Palisadian Given Top Honor by Los Angeles Magazine

Last month, Los Angeles Magazine published its list of top financial services professionals in the area. A handful of elite honorees were chosen among several categories to be recognized, among them local wealth manager, Nicole T. Ryan.

According to the magazine, the honor recognizes less than 2 percent of the wealth managers in the Los Angeles area. The award was based on a survey conducted by the magazine in partnership with Crescendo Business Services. Crescendo contacted more than 100,000 high-net-worth households and Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) registered representatives by mail and phone for the survey.

Wealth managers were evaluated by recipients based on nine criteria: customer service, integrity, knowledge/expertise, communication, value for fee charged, meeting of financial objectives, post-sale service, quality of recommendations, and overall satisfaction. Those who scored highest made the list.

The PaliPatch recently spoke to Ryan about her special recognition.

“This is quite an honor for me,” said Ryan of her recognition. “Being included signals that my constant effort to deliver excellent work has paid off. It is gratifying and exciting to be recognized in this way."

Ryan, 38, has lived in Pacific Palisades for nine years, raising her daughters, 3½-year-old Grace and 13-year-old Jhade, with her husband, Daniel, who has a chiropractic office in Brentwood. She works mostly our of her home, commuting one day a week to her office in Pasadena.

As an independent representative through Financial Network Investment Corp., Ryan is a certified financial planner, providing estate planning, insurance services college planning and her specialty, retirement planning, for high-net-worth individuals. She told me about recent trends in the business.

“More people are wanting to add value to the next generation,” as opposed to just money. “You can leave $10 million, or you can leave a smaller amount and create a foundation with the rest.”

This gives the children of a family the opportunity to work together on a common activity—operating the foundation and deciding where its funds are donated.

“This gives the children a responsibility and keeps the family together,” Ryan explained.

Financial responsibility goes back a couple generations in her family. Ryan's grandmother, who is 105 years old, began investing in the 1920s and '30s. She was very influential in Ryan's decision to go into the financial services industry. Another factor was the pure challenge of it.

At college, not knowing what else to do, Ryan sought out the hardest degree to get, which was finance; and then sought the hardest job in the industry, which was a stock broker. Ryan figured that at least she could get a job anywhere, because she had shown she was smart and worked hard.

Her strategy seems to have paid off. Friends and family started asking her to manage their money, and she's been in business now for 15 years, with clients across the country, though most are in Los Angeles. And she loves helping people with their money.

“Everybody can be a multimillionaire, if you have the time,” she encourages.

Ryan also enjoys traveling with her family, adventure, hiking, the beach, scuba diving and eating delicious food.

Originally from Covina, she loves Pacific Palisades for its charm, sense of community and the way she knows all the families and vendors she sees at the farmers' market: “It's a small town in the big city.”

In this big city of Los Angeles, Ryan has risen to the top in her field by providing families with financial security and their own legacies to pass on.