Business Managers Elite

These confidants to Hollywood royalty act as financial advisers, therapists, purchasing agents, real estate brokers, family members — even rabbis.

Partner, Altman Greenfield & Selvaggi

The N.Y.-based Altman sees himself as part shrink, part rabbi and part parent to his showbiz clientele, which includes Steve Martin, John Goodman, Sarah Jessica Parker, Ashton Kutcher and Annette Bening.

Most unusual request: Client John Turturro asked him to play a rabbi and a store owner, respectively, in “Fading Gigolo” and “Mac.” For the latter “he wanted someone who owned a business,” Altman says. For the rabbi role, “I’m Orthodox Jewish, so I guess he wanted the feel of Judaism.”

Best Advice: “Earn more, spend less, pay your taxes.”

Partner, Grant Tani Barash & Altman

Barash’s practice encompasses actors, writers, directors and producers, athletes and entrepreneurs. Clients include Earvin “Magic” Johnson, Paul Feig and Jon Landau.

Most unusual request: A get-it-done-yesterday estate plan for a client’s parents. “I didn’t know the parents and I had to go establish relationships across the country and get it done in a timely manner,” he says.

Best Advice: “I tell clients to look at their goals and try to make adjustments early, especially if they’re on a longstanding TV series that is potentially going to end.”

Managing partner, Bell & Co.

Bell’s clients are a of mix established and emerging entertainment talents, including Bill O’Reilly, Melissa Joan Hart, Steven Soderbergh, Marv Albert, Helmut Lang and Cary Fukunaga.

Most unusual request: “A father who loved his children tremendously wanted us to buy a house on the same block where he lived and close the deal before his wife knew he was divorcing her.”

Best advice: “Save, save, save. We recommend 25% of every check.”

Partner, RBZ

Coelho’s practice handles high-net-worth clients in front of and behind the camera. It also includes clients in real estate, family office, hospitality, law, technology and nonprofit organizations. “With our international tax department, we work with numerous high-net-worth individuals and their businesses inside and outside the U.S.,” he says.

Most unusual request: “I need 50 sleeping mosquito nets shipped to the South Pacific ASAP.”

Best advice: “Hire us.”

Lead partner, business management practice, SingerLewak

Davis sees herself as a fiscal therapist to her clients, who include writers, agents, producers, directors, actors, high-net-worth individuals, entrepreneurs and family-owned businesses. Marquee names include Roberto Orci (“Transformers,” “Star Trek”) and “Hawaii Five-0” showrunner Peter Lenkov.

Most unusual request: “A client came to meet with me, and the first thing he asked was, ‘How bad is it? Am I going to have to go direct adult films in the Valley?’ “ Davis recalls. “Fortunately, we found a way to work around the problem so he didn’t have to direct porn, and now he’s got some great gigs.”

Best Advice: “I don’t feel the advice comes from me. It comes from the situation and the client.”

Founder, Dunn & Pariser

Dunn estimates that 65%
of his practice is made up of entertainment pros such as producers, directors, actors, screenwriters and studio executives, with several dozen professional athletes, mostly baseball players, and a handful of Internet entrepreneurs thrown in for good measure.

Most unusual request: “I got a call to fly to Australia to help oversee the completion of a submarine for a production,” he says. “I was involved in the financial side. I obviously didn’t have anything to do with putting it together.” The client: James Cameron.

Best advice: “Being forceful and assertive when something shouldn’t be invested in.”

Partner-in-charge, business management practice,
Macias Gini & O’Connell

Clients include actors Reese Witherspoon, Nathan Fillion and Chris O’Donnell, Lionsgate Motion Picture Group co-chairman Rob Friedman and a wide variety of other creatives and execs.

Most unusual request: A client called from a dealership asking Fox to pay for a luxury car. Fox told him he could get it cheaper elsewhere. The client insisted. It turned out that he had just been reminded it was his wife’s birthday.  “He needed to buy a car really quick, and the dealership agreed to deliver it to a restaurant 

where they were going to have dinner that evening,” Fox explains.

Best advice: Telling a client not to put a large sum in a risky investment. “He did it anyway
and he lost most of the money,” Fox says.

Partner, Fulton & Meyer

Fulton’s has a reputation for
taking on young, untested talent and nurturing them as their careers grow. His clients include Channing Tatum, Zoe Saldana, Miles Teller, Michael B. Jordan, Liam and Chris Hemsworth, YouTube stars Jenna Marbles, Toby Turner and Rhett & Link.

Most unusual request: A client who needed $20,000 in cash delivered to him in small bills. “We had to send a bunch of FedEx packages with the cash stuffed between the pages of magazines, including Variety,” Fulton says.

Best Advice: Telling a client to buy Apple stock, circa 1995, when it was in the doldrums. “He bought a lot of it, and he still has it, so you can figure out how that turned out.”

Managing partner, Gelfand, Rennert & Feldman

Gelfand followed his father, Marshall, who co-founded the firm in 1967, carving out a rep first in the music industry. Now he oversees 300 employees in L.A., Nashville and New York. Gelfand’s clients include top names in music, TV and film. He says they appreciate the firm’s legacy of integrity, creative thinking, attention to detail and respect for client privacy.

