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THE KNOWLEDGE OF WEALTH

Faculty

Joel M. DiCicco, Ph.D., CPA, PFS, CFF, ChE, CWM

Dr. DiCicco has more than 25 years of practitioner experience in the areas of finance, taxation and accounting.  While he gained much of his expertise in the valuation, tax treatment and structure of sophisticated financial instruments from his tenure with the IRS Financial Products Specialists division, his history includes work for the National Futures Association, Republic National Bank, and Security Pacific Merchant Bank. Currently, Dr. DiCicco is an adjunct Professor for Florida Atlantic University’s Executive MBA program and the Managing Partner at the DiCicco Financial Products Institute, LLC, providing training in all areas of finance, accounting, and economics. Additionally, he conducts certification programs for the American Academy of Financial Management, as well as preparation courses for both the Certified Financial Planner and Chartered Financial Analyst exams.

Dr. DiCicco was twice invited to speak before Senate Finance Committee staffers on hedge funds and other emerging financial products issues. He was the Lead Instructor for all levels of the IRS Financial Products and International Taxation courses and taught numerous seminars for the IRS on topics such as Embedded Options, International Accounting, and Hedge Funds.  In addition, he spoke in a variety of venues on a myriad of financial topics, including monetizations, financial synthetics, hedge funds, and fair value accounting, just to name a few. 

Dr. DiCicco earned his PhD in Public Administration at Florida Atlantic University with a concentration in public budgeting and finance and special emphasis on tax policy and structured financial products. He also holds a Master of Business Administration in Finance from Manhattan College and a Master of Science in Taxation from Florida International University.  He is a licensed Certified Public Accountant in the states of New York and Florida.  In addition, Dr. DiCicco is a Personal Financial Specialist and Certified in Financial Forensics by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. 

 

Martin E. Basson

Marty Basson is the Supervisory Attorney, Estate & Gift Taxes, for the South Florida Territory of the Internal Revenue Service.  He received his B.A. from Colgate University and his J.D. from St. John's University School of Law.  With the exception of serving as Assistant Tax Commissioner for the City of New York during the Koch Administration, Mr. Basson has worked for the IRS since 1974. Other positions he has held within the IRS include Supervisory Attorney (Estate and Gift), Manhattan District, and Senior Program Manager for both the Estate & Gift and the  Engineering & Valuation Programs in the North-Atlantic Regional Office. He has served as an Adjunct Professor of Law at the University of Miami Law School's LL.M. Program in Estate Planning since 1993, has been a faculty member of Nova Southeastern University's Planned Giving Program, and has lectured at numerous American Bar Association (ALI-ABA) sponsored seminars around the country.  Mr. Basson has seven times (1994, 1996, 1999, 2003, 2006, 2008 & 2009) been a faculty member at the Philip E. Heckerling Institute on Estate Planning, the nation's largest technical conference in the field of estate planning. He has been a presenter at the AICPA National Business Valuation Conference, a speaker at the AICPA Estate & Gift Technical Resource Panel, a lecturer at the Annual Conference of the National Association of Estate Planners & Councils (2006), and a panel member at the May 2008 ABA Real Property, Trusts and Estate Law (RPTE) Spring Symposia in Washington, D.C. Most recently, Mr. Basson was recognized by the Tax Section of the Florida Bar as the recipient of their “2008 Outstanding Public Service Award,” an award given to a government employee for achieving standards of excellence in working with members of the Florida Bar and their clients.  He was a charter member of the IRS Estate and Gift Tax National Advisory Panel, a select group of IRS attorneys who assist in the formulation of nationwide policy decisions in the Estate and Gift Tax area.  Mr. Basson lectures extensively on the subject of estate and gift taxes in South Florida.

Carlos Bastidas, CFOS

Mr. Bastidas is an expert in the field of financial derivative taxation, structured products, and alternative investments.  A former Internal Revenue Service Lead Financial Products Agent, Mr. Bastidas had over 25 years experience in examining highly complex financial instruments utilized by both major domestic and international organizations.  During his tenure at the Service, he has taught executives from both the IRS and other governmental agencies on various abusive transactions.  He had worked closely with the Office of Tax Shelter Analysis in advising them of mispriced transactions utilizing options, treasury notes, and credit default swaps.  In addition, Carlos Bastidas was actively involved with the money laundering task force.  Mr. Bastidas is an enthusiastic and passionate lecturer and has represented the US Government in the OECD/CIAT/IADB Taxation of Financial Market Activities in Mexico City. He has also prepared the Auditor’s Examining Manual for the Government of Panama to be utilized by their Revenue Agents.  Mr. Bastidas holds an accounting degree from Rutgers with a minor in economics and is a Chartered Family Office Specialist.

