John Stephens

John Stephens started his professional career as a doctor and ended up a wealth manager. In the process, he helped define strategies that resulted in the creation of a billion-dollar financial advisory practice—TCI Wealth Advisors, Inc., located in Tucson, Arizona. More important, from his point of view, he has spent his time in the financial sector helpingpeople align their core values with their personal resources. That process is formally known as wealth management.

Stephens has applied the lessons of wealth management to the areas of his own life that he values most— family time and professional independence. He started down this path nearly a decade ago, when he was one of the recipients of the proceeds of a buyout of the medical practice where he worked. He took two years off, spending them with his growing family, and enrolled in an executive MBA program at Arizona State University.

While he expected to return to medicine, he soon discovered he thoroughly enjoyed finance and accounting. In fact, he liked the discipline so much that he completed the Chartered Financial Analyst program in consecutive years, and received the CFA designation in 2001. With a number of initials after his name—MD, MBA, CFA—Stephens searched for a niche in the financial industry. After considering positions with some Wall Street powerhouses, he decided to join his current firm—and has never looked back.

Stephens says one of the attractions of the firm was the opportunity to work with founder Robert Swift. Swift founded the firm in 1990 after a number of years working as a stockbroker. Swift initially taught clients how to invest on their own but soon found that many of them requested portfolio management services. "He hadn't intended to, but he ended up starting a new investment management practice," Stephens explains. "However, this time Bob did so without the conflicts of interest that he had observed in the past."

When Stephens joined Swift, the firm already had some $300 million under management. In January 2008, TCI Wealth Advisors, Inc. merged with another firm to form the billion-dollar entity it is today, one that emphasizes wealth management and asset allocation using a team approach to financial advisory work. TCI Wealth Advisors, Inc. often matches clients with its partners based on a similarity of interests. Once matched, clients are guided through a series of meetings that help identify their values and goals, and the firm then establishes a plan to help meet those goals.

Other key factors that attracted Stephens to his new firm were its emphasis on fee-only financial planning and the use of modern portfolio theory in asset allocation. The firm's approach uses customized bundles of asset classes that have exhibited specific levels of volatility over time. By blending various asset classes, investors hope to arrive at portfolios that deliver the desired levels of volatility and returns over time.

Stephens' financial career offers client interactions similar to the interactions he had as a doctor, the part of his professional life from which he derives the most enjoyment. (By contrast, being on call in the evening and on weekends is something he doesn't miss.) Additionally, he values the firm's emphasis on family time, and he leaves the firm early in the afternoon when his children have ball games and other activities.

Clearly, Stephens is living his values through his career and personal life. It's a balance between work and family he wants others to experience as well. While most individuals are in a position where they have to build wealth, it is just as important that individuals work in a meaningful way—with a purpose. And, as Stephens points out, while it is certainly possible to have a meaningful life without wealth, those who are wealthy will derive greater benefit from their resources if they put that wealth to work supporting their own value systems as well as those of their families.

TCI Wealth Advisors, Inc. is a systems-oriented firm, which is especially pleasing to Stephens, who has seen the impact that a systems approach has on a growing business. TCI Wealth Advisors, Inc., he believes, has successfully confronted the challenges that many growing firms face: how to allocate professional time to current clients without reducing other services that need to be implemented or pursued. By taking a systems approach to whatneeds to be accomplished, TCI Wealth Advisors, Inc. has overcome that hurdle. The firm also has benefited from the advisor coaching firm CEG Worldwide. This is particularly true when it comes to a wealth management philosophy that includes a disciplined systems approach. "When I checked out the CEG Worldwide program, I was most impressed," Stephens says. "And after going through the experience, I have to say that they deal with industry issues at a fundamental level. They show you how to build systems that can support the important experience clients should have within a firm that espouses wealth management as a best practice—and that's what we strive for."

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