This week’s Special Report includes Orange County entries from two annual lists compiled by Barron’s magazine.
Barron’s ranks top financial advisers by state, and three OC advisers were named among the top 100 in California. Factors in the rankings included regulatory records, revenue, philanthropic work and assets under management.
We also have drawn three OC entries from the latest Barron’s list of the top 100 independent financial advisers in the U.S., along with four local advisers who made the most recent Barron’s list of top 100 female advisers nationally.
Assets under management, revenue and quality of practice were primary considerations for those lists, according to Barron’s.
One local adviser, Laila Pence, made all three lists.
Laila Pence
Pence Wealth Management
Location: Newport Beach
Rank on Barron’s list: No. 31 among top advisers in California (up from No. 34); No. 90 among top independent financial advisers (new on the latest list); No. 13 among top women advisers (up from No. 26)
Education: bachelor’s in economics, University of California, Los Angeles
Laila Pence was one of the two Orange County financial advisers named among the top 100 in California, ranked annually by Barron’s magazine.
Her firm oversees about $898 million in assets, about a 15% increase from a year ago.
A typical account at the firm is about $2 million, and a typical client’s net worth is $5 million.
Pence Wealth Management has plans to double office space in coming months to make room for future hires.
“We started 12 years ago in this same building on Birch, on the fourth floor,” Pence said. “We’ve been there six years. And then we’ve been on the seventh floor for another six years. Now we’re going to the eighth floor and doubling space. We’re adding more financial advisers and service advisers. We’re about 20 people right now, and we’ll double within the next five years.”
It’s a good time to increase office space, according to E. Dryden Pence, Laila’s husband and chief investment officer of the firm.
“We think we’re in an earlier part of an expansion cycle in real estate,” he said. “While prices were falling, it was a waiting game. Now the market is firming up, and there’s an incentive to move sooner than later. From a business standpoint of growing our firm, now’s a good time to make this move.”
Marc Foster
UBS Financial Services Inc.
Location: Newport Beach
Rank on Barron’s list: No. 100 among top advisers in California (down from No. 84)
Education: bachelor’s in chemistry, California State University, Fullerton
Marc Foster leads a team that manages about $772 million in assets. That’s up from a year-earlier total of $700 million.
The average account for Foster Wealth Management Group, which operates under UBS Financial Ser-vices, is $4 million. A typical client has net worth of $10 million.
The team of six fared well last year, thanks to strategic positioning of assets and clients’ confidence in the firm, Foster said.
“We did a lot with discounted debt and a lot with municipal debt that rallied handsomely,” he said. “We had decent market exposure. We basically did everything we could to keep cash as low as possible. Some people just have been afraid, but we tried to keep people fully invested.”
The current environment of low interest rates might make the next handful of years a challenge for many investors, Foster said.
“Interest rates have come down such that a lot of the debt products have been redeemed,” he said. “Now you’re going to have to be more equity-oriented, and that means people have to take a leap of faith. Cash-flow-producing assets are going to become rarer. People will have to lean a bit more on the equity side, and that’s where there’s been a discomfort.”
He expects those concerns to ease.
“I think people are going to be surprised by how well the market does,” Foster said. “The market’s going to do well because of the fact that so many institutions are underinvested. You won’t see a huge increase in corporate earnings, but you’ll see [price-to-earnings] ratios rise in the course of this year. One reason is there’s a bit of confidence coming back into the system. [Also], there’s evidence in today’s global market—with the banking crisis in Cyprus and what was at first blush going to be a bad market in Asia—that money wants to move into the U.S. Our market is basically up now.”
Foster also heads Costa Mesa-based building products company ResinArt Corp. with his wife, Rhenda.
Doug Allison
Beacon Pointe Advisors LLC
Location: Newport Beach
Rank on Barron’s list: No. 60 among top independent financial advisers (new on the latest list)
Education: bachelor’s in genetics, University of California, Berkeley
Beacon Pointe Advisors manages $4.54 billion in assets, with an average account of $7 million.
The firm’s typical client has net worth of $15 million.
The employee-owned firm serves individuals and institutions.
Senior Managing Director Allison was part of the 12-member team led by Garth Flint that left Newport Beach-based Canterbury Consulting Inc. in 2002 to found Beacon Pointe. Flint serves as chief executive.
