Financial
Trendsetters - March 2006
Financial Lessons
Kim Ciccarelli Kantor
Ciccarelli Advisory Services
President
Naples
At the Ciccarelli home near Buffalo, N.Y., father Frank would ask a child who wanted to buy a bike, "Have you done your homework?" What was the price of the bike? If the child saved longer, might not a horse or a car be possible instead? Thus Frank Ciccarelli instructed his seven children in responsibility, recalls middle child Kim Ciccarelli Kantor.
Financial planner Frank Ciccarelli, who had his own firm and moved to Florida after retiring in his 40s, wound up creating a second generation of financial planners.
Kantor, based in Naples, and her brother, Raymond, based in Rochester, N.Y., began in the business in 1983 and founded Ciccarelli Advisory Services. The firm in 2004 won Florida's Family Small Business of the Year Award. That year, it also made Barron's "America's 100 Top Brokers" list based on performance. The firm has $700 million in assets under management.
Its specialty is the "total client picture," Kantor says, serving millionaire families overlooked or underserved by larger private banks and trusts. "From $1 million to $10 million net worth, who's servicing that?" asks Kantor, 49. "We want to take care of families."
Finding Value
Fatherly advice: "When you put on a client relationship, that's the most important thing you have. Service it and keep it, and your business will automatically grow."
Off time: "Good conversation, fine dining and family time."
Books: "Most of my reading, I hate to tell you, unless it's poetry, is related to business in one way or another. I can sit on a plane and read grueling technical stuff and have a great day."
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