President and CEO
of Alexander Legacy Private Wealth says she’s fueled by the need to help women
and diverse individuals reach their full potential.
Jacqueline “JaQ” Campbell, president and CEO of
Detroit-based RIA Alexander Legacy Private Wealth, began her career in wealth
management at age 16. She discovered the industry through a high school
internship program that set her down the path of financial services, ultimately
leading her to private wealth management.
Having been empowered by the industry and being fueled by
the need to help women and diverse individuals to not only create wealth, but
preserve it, she decided to become an entrepreneur herself with the founding of
Alexander Legacy. Today, she feels called to help her growing client base as
well as make an impact for social change in her local Detroit community.
Kristen Oliveri, Head of Private Wealth Content for Markets
Group, sat down with Campbell to discuss her journey from high school intern to
entrepreneur and how she helps the rising generation of women aspire to reach
their full potential — and then some.
Markets Group: You have a unique story about how
you got into wealth management. Can you tell us about your professional
journey?
Jaqueline “JaQ” Campbell: I love when I tell this,
especially to young people because I actually started as a high school intern.
It was one of those unique situations where I remember my senior year, someone
said there’s an opportunity where you can literally go work for the second half
of the day for high school, get paid and get high school credits. I said: ‘Wait
a minute. You mean I can get paid, get high school credits and leave school
early? Sign me up!’ Little did I know I was signing myself up for the career of
a lifetime.
I started as an intern at a private bank. I was the
receptionist, so my only job was to greet clients, make sure they felt good, had
their coffee, and I answered the phones properly. One of the things that I
remember is that one day, my trust officer had me file some papers and I looked
down at these papers, and I noticed my grandmother’s address. And I said: ‘Well,
wait a minute. Why is my grandmother’s address on these documents but not her
name?’
My trust officer said your grandmother doesn’t own that home
anymore because it was sold to another family. It perplexed me that here are these
documents, and it was her home, but we no longer owned the home. It was sold to
another family when she passed away and it was put into their trust.
At the young age of 16, I learned about inheritance. I also
learned that inheritance wasn’t staying in my family, that it was moving to a
different family, so that started the journey. I was just really curious, and I
wanted to learn more about wealth, the transfer of wealth and inheritance. I
ended up literally in wealth management about three years later, when I was
turning 20 years old.
I found myself moving into the ultra-high-net worth division
of that same department and it opened my eyes to a whole new world that I had
never even explored. Being a young girl from Detroit, we didn’t know anything
about wealth. I just thought, you know, you save money and for most people,
they’re wealth was stuck in their homes.
MG: Now you run your own shop. Tell me about that
progression.
JC: I went from that 16-year-old girl as the
receptionist to now actually running my own investment firm. During the time
when all of the things happened with George Floyd, I knew that there was an
opportunity to do something dynamic in this industry. I had to step out of my
role in the corporate world to step up into the role of being an entrepreneur,
so that I could open the doors for more people to get access and inclusion to
what we know is so incredibly important as it relates to building wealth,
sustaining wealth and properly transferring wealth.
I love the opportunity to be able to share with people the
risk that I took right when we decided to launch Alexander Legacy – it was definitely no easy feat. We needed this
opportunity to truly open up doors for more people to have access and inclusion
to the private and capital markets.
MG: How does that tie into your own personal
investment philosophy?
JC: When I
think about my investment philosophy, it really does start with understanding
preservation of capital. I start there – how are we preserving it? What kind of
instruments are out there that are helping us make sure that we are properly
retaining wealth for ourselves and for our next generation?
As we think about our investment philosophy, it really does
boil down to a few things. Number one, we’re constantly looking for
preservation. Number two, we’re going to constantly look for ways and for
companies and for municipalities who are focused on improving social justice in
terms of governance.
As an example, there’s an institution that just established
itself across the street from our corporate office here in Detroit, they had a
huge, beautiful donation from Target Foundation and from Rocket Mortgage to be
able to reinvest in the community to make sure people had better access to
education and access to housing. So, when I think about companies like that,
those are companies I can stand alongside because they’re coming into communities,
they’re making true investments both short, medium and long term to making sure
that communities are starting to thrive and to revive.
Today, you have organizations that are coming into Detroit
that are being very thoughtful and intentional about investing. That’s really
when we think about our philosophy. We want to go alongside organizations like
that who are committed to long-term social impact and change.
MG: I love the impact and the intentionality. As
an entrepreneur, you are looking for clients and you’re growing your business.
What does your future client look like to you?
JC: I always
like to share that our KPI, our key performance indicator, is our LPI – legacy
philanthropy and impact. When I think about that future client, they really
align with our goals to help create legacy philanthropy and impact. What does
that mean? Well, I will not work with clients if they are not committed to multi-generational
wealth. That is key and core to our mission.
