Name: Angela Mwanza
Firm: UBS Private Wealth Management
Location: New York, NY
AUM: $878 million
Forbes Rankings: Best-in-State Wealth Advisors, Top Women Wealth Advisors Best-In-State, America’s Top Women Wealth Advisors
Background: Angela Mwanza was born and raised in Zambia, where her family still lives. She eventually moved to Germany and learned the language there while pursuing a degree in Linguistics. While studying, Mwanza worked for a sports fashion sales company specializing in snowboarding. “I’m scared of heights and come from Africa so I had never snowboarded… but I self taught myself and still snowboard to this day!,” says Mwanza. In the late 90s, Mwanza decided it was time for a change of pace so she earned her MBA at Cornell University and then landed a job at JPMorgan Private Bank in 2000. When the financial crisis rolled around eight years later, she was working at Lehman Brothers, but was able to move to UBS in the midst of the downturn, where she has worked ever since.
Competitive Edge: Mwanza is highly focused on family finances and philanthropy in her practice, honing in on the purpose and values of each client in order to be intentional about all aspects of their wealth. “The pain points I kept hearing from clients all had to do with the complexities that wealth brings—and the number one thing people care about is their family,” says Mwanza. As a result she is “always thinking generationally”, engaging the next generation and facilitating discussions throughout the entire family. What’s more, many of her clients have a passion for making a positive change in the world, so a key part of her practice revolves around socially responsible and impact investments.
Biggest Challenge: When she first moved to the United States for business school, Mwanza had to build up her knowledge and expertises from scratch. “I was so out of my element and completely clueless at the time,” she recalls. “I had never heard of The Wall Street Journal!”
Investment Philosophy/Strategy: Mwanza takes a holistic approach to working with clients: “I can’t be a good advisor if I’m not speaking to their other advisors and attorneys,” she says. In terms of investing, she and her team are strong believers in long-term, risk-adjusted and tax-aware returns. “Most clients who are entrepreneurial tend to have a lot of risk outside of the portfolio we are managing—so we tend to be moderately conservative when thinking about their lifetime,” adds Mwanza.
Investment Outlook: “Markets like this with rising rates tend to favor value over growth, so we position more defensively from a tactical standpoint,” she says. “There’s a lot of unknowns but that’s something we justjust -0.3% have to be ready for and resilient about when it comes to client portfolios.” Mwanza and her team like alternative investments but shuns gold, which “doesn’t make sense” as a hedge to market volatility when Treasuries are yielding nearly 5%. “Our outlook is long term, so we’re not bothered by day to day volatility,” says Mwanza.
Best Advice: “It’s very important not to be emotionally invested—people get antsy and feel like they have to do something but that’s when most mistakes are made,” she says.
Favorite Hobby: Mwanza loves pushing her limits outside of work, too: “Don’t tell me I can’t do something,” she says. She has run six marathons (one in Boston, five in New York) and has scaled the summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro. Mwanza also enjoys traveling with her husband, taking trips to see endangered species like rhinos in Asia or tortoises in the Galapagos.