Talk to us Meet Mike
What do you enjoy most about wealth management?
Deep, long-lasting relationships with families. Being a teacher, sounding board and trusted advisor.
What's the biggest challenge?
Staying emotionally detached from the roar of current economic and investment headlines.
What do you love most about being part of Aspiriant?
Being part of a team of smart, fun professionals dedicated to getting it right for our clients.
What professional accomplishments are you most proud of?
Helping our clients come through the Great Recession intact.
What quality of yours make you best suited for what you do?
My talent for synthesizing the many facets of a client's situation into clear choices.
How should people think about their wealth?
Money should work for you, not the other way around.
What do you love to do outside of work?
Enjoy food and wine, hike in the redwoods, travel, listen to Van Morrison.
What was the most influential book you've read and why?
Denial of Death, by Ernest Becker, about how holding onto the awareness of your mortality keeps you from running on autopilot.
What personal accomplishments are you most proud of?
Juggling everything required to be a good father, husband, brother, friend, owner, colleague, human.
Bio
Mike has been delivering comprehensive planning services to high net-worth families since 1983. He served on the Aspiriant Board of Directors, including serving as Chairman from 2007 until 2010.
Mike began his professional career at Deloitte Haskins & Sells in 1982, and joined the Executive Financial Counseling Group, led by Tim Kochis, three years later. For the next five years, he provided comprehensive financial, tax, and investment services to senior corporate executives and other high net-worth families.
After earning an MBA, Mike led the financial planning practice at an investment management consulting firm in Silicon Valley for four years, developing an expertise in the strategic role of stock options in wealth planning. In 1996, he joined Kochis Fitz, the predecessor firm to Aspiriant, and became a Principal of the firm in 1998. During that time, he developed a specialty in designing
Rule 10(b)5-1 stock sales plans.
In 2008, Barron’s recognized Mike as one of the 100 top independent wealth managers in America. He has been ranked by the San Francisco Business Times among the top 25 independent Wealth Managers in the Bay Area since that list was developed in 2007. Mike co-authored the book, Wealth Management, A Concise Guide to Financial Planning and Investment Management for Wealthy Clients. As an expert in comprehensive wealth management, he has appeared on National Public Radio’s Marketplace and been quoted in the New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, San Jose Mercury News, Financial Times, and Research.
Mike has been an instructor in the Personal Financial Planning Program at University of California-Berkeley, and makes presentations at professional conferences for financial advisors, attorneys, and CPAs.
Mike graduated from the University of Arizona with a BS degree in Economics and Finance (with Highest Honors). He earned a MBA from the Haas School of Business at the University of California-Berkeley.
