Angeles Wealth Management LLC, the Santa Monica, Calif.-based RIA affiliate of Angeles Investment Advisors LLC, has promoted financial advisor Chloe Wohlforth to partner, the company said.
At age 37, Wohlforth is the youngest partner in the firm’s history to be appointed to the position.
Wohlforth joined Angeles Wealth in 2019 as general manager of the New York City office she opened for the firm in the Seagram Building in midtown Manhattan with Harry Grand, a partner at Angeles Wealth and head of the New York City office at Angeles Investment. With more than a decade of experience as a financial advisor, she leads the firm’s financial planning program and carries out client engagement responsibilities nationwide, working with select private clients to help build, implement, and execute personalized wealth plans for individuals, families, trusts, estates, and their related philanthropic entities.
“Financial advice is inherently personal, and I’m honored to be entrusted with helping my clients reach their aspirations and objectives," Wohlforth said in a news release. “I’m deeply appreciative of the opportunity to serve them and to be named partner at a firm that shares my commitment to clients’ needs. Being a financial advisor is truly rewarding; our work helps families unite around shared visions and goals.”
Jonathan Foster, president and CEO of Angeles Wealth, praised the firm’s newest partner, citing her considerable contributions to its work as the basis for her promotion.
“It’s inspiring to see the energy and passion Chloe brings to helping the families we serve,” Foster said in the news release. “During a period of significant growth that has seen our team and client footprint expand in tandem, Chloe has emerged as a true leader. Her technical acumen, combined with her ability to tap into clients’ innermost needs, make her a tremendous asset to Angeles.”
Before joining Angeles Wealth, Wohlforth was a senior advisor at Bridgewater Advisors, an independent registered investment advisor. Prior to Bridgewater, Wohlforth advised families at independent wealth management firm and national trust company Chilton Trust. She received a bachelor’s degree in art history from Princeton University and a master’s degree in art business at Sotheby’s Institute of Art in London.
Wohlforth’s career path toward becoming a financial advisor began in tragedy. Just 16 years old on September 11, 2001, Wohlforth said she was sitting in her high school French class in Greenwich, Conn., when a friend came in and said a plane had just flown into the World Trade Center in New York City. Wohlforth’s father, a bond trader and managing director at Sandler O’Neill & Partners, an investment banking firm and broker-dealer, worked on the 104th floor of the World Trade Center’s South Tower. Martin Phillips Wohlforth, age 47, never returned home from work that day.
Her father had always handled the family’s finances, Wohlforth said, but caring friends introduced her grieving mother to a financial advisor who helped them pick up the pieces of their shattered lives after his death. Upon graduating from Greenwich Academy in 2003, Wohlforth followed in her father’s footsteps by enrolling at his alma mater, Princeton University, where she majored in art history. Despite Wohlforth’s professed love of art, an internship at Bear Stearns led to a full-time job at a hedge fund after graduation. When a position later opened up at a wealth management firm, Wohlforth said she accepted it because she realized that as a financial advisor, she could help others the way her mother’s advisor had helped the family after her father’s death.
According to Wohlforth, the Covid-19 pandemic presented new challenges to the financial services industry. To overcome them, she said, the industry replaced past practices that relied on in-person meetings to conduct business with new ones that relied on contactless technology.
“Like many other firms during the pandemic, we were forced to advance our virtual communications and paperless transactions,” she said in an email. “We were able to adapt to these changes seamlessly, resulting in an increase in productivity still in practice today.”
Wohlforth said that factors influencing the current economic environment post-pandemic made it easier for her to guide clients in shepherding their family’s wealth from one generation to the next.
“After the market experienced a 20% correction, it became easier to explain the importance of asset allocation and benefit of long-term investing to younger generations,” she said.
As the youngest person ever promoted to partner at Angeles Wealth, Financial Advisor asked Wohlforth what advice she would offer the next generation, particularly to women such as herself, who might not have considered a career in the financial services industry.
“As the next generation comes through the workforce, they will have various opportunities at different firms, along with many temptations that could redirect them onto different career paths,” she said. “The decisions may seem endless, but the key is to block out the noise and make a conscious choice to do what you find most fulfilling. That rewarding feeling only compounds with time as your responsibilities become more complex, you foster meaningful work relationships, and your commitment to clients creates more impact.”
Founded in 2001, Angeles Wealth Management LLC is an affiliate company of Angeles Investment Advisors LLC, founded in Santa Monica, Calif., in 2001. According to the Angeles Investment Advisor's website, the company oversees $37.8 billion in assets, and has offices in Santa Monica, Calif.; New York City; Chicago; and Houston.