FOLLOW THE SMART MONEY IN A LESS CROWDED TRADE

I moved here 2019 from NYC – having decided to change my life and leave the rat race…and moved to Palm Beach County.  I have never been happier.  The quality of life is so much different, and you don’t even realize it until you pull the plug and do it.  The idea that Florida is a place to go to die – could NOT be further from the truth.    Post the tax reform package – the migration of PE, HF, Family offices and boutique investment banks/advisor to South Florida has been amazing.  The quality of opportunity and exposure to big business within the financial services sector has been nothing short of amazing.  The networking opportunities are far different than the opportunities in NYC, in fact – Floridians are much more willing than many think to engage with and help create new opportunities and relationships that have helped to propel Southern Florida as a new land of opportunity.  The move to Florida has been nothing short of ‘great’.  I should have done it 20 years ago. 

I moved here 2019 from NYC – having decided to change my life and leave the rat race…and moved to Palm Beach County.  I have never been happier.  The quality of life is so much different, and you don’t even realize it until you pull the plug and do it.  The idea that Florida is a place to go to die – could NOT be further from the truth.    Post the tax reform package – the migration of PE, HF, Family offices and boutique investment banks/advisor to South Florida has been amazing.  The quality of opportunity and exposure to big business within the financial services sector has been nothing short of amazing.  The networking opportunities are far different than the opportunities in NYC, in fact – Floridians are much more willing than many think to engage with and help create new opportunities and relationships that have helped to propel Southern Florida as a new land of opportunity.  The move to Florida has been nothing short of ‘great’.  I should have done it 20 years ago. 

South Florida has become a great hub for leading hedge funds and international capital. Since moving to South Florida over 20 years ago, I have witnessed firsthand how the quality of the analyst community has boomed with more prominent money managers, family offices and hedge funds relocating.  A strong US dollar also continues to attract international capital to South Florida, frustrated by weak currencies and negative interest rates.  As a result, South Florida is expected to continue to grow as a major hub for international capital and financial expertise.”

After having spent 30 years in Manhattan, many of those years on "Wall Street" I decided to go with Thalius' advice and to relocate to South Florida.  I've never regretted it once. I visited the Miami area. Loved the calming effect of the weather and the sea. As much as I loved it, I was afraid of being out of the loop. Missing a trade. And then, Thalius invited me to one of his networking events. Bam!!! I met allocators and investors from around the world.  Business is brisk here. There's a rapidly growing financial community. Thalius has his hand directly on the pulse.  The tax structure, what more could you want.

The move to South Florida has been all I ever wanted it to be in respect of business, life and family. I was attracted to the Sunshine State by the ability to trade my fund generating profits and enjoying the knowledge that I would be not paying any State taxes. Following the highly publicized exodus of hedge funds from the north east, the receiving business community is well versed with funds and the infrastructure is firmly in place to accommodate new arrivals like I was in 2019. The amount of like minded fund managers I have met through NexGen360 and their fantastic numerous networking events has been a very pleasant surprise and I would equate the quality of funds, in respect of managers, entrepreneurial spirit and success with any of the global financial centers I have operated in. “Work in the cloud and live in the sun” is most definitely a very appropriate phrase for the South Florida fund community life. Wouldn't I change it and go back to where I was trading from before? Absolutely not!!

I moved to Miami in 2015 after considering many other locations in the US and Europe. Miami has a set of advantages that make it stand out as a great place to do business: 1) Hub airport with easy connections (mostly direct) to major world centers 2) A great business community, especially if you are in finance 3) Great and stable weather (never mind the hurricanes!) 4) Decent tax rates and cost of living 5) Excellent environment for both singles and families - very easy to adjust to Never, for a minute, did I regret my decision! NexGen360 a Hecksher Partners has been one of the pillars of my business since day one. Their group of specialists is second to none and the "human" way they do business sets them aside from the mostly automatic competition. Highly recommend!

Post-graduation, I was searching for meaningful work in the financial services industry. I was having a hard time finding a “foot in the door” opportunity in Canada, and had reached out to hundreds of firms over the course of a year. After a happy typo, I found a startup located in Miami, FL and thought ‘what the heck, It doesn’t hurt to reach out’. After several interview rounds with the partners, and conversations with immigration attorney’s I found myself on a plane with two bags only 3 weeks later. The environment in South Florida is extremely strong for entrepreneurial endeavors for many reasons (taxes, culture, proximity to Latin America and Europe etc). 5 years later, and I am still here and enjoy every day whether its filled with meaningful work, starting new businesses or boats and beaches