Synergize Podcast Transcript

Guest: Ramin Abrams, Private Wealth Advisor at Concurrent Advisors

Hosts: Bill Coppel, Director of Client Growth at TradePMR (a Robinhood company), and Ryan Neal, Editorial Manager at TradePMR

Bill Coppel: Welcome back to Synergize. I’m Bill Coppel, Director of Client Growth at TradePMR, a Robinhood company.

Ryan Neal: And I’m Ryan Neal, Editorial Manager at TradePMR Robinhood. You’re listening to the Synergize Podcast. Welcome back indeed, Bill—it’s been a while since I’ve seen you. How have you been? And to kick it off, what have you been listening to lately? I know you’re a music guy—what’s been on your playlist?

Bill Coppel: Great question, Ryan. You know, it’s funny—I’ve got a 19- and a 22-year-old, so I’m pretty much listening to the most contemporary stuff out there right now. But my taste in music spans way back to the ’60s, ’70s, and ’80s, and I split it between classic rock and roll and jazz. I love music and I’m willing to listen to just about anything.

Ryan Neal: Nice. For me lately, I’ve been on a solid rotation of Bob Dylan. I’ve been going through his entire discography—this morning I’m up to the late ’70s. Today it was his Live at Budokan album, which isn’t my favorite, but I’m committed to listening to all the albums in order. It’s been a fun adventure. I love Bob and his evolution over time—which is probably a good segue into our episode today. We’ve got an exciting guest.

Ryan Neal: He’s a 31-year-old private wealth advisor at Concurrent Advisors named Ramin Abrams. He’s a classically trained musician who made the pivot from music to becoming a financial advisor. It’s a fascinating story—he wrote about it on RIA Reflections, and we’ll link it in the show notes. Ramin, welcome to Synergize.

Ramin Abrams: Thanks so much, Ryan and Bill, for having me today.

Bill Coppel: It’s great to have you, Ramin. As I look through your background and resume, I couldn’t help thinking about your journey—from performing at Carnegie Hall as a kindergartner to the incredible opportunities you’ve had as a professional musician over time. It made me reflect on my own childhood. I think Ryan had a similar background because we both grew up with music. I started on the cello myself—oddly enough—though I never quite reached your level. Then I switched to saxophone and guitar. It’s an incredible experience—something that stays with you. The other thing I wanted to bring up for our listeners is that you’re  also a very accomplished endurance athlete. You did the Ironman in Lake Placid—tell me a little about that.

Ramin Abrams: It was an incredible experience. I’ve run about eight marathons between New York City and Los Angeles. I saw the opportunity to enter the Lake Placid Ironman. Running was my forte. As we’re talking about music, I’ll use the terminology. And biking and swimming never was a focus but the discipline, time, the effort and the accomplishment of completing an Ironman was one of the bucket-list items for me. So I enrolled, I had about seven months of training, and it was one of the most incredible and hard experiences of my life. Being a financial advisor, being a musician, and living in one of the flattest cities in the country, New York City, training to bike up essentially 90 degree angle hills in Lake Placid, New York was definitely a challenge, but one of the best experiences of my life.

Bill Coppel: Going up that hill is tough, but coming down is amazing. I did that event myself in 2001, 2002, and 2003—it’s one of the most challenging Ironman courses out there. So congratulations. You excelled in music where I kind of petered out after high school, but I went on to endurance athletics for a number of years.

Ryan Neal: I think you guys are both nuts. I was a swimmer my whole life and still bike–I love biking mainly for transportation, but running was always a punishment for me on the swim team. If I messed up, they made me run laps. So I’d consider a triathlon if someone else did the running part.

Bill Coppel: Then we can form a team right here—Ramin runs, Ryan swims, and I cycle. Once we wrap up this program, maybe we should hit the trail.

Ryan Neal: There you go.

Bill Coppel: Ryan, why don’t you kick it off and give us a little more background on Ramin so we understand exactly what he’s accomplished? I think that’s the heart of the story—his incredible ability to make this enormous pivot, leveraging all the talent and experience he acquired as a musician.

