By anyone's definition, the Financial Advisors Valerie Dugan (r) and Suzanne Akian (l) have led astonishingly parallel lives. Back when they were college roommates at a Connecticut University, they majored in finance, won coveted internships at E. F. Hutton, and worked as part-time waitresses to put themselves through school. Later, they both married entrepreneurs and had three children, born within months of each other. Although their career took them on slightly different paths, they recently converged again at Morgan Stanley Smith Barney--Valerie in the Hartford office and Suzanne at 2 Penn Plaza in Manhattan.

Valerie, who joined E. F. Hutton's Hartford office straight out of school, was employed by its successor companies--Shearson Lehman, Salomon Smith Barney, and now, Morgan Stanley Smith Barney--for over 23 years. A member of Smith Barney's President's Council since 1995, she is now in Morgan Stanley Smith Barney's Master's Club and currently manages over $170MM in personal assets.

Suzanne, who is also certified as an Accredited Asset Management Specialist, worked for many years at the boutique investment firm Lebenthal before joining Morgan Stanley in 2005. A bond specialist, she is a member of the elite Morgan Stanley Fixed Income Select group, as well as a principal in two partnerships, Akian Morrison Partners and Akian Morrison Zalanskas DeStefano Partners.

Tell us about your first jobs.

VD: E. F. Hutton had made quite an impression on me and I guess we had both made an impression on them, because they ended up offering us both jobs as Financial Advisors. We were called account executives then. In those days, there were very few women in the industry--I was hired with one other woman to work in an office of 50 men. Fortunately, I was in an office where the men were all very supportive and professional. It really was a great experience.

SA: We were both offered positions at E.F. Hutton, but I decided to come back to New York. It was right after the stock market crash of 1987. By February of '88, I found a brokerage firm willing to give me a cold-caller position. A month and a half in, my boss put me in the training program at the World Trade Center. Then I was in production in New Jersey for about two years, having a very hard time of it.

What was your approach in the beginning?

VD: I started out cold-calling--that's how I built my business. But my first day of work was the stock market crash of '87! After that, not many investors wanted to buy equities, so I cold-called on municipal bonds. Then when interest rates fell, I was able to offer other types of investments to clients.

I always had a comprehensive approach which was very conservative. Those were the days where rookies would cold-call and say, “I have this hot stock, and I really want to make a difference in your net worth,” and they would accumulate stock positions. I never did that. Having the 1987 stock market crash as my first day obviously influenced how I felt about equities, and I never wanted to seem like a trader. I really thought that there was value to helping people achieve their financial goals. A lot of my clients were retirees and/or very conservative and really scared after the crash. I always tried to look at someone’s entire portfolio. I was using the wealth management model way before it gathered steam.

SA: My company at the time was focused on proprietary products, not necessarily advice, and I really fought it. I'd done really well in school. I had this pie-in-the-sky attitude that if I collected assets and did the right thing for people, it would come. My approach only came into fashion in the last five years.

I really liked municipal bonds, and it seemed to be wealthier people that would buy them. I had a friend from the training program who had gone to work for Lebenthal, which was all municipal bonds at the time. She said, “You have to talk to these people--they don't force you to do anything you don’t want to do." I landed there in 1990. I really thrived, because it was all about the client. I worked really hard, and there was a lot of camaraderie.

But for the first year, I still had to cocktail waitress. I would go to work on Friday and Saturday night at the hotel where I worked in Mahwah, New Jersey.

Suzanne, when were you able to give up cocktail waitressing?

SA: I had a walk-in--these Spanish-speaking women. I was fluent in Spanish, but it was more conversational Spanish, not financial Spanish. After about two or three hours, they finally said that they could speak English--they had just wanted somebody to try!

Then the woman—I’ll never forget--said, “Can you get us a cup of coffee?” I said, “Sure!” So I got somebody to help me bring back three coffees and they wrote me a check for $1.5 million--at the time it was a very big trade. The commission was around $35,000, with a payout of about $15,000 to me. That was more than I made cocktailing the whole year! It was a Friday and it was in February and it was snowing. I called the hotel and said, “I’m not coming back.”

Are they still your clients?

SA: Yes, they are. Unfortunately, they came by that money from a settlement resulting from a tragedy. I was always interested in clients, and this really humanized the business for me.

