…nothing is more important than attention to detail and communication. Without it, things will surely end up rough.
For more than a decade, Ian Filippini has developed his exceptional experience and expertise in wealth management. He leads Filippini Wealth Management, Inc. while providing clients with access to professional consulting along with comprehensive planning services covering many aspects of wealth management. Filippini, the president of Filippini Wealth Management, Inc., has overseen the Montecito and Westlake Village based firm’s continued growth and development and has earned an industry-wide reputation as a remarkably insightful and innovative financial services and wealth management professional.
In his role as president of Filippini Wealth Management, Inc., Mr. Filippini has endeavored to incorporate service offerings capable of addressing the specific needs of each individual while accounting for the short- and long-term financial goals as expressed by the client. In order to accomplish this goal, Mr. Filippini has created four integrated divisions that work in conjunction to manage the wealth of each client and contribute to the development of a comprehensive and highly specialized strategic approach. The divisions established by Mr. Filippini include each of the following:
• Tax Planning
• Insurance
• Real Estate
• Estate Planning
Throughout his lengthy and accomplished professional career in the financial services industry, colleagues, peers, and clients alike have all praised Mr. Filippini for the unique and innovative strategies he has created and introduced through Filippini Wealth Management, Inc., especially with regard to his comprehensive and client-centered philosophy.
Where did the idea for Filippini Wealth Management, Inc. being such a multi-faceted firm come from?
The idea emerged out of the realization that the overwhelming majority of wealth management firms do not offer comprehensive wealth management services nor do they provide the personalized financial planning services we have long been committed to providing to our clients.
What does your typical day look like and how do you make it productive?
My role demands that I remain a consistently effective communicator, so the bulk of my day is spent meeting with clients to discuss each of our different divisions to determine the efficacy of our current strategies with the goal of identifying areas in need of improvement and expanding on success.
How do you bring ideas to life?
I often lean on analytics to determine the best possible strategy for bringing a new idea to life, but I also seek objective feedback and alternative perspectives to ensure the idea is brought to life in a manner that ensures it is both effective and efficient.
What’s one trend that really excites you?
The ease with which information is exchanged has made our clients more informed than ever before, and I look forward to working with more and more clients who possess such a nuanced understanding of wealth management.
What is one habit of yours that makes you more productive as an entrepreneur?
I constantly seek the opinions of others to ensure that I am always able to be objective in any analysis pertaining to Filippini Wealth Management, Inc.
What was the toughest job you ever had and what did you learn from it?
I’ve always been very lucky to see the bright sides of any situation. I look for the opportunity in every instance of life. While I thoroughly enjoyed caddying as a youngster in Pebble Beach it was very demanding. However, it taught me early on that nothing is more important than attention to detail and communication. Without it, things will surely end up rough.
If you were to start again, what would you do differently?
I would have made a better effort explaining the importance of such a diversely structured firm right from the beginning.
As an entrepreneur, what is the one thing you do over and over and recommend everyone else do?
I believe in collaborating with entrepreneurs working in completely unrelated industries, especially since there is so much to be learned and potentially applied to one’s own industry. It has always amazed me how fun it is to help other entrepreneurs and how much they in turn want to help others as well.
What is one strategy that has helped you grow your business? Please explain how.
We clearly differentiated our services from those of our competitors and then explicitly outlined how our services could benefit prospective clients.
What is one failure you had as an entrepreneur, and how did you overcome it?
I was reluctant to incorporate some of my more innovative ideas early in my career despite my own belief in the efficacy of these ideas, which caused my business to miss out on significant opportunities. I now know that any idea that has been thoroughly vetted and tested should be implemented at the earliest possible stage.
What is one business idea that you’re willing to give away to our readers?
There are several industries in which just a few companies dominate and essentially provide a similar range of products or services to the point of redundancy. There might be an opportunity to found a consulting firm capable of identifying these industries and recommending a strategic approach for creating a highly profitable niche within markets that others have incorrectly ignored or avoided.
What is the best $100 you recently spent? What and why?
When I come across a great book, I make a point of buying copies in bulk in order to give a copy of the book away to anyone I feel might benefit from reading it. I recently bought several dozen copies of “The Intelligent Investor” after I discovered an annotated version of the original text that included new commentary as well as a new preface and appendix written by Warren Buffett.
What software and web services do you use? What do you love about them?
We’ve assembled analytics spreadsheets long before it was in vogue to do so, and they have consistently provided us with the most relevant and useful information based on the software and web services created specifically for our firm.
What is the one book that you recommend our community should read and why?
“The Theory of Investment Value,” by John Burr Williams. It provides the basis for valuation and explains the rationale behind the “Dividend Discount Model” as created by the author.
What people have influenced your thinking and might be of interest to others?
Peter L. Bernstein and Warren Buffett are among the many professional influences I hold dear, and I certainly have relied on the principles espoused by John Burr Williams and Benjamin Graham.
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Mario Schulzke is the Founder of ideamensch, which he started a decade ago to learn from entrepreneurs and give them a platform for their ideas.