THE BARATELLI INSTITUTE · Mentoring at Scale
WHAT WE DO

Mentoring at scale.

A library, interactive tools you can run yourself, a deeper conversation when you need one, a talk for your group if you want one, and a network of firms I trust for ongoing work. Pick whatever fits — and reach out anytime.

A QUICK INTRODUCTION

I'm Phil. Here's what we built — and why.

The Baratelli Institute is a library I've been writing for the past several years — practitioner-grade guides on family office finance, estate planning, trust administration, the CFO function, private equity, the liquidity event, the athlete's wealth playbook, gentrifying small towns, treasure assets, wealth psychology, and a few adjacent topics. The library is paired with a set of free interactive tools designed to help you run the math on your own situation in five minutes instead of paying a consultant to do it for you.

My name is Philip A. Baratelli, CPA, MBA. I write the guides, build the tools, and answer the email.

THE POINT OF ALL THIS

The kind of mentor I wish more people had access to.

Think of the Institute as a mentor — the kind who has been around the block a few times, has seen the deals and the divorces and the trusts and the IRS letters, and is happy to sit down and walk you through whatever you're trying to figure out. Most people never get that mentor. Either they don't know one personally, or the one they know costs $800 an hour and only takes calls from existing clients.

For most of the past forty years, the kind of practitioner-grade content in this library lived behind locked doors: Big-4 partner-rate hours, white-shoe law firm retainers, family-office membership programs, $25,000-a-year research subscriptions, $5,000 conference passes. If you were already wealthy, you had access. If you weren't yet, you were on the outside.

The premise of the Baratelli Institute is that this should not be the case anymore. The same depth that used to require a partner-rate hour can now be put into your hands at the price of a paperback — or, in the case of the tools, free. Whether you're a Big-4 partner or a parent trying to figure out a kid's NIL situation, the front door is the same and you're equally welcome.

FOUR WAYS WE CAN HELP

Pick the one that fits.

Most readers start with the Library — it's free or low-cost and you can dig in at your own pace. Some want a deeper conversation about their specific situation, which I do for a small number of clients each year. Some want me to come speak to their group. And some need ongoing professional services that I refer out to firms I personally trust.

START HERE
The Library and Tools
Free interactive tools and the full Practitioner Guide Series.
The library currently runs to ten volumes — covering family office, the CFO function, the liquidity event, private equity, estate planning, trust administration, the athlete's wealth playbook, and more. Most are 200 to 600 pages and they're written for the practitioner reader, not the textbook reader.
The free interactive tools at tools.baratelliinstitute.com are designed to give you a calibrated answer in about five minutes. You'll find calculators for liquidity-event planning, PE fund economics, CFO engagement sizing, athlete wealth trajectory, NIL commitment decisions, family office cost, trust type selection, and deal multiples. They run entirely in your browser. No account needed. Hopefully you find them useful.
Cost
Free, or per-guide on Gumroad
Great for
Reading at your own pace, running your own scenarios
Where to find it
baratelliinstitute.com · Gumroad · the tools site
WHEN YOU WANT TO TALK IT THROUGH
A Conversation About Your Situation
Sometimes you need to talk to a real person about a real situation. That's what this is for.
The library and tools are designed to take you most of the way. But sometimes the situation is too specific, too time-sensitive, or too high-stakes for a calculator — your business is selling in eighteen months and you want to talk through the planning sequence; your family is setting up its first office and you're not sure which structure fits; your kid just got an NIL offer that doesn't add up and you'd like a second set of eyes; your fund is between Fund II and Fund III and you want to pressure-test the carry structure. That's the kind of conversation I'm happy to have.
What you'll get: a focused, scoped piece of work. We agree on what you need answered, the fee, and the timeline up front. The deliverable is a written plan you can take to your existing CPA, attorney, and advisors. I do a small number of these each year so the work stays at the depth I'd want for myself.
Typical fee
$25K-$75K, agreed up front and scoped to the situation
Timeline
Usually four to eight weeks, written plan at the end
Great for
Owners, families, GPs, and anyone at a real decision point
How to start
Send me an email with a few sentences about your situation — I'll get back to you within a week
IF YOU WANT ME TO COME SPEAK
Speaking & Media
Keynotes, panels, executive briefings, and podcast conversations.
I love talking about this stuff, and I'm a pretty good speaker. The topics that audiences seem to enjoy most: the liquidity event and how to plan for one, family office design, the post-NIL economics for athletes and their families, the CFO function in private companies, and what private equity actually looks like from the founding-GP seat. If your conference, association, board, or executive group wants a session on any of that, let's talk.
Industry conferences (AICPA, FPA, NACVA, family-office gatherings like Campden and FOX, athletic-finance and NIL events), corporate executive education, university programs — all welcome. Podcasts too — I love a good long-form conversation, and most podcast appearances I'm happy to do for free if the audience is a fit.
Speaking fee
$15K-$75K depending on venue, audience, and travel
Podcasts
Usually free if the audience is a fit
Lead time
8-12 weeks is ideal — but ask anyway, I can sometimes squeeze things in
How to book
Email with venue, date, audience, topic, and any budget context
IF YOU NEED ONGOING HELP
Firms I Trust
A short list of firms I'd send a friend to.
For ongoing professional work — tax preparation, monthly accounting, family-office operations, wealth management, trust services — I keep a short list of firms I personally know and trust. They specialize in the topics the library covers: liquidity events, estate planning, trust administration, athlete finance, family-office operations, PE and founder advisory.
Tell me what you need and roughly where you're located, and I'll point you to the right firm or two. They take it from there. I don't take referral fees and I don't own a piece of any of them — I just want you to land somewhere good.
Cost
Set by the partner firm — typical market rates
Great for
Tax, accounting, family-office, RIA, and trust services
How to start
Email with your need and location; I'll send 2-3 firms within a week

How to get in touch.

The fastest way to reach me is email: hello@baratelliinstitute.com. Tell me a few sentences about your situation — what you're trying to figure out, when you need it, and the best way to get back to you. I read everything that comes in and I'll respond within about a week.

Whether you're a reader who has a quick question about a guide, a parent of an athlete trying to make sense of an offer, an owner six months from selling a business, a banker who wants to talk through a deal, or a conference organizer thinking about a keynote — same address. Don't overthink it.

And if you're not ready to reach out yet — subscribe to The Baratelli Brief at baratelliinstitute.com. One thoughtful piece per week on private wealth, family enterprise, and the structural questions that surround them. Free, always will be.