James Hilton is a private-wealth adviser with UBS Private Wealth Management in Newport and founder of The Hilton Group. Before joining the firm in 2013, he spent over two decades in investment advisory at Morgan Stanley, and working on the floor of the Commodities Exchange of New York. He recently earned the Certified Exit Planning Advisor designation from the Exit Planning Institute.
PBN: What is the significance of your new certification and what new or expanded services can you offer with this designation?
HILTON: The Certified Exit Planning Advisor program is specifically designed for business advisers who work closely with owners of privately held companies. It involves 100 hours of pre-course study, 30 hours of online classroom instruction and successful completion of a three-hour proctored exam.
Earning the designation places me among a small, elite group of experts who are part of this international community of CEPAs. We are trained to help business owners in the preparation, planning and execution of their business exit. I’ve been helping owners with this for the past 25 years, but this training takes my expertise to a higher level and expands the network of highly skilled advisers I can collaborate with on behalf of any business owner.
PBN: What are your top three goals or priorities for The Hilton Group for the year ahead?
HILTON: We are prioritizing our focus on the business owner who is exiting their company, and to continue to be identified as the “go to” wealth management team for ultra-high net worth clients.
If you have sophisticated financial planning needs, think first of The Hilton Group at UBS. We provide highly customized solutions to the clients and their families that we advise. This is what we do. Also, we plan to launch an informational podcast.
PBN: How has the pandemic changed wealth management in terms of types of clients, demand, types of advice, or anything else? What has not changed?
HILTON: A lot of our client review meetings had to happen virtually, but in terms of our business and planning process, none of that changed at all. The methodology and attention to detail that our consultative wealth management process entails did not change.
Some clients accelerated their retirement plans, but in general our clients are sophisticated, focused and staid people not prone to knee-jerk reactions. The pandemic caused them to become even busier in their personal and professional lives, adjusting and expanding their business, taking advantage of opportunities, and the like.
PBN: As businesses look to come out of the pandemic, what advice, generally, would you offer on managing their finances and maximizing profit or wealth?
HILTON: The old cliché about putting a letter in your drawer overnight before sending it, or measuring two or three times before you cut once, is the mindset I recommend. Be careful about making rash changes or decisions without due consideration. Proceed prudently. Plan carefully. Stick with the plan. Frankly, that should have been the case for many businesses going into the pandemic.
The Hilton Group clients are already wealthy, so our job is to help them maintain their wealth and preserve purchasing power for theirs and future generations. We work often on intergenerational wealth transfers, helping our clients’ younger family members to understand the importance of discipline and prudent investment management.
PBN: The Hilton Group also offers portfolio management. How has the rise in commission-free stock trading apps and increased interest in investing among the general population affected your business? Is there still a need for expert investing advice and in what circumstances?
HILTON: It has not affected our segment, as we are not traders, per se; we are wealth managers. While we are well aware of an industrywide compression on fees, our primary job is wealth management across all aspects of our clients’ wealth, of which portfolio management is but one component.
What we add, which is needed now more than ever, is the expert advice to help people understand what they need their money to do for them now, and why financial planning is important for long-term success. The Hilton Group is most valuable to our clients when the markets are most volatile. That’s when we become their behavioral financial therapists.
Nancy Lavin is a PBN staff writer. You may reach her at Lavin@PBN.com.
