On Wall Street annually honors the industry's
Later this month, On Wall Street will also unveil the top ten regional advisors under age 40.
Read about advisors numbered 31 to 40 below or view with images
No. 40: Josef Najar
- Firm: Credit Suisse
- Production: $2.877 million
- AUM: $344 million
- Age: 35
Since he started as a financial advisor, Josef Najar has "focused on a narrow investment philosophy.
His mantra is "cash flow and dividends, the New York-based financial advisor at Credit Suisse says.
Given the recessionary environment shortly after he began in 2007, Najars approach made sense.
"Our clients otherwise would have been their own worst enemy because they would have sold at the bottom of the market," he says.
But because Najar could point during that period to dividends, which were going up, he calmed clients. When stock prices rebounded, clients benefited and stayed with him.
With the subsequent rise of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, Najar hasnt forsaken his "dividends matter" theme because it still works, he says.
Najar also builds his book by helping his clients with financial planning, not directly related to investing their portfolio with him. He even helps some clients, many of whom own companies either in the real estate or shipping industries, connect with other investment banks if his own isnt providing underwriting services.
Najar offers those extra services free of charge because he knows that kind of guidance, given generously, pays off when his clients sell a company or otherwise have a liquidity event.
"You have to be hanging around the hoop to get the ball passed to you. You have to have discussions that dont necessarily have immediate revenues attached to them," Najar says.
No. 39: Guillermo Eiben
- Firm: Morgan Stanley Private Wealth Management
- Production: $2.929 million
- AUM: $150 million
- Age: 34
Latin America ranks as Guillermo Eibens go-to region for developing and fostering client relationships.
That geographic focus contributed to his impressive numbers this year.
Why did the multilingual Argentinian, New York-based Morgan Stanley Private Wealth Management financial advisor attract more Latin American clients and more of their assets in 2014?
Two reasons, according to Eiben.
First, his firm enjoys a reputation in his clients countries for having a leading role in U.S. securities markets, he says.
"Morgan Stanley has done a tremendous job of achieving name recognition in that part of the world," Eiben says.
But also the advantages of marketing a U.S.-based firm to Latin Americans multiplied this year when the economic prospects in their part of the globe dimmed. Many South American investors sought U.S. investment alternatives, given the slide in their countries currencies.
The Dow Jones Industrial Averages buoyancy marks a stark change since 2009 when Eiben started training, and market indexes continued to plummet.
He had worked as an analyst in an Argentinian outpost of a U.S.-based consulting firm before getting his master's degree at the University of Virginia and entering the retail side of the financial services industry.
Eiben recognized then that "if I was going to be able to sustain myself I was going to have to create revenue."
He began with that goal, and now, with one associate, Eiben, who appeared for the first time on this years list of 40 under 40, generated $2.9 million in production.
No. 38: Dan Rothenberg
- Firm: UBS
- Production: $2.937 million
- AUM: $2.38 billion
- Age: 33
Dan Rothenbergs endowment clients have grown at a faster rate than those in other categories this year.
That trend is no accident.
"Im spending more of my effort trying to build up that business," says Rothenberg, a Los Angeles-based advisor with UBS.
"I tend to enjoy that a little bit more," he says about advising those institutions, a task that typically requires meeting with their boards and committees.
The challenge of helping the endowments governing bodies develop investment goals allows Rothenberg to use "my nerdy economics number-crunching" qualities, says the Harvard graduate, who placed 10th in last year's 40 Under 40 ranking.
Typically, his endowment clients have $50 million to $100 million in assets and a variety of objectives set by their founding documents. Some have even begun to consider staying away from stranded assets.
The old adage requiring investors to choose between making money and doing good is beginning to reach its expiration date, Rothenberg says.
Rothenberg, who works with a five-person team, enjoys both using his people skills at board meetings and then closing the door of his office and poring over financial statements to find the right answers for the endowments investment needs.
"Its a perfect mix," he says about the required diplomacy with board members and closeted calculating.
No. 37: Butch Safyurtlu
- Firm: UBS
- Production: $2.944 million
- AUM: $227 million
- Age: 39
Never expect to find Butch Safyurtlu surrounded by a marketing team.
The Newport Beach, Calif.-based UBS financial advisor relies on no such services.
"My clients are my marketing team," says Safyurtlu, whose production was generated almost 99% from advisory fees and who moved up a notch from 38 in last year's ranking.
He begins initial conversations with clients by volunteering an unvarnished assessment of his and their interests.
