387: Lessons from a Sovereign Wealth Fund Manager

Zulfe Ali is a broker dealer and investment advisor—but not your run-of-the-mill type in this field.

He’s been in the middle of the action on Wall Street as a mergers and acquisitions guy for JP Morgan and Bank of America in the 90s and ran a multibillion-dollar sovereign wealth fund for over a decade.

I’ve seen photos of him with world leaders like former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair and others as part of his former position. To say the least, he’s not one of those 6 week course advisors out there.

While he has now opened his door to individual investors like us, he is using institutional principals to help clients grow their money.

As you can imagine, those principals are quite different from your typical advisor and I am happy to endorse him to anyone looking for a third-party financial advisor. Many people have asked me for a recommendation throughout the years and I have not been able to give one until now.

In this episode of Wealth Formula Podcast, I speak to Zulfe about his perspective on asset allocation and the current economy. Make sure to tune in to see what a guy at his level is thinking.

And later on this week, tune in for my “Back to School” episode where I give you insight into how I design my own investment portfolio.

Listen NOW!

Zulfe is focused on bringing his experience and skills to help individuals, family offices and businesses to invest wisely, implement sound financial strategies, and protect their assets.

Zulfe has always immersed himself into the global financial markets. He began his career in the early 1990s, just prior to the “dot-com” boom at a boutique investment bank in San Francisco called Montgomery Securities. That firm was eventually acquired by Bank of America where Zulfe continued to work with investors in growth equities. He then joined JPMorgan’s acquisition finance team working both in New York and London to support private equity and corporate clients. After that, he went on an adventure to the Middle East and worked at a sovereign wealth fund as Chief Investment Officer with a mandate to diversify the existing investment portfolio through a global asset allocation strategy. Following that role, Zulfe joined a London based venture capital firm and helped to expand its presence in the US and launched its first US based fund out of Washington, DC.

Zulfe has an BA in Mathematics from Carleton College and an MBA from Cornell University.

Shownotes:

• Discussion on Retail vs Institutional Investing
• Importance of Diligence in Investing
• Examples of Investment Disasters
• Role of a Broker Dealer
• Introduction to Velerity Group Wealth
• Applying Institutional Investing Experience to Retail Investing
• Role of an Advisor
• Portfolio Diversification
• Current Economic Situation
• Effect of Interest Rates
• Investment Strategies