Wealth Management | Guy Lampard

About Guy Lampard

Guy Lampard is a Partner at Aperio Group. Guy is a former Partner at Montgomery Securities and Senior Managing Director at Bank of America Securities—where he worked for 15 years. During his career at Montgomery and Banc of America, his responsibilities included Director of the International Department, Deputy Head of Institutional Sales, Director of Marketing, including membership on the Equity beals wealth management and Commitment Committees. Guy is a former board member of the India IT Mutual Fund Board based in Mauritius and was also Chairman of their Audit Committee. Additionally, he is a former Trustee of the California Historical Society and Chair of their Foundation Board. He is a former member of Conservation International’s Chairman’s Council as well as Board Member of the Angel Island Foundation. Guy is the current Chairman of Heyday Institute, a publishing company based in Berkeley, California, and on the george lampard financial advisor Board of ImpactAssets, a nonprofit financial services company. He is the co-author of the book Giving From Your Heart, A Guide to Volunteering. Guy received his BA from the University of California at Berkeley.

Interview transcript of: Wealth Management

Alan
Welcome back. I’m here today with Guy Lampard. Guy has a long history in the investment world, he was formerly a partner with Montgomery securities. And then they merged into what is known as currently Bank of America securities. And and then he’s also helped us start up another investment, money management firm here in the Bay Area. Guys, welcome to today’s show.

Guy
Alan is glad to be here. Thank you for having me.

Alan
So guy walked me through your background, how you got to where you are today.

Guy
Depends on how far back you want to go. I, I started in the investment business, when I was 28 years old, and really had an interest in finance, I was really motivated by the institutional side of the investment world, it seemed very fast paced and action oriented and, and was fortunate enough to have joined, as you mentioned, Montgomery securities, and was there for 15 years. One of the really exciting times in the investment world, certainly on the institutional side, with so many companies in that 1985 to 2000 timeframe, emerging growth companies, whether they be technology or by technology companies that we brought public. So it’s a fun and exciting time.

Alan
Now, little trivia here, I guess you you immigrated here while you’re still in high school? That’s correct. And what perspective did you bring coming into the US that helped you succeed in your career?

Guy
While you’re kind of say, I’ve succeeded? I think that, you know, I was born in the Far East, and we lived, my, my family, my three siblings, and I lived in the Far East with my parents. And I didn’t have much control, obviously, as I was growing up terms of where we’re living, but my father was British. And my mother is Qatar, and Turkish. So different ethnic backgrounds. And, and I do remember very vividly growing up in those years meeting a lot of different people, whether it was cultural or religious, ethnic, and I think feeling comfortable. And being around as a young person around people that are different from you, really is a great training ground when you get into business so that it you’re not surprised by anything that comes up in a discussion or how people comport themselves. And I think the biggest life lesson for me was just exposure to a lot of people that were different than I. And I think that’s helped me greatly

Alan
Having a lengthy years in the industry from the investment and money management side. How has it changed over the years?

Guy
Well, I referenced earlier that back in, when I first started at Montgomery, the kind of the exciting, really hot place to be, was on the institutional side, the idea, especially in San Francisco, of driving into an office in the Transamerica Pyramid, you know, being there at 430, or quarter to five, the adrenaline of reading newspapers and getting ready for the market opening at 630. And a lot of the investment tools that we use today came out of the institutional world. So a lot of the really smart people primarily were on the institutional side. But over the years, you know, we’ve seen a significant change in that business, the bid offered spreads have narrowed commission levels have changed. Institutional Equity salespeople are more thought of this as folks just shepherding around analysts to different portfolio managers. And, and so that the whole culture of the trading is now electronic versus more personal with relationships. So I think I’ve seen a significant shift from the institutional world to what I would call the the new institutional people that are catering to the very wealthy individual, client and family. And that seems to now be where the most exciting tools are that are coming out of the investment world.

Alan
So the current trends, then is you moving into the markets, what are they looking for seeking?

