BF 028 – Lori Zager & Lisa James – 2X Wealth Group

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Lori Zager & Lisa James
2X Wealth Group

2X Wealth Group guides women & couples to do better with their investments. It is important for women to engage in the financial conversation whether they are single or part of a couple. Learn why Lori & Lisa decided to start a financial services company that focuses on women in a male dominated industry and some of the communication tools they use to grow the business.

LORI ZAGER

HER BACKGROUND
Finance has been an unlikely and lifelong interest of hers. She grew up in the South watching Louis Rukeyser on Friday nights with her father. He paid for her East Coast education by investing in the stock market. She majored in Economics, which suited her early love of math and financial markets.

Her aptitude for finance led her to work for major Wall Street firms. She opened the San Francisco offices and led local operations for DLJ, UBS and Bank of Montreal.

After dealing with portfolio managers who were overwhelmed with information and short on time, she learned how to break down complicated investment concepts into simple ideas. Clients often tell her that her enthusiasm for the market is so infectious, that even those who hate math can get excited about stocks.

After 30 years of success in the rough and tumble institutional investing world, she came to appreciate just how underserved individual investors are. Improving the financial literacy of women and their families is her passion.

She has always admired the way her physician husband helped his patients. He inspired her to do the same thing in financial matters, by sharing her hard-earned wisdom and expertise with those who have little financial background, but want their money to work for them.

EDUCATION
BA | Brown University, Economics

LISA JAMES

HER BACKGROUND
She has many happy memories of the time she spent with her scientist dad working on complicated math problems. Since she’s interested in people and psychology as in numbers, she decided to study economics in college and enjoyed the way it brings math together with human behavior and politics.

A move to New York City landed her on Wall Street where she started her financial career at Lehman Brothers. She was selected to build and run a number of businesses including the Asset Backed Securities desk, which she built to a number one market ranking. Her role required understanding and developing complex financial products as well as taking and hedging the risks involved in buying and selling large volumes of securities. As one of the few senior women on Wall Street, she relished the opportunity to do what she does best—pulling together a wide range of information in order to develop productive strategies for clients.

She left Lehman Brothers in 1998 and moved to California with her husband and children. While her sons were growing up, she focused on philanthropic endeavors, including founding the parent association for San Francisco Friends School and co-chairing galas for the Discovery Museum and Ross Valley Women’s League.

When her children were older, she indulged her love of architecture by buying and renovating houses after she saw value in the Marin real estate market (post financial crisis). “I approached real estate with the same strategic mindset that fueled my success on Wall Street”.

She returned to finance because she saw an opportunity to help other women, many of whom are underserved in the investment world. She believes good investing is not a dry process based just on money, but can be a rich experience involving discussions of values, hopes and fears. “I am excited about using my experience as a professional woman, as well as a wife and mother, to advise others in a holistic way. When I’m not working with clients or reading the financial news, you’ll likely find me practicing yoga or hiking the trails of Marin”.

EDUCATION
BA | Wellesley College, Economics, Wellesley Scholar
London School of Economics

CERTIFICATIONS
FINRA Series 65
Certificate of Personal Financial Planning, with distinction | UC Berkeley Extension
Passed CFP® Exam, July 17, 2018
Candidate for CFP® Certification

KEY INVESTMENT EXPERIENCE
Ingalls & Snyder, New York, NY | Wealth Manager
Lisa James Design and Development, Ross, CA | President
Lehman Brothers, New York, NY | Managing Director, Asset Backed Securities

In this episode:

• Learn how Lori & Lisa met and why meeting someone randomly might not be so random.
• Wall street and most financial firms are typically run by men and it’s men that typically run the household investments- learn how Lori & Lisa came up with 2x Wealth Group and decided to focus their business on helping women get more educated with personal financing and investments.
• Data shows how women don’t like financing but ultimately end up with having to deal with financing when either a spouse dies or they get divorced.
• Why learning about financing while married is so important versus having to take a crash course when a crisis occurs.
• How they came up with the business name for 2X Wealth Group and what they’re currently doing to drive awareness.
• The funnest part is building the website and business plan but the hardest part is outbound marketing. They learned blogging to be very effective and organic but it takes doing it a lot.
• Blog is related to investments- current market situation as well as things to think about long-term with your investments.
• How age and having experience has benefited Lori & Lisa.
• People & psychology and why it’s critical to not make an emotional decision when investing.
• Why hiring a fee only financial planner is the only way to go.