Stuart S. Rohatiner With Gerson Preston

Intro: [00:00:01] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX Studios in South Florida. It’s time for South Florida Business Radio.

[00:00:08] Now, here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:14] Lee Kantor here another episode of South Florida Business Radio, and this is going to be a good one. But before we get started, it’s important to recognize our sponsor, Diaz Trade Law, your customs expert today on South Florida Business Radio, we have Stuart Rohatiner, and he is with Gerson, Preston Klein, Lipps, Eisenberg and Gelber, accounting firm. Welcome.

Stuart Rohatiner: [00:00:38] Thank you for having me today, Lee.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:39] Well, before we get too far into things, tell us about your firm. How are you serving folks?

Stuart Rohatiner: [00:00:44] So the name of our firm is Gersten, Preston Klein, Lipps, Eisenberg, Gelber, PR, And we’re really a very strong regional South Florida firm. We cover the whole state of Florida, and now we do a lot of international and also throughout the states. But the firm was started by Gary Gerson back in the late 50 seconds, and it’s a very entrepreneurial type firm with a lot of people who have a broad based experience from, you know, the big eight to the big four to other industries. And the goal is really be a problem solver. We do a lot of compliance, but we also do a lot of tax problems and solving. And it’s to be sort of with an entrepreneurial spirit act and understand our customers and give them great service.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:31] Now, do you have a niche that you serve?

Stuart Rohatiner: [00:01:33] I work in the real estate, high net worth sports and entertainment, athletes and international.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:41] So that’s what you do. But as a firm, is it pretty industry agnostic or do you kind of have some niches?

Stuart Rohatiner: [00:01:48] You know, we do some stuff in the aircraft industry for a lot of entrepreneurs a ton, a lot of real estate, and the firm is starting to expand into all the new stuff digital assets, crypto nfts, which you know, is a hot area, things along those lines. But basically we try to help entrepreneurs with I’d say the bread and butter of the firm is sort of high net worth individuals. Somebody has a business, they own some real estate, maybe they have a few trusts, and we try to, you know, make sure they’re in full compliance and answer their questions and help them. The other thing is the firm’s grown dramatically, which I think sort of mimics South Florida with the huge influx of international individuals the last 15, 20 years. So almost it’s like that eclipses almost everything in the sense that in some deal that we have or client, there’s an international partner, international owner. And now with the great influx of people from the Northeast, New York and even the West California, Illinois. So we’re doing a lot of state stuff. So it’s really an exciting time to be a CPA in South Florida.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:57] Now, are you finding that young people are approaching entrepreneur entrepreneurism or being an entrepreneur as a career path more today than they had been in the past?

Stuart Rohatiner: [00:03:09] Yeah, I think so. And I think that’s for a few reasons. I think some of the kids, though I, as I mentioned, are we’ve discussed I teach high school financial literacy in the high schools, and I think it’s a combination of a few things in the sense that if they’re old enough or they went through with their parents, you had the all the foreclosures in the 80s and in the late in the early 2000. Right. So I think a lot of kids maybe feel a little burnt or upset of what their parents went through. And then fast forward, you have COVID, which sort of provided where certain resources are if you were in the right place or had the money, you were okay. But if you didn’t have a skill set to be entrepreneurial or, you know, to use the Internet or all that, all that stuff, again, you were if you were on the wrong side of the sort of the dividing line, that wasn’t good. So I think, um, and then you’re at and then everybody sees all the great success in the Internet companies. And so I think a lot of young individuals, they want to have what they feel or perceive is to have more control of their life. And the reality is, with technology today, you could really start a business from anywhere and create a product. You just get followers or get enough leads and on LinkedIn or on Twitter or any of the other stuff, and you could start a business. So that’s interesting.

Lee Kantor: [00:04:34] Now, with that kind of desire aspiration to be an entrepreneur or business owner, are they coming to the table with kind of the foundational financial literacy skills that they need at a young age?

Stuart Rohatiner: [00:04:47] So that’s a great question. And he from my end, really. I teach financial literacy in the high schools and we can go into that. Just a little background. Bunch of years ago, you know, ten, eight, ten years ago, I asked my daughter, what do you think I should teach? They want me to go help in some of the high schools. And she said, you should teach about financial literacy. That’s what kids want to know. They want to know about taxes, how to start a business. So as opposed to I could speak to anything. I took her advice and it’s just been a great success. And I, um, I find what happens is the kids are just really interested. You know, we do these classes and for the better part of an hour and a half, two hours, they’re just plugged in and bring some guests we could talk about. But that’s really an area they’re interested in. So we try to gear it up towards entrepreneurship, you know, and go what it takes to raise capital or how to start a small business plan, how to read financial statements, how much money you might need. So we sort of cover all those things. So when Yeah, yeah.

