James Hillman is the regional managing director of portfolio management at BNY Mellon Wealth Management in Southern California. He oversees a team of 41 portfolio managers and has overseen a 25% increase in assets in the past year. Hillman came to finance later in life after serving in the military and obtaining a law degree from Boston College Law School. He believes the next 10 years will present significant challenges for investors and sees more clients seeking advice to navigate the economy.

1. When affluent people speak, James
Hillman is there to listen.
As a regional managing director with
BNY Mellon Wealth Management, Hillman
oversees a team of 41 portfolio managers.
Hillman came to a finance career later in
life after serving in the U.S. Army and
attending Boston College Law School. By
the time he graduated, his interest in busi-
ness outweighed his interest in the law. He
worked at TD Banknorth and joined BNY
Mellon in 2000.
Interestingly, Hillman now sees other
lawyers becoming wealth management advi-
sors.
“I just recently hired an associate from a
major law firm in Southern California,” Hill-
man said. “He’s working for me as a portfo-
lio manager, focused more on the fiduciary
trust side of the business.”
He believes the next 10 years will be some
of the most challenging for investors and the
economy. It’s why a good portfolio manager
is critical.
Hillman is a recent transplant from New
England, having moved to Calabasas with
his wife and three children, all of whom play
either baseball or softball. Those on-field
connections have proven helpful in building
new business. He calls it the baseball dad
network.
Question: What’s the climate in wealth
management?
Answer: Clients are looking for more
advice and turning more to professionals to
navigate through these challenging times. We
view it as an opportunity. People who have
tried to do it themselves before are saying
‘I’m not sure I can do that.’
Q: As the managing director of portfo-
lio management, what is your role?
A: I oversee for Southern California all of
the portfolio management and client services
for three different offices. We split our sales
and service so we have dedicated business
development officers and dedicated portfolio
management and client services people. My
role is to oversee that group who are actually
delivering the day-to-day services for our
well over a thousand client relationships that
we have here in Southern California. I think
our percentage base over the last twelve
months, in terms of assets, has increased
roughly about 25 percent.
Q: Were you at one time a portfolio
manager?
A: I was. I’ve been with the company
eleven years. Nine of those years I was in our
home office for wealth management in
Boston and I started as a portfolio manager,
managing client relationships. After about
four years, I was promoted to a leadership
position as a team leader where I did manage
portfolios and relationships as well as lead a
group of thirteen professionals. I did that for
five years. Then I had the opportunity to
come to Southern California to manage a
group. I’ve been in Southern California for
two years. Our total presence out here is 80.
Dedicated service professionals are 41.
Q: What lessons did you learn when
you were a portfolio manager?
A: The most interesting times and experi-
ences that I’ve been a part of over the last 18
years is seeing the market in economic
extremes. Starting in this business in the
early to mid ‘90s I’ve seen the run up with
James Hillman
TITLE: Regional Managing Director, port-
folio management with BNY Mellon
Wealth Management
EDUCATION: B.S., from West Point; law
degree from Boston College Law School
PERSONAL: Married with two sons, one
daughter
Investment: BNY Mellon’s James Hillman says ‘Clients are looking for more advice and turning more to professionals to navigate through these challenging times.’
PHOTO BY DAVID SPRAGUE
Wealth of Wisdom
James Hillman of BNY Mellon Wealth Management talks about rich clients,
military service, law school and the baseball dad network.
10 October 10, 2011 SAN FERNANDO VALLEY BUSINESS JOURNALPROFILE
Please see next page
By MARK R. MADLER Staff Writer

2. technology. Seeing that technology bubble
burst, experiencing significant market down-
turn on top of that. External events of 9/11
and how that impacted the economic investor
psychology. Also going through the more
recent highs and lows with the financial cri-
sis. What that does is it just gives you the
background, the experience to be able to
coach others, both at the senior level as well
as the more junior level, on how to approach
some of these situations. (It also helps) to
appropriately set expectations on how their
portfolios will perform over time. Also, set-
ting expectations on how many risks do we
really want to take within those particular
assets. We work with clients that really have
made money…and don’t want to lose it.
