Carl is an experienced tax preparer, financial planner and attorney having worked in and around these fields for over ten years. Carl graduated with distinction with his Bachelors in Business Administration from what is now called the University of Michigan Ross School of Business in 2003. At that time, the school was ranked by U.S. News World and Report as the #1 undergraduate business school in the county.
For a few years between college and law school, Carl worked as a financial planner for a large company, serving executives of Fortune 500 companies and high net worth individuals. During that time, Carl obtained his Series 7 and 63 securities licenses and first learned to prepare tax returns.
Sensing the need for reform within the financial services industry, Carl decided to enroll at Brooklyn Law School in 2006 to see how he might participate in that movement. Carl found ample opportunity to do so, completing internships in compliance at Bear Stearns, the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the US Securities and Exchange Commission and his school’s Investor Rights Clinic. In fact, his time at Bear Stearns coincided with the failure of two hedge funds that ultimately led to JP Morgan Chase famously acquiring the company’s assets in a fire sale.
This episode prompted the resurgence of debate over whether the asset class should remain largely unregulated. Given his proximity to these events, Carl chose to join the discussion with a legal note entitled “Should Hedge Funds be Regulated?” His piece won first prize in the Public Investors Arbitration Bar Association’s (PIABA) 2009 James E. Beckley Securities Law Writing Competition and publication in the next issue of the PIABA Bar Journal.
Having spent time working for large corporations, government agencies and non-profit organizations, upon graduation from Law School, Carl embraced a different kind of challenge, accepting a position at a small brokerage firm. For three years, Carl worked for an investment advisor helping him manage and develop his business of investing approximately $35 million in assets. During this time, Carl reacquired his Series 7 securities license and earned his Series 66 license. Carl developed a tax preparation business from scratch to serve the company’s existing clients and provide a fresh service for attracting new clients. Once Carl was admitted to practice law in New York, his employer encouraged him to start his own law practice on the side to provide estate planning and other complementary legal services to clients of the brokerage firm.
During these years, Carl unexpectedly developed a knack for valuing small businesses and imagining synergies between companies that could be realized in a merger. On numerous occasions, Carl vetted overtures by larger advisory firms to acquire the corporation he worked for. In this way and others, Carl was preparing himself to run his own company.
In early 2013, Carl began to see that as his future when he stumbled upon Mark Pelersi’s advertisement for the sale of his law and tax practice. Carl was pleased to find the practice areas right up his alley and Mark quickly realized that Carl was his only prospect with the unique combination of a tax and legal background that he needed. Negotiating the transaction took an entire year as both Mark and Carl worked to arrange the deal just right. During the whole year, the transition took on an air of inevitability though as the fit between Carl and the practice was too perfect and it became clear that self-employment was his destiny.
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