Lee Kantor: [00:05:48] When you’re teaching a young person about kind of the math of business, how do you kind of balance the necessity to teach them kind of these foundational elements, but without kind of crushing the dream to make it seem impossible? Because, you know, a lot of times the math doesn’t look that great. You know, a lot of times the startup has math that, you know, they’re assuming a best case scenario. They’re not assuming kind of a median case scenario or a worst case scenario.

Stuart Rohatiner: [00:06:22] Right. That’s interesting. That’s a great question. Um, so the teacher I work with at Alonzo and Tracy Mourning, Senior High School, he sort of he, you know, he takes the approach. It’s okay to, um, give some of the students some of the hard facts or throw some cold water on them. So I think, you know, before we even get to say the entrepreneurship or reading a financial statement, we really try to get into budgeting and give students an idea after they leave high school, you know, what their costs would be potentially and going to college or going out on their own. And, you know, what I try to do is make it into a few things just to bring in. So when we do these classes, I’ll try to bring in an athlete or a few other professionals that, you know, have specific industry experience and that usually gets the students attention. And then we try to make it interactive so they’re plugged in and can discuss some of that. But um, you know, so we start with the idea that you have to come up with a budget or have some sense of what reality is post-high school, and we’ll get the kids to say, How much do you think the rent is or how much is it to rent a car, to have a car and car insurance? And then hopefully, you know, like you said, the tough thing is you have to have a good job and then pay your expenses and you have to make room for taxes. But we try to get them in the position that if they’re aware of these things, maybe in 3 or 5 years between some savings and maybe some family loans or whatever that is, that they can get going and get started or home ownership. But, you know, so we try to give them some hard reality at first. But you raise a great point that it’s never a always rosy and it’s a tough road, but not not only you have to have a good idea, but you have to execute.

Lee Kantor: [00:08:10] Now, I remember when I was younger, I had the opportunity to learn from somebody who was teaching. Similarly that, as you were describing, were they they kind of listed out, okay, if you want to live in, you know, where do you where do you want to live? And you could pick whatever city you wanted. And then they’re like, okay, go. And then at that time, it was newspapers go to the newspapers and start, you know, figuring out what things cost. You know, make some calls, find out what the, you know, how much is the average electric bill? How much is the average rent? How much is the average, you know, insurance. And you do that and all of a sudden you realize, you know, this is a bigger number than than I realized because, you know, there are kids and and most of their expenses are paid for.

Stuart Rohatiner: [00:08:57] Correct? You’re exactly right. I mean, right. That’s it’s something that you just have to you know, we’re just trying to lay out the facts or get them prepped. But you’re exactly right. But, you know, I try to preface it with some encouragement. If you come up with a plan and start to put some money away. And so. Right. The goal is you need to get a pretty decent job. So you need skill, a skill set to get that. But, you know, these are the hard facts. And if you could just come up with a savings plan, which is really hard, like you said, that maybe and you build some momentum and on some levels, you know, some ideas, you could almost don’t need as much money because of the Internet and how things are. But I don’t want it’s a it’s not an easy task, like you said, but at least from our perspective, um, we what you’re trying to do on the educational side is at least expose students or kids to, you know, these concepts or the, or balance sheet or the cost of living and try to be enthusiastic about it and say that there’s always a way to sort of overcome or solve a problem or, you know, maybe two things. I would just backtrack. Um, the Florida legislature last year finally passed a piece where every high school kid in the state of Florida has to graduate with at least taken this class or a financial literacy class. So that’s really good. And, you know, so and then I also try to tell them to go speak to mentors or people that have gone to or have overcome and started their own business. But I think you got to start with the facts and reality Now.

Lee Kantor: [00:10:39] Do you spend time on kind of the power of compounding? I think that that’s an area that young people especially don’t really understand. And they and they’re the ones who can benefit the most, even if they can get into a habit of saving a little bit on an automatic kind of way if they have the right systems in place to put aside even, you know, just a few dollars just to get them in the habit of, you know, kind of the savers mentality.

