David Robinson

David Robinson and his team have more than 150 years of combined experience in wealth management.

Once upon a time, David Robinson, president of Robinson, Tigue, Sponcil & Associates LLC, wanted to be a doc­tor. These days he tends to his clients’ financial well­being using asset allocation techniques, wealth management and financial planning.

The two fields are hardly dissimilar. Like medicine, financial advisory work is a profession grounded in science, including modern portfolio theory as advanced by Harry Markowitz, who won a Nobel Prize for his theories. In the mid-20th century, Markowitz developed the idea that risk was essentially volatility over time. By blending various asset classes, Markowitz proposed that investment volatility might be ameliorated—or at least be made more predictable—and that returns might be boosted or be made more predictable as well. This theory became known as modern portfolio theory, and financial advisors like Robinson practice variants of it today.

Robinson has focused his practice around wealth management techniques that have evolved from the financial planning disciplines of the 20th century. Wealth management calls for the financial advisor to act as a client’s personal chief financial officer, organizing the different details of a client’s financial life into one comprehensible and efficient whole. Wealth management therefore can involve taxes, retirement planning, estate planning, investing and more.

One of the most important aspects of wealth management is its ability to align values with wealth. It is this ability that provides the most satisfaction for David Robinson. “I have a pre-med background but I saw that health care in this country was increasingly headed away from entrepreneurship, and that’s why I took the path toward financial services,” he says. “I’ve always had a drive toward helping people, but doing so from an independent platform.”

Robinson studied at the College for Financial Planning at Boston University and later became a member of the Financial Planning Association in Phoenix. He initially worked with a partner in an estate planning firm in Phoenix, Arizona, before founding his company. He started with $5,000 in borrowed money and today, only a decade later, manages some $165 million for about 200 clients. “I am helping people with all that is important in their lives,” says Robinson. “It’s very satisfying.”

Robinson and his team specialize in advising retirees, with a focus on estate planning, protection of principal and tax efficiency. With more than 150 years of combined experience in wealth management, Robinson, Tigue, Sponcil & Associates’ mission is to grow clients’ wealth through independent, customized solutions designed to mirror each client’s values, goals and objectives.

These days, Robinson stays busy in and out of the office. He is the financial instructor at the Franciscan Renewal Center for couples about to be married in the Phoenix Catholic Diocese, a co-chairman of Money Smart Kids of Arizona (a nonprofit organization that educates parents and children about smart choices with money) and a board member of Catholic Charities. He is also a member of Desert Mountain, one of the world’s premier private residential communities. Robinson’s exposure to some of Arizona’s most significant wealth through the Desert Mountain community has helped him build up his practice over the years.

The wealth management approach that Robinson has adopted at his firm has been supported by California-based CEG Worldwide, a pre-eminent leader in wealth management coaching for advisors. “CEG Worldwide has made a great deal of difference to us in terms of providing a knowledge base on which we can build a fully scalable wealth management system,” Robinson explains. “Its expertise has helped us provide a more sophisticated and energetic experience to our clients—one for which they’re increasingly appreciative.”

Clients show that appreciation in many ways, but perhaps the most significant marker of success is that the firm has significantly raised its minimums, from $250,000 to $1 million. That increase represents the success of the wealth management approach and also of the active asset allocation strategies that the firm uses.

The driver of the firm’s investment policy is the expanding professional middle class in America and around the world. “We like to think we will have an international middle class with roots in Asia and India by 2030,” Robinson explains. “This has a direct impact on investment strategy. We want to seek out companies domestically rooted but with great worldwide exposure. These companies will have products and services designed to appeal to this worldwide middle-class explosion.”

Robinson has implemented a wealth management strategy and an investment perspective that provides services not ordinarily offered in aggregate. On the client side, his spiritual perspectives and positioning within some of Arizona’s wealthiest communities provide his firm with an exposure to those clients who are well-positioned to benefit from his suite of services. As Robinson points out: “We are attracting sophisticated clients who enjoy living well but also have acquired a critical mass of wealth that needs tending, especially from a retirement perspective.”

Robinson may not be a doctor, but he’s clearly built a healthy business— one that provides necessary support to his community of valued clients.

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