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Ramraghi, thank you for taking the time to speak with me today! You’re the first alumni I’ve interviewed with an extensive banking background so maybe to kick off our conversation today, you can tell me about your current role as Executive Director at JP Morgan Private Bank , what do your responsibilities entail?
Thanks for having me today! As a matter of fact, I had made the transition from Citi to JPMorgan while I was attending the Executive MBA program at Merage. It’s so crazy because I never went into the program thinking that I would ever leave my 20+ year career at Citi, but when you go through these experiences, you start seeing things through a different lens. In my experience, I embarked an opportunity to expand my client niche while offering the best-in-class solutions and experiences in wealth management.
As a Private Banker, my mission is to serve the diverse and complex needs of individuals, families, and organizations who seek strategic guidance and customized solutions for their financial goals and aspirations. I leverage the global resources and capabilities of JPMorgan to provide comprehensive banking, investment advisory, lending, and philanthropic services to my clients.
I value acts of service in my relationships and extend that same mindset to my clients, delivering a high-touch and personalized approach to every interaction. I listen to their stories, understand their priorities, and map out tailored strategies that align with their current and future scenarios. I am passionate about helping my clients achieve their desired outcomes and make a positive impact on their lives and communities.
Thank you for that summary. That's a beautiful mission. I mean, helping people build their wealth and financially planning for the future is obviously something that's really important based off of just interactions that you've had with clients. What do you feel like is the common misconception that people have going into financial planning?
Oh, just not planning at all. I think that people get busy, especially the folks that I work with, who tend to be focused on their own careers and clients, but don’t take the time to focus on themselves.
That's where I step in! I can relate to busy professionals who are extremely service-focused on their clients, and it’s my job to be service-focused on them. My clients are relieved when the initial financial planning discussion is done, because future plan discussions can easily be updated as their priorities change and evolve, because life constantly changes and evolves.
I'd love to just hear about that because just for a millennial like myself, I'm a second-year Full-Time MBA and majority of our cohort have career switched and don't really stay at a place longer than two to three years. Given your tenure there, how did you navigate that career trajectory?
I got my foot in this industry as a teller at Bank of America while attending UCLA. I was really good connecting with people and enjoyed helping them with their everyday banking needs. After I graduated from UCLA, I joined Citi where my professional development was organically grown within one business unit, meaning was I promoted to bigger roles and responsibilities, ultimately to a Team Lead covering Southern CA. Honestly, looking back at my career, I do wish I looked beyond local opportunities to grow and should have investigated other business units of interest. Everybody has different paths, but if I could give advice to my former self, I’d say push yourself to network broadly and take ownership of your personal brand exposure, both in and outside of Orange County.
I think that's a valid reflection and I think a lot of people can relate to that. That's certainly what's being taught to my cohort is the importance of having a personal brand, the importance of finding advocates and to your point, not just locally, but don't be afraid to network even higher above you because ultimately those people could later introduce you to other opportunities.
Exactly. 100% right.
I want to switch gears a little bit back to present day at JP Morgan Chase since they recently issued their periodic Top Market Takeaways which mentions AI (of course), Japan’s stock reaching its highest level in 34 years, among other topics. What markets are piquing your interest lately?
Well, one of the reasons why I chose UCI Merage is because of the motto, “Leadership for a Digitally Driven World”. AI is top of mind for me personally and it's transforming the financial services industry by storm. There's tremendous AI developments, especially within JP Morgan, that I believe is going to help me, as an advisor, and help my clients maximize their financial planning at an even greater scale.
Aside from digital banking enhancements, AI in Healthcare is very interesting to me.
At the 2024 J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference, the AI craze within healthcare and biotech was a hot topic. As the global population continues to age and health care costs creep up, managing health care costs will be front and center for many economic and political decisions in the coming years. AI can accelerate the drug research and development (R&D) process and improve patient outcomes at a fraction of the current price, hopefully making health care accessible to many more people. While AI has the potential to transform many areas of health care, drug discovery, particularly the GLP weight loss drug discovery, and diagnostics are two markets that may see the largest impacts in the foreseeable future.