We want to eradicate poverty; we want to start to change the
game in generational wealth so that our children’s children don’t have to start
from zero every time a family member passes away. Our mission essentially, is
to make sure that there is a legacy that is left behind when that family member
transitions.
Number two is that our clients are philanthropic. They’re
looking for ways to make the world a better place and make a return at the same
time. I work with foundations and nonprofits and donors and people who have
that philosophy that giving is part of our responsibility. When we’ve been
blessed and when we’ve had the opportunity to truly see wealth in a unique way,
we need to figure out how we can be philanthropic with our work.
Lastly, it’s impact. We just talked about what that looks
like, organizations that are truly making intention to put infrastructure into new
schools and create jobs for young people to get them off the streets. Those are
companies that we’re looking at because those are the companies that are going
to make an impact in a big way, not just financially but with people. And
that’s really our number one focus—it’s the people.
MG: It may go without saying, but we need more
women in wealth management, period. How do you view that? How are you actively
participating?
JC: That is the story of my life. I have spent the
greater part of my work helping women, young people and diverse people get
access to great opportunities in wealth management. I am a huge advocate for
it. We know that especially for women, this industry can be so amazing because
it teaches you about money, it teaches flexibility. If I need to work from home
because I’ve got something going on with my children, I have that flexibility.
The thing that really makes me excited about this industry
for women is the ability to understand money. I think about how many women
might be stuck in situations that they can’t get out of because they don’t
understand if they would be able to survive.
I am a big advocate for teaching women and empowering them
on how to successfully create their wealth, right? So, in the event they want
to start a business, or if they want to buy a second home or they want to
expand their family, they have the tools and the resources to be able to do it
and then to get into the business. I’m thinking about the client and
potentially the nurse, the teacher that are considering, changing careers and
coming to our world.
It’s an exciting time for women right now. The wealth is
being controlled 50% by women. If we don’t know about money and if there’s not
enough advisors out here to put them into positions to be successful at money,
habits and exploring the capital markets, then you know that does set us up for
some challenges. I’m a big fan of the business for women.
MG: Some women may feel more comfortable chatting
with another woman, so it’s an industry that’s perfectly capable to take on
more women. Tell me about approaching legacy planning for your clients. How do
you view it from a business standpoint and how do you work with clients
throughout that process?
JC: When we think about legacy planning for clients, one
of the things that we start off with is we really want to understand their multi-generational
goals because we’re planning for their children and their children’s children. We
want to understand the family values because if I’m helping your legacy plan, I
need to understand what you value the most. If you were to unfortunately
transition today, what would you want your family to remember you as? What do
you want that legacy to really look like? It’s not just about money. It’s about
the value. It’s the feeling. It’s the honor that you want.
Some people say I want to set up a scholarship fund because
I want all my descendants to have access to quality education and not have to
worry about going into deep debt to support their college. So, we set up a plan
that goes toward making sure that there’s an education component to that legacy
plan. In some cases, I’ve had clients who said for them it was about housing
and making sure that not only their family have access to excellent housing,
but they are able to give wanted to giving to other community
groups and charities also. to make sure that they are as well.
We uncover and unpack all of that during our process because
our goal is to not only make sure our clients feel extremely good about what they’re
doing while they’re still alive but with legacy planning, it’s really about
planning that moment that they are no longer here. We know that we want their
legacy to live on to infinity, so we really dig deep and get into the values. I
meet with the wives, their husbands and their kids.
I recently spoke at a 53rd year family reunion and it was a
full room, from the grandma who was 92 all the way to the 2-year-old.
MG: What are some of the biggest trends you’re
seeing in the wealth management space that we should be keeping an eye out for?
JC: From the investment space, we’re seeing a lot of
moves into alternatives. I’m also seeing a lot of families who are starting to
get serious about their insurance. I think COVID really helped to kick-start
that conversation if they hadn’t already started to truly do any estate planning,
setting up their trusts, making sure that their will has a durable power of
attorney, all of those things.
I’m also seeing more trends right now with families coming together,
like I might have a meeting with someone and they’ll say, ‘I’m bringing my
family next time,’ which is a really positive sign.
Given what’s happening in the economy, we’ve got inflation,
there’s a lot of things happening right now, so people need answers. They want
answers from experts. They want to know that they’re going to be OK and our job
as experts is to make sure that they’re going to be OK.
I’m very, very optimistic that I am seeing more people
actually ask for help. I want to make sure that I’m going to get through this
period successfully.
JaQ will be speaking
at Markets Group’s 6th Annual Private Wealth
Mountain States Forum in Denver on September 29,
moderating a panel on transitioning from the sports world to
entrepreneurship. To register for the event, please click HERE.