I founded DiNuzzo Private Wealth, Inc. in 1989 with nothing but a dream, a commitment, a set of core values, and a belief system that have remained in place to today.

My Dream
I started with $0 in Assets Under Management. But I dreamed of building a Wealth Management firm that would help my fellow brothers and sisters in my family, neighborhood, state, country and points beyond and between achieve their goals, enjoy their Best-Life, and protect their families in a manner that they were not currently being served.

My intent was to make DiNuzzo Private Wealth the destination Wealth Management firm to provide peace of mind to my fellow brothers and sisters.

My Commitment
I grew up in and worked in our family restaurant and I was always very good with “numbers” and people but had no direct experience in the Private Wealth industry.

But I was committed to building DiNuzzo Private Wealth with a lot of effort, prayers, hope, and the simplest of a so-called business plan: genuinely help people with their personal finances and life goals, treat them like family, and maintain a steadfast faith that if my clients were happy, everything would work out and the company would grow.

My Core Values and Belief System
Although I was new to the Private Wealth industry in 1989, my values and belief system, as well as the experience I desired for my future “family of clients,” conflicted with the manner in which individuals had been treated by others in the industry for decades.

Specifically, I refused to accept the heavy commissions other advisors routinely charged for investments they recommended so I initiated a fee-only billing structure.

I also refused to participate in the typical conflict-of-interest-laden nature of recommendations with which others operated, so I set up a “goals-based” client service and financial planning model that put my “family of clients’” interests first.

Finally, the vast majority of the industry did not operate under a fiduciary standard in 1989 but I wanted to ensure my clients were confident they could trust that my recommendations were in their best interests, not mine, so I launched the firm  as one of the first few hundred in the U. S. operating under a fiduciary standard.

Our Growth
In short, truly helping my fellow brothers and sisters was the cornerstone of my belief and value system and a non-negotiable part of the way I started and have built DiNuzzo Private Wealth over the past five decades.

Building DiNuzzo Private Wealth with integrity into what it is today—purely organically and without merging, acquiring, or otherwise “buying” growth—was in many ways a tough and long road at times.

Decades later, however, we have achieved my original vision of helping a tremendous and ever-expanding number of our “family of clients” and have grown to more than twenty “team family” members, serving clients in over 30 states across the USA, and managing $1.042 Billion Dollars in Assets Under Management as of September 30, 2024.

For this ongoing accomplishment I am very thankful and grateful for the trust that our “family of clients” at DiNuzzo Private Wealth have placed in me and our “team family.”

Establishing (and the Challenges with) “Minimums”
In 1989, I did not set an account minimum size requirement to do business with DiNuzzo Private Wealth. My first client gave me $2,000 to manage and I was very grateful.

When we started to experience growth and add team members, I established our first “minimum,” $100,000 per household, to help us get organized and develop a proper business structure and customized service model and standard.

I have been so appreciative that we have consistently attracted new like-minded people to our “team family” in whose personal DNA it is to treat clients’ best interests first and foremost.

With our continued ongoing success and more time, effort, money, and resources invested in our client relationships, we expanded the services we routinely offered to our “family of clients.” Over the decades, we began offering DiNuzzo Financial Wellness LifePlans™, Investment Planning, Investment Management, Tax Planning, Integrated Tax Preparation, Risk Management, and Client Service Specialists on top of the true Wealth Management services with which we started. As a result of the corresponding collective effort we committed to our “family of clients,” our household minimum grew to $250k, $500k, $1M, and, now, as of today, $2M.

Again, I am very grateful for how much we have grown, our wonderful “team family,” and our even more wonderful “family of clients.”

My Why
But the one thing that has lingered in my mind and challenged my values and belief system is helping my fellow brothers and sisters in need and those who have nothing: the original reason I founded the business.

I love the value that we add to our existing client relationships but what about people who can’t meet our minimum and, especially, what about people trying to turn their life around or those who have nothing?

This has weighed on me, since I stated earlier that I founded our business on the cornerstone of helping people. I think of the three most important women in my life, my Italian Grandma Rose, my Polish Grandma Anna, and my Mom Phyllis, along with my other relatives who migrated here from Italy and Poland to work in the steel mills of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. What if they desperately needed guidance but didn’t have $2 Million dollars, which is a minimum that dozens of my relatives added together wouldn’t be able to accomplish?

I would never want to turn anyone of them, or any of my fellow brothers and sisters, down when they needed guidance and help just because they couldn’t meet my high minimum.

Paying it Forward
Fast forward to today. I founded Papi MindsetCoach™and Papi Coach de Mentalidad™ teaching and coaching service for exactly this reason and purpose. In addition to DiNuzzo Private Wealth’s traditional Wealth Management and Tax services, I focus on providing teaching and coaching services to underserved people, communities of color, single parent households, and women and children in need through Papi MindsetCoach™ and Papi Coach de Mentalidad™. Basically, focusing on our fellow brothers and sisters among us who are most in need. Most of them are truly starting out with or have nothing to their name, which is why the focus of my teaching is typically on their self-improvement, self-help, personal development, peace of mind, hope, and inspiration.

That is why I founded Papi MindsetCoach™ and Papi Coach de Mentalidad™. Through Papi MindsetCoach™ and Papi Coach de Mentalidad™, I am typically  speaking, presenting, and collaborating with, or teaching individuals through, not-for-profit groups or organizations. And their needs are completely different than managing assets. What many of them truly desire is to rise out of poverty, hunger, fear, shame, hopelessness, and guilt, and turn around their lives, and manifest their Best-Life.

Gratitude
Our entire “team family” at DiNuzzo Private Wealth still keenly focuses on each individual client relationship, the same as we have since 1989. And will continue to do so. We are and will remain forever grateful for everything our clients have entrusted in us since 1989 and are honored to be able to pay it forward to underserved people, communities of color, single parent households, and women and children in need through Papi MindsetCoach™ and Papi Coach de Mentalidad™, in addition to the work we will continue to do through DiNuzzo Private Wealth.

It is just that now, as we evolve, give back, invest in our community family members in need, and pay forward our knowledge to a greater number of our fellow brothers and sisters in need, you may read about or come across this teaching and coaching service and wonder what it is and what we are doing.

Just know that our existing client relationships remain exactly the same as they have since 1989 but that this teaching and coaching service is our “Give a Fish … Teach to Fish … Delivering Hope,” charitable community outreach initiative to help those in need among us or those within our reach who currently have nothing or very little to their name.

My Personal Thank You
I thank all of you in advance for your current and continued support of my mission and our “team family’s” goal to our “Paying it Forward” Self-Improvement and Personal Development charitable outreach initiative, so we can deliver hope and inspiration to as many fellow brother and sisters of ours in need as we can.

—Papi/PJ