Episode 304: 02-19-15
Family Offices: New Trends
Thomas Handler is an advanced planning attorney focused on the analysis and structuring of sophisticated estate plans and family offices, and handling taxation and business planning issues for business owners, executives, professional athletes, celebrities and family offices.
Handler has extensive experience in the analysis, design and implementation of domestic and international business planning, financial and estate planning, asset protection, family office compliance and advanced tax planning strategies.
Mr. Handler is a managing partner in Handler Thayer, LLP, where he chairs the firm’s Advanced Planning & Family Office Practice Group.
We discuss family office trends.
Preventing Lung Cancer
Our special UHealth guest is Dr. Richard Thurer MD. We discuss advances in lung cancer detection. Long thought to be a death sentence, advances in early detection are helping many people beat lung cancer.
We discuss what to do if you or a loved one has been a smoker.
New in South Florida Business and Wealth Magazine
Kevin Gale, Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of South Florida Business and Wealth Magazine, discusses the February issue of SFBW, a media partner of Fried on Business. This is a new monthly publication being launched by Lifestyle Media Group, which already publishes 10 titles under the Life and Lifestyle names in southern Florida.
We will discuss what to look for in the February issue of the magazine.
Episode 304: 02-19-15 (To download, right-click and select “Save Link As”.)
Transcription:
Jim Fried: Alright let’s rock and roll with the business and everything else. We’ve got Fried on Business today. Stock market was down a little bit, but everything else is up here in South Florida. Business is smoking hot! It’s so busy I don’t even have time to look at all my emails. Things are almost dropping through the cracks. Notice I say almost. So we’re going to get right to it. We’re going to talk about Family Offices today. Way to go Dee. We’re going to talk about Family Offices. We’re going to talk about how to beat lung cancer with top docs from UHealth and we’re going to find out and that was just a little tease there from Big Dee. We’re going to find out what’s going on in South Florida Business and Wealth this month. That will be the end of the show.
We’re going to start out by talking about Family Office trends and why? Because Family Offices are the new hot place to capitalize your business in your real estate deal. Stick with us we’re going to have one of the top experts in the Family Office world Tom Handler he’s our big connection up in Chicago. That’s him calling now. Dee’s got him online, so I’m going to tease you one more time. Family Offices, how to capitalize your business with people you don’t even know yet. We’ll be doing that right after this short break. On Fried on Business. Dow was down a little bit, but who cares. We’re talking business. Back after this.
[Commercial break]
Jim Fried: Alright we’re on fire here on Fried on Business. They’re dancing in the control room and I just want to remind you before I head on out to Marlin’s Ball Park tonight for season ticket holder batting practice and boy don’t you wish you were with me. You don’t have to be a world class athlete to be treated like one. Renowned orthopedics surgeon Dr. Lee Kaplan and his team at UHealth Sports Medicine are the official sports medicine providers for the Miami Hurricanes and the Miami Marlins and they could be your care team too. Combining unsurpassed expertise with care that puts you first. UHealth Sports Medicine is the regions only university based sports medicine provider. That means you have access to the very latest treatments. Often before they’re available any where else in South Florida. It’s all geared towards getting you back in the game quickly and safely. To schedule your appointment visit UHealthSportsMedicine.com today.
[Commercial break]
Jim Fried: Alright hey, when you’re looking to buy or lease a car you want every advantage that you can. That’s why you have to check out Warren Henry. Land Rover, Range Rover, Infinity, and Jaguar they’re all exceptional cars and they all come with the Warren Henry advantage. That means complimentary dent repair, key replacement, first service, and a personal assistant that you can call for anything anytime for four years. Always the best price. Always the best service, always Warren Henry.
Female Announcer: This is the Wall Street Business Network.
Announcer: South Florida’s only Business radio station. 880AM. The Biz. You’re listening to Fried on Business. To talk to Jim and his guest call 305-541-2350. That’s 305-541-2350. Now back to your host Jim Fried.
Jim Fried: Alright.We are back and we are back with my connection to the Family Office world. We’re here with Tom Handler. Tom is the name partner, Handler Thayer, LLP.They’re up in Chicago. They handle all kinds of really cool people’s estate, trust, wealth, real estate. All kinds of stuff mostly focusing on the Family Office world. Tom is the expert. Tom welcome to the show.
Thomas Handler: Jim that’s really kind. How are you? Good evening.
Jim Fried: Good evening. Hey listen. Thank you so much for joining. I know that you and your firm put out a bunch of outlooks for Family Offices. Will kindly go over that in a couple of minutes, but I did want to congratulate you and your firm for winning. My gosh! This really special award. Help me understand what that was because it sounded great.
