By June Bell

Financial advisor Jane Hyde Williams remembers fielding calls from a client who would phone from the aisles of the high-end retailer Nieman Marcus. “Can I please buy this beautiful dress?” the woman would ask. 

Williams (’71) didn’t say no. But she didn’t say yes either. “I’d say, ‘Well, let’s go back to your budget, and where are you on it? There are tradeoffs you can make, and you’ve got to decide which ones are more important.’  

“Whether it’s a major property purchase or a beautiful new dress, there’s a really careful and respectful way of saying to people, ‘I cannot make this decision for you. You have to make it, and you have to live with it.’ That’s a different thing than simply telling people what they should or should not do,” says Williams, founder of Sand Hill Global Advisors in Palo Alto and San Francisco. “One of our credos is that we believe it is important to support our clients as they develop good, solid financial decision-making habits.”  

Williams has been offering that level of nuanced and holistic financial guidance since the 1970s. She battled sexism in the investment management industry before landing her first role with Merrill Lynch in 1973. Both the industry and her career have evolved since then. Sand Hill, a fee-only investment advisory firm, manages about $3.6 billion for 350 to 400 clients, predominantly families and individuals, as well as non-profit endowments and foundations.

An Early Introduction to the Market

Williams became interested in the stock market as a child. She watched her father, a CPA, follow the market’s fluctuations, and she began tracking the value of stock her grandparents had gifted her.

She spent two years at Colby-Sawyer College, a small school in rural New Hampshire, before transferring to BU to study economics. She was drawn to city’s size and dynamic student population. Once she enrolled at BU, she discovered another benefit: During the Vietnam War era, economics was not a popular major, so classes were small and focused. “We had a full, wonderful faculty and very few [economics] majors, and it was just phenomenal,” she says. “I got all the attention and opportunities I needed.”

But after graduation, Williams was dismayed to find that because she was female, the only jobs she was offered in the financial industry were clerical positions. When her husband landed work in Ottawa, Williams found a contract role with the Economic Council of Canada. A study she authored was published in a book on banking legislation, which helped her get a foot in the door at Merrill Lynch. She was hired as the company’s sole female broker in Canada in the mid 1970s.

When the couple moved to California, she joined Merrill Lynch’s Palo Alto office. Then, Williams and a colleague, Gary Conway, struck out on their own in 1982, forming a financial advisory business. 

“I knew early on that what I really liked about the stock market was helping people understand how to handle their finances broadly speaking, and particularly their investments. Planning has always been integral to our work, particularly for people and organizations going through major transitions—both wonderful and difficult ones,” she says. “What makes the work so exciting to me is that we can make a real difference at these moments. Understanding where clients are in experience and temperament is central to what we do.”

A Thoughtful Approach

Williams and Conway were equal business partners, but more than one caller assumed she was the receptionist and asked her to schedule a meeting with Conway. She simply transferred those calls to Conway instead.  “Our names were on the door at the beginning because he believed it would raise my stature immediately. It didn’t take long,” Williams says.

Since they founded it, Sand Hill has grown and flourished—and Williams has helped the company weather numerous transitions, including its sale in 2000 and subsequent repurchase in 2009—and now her own retirement. “I have learned firsthand how patient and clear one needs to be about company and personal goals to lead a group of colleagues through massive changes. All of us must focus on recognizing and developing leadership from among our ranks. We need to share, not dominate the spotlight, to assure the company’s future.”

Williams credits her economics background with giving her a broader perspective on the stock market’s cyclical nature. She tapped that knowledge to educate clients about long-term risks and opportunities, helping to ensure that their money would last a lifetime and could be passed to their children and grandchildren or to support philanthropic interests.

A skilled financial adviser also gauges clients’ risk tolerance and encourages them—as she did for the Nieman Marcus shopper—to make thoughtful decisions in the moment as well as for the long haul. Williams has connected clients with family business counselors for guidance on succession issues and exits, and she’s encouraged some clients to consult psychologists to better understand their complex relationship to money. “I’m a huge believer that you’ve got to be able to get out of your own way and learn to accept the risk you’re about to take or that you have structured into your portfolio,” she says.

Williams has been taking her own advice on succession planning: Several years ago, she began preparing a younger partner to lead Sand Hill. That decision gave her time to increase her commitment to national industry groups, including the board of directors of the Investment Adviser Association, which represents registered investment advisers collectively managing over $28 trillion in assets. She also served a two-year term as board chair, representing the industry before regulators and legislators.

Although she officially retired last year, Williams continues to tap her decades of expertise as a consultant. She helps owners of smaller firms create and implement plans to grow their businesses in size and sophistication, and to prepare for succession and other transitions. Those skills don’t necessarily come naturally to all advisors. “Though they are smart, entrepreneurial professionals, and active resources for clients, they aren’t always willing to focus on developing and bringing people up through the organization,” Williams says. “Sharing responsibilities and successes with their team members will bring greater more success and satisfaction. That takes time, intention and a dose of humility.”

During her nearly 50 years in the investment advisory industry, Williams has seen greater diversity, a lessening of sexism, and a growing appreciation for female advisors’ strengths. Male clients have told her that Sand Hill—where women represent half of the leadership, wealth management, and investment teams—won their business because they were appalled at how dismissively their wives had been treated by other advisors and brokers. “Women are key providers in our industry,” Williams says. “When it comes to providing client advice, women are good listeners, inclined to speak English rather than industry jargon, tease out the concerns and questions, and focus clients on their best interests. We celebrate our gender diversity and want all clients to feel respected.”