Hermosan John Uriostegui made prescient investments and strove to keep his wealthy clients informed of their precise worth as he made his way onto Barron’s Magazine list of America’s top 1,000 financial advisors for the second straight year, placing him in the nation’s top 1 percent.
The magazine ranked Uriostegui, an advisor with Deutsche Bank in Los Angeles, 59th among all his peers in California. The rankings are based on assets under management, revenue produced for the firm, the advisor’s regulatory record, quality of practice and philanthropic work.
At age 45, Uriostegui is seven years younger than the median age of advisors who made the list.
He said credit for making the Barron’s list should be shared with the five-person Deutsche Bank team he is part of. The team manages $1.2 billion for wealthy families, and distinguished itself in 2009 – in the throes of the partial economic collapse – with the work that landed Uriostegui on the magazine’s list the first time.
“In 2009 we made very large investments that we believed would be far less risky than the stock market and yield similar returns,” he said. “Every now and then we get to pat ourselves on the back.”
Uriostegui steered clients to convertible bonds, which convert from stocks to bonds or vice versa, concentrating on conservatively managed investments, and “had some handsome returns.” He also focused on floating rate securities, in which an investor lends money against collateral such as a building.
“We made the bet that the world would not go to zero, and we could get our clients the most favorable return possible. Stocks can go to zero,” he said.
Uriostegui also keeps clients with municipal fund investments informed of “what their accounts are really worth on a daily and monthly basis,” which can differ from the worth on paper, which is tied to the latest transactions and can be out of date.
“You have to know what you own,” he said.
Along that line, Uriostegui makes sure clients always know the precise risks they face – what they could lose if “all our analysis is wrong” on an investment.
Uriostegui wakes up at 3 in the morning to get to work on time for a daily global telephone call with counterparts in Europe, Japan and New York. On his off-work hours he serves as coach and commissioner for the soccer, basketball and T-ball teams and leagues of his 9-year-old daughter Rae and 4-year-old twins Roman and Damon.
He also serves as PTO president for Montessori School of Manhattan Beach.
“While the [Barron’s] recognition is meaningful, my proudest accomplishment is still waking my three kids up in the morning and making them breakfast, packing their lunch and getting them ready for school,” he said.
“I try to make them a real, wholesome breakfast and dinner. We use organic food and try to make everything from scratch. Meals are a great chance for everyone to catch up on what’s going on and just bond,” he said. “I try to end every night by reading to them before I go back to researching ideas for our Deutsche Bank portfolio.”
More than 80 percent of the $1.2 billion managed by his Deutsche Bank group belongs to its 10 largest families. The majority of the other 30 to 40 households have balances between $2 million and $22 million.
“We are selectively adding new households and anticipate advising up to 60 families by the end of 2012,” Uriostegui said. ER
This story is updated to omit incorrect identification of Deutsche Bank’s L.A. branch head