"Everybody wants to make money, get rich and retire. The way Butch gets rewarded is a client refers a new client," Safyurtlu tells the new clients.
"The biggest compliment" a client may offer him is "referring a family member," he says.
When he started working in the financial services industry, Safyurtlu clocked slavish hours while attending and graduating from a night law school program.
Such a persistent work ethic has helped him earn referrals of clients siblings, he says.
Safyurtlu offers his clients a full complement of financial planning services, and he never rests on his laurels with his asset selections.
"If you are not changing things, you are not doing the things you should be doing," he says about asset management.
With those practices and philosophy, Safyurtlu not only attracts new clients but also retains existing ones, even when he switches firms.
In 2010, Safyurtlu moved from another investment bank to UBS. Within 90 days, more than 90% of his clients had moved with him.
"It was an incredible statement of confidence. I was blown away by the overwhelming support," Safyurtlu says.
"The firm put me in a position of power, and I have much more latitude" Safyurtlu says.
No. 36: Allen Saunders
- Firm: UBS
- Production: $2.950 million
- AUM: $781 million
- Age: 38
The bulls dominated the 2014 market, but even that upswing failed to make Allen Saunders stray from his long-term focus.
"We want to make sure we are buying companies that will continue to reward our shareholders. We are not looking for short-term performance," says the New York-based advisor, who slipped from his 32nd place finish last year.
Saunders expresses certitude regarding the mix of assets he chooses for his clients portfolios and his steadfast avoidance of trendy distractions, such as the equity buy of the day, week, month or even year.
If a client calls with an extra $500,000 in cash to invest, Saunders says he has no expectation or intention of casting about for a "good deal."
Rather, Saunders will allocate that addition into the clients existing portfolio because the financial advisor has already carefully chosen and balanced those assets.
Saunders pairs a no-gimmicks approach to investing with reliable service.
"We really make a point to do what we say we are going to do, and we dont have too many clients. We are very selective in terms of who we work with," Saunders says, though he declines to cite an exact number.
"We have a process for everything we do, and the clients know that," he says.
Even though his clients "sometimes get sick of hearing the word process," Saunders credits his allegiance to deliberate and orderly actions for bolstering his practice because "our clients would never expect to be guided blindly," he says.
No. 35: Peter Huffman
- Firm: Merrill Lynch Wealth Management
- Production: $2.969 million
- AUM: $620 million
- Age: 35
Peter Huffman reflects back on when he got his start in the industry working for Merrill in 2008 and realizes his timing couldn't have been better for a young advisor.
It proved to be the most rewarding time of his career so far, says Huffman. "Going through the 'Great Recession' as I entered the industry and working closely with so many families in the ensuing years to minimize the impact of the market's volatility," he recalls.
Huffman previously worked for The Clinton Foundation, which had him working in Africa for 5 years. He managed several health efforts aimed at building up local HIV and AIDS care and treatment programs. He left convinced he wanted to continue serving others, and saw opportunity within the private sector, working as an advisor.
At Merrill, Huffman advises a varied client base of young CEOs in Silicon Valley to a 111-year-old retiree. "Most of my clients have a net worth in the range of $10 million to $50 million. "Albeit there are many on both ends of that range," he says. "Nearly all of them are self-made, and my client base resides in 39 states."
His business has grown consistently since the crisis, and as Huffman notes, he's managed to maintain the service model of "supporting every client at every level," over those years. His goal is to continue providing a "level of support that our clients deserve. His ambitions also continue, with plans for growing his business with another $100 million in new assets.
No. 34: Matias Cohen
- Firm: UBS
- Production: $2.985 million
- AUM: $350 million
- Age: 37
For many of Matias Cohens clients, the majority of whom reside in South America, 2014 qualified as a challenging year due to the regions economies and declining currency values.
So his clients appreciated his "rational" approach more than ever this year, says Cohen, a UBS advisor in Miami, who moved up the ranks from 40th last year.
His production is about 60% from transactional fees and 40% from advisory ones.
What principles serve as the bedrock of Cohens "rational" approach?
"Realistic expectations and risk avoidance," he says.
"We are not trying to be the best performers. We instead are trying to hit close to the rate of returns we target, Cohen says.
We are more concerned with risk than with returns," he says.
Cohen, who studied economics before moving to the United States and UBS, tells clients that "not many people are going to do better than the S&P [500]."
His success hinges on keeping low volatility in his clients portfolios, he says.
"We believe our business is wealth preservation, Cohen says.