Feroz Ansari
Compak Asset Management Inc.
Location: Newport Beach
Rank on Barron’s list: No. 68 among top independent financial advisers (new on the latest list)
Education: master’s in international management, Thunderbird School of Global Management; MBA, Institute of Business Administration, Karachi, Pakistan
Compak Asset Management has $575 million in total client assets. Average account size is about $500,000, and a typical client has net worth of $2 million.
President Moe Ansari noted that the firm is among the handful on the Barron’s list that has a typical asset size of less than $1 million.
“We’ve always tried to cater to as many people as possible,” Ansari said. “We don’t want to forget those people who brought us to the dance.”
The firm moved to Newport Beach last year after 10 years at an office in Irvine Spectrum. The office houses a recording room where Ansari hosts a daily radio broadcast, dubbed Market Wrap with Moe Ansari. The segment, which has been airing for more than 20 years, is heard on 16 stations across the U.S. It includes an analysis of the day’s financial news from Wall Street and abroad, as well as a summary of market activity.
“I always end it with technical analysis,” Ansari said.
Guests on the broadcast have included economist Milton Friedman and Steve Forbes, chief executive of Forbes Inc.
Ansari said he enjoys keeping Compak a family business.
“I meet 99% of our clients and do the radio show, and my brother [Chief Operating Officer Feroz] runs the day-to-day operations of the company,” Ansari said.
His two sons, Javaid and Imran, also work at the firm.
Trudy Haussmann
Haussmann Financial Inc.
Location: Newport Beach
Rank on Barron’s list: No. 30 among top women advisers (down from No. 27)
Education: bachelor’s in economics and political science, University of California, Los Angeles
Haussmann Financial manages $854 million in assets, up about 4% from a year earlier. That’s a nearly 62% growth compared with the asset total reported in 2010.
An average account with Haussmann’s team now is about $530,000, and a typical client has net worth of about $980,000.
The firm specializes in retirement transition for clients, providing pension projections, analysis of severance options and portfolio monitoring, among other services.
Haussmann set up her advisory firm in 1990 after getting into the financial services industry in 1985 as she wrapped up her studies at UCLA.
Haussmann Financial has affiliated offices across Southern California, including Long Beach, Riverside and San Diego.
Anouchka Balog
Morgan Stanley Smith Barney
Location: Laguna Niguel
Rank on Barron’s list: No. 85 among top women advisers (down from No. 72)
Education: bachelor’s in finance, University of Montreal, Canada
The Balog Group has $469 million in assets under management, a 5% growth year over year. Its accounts average $3 million, and a typical client has $8 million in net worth.
Balog has been ranked on the Barron’s list of top women advisers for six consecutive years.
She counts 20 years of working with Morgan Stanley Smith Barney.
Balog moved to the U.S. from Canada in 1988 after working at a trust company and a brokerage firm. She spent about five years at the Laguna Hills office of Prudential Securities before joining Citigroup Inc.’s Smith Barney brokerage unit in 1993. The division merged with Morgan Stanley’s wealth management arm in 2009.
Janice Hobbs
LPL Financial Services
Location: Orange
Rank on Barron’s list: No. 92 among top women advisers (down from No. 57)
Education: bachelor’s in economics, San Diego State University; MBA in finance, University of Southern California; master’s in entrepreneurship, USC
Hobbs leads JanHobbs Financial Group, which has $490 million in assets under management, a 9% increase from the year-earlier total. An average account size is $3 million, and a typical client has $5.5 million in net worth. Both figures are up from a year prior.
“Growth of a financial advisory firm comes from … appreciation of the assets we manage, clients adding money to their accounts and accepting new clients,” Hobbs said. “Our firm benefited from all three sources in 2012. However, it really comes from our existing clients. They are sophisticated enough to understand why we have their portfolios positioned in [certain ways].”
Hobbs has taught a number of classes on personal finance planning at University of California, Irvine and also has given lectures at the California State University campuses in Fullerton and Long Beach.
“[Now] I return to the classroom or boardroom as a guest,” Hobbs said, “speaking on specific topics when invited by clients or colleagues.”