Guy
A combination of things, I think it’s we’re certainly moving away from this notion of just selling product, I think. And I can speak more towards the ultra high net worth, because that’s the market that and their advisors that we serve at my firm. But the idea is that it’s not product driven. It’s listening to your client, it’s being attentive to their issues and their needs. It’s bringing the best options possible in terms of, of ideas and thoughts that are out there. It’s, again, The most important I think, is building that relationship. The other thing that I’ve noticed, very significantly is that in the institutional world, there’s no regard for taxes.

Alan
We’re running up against a break. And I need to take a quick break here. And we’ll be right back after his messages. I want to hear more about what we’re doing to combat the ever increasing tax rates in this country.

Alan
Welcome back, I’m here today with Guy Lampard. Guy who is a former partner with Montgomery securities later became Bank of America securities and then ventured off to with a few other people start an investment partner firm or investment firm, that’s now some, what 8 billion

Guy
We’ve got just right around seven and a half, seven and a half billion.

Alan
Well, plus or minus a billion, right. But, but it speaks to the success that your firm has had in this industry. And I like to move in before the break. You know, we talked about the ultra high net worth high net worth individual and tax rates at what is the highest tax rate right now that they’re facing.

Guy
In California. And this was legislated last year as as you know, both at the state and at the federal level. But people will just start writing their checks next month, the realization of what happened last year. But the highest tax rate for a California resident is 52.6%. So it’s a monstrous sticker shock. And what I was mentioning before the break is the fact that most in the institutional world factors were not put into consideration because they don’t pay taxes. And clients do pay tax.

Alan
So the income tax rate is 52.6%.

Guy
This is short term and ordinary income was the highest cancel out is Obamacare in that too? Or if that includes the 3.8% Medicare? Okay. That’s an all in number. Yeah. But my point is that people are running around looking for what we call tax alpha, how do I outperform the market? Yeah, and the vast majority of people that are taxable should really more focus on the fees that they’re being charged, and the tax implications of whatever investments they make, because those are the things that you can control, you’re not able to control what the market is going to do. And I think a lot of studies have shown that it’s very difficult to pick individual stocks. So the idea of being very efficient in equities and stocks, whether it’s an ETF or an index fund or a strategy similar to what we do. And my firm is really important, because then you can lower your fees, and mitigate some of the tax impact of these monstrous tax rates.

Alan
I imagine with technology increasing as it is, and following market transit, these algorithms are even more complex in terms of following what investment markets are heading towards.

Guy
Yeah, we don’t we’re not a qualitative manager, we’re not answering the phone listening to analysts tell telling us that IBM should be bought or sold. We’re a quantitative firm. So we’ve got a lot of very smart, quantitative folks looking at the efficiency of of a portfolio primarily around taxes. We do other things, too. Another trend that I’m seeing, especially in the ultra high net worth, where we have over a billion dollars of assets is in people wanting to socially screen their portfolios. Were agnostic on that. People ask me if I socially screen, my portfolio, and I say no, but to the extent that an advisor here’s a client saying this is important to them, I think it’s important as advisors for us to listen to the client, and then figure out ways to make sure that if there’s a way to incorporate their values, and not negatively impact returns, and make sure to understand that you should do the investment math, you can’t. In this day and age, you cannot tell a client I’ll give you subpar returns, but I can socially screen your portfolio that that’s not a good solution. But saying that I am listening to you in your social value, whether it’s environmental, social or governance or carbon free, which is a big discussion topic of late but also getting at least market returns on a pre tax basis is a very, very important message that I would suggest advisors pay attention to.

Alan
I’m visiting here today with guideline park guy is an investment advisor with the firm located here in the San Francisco Bay Area with about seven and a half billion of wealth under management and guy we need to take a quick break. And we’ll be right back after these messages and I want to get into what individuals should be looking for in a private wealth advisor. We’ll be right back after these messages.

Alan
Welcome back. I’m here today with Guy Lampard. And we’ve been talking about private wealth management, guys with the firm with seven and a half billion. Well, vendor management. And I knew you when you started this firm with just a few 100 million. Yeah, that sounds funny, just that just a few 100 million, but But it speaks to the effect of how successful things have been going for you the way that you’ve been grown, been able to grow it in a short, short period of time. Okay, what should individuals look for? In a private wealth advisor?

