Today we’d like to introduce you to James Hemphill.
Hi James, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I came to the Philadelphia area for college and stayed. As a child and teenager, I moved several times, and I had to readjust to very different communities. Perhaps for that reason, I’ve lived in only two places since 1982. I graduated from Swarthmore in 1978 with a History degree with High Honors. I’d been pre-law and went to work for a law firm. The young lawyers all worked 60 hours a week, and few seemed unhappy. I had been offered a job as a stockbroker before graduation, and I pivoted to that career path. I worked for two national brokerage firms, then went independent with one partner in 1990.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Great question. My first reaction is, compared to what and to whom? Yes, there have been struggles, but I think of them as First World problems. At this point in my career, nearing age 70 but with no plans to retire, I see many more blessings than setbacks. The biggest setbacks have been due to misalignment of values, timelines, or intentions. I was misaligned with the sales culture of retail brokerage firms like Merrill Lynch before I went independent. I was in a tense relationship with my business partner for 10 years until I bought him out. Today, I have the best Team I’ve ever had, our clients are wonderful human beings, and I’m enjoying my work and career more than I ever have.
We’ve been impressed with TGS Financial Advisors, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
We are a fee-only advisory firm that provides financial guidance to successful families. Our purpose is to help them make crucial financial decisions with informed confidence and to live their lives without financial worry in alignment with their own values and purposes. Many advisory firms would make similar representations. Where we stand apart, I believe, is in a deeper understanding of the underlying economic drivers of long-term financial success. To offer one key illustration, our work for clients is deeply informed by Robert Shiller’s Nobel Prize-winning work on the relationship between stock prices and future returns. Many of our peers tell clients their stock portfolios will return 11% per year, and set their spending targets accordingly. We look at Shiller’s data over more than 150 years and conclude future returns will be sharply lower for the next decade or more. That is not a perspective many people want to hear. If we’re right, a great many American families are spending beyond their means and will run out of money during their lifetimes. We choose to give people unpopular answers to a key financial question because we believe they are necessary for families to make informed choices. We’ve never had a client exhaust their capital unless they spent well beyond what we told them was sustainable.
We’d love to hear about any fond memories you have from when you were growing up?
Going to the used book store and buying a dozen secondhand paperback science fiction books for ten cents each.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://tgsfinancial.com
