Over the years, we have found that competence is an essential precursor to effectively help clients who have a wide variety of needs as they maneuver through a complex financial-services world.

I thought I knew it all - turns out, I didn't

A son whose parents emigrated from Italy to the United States in the 1960s, I was raised in New York.

My parents did not have a formal education to mentor or teach me about business, but like most people who came to the US then, they knew hard work, sacrifice, and commitment. Those are values they instilled in me.

As I watched them work hard and save money, I saw that they began creating a personal and financial legacy by investing in multi-family real estate.

This is how I began my journey into learning and understanding business and real estate at a young age: I continued watching and listening day by day and taking courses on how to invest in real estate.

After a couple of successful years, I thought I knew all there was to know—I was wrong, and I soon found out how wrong I was!

I struggled...
I did more than struggle. By 2007-08, I was insolvent and over-leveraged, and my income was totally severed. Thinking of my parents and my deep desire not to fail and disappoint them and everyone else who counted on me was a bitter pill to swallow. I wanted to be proud of myself, but more importantly, I wanted to be a shining example of what they created and represented. Instead, I felt like a loser who could not make money or get to the next plateau in life.

I was labeled...
As bad worsened, I used credit cards to pay mortgages and bills. Eventually, I went into foreclosure on my last two properties, and I went into depression, labeled a “deadbeat.” Nothing was more humiliating than that title for the son of hardworking emigrants, and nothing was a more brutal slap in the face to the values they instilled……

I made her cry
The only thing I had going for me was that I was engaged to be married to my now wife. When she was trying to be helpful and wanted to try to lift me out of my sinkhole, my pride led me to lash out at her, causing her to back down with a trembling lip and start to cry. That moment changed everything for me.

I realized in that moment that not only did I fail as an investor, but I was failing in something more important than investing,

I was failing as a man.

After all, I may invest, but being a man is what I am. It’s how I was raised; she did not deserve to be treated that way. She deserved better than me. No amount of money or darkness was worth what I had done to her. I was humiliated and broken.

I decided...
At that moment, I wanted to turn it all around and make it work. So, I vowed to reach inside and lean on the values I had seemingly forgotten.

I picked myself up and, step by step, began to rebuild a life for the two of us.

Only this time, I did it after learning from my mistakes and knowing how to play offense and defense simultaneously. Two days before we got married, I filed for Chapter 13 bankruptcy, and shortly after that, I went to law school to become a paralegal to understand better how the game is played. I was determined to win at this real estate game but, more importantly, in life.

I had a new spark
I was newly married to a wonderful woman, and things started to turn around for me. Three months into our marriage, my wife was pregnant with our first child (while I was still in bankruptcy).

When my daughter was born a year later, I suddenly realized something.

I realized that I was responsible for being the steward of someone's life and that maybe I was not a “deadbeat” after all. God believed in me so much that he had entrusted this life to me, and so I felt like I was given a second chance to prove my worth.

I took Action....
I needed to risk everything to become worthy of this responsibility, so I doubled down.

I had a higher purpose and a renewed calling: Protecting my family and our legacy—it was not about me anymore. I needed to hold myself accountable and fight the system, which I found out the hard way was “stacked" against many people like me. Progress started to happen, and the profits from my commitment began delivering: I had my foreclosure overturned in my bankruptcy and got my property back.

I won.....
After all was said and done and after 3+ years of bankruptcy proceedings, two large banking institutions threw in the towel and paid me a large sum of money to leave.

The terms of the settlement agreement have bound me to confidentiality, limiting what I can say, so I can’t speak about specific monetary amounts.

However, the payment was large enough to pay off my entire bankruptcy estate and attorney's fees and still leave me with a surplus of cash! I didn't fail at this investing game after all, and I was not a failure in life either!

I go forward....
The experience of beating the “system” made me want to do it again and again, not just for myself but for other people. I thought about how many people needed help but did not have the skills and experience. How many people were exhausted and needed help fighting when they could no longer fight for themselves?

Over the following ten years, I became the guardian of my family’s wealth, a champion for my children’s future, and a creator of my legacy.

After learning how the mortgage banking game was played from the inside out,

I started buying mortgage loans. I could better manage a foreclosure and give defaulting homeowners a fighting chance to stay in their homes. I learned my purpose and passion had expanded: I could be the bank and make a positive impact on people’s lives:

• My family’s life,

• My investment partner's life and

• the homeowners’ life

This has led me to my mission today: To extend our expansive, intimate knowledge, experience, and expertise to others and enable them not just to survive but thrive and live with vitality in creating their current lives and future legacy.