Copyright Catherine Gibbons Photography
Name: Robert Waldele
Firm: Merrill Wealth Management
Location: New York, NY
Team Assets (Custodied): $5.1 billion
Forbes Rankings: America’s Top Wealth Advisors, Best-in-State Wealth Advisors, Best-in-State Wealth Management Teams, America's Top Wealth Management Teams: Private Wealth
Background: A native of New Jersey, Robert ‘Bob’ Waldele majored in history at Lafayette College, where he graduated in YEARTK. Upon graduation he moved to New York and took a job at Merrill in fixed income marketing, rotating through the different divisions at the firm. “I was basically a liaison between the sales people in the field and the traders,” he says. In 1981, he became an advisor, getting his first clients through a mailer he sent out prospecting for municipal bonds and offering tax free info. With rates sky high at the time, his book grew quickly as people wanted to buy tax exempt bonds with attractive yields. As his business grew over the years, he eventually became one of the first to pioneer the concept of a team at Merrill Lynch in 1997 when teaming up with several other advisors. Waldele spun off to form his current team in 2001, which today numbers four senior partners—one of which is his son, Bobby.
Building Relationships: “We always say that what makes us unique versus others teams is always, ‘one size fits one,’” says Waldele. “Every client and family has a distinct goal, so there’s no model that we can replicate.” He and his team typically work with corporate executives as well as hedge fund and private equity managers. The younger Waldele, meanwhile, focuses on working with the next generation. Waldele and his partners also work with clients abroad, having become an internationally approved team at the firm nearly four years ago. “That’s a big growth area for us and so it’s important to have people on our team who can speak Chinese or Spanish, for example.”
Competitive Edge: “Everyone on our team is homegrown—in other words, I brought them in and taught them from day one,” says Waldele. “I’ve made every mistake in the business, but the good news is now after all these years I can share those experiences with my partners.”
Investment Philosophy/Strategy: “The foundation of everything we do is based on planning—we employ what we call a stress test in order to look at a client’s household assets under a worst case scenario to make sure everything is up to date,” says Waldele. “Protecting people on the downside and doing well in down markets is really one of the most important things we do.” He is a big believer in making sure clients stick to a plan as well as have the right balance of asset allocation. Depending on the client, his team will have an overriding equity bias, though they also own a lot of fixed income and municipal bonds for clients.
Investment/ 2024 Outlook: “What's amazing is that the market has continued to do well, even with rates having risen 11 times,” says Waldele. “A year ago people were very wary of a recession, but America is tough to bet against.” His team likes quality dividend-paying stocks and also tends to look for big, strong companies with great balance sheets as well as cash positions that will be able to ride through market cycles. “My biggest risk is that I might own a few of the biggest names in the magnificent seven—but I own them at a low cost basis, which is a good problem to have.”
Best Advice: “Emotions come in play a lot in this business: The best thing you can do is take a step back and do a deeper analysis,” says Waldele. “When the world seems like it is falling apart, it’s not a good time to sell, it's a good time to buy!”
Forbes