You mentioned AI applications even at JP Morgan that are really exciting that are helping your job, could you expand on that a bit?
AI applications can enhance wealth planning by providing insights, recommendations, and automation to help clients achieve their financial goals more efficiently and effectively. I am able to build custom financial models, using optimal strategies, such as tax-aware borrowing when it comes to lending, optimizing asset allocation to help clients make informed decisions. AI tools should be used to elevate your financial plan discussion with your advisor.
Would you say the most common AI applications are using it for forecasting predictive modeling? Would you say that's probably the common use case?
That's probably the most common and that makes a lot of sense because, as mentioned before, life is constantly evolving and changing. AI applications analyze various asset classes, historical performance, risk factors, and client preferences to optimize investment portfolios for maximum returns within specified parameters.
We’ve touched a little bit on network and you obviously had a great story about how it's city and your especially in your Orange County experience that you were able to build a lot of advocates that vouched for you and ultimately helped shepherd your career as a Black woman in finance. How important was it for you to find advocates and mentors? And aside from just the workplace?
Actually, I wasn’t truly aware of how important affinity groups are to large organizations, until 2020 when I became a founding member the Citi’s Black Affinity Group (California) in 2020. Not surprisingly, that's when all the big organizations were really ramping up their Employee Resource Groups (ERGs).
When I started my career in Orange County over 20 years ago, there wasn’t a large network of Black finance professionals that I could lean on, but nor did I look for it. I was busy working hard and building a reputation on my own name. I guess I was truly in the Orange County bubble. I am proud to see greater diversity in finance (and other industries) in Orange County today. I enjoy mentoring a diverse and talented group of future OC business and community leaders across many industries.
That’s a very realistic experience for many Black professionals. I think I can name maybe one mentor I've had throughout my career and I have like 9 years of work experience. Not everyone has the benefit of having a mentor. To your point, it's important to give back. have you continued mentoring?
Absolutely! I mentor at UCI as part of the Merage School LEADS Program. I've been doing this for about a year now and I recently joined the program’s Steering Committee. The program offers a select group of Merage School undergraduate students the opportunity to participate in professional development, mentoring workshops and networking events with Merage School alumni and community leaders. Through the program, students develop highly valued soft skills that will serve them throughout their education and career. The soft skills include networking, relationship building, responsibility, collaboration, communication, people skills, problem-solving, time management, personal branding, and leadership. JPMorgan will be proudly hosting the 6th Annual LEADS Leadership and Networking Reception in May!
I am also a board member at College of the Desert Foundation in Palm Desert. The mission of the College of the Desert Foundation is to act as an advocate for the college and to secure financial support, enhancing the educational opportunities for all students. I serve on the Work Taskforce Committee to mentor students for the business world. It's near and dear to my heart to serve on COD Foundation since it's a legacy board membership. My dad was a board member 20 years ago.
Oh, wow, that's a beautiful legacy to uphold for your family. I know you’ve been serving on the board of Newport Bay Conservancy for a few years now, why is that position important to you?
Yeah, I love the Back Bay! During the pandemic, everyone turned to nature and discovered new hiking trails, and I was definitely one of those people! On LinkedIn, one of my connections mentioned they’re looking for like-minded people to join the Board of Directors at Newport Bay Conservancy. And I was like, “Sign me up!”
This was my first experience with board service, and I’m just so honored to be working with this 100% volunteer organization that helps protect and preserve this beautiful estuary that's in our backyard. The Upper Newport Bay is 1,000 acres of wetlands where freshwater and seawater meet to create a special habitat for fish, birds, and other wildlife. Even with airplanes from John Wayne flying over, it's still the most charming place. I love being part of this organization that helps protect our planet, it’s just something that really fills my cup!
Connect with Ramraghi on Linkedin here!