Recent Rotary Inductee Shares Lesson on Wealth Management

Since newer members of the North Haven Rotary Club are often requested to share information about their background, Erik Scaranuzzo appeared before his new colleagues recently. Starting out as a college intern in 1999, he stated that he is employed by Merrill Lynch, a Bank of America Company, as a Wealth Management Advisor. He described his employer as a particularly generous contributor to charity, apparently a little known fact due to turbulent economic times, matching employee contributions as high as $5,000. With this benefit in mind, Scaranuzzo sponsored a gathering prior to the holidays raising funds for the Aid for Orphans Relief Foundation. He went on to explain that his career entailed “helping people make important financial decisions” while helping his clients make wise investments to ensure a comfortable retirement.

The West Haven native said he has one brother and one sister, and was raised by parents with a moderate income who instilled in their children a value system that included hard work. He said that, although his father died at 61, the values he learned remain with him today. When his dad was a patient at Gaylord Hospital, the man who has already volunteered to be the club’s incoming treasurer already practiced the Rotary motto of ‘service above self’ by taking on the management of the hospital’s first charity golf tournament.  He also pointed out that he plans to raise his two young children with the same set of values.

Upon graduating from Southern Connecticut State University, Scaranuzzo remained at Merrill Lynch and is now a Senior Vice President managing over 100 clients who are spread across the country. With his bags packed for San Francisco, he indicated that he particularly loves traveling to warmer climate this time of year to meet with some of his clients.

In answer to a question about the Sequester that was facing the country, the speaker was very optimistic about the future of the country. He stated, “Despite these times when things look grim, we will come out stronger, as we have done time and time again." As an example, he pointed to the ‘70's when the economy was poor due to housing issues and unemployment, adding “but we came through it stronger than before, and we will do so this time as well.” 

PHOTO: A recent inductee into the North Haven Rotary Club, Erik Scaranuzzo was asked to share his background with the club in late February.