Marissa Burset Named Family Wealth Advisor at JL Bainbridge

March 11, 2022 – Sarasota

J.L. Bainbridge & Company, Inc. has promoted Marissa Burset to the role of Family Wealth Advisor, joining her advisor team as its first woman. The Sarasota-based company, which celebrated its 40th year in business in 2021, provides financial planning and investment services to clients throughout Florida and around the country. It manages over $850 million in client assets.

“We have always based the growth of the business on finding talented, dedicated and energetic people with the highest level of integrity,” said Jerry Bainbridge who, along with lifelong partner Fay Bainbridge, founded the business in 1981. “Marissa displayed all of these from day one, and we are delighted and excited to have her as an addition to our advisory team and as a member of the investment committee.”

Burset becomes a financial advisor at a time when 31 percent of total assets in the U.S. are controlled by women—representing $10.9 trillion. Yet women represent only 15 percent of financial advisors. This same study, by McKinsey & Company, revealed that women were much more likely than men to “believe it is extremely important to find an investment professional who is a good personality match.” This doesn’t mean that women, as clients, are specifically seeking to work with women financial advisors. But, in many cases, it does make for a good fit. And here are two more facts to consider in this trend: women in the U.S. outlive men by five years, on average, and 70 percent of women change financial advisors within one year of their partner passing. So, while the McKinsey study doesn’t specifically track a trend in adding more women as financial advisors, the shift to women controlling more and more wealth is definitely a relevant trend that suggests it’s a great idea.

Finding JL Bainbridge

Before joining JL Bainbridge at the end of 2019, Burset worked for eight years as a paralegal for an area law firm. In doing this work, she learned how to make clients feel at home through phone conversations and in person. Growing a rapport with clients came naturally to her.

Burset loves Sarasota, having moved to Florida from Long Island in 2010 and then to Sarasota once she was hired at JL Bainbridge. She likes that the Sarasota area has a mid-size city feel and still gives her quick access to nearby nature areas where she pursues a hobby: nature photography. She discovered JL Bainbridge through a search on LinkedIn, deciding that the opportunity as Client Services Representative was ideal for her next career step. She could use her extensive experience working with clients while learning the financial advisory business.

She joined Bainbridge with the intent of becoming an advisor. In fact, she recounted that, as a child, she had always had a fascination with finances. At Bainbridge, she wanted to turn her lifelong interest into a new career.

Becoming an Advisor

To qualify as an Investment Adviser Representative (IAR), Burset had to pass the demanding Uniform Investment Adviser Law Exam, commonly known as the Series 65 exam. The Series 65 is administered by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), which also oversees compliance rules governing how IARs advise clients and what sorts of claims their firms can make regarding future financial performance (extremely limited, of course). Burset passed the Series 65 and became a financial advisor, called a Family Wealth Advisor at Bainbridge because of the firm’s multi-generational investment focus.

“Our growth at JL Bainbridge has been substantial,” said John Leeming CFP®, President. He said they needed to hire an additional advisor, but were struggling to find the right balance of experience. They hoped Burset could grow into the advisor role, and she has. “Marissa is part of the best team I’ve worked with in all my years in financial services,” Leeming added.

Burset says that one aspect of JL Bainbridge she really appreciates is the opportunity to work with multiple generations. In supporting co-founder Jerry Bainbridge’s work, for example, she said she has developed relationships with three generations within one client’s family. This, she noted, made it clear how a single lifetime of planning and investing can impact the lives of so many people across multiple generations.

In addition to becoming a Family Wealth Advisor, Burset was also invited to join Bainbridge’s investment committee. The firm manages a portfolio of well over a dozen companies that form the core of most of its clients’ stock ownership holdings. Before becoming an advisor, she knew how intense some of the meetings could become as the committee members argued the merits of keeping stocks in the portfolio or replacing them with more promising options. Now she will take an active role in the decision-making process.

“Financial advisors,” Burset said, “at least the ones I work with here—put constant effort into understanding what’s happening with the businesses our clients invest in.” That’s the work that clients don’t see, but it is essential to the management of their assets. And that’s just part of Burset’s new job. Working with clients and their families is the other part.

“I’m happy to become part of the trend toward having more women work as financial advisors,” Burset said. “Actually, I don’t think so much about the overall trend as much as I think about how happy I’ll be helping clients and families with their financial and investment planning.”