Most unusual request: “I know you can fill out my tax forms, but can you sing back-up if the tour bus doesn’t show up on time?”

Best advice: “Work hard, save your money and prepare for a future.”

Founding partner,  GSO Business Management

One of the advantages of going with Gudvi is that his firm is “small enough to care about clients, and big enough to have clout,” he says. He handles mostly music types, including Tom Petty, Katy Perry, Nickelback, Michael McDonald and Richard Marx, but he also has sports figures and producers such as Thom Beers, CEO of FremantleMedia North America.

Most unusual request: To buy a classic convertible Mustang for a client to give to his wife for Christmas. “This was before the Internet. I finally found a dealer who had the car on Christmas Eve, then I drove it to his house in Malibu.”

Best advice: “Your financial well-being is not what you make, it’s about what you spend.”

Partner, Miller Kaplan Arase

Kaplan prides himself on being able to see the big financial picture for his clients, who include actors, producers, writers, directors, athletes, executives and musicians. He estimates his company has grown 50% in the past couple of years, bolstered by music clients.

Most unusual request: A client on a yacht in the South of France asking to rent a bigger yacht with helicopter, not to use, but to impress. “I talked the person down and told them that there were so many better things we could do with that money.”

Best advice: “Set goals; live within your means.”

Partner, Nigro Karlin Segal
Feldstein & Bolno

Karlin has a diverse client list that runs the gamut from rockers Van Halen to the estate of Joan Rivers, to film and TV pros such as director Phil Alden Robinson and producers Walter F. Parkes and Laurie MacDonald and high-net-worth individuals in-between.

Best Advice: “Telling a client to buy Apple stock early, right after the iPod came out. I’m also a big proponent of investing with a long-term time horizon. The equity markets will generally produce strong returns over time, as long as you can stomach the volatility, and that’s about managing expectations.”

Partner, Level Four

Lichtenberg’s client list reflects
a heavy presence in the world of comedy. Larry David has been
with him since 1984. Will Ferrell and Lewis Black are also clients — in addition to artists from all aspects of the industry. Lichtenberg himself is known to occasionally inject some humor into the business. Level Four, which he joined in 2007, provides services that include payroll, insurance, tax, retirement and estate planning, and real estate transactions.

Most unusual request: “A client is one of the first civilians to book a seat on a Virgin Galactic flight into space. He’s very excited,” said Lichtenberg, before the recent tragedy in which a Virgin Galactic craft exploded over the Mojave Desert.

Best advice: “Live within your means.”

Founder, CRM Management

Since taking on David Duchovny when he was a student at Yale (she was dating his brother), New York-based Malcolm has built a client roster that includes Ethan Hawke, Benedict Cumberbatch, Liev Schreiber, Sofia Coppola and Anderson Cooper.

Most unusual request: A former client asked her to declare phone calls to the Psychic Friends Network as a business expense.

Best Advice: “Clients sometimes come to me wanting to buy a home well beyond their means, and I try to talk them down. My job is to make sure they never have to take a crappy job just to cover their monthly overhead.”

Partner, Freemark Financial

For Meyer, 20 years of experience boils down to what can be done better to ensure that clients have a good understanding of the money in their lives: everything they’re making, spending, saving and investing. With a staff of 45 in stylish, art-filled Beverly Hills offices, he makes sure clients — who include major film and television stars, writers and directors — receive personalized service and attention.

Most unusual request: “A client insisting they needed a charter flight between Orange County, and Van Nuys Airport (Calif.). After advising against it, they compromised on a helicopter.”

Best advice: “In 2008 with clients using Blackberry phones I advised buying Apple stock.”

Partner, Neuman + Associates

Neuman’s practice focuses on film and TV pros, along with a handful of athletes, music industry figures and fine artists. Clients include Ellen DeGeneres, Scarlett Johansson, John C. Reilly, Lily Tomlin and TV creators-showrunners Anthony Zuiker (“CSI”) and Andrew Kreisberg.

Most unusual request: A client bought a house, and the roof leaked with the first rainstorm. A series of faulty repairs followed. Finally, “the client called and said, ‘I’m using an umbrella inside my house,’” Neuman recalls. “So I went to Home Depot, got a big tarp and a bunch of rope, and climbed on the roof on a Saturday morning and laid the tarp out and tied it down myself.”

Best advice: “I try to give advice that is personal and specific to a situation.”

Partner, GSO Business Management

Taking his 14-year-old daughter to concerts helps Oppenheim stay hip to what’s going on in the world of his music-heavy client list, which includes Eminem, 50 Cent, Steve Aoki and the Backstreet Boys. He also has film and TV clients, athletes and other high-net-worth individuals. “I have bigger clients that enable me to have smaller clients,” he says. “I take on a few artists every year who some people have never heard of.”

Most unusual request: “I had a client who wanted to know how much of his money he could spend on his shrunken-head collection.”

Best Advice: “Save for tomorrow, because tomorrow is more important than today.”

