped by such streaming services as Pandora and Spotify, and where online downloads of digital singles from iTunes have vastly diminished purchases of CD albums from brick-and-mortar retailers.

"There's so much money coming from so many different places, and if you don't have an expertise in each area, you won't be able to count money and you won't be able to maximize the clients' profits," says David Bolno, a partner at Nigro Karlin Segal & Feldstein.

The pros at NKS&F saw the writing on the wall a number of years ago and decided to create several departments to service their music-industry clients. One, the royalty division, is a six-person unit of the firm's 70-person audit group.

Plus, with sales of recordings declining, musicians are becoming more entrepreneurial and creating their own revenue streams, necessitating additional fiscal oversight.

The firm WG&S, whose clients include Metallica, maintains a satellite office in San Rafael, Calif., where members of the band reside, to provide support for their multitude of business interests, which include a record label, a magazine, a fan club and direct-to-consumer marketing of recordings and merchandise.

In situations like these, "our role is really as the outsourced CFO and back-office financial operations," says Eric Wasserman, WG&S managing partner. "We support all of the collections, the paying of the bills, the royalty or profit reporting on the businesses, the financial reporting to the client and then support all the tax compliance."

Andrew Meyer, a partner at Freemark Financial, dealt with a similar dynamic when helping facilitate a YouTube deal for a high-profile director that gave him capital and creative freedom, but no studio-like infrastructure. "About 40 people in our firm can provide not only the accounting, but also budgeting," Meyer says. The firm's work, he adds, is partly about figuring out how to run companies efficiently "and get as much of that money up on the screen as possible."

With the business and its players more scattered than ever across the world, residing and working in multiple jurisdictions, tax matters can get thorny. Typically, filmmakers are being drawn away from L.A. to take advantage of production incentives in such states as Louisiana, New Mexico and Georgia, plus other locales around the globe, creating a maze of multi-jurisdictional tax obligations for business managers to sort through.

"We need to be intimately familiar with the taxes both in the country of residence and the host country (our clients) are working in," says Peter Mainstain, senior partner and co-founder at Tanner Mainstain Blatt Glynn & Johnson.

One of Mainstain's clients is a U.S. subsidiary of a European TV and film production company that in turn has set up its own subsid in Canada to produce content for Canadian TV. Another is a dual citizen of U.S. and Canada married to a U.S. citizen who has set up a Canadian company to take advantage of Canuck content rules, which provide both tax credits as well as subsidizes.

"We do have tax treaties with many countries, so there is some measure of relief, but not always," says Mainstain.

Endorsement deals are another changing arena. A growing source of income for celebrity clients, they also often involve cross-border issues.

"Initially (only major) companies would want to align with a big celebrity," Meyer says. "Now smaller companies are willing to cut big checks and give big equity positions, but it requires a lot more due diligence, examining multiple years of financial statements understanding the strengths and weaknesses of the company."

And it's all for the clients' protection. "The last thing we want is for our clients to associate themselves with a company that does a nosedive," Meyer says.

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Business Managers Elite: Managing Money for the Rich and Famous

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The torrent of technological and economic changes that have reshaped the industry over the past decade means that showbiz pros and stars are earning fewer dollars and more dimes - and the dimes are flowing in from an ever-increasing array of sources that span international borders and a multitude ...

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Savvy Showbiz Handlers: Variety’s Business Managers Elite – Variety

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Savvy Showbiz Handlers: Variety’s Business Managers Elite – Variety

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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.