Stuart Rohatiner: [00:11:08] It’s a it’s a great idea and great point. And yeah, that’s what we try to do. We do have somebody, you know, in the banking world will come in and show the power of compounding even on the debt side when you owe debt and the interest on that and the interest in interest or credit cards. But on the other side, like you said, we just really try to say, you know what, put 5% away, put 7% away, whatever it is, 3% just do it, create that habit. The interesting thing is, I think once you get used to that, then you figure out a way to make more money. And so a lot of stuff also with financial literacy is almost behavioral science, right? We could have the greatest ideas, but if we don’t act and so like, as you said, just to start small and do something is better than doing nothing.

Lee Kantor: [00:11:53] Well well, I would think that young people would at least intellectually understand the idea of, look, I pay a monthly cell phone bill or somebody does, or we have a monthly Netflix bill or somebody in the family does. And if we can take use that power of automation and use it for for our good and our, you know, to help our future us down the road. That effort, especially in the teenage years, is going to pay tremendous dividends down the road, even if they’re saving just a few dollars a month, if they’re getting the habit of, okay, I’m going to save just a few dollars and I’ll just incrementally as I make more, I’ll throw more into that bucket. I mean, that that’s where kind of you have an opportunity to create generational wealth, you know, pretty much no matter what path you decide from a career standpoint, if you do this correctly.

Stuart Rohatiner: [00:12:47] I think you’re spot on. That’s a great point. I agree 100%.

Lee Kantor: [00:12:52] So now, ah, when you’re kind of open their the kids eyes to this stuff, is this something that they’re kind of hungry for or is it something that they get kind of glazed eyes over, you know, like another, Oh, great. Somebody else is just trying to tell me, you know, what to do.

Stuart Rohatiner: [00:13:11] It’s a good question. You know, the. Teacher that we work with at Alonzo and Tracy Mourning Senior High School, is very into having guest speakers. So I think, you know, sometimes we’ll bring in an athlete, ex athlete or current athlete, maybe somebody who manages money on different areas. We brought in a WNBA sports agent and I think that gets their attention and I think they’re really hungry for it because, you know, to them and I think for all of us, having the ability to control our finances is empowerment, right? We want to we feel like, you know, one, we have freedom and we can make our own choices. We don’t have to rely on anybody else. And, you know, there’s a million situations as an adult as you get older. I also try to explain sometimes early in life you struggle or, you know, you’re not making a lot. So the better your finances are, the easier it is to withstand tough times or maybe avoid a divorce or the stress situations when you’re a young person starting out. So I think they’re really hungry for it because it represents freedom, the ability almost like back maybe when I was growing up having a car. So, um, and they’re very much interested in all the new stuff, the crypto, the NFT. I mean, they’re just of an age where I think they’re sort of sieves and just want to know as much as possible.

Lee Kantor: [00:14:36] Right? And I mean, that’s kind of a double edged sword because there’s a lot of snake oil being tossed around when it comes to those kind of subjects. And it’s hard to know who you can trust and who’s, you know, kind of watching your back 100%.

Stuart Rohatiner: [00:14:50] You’re exactly right. And sometimes, you know, when we teach, we try to we’ll make it interactive, you know, as an example, maybe, um, we’ll split the class into three, and one third of the class will represent a blue chip or an older type stock, and middle of the class represent them, middle of the road stock and then a startup. And you know, we try to just go through some of those that, you know, the pros and cons or what each one of those stocks might represent or if we do budgets, I let them do the budget, you know, and see how they do against the mean. And actually in a next week or a few weeks, we’re going to do one where we’re going to use Chatgpt and see how it does against the professionals and maybe feed in like 10 or 15 questions that are most on the mind of high school students and see what the the AI says versus the professionals.

Lee Kantor: [00:15:48] Now, are you finding even at the high school age that there are a handful of kids that are kind of experimenting, that are doing, you know, some sort of Amazon arbitrage or they have some, you know, running Google ads or or Facebook ads that are trying to do some digital create some digital wealth.

Stuart Rohatiner: [00:16:10] You know, I would say definitely maybe 5 or 10, ten, 15%. What’s interesting is, you know, as you know, we’re blessed to live in Miami, which is a city of a lot of immigrants or immigrant kids. And there’s a lot of really highly intelligent students in these high schools that maybe didn’t grow up in the United States. And, you know, they to them from where they’re coming from, the United States represents, you know, so much opportunity. And so there’s a few of them that are on that, you know, the top side of that same curve where they want to start their own business or they’re doing things or maybe, you know, they have a dad or a mom or a family friend who is willing to teach them and help them. But I agree there there are people that are running their own businesses. Yes.

