Andi Y.H. Kang

When Andi Y.H. Kang, CFP® turned 50 in 2007, she didn't want to mark the milestone with a fancy sports car or a luxurious European vacation. Instead, she wanted to run a marathon. One problem: Kang wasn't a runner. For some, that last part would have been a deal breaker. For Kang, it was an opportunity. Kang tackled her training the same way she has approached building her Huntington Beach, California, wealth management firm, Crown Wealth Management: She set goals. It started with running just a few miles at a time and quickly worked up to double-digit distances. In 2007, Kang crossed the finish line at the Rock 'n' Roll Marathon in San Diego, tired but exhilarated.

"To run a marathon, you have to prepare with proper training, you have to constantly educate yourself on how to do it right and you have to monitor your performance," says Kang, who has completed five more marathons. "It's the same thing with wealth management: You always have to be in training, and you have to keep educating yourself and monitoring the performance of your clients' portfolios."

Since launching Crown Wealth Management in 2007, Kang has worked to continuously improve the firm, which serves more than 500 clients and has $80 million in assets under administration. That's meant learning to expertly guide clients through the wealth management process and continuing to refine the role her firm plays in those clients' lives. Significantly, Kang has worked to shed what she calls the "conventional wisdom" of the financial services industry that puts products before people and rewards the status quo. "To be successful, you have to keep educating yourself and constantly stretching yourself," she says. "I want my company to be the wealth manager of choice for my clients. I want to become indispensable."

The turbulent market in 2008 was a test for Kang and CWM but also offered an opportunity to strengthen the firm's relationships with its clients. Kang devoted more time to reaching out to clients. Kang talked to clients about risk tolerance and the importance of maintaining a consistent investment discipline.

That extra outreach paid dividends, says Kang. "Clients were really thankful," she says. "When the market was doing really well, I had some clients who thought they could manage their investments on their own. But when the markets are difficult, that's when our clients really appreciate the work we do."

Kang was looking for that kind of one-on-one client interaction when she formed Crown Wealth Management. Kang, who earned a BS in business from the University of Cincinnati—where she graduated Magna Cum Laude—continued graduate studies in business at Cincinnati. After school, she spent several years working in retail management for high-end retailers such as Saks Fifth Avenue and Gucci, but decided in the late 1980s to switch to a career in investing, which had fascinated her since graduate school.

Kang founded CWM because she wanted to work directly with clients, teaching them how to reach life-long financial goals. "I love education," she says. "I really enjoy when people understand what they need to do to make their lives better, and financial education can help do that."

Indeed, Kang enjoys spending time with clients—regardless of the market conditions. But she also admits needing to pare her roster of clients to be able to give each client the kind of personal attention each deserves. Through her work with CEG Worldwide's wealth management coaching program, Kang has laid out a strategy to whittle down the roster of more than 500 clients to a more manageable base of 150 clients. "My goal is to serve a fewer number of clients and serve them really well," she says.

Among those clients, Kang intends to focus primarily on working with small-business owners, who make up a sizable percentage of her client base. She finds the issues and concerns of these clients unique and challenging—whether helping to maximize a business owner's retirement plan contributions or discussing smart tax strategies. Meanwhile, Kang enjoys taking her wealth management services beyond the executive offices. She often will meet with employees of her clients' small businesses to discuss such things as the importance of retirement saving. "I love educating the employees and teaching them why saving and participating in a retirement plan should be an absolute priority," she says.

And whether she's meeting with a client or delivering a talk to a group of employees, Kang doesn't sugar-coat the potential ups and downs of investing. Instead, she preaches consistency and discipline. Like the marathon runner who must plan carefully to make it to the finish line, investors also need to stick to a well-constructed plan. "There may be times in the market that cause you to fall down, but you need to get up and just keep going," she says. "You have to alter your temptations to go with the flow or take shortcuts. You have to stay disciplined."

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