That's when I realized I love retail. It's the stepchild of Wall Street, because everybody wants to get the big numbers. But those big numbers are really a cop-out--you don’t have to look somebody in the eye and tell them, “I’m going to help you with retirement. And if I don't, you're going to hold me accountable."

You both have children the same age, don't you?

VD: We married men who are both entrepreneurs, and we each have three children who are within months of each other. So we went through the whole balancing act of motherhood and being in the business together. This business is phenomenal if you can get in early enough, which we did, and have your children later. I joke that I have four children. This business was really my first baby, because of all of the time, effort and energy that I put into it.

SA: I didn’t have my first child until I was 33 years old. In order to have it all, I think you need to get in as early as possible, because the first five to seven years, I killed myself--I really worked. I was only able to do that because I didn’t have other big responsibilities.

Have you ever partnered up with anyone?

SA: The second time I got pregnant, I looked for a partner in my office. There was a sales assistant, Michael Morrison, who had a lot of promise--I just loved his attitude, and he was a great worker. I figured I have the assets and no time, and he has the time and no assets, so it's going to work!

That was February 2001. You know what happened in September. I was eight and a half months pregnant, and my two year old was enrolled in Battery Park Day School. I was with her in front of the Financial Center right after the first plane hit, and I was able to get a call off to the office. Mike said, “Sue, you better get out of here.” Then the second plane crashed, and I ran--I was lucky enough to get on one of the first ferries out. I had fallen while running and I was concerned about the baby, so I was in no frame of mind to really deal with my practice that day. Mike just took over--on his cell phone, because nobody had phones--and he just made everybody feel comfortable. A lot of clients were worried about me but when I came back in February, they were fine. They said, “Mike took great care of us!” That’s when I knew he was terrific. Knock wood, he's still with me. We’re like siblings.

VD: I’m solo. I have not been as fortunate as Suzanne with regard to partnering. I have tried it a few times unsuccessfully. I would love the opportunity to find a junior partner that has the same values and ethics that I do and could help me grow the business.

So Valerie, how have you managed to handle the business and your children without a partner?

VD: Nannies are the key. Very good nannies!

[Valerie] How long did you stay at E. F. Hutton?

For twenty-three years. I was acquired throughout, and I just stayed at the firm. You hear all these horror stories about difficulties that women faced, but my experiences were always wonderful. My colleagues were always supportive, and there was never any pressure to tell me how to run my business.

How has the business changed since you started?

VD: The business has definitely changed more in the direction of how I was always doing it. When they have these training sessions about really getting to know your clients I’ve said, “Oh my goodness, this is what I’ve been doing forever!” And families have grown with me. I have clients who started with me when their kids were eight or nine years old, and they went through college, I helped them get internships, and now they’re getting married. So I know these people very, very well. I really feel that having a good Financial Advisor is really like having a great doctor. You are playing one of the most important roles in someone's life.

Do you have any clients who've been with you since the beginning?

VD: The office held a client event a few years ago. I had reserved a table and was off mingling. Apparently one of my clients sat down and said, “I am Valerie’s longest client--I've been with her for 22 years." And then another client sat down and said, “We’ve been with Valerie for 20 years.” Then another client said the same thing. There was another client at the table who had been me for about seven years, who said, “This entire table is a testament to her ability!” It was great.

How did you both end up at Morgan Stanley?

VD: I ended up there from the consolidation of the different firms.

SA: Lebenthal changed hands a couple of times and then it was going to be Merrill Lynch. Mike and I left before that happened, in 2006.

Once we got here we met two gentlemen who had been at Lehman for 20 years, Kevin Zalanskas and Adam DeStefano. Whenever we needed equity advice, we’d ask them. Whenever they wanted to talk about bonds, they’d ask us. [After everything fell apart in the market, there was a huge exodus from our office and Kevin and I were offered the high-end accounts. We thought we'd have a better shot at keeping them if we approached them as a team.] So it seemed like a natural fit to try and do some work together. We now have a joint rep number and focus on clients that need both sides of the fence. I think the joint business will eventually be bigger than our core numbers.

So now you and Valerie are together again.

SA: It’s unbelievable. Twenty years later, we finally made it to the same firm.

Do you have any advice for young women going in this field?

SA: Partnering is a huge plus for women, especially if you have families and you want to have the flexibility.

VD: I've always seen it as a positive to be a woman. I think we can excel in this business because we have empathy, and because we can really connect with the client. It's also good if you can partner up with a experienced person. If you are always honest and do the right thing for the client, you will find much success.

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