Partner, Dunn & Pariser

Among Pariser’s clients are musicians, showrunners, directors and producers, including “Family Guy” exec producer Danny Smith and “Spider-Man” producer Matt Tomack. In recent years, he’s been taking on an increasing number of wealthy international clients.

Most unusual request: An international client needed to close a real estate deal. “She didn’t have a track record here so she couldn’t qualify for a loan from a U.S. bank,” says Pariser. “I had to arrange a loan from an Eastern European bank.”

Best advice: “I tell my clients they don’t have to hit home runs with every investment. If they hit a lot of singles and doubles, they’ll have a lot money when they retire.”

Partner, Freemark Financial

In addition to cash management, investment and tax planning, Peyrot works with clients in entertainment, music, fashion and digital to help them build value for and protect their brand. Whether it’s working to develop a YouTube strategy or find funding for projects, his goal is having an intimate knowledge of the clients’ big-picture goals and vision.

Most unusual request: “For an initial meeting with a potential client, I was asked to join a private training session at their home. Luckily I made it through the workout and signed the client.”

Best advice: “We only have control over how we choose to spend or invest our money and how we allocate our time and energy into making money.”

Managing partner, Philpott Bills Stoll & Meeks

The Marine Corps veteran founded his Encino, Calif.-based firm 30 years ago after cutting his teeth at business management company Traubner & Flynn. Today, following steady expansion and taking on partners Stephen Bills, Peter Stoll and Martin Meeks, the firm has approximately 60 employees and 130 clients, mostly from the world of entertainment. They include producers Jerry Bruckheimer, Brian Grazer and Dick Wolf, actor Michael J. Fox and various industry celebrities and executives. In his spare time, Philpott enjoys fly-fishing and piloting his Piper Meridian.

Founding partner, Level Four

With clients including Samuel L. Jackson, Jim Carrey, Josh Hutcherson and Danny McBride, Rigney’s roster also encompasses directors, writers and musicians, for which his company provides full management services including tax and estate planning and real estate transactions. In business since 1987, he believes in putting aside any ego and adding value for his clients.

Most unusual request: “Buy four identical Porsche convertibles to give as Christmas gifts — a week before the holiday.”

Best advice: “Good advice is rarely measurable. It is more like a series of better decisions to create a better quality of life in all respects, including financial.”

Partner, Freemark Financial

With clients spanning film, TV, production, ad agencies and computer graphics, Rodriguez also reps recording artists, music producers and managers.
“On a very basic level, our clients want us to be thinking for them — evaluating the merits of a buyout opportunity, creating a business plan for a new film fund or opening a new office, in addition to paying bills and preparing tax returns,” he says.

Most unusual request: “Buying a property in my name next to a client’s because the plan was to ultimately consolidate the two properties into one. We quitclaimed the property back to my client.”

Best advice: “Emotion should always be balanced by evaluating the financial merits of a transaction.”

Partner, WG&S

Sloan’s clients include Ed Zwick, Marshall Herskovitz, Jonathan Krisel, Julie Plec, Michael Chiklis and Ian Somerhalder. “The philosophy of our firm is that by collaboration we can provide the highest level of service to our clients,” he says. Services include establishing and monitoring goals and objectives, tax minimization and preservation of capital and wealth.

Most unusual request: “I’ve been blessed with great, grounded, and very bright clients where it’s very rare that I receive what I would consider very unusual requests.”

Best advice: “Investing in yourself and your career by being the best you can be, always be prepared, work very hard, be a leader and get along with everyone.”

CEO, Tri Star Sports and
Entertainment Group

Taylor is the go-to manager for music superstars such as Britney Spears and Steven Tyler. Her L.A.- and Nashville-based firm provides a range of specialties, including worldwide tour accounting, royalty audits and tax planning. Other clients come from the worlds of professional sports and entertainment and include actor Jack Huston, “Game of Thrones” writer Bryan Cogman and NFL coach Jeff Fisher. She likes to call her clients ”creative and visionary accelerators.”

Most unusual request: “Rescue a client’s son trapped on the side of an Alaskan mountain during a snowstorm — a great challenge, but one we accomplished.”

Best advice: “To take an equity stake in Vitaminwater, later purchased by Coca-Cola for $4.2 billion.”

Partner, Nigro Karlin Segal
Feldstein & Bolno

Vaughn’s clients are a glamorous collection of actors, authors, composers, directors, execs and musicians, but she insists her work itself is anything but glamorous. “It’s the boring stuff like paying the bills, doing the payroll and hiring and firing the nannies,” she says.

Most unusual request: Her favorite part of her job is “delivering on requests that everybody thought were impossible.”

Best advice: “If you’re single, stay single, and if you’re married, stay married.”

Managing partner, WG&S

Wasserman’s clients include Jared Leto, Metallica and Richard Gere — plus high-net-worth individuals, family office, business owners and multi-generational wealth. The firm provides all administrative and advisory services that are core to wealth preservation.

Most unusual request: “A co-worker had to leave the office for a confidential client errand — picking up and delivering an engagement ring.”

Best advice: “With interest rates at historic lows, we’ve used low-cost borrowing as tools for our clients to finance private aviation and real estate.”