TOP FINANCIAL ADVISERS
Laila Marshall-Pence steers clients toward stocks, bonds, hedge funds and Starbucks.
Along with securities, Marshall-Pence gets clients into real estate, particularly shopping centers where Starbucks Corp. and Walgreen Co. are tenants.
Most of her clients at Newport Beach-based Pence Wealth Management have about half of their wealth invested in real estate, Marshall-Pence said.
$300M Managed
With $300 million under management, Marshall-Pence said her firm focuses on strategies more common among the ultra wealthy, rather than just the plain wealthy.
Her 175 clients tend to have at least $5 million in assets and come from 30 different states. Those from California she calls “Californianaires.”
On average, they invest about $2 million with her firm, some looking for stocks and bonds, others wanting a piece of a hedge fund or other alternative investment.
Stocks are traded through San Diego’s Linsco/Private Ledger Corp., one of the biggest brokerages outside of those at the dominant investment banks.
Marshall-Pence, who was born in Egypt, owns Pence Wealth Management with husband Dryden Pence, who is chief investment officer.
Dryden Pence earned an economics degree from Harvard University and served as an Army intelligence officer specializing in psychological warfare. He served in the first Gulf War.
Marshall-Pence’s office is adorned with pictures of herself with luminaries: the first President George Bush, Rudolph Giuliani, Alan Greenspan, James Baker, Robert Dole and others.
On a desk are a signed basketball and baseballs.
After 27 years in business, Marshall-Pence said she’s working with fourth generation clients at her firm.
Taxes are part of her strategy. Marshall-Pence’s start in finance came in college when she sold annuities to teachers, educating them on the tax breaks they were entitled to, she said.
“Clients don’t care what you know until they know you care,” Marshall-Pence said.
She’s an avid tennis player, sports watcher and a member of the Women’s Philanthropy Fund of Orange County, part of the United Way.
She and her husband have a five-year-old daughter and spend their free time with her and going to sporting events.
7. Laila Marshall-Pence
– Company: Pence Wealth Management
– Location: Newport Beach
– Years in business: 27
– Education: bachelor’s, University of California, Los Angeles