John L. Blattner  MBA, FAD

He is currently a Senior Revenue Agent with the Internal Revenue Service and former Vice President –Finance/Controller, has extensive experience working both public and private corporations. He has taught for Broward College, Nova Southeastern University and the Florida Institute of Finance, LLC in all areas of finance, taxation and accounting.  With over twenty years experience in the tax and financial fields, Mr. Blattner has a profound understanding of the most complex accounting and tax practices of the largest organizations where his specialty is in federal corporate taxation and consolidations. In the area of corporate finance, his specialty is in both Mergers and Acquisitions, Turnaround P&L management, business forecasting, and Regulatory Compliance. From the financial operations arena, Mr. Blattner has vast knowledge of cash management and financial planning practices. John Blattner has a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting from Rutgers University and a MBA in Finance/ Economics from University of Miami. 

 

Francis Brennan

Mr. Brennan is the President and a co-founder of Virtus Capital Management, LLC, the Partnership’s General Partner.  Mr. Brennan is the President of Brennan Financial Services, Inc., an independent financial firm specializing in asset management, estate planning, retirement planning, insurance, all phases of financial services, equity products and investment banking.  Mr. Brennan and his firm serve as wealth advisors to some of the country’s most affluent families and are known nationally for their efforts in the insurance and financial services industries.  Brennan Financial Services, Inc. is one of the oldest independent financial planning firms in Palm Beach County. Mr. Brennan holds a B.S. Degree from the State University of New York and a M.S. Degree from Indiana University.  He also attended Bucknell University as a National Science Foundation Grant recipient and was awarded a Graduate Fellowship at Indiana University.  Mr. Brennan is a Registered Financial Planner, a Certified Senior Advisor and an Investment Advisor Representative.  He holds a Series 7, 63, 65 Securities licenses and is a licensed Life and Health Insurance Advisor.

Renee M. Caputi

Renee M. Caputi:  Vice President, Premier International Wealth Management & Domestic Wealth Management Consultant, Upstate New York & California for HSBC Securities (USA). She holds an LLM in International Taxation & Wealth Management from Thomas Jefferson School of Law (Magna Cum Laude), a JD from SUNY Buffalo School of Law, an MBA from Queens University, a BS in Business Finance from SUNY College at Fredonia, and has also earned the professional credentials of Chartered Life Underwriter (CLU), Chartered Financial Consultant (ChFC), Chartered Advisor for Senior Living (CASL), Certified Financial Planner™ (CFP®), Chartered Wealth Manager (CWM), Chartered Trust and Estate Planner (CTEP), Certified Anti Money Laundering Consultant (CAMC) (earned with distinction), and Chartered Asset Protection Advisor (CAPA).

Renee has extensive experience designing and implementing corporate benefit, retirement and succession plans, and creating personalized estate plans for both domestic and International High Net Worth clients. She also has substantial expertise in mortgage underwriting and origination processes as well as purchasing and packaging mortgages for resale on the secondary market. Renee’ is a NY Bar admitted attorney, holds FINRA series 7, 63,& 65 securities licenses, and a New York State Life and Health Insurance license. She believes that by providing educational opportunities for professionals and executives she can help them prepare for the demands of doing business with the more globally mobile population of High Net Worth clients with diverse needs.

Renee’s experiences exemplify this commitment to providing education and information. She teaches Financial Planning, Investment Management, Accounting, Economics, Retirement Planning, Tax Planning, Risk Management, Estate Planning, Employee Benefits, and Business Management at the college level and to peer professionals; including attorneys, accountants, and financial planners. Renee’ has extensive experience designing and refining financial course materials as well as writing and editing financial newsletter articles and is an approved CE Instructor in several states.

 

Joel Helke, LLM.

Mr. Helke specializes in tax and financial analysis in an area that is becoming known as financial forensics.  This includes economic profiling of financial derivatives and synthetics, singularly and in combination. These include commodity, equity and interest rate swaps, caps, collars, notional principal contracts, and other financing, hedging and risk shifting techniques. He demonstrates how monies paid or earned may be rearranged by adjusting the essence of underlying assets through special purpose vehicles and/or financial derivatives. His work and teaching experience also includes the tax and financial analysis of hybrid debt, credit default swaps and collateralized debt obligations, mandatory convertible debt, long-dated non-debt derivatives and other equity hybrids. His experience includes review of multi-party, cross-border transactions including earnings repatriation. Prior to his affiliation with Florida Institute of Finance, Mr. Helke worked as a Special Counsel at the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), Department of Treasury. Mr. Helke worked in the Financial Institutions and Products Division of the Office of the Chief Counsel (IRS) where he was involved in emerging and complex tax issues.  Mr. Helke has an LLM in Taxation from Georgetown University and is currently a consultant to corporations and financial institutions.

Rainford M. Knight, Ph.D. 

