Rebecca Rothstein

Managing Director Wealth Management, Smith Barney, Beverly Hills



Age:

52


Education:

Associate degree, merchandising, Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising


Team Assets:

$1.4 billion


Typical Account:

$10 million


Specialty:

High net worth public company executives.


Years in Business:

20


Quote:

“Being a financial adviser doesn’t necessarily go hand in hand with getting a master’s degree from some school. What really matters is having a clear understanding of what your clients’ needs are and doing the hard work to find out what the solutions are for them.”

Rebecca Rothstein advises a group of wealthy individuals that is under close scrutiny these days high net worth executives of public companies.

While carving out this niche at Citi Smith Barney, Rothstein has become one of the city’s top wealth advisers and was rated the top female adviser in the country this June in Barron’s magazine by R.J. Shook, who conducted the Business Journal rankings.

Rothstein said her niche requires her to be sensitive to the specific needs of her clients given the increased scrutiny that is directed at well-paid executives.

“You have to understand what executives of public companies have to deal with. You have to understand the pitfalls,” she said.

And as the personal and professional lives of these executives are made public especially as scores of CEOs find themselves under investigation for receiving possibly backdated stock options she has adapted.

“The reporting environment has changed since I started. There is a lot of disclosure information and you have to be on top of your game to understand what public company executives are dealing with,” Rothstein said.

Rothstein, who works in Beverly Hills, says that while at Citi Smith Barney she has found success for her clients in part by advocating “alternative investments with very steady rates of return.” This includes investment in private equity.

Though her practice is specialized, Rothstein and her seven-person team have been able to nurture a portfolio valued well in excess of $1 billion. But there have been hiccups.

Rothstein recalls one incident, when she allowed a client to take a concentrated position with his investments. She was later unable to convince him to hedge on a stock, which would have been the right play.

“I didn’t find the right words to encourage him to hedge it,” she said. “He was wrong and he lost a bunch of dough. I always feel bad when people lose a bunch of money.”

Rothstein took a circuitous pathway to the world of financial advising, not the traditional M.B.A., white shoes route.

A high school dropout, Rothstein took a few local jobs, including working at a bank, before leaving her hometown of Winnipeg, Canada, for Los Angeles in 1976. Rothstein was “going out into the world.”

“I learned a lot about hard work,” she said.

Once in Los Angeles, Rothstein got a degree in merchandising from the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising, parlaying that into a career as a fashion buyer. And after a nine-year run as a buyer with companies including the Broadway and Robinsons chains, Rothstein needed a change; constant travel kept her away from her family.

“I was on the road all the time and I remember going home and crying about being away from my children,” said Rothstein, who has four sons. “My husband suggested, ‘Why don’t you become a financial adviser?'”

Rothstein did just that, though she entered the business during a significant rough patch a month before the stock market crash of 1987. Rothstein said she learned from the experience.

On the Friday before Black Monday, the market had dropped about 100 points not an insignificant fluctuation at the time and Rothstein recalls pronouncing that such a drop “will never happen again.” On Monday, Oct. 19, the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped hundreds more losing some $500 billion in value.

“I didn’t have any clients so I didn’t have anyone to hurt. It was great timing,” she said. “I learned to not prognosticate and not have opinions like, ‘That won’t happen again.'”

Rothstein got her start at a small Los Angeles firm called Baraban Securities, where she worked briefly before moving to Toluca Pacific Securities. After a two-month stint there she was hired by Bear Stearns Asset Management Inc. Rothstein was able to grow her business quickly, and made a stop at Deutsche Bank Alex. Brown before joining Citi Smith Barney in 1999.