Guy
It’s a really good question. And I get that question quite, quite often. I think the most important thing to be honest with you is a personal connection, there needs to be a chemistry and a sense of, of transparency between an advisor and the client. And, and so there’s no one advisor, that’s perfect for every single client there. There’s a chemistry component piece to it. But I think some of the important things that are really important if financial planning is and succession and multigenerational issues, make sure that you find an advisor with that sort of skill set. On the financial planning. You know, side, I think that if there are issues around taxes, which come up, as you know, we mentioned earlier with my firm a lot, I think it’s really important that a an advisor, pay attention to the impact of taxes on returns. I think that’s another very important component piece. And I also think that fees are a huge degrader of performance. So you really want to make sure that you’re getting good advice, but you’re not overpaying for it. So understand the fee structure, make sure that your advisor is not being compensated by selling you products, it’s more consultative, on a fee only basis, I am not a fan of that term. But because our gardeners are fee money, but nevertheless, it’s important to separate product from advice and make sure that you’re on the same side of the table. So those are some of the important things

Alan
When an individual comes to you. Typically what level of well, you want to, you know, is there a minimum level that that you’ll have required before you’ll accept them as a client.

Guy
I’m going to make a distinction because we, we really don’t accept clients directly to my firm. And we work primarily as through advisors of of wealth advisory firms. So we’re managing the equity or the stock component piece to the overall asset allocation of a client. In some cases, if the family is significantly large, with a family office structure, they come to us directly because their their assets are so substantial, but for the most part, we’re working through advisors around the country, I think we work with about 120 Different advisory firms around the country. In terms of their end client, probably the average net worth, have assets that we’re managing would be 20 million plus in terms of the end NET client, but that can range obviously.

Alan
What’s your opinion on Markowitz and his models?

Guy
He is an icon and godlike in, in the investment world. And he’s still going strong. One of my colleagues who is head of research, Lisa Goldberg, who’s also runs the Center for Risk Management at Berkeley saw him recently. I think there was some issue after the downturn of whether capital asset pricing model was still functioning. And I think the reality is yes, when I look at the idea of just plain indexing and being very efficient on the tax side, especially with a strategy similar to what we do in separate accounts, and in with with low fees, it is as resonant today as it ever has been.

Alan
So it sounds like an individual that you love to work with as a person with the liquidity event coming up. off and, you know, they have lots of built in gain that you can work towards they help shelter some of that, like tax efficient portfolios.

Guy
Yes, I think the idea is that in very efficient markets, and I’ll define efficient markets as the Russell 3000, let’s say the broad US equity market, or more recently, we’ve seen a huge migration for our clients using global benchmarks. So the MSCI All Country World Index as their benchmark, so that one benchmark, you can get the world’s global equity on one line item. And the idea there is if you can get that at low fees in a very tax efficient way, then you’re way ahead of the game. And then focus your efforts and energy on other asset classes, whether it’s hedge funds, or private equity, or real estate, where it’s not as efficient, and a great set of skills and advisors and managers can add alpha there. But to think that you’re going to pay higher fees on the equity side of the asset allocation, and outperform as a market. As a society, I should say, We are the market less of fees were charged. So if we accept a market return, and we accept capitalism, and get it tax efficiently at low fees, let’s go find our alpha. In other parts of our investment worlds.

Alan
I quickly we got a book that you just put out. Can you tell us about that? Sure.

Guy
It’s actually been a few years now. But after my 15 years at Montgomery securities, I decided to take a sabbatical and was trying to figure out what best to do. And a dear friend of mine had just retired. So this was in 2000, just retired. And so we were imagining what we could do as a major volunteer project together, we started talking to people. And the one thing that I realized was that the baby boomer generation, was just starting to retire in 2000. And this is the post 19, post World War 219 46 to 1957, sort of 1960 birth range. And a lot of this generation, my generation, you know, we’ve been raising families, we’ve been working hard, we’ve invested in our businesses to try and be successful. But maybe we hadn’t done as much around community service as we could have. And now as we retire, is there a book that I could produce and write that could help folks coming into retirement, giving them ideas on voluntary efforts? So that was the motivation for the for the book and enjoyed it immensely and met some wonderful people through that process?