Thomas Handler: You’re very kind. There are three major awards that law firms can get given by three magazines that are investment magazines largely and the most, one of the most prestigious is given by Private Asset Management. There’s another award for Family Office Review and a third from Family Wealth Report and the Private Asset Management awards were given at a dinner. A big black tie gala in downtown New York about a week ago and our firm was named the best overall law firm from the United States and needless to say we’re very pleased to receive the award, but from our standpoint the highlight is that we’re the only firm that ever received that award twice. We also won it in 2012, so it’s a little victory for us and we’re very pleased and we need something to warm us up because it’s about 4 degrees in Chicago today, so we can use all the help that we can get.
Jim Fried: Well, I’m going to email you some sunshine later on today. Tom, first of all I always thought you guys a Family Office focused firm. You won Law Firm of the Year. Are we talking across all types, book chic, big, the whole deal?
Thomas Handler: Well, all the big firms are illegible, so no one is excluded, but the focus really are private client firms and so this includes the largest law firms that I would exclude the people that for example, who are representing public companies.
Jim Fried: Right.
Thomas Handler: So it’s private companies and even though they could be massive, like Target or other private companies that are larger than most public companies.
Jim Fried: Of course, the deal with Cargill for the record.
Thomas Handler: Yeah. Here you go. Smaller private companies and then individuals who are high net worth, professionals, celebrities, C-suite executives and of course, family offices that are the billionaires and multimillionaires that control that market. It’s really that whole industry and anyone that would have an interest in high end investments and wealth planning. So with all the awards doesn’t specify it really applies to that portion of the market which maybe is half of what’s out there vs the whole public side of the equations.
Jim Fried: Well, it sounds really exciting and getting the national award is terrific getting it twice is amazing. Having a fact that nobody else has gotten it twice. Will, I guess that just speaks to who we got on the phone today.
Thomas Handler: Or a good fortune. One or the other.
Jim Fried: Well, hey good fortune. There’s nothing wrong with that. I rather be lucky than you know, all those little antidotes, but let’s talk a little bit about what you see coming up in 2015 and the Family Office space is really important because a lot of these people, a lot of these family owned offices they lead investments. They are the founding underpinning of our economy because our economy, even though there’s big businesses out there, we all know it’s driven by small businesses and successful small businesses. Well, they need you Tom. So tell me, what’s going on this year?
Thomas Handler: Well, a quite a bit actually and your timing is actually very good. We just finished writing up an annual report that we issue called the Handler Thayer Family Office Outlook, so this is 2015 outlook that will be released in about a week to ten days and we know some of the biggest trends in the industry based on the third year Moore conferences that we cover last year or work with the various ABA, CBA, CPA associations, security organizations, financial planners, and others and we just fill it down and to what we’re seeing in the market place. So in particular, globally the trend is that Family Offices are proliferating very strongly, particularly in Asia and South America. There just running rampant and in the U.S. they’re relatively flat in part because there’s been a tremendous amount of mergers, but there’s been a lot growth in the virtual family office market, which tend to be at the lower ends of net worth, but that it seems that it’s very well established now that globally pretty much the world has recognized the develop world and recognized that Family Offices are the global best in class approach to facilitating long term wealth management and preservation.
Jim Fried: You know that’s sounds really good, but what is a Family Office, Tom?
Thomas Handler: Well, in its simplest form, a Family Office is a business that’s been organized to run the family’s affairs and there are probably 30 to 40 services that this office could provide. The more common ones tend to be investment management, management of the legal function, the risk management function, accounting, reporting. It might also facilitate management of properties. It might schedule the use of vacation homes and yachts and educational conferences. It’s responsible for the education of family, the annual family reunion, maintaining the family history. There’s just a whole load of things that it might do including concierge services, if appropriate. But for the most part, tends to be financial business, so really focused on accounting and reporting, investments, risk management, premarital planning, and then all the legal things surrounding the structure of their affairs, their estate, their tax position and the businesses that these families own.
