The Sound Entrepreneur was founded by Richard Brownstein in 2015. It is a destination for news and information about being an entrepreneur in the arts and entertainment industry. For Richard Brownstein, a well-regarded wealth counselor for more than 22 years, a negative initial experience with finance helped motivate this titan to focus on helping others avoid a similar fate. It all started as a s
enior in college down in sunny Miami, FL. An animated and convincing friend of Richard’s told him about a financial planner Laura that would help shape his future. After meeting with this woman in the school cafeteria and seeing exponential-growth graphs of investing, he was sold on her efforts to make him a millionaire. She sold him a whole-life insurance policy and at 20 years old, he began depositing $50 a month. The plan ran from 1979 up to 1990. After all those years and even upping his payments to $150 a month, Richard had just a couple thousand in cash value, not nearly the million dollars he was promised initially.
“I needed to let that story be told and I got into the business because of that. I liked finance, I was always good with numbers and I swore I would never let that happen to anyone else again,” he said. This event led him to create the Financial Health Center in Fairfield, NJ. The core theme of the Financial Health Center is relieving people of the fear they could possibly run out of money. The firm specializes in retirement income and distribution.
“It’s helping them with the investments, the wills and the trusts,” he said. “The average person that comes to me is in their late 50s or 60s. Most importantly, we want to answer that big question, ‘What do I need to do so I don’t outlive my money?’”
The average retiree his firm works with has a net worth of $1 to $10 million, so this money has to last 10, 20 or even 30 years. Most also want to leave something to their family when they’re gone. “You also want to make sure you are taking your income stream from nice, safe places,” he said. “You use CDs, money markets, fixed annuities, guaranteed accounts and cash. We use five-year windows and stagger these windows.”
In addition to helping pre-retirees at the end of their careers, Richard is working on his book that draws content from the 6-hour course “Retirement Planning Today” he teaches at local universities. He plans on taking that popular adult-education course and using its nuts and bolts in the book. His classes are not only educational but fun as well and clients can expect the same from his book. “I have a little bit of a showman side to me. I bring in magic and a lot of fun things into the course. I don’t want to just bombard my class with facts and figures,” he added. Richard doesn’t just use his showmanship in the classroom but on TV too. He hosted a show “Road to Riches” in 2011 that aired on local cable for one full season. The concept of the show was to review national topics on how they affected the local community and retirement.