Alan
Well, yeah, I think there’s nothing better in life than giving that service giving back to what you’ve been able to create.

Alan
Advisor into the Bay Area for several years, formerly a partner with Montgomery securities, and then started up a successful investment advisory firm with ran seven and a half billion in wealth under management. You know, during this break, we began talking about social networks. And there’s a story about Paul Revere, and that guy, can you share that with the listeners? Sure.

Guy
April 1775, when the British were came into Boston Harbor and had wanted to go to Concord to get the military arsenal, they the Patriots, the New England Patriots sent out two writers that that day a Paul Revere who we all know, and another fellow by the name of William Dawes, and what I’m told is that they both had a new as many people as the other did. In fact, actually Dawes knew more people, but they went in different directions. And revere went across the river, as they were trying to alert the local people about the fact that the British were coming, but we only know about Paul Revere, nobody knows who William Dawes is. And the reason for that is that Revere was a very interesting person who had a lot of different interests and hobbies. He was a farmer. He was a publisher. He was a writer. He was an editor. And so whenever he notified somebody on his great and famous ride, they would tell their circle of I have acquaintances and friends. And that network continued to grow. Das was much more singular in terms of what he did. So he knew as many people, but they’re all pretty much doing the same thing. And so the reality is that as we build out, and this is a great, I think, example of a social network, as we build out social networks, whether it’s through the volunteering efforts that we do, or other areas where we’re stretching ourselves just a little bit to be in communities, where maybe we’re not the experts, it greatly enhances us. And I think it enhances the community and society at large.

Alan
I think there’s a good story there. Also, with respect to connecting with people throughout your life. You know, it reminds me of a guy who spent the majority of his life up in Alaska as a hermit, you know, and then he built this cabin and was living off the land very successfully. And then he grew old, and finally had to go back into the real world. How many years of his life were missed, not interacting. The story of Paul Revere the fact that he learned how to connect with people, made him a legend. And I think that I think there’s something for us to learn from the experience there.

Guy
Well, I bring it up, because it’s so affected me when I heard the story years ago, and it really is a life lesson. That it I think, to kind of enrich our lives, it’s great to kind of push ourselves a little bit, and to get involved in other worlds, which then help connect ours to a greater community.

Alan
So person looking at getting involved, you know, they can be a guy, just hear what you said, but where do I start? What advice would you give them?

Guy
There are a number of organizations, especially with technology now, if it’s involved in volunteering, the ability to to go into websites and find volunteering opportunities around and it doesn’t necessarily, it doesn’t mean that you don’t have to have a kind of a selfish component to it. I remember when my wife and I first moved to Mill Valley, one of the things that I did was to volunteer to coach Little League, which I did for five years. For me, selfishly, it was a way for me to get to know people in the community in a new community, I didn’t know or I’ve heard stories, for example of somebody wanting to build an addition to their home. So what did they do, they volunteered at Habitat for Humanity, because in addition to getting skills of how to build something that they’d like to do themselves, they connected with their community. So it’s, it’s a, it’s an opportunity to to be helpful and selfish, but also help your community as well.

Alan
So the guy if, if a person wants to contact you, or access your, your fund, how would they go about doing that?

Guy
Boy, um, so we all of our portfolios are separately managed. So we don’t have a fun per se. They’re individually managed, I think probably the best if they want to contact me directly, as I mentioned, we primarily we don’t work directly with it with folks. But if I can be helpful in any way, G Lampard at Aperio group.com is my email address. And I’ll be delighted to respond to any inquiry that I get

Alan
May again, we’ve been busy here today with guideline part of a period group and thanks for being on today’s show.

Guy
It’s been my pleasure. Thank you, Alan.