Drawn to specialize in serving innovators and entrepreneurs

Sometimes financial advisers search for and find their niche, and sometimes the niche finds them. Flavia Trento says her focus on entrepreneurs and innovators was “an accident of geography.”

A San Francisco-based private wealth adviser in the private banking division of Silicon Valley Bank, Trento has found a rich channel of clients and prospect working in the “innovation economy.”

She describes the innovation economy as being represented by companies on the cutting edge of development in whatever industry they are in. “Northern California is our largest market, but we have offices in every city where innovation is taking place.”

Trento started to home in on her niche while working for a competitor prior to joining SVB nine months ago.

“I saw more and more clients that fit this profile as opposed to the profile of traditional wealth management clients, which is mostly people in their 50s that had built their wealth over time,” she said. “The clients I was seeing were in a different phase. They were creating wealth, and were concerned about how to manage it, mitigate taxes, and manage the risks.”

SVB Private is the $19 billion private banking arm that operates alongside SVB’s commercial bank, investment bank and a venture capital business.

The bank counts among its clients 83% of the firms on the Forbes Midas list.

Trento said the goal is for the private bank to serve innovators by providing tailored solutions like concentrated private stock planning, and pre- and post-transaction planning.

Trento describes her typical client as in the wealth creation stage of their careers.

“All of them are very time-starved, and most of them have done a small amount of wealth planning,” she said. “They are not necessarily always young, but many of them have not worked with a financial adviser before.”

From a planning perspective, Trento said her clients are often facing liquidity events and are commonly paid in stock options.

“That requires quite a bit of planning in terms of tax mitigation and long- and short-term liquidity,” she said.

In terms of marketing her niche, Trento is fortunate to be affiliated with SVB, which she said was in some way connected to two-thirds of all venture-backed initial public stock offerings last year.

“Our commercial bank is deeply embedded in the innovation economy, so we get a lot of referrals from the commercial bank and the investment bank,” she said.

The economic downturn this year hasn’t hurt business, either.

“The fact that the world has changed so dramatically has been an opportunity for us,” Trento said. “Nobody seems to worry about their personal financial situation when stocks are going up.”

[More: Wall Street targets Silicon Valley rich]

Related Topics: Silicon Valley Bank