We dont have clients that want to be rich from the market. They are rich, Cohen says.
They just want to be sure they dont take risks," says Cohen, who works with a team of two other financial advisors and three assistants.
When he started at UBS in 2003, steadiness "differentiated" his team from the competition, Cohen says.
Early on, he learned that pairing consistent returns with a high level of service worked.
Cohen opts not for flashy but rather predictable.
"We are not Gordon Gekko," Cohen says, referring to the fictional character from the movie, "Wall Street."
No. 33: Daniele Conci
- Firm: Morgan Stanley Private Wealth Management
- Production: $2.986 million
- AUM: $336 million
- Age: 39
Pasta, gelato and Daniele Conci.
What do they have in common? Italians loyalty.
"My niche is Italians," says Conci, a financial advisor, who works for Morgan Stanley Private Wealth in Miami, and who has roster full of Italian clients who reside in South America and Europe, including, not surprisingly, Italy.
That is the country where the bilingual Conci once launched an Italian private bank.
He transferred to the United States to start the banks branch operations, "the beginning of my American adventure," Conci says about the move.
Once in the United States, he first switched to a U.S. branch of BNP Paribas before starting in 2011 at Morgan Stanley.
"Amazingly most of my clients came with me," Conci says about when he shifted to Morgan Stanley, where he has continued to help build his largely transactional business.
Despite his own firm-switching career path, he recommends that advisors avoid hopping from employer to employer.
"Everybody should stay where they are and concentrate on the relationship with clients. Be close to the clients, close to their families," Conci says.
"Your move makes their life difficult, he says. The last you want to do is complicate your clients life."
When advisors move simply for money or situational reasons, they strip their clients of the one thing they usually seek: stability, Conci says.
"You need to put clients needs in front of any other because your service to them goes well beyond the performance of the portfolio," he says.
No. 32: Gregory Cash
- Firm: Merrill Lynch Private Banking and Investment Group
- Production: $3.029 million
- AUM: $2.2 billion
- Age: 39
Gregory Cash recognizes that his success this year in deepening his client relationships has hinged in part on his age.
The Merrill Lynch financial advisor, based in Charlotte, N.C., identifies most of his clients as 50-somethings, who have created fortunes of $10 million or more.
Those clients offspring are typically 20-somethings, and they are the likely beneficiaries of those fortunes, Cash says.
He falls squarely in between the ages and financial demographics of his clients and their adult children, and his understanding of both their world views "is key," Cash says.
It helps qualify him as a useful resource and advisor for clients and their families who need work through wealth and generational issues.
Cash, who was 26th in last year's ranking, solidifies his relationships with clients using his strength at providing intergenerational advice.
"We are known for helping families," he says. "Wealth creators usually have concerns about how their children and grandchildren will be responsible with the money they have made.
At the same time, the wealth creator, often the father, "may not have been around that much when the kids were growing up, so gulfs might exist between the generations, Cash says.
His team of 12 has developed tools to help the clients families "move through those issues," and Cash says he uses those to coordinate multigenerational meetings with discussions about income distributions, work incentives and philanthropy.
The help that Cash has provided his clients families has also made him think about his own.
He and other firm members join a monthly scheduled conference phone call to talk about raising children who are "not entitled," he says.
No. 31: Justin Ryan
- Firm: UBS
- Production: $3.089 million
- AUM: $526 million
- Age: 37
If clients inquire about his team providing additional services, Justin Ryan knows his answer before they ask.
A UBS financial advisor in Atlanta, he says, "We are very service-oriented. Whatever the client asks, the answer is going to be yes from a service standpoint."
Ryan moved up the ranks from 37th last year, and generated all his production from advisory fees. He makes such a no-limits-on-service approach possible by limiting his teams number of clients.
"Our goal is to never have more than 40 clients. We want every client to think they are our only client, Ryan says.
We often hear from them, We cant believe you have other clients," he says.
Ryan is a hands-on asset manager.
"We dont [use] third-party separately managed accounts and very little mutual funds," Ryan says.
He operates a tight-knit team with two senior associates and an administrator.
Each team member knows that Ryan has set his expectations high, he says.
No one is surprised to get a call during scheduled vacation time to handle a work matter. Team members rise to the occasion.
"Each person on our team is a strong leader," Ryan says.
Motivating them is the knowledge that "as hard as it is to get a client, its very easy to lose a client," he says.
When a client walks from an advisor, "usually its over a service issue that is a fringe issue, says Ryan, adding that "I would never want that to happen to us."
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