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May 01, 2007 at 04:00 AM
Hemant P. Singh, founder of the New York-based independent financial advisory firm Private Wealth Management LLC, counts among his clients some of the key movers and shakers in the entertainment world today–a glitzy, high-flying world where vast sums of money can be and are made overnight, but also one in which fortunes can be squandered in the blink of an eye.
“The industry standard has been that without the right financial advice and management, peoples’ money has just gone without their knowing how it went,” says Singh, who founded PWM in 1997.
As advisor to the likes of Reggie “Syience” Perry, a 26-year-old music producer and overnight sensation who with just one hit song on the recent album of rap legend Jay-Z, is an instant millionaire, and Chris Lighty, CEO of Violator Management, a superstar in the music business world who manages the careers of artistes like 50 Cent, Sean “P Diddy” Combs, Busta Rhymes, and Missy Elliott, Singh’s mandate is to preserve the vast amounts of wealth and make them grow such that they last well into the future.
“I ask my clients to recognize how fortunate they are to be in the position that they are in,” Singh says. “I make them conscious of the fact that for what they have achieved in such short periods of time (as a result of their talent and hard work), the reverse can be equally true. While I’m not going to stop them from living the lifestyles that they do, I am going to try to get them to manage their money better.”
For his hip-pop clients and for the other, more mortal people whose money he manages, retirement planning is a key part of Singh’s mandate. Whether it be for an uber-wealthy person or one who, relatively speaking, does not have as much, preparing for tomorrow by looking at what one has today is crucial, he says, and a large part of that is providing holistic advice.
How to financially ensure for tomorrow, depends, of course, on an individual client’s wealth profile. Taking a few hundred thousand dollars and buying an annuity, for instance, works well for someone who makes a couple of million dollars a year, Singh says.
“When someone is bringing in so much money annually, it is easier to put away portions for the future,” Singh says. “I am particularly keen on doing this for clients who don’t have regular retirement accounts or pension plans.”
