Making the list

Susan Yelen doesn’t manage R.J. Shook’s investments. But if he lived in Northeastern Pennsylvania instead of Florida, she’d be on his list.

“I could easily recommend her to any family member,” Shook said. “She really, really cares.”

Actually, Yelen is on Shook’s list. She’s ranked No. 93 in his latest Top 100 Women Financial Advisers rankings, published in the June 9 issue of Barron’s, a weekly publication of The Wall Street Journal.

While she’s there partly due to a reported $280 million under management, Shook said other factors went into the rankings.

“We’re not just looking for the top moneymakers as much as who are the real role models,” he said, who do a truly exceptional job for clients. He makes that determination by talking to nominees, peers, customers and by searching industry records. He looks at client satisfaction reports and finally in many cases personally interviews the nominees.

“We get thousands and thousands of nominations,” Shook said last week. “We do a lot of really deep due diligence.”

Shook did not feel it necessary to interview Yelen after she made the preliminary cut because he’s met and talked to her several times in the past.

Yelen didn’t set out to be a financial adviser, and in a way that’s not the limit of her job description: “We talk to people about things that go far beyond their portfolio,” she explained while standing in her modest office in the Cross Creek Pointe building off Route 315 in Plains Township.

After spending several years trying out other vocations, including photography and golf, Yelen, 59, took a job doing research for the Shearson office of Aaron Bravman. That was 25 years ago

“It really took me a while to find myself,” she acknowledged. “I was effectively semi-retired.”

The office in Wilkes-Barre was a satellite of one in Monroe County and Yelen was one of only two staffers at the time. But she had the opportunity to learn from the experiences of senior partners, taking a path she recommends to others.

“I came into this in an unusual way, as part of a team,” which was unusual at the time, she said. “Now teams are in vogue. That’s the only way I’d advise that someone come into this business.”

Today, she, four assistants and an intern or two run The Yelen Group, part of Smith Barney, which is itself a division of Citigroup Global Capital Markets Inc.

She’s quick to share credit for her success and recognition, saying, “It’s really about the team that serves the clients with me.”

Clients often don’t think much about their financial condition until something changes in their lives, Yelen said.

“People come to us with ‘trigger events’ such as children with college plans or looming retirement. Or they come in response to frightening news reports about soaring fuel prices or underfunded pensions.”

Part of her approach is to direct the conversation to what’s really important. “There’s a lot of information out there that’s just noise,” she said. “Sometimes it’s just simple issues,” that aren’t any different now than in the past.

Shook said client retention is a big consideration in his rankings because he believes that indicates high performance. Yelen agrees, adding that satisfied customers are the source of all new business for the group.

“I think word of mouth is a very strong indicator of people’s positive experience with us. It’s 100 percent by referral,” she said.

Successful financial advisers are paid well, but that’s not Yelen’s only source of satisfaction.

Another is “making a difference in people’s lives; I think what we do is important work.”

Being on a list limited to women doesn’t bother Yelen. “This is a man’s industry,” she said, and she feels the list shows that women can succeed in it. Having grown up a tomboy she’s comfortable in the financial world, where her gender may actually be an advantage, “if you can combine it with other positive attributes.

“I can be myself,” which includes being able to form warm relationships with clients.

Shook agrees that women have been underrepresented in finance, but he sees that changing. More women are working, they start businesses at a higher rate than men and “they’re controlling more of the wealth.”

THE YELEN FILE

Susan Yelen, whose Yelen Group is part of the Smith Barney office in Plains Township, is one of only four Pennsylvanians on the Top 100 Women Financial Advisers list. Her group manages about $280 million in client assets. More data:

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THE YELEN FILE

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