Today we’d like to introduce you to Julia Wiss.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Julia. So, let’s start at the beginning, and we can move on from there.
My family and I moved from Moscow, Russia to the Washington DC area in 1996 where I graduated both high school and college at the University of Virginia, as both a Theatre and Economics major. Following my graduation in 2004, I moved to Los Angeles seeking a warm weathered major metropolitan city, and 15 years later, I’m still here so L.A. has been a good fit for me.
At just 20 years old I packed up my car and drove across the country (still not sure how my parents gave me the thumbs up to go, but shout out to them!!!) I wanted to find work where I could educate people, while having a strong career path with growth for myself. I interviewed at Independent Capital Management – a local financial planning firm and it was what I was seeking. I got to make a huge impact on people’s lives by educating them about finances while simultaneously building a practice to be proud of! I got fully licensed, and my career took off.
In fact, my practice was growing so rapidly, they asked me to go into leadership to manage the Valencia and then Woodland Hills branches of the company. After seven years, it was time for me to go to a larger firm with more resources and opportunities for clients and advisors, and that’s how I discovered Waddell & Reed. Unfortunately, not long after I joined, they required all their leaders to give up their books of business in order to focus on the management side of the business.
In hindsight, I feel conflicted about that decision because interacting with my clients was such a passion of mine. On the other hand, running the West LA and the South Bay offices provided new challenges, and positive impact on the advisors I was helping. In 2009, I met my husband Jeremy (at a pool party at Custom Hotel), a West LA native. We got married in 2013 and two and a half years later, had a son named Nathan who is the light of our lives.
After seven years in leadership with Waddell & Reed (seven is the magic number for me so far, I guess), I began to really miss the direct client interaction I started my career with. Even though I had been making an impact on clients through my team of advisors, I wasn’t fully satisfied. In November 2017, I along with two advisors from Waddell, formed my current firm, Lumen Wealth Group.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
I had built a practice from 2005 to 2012 that I was very proud of – I had a vast number of client relationships that I considered extended family. Giving it up to stay in leadership at Waddell and Reed was a hard decision that I went back and forth on many times.
I chose to stay as Managing Principal thinking it would provide more growth and challenging opportunities along the way. When it came time to start Lumen Wealth Group, I had to start over from scratch as my original clients had to move on to other advisors. The silver lining is that because of my role at Waddell, I met Dennis and Chris – my two business partners today.
Having worked with them for several years at Waddell really allowed me to learn their strengths, weaknesses, and character. I knew I could trust these two implicitly and that we very much complemented each other in our passions when it came to helping clients. Additionally, in January 2019, my husband (also an advisor in the business) joined our firm.
So, though the onset of Lumen was harder due to me not having my practice to transition over, finding the right two partners to form the team with is something I am forever thankful for.
Lumen Wealth Group – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
When forming Lumen, we wanted to make sure that we could help people like ourselves and not just be the advisors working with the 1%.
We have four primary areas of focus:
1. Professors (primarily UCLA, Pepperdine, LMU) – they make such a big impact on kids’ lives; it’s gratifying to have an impact on the financial aspect of their lives
2. Families, especially those with young children – their lives are so busy balancing work, school, after-school activities that often times, the money items get pushed back or deferred. We take that burden off of their hands and give them the peace of mind that their families are safe and there’s a plan in place.
3. Small business owners & Sole proprietors- entrepreneurs work so hard on their businesses – we help them have their money work hard for them.
4. Women – single, divorced, widowed. I love empowering and educating them, so they feel confident and in control.
Our approach to planning is like solving a puzzle – the puzzle pieces represent the number of goals clients have, and the border is the boundary of their financial abilities. Our task is to solve your puzzle – put all the pieces together in a way that’s attainable and inspires them to take action – helping clients find the right financial fit while making it simple and fun.
Financial Plans focus on: cash flow/budgeting, investment planning, risk management & insurance, retirement planning, tax planning (we do not file taxes), estate planning and charitable giving, & generational planning.
What is “success” or “successful” for you?
Being in finance and business owners, we are very goal oriented. We have a Business & Marketing plan that we update annually. We have defined roles and we each have one, three, five, and ten-year visions.
I define success by the number of “Thank You’s” we receive. The number of introductions to friends, family, and loved ones that we get because of the impact we had one someone’s life.
I know I’m making an impact because I’ve seen tears of joy when we’ve helped a client achieve something they never thought they could accomplish- from buying the home of the dreams or sending their kids to college, I know first hand that proper planning with a great team of advisors can make anyone’s dreams come true.
Contact Info:
- Address: 1240 Rosecrans Ave #120, Manhattan Beach, CA 90266
- Website: www.lumenwealthgroup.com
- Phone: Office: 424.330.2323
- Email: [email protected]
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/lumenwealthgroup
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