In the financial world it’s hard to find truly impartial experts, but in 2014, when opening their doors on Wall Street, that is precisely what the team at Blum Capital Advisors set out to become.

Each of the five members of the executive leadership team brings an average of three decades of transactional and top-level leadership experience to this independent advisory firm, providing unbiased advice and litigation support to public and private organizations, investors and government agencies.

The proven track records the experts at Blum Capital Advisors have in their respective fields allows them to serve clients with a wealth of knowledge and industry insight. Blum Capital specializes in expert consulting, investment banking, capital markets, retail, securitization, structured finance, due diligence and law – including litigation support, expert testimony, fraud and forensic analysis.

“We are strictly an advisory firm,” said managing partner Len Blum, explaining BCA’s distinguishing characteristics. “We don’t take on conflicting advisory work. We aren’t involved in securities, underwriting or placement. This allows us to operate in a such way that there’s not even a consideration that we could be conflicted, because we are not taking work on the other side of the transaction.”

Integrity is such an integral part of BCA’s makeup that it drives every aspect of the business, including entering into client relationships. “We take on clients on a case-by-case basis,” Blum explained. “We do a fair amount of expert consulting and expert witness work, and we only want to go into situations where we feel we are going to get very good access to information and can express our opinions with full integrity.”

Blum, who has been involved in most aspects of the industry – from running a boutique investment bank to acting as a group head at a large Wall Street firm – has become the go-to expert for securities law cases in the United States, and he has helped many clients recover tens of billions of dollars in high-profile estates and trusts cases.

Establishing a business model designed to restore faith in an industry that many people came to distrust following the economic meltdown of the last decade, Blum believes being truly independent and free from having a stake in securities allows the BCA team to give completely honest and unbiased advice – and, more importantly, to give legal testimony in complex, billion dollar litigation and restructuring cases.

Blum, who is often called upon as a guest business analyst on television and cable news programs and who has taught specialized finance topics at New York University, has spoken publicly about bank failures. When asked his opinion of the Dodd-Frank Act, enacted in 2010 as a reactionary measure to prevent a repeat of the recession’s cataclysmic bank failures and subsequent government bailouts, Blum replied, “Adequate capitalization, disclosure and cogent regulations are the best way to avoid bank failures.”

No stranger to high profile cases, his extensive knowledge and expertise has led to an involvement with the SEC, representing Fanny Mae and Freddy Mac in their investigation of major financial institutions.

While the experts at BCA have “done a fair amount of work reviewing securities and transactions for the events that occurred during the 2008-2009 time period,” Blum added that their services are helpful during all business cycles where financial institutions and investors face significant challenges.

“We hope to always be involved in [litigation services]. Providing access to experienced industry professionals is part of the way we contribute to the judicial system,” he said. “But we also have other areas of interest and focus that we want to continue to grow in, such as general consulting and valuation services.”

One such arena that veers away from the financial sector but has just as much impact on the nation’s economy, is retail. With so many businesses offering similar products in a competitive marketplace, retailers face an even greater challenge of differentiating their brand in a consumer landscape that some now consider to be “over-retailed.”

For stores offering a general product assortment, gaining market share is even more difficult. BCA’s retail expert, Diana Pipia explained, “Depending on the branding of the products they offer to bring to the customer, these stores get caught in a commodity situation where prices become important.”

When it comes to branding, strategizing, market analysis, product conceptualization, licensing and understanding the demands of both domestic and international geographic retail concerns, BCA’s team has a proven track record of providing top retailers, brands and artists with the competitive edge needed to stand out from the pack.

Although BCA has not yet reached their first anniversary as a firm, the executive team members have known each other and worked together in various capacities for much of their lengthy and impressive careers.

“All the people at BCA have known and worked together directly or through another BCA professional for a long time,” Blum said. Having professional relationships dating back thirty years in some cases, has helped bring a cohesive level of trust and integrity into the team that he wants to ensure continues as they move forward. 

“It’s been a very cautious growth because the value we bring to the table is the consulting team,” Blum said, adding that while he anticipates adding more consultants and experts in the coming months, BCA endeavors to “continue to work on assignments that are meaningful to us, and add value to every assignment on which we are hired.”

For more information, visit: www.blumcapitaladvisors.com