Manhattan Project — With Barjes Angulo

Barjes Angulo began his working life as a bank teller with a plan.

In hindsight, the plan was pretty simple and a familiar tale told by those who achieve great success. When Angulo began his career at a Citibank branch in New York City, he resolved to start work early and stay late, and to watch and listen to the successful people as much as possible.

“I think my shift as a teller started at 10 a.m., but I’d come in at 8:30 a.m. on my own time and just hang out with the bankers in their morning huddle, just to see what they do,” he said. “Or I would forgo my lunch and sit with one of the bankers or an investment guy. I’m like, ‘I’ll just sit here and be quiet and just listen.’”

It worked.

Angulo began climbing up the ladder and did not relent until he ended up at a firm with his name on the door and a full roster of clients. Today, he heads up Angulo Strategies, a Manhattan-based, full-service wealth management firm.

As the song goes, if you can make it in New York, you can make it anywhere — a cliché, but a remarkably apt one for a young advisor. As a world financial center, New York City is home to plenty of money, but also plenty of competition for those dollars.

Angulo, 44, has perfected the art of the relentless grind over nearly 25 years in the city that never sleeps.

“I don’t think competition has ever been an issue for me, because I come from a mentality of abundance,” Angulo said. “I think there are enough New Yorkers to talk to and not enough advisors.”

‘You Need To Do Something’

As a young man, Angulo was unsure what he wanted to do — nothing unusual there. He was also dating his high school sweetheart, and it was time to grow up. She nudged him just a little.

“She said to me, ‘I can’t bring you home as a starving artist. My mom’s an attorney and my dad’s an accountant. You need to do something in business,’” Angulo recalled. “I said, ‘OK, I’ll go work at a bank.’”

And a career was hatched. Angulo took to it immediately, seeing in the bank a place where people from all walks of life and all sorts of career paths come in search of assistance to make their dreams become reality. 

Angulo found financial lessons that enthralled him. He learned what a regular banker did, what an investment banker did, and the difference between retail banking and corporate banking.

“I started going to college at night, and I ended up getting my finance degree,” said Angulo, who graduated from Pace University in the city. “I just got an understanding of the landscape from a financial services perspective, which put me in a position to look at getting licensed.”

While still working at Citibank, Angulo got his FINRA Series 7 and 63 licenses as well as life and health insurance licenses.

“Then I came to a point where I said, ‘I want to build my own book of business. I think that would be fun.’ If I knew better, I probably would have gone in a different direction,” he laughed.

He quickly learned that striking up conversations, keeping it real and being confident are big keys to building relationships that eventually turn into clients.

“I really talked up what I did, even though I probably had one appointment in an entire month,” he said.

One thing Angulo became known for is his look. He wears stylish suits and pays attention to the details of his clothing. He said it is important to appear professional and successful.

“I pride myself on being very impeccable with the way that I present myself in front of clients,” he said. “From the way that I dress to the way that I present the material. And I make sure that papers are white and clean, and there are no coffee stains on them.

“I learned this a few years ago: Everything that a client sees tells a story about who you are and your business.”

Angulo got his start as an advisor with AXA Advisors, where he sold life insurance and starter mutual fund accounts. Around the same time, he also branded himself as Angulo Strategies, which celebrated its 20th year in business early in 2021.

Since 2012, Angulo and his business have been affiliated with Eagle Strategies, a registered investment advisor and a wholly-owned subsidiary of New York Life.

“So in all truthfulness, this was because of a girl,” Angulo said. “But at the end of the day, I think it was a great decision because we’ve built a great practice.”

Bonding With Clients

Angulo Strategies is a full-service advisory and uses the full complement of investment and insurance products. A financial plan must be as diverse as the New York City demographics, Angulo said, as everyone has different financial needs and goals.

“We’re a process-over-product office,” Angulo explained. “The one thing that I’ve learned is I don’t know everything, and I can’t do everything for the client. It’s a matter of how we keep everything contained in a way that the client sees the value of it, but we orchestrate all these relationships in all these resources that we have for them as well.”

To keep up in a fast-paced city, an advisor must not only know the latest products, trends and strategies, but also keep striving to improve service as well. One idea Angulo developed is a quick 15-to-20-minute monthly conversation with his clients. The short time commitment helps Angulo stay connected to clients who are seemingly always on the go.

“I think what happens — especially as a younger advisor, and I’ve been guilty of this — is that you want to do the right thing for the client. You want to do the best job for the client,” he said. “At the end of the day, it takes time. I’ve had clients who have taken 10 years to get their wills done, but they finally got them done.”

Angulo is comfortable blending personal and professional lives and connecting with clients in that way.

When he was still single, Angulo could connect with clients who had that kind of freedom in their lifestyle. Now that he is married with small children, he is again connecting with clients who are parents.

Angulo and his wife, Katherine, have even vacationed with some of their clients — although he is quick to note that the clients paid their own way, a nod to compliance.

Family Office

Katherine Angulo is director of client experience for Angulo Strategies. Sharing an office with a spouse can be challenging, but the couple works hard at maintaining a work-life balance, Angulo said.

“The one thing that’s kept us successful is that we know when to turn it on and when to turn it off,” he added. “The moment we walk out of the office, we don’t really talk about work. We talk about our lives and our relationship and our kids.”

They are parents to two toddlers, who have kept Katherine away from the office in recent months. They live in the Inwood neighborhood at the northern tip of Manhattan.

Angulo describes his office as “in a state of transition” at the moment as he shapes his team. They have New York Life policyholders to service and financial planning services and transaction business to conduct.

Angulo is working on a rebranding to carry his practice into a new phase.

“Where I see myself going is focusing just on planning and then having someone, another advisor on my team, handle our transactional business,” he explained. “So that’s the direction that we’re looking to go. I feel like I deliver more value on the planning side to clients.”

Barjes Angulo is a Financial Adviser offering investment advisory services through Eagle Strategies LLC, a Registered Investment Adviser, and a Registered Representative offering securities through NYLIFE Securities LLC (member FINRA/SIPC), A Licensed Insurance Agency. 420 Lexington Avenue 15th Flr. New York, 646-227-8888. Angulo Strategies, LLC is not owned or operated by Eagle Strategies LLC or its affiliates and does not provide tax, legal or accounting advice.  

InsuranceNewsNet Senior Editor John Hilton has covered business and other beats in more than 20 years of daily journalism. John may be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @INNJohnH.