The first friend I made when I began my reporting career in New York City nearly 20 years ago was Dante Nuno, who worked in the HR department at the publishing firm I joined. He was fabulous fun and I had some of the best times of my life with him, discovering parts of New York I wouldn't even have known existed. Oh, and he was gay.
Yes, through him I met a lot of crazy party animals, frivolous guys who spent every cent they had on accumulation and appearance. But I also met a number of others (Dante himself was one of them) who were among the most financially savvy professionals I have ever come across, who were careful with their money and where they invested it, and who taught me more than a thing or two about financial planning and financial goals.
Now advisors can meet those same kinds of people through a site called dot429, a professional network for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered community (LGBT) and their allies. Members come from all walks of professional and artistic life, says Elliot Tomaeno, media spokesperson for dot429, and they're the elite of the LGBT community. dot429 is the brainchild of Richard Klein, founder of Surface magazine and a star in the world of design, and its goal is to connect members of the LGBT community working in different fields who might be able to do things together to achieve greater professional success.
"It's like a Linkedin for LGBTs," Tomaeno says, "but it's the kind of site that also helps others get to know who's who in the community. It would be a great site for financial advisors to get onto, yes."
The site organizes regular in-person get-togethers and brunches in the nation's gay-friendly cities, specifically Chicago, San Francisco, Miami and New York. These are networking events that anyone can attend, Tomaeno says. In fact, dot429 is rapidly attracting members who are not LGBTs, not least in the financial services industry (even erstwhile private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis and Roberts is a member, he says).