Ryan Neal: Well, I think we'll let you do that for the most part. You know, you did this article for us on RIA Reflections. It resonated with a lot of our readers, I think, because you in some ways like lived a dream that maybe many people have, people that you know grew up working as one thing, but playing music in their free time. You kind of realized that dream then pivoted to another career. So why don't you share a bit about your personal story for those that haven't read it on RIA Reflections, and then we can go from there.

Ramin Abrams: Sure, thanks for the opportunity. As a born and raised in New York City, I started the cello at age two and a half through a Japanese instrumental training program called Suzuki and School for Strings. So at a very young age, I started learning ear training, the simple next steps of what music is from rhythm to other aspects of music. And starting at age two and a half, built my repertoire, had opportunities to perform, and around high school age, started to really excel at the instrument. I made a shift from cello to double bass because I wanted to expand my repertoire, not only classical music, but more contemporary music and jazz. So at around 12, 13 years old, I shifted to double bass And that's really when I took off as a musician. I got into Juilliard pre-college and I was able to study with the principal bass player of the New York Philharmonic. And the caliber of musicians that I was surrounded by was just incredible. The amount of talent and the amount of discipline that I kind of lived and breathed through my days at Juilliard really set me up for success as a musician. So once I learned the technical aspects of being a classically trained musician, I was able to go out and explore contemporary music and jazz. And as a very outgoing young adult, I was able to reach out to a lot of professional musicians, teachers, organizations, and orchestras to participate, to perform with. And it was pretty incredible growing up in New York City, finishing school at 3 PM and having a gig downtown at 7 PM.

Bill Coppel: So talk a little bit more about that journey. In the article, you hit some real significant milestones with your brother, as I recall. And at what point did you kind of realize that, you know what, I've really been very, very successful, but perhaps I need to begin to think about how I might want to change the motif or you know redirect my talent in other ways. Share with us a little bit about that transition you went through and how you actually found financial services as a platform to continue to build on your skills and talent you know that you honed as a musician.

Ramin Abrams: Yeah, sure. As a musician, especially training at a conservatory level, you learn to listen deeply, interpret emotion, and guide my audiences through a transformative experience. So as a financial advisor, you do the same, but with financial planning. I would say that music is a language in itself, and there are a lot of paths that you can cross and make dramatic pivots in your life, but they don't seem so dramatic because that language can interpret and communicate with other aspects of life or other careers. So as a financial advisor, I graduated UCLA with a bachelor's in music. I went on tour in Italy with the chamber ensemble and I came back and I was looking for what the next step looks like. And I made this pivot to the financial services industry, but because I learned so much about discipline and listening and emotions and guiding people through my performances, I felt that I could really take any step out of music and find a way to translate my experience, my training, and my discipline as a musician to another career. And financial services was one that I was really passionate about. At a young age, I benefited from the fruits of my mom being a financial advisor at Merrill Lynch at the World Trade Center. And upon having my bar mitzvah, all those checks went straight into the stock market. So I was always fascinated with financial services and equities and investing. So I made that shift and working with people and service was the model that I wanted to abide by, that I wanted to live by were my musical experiences. Understanding the inconsistencies of being a gig musician, understanding that there's going to be ups and downs in terms of how busy you are, how many performances you're getting, understand the different verticals and monetization strategies of being a musician. That can be translated to business owners, to real estate developers, to investors. And my role as a financial advisor is providing my clients a transformative experience to help them identify and what we wrote about in RA Inflections, what their motif is

Ryan Neal: That's great. and one thing we think a lot about here on the podcast is that next generation, right? Helping advisors, you know, connect with new investors, expand their business, or even connect with new advisors, bringing in new talent, stuff like that. And something that I love about your story is that I think we all, everyone in life goes through some sort of pivot, right? At least most of us, where we're kind of going along maybe through our teens and to college and our 20s. And at some point we have to make a shift, something, whether it's we have kids or have a career change or I don't know, stock market crash, whatever may be, a lot of times just pushes us towards a certain move. And what I love is this, you know, this next generation of investors out there, a lot of people have been doing very, very well on their own investing and now maybe reaching a point where they are considering making a change, going towards an advisor, looking for something different. So I was wondering if you could talk about that at all. I mean, have you found that in your own practice, have you brought in clients that maybe have done well investing on their own and are just looking for something different? And how have you sort of navigated their own pivots in life?

