Private Counsel

The questions that
remain after
success.

For twenty years I advised people whose decisions moved a great deal of capital and a great many lives. The questions they brought me were technical. The ones they kept were not: what the work was for, how to live inside what they had built, and who they were becoming while they held it. This page describes a private conversation about those questions, offered by referral or written request.

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Format
A private conversation, in person or by video
Access
By referral or written request
First conversation
Without fee or obligation
Honorarium
Paid in full to The SAVI Ministries
Languages
English, Spanish, Portuguese
The premise

Arrival is a threshold, not a destination.

The people I have worked beside had settled the question of money early. What they had not settled, and rarely had anyone to speak with about, sat underneath every board paper and term sheet: the purpose of the enterprise once it no longer needed them, the family that would inherit its weight, the body that was keeping its own account of the years, and the quiet sense that the work was not finished.

On January 8, 2023, an experience I did not seek changed the direction of my own life; what followed through that year is told, in my own words, at The SAVI Ministries. I did not leave the work of capital; I still structure transactions through The SAVI Group. But I now give part of every week to a different kind of conversation, with people who have arrived where they intended to go and find the question still open. What happened to me, and what I did with it, is written down, so that it does not have to be explained in the room.

The conversation

Six questions that money does not settle.

Every conversation is different, and most of them return to one of these. None has a technical answer, and none is helped by one more adviser with something to sell.

Purpose after the exit.

The company is sold, the trust is funded, the calendar is suddenly empty. What a life is for once it no longer has to earn anything.

Family and inheritance.

Children who will receive more than they made, a marriage that began with a different person, parents who did not live to see it. The human terms behind the estate plan.

Power and its weight.

Decisions that move thousands of livelihoods, taken alone, in rooms where everyone present is paid by you. Where to stand, and whom to trust.

Time, health and mortality.

The body's own account of how the years were spent, the diagnosis that reorders everything, and what the remaining years are for.

Faith, doubt and the inner life.

For those returning to a tradition, leaving one, or standing outside all of them and still sensing that something is being asked.

Giving that is more than a line on a return.

Philanthropy as the continuation of a life rather than its footnote. The difference between funding a cause and serving one.

How it is held

Plain speech, in confidence.

01

I have sat where you sit.

Two decades beside founders, family principals and boards. I am at ease with decisions of that scale, and I need nothing from you.

02

No commercial interest.

No product, fund, mandate or introduction follows from this conversation, in either direction, and nothing is paid to me. That separation is written down, and it is kept.

03

Experience before credentials.

What I bring to this comes from what happened to me and what I did with it afterwards, not from a qualification in it. I say so plainly, and the books say the rest.

04

Discretion is the baseline.

No names, no testimonials, no case studies. Nothing about you appears anywhere, and no one is told that we speak.

05

You will hear what I think.

Including when it is unwelcome. I have no stake in the outcome, and that is rarer than it should be.

06

Three languages, one register.

English, Spanish and Portuguese, natively. The same conversation, at the same depth, across the Americas and Europe.

Who it is for

Few conversations,
by design.

This is not a programme and it does not scale. I hold a small number of these conversations at any one time, so it matters that they are the right ones.

It is for

  • Founders and principals after a sale, a succession or a stepping back.
  • Heirs and next-generation members of enterprising families, carrying a weight they did not choose.
  • Executives and public figures at an inflection they cannot discuss inside their own organisation.
  • Family office principals whose questions have outgrown their advisers.

It is not for

  • Anyone in acute crisis. A medical or psychiatric emergency needs qualified care now, not a conversation with me.
  • Anyone seeking investment, tax, legal or medical advice. I do not give it here, and I will say so.
  • Anyone looking for a course, a retreat, a method or a community. Those exist elsewhere; this is one conversation at a time.
  • Anyone hoping for an introduction to capital. That door is a different one, and it does not open from here.
The form of it

A conversation, not a programme.

There is no curriculum and no fixed number of sessions. The form follows the question.

The first conversation.

Sixty to ninety minutes, without fee or obligation, in confidence. Enough for both of us to know whether there is something here.

An ongoing conversation.

A standing conversation at an interval you set: monthly, quarterly, or when something happens. In person in Fort Lauderdale or Buenos Aires, where you are, or by video.

A single question.

One conversation around one decision. Sometimes that is all that is needed, and it is offered as such.

The honorarium.

There is no price list. Those who continue make a payment they consider proportionate, directly to The SAVI Ministries, a 501(c)(3), which applies it to its work, including Compassion Flights. Nothing is paid to me personally, and whether any part of it is deductible is a question for your own adviser.

Process
1

A written request through the form below, or a referral from someone who knows us both.

2

A short reply from me within the week, with a time.

3

The first conversation, without fee, in confidence.

4

If we continue, the interval and the form are set out in a few lines, in writing.

Referrals may be made through the same form, naming the person who suggested it.

The separation

Counsel and capital do not meet.

This conversation and my capital work are kept apart by design. No mandate, investment, transaction, allocation or introduction arises from a counsel relationship, in either direction, and no counsel is offered to a counterparty in a live transaction.

If you come to me for this, you will not be sold that. If you come to me for that, this page is not the door.

What is written

Read first, if you wish.

Nothing on this page asks you to share my convictions. If you would rather know where I stand before we speak, it is all in print, in English and Spanish.

The books

Elsewhere

Who you would be speaking with
Santiago Vitagliano, author, in black and white

Santiago Vitagliano

Santiago Vitagliano founded The SAVI Group in 2002 and has spent more than two decades originating and structuring institutional transactions across the Americas and Europe. Under the name SAVI he has written three books on awakening, daily practice and physical alignment, read in more than twenty countries. He is founder and chairman of The SAVI Ministries, a 501(c)(3) humanitarian institution, and an FAA-licensed commercial pilot who flies its Compassion Flights. He works in English, Spanish and Portuguese, between Fort Lauderdale and Buenos Aires.

In brief
  • Founder and Chief Executive Officer, The SAVI Group, since 2002
  • Founder and Chairman of the Board, The SAVI Ministries, 501(c)(3)
  • Author of three books, published in English and Spanish
  • MBA, Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley
  • FAA Commercial Pilot (active); flies Compassion Flights
  • Works in English, Spanish and Portuguese
The author page → The SAVI Ministries →
Contact

Write plainly.

A few lines are enough: who you are, what has brought you here, and who suggested it, if anyone. Everything written here comes directly to me.

* required
Santiago Vitagliano
Founder · Author · Fort Lauderdale · Buenos Aires

Confidentiality
Requests reach Santiago Vitagliano directly and are not read by staff or intermediaries. No name, message or fact about you is shared, published or referred to, before or after we speak.

Everything else
Institutional, writing and ministry matters have their own place on the contact page.

This page describes private conversations offered by Santiago Vitagliano in a personal capacity. They are not psychotherapy, counselling within the meaning of any licensing statute, medical care, or legal, tax or investment advice, and they do not replace any of these; Santiago Vitagliano is not a licensed mental health professional, physician or attorney. If you are in crisis, contact your local emergency services now. Nothing on this page is an offer of securities, an invitation to any transaction, or a solicitation of any kind. Payments to The SAVI Ministries are voluntary, are made directly to that organisation and governed by its own terms, and their tax treatment is a matter for your own adviser.

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