Community remembers philanthropist Jim Casey
CEO and founder of Palm Springs and Newport Beach-based financial planning firm Integrated Wealth Management, James “Jim” Casey, passed away Monday morning, according to his business partners.
Casey, 52, was also a noted philanthropist who served on the Board of Directors of Desert AIDS Project, and the Palm Springs International Film Festival. He donated and pledged millions of dollars to DAP through IWM and personally.
Casey and his producing partner Kim Waltrip founded “Kim and Jim Productions,” which produced a number of films, including The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby, starring Jessica Chastain. Waltrip confirmed Casey’s death to CBS Local 2 and KESQ.
An email was also circulated among IWM employees on Monday, and Erik Mora, Chief Marketing Officer released this statement late Monday evening.
“Today all of us at Integrated Wealth Management are deeply saddened to learn that our founder, Jim Casey, has passed away. Jim’s dedication to Integrated Wealth Management, as well as his passion to his generous philanthropic efforts, made an impact in many communities, specifically in the Coachella Valley. For all of us at Integrated Wealth Management who have been fortunate to work with Jim, we have lost a dear friend. Our thoughts and prayers are with Jim’s family.”
Jim Casey’s impact on our valley was wide spread. Desert AIDS Project CEO David Brinkman said hearing about Casey’s passing was a complete shock.
“We are suffering a profound loss without having Jim as a part of this organization. And we are better because of him and we can all be better as we move into the future, as we remember what Jim stood for,” Brinkman said.
He met his best friend, Barbara Keller, in 2009 when the two were named co-chairs of the Steve Chase Humanitarian Awards Gala. Since then, the two were inseparable.
“Jim was an incredible humanitarian. He was a giver and he loved to give. He would have given the shirt off his back, to be trite, but that’s who he was. He was a wonderful friend,” Keller said.
In December 2011, Casey received the 339th star on the Palm Springs Walk of Stars.
A biography online states Casey held bachelors’ degrees in business and psychology from the State University of New York at Binghamton.
The circumstances of his death are still being investigated by the Palm Springs Police Department and the Riverside County Coroner’s office.
