Today’s guest is Lawrence Sprung, president and founder of Mitlin Financial, Inc., as well as member of the National Board of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP), and the co-founder of the Keith Milano Memorial Fund.

Facts

• Lawrence Sprung earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Mathematics from Binghamton University.
• He entered the financial industry in 1996.
• In 2004, Larry founded Mitlin Financial, Inc., a company named in memory of his wife’s grandfather Mitchell, and his mother, Linda. Mitlin is an SEC Registered Investment Advisor (RIA) that prides itself on facilitating their client’s financial future. 
• He’s been recognized as one of Long Island Business News’ “40 Under 40*” and was chosen, in 2009, as Valedictorian of the “40 Under 40*” Class of 2006. Most recently, he was the recipient of the “2017 Top Financial Executive Award”.
• His commentary is regularly featured in publications such as Long Island Business News, U.S. News & World Reports, Newsday, Investopedia, Yahoo Finance, Nasdaq’s website and RT Digital Magazine, serving the publishing industry.
• Just prior to launching his firm, his brother-in-law Keith Milano, died by suicide, and he and his wife decided it would be best to move forward.  This also had an impact on their charitable endeavours and involvement.
• In the 14 years since his death, he and his wife Denise have raised in excess of USD 1,000,000 for the Keith Milano Memorial Fund at the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP).

Quotes

“‘Hey, what’s going on, is there something wrong with you? Can I help in some way? Because that one question could take that person from the deepest, darkest despair and get them on the right path”

“More people are talking about [mental illness] than ever. Which is great, (…) the conversation puts us on the path to healing. But I thing that there are forces out there that are putting our society in a position to be more prone to mental illness.”

“Hopefully one day, AFSP will put themselves out of business, and there won’t be a need for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. That’s really the big audacious call, right? That we put ourselves out of business.”

“We are working on ways to lower the suicide rate by 20% by the year 2025”.

Links

https://www.keithmilano.org/

http://www.afsp.org

https://www.linkedin.com/in/lawrencesprung

http://www.mitlinfinancial.com