Q: Having started your career on the
East Coast in New England and then mov-
ing to Southern California, what are some
differences in investment strategies and
clients?
A: What’s interesting is how the wealth
that has developed in Southern California is
different than New England. A lot of money
has been made through real estate develop-
ment. A lot of money has been made through
aerospace and manufacturing. There’s the
entertainment business. There’s a different
perspective that we have to tailor in how we
manage the portfolio and how we articulate
the process to best relate to them the value
and benefit of our process.
Q: Are there any types of investments
you see people in Southern California do
more of?
A: We have a lot of interest in the alterna-
tive space in Southern California. The tradi-
tional is the equities, fixed income, stocks
and bonds. In alternatives, the approach is
one of looking for total return. I find a lot of
interest in that sort of entrepreneurial way of
preserving and growing wealth. (There is) a
real true entrepreneurial spirit here that is
very strong.
Q: You served in the military. Has any-
thing about that experience translated
into your business career?
A: (There are) two things that I got out of
my military experience that have been bene-
ficial in business. One is the need to perse-
vere. The second is leadership. People have a
perception that military leadership and cor-
porate leadership are vastly different. It’s dif-
ferent, but it’s not vastly different. In both
cases, people need buy-in with respect to an
initiative or a directive. They need to under-
stand ‘Why does that make sense?’ and
‘Why is that important?’
Q: You also have a law degree. Did you
ever practice?
A: I worked as an associate for a little
more than a year. I also worked in law firms
while I was in law school. It was a good
experience. A legal education is a wonderful
education. Being a trust company, there are
tax issues, fiduciary issues that we need to
address. My law degree has been incredibly
helpful with respect to that. Even just assess-
ing business risks and understanding what
liability is and what negligence is.
Q: You mentioned that more people
are seeking wealth management. Do you
expect to see that continue as the economy
remains shaky?
A: We view the next 10 years to be some
of the most challenging that we’re going to
see, particularly in the investment environ-
ment and the economy. Most people make
decisions emotionally, particularly on the
investment side. Unfortunately, most people
make the wrong decisions at the wrong time.
What people are looking for is the discipline.
It takes a client a year to understand how
things work. An investor cannot assess how
good an investment manager is without
going through a full market cycle and that’s
generally three to five years. Those clients
who have gone through a full market cycle
are our most satisfied, particularly the ones
who have gone through significant down-
turns.
Q: Do you think the public’s negative
perception of wealthy people is unfair?
A: Much of the wealth of this country,
(and) much of the employment of this coun-
try is driven by people that have worked hard
and created a business. They provide many
people with good salaries, benefits and so
forth. I think the vast majority of successful
people are unfairly tagged as taking advan-
tage of the system.
Q:Is the wealth management division
hiring?
A: Absolutely. Southern California is
viewed as one of our top growth markets for
BNY Mellon Wealth Management. Even
though the market is down (and) some of our
competitors and other firms may be cutting
jobs, we continue to hire. We are prudent
about how we hire. We don’t hire a slew of
people all at once. But we’ve been adding
staff on a very consistent basis for the last
several years.
Q: How do you like living in Cal-
abasas?
A: I love it. I had never heard of the town
before coming to Southern California. I had
the advantage of being out here for eight
months prior to my family coming out here.
As I got out here and was exploring, differ-
ent people I talked to said “You need to
check out Calabasas.” One weekend I drove
out and I thought this was exactly what we
were looking for in terms of the community,
neighborhoods. We have developed a num-
ber of friends in the community relatively
quickly. All my kids play sports. My two
oldest (sons) play baseball. My daughter
plays softball.
Q: Have you gotten any clients out of
attending games?
A: I’ve developed business relationships
with a number of folks, and we’ve gotten
several referrals out of that, both on the
mortgage side as well as the investment
management. I call it the baseball dad net-
work.
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