New position: Vice president, wealth adviser, Northern Trust Bank, Tampa. Previous position: Wealth strategist, SunTrust Bank, Tampa
By FRED W. WRIGHT JR.
Published August 18, 2003
It's safe to say that Robert A. Kokol has a wealth of knowledge about investing.
As newly appointed wealth adviser and vice president at Northern Trust Bank, Kokol continues to develop his expertise in providing high net-worth clients with data and information about investments, taxes, estate planning and related financial choices. And the Tampa Bay area has quite a few such potential clients, Kokol says.
Kokol said he and his team "are truly in an advisory capacity in many cases. We're also doing more than just management. We meet with clients and advise on areas outside of pure investment management (such as) estate planning, retirement planning," he said.
"As net worth gets higher, the complexity of cases becomes greater," he said. This complexity especially can involve estate planning in which a client may "have accumulated so much wealth that they don't want to leave all to their children, so there's generational skipping."
"Most people do underestimate the wealth in Tampa," Kokol said. "If you dig down deep enough," it's there. "Most families don't want you to see it."
Kokol has been in banking since graduating from Colgate University in 1983 with a bachelor's degree in philosophy. He later earned an MBA from the University of Miami in 1990.
He joined SunTrust Bank in Miami upon graduation from Colgate as a real estate lending officer, then moved into the wealth market about six years ago. He was with SunTrust for nearly 17 years, including 11 in Tampa. He also worked two years for Bank One in Youngstown, Ohio.
His philosophy degree serves him well as a wealth adviser, Kokol said. "Philosophy majors are taught to analyze," he said. "Philosophy is ethics. It's understanding how to create different arguments, explaining things many different ways. It opens your mind up and lets you see different angles."
Kokol said that early in his career, he knew he wanted to segue into wealth management. "I saw the direction of banking at the time and what was coming - wealth transition," he said. "So much money was going to transfer over the next 25 years in terms of inheritances, transitions from parents to the next generation, I saw that as an opportunity for what was coming."
Kokol said he enjoys the challenge of financial problem-solving. "For me, it's a challenge to hear what the issues are and to bring solutions to those clients," he said.
Kokol said he believes in giving back to the community. As a result, he is an executive board member and secretary of the Jewish Community Center/Federation of Tampa; the Tampa chairman of the Tampa Orlando Pinellas Jewish Foundation; and chairman of the Colgate University Alumni Association of Tampa Bay. In addition, Kokol helped launch a security patrol about three years ago in the Beach Park neighborhood in South Tampa, where he lives.
Kokol, 42, and his wife, Beth, have two children, Emily, 15, and Emerson, 12. He said the family often travels to domestic destinations for kayaking or rafting. "We go to winter places in the summertime, when school is out," he said.