In fact, a survey was done I think just in 2014 and it disclosed that over half of all Family Offices in the United States have one or more operating businesses. For the most part, these families have a combination of active operating businesses, active real estate, in addition to passive portfolios. So it’s a very complex enterprise and they’re trying to get expertise and efficiency and managing the process that they don’t have the expertise in house. So there’s three different types. There’s a virtual family office, which means that there maybe one or two or three employees, but almost every thing is outsourced to law firms, accounting firms, evaluation firms, insurance companies, whatever they need to accomplish what the family is trying to do. They tend to run from 50 million dollars in net worth at the low end up to over a billion dollars, so even in a very wealthy family might say they really don’t want bring this in-house. I’ll have an attorney, an accountant, and an analyst to in-house and will outsource everything that’s in our best interest. For the most part, they tend to be in that 100 to 250 million dollar range. Most commonly though there are outliers well beyond that on either side of the equation. The single Family Office tends to have higher range of assets, hundred million up to the biggest in the world, 25, 30 billion dollars and then the multifamily Office is an office that runs the affairs for more than one family. Families that are not related and they are in a different category for securities and CFTC purposes. So they’re regulated and those enterprises typically started a billion dollars of assets under management and go up to 20, 30, 40, 50 billion over times. So there’s sort of three varieties of the Family Office structure and they often invest with each other, collaborate with each other,and the virtual family office, and single Family Office are often outsourcing to the multifamily offices which tend to be bigger and often have a lot of these services available including serving other Family Offices.
Jim Fried: Tom you set the table really well for the Family Office space and what it is and what I want to do is, can you come back after the break? Can we have you for a second segment?
Thomas Handler: Of course.
Jim Fried: Oh great! Then you know maybe we can go through some of the items that you’re seeing that are going to come up in your outlook and maybe it can give us a couple of good anecdotes in the next segment. What do you think?
Thomas Handler: Sounds great.
Jim Fried: Will be right back after this short break with more from Tom Handler talking about Wealth Management and How People Can Protect their Assets. Will be back after this.
[Commercial break]
Jim Fried: Hey, you know if you’re looking to buy or lease a car you’re want to get in every advantage that you can.That’s why you have to check out Warren Henry. Land Rover, Range Rover, Infinity, and Jaguar they’re all exceptional cars. They all come with a Warren Henry Advantage and that means complimentary dent repair, key replacement, first service, and a personal assistant that you can call for anything anytime for four years. Always the best price. Always the best service. Always Warren Henry!
[Commercial break]
Announcer: South Florida’s only business radio station.
Female Announcer : Part of the Wall Street business Network.
Announcer: 880AM The Biz. You’re listening to Fried on Business. To talk to Jim and his guests call 305-541-2350. That’s 305-541-2350. Now back to your host Jim Fried.
Jim Fried: Alright. We are back. We are talking Family Offices and Wealth Management with Tom Handler. Tom is the name partner in Handler Thayer in Chicago. They got all kinds of cool clients that they can’t talk about, but we know they’re really big and important. Tom welcome back.
Thomas Handler: Thank you Jim.
Jim Fried: Now we were talking. We set the table in the first segment about what is Family Office and the different types. Let’s talk a little bit about your outlook that you got coming up here. You guys are going to issue your 2015 Family Office outlook in a couple of weeks. Let’s make a little news and talk about it now.
Thomas Handler: Sure. Well, let’s talk about some of the highlight of what we see. One of the obvious trend and Florida has been a big beneficiary of this is that tax payer flight has been increasingly globally, really at underrepresented levels. The movement has been families, people own bodies, it’s been capital, and family holding companies, and investment partnerships, as well as businesses and they have basically fled the high tech jurisdictions which include states and countries, and territories in favor of better jurisdictions for that purpose. The point here supposes that any many taxpayers try to limit their solutions to state they live in and that is a horribly misguided notion and in effect it is proven to cherry pick a jurisdiction and use it for what it does well. For hundreds of years people are using Delaware corporations because its got a very fluid law, a very cost efficient streamline and it’s a good jurisdiction to operate a business even if your company is located in the other 49 states.
Flight was so dramatic out of the country last year. In 2013, 2,999 Americans left the country in one year. To give you a sense of how dramatic that is in the 12 years of the Bush/Reagan administration 13 people left in 12 years and there was no exit tax. So now you pay an exit tax, so about half in 2, 999 left in 2013 and I think the number for 2014, I just saw it. I want to say it’s 4,000. It’s over 4,000. It’s a biggest number in the history of United States. Really shocking and in terms of states, the biggest loser of businesses, capital and people has been not surprisingly the bankrupt, corrupt, and high tax states. Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, California, Illinois have had massive outflows and Illinois actually maybe the winner in that regard. I think we lost ten thousand businesses in over a million people. That net in the last 10 years.
Jim Fried: Wow!
Thomas Handler: We now have a new governor trying to fix it, so it’s been problematic and those people have gone to Texas, Nevada, Florida, Wyoming, jurisdictions tend to have better budget of lower taxation and perhaps better laws in some cases. It’s been a really huge trend. The same thing is true of countries. France moved their tax for up to 74%. Even though we actually payer higher tax here, effective tax even though our rates are lower and people started leaving in droves. Prominent actors, celebrities, families just took off and the same is happening with portfolios. There are different strategies where you can literally take an investment portfolio and move it to another jurisdiction or start another jurisdiction, but never does get taxed to your home state where you could have 13.3% tax in California. There’s plenty of taxes. It was 8,9,10% rate. There’s a lot motivation for taxpayers that do this and much like the book Atlas shrugged, at the end of the day, you keep on picking on the people who are working hard and making it happen and risking capital, and they simply pick up and take their marbles and leave and that’s exactly what we have been seeing.