Dr. Knight has over 15 years practical experience in financial analysis including: mortgage analytics, mergers and acquisitions, strategic planning, budgeting and forecasting and venture capital. Dr. Knight has held M&A positions performing valuations on a range of companies including banks, mortgage companies, hospitality companies and real estate technology companies. He has been a valuation consultant to the venture capital industry working with individual start-ups, as well as an incubator/accelerator. Dr. Knight is currently a mentor to the Enterprise Development Corp. (EDC) – an organization that provides strategic business development assistance to science and technology-based companies in South Florida. Dr. Knight has advised CEOs of small to mid-sized companies on a range of financial issues and has had papers published and accepted in academic and industry journals. He has co-founded/acquired or has been a partner in several companies in industries as diverse as software development, real estate distressed debt, hospitality and educational training. Internationally, Dr. Knight spent 6 months as part of a consulting team advising a government on the restructuring of its financial sector after a financial crisis – failure of the banking and insurance sectors. He helped to manage the sale of a $1 billion non-performing loan portfolio. To date, this is the largest loan sale transacted in the Caribbean.  Dr. Knight has also made presentations regarding financial sector restructuring to central banks and state owned banks in Latin America and the Caribbean including world organizations such as the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB). Dr. Knight is an adjunct professor of finance at Florida Atlantic University and the University of Miami, where he teaches at both the undergraduate and graduate (MBA/Executive) level including: Corporate Finance, Case Studies in Finance, Investment Analysis, Investment Management and Portfolio Construction. Dr. Knight holds a Ph.D. in Finance from Florida Atlantic University with a doctoral thesis in the area of initial public offerings (IPOs). Dr. Knight has been chosen to be included in the Who’s Who in Finance and Industry; he is a member of the Financial Management Association International and a member of the Society of Quantitative Analysts. 

Paul Sergius Koku, Ph.D., Esq.

Dr. Koku has 20 years of experience which traverses the multiple disciplines of finance, economics and marketing. He has been a consultant to corporations, and law firms on a variety of issues ranging from equity portfolio analytics – stock churning, valuations, marketing strategy and various legal issues. Dr. Koku is also the founder and president of Koku & Associates, PL – a law firm with a diverse practice area. As an academic Dr. Koku has had a very distinguished career. He is a tenured associate professor in marketing at Florida Atlantic University. He has taught finance and marketing internationally in countries such as Spain and Australia. In his academic career, Dr. Koku has won many awards including and M.A.P pre-Doctoral Fellow from Rutgers University. As a prolific researcher, Dr. Koku has authored, co-authored and presented a number of research papers. Dr. Koku is actively involved in academic community. He has served on many committees and boards including academic standard committees, recruiting committees and  dissertation committees. Currently, he is also the faculty advisor to DECA. Dr. Koku is also involved in many professional associations. They include: The American Bar Association, The American Finance Association, American Marketing Association, Academy of Marketing Science, The Florida Bar, The Federal Bar- Southern District of Florida and The Institute of Operations Research and Management Sciences. Dr. Koku’s varied academic and professional experience is derived from a diverse academic background. He holds a Ph.D. in Marketing and Finance from Rutgers University with a minor in Applied Economics and Quantitative Methods, a Juris Doctor from the University Of Miami School Of Law, a MBA in Finance from Rutgers University and a MBA in Marketing from Oregon State University and a Masters of Arts in Applied Economics from Rutgers University.

Michael Merlob, F.S.A

Mr. Merlob is a consulting actuary with more than 20 years of experience assisting clients with the design, financing and administration of their benefit plans.  His clientele has included Fortune 50 corporations, small public companies, law partnerships and municipalities. Utilizing a variety of risk analysis techniques and forecasting methods, including asset/liability modeling, he helps clients address and solve complex business problems.  Mr. Merlob is a frequent author and speaker, and has addressed the National Conference on Public Employee Retirement Systems (NCPERS) and Public Risk Management (PRM).  He is a former director of Capitol First Corporation and is a Trustee of the City of Parkland Police Pension Board. Mr. Merlob is a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries.   He graduated Cum Laude with a B.A. in mathematics from Queens College of CUNY. 

Rupert Rhodd, Ph.D.

Dr. Rhodd has over 20 years experience as a research economist and consultant to the private sector. Dr. Rhodd has advised companies in the private sector on a variety of issues including economic impact analysis - a discipline which examines spending throughout the economy and the impact of that spending and litigation support on damages, losses and macroeconomic modeling. As an economist, Dr. Rhodd has enjoyed a distinguished career, first as a research economist for the Army Corps of Engineers and currently as a tenured professor of economics at Florida Atlantic University.  Dr. Rhodd is also a managing partner in the community economic development and small business development consulting firm Rupert Rhodd & Associates LLC. Dr. Rhodd has authored and co-authored many publications including several co-authored technical reports for Florida governmental agencies, such as the Florida Division of Natural Resources (i.e., manatee protection for Broward, St. Lucie and Volusia counties) and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (i.e., regulatory costs of costal construction). Dr. Rhodd's most recent project is an assessment of the regulatory costs of the coastal control line in Pinellas County for the Florida Department of Environmental Protection - Bureau of Beaches and Coastal Systems.  In addition to his scholarly research, Dr. Rhodd is a member of the editorial committee for economics and statistics of several of this country’s largest book publishers, including Prentice-Hall and Mc-Graw-Hill Publishing. Dr. Rhodd is very active in the community. He has served on many boards including the Zoning and Planning Board of the City of Parkland, and the Community Relations Council for North Broward Medical Center. He is also a member of the American Economic Association. Dr. Rhodd holds a Master's and Doctorate in Economics from Fordham University.

 

Training

Customized training programs in tax and accounting fit for both corporations and individuals.