An Advisor's Advisor

With a passion from the get-go to learn finance’s academic side, it was natural for Nersesian to want to pass along this knowledge and practical advice to other FAs. That opportunity cropped up when, as an 18-year advisor, Merrill asked him to provide advanced training to other big producers. And for the next two years, in addition to being an advisor, he taught wealth management strategies and business development practices.

He gave up his practice to join Nuveen and now, well into his career’s second act, says: “I loved being an advisor, but I enjoy training so much.” He misses his book “not at all,” admits the Investment Management Consultants Association board member, with Nuveen now since 2000. The asset management firm, which went private last year, consists of six boutiques, including units focused on growth equity, value and alternative investments.

A native of Livingston, N.J., Nerses-ian, whose dad was director of research and development at Bristol-Myers, displayed early interest in pursuing a career in business. But, he says, it wasn’t until a sophomore college course in investments that he “fell in love” with finance.

He graduated from Lehigh University with a B.S. in business and economics, and joined Merrill right away. Based in Northern New Jersey, he rose to become a $1.5 million producer catering to high-net-worth families. One of three partners, the team managed assets of $500 million.

But as soon as he started training others, he found a calling. “Don’t get me wrong — being an advisor was great. But I was beginning to come home and grumble about the market or about my clients. My wife Lucine could immediately tell the days I was doing training because,” he says, “I was energized and in a more positive mood.”

About eight years ago, Nuveen gave him the opportunity to start a consulting group as an extension of the firm’s sales team. It was an exciting offer to do what he was doing informally at Merrill and, for the first time, become a senior manager. The timing was perfect: Not only was he tired of being an advisor, his partnership was breaking up.

“I was thinking, ‘What’s the next step for me professionally?’ People have to be intellectually stimulated and given the chance to find out what else they could be good at beyond what they’ve already done.”

Here’s a man who found out. “John really knows his stuff,” says independent advisor Jim Dobbs, a consultant to IMCA, where Nersesian is on the faculty of the Chartered Private Wealth Advisor program. “He’s technically sound — and he’s a great teacher and communicator. It’s hard to find that combination,” says the Denver-based FA.

To be sure, advisors nowadays need all the help they can get: wealthy families are seeking services similar to those typically previously provided to institutional clients only, notes Nersesian.

“The financial advisory relationship [with individuals] has certainly evolved beyond just the recommendation of stocks and bonds. The question now is, given that evolution, what progress have you as an advisor made in your own development? What it comes down to,” he says, “is survival of the fittest.”

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Freelance writer Jane Wollman Rusoff is a Los Angeles-based contributing editor of Research and is the founder of Family Star Productions.