Mission Wealth marks first decade

By RAY ESTRADA – Feb. 17, 2010

Two UC Santa Barbara graduates are marking the first decade of their business this week.

Evening though the stock market had peaked from the high-tech boom of the 1990s and investors demanded big returns with little regard for economic fundamentals in January 2000, Brad Stark and Seth Streeter insisted it was time to launch a financial services business on the South Coast that would be more in tune with the needs of the its wealthy residents.

That’s when Mission Wealth Management was born after Stark and Streeter opened an office and later allied with now-62-year-old Barlett Pringle & Wolf, the area’s most prominent certified public accounting firm.

“Today we have a total of 15 employees and serve 350 families,” Street said in an interview this week. “We recently opened an office in Westlake Village.” The firm has its main office at 1123 Chapala St., Santa Barbara.

When Mission Wealth started operation, it was a time before the Enron Oil Co. scandal erupted, prior to many conflicts with Wall Street brokerage firms were uncovered, and before the words “wealth management” were widely used, Streeter said.

The financial services landscape has changed quite a bit from where it was a decade ago, he said.

For example, Streeter said consumers are more keen about the benefits of an “open architecture investment platform” and to the importance of planning and proactive integration of their advisers. The industry as a whole is playing catch up, he said.

“Our main measure of success is simple: Are we impacting our clients’ lives in a meaningfully positive way?” Streeter said. “This is both in economic and emotional terms. If we have protected or built a client’s wealth, but have not helped them attain financial peace of mind, then as far as we are concerned, we have not succeeded.”

Mission Wealth today is a nationally recognized firm that has won the trust of industry leaders, such as Charles Schwab and Fidelity, who refer their high net-worth clients, as well as Goldman Sachs, which provides them with access to their research, Streeter said.

The company co-founder said he optimistic about his firm's  next  10 years, too.

Mission Wealth is affiliated with Bartlett, Pringle & Wolf and the concierge bookkeeping service, Bookkeeping Experts.

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