Iuliana Pacurariu
Thomas Financial Group
Royal Alliance Associates
Troy, Michigan
Iuliana Pacurariu says her career in the financial services industry began “just by chance.” But once she got started, she found the work to be extremely rewarding. Moving to the United States from her native Romania in 2000, and armed with a law degree, Iuliana began taking classes at a college in Michigan, where she learned English and began working on the college campus. In 2004, in an attempt to familiarize herself with the business world, she applied for a sales assistant job at Thomas Financial Group, a registered investment advisory in Troy, Mich., that clears trades through Royal Alliance Associates (an AIG b/d), and has $75 million in assets under management.
Iuliana's responsibilities include everything from compliance requirements and audits to client service (for over 150 clients on the fee side alone) and office manager duties, as well as “keeping up with change.” She believes that compliance is the most dynamic element of the financial services industry and that the best way to overcome the challenges this presents is to “stay informed.”
Iuliana truly enjoys the work that she does and finds it extremely gratifying that clients can “trust us and can go on with their daily business without worrying about their money.” Depending on the situation, that can often be a difficult task. Iuliana recalls the anguish of a client who had recently lost her spouse. The husband and wife had been clients of Thomas Financial Group for 20 years, which eased the burden of having to transfer assets from his name to hers. The only thing the grieving wife needed to do was “understand the changes,” Iuliana says. “We took care of everything. So that took a lot of pressure off of her in those difficult times. It was nice to see that she was very appreciative. She was very comforted by our actions.”
One of Iuliana's proudest moments? Becoming an American citizen. She is “amazed by the opportunities that are afforded to me not only as an American but as someone who works in the financial services business.” Now that she has her MBA (she just graduated from Walsh College in August), Iuliana's hope for the future is to get her Series 7 and “grow into the financial world.”