Editor's note: What follows is an interview by Paul Ellis, a well-known advisor and consultant on sustainable investing strategies, with Geri Pell, a Barron's Top 100 Women Advisor and CEO of Pell Wealth Partners, and Katherine "Katie" Burstein McGinn, an advisor at Pell's firm, that provides insight on bringing more women and millennials into financial planning careers.
Paul: Geri, you brought Katie onboard in April 2014. What was your inspiration for bringing a millennial advisor to Pell Wealth Partners (PWP)?
Geri: Paul, our industry needs two things right now. One is more women advisors. The other is more young people discovering financial planning as a fantastic and empowering career path.
So when a colleague suggested I would be a good mentor for Katie, I saw an opportunity. I was immediately drawn to her sensibility, personality and intelligence. I was also impressed by her depth of knowledge and experience as a millennial in our industry.
Paul: Katie, you were working for Mercer when you and Geri met, correct?
Katie: Yes, I was on a global team of consultants working with institutional clients like pension funds, endowments and foundations to integrate environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors throughout their investment decision-making processes. I was used to dealing with the board of trustees and pension fund managers, but wasn’t getting to know the investor at the end of the chain and wanted to learn more.
From the moment I sat down with Geri and felt her passion for what she does, something just clicked for me. She said that to be a successful financial advisor you need to have the mind of a capitalist and the heart of a social worker.
Geri: Even though I didn’t have a position for Katie at that time, I started talking to other leaders in our practice about how we could create one for her. I like to figure out a way to use talent when you find it rather than waiting until you need the person.
We brought Katie in for a formal interview. At that point I had to decide whether to take the entrepreneurial risk of hiring someone we didn’t need at the time, but who brought extra capabilities in the ESG market and a millennial perspective to the team.
Paul: In taking that risk, what role did you offer Katie?