Eric Wasserman Receives Variety’s 2016 Business Managers Elite Award
Business managers help clients make smart investments and build and retain wealth. But they can also make a big difference in the lives of others with their ongoing charitable work and causes.
That’s why Variety is honoring Eric C. Wasserman — managing partner and co-founder of Los Angeles-based multi-family office business management firm of WG&S — with its Business Manager Elite Award at a breakfast on Oct. 26 at the Montage Beverly Hills.
Each year the prize recognizes a business manager not just for the impact on the business management profession, but also for a strong commitment to charitable causes.
Wasserman manages WG&S’ Wealth Management Group, which deals with two kinds of customers: high-profile entertainment clients, who include Metallica, Richard Gere, and Conan O’Brien’s company, and ultra high-net-worth families, both nationally and internationally.
“Our advice and planning for both groups is basically the same – tax minimization, wealth preservation, and administration of estates,” he says. “Most take our advice, but we have clients who aren’t yet ready to discuss their estate planning and an efficient way to transfer wealth. We understand that and we add it to the agenda for later. It’s a matter of continual education.”
For Wasserman, the main challenges of the job “are dealing with a large number of financial transactions, and maintaining quality control.” He stresses that his success in such matters is due “largely to the many great partners I’ve had over the years, who mentored and guided me along the way.”
Born and raised in New York and New Jersey, Wasserman graduated from Rutgers College and started off at Prager & Fenton — “a great place to learn the ropes, and I still have a relationship with them” — and then moved to RZO Management. That’s where he learned about concert touring.
In 1987 he relocated to L.A. — “I felt business opportunities were far greater out here,” he says — and became a partner at Goldman, Grant & Tani. In 1992, he became one of the original founding partners of GLWG, which was acquired by J.P. Morgan Chase in 2000.
“I spent five years at JP Morgan Private Bank, where I learned how to interpret complex investments,” he says. “In 2006 I lifted my business out.”
Together with the entire private wealth management team from J.P. Morgan, the firm of WG&S was formed with offices in California and Delaware. In 2015, WG&S opened an office in Austin, Texas. Today, Wasserman notes, the firm has grown to 60 pros with eight partners.
As important as his career is to him, Wasserman stresses that his work in philanthropy “has been equally important. I’ve always been involved in those areas, and all the music biz charities were a way to really participate. I found it very rewarding.”
Over time, Wasserman adds, “I found and realized that community service, mentoring programs, and volunteering all gave you this great and direct feedback, as well as this direct emotional connection.”
Wasserman is a trustee on the board of the Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, where he chairs the audit committee, and is a member of the executive and investment committees.
He also serves on the City of Hope’s Music, Film and Entertainment Industry board. “I’m able to use my professional skills as well as being able to learn extraordinary new skills,” he reports. “It’s an ongoing part of my life, and it may be a cliché, but I always find that I get far more out of it than I put in. I’ve learned so much about myself, about business, about philanthropy, and about life.”
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