Jim Fried: Wow! What’s another trend, I mean that one is, we see that one building our wealth here in Miami. People flee, I guess here they come here for security.
Thomas Handler: Absolutely. Along the same lines our sense is that despite the economic meltdown and the resulting great recession or depression depending on how you want to classify it. Even with the risks that people took and we had many individual clients go bankrupt. We watched three the top 10 home builders in the country go personally bankrupt. All were our clients. We had a 700 million dollar family go personally bankrupt.
Jim Fried: Wow!
Thomas Handler: Over a period of time and despite this stress of the market place and all the foreclosures, the business bankruptcies, personal bankruptcies are sense is that individual investor, businesses and Family Offices in particular, do not fully appreciate the risks to which their subject even though at this point the equity risks should be forefront of everybody’s mind in view of what just happened. Nevertheless, there’s an inadequate appreciation of those risks and the steps that you take to ameliorate them, which include legal structures, premarital planning, asset protection, insurances, and even conduct protocols. That try not to get sued. That’s what it takes to be successful and live to fight another day. So it’s in a very interesting development that even despite what we just seen people are really not taking the necessarily steps that they should to protect themselves.
Jim Fried: How can that even be. I got to believe that everybody talks to each other. I bet that some of the steps are really easy. What are some of the other things that you are seeing that trends for 2015? We’ve only got a couple more minutes.
Thomas Handler: Well, one of the big trends that’s really picked up steam. It’s been an ongoing trend is that U.S. and European Family Offices in particular are increasingly seeking out and participating in direct investments. Particularly in real estate and private equity and these trends we expect to continue and escalate going forward and that’s very interesting in that the investors Family Offices are trying to circumnavigate the system. Cut out the investment bankers and the middle man and connect through varies means with families that are operating a commercial building or industrial complex or running a manufacturing company or controlling the railway and they will come in and then say, “We want invest with you and pair with you on basis and similar terms and we’ll stay in the deal as long as you stay in the deal or as long as you welcome us in the deal.” They do that with more efficient cost structure, lower fees, and of course they’re not paying commission, or underwriting the fees to advisers, and so that’s of great value to, assuming that you could find the appropriate partners.
Jim Fried: Well, listen that’s you know, you outed me because that’s what I’ve been doing with our firm for 25, 30 years being the director in investments for our Family Office if you will. When I go out all the time and do what I call, “make dates” with the operating partners because it’s not easy. The family has a personality, the partner has a personality, and you need to work through all those individual issues and very quietly, secretive way.
Thomas Handler: Absolutely.I think the extent that you’ve been doing that long you should now be skiing behind the aircraft carrier. It’s not easy, but all the trends are moving in that direction and although it’s now primarily Europe and North America. I think South America and Asia will be not far behind.
Jim Fried: Yeah, it is. We’ve only got a couple of minutes left. It is. The biggest difficultly we have is finding good trends actions with good people. I mean, you could have a good deal, but a bad person can spoil it, so we do a lot of upfront due diligence on the people. You know, Tom we talked about you being in Chicago but you have offices in other places. I’d like you to just tell. We’ve got about a minute left. How people can find you? Learn about your other points in your outlook and really protect themselves with the solutions you guys offer.
Thomas Handler: Thank you, Jim. Well, first off my firm Handler’s Thayer has a website and a lot of our public locations are available on the website and we also list our speaking engagement and so for presentation that we have given will make the PowerPoints available. If there’s memos or articles of interested will provide those people if they just send us an email. The Family Office outlook for 2015 as soon as it is released and published and again that’s from a week to 10 days. That would be available on our website as well. It’s simply download it and have the full text of our findings. We have an office in Washington D.C. and in Boca Raton and our clients are nationwide, worldwide for that matter, but we try to post things that we think be a value on our website and people could track it down there.
Jim Fried: Well, Tom thanks so much for being part of the show. I’m going to have to say at this way at on a regular basis now. Thanks for sending us Andrew Morton. Obviously a smarter, more personable guy than you and…
Thomas Handler: Can’t win ’em all.
Jim Fried: And I look forward to seeing you next week at the UF Conference. Will be broadcasting live. Maybe you can pick up a couple more pointers and give us those at the conference, but looking forward to it as always. Thanks Tom Thayer. Listen to me. Tom Handler Thayer. I need to go get some more Diet Coke. Will be right back after this short break. Thanks again Tom.
