After Eugene Shkolnikov arrived in New York from Kharkiv, Ukraine at age 17 in 1992, one of his first jobs was handing out flyers for $3 an hour outside the Empire State Building. He had immigrated with his mother and grandfather, no money, and only a couple years of high school English (on top of his fluent Russian and Ukrainian). But standing in Midtown Manhattan, he knew he wanted to wear a suit and be like the businessmen walking briskly past him. “That was my dream job,” he says.
Talk about motivation. He improved his English while studying in college and working part-time selling suits in a department store. And in 2000, he graduated with a degree in finance from Brooklyn College, (an affordable and well regarded school that is part of the City University of New York system). Shkolnikov put on that suit, joined Northwestern Mutual and began cold-calling and knocking on doors. His natural market was the Russian-speaking immigrant community—both where he had lived, in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, and more predominantly, in Brighton Beach. But despite his language edge, it was anything but easy.
“People were skeptical,” says Shkolnikov. Many of them had lived through decades of mistrust in the financial system back in the former Soviet Union. For new arrivals in the late ’80s and early ’90s, financial planning felt foreign. Some had been burned by salesmen peddling products they didn’t understand and convincing them to trust a young guy fresh out of college felt impossible, he recalls.
Eventually a Ukrainian-born prosecutor for the Brooklyn district attorney’s office (they’d met years earlier), introduced him to his family and friends, opening the door to older immigrants who had already built assets and businesses in America. Shkolnikov was eager to be involved in the community and quickly began sponsoring associations and showing up at local events. “It wasn’t just the language,” he says. “I understood the mentality.”
By his fifth year in the business, Shkolnikov had decided to focus almost exclusively on Russian-speaking clients, carving out his own niche in a competitive industry. Over time his practice expanded beyond New York—where he still keeps Manhattan and Brooklyn offices—to Miami, home to many Russian and Ukrainian expatriates. On early visits he noticed wealthy newcomers buying multimillion-dollar apartments in their own names with little thought to estate tax. “Estate tax exemption for non-U.S. residents is only $60,000,” says Shkolnikov. “If something happened, their kids could face a 40% tax bill.”
That realization became a turning point as he began educating clients on the United States’ complex (and changing) web of estate, gift and income taxes as well as strategies to mitigate them—whether through proper ownership structures, trusts, or life insurance. For green card holders, Shkolnikov warned about worldwide estate tax exposure. For non-residents, he introduced solutions like offshore entities or insurance coverage to handle potential liabilities. “People had no idea,” says Shkolnikov.
Today, he runs Scholar Financial Group—a mostly Russian-speaking team of nine at Northwestern Mutual, alongside longtime partner Michael Shafir, a college friend he recruited into the business. The practice is especially known for its pension plan work—with roughly 300 defined benefit and defined contribution plans under management, worth about $200 million. Few advisors focus as heavily on pensions. Shkolnikov works with actuaries to design plans that allow business owners to make large, tax-deductible contributions—sometimes even using pension money to purchase real estate or other investments. “Clients are shocked when they learn what’s possible,” he says. (These bespoke plans are considered a good way for business owners who started earning big dollars, or saving for retirement, later in life, to catch up.)
Beyond pensions, Shkolnikov’s client portfolios span the full spectrum of planning: insurance, investment strategies, buy-sell agreements and legacy structures. He prides himself on speaking in “street-smart” terms his clients can relate to, often putting himself in their shoes: “I always try to simplify the complex, explain it in practical language, and make sure clients feel I’m in it with them.”
The geopolitical upheavals of recent years have added urgency to his work. Before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, many of his Miami clients were wealthy Russians. Since the war, more Ukrainians have arrived—and often have to start over from scratch. Shkolnikov tailors his advice for these newcomers accordingly; for example, he may begin with simple term life insurance to provide protection for their families.
Now approaching 50, Shkolnikov has spent more than two decades building a business that is personal. Ninety-five percent of his clients are Russian-speaking immigrants—people who, like him, came to the U.S. seeking opportunity, stability, and a better life for their children. His average client in New York (excluding those new Ukrainian immigrants) may be worth $20–50 million; in Miami, where fortunes often arrived more recently, it’s closer to $200–400 million. “It doesn’t matter what stage of life you’re in,” says Shkolnikov. “People always need a financial plan.”
What he’s most proud of isn’t the awards—he’s ranked among Northwestern Mutual’s top producers for a decade—but the community impact. Families that once distrusted financial institutions now embrace long-term planning. “My own hometown of Kharkiv is now half destroyed—and I’ve seen firsthand how fragile that sense of security can be,” he says quietly.
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