Kathleen Youngerman comes from a long line of doctors and nurses. But, in her role as Senior Vice President, Family Wealth Director and an Investment Management Consultant, Youngerman sees herself as carrying on the family tradition. Only, instead of tending to clients’ physical health, she advises them on matters related to their financial well-being. “I see many similarities between the ability to provide healthcare and financial advice,” says Youngerman. To that end, she heads a team that offers comprehensive wealth management service to high net worth families, individuals and businesses.

When she graduated from Santa Clara University in 1990, Youngerman got a job at Prudential Securities as an assistant. At the time, she didn’t know that much about what being a Financial Advisor involved. But after a few months, Youngerman realized it was a good fit. Her best move, she decided, was to join a training program at a financial services firm. She ended up joining Merrill Lynch, where she stayed until leaving to come to Morgan Stanley Smith Barney in 2005. Now, Youngerman is the senior member of a group of financial advisors serving some of the firm’s wealthiest clients. She coordinates the activities of a team that includes an associate, as well as trust officers, personal financial secretaries, attorneys, accountants, CFOs and other consultants.

For Youngerman, the evolution of the industry has been particularly fortuitous. Over the years, the profession changed its focus, increasingly moving away from emphasizing transactions to becoming more of an advisory role. And that approach jibed with Youngerman’s own background and strengths. “This is a profession that ‘s perfect if your nature is one of care-giving,” she says. Indeed, with a father, mother, aunts, uncles and cousins who were all physicians and registered nurses, Youngerman’s inclination was to choose a helping profession, as well. Indeed, Youngerman feels her primary role is to put herself in her clients’ shoes and approach them as though they were a member of her own family.

Helping Many Generations

Youngerman has made her primary focus financial planning for multiple generations of high-net worth families with liquid assets of above $5 million. She points to one client as typical. While they’ve been working together for ten years, his father was a client for 20 years before that. She’s working on producing an estate plan for the client’s children now.

One important part of her work involves helping to facilitate difficult conversations between generations about money. “It is often a taboo subject and difficult for adult children to ask their parent about the topic. But it is equally as often a subject that older individuals don’t face until asked to consider.” she says. “Clients need to have those discussions and make sure that matters are handled as they wish when they consider wealth passing to successive generations.”

But a focus on an advisory role isn’t the only notable change Youngerman has seen since starting. With three children, age 12, 9 and 8, she says the use of email and other technology has made it much easier to juggle work and family responsibilities. That’s especially important for Youngerman, whose youngest child has a form of high-functioning autism. She often works from home. “I work evenings and weekends--any time my clients need me,” she says. “But, I can be at my 12-year-old’s play if I need to.”

About six months ago, Youngerman also took on a new role: as a member of Morgan Stanley Smith Barney’s Diversity Council. It’s a job she sees as highly important. “Looking at demographic trends, we can see that control of money assets is dramatically changing, due to women’s increased longevity,” she says, ”And most clients like to work with someone like themselves. That means we need a workforce that looks more like our clients.”

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