Thomas Handler: Thanks Jim.
Jim Fried: Alright.
[Commercial break]
Jim Fried: I’m happy. The reason I’m happy is because I got my car at Warren Henry. You better get happy too. You know, because when you’re looking to buy or lease a car you want to get every advantage that you can. That’s why you have to check out Warren Henry Land Rover, Range Rover,and Infinity, Jaguar. There all exceptional cars. They all come with the Warren Henry Advantage and hell I want to give a high five to Larry he couldn’t make it today. He’s a little bit under the weather, but he wanted to tell me that he thought that the Heat trade was awesome and I agree with them. That means complimentary dent repair, key replacement, first service, and a personal assistant. You can call for anything, anytime for four years. Always the best price. Always the best service. Always Warren Henry!
[Commercial break]
Jim Fried: You know me as a high power executive I demand the best from my health and I know you do too. So you need to go like I do to UHealth and get a UHealth Executive Physical. From the moment you schedule an appointment you can expect unparalleled medical care and customer service from a personal concierge that will guide you through your visit to customized preventive health care plan to keep you feeling your best. For any follow up care you have direct access to the University of Miami renowned programs of cardiology, sports medicine, and more. Trust UHealth to take care of you. So you can take care of business. To schedule your executive physical call 305-243-2738. I’m going to go slow again for the Jets fans 305-243-2738.
[Commercial break]
Female Announcer: This is the Wall Street Business Network.
Announcer: Florida’s only business radio station. 880AM The Biz. You’re listening to Fried on Business. To talk to Jim and his guests call 305-541-2350. That’s 305-541-2350. Now back you your host Jim Fried.
Jim Fried: Alright.We are back. We are back and it’s time to do our UHealth read. You know the University of Miami health system, that’s UHealth they bring you the brightest minds and the best care right here in South Florida and UHealth is big. It includes more than 300 specialized doctors. Dozens of locations from Miami to Palm Beach Gardens and of course, UHealth is in plantation with sets UHealth apart as a comprehensive approach they bring to health care. You might have several doctors for a couple of different health issues, but you ever talk to each to cross reference your symptoms and medications to make sure your care is second to none. Well, hey at UHealth they do just that. More than collaborative care, UHealth is power by the University of Miami’s Miller School of Medicine where research and clinical trials bring state of the art treatments to our community. You know these are some of best training hospitals in the country. UHealth includes best Paul Marion’s Institute. Rank number 1, number 1 by US News and World Report for 11 years in a row and it also includes the world renowned Sylvester comprehensive cancer care center. You want to stick around because we’re going to talk to one of their top docs. Right after this about how to prevent lung cancer. You know you can learn more about UHealth through the UHealth Discovery series. It’s online now at UHealthdiscovery.com. So discover how breakthroughs medicine from UHealth can work for you call 305-243-4000 or visit UHealthdiscovery.com to learn more today.
Jim Fried: Alright. We’ve got one of UHealth’s super smart doctors with us today. We’ve got Doctor Richard Thurer. We’re going to discuss the advances in lung cancer detection long thought to be a death sentence, now advances in early detection are helping many people beat lung cancer. If you got a love one who has been or is a smoker you better get them close to the radio right now. Doctor Thurer welcome back to the show.
Dr. Richard Thurer: Very good to be here. Thank you.
Jim Fried: Now, we’ve heard on the show now that there could be some x-rays if you could get it, regular x-ray that can really help id early lung cancer and that’s a really big part of the detection. What else is going on these days over there?
Dr. Richard Thurer: Well, I actually Jim, x-rays themselves routing chest x-ray has not been shown to be of any benefit in lung cancer detection.
Jim Fried: Oh!
Dr. Richard Thurer: What is a benefit is low dose CT scans screening.
Jim Fried: Hold on. We dropped off their…Hold on we had a problem. So it’s low dose cat scan?
Dr. Richard Thurer: CT scan.
Jim Fried: CT scan. I’m sorry. I got my devices mixed up.
Dr. Richard Thurer: Right. But this has been a real advance in 2011 and the results of a randomized clinical trial of at risk individuals, at risk for lung cancer. A randomized to receive an early CT scan or actually a chest x-ray and the chest x-ray was found that to be ineffective, but the CT scan was found to be effective and reduce the lung cancer mortality in the screened group by 20%.
Jim Fried: Wow!
Dr. Richard Thurer: Which is quite substantial.
Jim Fried: Well, that’s sounds terrific. Well, so that’s a breakthrough. Are there some research things that are coming up? Some drug improvements. Things like that help people to have a better quality of life during the treatment?
