Kathy Albach
Albach, Wels & Dauer
Wealth Management Group
UBS
Kenwood, Ohio
Kathy Albach doesn't take messages or transfer calls as much as she used to when she first started out as a sales assistant. These days clients call in wanting to speak with Albach. After 10 years working in the financial services industry, Albach, a client service associate with Albach, Wels & Dauer Wealth Management Group at UBS, has become the consummate go-to person or “Mom,” for the seven-member team and their 650 clients.
Her maternal role isn't unfounded: Not only do the three sales assistants go to her with their work-related problems, but one of the three advisors she works with is her son, Brian Albach. “I keep the guys in line; I treat them all like my sons, they kind of look to me as a second mother,” Albach says.
After being a stay-at-home mom for 20 years, Albach went back to work. She spent 11 years in the banking industry as a teller, and then as an assistant branch manager before her son asked her to come work with him in 1998. Albach remembers she felt like she was too old to go back to studying, but in 2000 she got her Series 7; two years later she got her Series 66. At first, she and another sales assistant — who did more of the trading and client-facing activities — were the only assistants in the office. But her role has changed since then. These days, Albach handles far more complicated issues, whether it is an IRA distribution or a client with a credit card problem.
“I think they use me to put out fires. I think they think I have more of that personal touch with the clients and therefore, they won't get as upset or frustrated; they will listen to me a little bit more,” Albach says. While only one client ever called asking for “Brian's Mom,” Albach has cultivated a special relationship with clients, or as her son puts it: “Kathy is the glue that really bonds our clients to us.”
Like many outstanding sales assistants, Albach takes a professional approach to every challenge. A cancer survivor, she dedicates her time to her daughter, Kimberly, who has Down Syndrome, and her son's four children. Family is the center of her life, she says, whether at work or at home. “The most rewarding part of the job is working with my son and the rest of the group, because it's like one big family. I don't feel like I am just a number in there. Whether people call and ask for me or not, I feel like I am my own individual, and I feel like I have earned everybody's respect for that.”