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Ask Josephti Anything Thumbnail

Ask Josephti Anything


Send additional questions to: info@thewealthgardenfs.com, and they will be added to this post. 

Q: Are you a fiduciary?

Jo: Yes!

Q: How many years of experience do you have?

Jo: I accepted my first job in financial services 23 years ago in 1998.

Q: What is your financial planning experience?

Jo:  I’ve worked with both individual and institutional clients.  I started out in a support role creating financial plans and summarizing key findings to my advisors, and worked my way up to where I am today.  As your relationship manager and main point of contact, I personally build your financial plans and formulate custom solutions from the findings.  Past and current clients include scientists, educators, medical professionals and celebrities.

Q: What is your investment management experience?

Jo: My clients’ assets range from the tens of thousands to the tens of millions.  At AllianceBernstein, I designed the asset allocation for my financial advisors’ clients in the late 90’s to the early 2000’s.  Then I moved to New York to lead the team that wrote 100+ page proposals for ultra-high net worth families and billion-dollar institutional prospects, detailing our firm’s investment philosophy and process. I also managed two key institutional client relationships until I switched my focus back to individuals.  At Morgan Stanley and JP Morgan Chase, I customized client portfolios, which included individual bonds, stocks and mutual funds.  At TIAA, I combined the available solutions to create the most effective, cost-efficient portfolios for each client based on their goals, risk tolerance, and time horizon.

Q: What is your investment philosophy in one sentence?

Jo: For every client, I aim to create and maintain an effective, cost-efficient, custom portfolio tailored to their level of risk, time horizon and specific goals.

Q: How many clients do you work with?

Jo: I used to work with over 500.  For now, I am capping my practice at 100 clients, but my ideal number is 50-75.  It’s simple: I want to provide the highest level of service, above and beyond expectations, for the rest of my clients’ lives. That means limiting my relationships to maximize success.

Q: Why should I choose you?

Jo: If we’ve worked together before, you already know that I take my role in your life very seriously. This is personal for me.  I treat you like a member of my own family, and I literally lose sleep making sure I help you live your best life. Before we created the WealthGarden f.s., we evaluated and subsequently turned down several extremely lucrative offers from other firms. Ultimately, we chose to be independent so we’d truly be able to say to you, “We’d like to be your trusted advisor for the rest of your life.” What I strive for on behalf of each client: the 3 E’s - Easy, Efficient, Effective.

Q: What kind of name is Josephti?

Jo: Well...I was named after a nun that my parents met on their honeymoon.  How did she get her name?  Filipino culture favors mashing two names together to create new names, so I’ve created a story in my mind that Mother Josephti was named after Joseph and Tina.

Q: What’s been positive about the pandemic for you?  Negative?

Jo: Positive - more time than I ever would have had with my daughters as a working mom.  So incredibly grateful.  Working in stretchy clothes and being able to stay up and wake up a few minutes later due to not having to commute.  Launching the WealthGarden f.s.!

Negative: Figuring out what to feed my kids and me every single day. During the week, the girls used to eat at the school cafeteria and I’d grab lunch at the mall.  Absolutely nothing else stresses me out more than meal planning.  Not being able to hug my mom, although we started spending time with her again last summer.  No snowboarding this past winter.

Q: Sweet or savory?

Jo: Definitely savory. I’ll take a steak over a cake any day and a cracker over a cookie.

Q: Vacations on your bucket list?

Jo: Machu Picchu with its week-long hike and everything, but...there’s a version where I can sleep in a cabin each night. Going back to Alaska and being helicoptered into the center of Kenali for a hardcore nature experience during the day...but sleeping in a cabin every night. Are you seeing a pattern?

Q: What’s one thing you wish you could change about yourself?

Jo: I wish I could be just a tad bit more impulsive. I pretty much have my life planned out until I’m dead (in my late 90’s).

Q: What do you love about your job?

Jo: I get to meet and work with people who are leaders in their field and SO MUCH smarter than me. It blows my mind. When I ask you detailed questions about what you do, it’s because I am truly starstruck.

Q: What bothers you about your job?

Jo: I consider myself an empath, whether you believe in that or not.  Essentially, I take on my client’s problems as my own.  If you lose sleep over it, I’m likely losing sleep too.  On the flip side, I revel in my clients’ joyful moments as well.

Q: What causes are important to you? 

Jo: Female professionals, especially minority women.  Making sure we can lean in and have a seat at the table.  As an example, I think we all know that there are very few female financial advisors.  In 23 years, I haven’t met another one that looks like me.  I’m making sure my girls learn how to be independent and find power in themselves. Accessible education for all. From K-3, I attended a Los Angeles public school that is STILL rated a 1 by greatschools.org.  This is appalling.  I recently ended a three year run as a board member for Equitas Academy, a free K-8 public charter school in the Pico-Union neighborhood of Los Angeles.