Dr. Richard Thurer: Well, the lung cancer screening program is designed to detect lung cancers at a very early stage. When they are manageable to surgical treatment with high likely to success. There have been advances with the development of quite a number of new drugs over the past 4 or 5 years. Targeting specific genetic abnormalities within the cancer cell themselves. These treatments are generally directed toward people with more advanced disease and they have been quite successful in many patients and prolonging their survival with good quality of life. This is a different group of patients, obviously than the ones detected at an early detection programs using CT screening.
Jim Fried: Now, If somebody wants to get a CT screening can they go anywhere or should they go to a place that’s got the right, I got to say, I think it’s radiologist to help them out and read this thing or what should people do?
Dr. Richard Thurer: They really need to go to an experience center where the radiologist or expert at treating interpreting these scans where the technologist doing the scans are trained to use the lowest possible dose of radiation and achieving an adequate scan and where there’s a multidisciplinary group of radiologist, cardiac thoracic surgeons, pulmonaryologist, and medioncologist who will evaluate the patient and then decide what the best treatment is if an abnormality is detected. The problem is that many abnormalities are detected or many findings occur in CT scans which are not malignant tumors and if one overreacts to these and does a lot of necessary invasive testing, this is risky and on the one hand and no benefit on the other. So one needs an experienced team to evaluate the scans determine if any invasive, further invasive testing is necessary or whether simple follow up with repeat CT scans at a year or shorter intervals is appropriate.
Jim Fried: Wow! It sounds like you just describe the UHealth. Folks its Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer there.
Dr. Richard Thurer: Well, I think I have actually and we’ve although the results of this national lung screening trial became available in 2011. We’ve actually had experienced at the medical center in lung cancer screening dating back to about 2000. It’s taken all that time to develop the knowledge and provide the bases for the NLST screening trial that was reported in 2011. Which confirmed what we had long felt to be the case that’s CT scanning, CT screening is a benefit in early detection of lung cancer.
Jim Fried: Any I want to remind everybody that they recently had the right DCC to help with all the money raised goes to the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center. I’m sure that you can still go to that website and make a donation. I encourage you we did with our family and I know a lot of people did too. A lot of people participated. Doctor, what do you see on the horizon here? It sounds like there’s some exciting things that in protocols and some exciting things in medications.
Dr. Richard Thurer: Well, I think now that we have again, randomized trial that proves the efficiency of lung cancer screening. I think that needs now to be rolled out and made available to the general population. It’s one thing to have the knowledge that this is the benefit and another thing to the medical community to encourage patients who are at risk to have this scanning done. There are a number of favorable things that have happened recently, but I should point out the United States preventive services task force has endorsed lung cancer screening. What that means now that all of the insurance vehicles that have been approved by the Affordable Care Act are now obliged to offer lung cancer screening to appropriate individuals without any co-pays.
Jim Fried: Wow!
Dr. Richard Thurer: In addition, very recently Medicare has also endorsed lung cancer screening so that Medicare beneficiary’s who have fallen into the high risk group as Medicare determined to be. Also can receive CT screenings, CT lung cancer screening that will be paid for by Medicare. That group of individuals is between 55 and 77 years of age have had what we call 30 pack a year smoking history that is, they have smoked one pack a day for 30 years or two pack a day for 15 years as an example. They also had to have quit smoking within the past 15 years or be current smokers.
Jim Fried: Well, We’ll talk after. We only got a minute left. How do people get to you to get this screening and what does it cost if they don’t have those insurances?
Dr. Richard Thurer: Well, the Sylvester is offering individuals or paying out of pocket for $149, but again most insurance companies now if one falls into the high risk group are paying for the scan.
Jim Fried: Man, did you hear that, Larry? You could get a scan now. I’m just talking to one of the guys here.
Dr. Richard Thurer: The best way to arrange for this scan is to call Marie Charles who is a nurse coordinator for the program. Her number is 305-243-9069. That’s 305-243-9069. The scans can be done either at the main medical campus and the Civic Center area or in our satellite facilities in Deerfield Beach Plantation or in Kendall.
Jim Fried: Well, doctor.
Dr. Richard Thurer: Wherever side that’s done the same group of dedicated radiologists and multidisciplinary team will review the scan.
Jim Fried: You know that’s terrific. I want to thank you for bringing this service to our community. I hope that everybody’s listening to take advantage to this and please nobody should be dying of lung cancer on our watch. Doctor thank you so much for coming and speaking with us today.
Dr. Richard Thurer: Thank you very much for the opportunity. I appreciate it.
