Anthony Rivieccio, founder and CEO of The Financial Advisors Group, a local, online business celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, confirmed on June 30 that 65 percent of the group is being sold to outside investors. At the same time, Rivieccio has launched a new financial business, Rivieccio Financial Advisors.

 

Describing the former business as a fee-only, financial-planning firm, specializing in solving clients’ financial problems, Rivieccio said he first got into the finance world on July 1, 1991, when he became a licensed broker and entered what he called the whacky world of Wall Street. “In those days, it was a dangerous world for consumers,” he said, describing the then Wall Street as an industry sector comprising stock salesmen who were working on commission-based sales pitches, and who were, therefore, not on any salary and “did not care” about clients’ short or long-term goals.

 

By 1996, he had moved into investment planning at JP Morgan Chase. “I wanted to help people regarding all of their personal finance,” he said. As the industry changed, and became more regulated, Rivieccio created The Financial Advisors Group in 1996 with three other partners. He said 25 years later, the business has morphed to an online business, serving clients outside both the borough and the country.

 

“Our latest fiscal year, ending June 30, 2021, shows some good numbers,” he said. “Client services has been increasing 20 percent a year, our Investment Management division has been pumping at 22 percent a year, client turnover has been a bit rough at 15 percent a year – bottom line, after 25 years in business, we are a fully based cashflow firm.” He said although the business is not booming, it is standing tall.

 

Rivieccio, who is also the founder of the local political organization, Northwest Bronx Democrats, is still a member of the board of The Financial Advisors Group, but said he is no longer the majority CEO. “New management will be concentrating on investment management, through their custodian partner since 1997, The Vanguard Group, one of the largest, low-cost mutual fund providers in the world. I will, of course, still retain 35 percent ownership,” he said.

 

Since July 1, Rivieccio is now the full owner and CEO of a private, virtual family office, Rivieccio Financial Advisors, the focus of which he said is to assist anyone, virtually, with the tenets of personal finance and advice, whether it’s assisting with budgeting, debt, taxes, investment, insurance, retirement or estates and wills.