Providing Advice For a Better Financial Life
ALUMNI IN ACTION
P atricia P owell ’ 7 3 As a certified financial planner and president of her own independent financial planning and wealth management services firm, Patricia Powell ’73 manages more than $120 million for her clients. While financial acumen is clearly necessary when providing investment advice, Powell says her most important skill is listening. “This job is really all about the people,” she says. “You certainly need the financial skills to do the work. But the other part is coaching my clients through the thought process of how to allocate the resources they have for whatever their needs are—retirement, helping their elderly parents, or paying for college. “ Powell’s journey to owning her own firm took a variety of twists and turns, despite knowing early on that she was interested in a career in business. A self-described “Jersey girl,” she attended Nutley High School. “I told the guidance counselor I was interested in business, and she pulled out a catalog for secretarial school,” she recalls. “When I said that wasn’t what I had in mind, she suggested I could go to college to be a nurse or a teacher instead. I was unsophisticated so I thought if this is what the counselor says, it must be true.” She enrolled at William Paterson, not far from her home, to pursue a degree in music education. “It was right toward the end of the Vietnam War, and the veterans coming back added a very interesting perspective in class,” Powell says. “The professors were very engaged with the students. It was a really exciting
Volume 13, Number 2
Fall 2012
time to be on campus. I received a wonderful education.” She was the first in her family to earn a college degree. Still committed to entering the business world, after graduation Powell took some low-level clerical jobs, including bank teller and head teller. Her real opportunity came when she was offered a position as a training specialist for Royal Insurance Co., which combined her interest in business with her teaching skills. “It was a time when doors were starting to open for a woman who wanted a career,” she says. Her supervisor there served as a mentor, encouraging her to pursue an M.B.A. at Seton Hall University, and helping her land her first position as a financial analyst. “To be successful, you need to combine a prepared mind with opportunity,” Powell says. “William Paterson helped me develop my skills and the M.B.A. gave me the business preparation I needed to meet that opportunity. It took me until I was twenty-seven to work into my dream job in finance, so I tell people that your dream isn’t over until you
By Mary Beth Zeman
choose to throw in the towel.” She eventually found her way back to banking, but with a difference. As a vice president for corporate financial planning at First Fidelity Bank, she ran mergers and acquisitions, the corporate-wide asset/ liability management program, and non-interest expense control. Back then, such corporate positions were filled, typically, by a man with an M.B.A. from an Ivy League school. “I was naïve. I didn’t know that as a woman with a degree from a state university, I wasn’t supposed to be as good as a man with an Ivy League education,” she says. “So, I just did the job.” It was interesting work, Powell continues. “But I knew that I had gone about as far as I could go in banking; getting a CEO position was
Continued on page 29 Pat Powell’s Top Financial Advice for those just starting out: 1. Don’t fritter money away on the little things. It’s easy to spend thousands of dollars a year on little things... bottled water, café lattes, or just buying lunch. 2. Choose wisely when spending money. “In this country, we can have just about anything we want, but not everything. If you choose a Ferrari, you might have to live with your parents for a long, long time.” 3. Get out of debt as fast as possible, and stay out of debt. Pay down your student loans as fast as you can, so you can begin to live your adult life unencumbered by debt.
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