Jim Fried: It’s my absolute pleasure. Will be right back after this. He’s coming in and he’s sitting down. He’s Kevin Gale, editor and chief South Florida Business and Wealth Magazine. We’re going to talk about what he’s sees happening. Here in South Florida. Back after this.
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[Commercial break]
Announcer: South Florida’s only business radio station.
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Announcer: 880AM The Biz. You’re listening to Fried on Business. To talk to Jim and his guests call 305-541-2350. That’s 305-541-2350. Now back to your host Jim Fried.
Jim Fried: Alright. Before we get rolling I want to give a shout out to Jason. Jason texted me earlier. Stay safe on I-95. Jason. That was Kevin Gale clearing his voice before we get started and I also want to give a shout out to Trevor. Trevor texted me and called me from DC, Trevor thanks for listening to this show. Okay, we have got Kevin Gale. His voice is ready to go. His throat is clear. You need some water, Kevin? I got some water here for you.
Kevin Gale: I think I can manage.
Jim Fried: Alright. Kevin is the Editor-in-Chief and a publisher for South Florida Business and Wealth Magazine. We’ve got a relationship with them. He comes on this show. I write a column working out… My goodness your fingers are way too fat Dee. Anyway, Kevin is going to talk about what he’s got in this months South Florida Business and Wealth Magazine. Kevin what’s your lead here?
Kevin Gale: Well, our lead is Cuba.
Jim Fried: Hold on. Your lead is what?
Kevin Gale: Cuba.
Jim Fried: Okay.
Kevin Gale: Cuba.
Jim Fried: Cuba. Libre.
Kevin Gale: Do you have mojitos? I’m ready for a mojito.
Jim Fried: Okay. Well, listen actually right after this lets go. We can go over around the corner. There’s a great place I know. But let’s talk a little about Cuba. You got the thing here is Barack Obama is being surrounded by sharks it looks like with a leaky boat and tell what’s going on here?
Kevin Gale: Well, we had a little fun, you know cartoons have been a little controversial in Paris.
Jim Fried: Yeah, I hope nobody gets killed over this.
Kevin Gale: So this is a little bit of our tribute to Charlie Hebdo which did some provocative political commentary, so we have President Obama in a Cuban rafter boat that says, “USS Embargo” and it’s sinking because it’s President Obama wants to sink the Embargo, so we have the double piece flying into the boat which is maybe a positive sign and then we have some sharks that are circling which you might interpret as congress, maybe not much wanting to go along this his plans. The story insight is we’re trying to take a really hard nose to look at the prospects of doing business in Cuba. I think there is a bit of euphoria, maybe some anger when he initially said we’d use the restrictions.
Jim Fried: Let’s just say there was a motion.
Kevin Gale: There was a motion. There you go. So interesting thing I started with some stats on Cuba. So just to put in perspective South Florida’s GDP is 283 billion dollars. Pretty good amount. The entire whole of Cuba is 121 billion, so their two fifths the size of the South Florida economy, so one part of me says, “If you’re really looking for economic opportunity maybe look at Hialeah or Fort Lauderdale or West Palm Beach, maybe not so much in Cuba.” It’s a very poor country in many ways.
Jim Fried: Yeah, I think that most people who are looking at the interface to the water and the sand and thinking that’s it. They’re looking at the pastel colored pictures of downtown Cuba, but I don’t really think that they understand about visiting the place where there’s no good infrastructure.
Kevin Gale: Infrastructure, you know if they had the capital to buy some infrastructure that be a beautiful thing. They don’t. You know there’s I think some opportunity there, but who’s your business partner there? Is it a business? Is it a business that’s perhaps owned by the Cuban Army. Is that anybody who you want to have for your business partner? That’s not to say that some people might work things out, but will see.
Jim Fried: Yeah. All I want to know is I want to make sure that my father-in-law and mother-in-law can cash in and get what they deserve because those people threw them right out they’re a bunch of dirt bags those people over in Cuba. Not my mother-in-law and my father-in-law. I love them very much. They’re beautiful people.
Kevin Gale: If we normalize the relationships all these, all the people had their property expropriated are going to be trying to get that back, so that is potentially a legal morals if you invest in property over there.
Jim Fried: Well, they’re be a claim process for sure. I’m sure there is going to be something going on. Of course we invest in real estate all the time and we make it a policy never to invest in foreign countries because we like to know the game plan. No I know you did a great article here about Apollo Bank. Tell me a little bit about that because Apollo Bank is a community bank, community bank is really what drives our economy focusing on small business growth and entrepreneurship and it seems like Eddie Ariola has got his bank hidden in the right direction.
