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Chontos, who has a Series 7 and 63, began her career as a secretary at J.B. Hanauer & Co. in Parsippany, N.J., and says she very much enjoys the “supporting role.” And although she's technically labeled a sales assistant, Chontos, 31, says she's viewed as a colleague and that Auerbach “works with me on the same level as he would with another advisor.” In fact, Auerbach refers to her as his partner.
And why shouldn't he? In 2002, when Auerbach decided to transform his transaction-based business into a wealth-management practice, Chontos was the one orchestrating and obtaining all of the necessary information from their clients to help make the switch. When it came to convincing a large not-for-profit client to make the wealth-management switch with them, Auerbach says the presentation and reports Chontos prepared “contributed tremendously” in the nonprofit's decision to stay on.
Chontos, Auerbach says, is an unusual sales assistant. “I don't see assistants take the initiative to understand and learn the products and then take the time to deliver the information in a way that clients can understand,” Auerbach says.
Although she's helped double Auerbach's assets to about $200 million, Chontos says she is still in the learning period of her career. “I've learned what I know from Gregg, and I'm still growing because of him,” she says.
The feeling is mutual. “I have the right person in the right role. It's very crucial for a business,” Auerbach says.
— Halah Touryalai
The Future Leader: Tracy Conrad
UBS
There are a lot of things financial advisor Susan Johnson says she could do without in her life and work these days, especially as she looks for someone to take over the lead role in her practice. Chief among the things she cannot give up? Her assistant, Tracy Conrad.
A native of Allentown, Pa., Conrad came to Chattanooga nine years ago with an associate's degree in accounting and the need for a job. She joined the UBS branch as a temp but Johnson, a 34-year veteran of the business, quickly offered her a full-time job.
A technologically challenged Johnson calls Conrad her “whiz” and notes that she does more than just organizing and helping draft client proposals and reports for client reviews. Since Conrad has her Series 3 (commodities), 7 and 63 licenses — with the Series 65 (registered investment advisor) on the way — she is well prepared to handle a wide range of tasks. And as one of the senior “registered customer service associates” (CSA) at her UBS branch, Conrad is asked to train new colleagues, too. Unfortunately for Johnson, she has to share Conrad with two other advisors in the branch, the three of them accounting for a total of $250 million in assets under management.
Johnson chalks up Conrad's success to energy, organization and drive. “My husband says Tracy has become an obsessive workaholic, just like me,” Johnson says with a laugh. She adds that Conrad will go all out to help a client. One example: She recently volunteered to stay after work to sort out 10 years of financial records for an elderly client. The husband, who managed the couple's affairs, had been stricken with Alzheimer's, leaving the wife overwhelmed. Conrad sorted her out.
So confident is Johnson in Conrad's abilities that she offered her the lead role on the team she wants to form so she can let someone else drive the business. Conrad turned it down. “I love the clients, I just don't want the increased liability and responsibility,” she says. “I love this job.”
— John Churchill
Today's Mom: Amy Foster-Mayberry
Barstow & Co. and Shonsey Wealth Management
Balancing child rearing with a career is no small feat for anyone. But Amy Foster-Mayberry has it all figured out. Foster-Mayberry is an independent contractor sales assistant with Barstow & Co. and Shonsey Wealth Management, two separate branch offices affiliated with independent broker/dealer Securities America in Omaha, Neb. Because she is an independent assistant to two independent FAs, she is able to work part-time and even from home, where she can also keep an eye on her two young children.
But she shoulders a full workload, handling everything from customer care to compliance and operations functions for the two FAs. One of the advisors credits Amy with her successful move to the independent side of the business. “I've had a lot of assistants. At Merrill Lynch, we used to chew them up and spit them out,” says Holly Murphy-Barstow, president of Barstow & Co., a predominantly fee-based advisor practice with 100 clients and an asset minimum of $1 million. “She's by far the best one I've had. She's really like a junior partner. I don't know what I would do if I lost her.”
Foster-Mayberry describes herself as a “very family-oriented person.” She says, “I have been able to create a position in which I can maintain my business contacts and continue to grow in my career as well as be with my children during this important time in their lives.” She adds, “By changing the ‘normal’ work environment into something that is more flexible, Holly and I have found that we are happier, and so are our clients.”
— Kevin Burke
The Asset Harvester: Dawn Macht
Investment Centers of America
Brad Connors hired Dawn Macht as his sales assistant because she came highly recommended from the one person who exhibited all the characteristics Connors was looking for — his mother.
Connors, a rep with Investment Centers of America in Waseca, Minn., a rural town about 77 miles outside of Minneapolis, needed to replace a recently departed SA, so he consulted his mom, a longtime executive secretary. Macht worked in the HR department of his mother's office, and she recommended Macht right away.
Four years later, Connors couldn't be happier. “I just knew Dawn was going to be perfect for the team,” says Connors, which includes a junior rep, Kevin Cox, and a part-time office assistant.
A self-described “bull-headed German-American,” Macht is the middle of five children who grew up on her parents' 200-acre dairy farm in Ellendale, Minn., milking cows and doing other chores like driving the silage harvester — a truck that collects and chops corn — which she still does occasionally “to relax.” After high school, she received a vocational degree in “dairy herd management,” and owned and operated her own herd of dairy cattle for two years.
Now she helps Connors look after 630 households — many of them farmers — with $60 million in assets. “It was difficult for a while,” says Macht of the career leap. Armed with her Series 7, Macht splits her time between customer service and marketing, a role that grows as the business progresses. She drafts a biannual newsletter — a combination of investment-related news, cooking recipes and word games — that is intended to get wives, kids and grandparents involved, and also plans client/prospecting events like a recent tailgate party — without the booze — at the local high-school football game.
What Macht does not do is solicit new business, but that might not be far off. Connors asked her to become his partner, an offer she turned down because she didn't feel ready. “I can see it perhaps down the road, but not yet,” she says.
-JC
The Introvert: Michelle Corey
of A.G. Edwards
Michelle Corey claims to be an introvert, but you wouldn't know it from talking to her. Or perhaps she sees it as her duty to overcome her inner shyness. “I try to manage each client on a personal level — get to really know him or her,” Corey says. “As we're helping clients transition into retirement, it's very scary for them. You need to be there to get them through and let them know it will be fine.”
But it's not just the softer side of the business that Michelle excels at. Corey, who works for Herb Ormond at A.G. Edwards in Greenville, N.C., has earned her Series 7 and Series 66 licenses, as well as the AAMS (accredited asset management specialist) designation. And she says she's working towards being able to review the accounts of smaller third-tier clients on a regular basis. “I never want to be in charge of selecting investments for clients — that's really outside of my comfort level,” she says. “But I would be happy to identify an account that might need some more help, some massaging of the assets.”
Ormond gushes about Michelle, whom he hired in 1995. After all, he says, her “attention to detail and extreme service mindedness” have been key to helping him almost triple the size of his business since she arrived. It really took off in 1998 and 1999 when referrals started rolling in. Today, he manages over $180 million in assets and does over $1 million in production. Michelle says Herb is the hero, while she's kind of like the control-top pantyhose. And then she laughs. Sounds like an introvert.
— Kristen French
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