tony robbinsCourtesy of Tony RobbinsTony Robbins.
At 45, Ajay Gupta has plenty to brag about. As the founder and chief executive of Gupta Wealth Management (GWM), his firm controls more than $1 billion in assets for high net-worth individuals. Since 2014, he's grown his client base by more than 100% — thanks in large part to his all-star client, Tony Robbins.
Robbins included a shout out to GWM in his best-selling book, "MONEY: Master the Game." In one chapter, the top life and business strategist lays out the difference between a traditional broker and the more attractive fiduciary standard. He describes Gupta's trajectory as a Merill Lynch escapee-turned-entrepreneur.
In the months that followed, Gupta tells me, he began attracting more clients than ever before. "A large portion of the growth came because of that transfer of trust," he said. While the average profile of a client with his firm remains the same (the minimum amount that one can invest with GWM is $1 million, for a maximum fee of one percent), he notes that he's also seen an influx of younger Millennial investors.
Gupta also borrowed an investment strategy from hedge-fund billionaire Ray Dalio, one of Robbins's interviewees. By poring over the taped conversation, he adopted a policy that "smoothes out" the volatility of his own client assets: First, he builds a portfolio for each economic "season" (periods of high earnings, low earnings, high inflation, and low inflation), and puts 25% of a client's risk in each.
No matter their age, he says there's plenty that entrepreneurs can do to stay financially safe and continue accruing funds to last.