Yourstake, YourStory Ep. 5 - Why ESG is the GPS of Investing, ft. Jeff Gitterman, Co-Founding Partner of Gitterman Wealth Management, LLC

Gabe Rissman  0:00  

Hello and welcome to your steak your story. We're a video series with advisors for advisors, highlighting best practices of ESG and sustainable investing. Today I'm really excited to have Jeff Gutterman, a trusted advisor. And Jeff has a really great resume Jeff is a widely recognized leader in the ESG and sustainable investing field. Jeff's the creator of the smart, sustainable metrics applied to risk tolerance investing solutions, a suite of global climate aware allocation strategies available to financial advisory firms and individual investors. With over 30 years of experience as a financial advisor, Jeff began realigning determine Wealth Management, LLC towards sustainable investing in 2015. The firm regularly hosts ESG focused events for financial advisors. Jeff is also the co host of the impact TV show, which airs on fintech.tv, and bluebird TV. And Jeff also serves on the board of directors for the Child Health Institute in New Jersey, at Rutgers, Robert Robert Wood Johnson medical school and dedicates much of his free time to raising funds and awareness for the autism community. Jeff, really excited to have you on thanks so much for joining.

 

Unknown Speaker  1:12  

Thanks, Kay. Happy to be here.

 

Gabe Rissman  1:14  

Cool. So, I would love to have you start by just telling the audience about yourself. Where did you grew up? How did you grew up? What was your journey to the field of financial advising.

 

Unknown Speaker  1:27  

I grew up in Queens, New York. So we'll go York boy boarding raised. And parents we're definitely lower middle class, income. Retail, my dad worked at retail. During the 70s, lots of unemployment, lots of concerns about the next check and the next meal and stuff that did a garden apartment if we shared it with my sister and my parents. And I'd say the one influence monetary influence I had early on is that way Oh, God was in the insurance business. You work for all the time, Mitchell V. Or he was one of their top salespeople. And he work until he paid his bills for the month. So someone seat work two or three days, Bob, take the rest of the month off, it was a pretty interesting approach. It was never trying to kill, he just wanted to be a top producer. And once it I was builds cover. But if on Monday, the first day of the month, the big sale and it covered is not for the month, he would take the rest of the month and not work. And I saw it it's like indirectly comparison on a constant basis to my parents, like they're both salaried always worked for them. They never had much control over their life or their income or their job. So I think I was drawn early to just having more freedom. And also see what helping people selling life insurance medicals case could really do for you. And also your career and your freedom and your ability to evolve and develop.

 

Gabe Rissman  3:16  

It's very cool. And then it's your you started wealth management 30 years ago. When did you What did you make that choice? And how was your I guess you said that was your first monetary influence? How did you get into the field? How do you make that decision? Was that like a start?

 

Unknown Speaker  3:38  

You could say that maybe subconsciously I was drawing towards it because my uncle. But when I was on break from college, I got a temporary job at Merrill Lynch, to rotate or temporary to say so it was the first day I went in. I had a few months off from school and I was looking for some work and they said me literally that day. We'll be right back and the court sent me to Merrill Lynch. And I started that day. This was in my last year of college, it was at six when the market was fly and pre crash. And when the crash hit, they actually offered me a job full time because they were so swamped. I actually worked on the error desk. You can imagine during your crash, the IRA desk is a very popular place