Lee Kantor: [00:16:56] Now, are is there less kids that are, you know, mowing lawns and babysitting and doing kind of the things maybe we did as kids and are trying to leverage crypto and doing the more aggressive forward thinking things?

Stuart Rohatiner: [00:17:14] You know, I think so, yeah. The right everybody’s really plugged into the technology today and there’s not as much of like you said, the lawn business or stuff like that.

Lee Kantor: [00:17:29] Yeah, it’s crazy how in just the generation that I mean the change is dramatic and then you layer in all this AI and chatgpt, it’s you couldn’t even predict what’s going to happen in the next ten years.

Stuart Rohatiner: [00:17:42] Exactly. Um, somebody posted somewhere. There was an article that the teachers protested back in the 1980s or 90s that they didn’t want the students using their calculator in class. Right. And you know, so it’s hard, but. But you’re right. Who knows where where all this goes. And it’s I try, you know, from the side of from just a teaching standpoint, it’s not necessarily I’m going to tell you how it is or what you have to do. It’s really about I’m going to expose you and be enthusiastic about it, try to encourage you to get these skills right. Like in anything in life, you still have to spend the time whether you’re going to perfect study in stocks or opening a business, it’s still really on the individual. But all I’m hoping to do is to get them a little bit more excited and feel good about learning this stuff. That’ll give them some freedom and plus, you know, at the cost of college and everything else going on, you know, these are important tools that they know what they’re getting into. Or I remember when I was going there just to sign these loan papers, no problem. And I don’t think anybody takes the time to figure out what the potential cost. And, you know, there’s a whole thing going on now about should they be forgiven. And so it’s an interesting time. But even with all the good and bad, there’s always great opportunities in the US.

Lee Kantor: [00:19:02] Well, I think it’s great that Florida is kind of leaning into this financial literacy as a kind of mandatory. And I never understood why they just weren’t incorporating that into basic mathematics. I mean, all the components of financial literacy can easily be woven into just your basic math that you’re trying to teach kids.

Stuart Rohatiner: [00:19:23] I agree. I mean, I’m not into all the politics or anything, but maybe it was just a combination of a shortage of teachers or I think internally the teachers maybe felt like it was just another thing that they had to teach. So, um, maybe sometimes that’s why some of the teachers in the schools, like went outside professionals, you know, come in and are willing to help. And then you also, you know, the big thing is we know the University of Miami and you and all the great sports basketball teams we had down here. So now we have a whole generation of, um, young athletes who are getting paid for their name, image and likeness. And do they know how to do their taxes? Are they doing tax planning? So yeah, that all that stuff is really helpful. And, um, and you know, it’s amazing. And as you know, as you mentioned with the snake oil and then you read in the news and you always say, how is it possible there’s another, for lack of a better word, a madoff or a Ponzi scheme or this or that. And so, um, people who come into money or come into money quickly, athletes need to have a good team or trust around them and also be aware of some of the pitfalls of what can happen with your money.

Lee Kantor: [00:20:35] Right. And just and for a lot of these athletes, I think there’s a I don’t know if it’s still the same, but I remember a few years ago it was like the vast majority of professional athletes were filing bankruptcy at some point down the line, pretty much no matter how much money they were making in their career, which is it’s hard for a regular person to even fathom how that would be possible.

Stuart Rohatiner: [00:20:58] Correctly. Yeah. Yeah, no, you’re right. I know there’s a sports agent that I’ve worked with or just talked to. He won’t work with you unless you put away 50% of your money. Otherwise, he doesn’t want to. He’s not dealing with you. And so maybe that’s a little extreme, but he’s trying to help, you know, set up a pattern where you’re protected for life, right? That’s right. Too many of these athletes are their life span, right? There’s very few Shaquille O’Neal’s or Tom Brady’s or where, you know, you can come back from a bad investment or a rainy day.

Lee Kantor: [00:21:32] Right. And then and then they have kind of the foresight to to look ahead and to plan accordingly and prudently. And they’re not falling in the trap of some of these athletes that just kind of burn through the money with friends, family and bad, bad choices quickly.

