Page 8 - Forbes Magazine-September 30, 2018

$2 billion of it) in
three investment AMERICA’S
buckets: one for es- TOP 250 WEALTH
sentials (putting the
ADVISORS
kids through college,
maintaining lifestyle
in retirement), one A record bull market has most
for aspirations (that investors smiling today. But
luxe vacation home when the tide turns, America’s
or round-the-world Top Wealth Advisors will lean
trip), and one for on relationships and innovative
legacy (philanthropy strategies like goals-based man-
and bequests). Mar- agement to hold on to assets.
tha’s Vineyard was an Below are 100 of America’s Top
“aspiration,” so Van 250 Wealth Advisors. For the full
Dusen started in-
vesting the woman’s list, go to www.forbes.com/top-
annual bonus in a wealth-advisors.
portfolio with a more
MINIMUM
aggressive asset allo- ACCOUNT
SIZE FOR
cation than the cou- TEAM NEW
ASSETS 1 BUSINESS 2
ple’s basic retirement
1 Jeff Erdmann $7.1B $2.5M
kitty. The surgeons MERRILL LYNCH PBIG GREENWICH, CT
were okay taking 2 Brian C. Pfeifler 4.5B 25M
the added risk, the MORGAN STANLEY PVT WEALTH NEW YORK
3 Christopher Errico 2B 2M
advisor says, because
UBS FINANCIAL SERVICES NEW YORK
“they knew even if 4 Andy Chase 18B 2M
the money was lost, MORGAN STANLEY PVT WEALTH MENLO PARK, CA
it wouldn’t change 5 Patrick Dwyer 3.8B 10M
MERRILL LYNCH PBIG MIAMI
their lifestyle.” After
6 Mark Curtis 30B 5M
just six years, they MORGAN STANLEY GRAYSTONE PALO ALTO, CA
had enough to buy 7 Charles Zhang 2.9B 1M
the house. ZHANG FINANCIAL PORTAGE, MI
LVW Advisors’ Lori Van 8 Rod Westmoreland 4.9B 10M
Dusen at her home in Van Dusen, MERRILL LYNCH PBIG ATLANTA
Pittsford, New York, amid ranked 69th on 9 Greg Vaughan 21.4B 10M
her own goals: a growing our annual list MORGAN STANLEY PVT WEALTH MENLO PARK, CA
collection of modern art, of America’s Top 10 James Hansberger 2.5B 2M
including Josef Albers’ Wealth Advisors, has MORGAN STANLEY PVT WEALTH ATLANTA
“Mitered Squares.” 11 Robert J. Skinner II 3.4B 5M
practiced this sort of FIRST REPUBLIC INVST MGMT PALO ALTO, CA
goals-based wealth 12 Lyon Polk 7.6B 10M
MORGAN STANLEY PVT WEALTH NEW YORK
management for three decades, making her an outlier. For most of those years, the con-
13 Andy Burish 3.2B 500K
ventional approach was to determine a client’s overall risk tolerance (based on answers to UBS FINANCIAL SERVICES MADISON, WI
a questionnaire, age and total wealth) and then manage all their money as one diversified 14 Shelley Bergman 2.7B 3M
portfolio, designed in line with modern portfolio theory to maximize returns for that MORGAN STANLEY NEW YORK
15 Randy C. Conner 5.4B 500K
level of risk. Advisors might help clients budget for goals, but it was a separate function.
CHURCHILL MANAGEMENT GROUP LOS ANGELES
Now, however, big firms such as UBS, Raymond James and Bank of America’s Mer- 16 Ric Edelman 22.3B 5K
rill Lynch are pushing their advisors to adopt some variant of Van Dusen’s goals-centric EDELMAN FINANCIAL SERVICES FAIRFAX, VA
investing approach. This shift has a lot to do with economics—both the economics of the 17 Raj Sharma 6.9B 5M
MERRILL LYNCH PBIG BOSTON
advice business and the growing influence of behavioral science on finance.
18 Peter Mallouk 4.3B 15M
Academics such as Richard Thaler, who won last year’s Nobel prize in economics, have CREATIVE PLANNING OVERLAND PARK, KS
persuasively described how “mental accounting” leads people to regard money differently 1 ADVISORS ARE JUDGED ON INDIVIDUAL CONTRIBUTION, BUT TOTAL TEAM
depending on what it’s to be used for. They’ve also explained how human tendencies (e.g., ASSETS ARE SHOWN; WHILE IN SOME CASES SIGNIFICANT, NONCUSTO-
DIED ASSETS ARE NOT INCLUDED DUE TO VERIFICATION DIFFICULTIES.
2 MINIMUM ACCOUNT SIZES ARE GENERAL, SINCE THEY CAN VARY DE-
hindsight bias, loss aversion) lead too many investors to buy at the top and sell at the bottom. PENDING ON A RANGE OF CIRCUMSTANCES. DATA AS OF 6/30/18.