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Monday, May 02, 1994     Page: 3A QUICK WORDS: UP CLOSE: SUSAN YELEN

Up Close: Susan Yelen
   
A real money player
    “Susan Yelen?” the client asks in awe”She’s good.
   
Tough, but good.”
   
No question, Yelen exudes presence.
   
And although she may look stern and talk tough, Yelen is a regular pussycat
when it comes to her clients.
   
“You have to be careful to tend and nurture,” she says, sounding more like
a flower buff than a numbers cruncher.
   
Yelen’s business is money. Other people’s money.
   
She’s a certified financial planner with Smith Barney Shearson in
Wilkes-Barre, where she occupies a spacious corner office decorated with
pretty pastoral scenes.
   
She didn’t get to breathe the precious air at the top by following a
carefully tended blueprint for success. Instead of boning up on stocks and
bonds at Wharton, she went to Florence to study art and language.
   
Her first “portfolio?” The family milk money.
   
Her father, an attorney in Wilkes-Barre, died unexpectedly when Yelen was
14. The eldest of three, she began helping her mom manage the family finances.
   
In a sense, she says, her mother forged her future.
   
“She created it, but she never lived to see it,” says Yelen, now 45, whose
mom died in 1978.
   
Spurred by her success helping keep the family afloat, Yelen began
investing in blue chip stocks in her 20s. Instead of Harlequin romances, she
curled up with financial tomes.
   
Still, she didn’t plan to end up at a brokerage firm. She envisioned a
career in the arts and graduated from Brandeis University with a degree in
sociology.
   
“I wasn’t career-driven by any stretch,” she says. “It took a long time to
find myself professionally.”
   
In 1982, at age 33 and bereft of formal training, she began working for an
old family friend, Aaron Bravman, dealing with stocks and equity portfolios.
   
The next year, she was licensed by the New York Stock Exchange, which gave
her the right to buy and sell securities. She also took courses to become
certified as a financial planner.
   
Today, Yelen manages $91 million worth of assets for 425 clients.
   
The majority of her clientele is older. Many remember standing in lines at
bankrupt banks after the ’29 crash. They’re naturally leery of high finance.
   
“They tell me they’re nervous and I have to relate to that,” says Yelen.
   
“A lot of people don’t trust the stock market.”
   
Yelen also advises a number of single, divorced and widowed women.
   
“They may have drawers full of papers and don’t have a clue what to do,”
she says. “They may have a lot of securities in safe deposit boxes and have no
idea whether the company still exists.”
   
Clients ask for help in a variety of ways: managing a portfolio, devising a
budget, investing in stocks, planning for retirement.
   
Some simply want reassurance they’re getting the best bang for their buck.
   
Much like an NFL coach who plots a defensive strategy to win a game, Yelen
devises long-term financial plans to “win” her clients financial security.
   
“What really gives me a kick is making a difference in other people’s
lives,” she says.
   
Every month, she consumes — among others — Money, Fortune, Forbes and
Kiplinger’s Journal. She is determined to keep pace with the fluctuations in
an ever-changing market.
   
“We’re navigating through more complex waters,” she says. “It’s important
to know what risk means.”
   
When she needs help, she turns to her team of assistants. She lauds their
accomplishments and swears she couldn’t manage without Eileen Mesharer, Cheryl
Smith and Linda Williams.
   
“I’m not a one-man band,” Yelen insists.
   
But for years, she was.
   
Yelen routinely worked 12-hour days, seven days a week. She had to force
herself to rely more on others — and to learn to play.
   
Once a dedicated golfer with a 7 handicap, she’s bent on getting back in
the game. She also wants to take more nature pictures and continue to travel.
She’s already visited Hong Kong, Europe, Switzerland, Greece and Turkey, among
other places.
   
She lives simply in her parent’s old house in Kingston and still drives to
work in a five-year-old Toyota.
   
“It’s not that different from where I started — managing the milk money.”