Swift’s dad a broker

Scott K. Swift, an adviser with Bank of America Merrill Lynch, inspired his daughter to follow in his financial services footsteps. But she was determined to pursue a career in music.

Wise choice.

Mr. Swift, who heads The Swift Group, a Merrill Lynch financial adviser team, is the father of 21-year-old Taylor Swift, the four-time Grammy-award-winning singer who will earn $45 million this year, according to Forbes, which ranks her seventh in its annual listing of powerful celebrities.

Ms. Swift has sold 20 million albums and 34.5 million singles, and is up for five Country Music Awards this year.

In a recent Google/YouTube interview, Ms. Taylor said that at 8, while friends reported wanting to grow up and become astronauts and ballerinas, she wanted to be a financial adviser, like her dad.

“My dad is so passionate about what he does, like in the way I’m passionate about music,” Ms. Swift said. “He’s so gung-ho for his job, and I saw how happy it made him and I just thought, like, “I can broke stocks.’”

Today, she leaves that job to her father, who started The Swift Group in 1981 in Wyomissing, Pa., and now manages about $450 million in client assets from Nashville, Tenn., where he moved eight years ago.

The group advises a limited number of high-net-worth individuals, business owners and corporate executives, and is accessible to new clients “only via an existing client referral,” according to its website.

Mr. Swift declined to comment, citing compliance issues.

Mr. Swift, who graduated from the University of Delaware with a business degree, also has a son who could follow in his father’s footsteps. Austin Swift is a student at Vanderbilt University in Nashville. No word yet on what he is studying.

According to Ms. Swift, she still follows her father’s financial advice: “Save your money.”