A. Mark Harbour, CPA, CFP, CFA, CIMA
Financial Advisor

PERSONAL AND CAREER HISTORY

In late 2007, Mark and his wife Bernadette joined to form a client-serving partnership as financial advisors at Morgan Stanley*.  They have blended their mutual professional experiences to help self-made professionals and families align their wealth with who they are.

Mark grew up in a small town in southern Oklahoma.  His formative years were spent in the company of mostly small community business owners, many seasoned by their experiences from the Great Depression.  His father was an independent oil producer and mother was active in community leadership and eventually formed a successful real estate agency. As soon as Mark was big enough to lift a pipe wrench, he began in the oil fields and has been working ever since.

Convinced his future lay outside of oil, Mark graduated from the University of Oklahoma with a bachelor’s degree in accounting (minors in finance and business law).  Then he spent three years learning real teamwork as an officer of the line in the US Navy.

Wanting to pursue a deeper working knowledge of business, Mark earned a Masters degree in Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Chicago, Graduate School of Business.

He began his professional career as a tax practitioner-- in the Chicago office of what is now KPMG.  He became a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) serving both individual and business clients as part of the insurance and international tax teams.  Later, to broaden his experience, Mark spent two years with the Mead Corporation. 

Upon learning of his father’s terminal condition, he returned to Southern Oklahoma to support the family business as Chief Operating Officer.  At the same time, he began serving individual and small business clients through the CPA practice he formed.  His business grew to include more comprehensive planning services as he assumed the role of primary financial advisor for many clients.  He also earned a Certified Financial Planner (CFP) designation.

Once the ownership transfer of the family business was completed (and convinced comprehensive financial planning for individuals was his forte), Mark joined Asset Management Group in Denver, Colorado.  As a member of the wealth management division, he served high net worth executives and their families throughout the US.  Eventually, he and his family returned to Chicago where he managed the Midwest office of that firm.

Then, Mark joined Ernst & Young in Chicago, focusing on financial planning and investment advisory services.   He later moved to Los Angeles to become partner in charge of the Southern California region for personal financial planning and investment advisory services.  During his seven years with E&Y, Mark earned his Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and Certified Investment Management Analyst (CIMA) designations and helped form the Investment Advisory Practice that served the needs of approximately 120 registered investment advisors nationally.

As the major accounting firms moved away from financial planning and investment advisory practices, Mark became the Western Regional Director of Wealth Advisory Services for Northern Trust Bank based in Los Angeles serving the needs of clients of the 13 regional offices for that firm.

Their best clients have complex tax, investment and legal needs and often face challenging personal or family hurdles.

PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS

Mark is member of the CFA Institute, CFA Society of Los Angeles (currently serving as Treasurer and Board member for this organization).  He is a past president of the Applied Behavioral Finance Group, a community of interest of the CFA Society of Los Angeles.  Other organizational affiliations include the Investment Management Consultants Association (IMCA), where he is currently national chairman of the Wealth Management Committee (which oversees the Certification program for Private Wealth Advisors - CPWA®). He has taught subjects including investments, financial planning, and business law as an adjunct professor at UCLA Extension and the Oklahoma College for Liberal Arts, and more recently ethics at the University of Chicago for CPWA® (sponsored by IMCA).

Bernadette and Mark live and work primarily in Los Angeles and secondarily in New York.  Mark enjoys periodic visits with his daughter, son-in-law, and grandson in Chicago, and son in Colorado.




Bernadette Harbour, CFP, CIMA
Financial Advisor

Bernadette was born and raised in a small section of Queens, NY.  She was the youngest of the six children (4 girls, 2 boys) of two wonderful and hardworking, middle-class parents.  Her parents’ strongly held fundamental values were instilled in their children by two constant phrases…”it’s a great country and a free world, don’t waste it”…and …”work hard at whatever you choose to do in life that makes you happy”.  With this freedom and loving encouragement, came responsibility and accountability but not much financial support beyond the basics.  So she, like her brothers and sisters, started working early by babysitting and doing other small jobs beginning at age 12. 

After high school, Bernadette worked full time and served as one of the primary caregivers to her terminally ill parents (initially her mother, and subsequently, her father), delaying her dream to earn a college degree.  After several years, both passed away, and she was able to turn her full attention to work and school.  After full days (and then some) at Ernst & Young, she carried a full academic load at NYU’s Stern School of Business, earning her B.S.

Earning her degree spurred Bernadette to increase her focus with executives in the financial and tax areas at Ernst & Young.  As part of the Financial Planning practice, she achieved the Certified Financial Planner (CFP) designation and the Certified Investment Management Consultant (CIMA) designation, sponsored by the Investment Management Consultants Association through the Wharton School of Business. 

Throughout her 20 years at E&Y (mostly in the corporate office in NY), Bernadette and her team developed and supported several components of the financial planning practice around the country.  One of her favorite services was supporting decisions arising from compensation, tax, and investment issues for executive clients.  She and her team wrote software to help them make better choices and then shared and supported this software with financial planners around the firm. 

In addition to working with executives, Bernadette and her team developed a program (rare at the time), to educate large employee groups about the value of their company benefits.  She found helping the needs of ordinary people extremely rewarding.  This business grew substantially at E&Y and eventually provided basic training for many E&Y professionals as well as supporting the needs of a number of employees of large client firms across the nation. 

Her other activity was the support of advisors employed by major brokerage firms.  Bernadette and her team provided simple and sometimes complex financial planning software and supporting services to help them address the needs of their clients.

These three major areas of the financial planning practice (complex decisions, education and advisor support) provided Bernadette an in-depth and unusually wide breadth of professional experience.  Her passion—then and now--was getting to know so many people and being able to help them.  Along with a few others, she was asked to write portions of the E&Y Personal Financial Planning Guide, a book distributed internationally by John Wiley & Sons. 

When it became clear the major accounting firms were moving away from the investment advisory business, Bernadette moved to her current firm; chosen because it was entrepreneurial, had an open architecture philosophy, and numerous resources to support client needs. 

Leaving family and friends on the east coast to start her own business 10 years ago in Los Angeles was difficult, yet energizing.  She has found more “family” and friends in the clients with whom she has had the good fortune to meet.  She helps clients address a wide range of concerns, financial and otherwise, just about anything to be of help, including sometimes assisting with travel arrangements (ask her about low fares to Europe). 

In looking for ways to continue growing her practice, Bernadette was delighted to partner with her husband, Mark.  Their merged practices are aimed at helping self-made professionals and their families align their wealth with who they are.