Chicago a world-class city

For financial advisers, Chicago is definitely not a second city. With 2.7 million residents and another 6.8 million people in its suburbs, Chicago is home to world-class cultural, educational and business resources. These serve as a magnet for corporate executives, entrepreneurs and professionals — offering manifold opportunities for financial advisers. “Don't underestimate the caliber of the investment professionals you will find here,” said Sarah Tims, a financial adviser with RMB Capital Management LLC, which manages $1.9 billion in assets. In addition to the large number of local firms with top-tier financial planners, the national brokerages and banks all compete for customers, said Ms. Tims, a Chicago native. But the competition is not “cutthroat,” she said, because the polite, fair-minded and hardworking Midwestern work ethos keeps it friendly. “If you can compete, the quality of life here makes it a much better place to live,” she said. The Financial Planning Association's 1,200-member Illinois chapter is one of the group's largest, according to Jim Karabas, an adviser with Chicago-based Vestor Capital Corp., which manages $600 million in assets. The chapter, whose members are largely from the Chicago area, sponsors campaigns urging Chicagoans to use a planning professional, said Mr. Karabas, who will be chapter president in 2012. Like Mr. Karabas and Ms. Tims, Timothy Schlindwein, managing principal of Schlindwein Associates LLC, is a longtime Chicago resident, having spent all 41 years of his career in the city. Chicago has the resources — financial expertise, and marketing and management know-how — that businesses require to grow, said Mr. Schlindwein, whose firm manages $250 million in assets. “These are things entrepreneurs need to go forward,” he said. Most of Mr. Karabas' clients are owners of small to midsize businesses who have worked long hours and gained their wealth by concentrating on their core businesses. “They turn to us when their businesses are at a point where they need someone to manage their money professionally,” he said. Competition for these clients is keen, he said. “You must have good relationships with the business owners to get them to trust you with the money they've worked so hard to earn.” Chicago also offers businesses a pool of talented individuals, said Paul Ingersoll, an adviser with Good Harbor Financial Inc., which manages $200 million in assets. A Chicago native, Mr. Ingersoll said excellent schools in the region, such as Northwestern University, the University of Chicago and the University of Illinois at Chicago, help when it comes to hiring. He has used his own University of Chicago connections regularly when seeking new employees, he said. A self-proclaimed Chicago booster, Mr. Ingersoll said that the further he travels from the city, the more he finds that people lump together the whole Midwest, failing to differentiate between Chicago and St. Louis, for instance. “Chicago is a world-class city, and people who visit here are always a little surprised — especially on a nice day in September,” he said. The weather, in fact, is what many people think of first when they think about Chicago. While its Windy City moniker is a reference to its politicians, not gusts off Lake Michigan, Chicago can be tropical in summer and arctic in winter — the thermometer hit a record low of 24 below zero in January 1985. But after average highs of 32 in January, Chicagoans look forward to spending the balmy months of July and August at the city's lakefront parks and beaches — and cheering on its two big league baseball teams. “Sports are huge in Chicago and adds to the quality of life here,” said Mr. Karabas. The town is “split in two over baseball,” with the White Sox on the South Side always seeming to outgun the North Side's Cubs, who haven't won a World Series since 1908. When the boys of summer put away their gloves, Chicago comes together to root for the Bears, the Bulls and the Blackhawks. Last season, when the team won hockey's Stanley Cup, 2 million people crowded the streets to welcome them home. In addition to its sports teams, Chicago's world-renowned architecture and museums, innovative theater, extensive network of parks and endless array of restaurants (deep-dish pizza, anyone?) keep residents and visitors busy. The 2010 Mercer Quality of Living Survey ranked Chicago in a tie with Washington for fourth place, behind Honolulu, San Francisco and Boston but ahead of New York, which ranked sixth. “Once you create roots here, it's kind of hard to leave,” Ms. Tims said. “Some say Chicago is the biggest small town in America.”