In recent years, much of Eugene Shkolnikov’s work has been focused on helping Ukrainian and Russian families displaced by the war.<\/p>\n
Courtesy of Northwestern Mutual<\/p>\n
After Eugene Shkolnikov arrived in New York from <\/strong>Kharkiv, Ukraine at age 17 in 1992, one of his first jobs was handing out flyers for $3 an hour outside the Empire State Building. He had immigrated with his mother and grandfather, no money, and only a couple years of high school English (on top of his fluent Russian and Ukrainian). But standing in Midtown Manhattan, he knew he wanted to wear a suit and be like the businessmen walking briskly past him. \u201cThat was my dream job,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n Talk about motivation. He improved his English while studying in college and working part-time selling suits in a department store. And in 2000, he graduated with a degree in finance from Brooklyn College<\/a>, (an affordable<\/a> and well regarded school that is part of the City University of New York system). Shkolnikov put on that suit, joined Northwestern Mutual and began cold-calling and knocking on doors. His natural market was the Russian-speaking immigrant community\u2014both where he had lived, in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, and more predominantly, in Brighton Beach. But despite his language edge, it was anything but easy.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople were skeptical,\u201d says Shkolnikov. Many of them had lived through decades of mistrust in the financial system back in the former Soviet Union. For new arrivals in the late \u201980s and early \u201990s, financial planning felt foreign. Some had been burned by salesmen peddling products they didn\u2019t understand and convincing them to trust a young guy fresh out of college felt impossible, he recalls.<\/p>\n Eventually a Ukrainian-born prosecutor for the Brooklyn district attorney\u2019s office (they\u2019d met years earlier), introduced him to his family and friends, opening the door to older immigrants who had already built assets and businesses in America. Shkolnikov was eager to be involved in the community and quickly began sponsoring associations and showing up at local events. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t just the language,\u201d he says. \u201cI understood the mentality.\u201d<\/p>\n By his fifth year in the business, Shkolnikov had decided to focus almost exclusively on Russian-speaking clients, carving out his own niche in a competitive industry. Over time his practice expanded beyond New York\u2014where he still keeps Manhattan and Brooklyn offices\u2014to Miami, home to many Russian and Ukrainian expatriates. On early visits he noticed wealthy newcomers buying multimillion-dollar apartments in their own names with little thought to estate tax. \u201cEstate tax exemption for non-U.S. residents is only $60,000,\u201d says Shkolnikov. \u201cIf something happened, their kids could face a 40% tax bill.\u201d<\/p>\n That realization became a turning point as he began educating clients on the United States\u2019 complex (and changing) web of estate, gift and income taxes as well as strategies to mitigate them\u2014whether through proper ownership structures, trusts, or life insurance. For green card holders, Shkolnikov warned about worldwide estate tax exposure. For non-residents, he introduced solutions like offshore entities or insurance coverage to handle potential liabilities. \u201cPeople had no idea,\u201d says Shkolnikov.<\/p>\n Today, he runs Scholar Financial Group\u2014a mostly Russian-speaking team of nine at Northwestern Mutual, alongside longtime partner Michael Shafir, a college friend he recruited into the business. The practice is especially known for its pension plan work\u2014with roughly 300 defined benefit and defined contribution plans under management, worth about $200 million. Few advisors focus as heavily on pensions. Shkolnikov works with actuaries to design plans that allow business owners to make large, tax-deductible contributions\u2014sometimes even using pension money to purchase real estate or other investments. \u201cClients are shocked when they learn what\u2019s possible,\u201d he says. (These bespoke plans are considered a good way for business owners who started earning big dollars, or saving for retirement, later in life, to catch up.)<\/p>\n Beyond pensions, Shkolnikov\u2019s client portfolios span the full spectrum of planning: insurance, investment strategies, buy-sell agreements and legacy structures. He prides himself on speaking in \u201cstreet-smart\u201d terms his clients can relate to, often putting himself in their shoes: \u201cI always try to simplify the complex, explain it in practical language, and make sure clients feel I\u2019m in it with them.\u201d<\/p>\n The geopolitical upheavals of recent years have added urgency to his work. Before Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine, many of his Miami clients were wealthy Russians. Since the war, more Ukrainians have arrived\u2014and often have to start over from scratch. Shkolnikov tailors his advice for these newcomers accordingly; for example, he may begin with simple term life insurance to provide protection for their families.<\/p>\n Now approaching 50, Shkolnikov has spent more than two decades building a business that is personal. Ninety-five percent of his clients are Russian-speaking immigrants\u2014people who, like him, came to the U.S. seeking opportunity, stability, and a better life for their children. His average client in New York (excluding those new Ukrainian immigrants) may be worth $20\u201350 million; in Miami, where fortunes often arrived more recently, it\u2019s closer to $200\u2013400 million. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter what stage of life you\u2019re in,\u201d says Shkolnikov. \u201cPeople always need a financial plan.\u201d<\/p>\n What he\u2019s most proud of isn\u2019t the awards\u2014he\u2019s ranked among Northwestern Mutual\u2019s top producers for a decade\u2014but the community impact. Families that once distrusted financial institutions now embrace long-term planning. \u201cMy own hometown of Kharkiv is now half destroyed\u2014and I\u2019ve seen firsthand how fragile that sense of security can be,\u201d he says quietly.<\/p>\n More from ForbesForbesThe 25 Colleges With The Highest PayoffBy Francesca Walton<\/a>ForbesTrump\u2019s Tariff Tidal Wave Could Drown This Coconut Water JuggernautBy Sergei Klebnikov<\/a>ForbesHere\u2019s What Explains The Big Jobs RevisionBy Brandon Kochkodin<\/a>ForbesWhy The Trump Administration\u2019s MAGA Stock Dreams For Fannie And Freddie Could Be A Windfall For Wall StreetBy Sergei Klebnikov<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In recent years, much of Eugene Shkolnikov’s work has been focused on helping Ukrainian and Russian families displaced…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":416468,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7654],"tags":[2000,142813,299,142817,142816,142818,142814,142815,142819,657,28886],"class_list":{"0":"post-416467","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ukraine","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-eugene-shkolnikov","10":"tag-europe","11":"tag-financial-security-professional","12":"tag-immigrant-advisor","13":"tag-insurance-professional","14":"tag-northwestern-mutual","15":"tag-russian-speakers","16":"tag-scholar-financial-group","17":"tag-ukraine","18":"tag-ukrainian-refugees"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115187126492929107","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416467","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=416467"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416467\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/416468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=416467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=416467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=416467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}