Kevin Gale: Yeah. Eddie’s doing really good. Very talkative guy. Comes from a very famous Miami family. Just saw him today with a meeting with some other banks which will happen in an upcoming issue of SFBW and Eddie had intel and really got a taste for banking. Got involved with Total Bank through a friendship with Adrian Narshed.
Jim Fried: Sure.
Kevin Gale: He was going to start a bank from scratch and last few years hasn’t been a great time do to that.He’s been able to grow Apollo Bank and it’s targeting the small business market in South Florida.
Jim Fried: You know we had Tom Handler on from Handler Thayer because we’re focusing on Wealth Management earlier in the show and then you do the same thing here in your magazine. Tell me a little bit about Hedge Funds and what you found out.
Kevin Gale: Well, I become friends with Thalius Hecksher and he’s head of the Hedge Fund Association of South Florida and he’s the leader of Baypics Funding which is sort of back office service for Hedge Funds down here and he’s been a great proponent of companies relocating to South Florida and there’s a big push to get Hedge Funds and other financials services companies to come down here the DTA for example, Miami has been pushing that. We’re actually seeing some traction. I wouldn’t say it’s a flood, but when you look at the quality of life down here. The cost compared to New York, the lack of city taxes, state income taxes, and the way technology is, why not be in South Florida
Jim Fried: I got to figure that these kind of firms they can get together by themselves a nice G5 and bring the people back and fourth if that’s what really took.
Kevin Gale: Amen.
Jim Fried: Now, what other good stuff do you have. I know you got a lot of columns other than my fabulous column. What do you like here in this weeks, in this months issue?
Kevin Gale: Well, since you are a real estate guy you might of appreciate our story on BBX Capital.
Jim Fried: Oh for sure. I love those guys.
Kevin Gale: You know. Allan Lavan had a tough time at Bank Atlantic when the economy really went south and hit a lot of banks, not just Bank Atlantic, of course. But in retrospect what I think was a great deal with BBNT, so they took these assets that the regulators looked at with a hairy eyeball when they buy Bank Atlantic and they’ve done a great job of improving the quality of those assets. They’ve been very creative and I think the figure in the story is 200 million dollars assets they’re sitting on and they hardly have any loan left to pay back to BBNT on that. They’re doing some nice infill projects, reorganization type projects doing some acquisitions now and it’s not just the old portfolio?
Jim Fried: You know and I’ve known Seth for years. He’s just one of the nicest guys you will ever want to meet. I love doing business with Seth. I think that BBX is just, I’m so thrilled that they came though the eye in the needle and they’re going to come back strong. Let’s see. What else do you like this month in the magazine?
Kevin Gale: Well, it’s exciting that we have the WGC World Golf Championship coming to Doral.
Jim Fried: Oh, that’s awesome. Even without Tiger. Who cares.
Kevin Gale: I had the opportunity to go up there and see the inauguration of the red course and…
Jim Fried: Donald Trump dropped his lawsuit against the city of Doral for the record.
Kevin Gale: Already?
Jim Fried: That hit the paper.
Kevin Gale: Okay.
Jim Fried: That hit the wire about five minutes ago.
Kevin Gale: So one of the most interesting things there is it was just before Mrs. Universe, so imagine you’re standing in the little audience there and all of a sudden you’re surrounding by every Mrs. Universe contestant. I was pretty cool.
Jim Fried: Well, I’m married my Mrs. Universe.
Kevin Gale: I know that.
Jim Fried: Now that’s for sure. Now you talk about cutting edge technology in health care. Tell me a little bit about that.
Kevin Gale: It’s interesting a lot the hospitals down here are really investing a lot and MRI’s and really cutting edge things where you can actually do MRI’s and CRT scans and things like that while you’re in the operating room.
Jim Fried: I want to thank you. We’ve only got a minute left and wanted to make sure we got it as much as we could. Obviously, I want to thank our sponsor starting with South Florida Business and Wealth Magazine. There are key components to what we do on this show. I want to thank Kind Snacks, Terek Maddox, UHealth. I want to thank Tom Handler for being on the show today. Of course, UHealth, Miami Marlins heading to take BP. Lauren’s Kids. I want to thank all of our listeners because without you the show wouldn’t be possible. I want to thank the Miami Dolphins, the Aztec Group, and next week will be broadcasting live from the UF Center for Real Estate Studies Conference. Follow me on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, if you missed today’s show it’ll be on our website www.friedonbusiness.com. This is Jim Fried for Fried on Business. Like I said next Thursday at six will be broadcasting live from the UF Center of Real Estate Conference. Remember this is not a rehearsal. This is your life. The person that wants to do something will finds a way. The other finds an excuse. Now go out there and make it happen. I’m on my way to play ball.