Ramin Abrams: Sure, I'd say especially the past 8 to 10 years, retail investing, there's been a lot of success in it. You know From the COVID era and meme stocks and just being long the S&P 500 or individual stock picking, and we've just kind of seen as the tide comes in, all the boats rise. And that is something that has driven a lot of retail investors to say, "Hey, I think I could do this on my own." The reason I think my pivot and why my story matters in terms of clients and investors potentially making a shift to working with a financial advisor is finances are an extremely emotional aspect to how people look at money. And I'd say that letting go of old patterns. You know, just as I left behind a kind of a familiar identity in music, sometimes people need to make that next step in terms of releasing outdated financial habits or fears. Some people may have investments, but not make subsequent dollar cost averaging strategies. They haven't put a financial plan together. They haven't considered tax optimization strategies. So the wealth and breadth that a financial advisor in a firm can provide someone, allows younger investors or people that have been doing it on their own kind to get out of those old patterns and outdated financial habits. Also, it's learning a new language. We live and breathe financial services. We are the personal CFOs to investors. We guard, protect, preserve, and grow their assets. And yeah over the past nine years of my career, I've been able to master the language of finance. And clients are trying to do that working with a financial advisor. I'm essentially that translator and that executor. And then lastly, I'd say a lot of investors that have been doing it on their own, sometimes they haven't experienced a full correction to understand the impacts of that and how to protect. So when we're talking about facing uncertainty, as advisors, we face that with courage. We are bold. We don't let emotions get in the way of making prudent investments. So when clients are vulnerable in these uncertain or volatile situations, working with an advisor, making that shift, taking that next step forward, making that pivot puts them in a really great place for the long term.

Bill Coppel: I want to drill down on it a little bit, Ramin, because what's interesting to me is, and and I noted this in your in your story in RIA Reflections, you know I have this theory that we all transition and pivot you know every five to seven years. And we feel it. We know something's coming, but we really fail often to reposition ourselves. And I think you're a great example of someone who recognized that there was a pivot on the horizon. There was a transition on the horizon and you and you jumped on it. I want to bring it back to your experience as a musician and particularly under some of the folks you studied with. um you know You mentioned the fact that yeah you know when you're you were taking lessons from some of the most talented people in the world and As you were learning music, right, you never really stopped learning. As you're learning music, share with us an example of when one of your teachers was guiding you through a transition from a musical perspective. And perhaps not necessarily telling you you're wrong, but offering you a path that um perhaps would turn out better in the piece you were working on and how that may parallel the way in which you approach helping people transition or deal with those transitions in their personal lives.

Ramin Abrams: That's a big question, Bill. I'll do my best to respond. I would say, as I mentioned, I played cello from ages two and a half, age two and a half to age 12 or 13, and then I shifted to double bass. And just from a sound perspective, the cello is a beautiful, warm sound. And the double bass can be beautiful and warm, but it's a much deeper sound. Just from the physical aspects of the of the instrument, A cello is smaller, the strings are thinner, bass is much bigger, and the strings are much thicker. And one of the challenges I faced after making that switch from cello to bass was I loved the sound of a cello, and I couldn't make the bass sound like a cello immediately. And I loved the performance aspect of music. I wanted to be a solo double bass player, and there are very few of those out there. I wanted to solo concertos with major orchestras. And my teacher really helped me build the tenacity, the physical tenacity of mastering the instrument on a physical level so that I can explore the instrument more emotionally and more musically. And with that were etudes and practice techniques to really build my craft where I'm not fighting against the instrument itself. It's working with me and I can explore the world of music, the world of expression, the world of emotion. So over a period of four years, there was an intense level of practice and discipline in mastering this craft. I'm talking about finishing school at 3 p.m. and being in the Juilliard practice room until 10 p.m., constantly practicing the instrument so that essentially I wasn't fighting against it. The instrument was working for me. I wasn't working for the instrument. And I think that translates to clients making pivots and going through transitions as well. It's never about trying to find perfection. It's always about progress. And you said that in your initial comments, Bill, and we're always looking to make progress on ourselves. And when you're making a change of managing things on your own to you know working with others, you are becoming a delegator. You're being a business owner. You are putting the best people in front of you to help you achieve your goals at the best level you can. So I definitely see a relationship to some of those transitions and focuses and progressions that I experienced with music and helping clients achieve the same.