Stuart Rohatiner: [00:21:51] Exactly right. You’re on the right path. And that’s why I’ll say it’s amazing, even with all the being a CPA and going to law school and all the knowledge and it’s still at the end of the day, right, with everything. A lot of it’s behavioral and being around the right people. Or you could teach all this stuff almost like we could show a client great estate planning or tax planning. They don’t want to do it, they’re not doing it. So I try to be aware that there’s also got to be some psychological, some behavioral science in this, right?

Lee Kantor: [00:22:19] Or they have a buddy who knows a buddy that just made a fortune doing this thing. And then that’s who they trust, you know, that has that person has their ear, correct?

Stuart Rohatiner: [00:22:29] Yeah, exactly.

Lee Kantor: [00:22:30] But yeah. So for you, what it sounds like you’re really passionate about this, serving the community and helping the youth. Is that something that surprised you, how much you would enjoy something like this or how much you’re getting into it?

Stuart Rohatiner: [00:22:46] Uh, maybe it wasn’t. But ten, 12 years ago, when we had a marketing coordinator, they asked me what I wanted to do. And I remember they said to me, you know, they need volunteer teachers. And she said, If you want to go to Aventura or Pine Crest, forget about it. They don’t need anybody. But if you want to go to like Overtown or Cooper’s, you know, one of the I think it was Edison High School. So I said, you know, I grew up in New York City. I’m happy to go. I’m not really scared of too much. And I think what was amazing is that when I did, I taught accounting, financial literacy, I taught profit and loss statements. And, you know, we looked at comparatively the greatest thing was to just see a young kid or student’s light face light up from that knowledge, you know, whether whatever business they could do and I’ve been going at this ever since. People have asked me to, you know, know that I enjoy doing it. And I think it’s just the you’re helping people with empowerment. You’re giving them important concepts. And, you know, it’s with all the technology and everything else, right? And to, um, whether we lived in a building in Brickell or I was just at a hotel in New York and the. The guy who is the valet recognizes you. It’s all about humanity, right? With all the technology, it’s still about the human connection. So I think that, um, joy that you see on kids faces makes it all worthwhile. Yeah. And.

Lee Kantor: [00:24:20] And and providing them this kind of foundational information, it’s going to be transferable to whatever they’re going to do. I mean, this information is stands the test of time. The things that you’re teaching them are things that are going to serve them throughout their whole lives. So it’s so important for them to get it young and early before they make some of these mistakes and and don’t know what they don’t know. You’re giving them kind of a roadmap to a successful financial future if they’re paying attention.

Stuart Rohatiner: [00:24:51] Exactly. And then one is they have personal fulfillment or feel better. It can maybe reach their goals or get to where they want to go. And is society on a whole level? You know, we all benefit when everybody does better or prospers, right? It’s just it’s it’s if you do better, I do better. We all do better together. So, yeah.

Lee Kantor: [00:25:11] The impact is real. I mean, you’re impacting them as individuals, but you could be impacting their family, their community. I mean, it ripples out from where it where it begins.

Stuart Rohatiner: [00:25:21] Exactly. You’d be surprised also at some of the athletes or their parents. Right. They almost want this education more sometimes. And so we try to sometimes do adult classes down at the Overtown Youth Center. And, you know, we’ve we’ve done it through out. But you’re exactly right. And then and then the interplay of high school kids and their parents. Right. How they communicate and sometimes money is taboo or no one wants to discuss it. So that’s a great thing. Sometimes trying to break down those barriers.

Lee Kantor: [00:25:51] Right. And give them an easy place to begin a conversation.

Stuart Rohatiner: [00:25:55] For sure. For sure. Yeah.

Lee Kantor: [00:25:56] So if somebody wants to learn more about this, this initiative that you’re working on, get ahold of you or somebody on the team or wants more information on Gersson Preston, what’s the website? What’s the best way to get ahold of you?

Stuart Rohatiner: [00:26:10] Um, you could send an email. It’s SR at GPC, Lg.com is my email and also our website I believe is gpc dot you know, w-w-w dot gpc.com.

Lee Kantor: [00:26:29] Good stuff. Well, Stuart, thank you so much for sharing your story today. You’re doing such important work and we appreciate, you.

Stuart Rohatiner: [00:26:35] Know, I appreciate you taking the time. Thanks for having me on the show and thanks for, you know, providing information and education to the individuals down in South Florida.

Lee Kantor: [00:26:47] You got it. All right. This Lee Kantor. We’ll see y’all next time on South Florida Business Radio.