Louise and Nina Gunderson are more than just an incredibly successful advisor team at UBS Private Wealth Management—they’re also mother and daughter.
In a new episode of Head to Head, Louise and Nina join Co-Heads of Distribution Kirsten Pickens and Ryan Robertson to discuss running a team like a family, blazing new trails in financial services and working together to build multi-generational relationships to help clients achieve their goals.
“My friends are my clients; my clients are my friends. Because we get so close and dive deeply into all kinds of familial, emotional, financial situations, you get very close to the people, and they trust you. And for me, the respect and trust are probably the two most important things that I want for my clients, my team, and for myself and my family.” —Louise Gunderson
About Louise Gunderson, Managing Director–Wealth Management and Financial Advisor
Because of her genuine interest in people, Louise Gunderson has distinguished herself as one of UBS’s most successful Financial Advisors and is the top female advisor at the firm. She brings more than 40 years of experience helping sophisticated clients meet their most meaningful—and often complex—personal wealth goals. Louise provides advice and solutions beyond investing to address all areas of her clients’ lives— from investment management and asset allocation, to longevity and multigenerational estate planning, as well as banking and real estate financing.
Prior to joining UBS, Louise spent 6 years with Merrill Lynch Global Wealth Management as a Managing Director of Investments. Her experience also includes 10 years with Bernstein Investment Research and Management, serving as a Senior Financial Advisor and Principal, managing over $1 billion of client assets. She previously spent 18 years at Chemical Bank in its credit, private banking and retail divisions, as well as 5 years as head of private banking at Republic National Bank and Banca della Svizzera Italiana (BSI).
About Nina Gunderson, CDFA®, Account Vice President and Financial Advisor
By joining The Gunderson Group, Nina adds a multigenerational dimension to the team. As a Financial Advisor, Nina works with families and the team to create customized investment plans to help grow and protect clients’ wealth. These plans focus on ensuring clients will be able to meet their needs for the future they envision for themselves and their families. Because deep and meaningful relationships are a true differentiator across the entire team, Nina focuses on connecting with the next generation. By doing so, she can further reassure clients that the team is a resource for their entire family.
Nina brings to The Gunderson Group a passion for working with clients and UBS. She earned the opportunity to participate in the firm’s highly selective, two-year Graduate Talent Program and has worked across the firm. Over the two years, she gained firsthand experience with clients and UBS professionals in areas such as wealth management research, advanced planning and field development. Nina developed an expertise in millennials and their behavior as it pertains to investing, creating tailored content to increase the generation’s level of financial literacy.
Transcript excerpt:
Kirsten Pickens: Welcome to Head to Head, a podcast by FS Investments, where we get personal with the people of financial services. I’m Kirsten Pickens.
Ryan Robertson: And I’m Ryan Robertson. We are the co-heads of distribution at FS Investments and together we sit down with some of the brightest minds, innovative thinkers and thought leaders in the financial services industry.
Kirsten Pickens: Today we’re excited to welcome Louise and Nina Gunderson. They are not only an incredibly successful advisor team, they’re also mother and daughter.
Ryan Robertson: Louise Gunderson is a Managing Director and Financial Advisor at UBS Private Wealth Management with over 50 years in the financial services industry. Louise is a Barrons and Forbes top ranked financial advisor and the top female advisor at UBS.
Kirsten Pickens: Her daughter Nina Gunderson is a Vice President and Financial Advisor at UBS. She started her career in the highly selective UBS graduate talent program, and over the following eight years has applied her unique expertise in millennial investing to growing and protecting client wealth.
Ryan Robertson: In this episode, Louise and Nina discussed running a team like a family, blazing new trails in financial services and working together to build multi-generational relationships that help clients achieve their goals.
Kirsten Pickens: So let’s get started. We’re excited for you to hear our conversation today. Good morning ladies. Thank you so much for joining us today on Head to Head. How are you doing?
Louise Gunderson: Great, and thanks for having us. Excited to be here.
Kirsten Pickens: Absolutely. We’re excited to have you. In fact, Ryan and I, we’ve been doing our podcast for about a year now, and we’ve been really eager for today’s discussion with both of you. You’re the first advisor team that we’ve had the opportunity to interview, but even more special mother-daughter team, which is of course super rare. So we can’t wait to dive into all the intricacies of that. But before we do, we just want to start with your backgrounds. We want to hear a little bit about your personal journeys that got you into financial services. And of course Louise, we have to start with you. So you are a 50 year veteran in this industry. You’re one of the top financial advisors in the country. You’re the number one female advisor at UBS. Can you just take us back to the beginning because you were also one of the first female financial advisors ever, so that could be a totally separate podcast in and of itself, but you’ve truly paved the path for so many women in this industry and we love to hear how it all started.
Louise Gunderson: Well, thank you and I that it doesn’t seem like a half a century in my life. I guess when you really love what you do, time kind of just keeps moving on. I got into financial services by being a banker first actually lending money to private individuals and in their private investments. And someone said to me, why not go and think about the other side of the business, which was really the asset management, the preserving of all the money that they made. And so, I joined the financial service industry on the investment side and about 13 years ago joined UBS and created a team of 10 individuals who serve a broad range of different skills, talents, and professions. And the proudest moment for me was having my daughter join the team almost eight years ago and successfully paving the way for the future.
