Talk to us Meet Phillip
What do you enjoy most about wealth management?
I most enjoy helping clients enjoy their wealth and the happiness that it can bring them. I once worked on a last minute request from a client to wire funds so she could buy a pony for her daughter. It was a bit of a fire drill getting all of the paperwork in order. After it was all done, the client’s daughter sent me a thank you note with a photo of her riding her new pony, telling me how happy I had made her. It was very rewarding.
What's the biggest challenge?
Dealing with emotional reactions to market volatility and short-term price swings is always challenging. It is important to take a very zen approach and longer term view of the markets.
What do you love most about being part of Aspiriant?
When I am asked this question by job applicants in interviews, I always answer that at Aspiriant I get to work with a lot of very smart, very nice people. I love working with people who share the same passions that I do, and how we all work together to take care of our clients.
What professional accomplishments are you most proud of?
As a former employee of Charles Schwab, I advanced from being a temporary employee to a Director of Operations in only seven years. Becoming a Principal at Aspiriant!
What quality of yours makes you best suited to what you do?
I truly love client service and helping people. I also have a personal passion for investing and financial planning (it’s true!). Working at Aspiriant allows me to combine two of my greatest passions and I am a very lucky man because of that.
How should people think about their wealth?
Wealth should not be an end goal in and of itself. Wealth alone will not bring happiness and fulfillment. What you do with your wealth and how you share it is what brings happiness and fulfillment.
What do you love to do outside of work?
Outside of work I indulge in another of my passions—keeping up with national politics. I also enjoy genealogy and tracing my family’s history back as far as I can go (the various branches of my family tree almost all trace back to merry old England).
What would you be doing if you weren't working for Aspiriant?
I would probably still be working somewhere in the financial services industry because I love it so much. I majored in Psychology in college and stumbled upon my interest in investing and the stock markets in my first real job out of college. My manager at the time read the Wall Street Journal every day and I started reading it and discovered I really liked it!
What was the most influential book you've read and why?
The Ancestor’s Tale by Richard Dawkins. It is a marvelous trip through evolutionary history back to the dawn of time and beautifully illustrates the interconnectedness of all living things.
What personal accomplishments are you most proud of?
I moved to San Francisco out of college as a naïve 24-year-old and made it all work in one of the most beautiful and expensive cities in the world. I have two beautiful daughters of whom I am very proud.
Bio
Phillip joined Aspiriant in 2005 as a Senior Operations Specialist in the Client Service Operations department. He was promoted to Manager of the department in 2009 and Director in 2015. He has over twenty five years of experience within the financial services industry, including three years spent working independently as a Financial Advisor. Phillip manages the team of Portfolio Administrators who serve on Aspiriant client service teams and provide great service to our clients.
Prior to joining Aspiriant, Phillip worked in multiple operations departments at Charles Schwab & Co., Inc. for nine years and spent three years with Lincoln Financial Advisors as an independent Financial Advisor.
Phillip earned a BA degree in Psychology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He served on the Student Congress while an undergraduate.
Phillip is a native Southerner, hailing from the great state of Georgia. After almost thirty years in the Bay Area, vestiges of a southern accent still come through when he speaks. He is the proud father of two daughters and lives in Bernal Heights in San Francisco. One of his favorite charities is Friends of the Urban Forest, which helps individuals and neighborhood groups plant and care for street trees and sidewalk gardens in San Francisco.
