Marietta Hesdorffer joined EF Hutton in 1983, after several years working in broadcast journalism. At the urging of a family member, she joined an established team at Hutton. Jay Hesdorffer, her then-boyfriend and future husband, joined the practice not long after. Then, 13 years ago, they started their own team. She’s now First Vice President-Wealth Management and Financial Advisor for Morgan Stanley Smith Barney in Chicago. She talked to us about her switch to financial services, her practice-management philosophy and what it’s like to work closely with her husband.

How did you get started?
I studied broadcast journalism in college and I fell in love with it. I graduated on a Friday from the University of Michigan and literally went to work Monday morning for the ABC-TV affiliate in Southfield, MI. Then I moved to Chicago and worked for CBS and RKO Radio. At WFYR-FM, the RKO station, I produced all the non-news informational programming, which was six different public affairs shows each week plus the writing and researching of the station’s editorials. I was working hard and having a blast.

My father ran a team at EF Hutton and persuaded me to join. What he really wanted was someone to help with marketing and I love that. I figured I could always go back to radio and TV. That was 27 years ago.

It was a great way to learn the business. I wasn’t under pressure to start producing right away and I could learn the industry slowly, from the ground up. I had a big advantage in my communications skills. At that point, people didn’t have access to the breadth of financial information available today. You didn’t have CNBC. So, I was able to demystify a lot of the industry. I could explain to clients what was happening and make sure they were comfortable with whatever recommendations they were considering.

I’ve always had a rule, “If you don’t get it, then you don’t get it!” In other words, when I’m with a client and I look in their eyes and see they don’t understand, I stop. The best recommendation in the world is no good if the client isn’t comfortable.

How did it happen that you and your husband teamed up?
When my husband joined the team, we were dating. The truth is, I recruited him away from a very prestigious accounting firm in Chicago. I couldn’t stand the excessively long hours during tax season. With his background, he just soaked up every aspect of the business. About two-and-a-half years after, we married.

Then we decided to go out on our own. It just made sense. His accounting, banking and computer background is a perfect mix with my journalistic and marketing background. While I still enjoy the marketing and he excels at the nuts and bolts, we both love the birth-to-grave financial analysis.

We sit about five feet from each other. We can finish each other’s sentences. But we don’t always agree. Sometimes when we are meeting with clients we’ll ask if they mind if we take a minute to discuss something in front of them. Often they love the debate and hearing the thought process.

Can you tell us about your approach?
We provide a high level of service. We provide depth of service. We take a lot of time in the beginning getting to know our clients, asking questions about their values, their relationships, their personal goals and interests. We are clear with them: They don’t need to give us all their assets, but they have to tell us about them so we can be really comprehensive in helping them manage their wealth. We spend an awful lot of time looking at what they have and making sure it matches what they tell us they want. People will tell us they’re risk adverse and then we’ll see they have investments that are very aggressive. They’ll tell us, Oh, I had no idea. In other cases, clients will spend a lifetime accumulating wealth and then have no idea how to protect it, transfer it or give it away. We are with them each step of the way.

What advice would you give women entering the profession?
If I were a young woman starting out today I would consider teaming up with an individual or team who shares a similar philosophy. Also, if you’re coming from another field and you’ve acquired special knowledge that another person may not have, you have an opportunity to put it to use. This is a profession where all the skills you’ve acquired throughout your career will come into play.

You’ve stayed with the same firm all these years. That doesn’t often happen.
In our industry, you can be like a baseball player who keeps moving. And that is just fine for some. For us, we decided it’s in the best interest of our clients to sit still.

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