Name: Catherine Evans
Firm: J.P. Morgan Wealth Management
Location: San Francisco, CA
Team Custodied Assets: $2.2 billion
Background: Catherine Evans grew up in Northern California and developed a passion for travel while earning her degree in International Relations from Stanford University. After graduating, she worked in management consulting, focusing on strategic initiatives for companies, before going to business school at the University of California Berkeley. While there she became interested in personal finance and saw a direct link between her work for companies and how wealthy families manage their money—almost like a business. After returning to consulting at Oliver Wyman, Evans joined First Republic Bank, where she spent 21 years helping grow the firm’s wealth management business. Now at J.P. Morgan, her team of nine members work with about 150 families in total.
Competitive Edge: “Our client base is remarkably diverse, but the common thread is complexity—whether it’s private business owners, executives at public companies, or families managing multigenerational wealth and philanthropy,” says Evans. “What we bring to clients that is unique is this idea that we’re the COO of their family’s financial plans—we don’t just create a strategy, we focus on execution.”
Investment Approach: “Every strategy is tailored, but we prioritize tax efficiency, liquidity, and diversification,”says Evans, whose team values tax efficiency, particularly large-cap equities, and likes to use customized strategies depending on the client while also favoring dividend-paying stocks. “For tax-efficient investing, we favor individual bonds, municipal bonds, and large-cap equities,” says Evans. “When it comes to fixed income, high-quality corporate and government credit are key.” Many of her Bay Area clients also come to her with significant existing exposure to private investments. If adding more to a client’s portfolio, Evans likes to focus on real estate and private credit, but many of her larger clients have their own access to private market opportunities. “We help them understand and track the whole picture,” adds Evans.
Best Advice: “One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned is that families, like companies, thrive when they focus not just on investments, but on strategy and culture,” Evans says. “Aligning financial decisions with long-term values is critical.” She also emphasizes the importance of maintaining focus on long-term goals: “Some of the best advice I ever received—and continue to use—is to pull clients back to the big picture,” Evans says. “It’s easy to get caught up in market swings, but what really matters is long-term strategy and execution.”
Read the full article here