Sonia Attkiss, MBA 97, an advisor with Credit Suisse in New York, and Valerie Garcia Houts, MBA 99, an international financial advisor with Merrill Lynch, made Barron's list of "The Top 100 Women Financial Advisors for 2012."
Attkiss ranked 29th and Houts ranked 36th on the list, published in June and compiled from more than 400 candidates nominated by their firms. The rankings are based on assets under management by advisors and their teams, revenue generated for an advisor's firm, and quality of the advisor's practices.
Sonia Attkiss
Attkiss has made the Barron's list for the past five years and in 2007 also was named as one of the 100 most influential women in New York City by Crain’s Business. She has worked at Credit Suisse's Private Banking Group since 2000 and specializes in advising high net-worth individuals and family offices. In addition, Attkiss and her team manage discretionary equity, fixed- income, and currency portfolios. The team oversees a total of $2.9 billion in assets, with a client's typical account totaling $30 million and a client's typical net worth totaling $50 million.
Attkiss began her career as a financial advisor at Donaldson, Lufkin and Jenrette in New York. She also has been highlighted in the Daily Beast in a women in business series.
Valerie Garcia Houts
Based in San Francisco, Houts and her team manage $11.7 billion in assets in their clients' accounts, the second-highest amount of the 100 women ranked by Barron's. Her typical client has $70 million in assets and a net worth of $125 million. Her client base is composed of private equity and venture capital funds as well as their general partners and investors.
Before joining Merrill Lynch in 2002, Houts worked at regional banks Robertson Stephens and Montgomery Securities while earning her Berkeley MBA in the Haas School's evening program.