Bill Coppel: You know, it's not about saying no, right? It's about offering this idea and getting that individual to perhaps discover themselves a better path. And I'm sure that while your instructor could certainly help you through the mechanics of that transition from cello to double bass, at the end of the day, for a client, saying no is not always a good response. It's about helping them self-discover a path that will help them achieve this elusive goal of becoming better.

Ryan Neal: That was a great answer. And I think Bill was trying to throw you a curveball with that one, and you handled it perfectly.

Bill Coppel: He’s an endurance athlete—I gotta give him a little bit of a challenge here! We just can't keep doing the same thing over again.

Ryan Neal: That’s true. Well I think I’ll move to wrap up but given how we started this conversation, I'm going to throw it to Ramin—what are you listening to these days? What’s on your playlist?

Ramin Abrams: Well, similar to Bill, I was just at the gym this morning and one of my goals is I was listening to Crosby, Stills and Nash, Sweet Judy Blue Eyes, which is about a six minute and 50 second song. And my goal this morning was to get a mile in on the treadmill before the song ended. I was pumped up for this call today. So you guys helped me get the push with that. So I'm a big fan of rock and roll, but classical music always kind of stays a big part of my life. And in my every day, I have records playing at the office you know as the team is doing work. And I was giving last night a listen to Tchaikovsky's Fifth Symphony, one of the largest orchestras, one of the most vibrant um changes for movement, an amazing piece of music.

Bill Coppel: We’ll have to have you create a playlist for us to get through our daily routine. I’m a huge CSNY fan myself—I can hear the music right now.

Ramin Abrams: Will do. And as a closing thought, given my pivot from musician to financial advisor, I know what it’s like to start over. In anyone’s life—whether it’s a business change, career change, family change, or something else—there will be moments that test your courage. Life is a roller coaster, but every pivot is progress. When you dedicate yourself to mastering something at a high level, that persistence carries forward. It’s about using your past to fuel your future.

Ryan Neal: That’s a fantastic way to close. Ramin, thank you so much for joining us today.

Ramin Abrams: Thanks so much for having me. It’s been great to be here.

Ryan Neal: And for everyone listening, thank you for tuning in. Wherever you get this podcast, please take a moment to like, subscribe, and share it. We’ll see you on the next episode.

Bill Coppel: I too want to thank you for listening and to thank our guest, Ramin Abrams, for joining us today with a great story of transition and success. Be sure to tune in to our next episode where we’ll share even more insights and strategies to help you grow your business. And remember—the challenge is yours to take advantage of, to take action with what the future holds.

OUTRO:  If you want to join the conversation or connect with us, please visit us at synergizepodcast.com. This content is provided for general information purposes only. The views expressed by non-affiliated guest speakers are their own and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of TradePMR or its affiliates. TradePMR and its affiliates do not endorse any guest speakers or their companies and therefore give no assurances as to the quality of their products and services. This channel is not monitored by TradePMR. TradePMR does not provide investment advice, tax advice or legal advice. TradePMR is a member of FINRA and SIPC. TradePMR, Inc. is registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board (MSRB). TradePMR provides brokerage and account services to registered investment advisors. Custodial services provided by First Clearing. First Clearing is a trade name used by Wells Fargo Clearing Services, LLC, Member SIPC, a registered broker dealer and non-bank affiliate of Wells Fargo & Company. Copyright 2025. TradePMR, Inc. Trade-PMR, Inc. is a subsidiary of Robinhood Markets, Inc.  

As a reminder, today’s podcast will contain forward-looking statements. Actual results could differ materially from our expectations. Except as required by law, we assume no obligation to update any of the statements in this podcast whether as a result of any new information, future events, changed circumstances, or otherwise. Potential risk factors that could cause differences including regulatory developments that we continue to monitor are described in our SEC filing.