Barbara Ray

Barbara Ray's career in wealth management was born out of necessity. As an executive at a Fortune 40 firm, Ray was well-compensated and had a complicated pay package full of deferred compensation benefits and other incentives. But there was one problem: She couldn't find anyone at the company to actually walk her through her compensation plan. Even worse, none of the financial advisors she consulted were able to do any better. No one could tell her how to make the most of her pay package, including maximizing the value of her deferred compensation while minimizing taxes. "Nobody but nobody understood it," she says.

But through these challenges, Ray saw opportunity. "The advisors I knew loved to pick stocks, but they couldn't figure out my compensation plan and my 401(k). They could never tell my husband and me how much money we needed to save, and nobody could help us set up the trusts we wanted," she explains. "I said to myself, 'I know there's a service out there for this.'"

So Ray in 2004 established Vantage Point Advisors with the goal of guiding high-net-worth executives and business owners through the wealth management process. The Salt Lake City-based firm works with a select group of 15 clients with a combined net worth of $90 million. Many of those clients are Ray's former colleagues who had encountered similar problems finding suitable wealth management services to address their often complex financial situations.

Business executives typically face two key challenges, says Ray. The first is that their financial lives are often incredibly complex, with assets tied up in everything from significant real estate holdings to large amounts of unexercised stock options. The second: Executives who spend lots of time keeping a company in line may—for a variety of reasons—give short shrift to their own personal balance sheets. "They're making plenty of money, but they're all overwhelmed and busy," notes Ray. "When you have a job like that, you spend a lot of time just staying current in your own position. And now you're going to be an expert and handle your own finances?"

Before she could become a trusted advisor to these executives, Ray needed to learn the basics of the wealth management business. The CPA—who spent more than a decade with a Big Five accounting firm and attracted venture capital funding for her health care startup firm—began her education at Lincoln Financial, where she boned up on tax rules and regulations. But this time, the topics were income taxes and estate taxes rather than corporate taxes. "I really had to go back and relearn all the personal stuff," she says.

From an investment perspective, Ray was particular about how clients' money should be managed. She decided it was best to avoid active management that put a premium on stock picking to beat the overall market. "In my view, you're always going to lose with stock picking, and I didn't want to get into a business where you're always going to lose," she says.

Satisfied with her apprenticeship, Ray struck out five years ago and founded Vantage Point Advisors with one client—an executive and former colleague who shared Ray's frustrations in finding adequate wealth management services. Ray began to add clients by differentiating herself through her corporate experience, which enables her to address such key issues as the pros and cons of planned mergers, employee agreements and buyout packages. Best of all, Ray was able to step in and confidently explain to her clients how they could get the most out of their incentive-laden compensation packages. "I saw the emails between my clients and their HR departments, and they just weren't fully benefiting from these great packages," she says. "If I'd had somebody who could have talked to me about this, I would have a lot more money than I do."

Dealing with high-powered business executives has led Ray to develop unique relationships with her clients. Much like a trusted business advisor, Ray frequently presents clients with a handful of scenarios to solve a particular issue, along with her professional recommendation. It's then up to the client to make the final call. That's led to some decisions that Ray hasn't necessarily applauded. However, the important part is that she is giving them the tools they need to make informed choices. "I treat them like the professionals that they are," she says.

Ray likens her wealth management services to that of a personal CFO, much like her work at the corporate level. "In every organization, the CFO is responsible for finance, administration and law," she says. "True wealth management combines all of these things as well."

Ray doesn't have ambitious plans to grow Vantage Point Advisors. She would like to continue building the firm's assets under management but hopes to maintain a boutique firm that can devote the resources needed to handle a high-maintenance—and highly rewarding—clientele. "I need to work with people who are pretty complicated," Ray says, laughing. "I need my own mental stimulus."

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