James Yaworski serves as Vice President, Portfolio Manager at Sequoia Financial Group. In this role, James provides leadership in the areas of trading, investment research, and portfolio design and oversees analysis and execution of investment strategies for new and existing client portfolios.

While studying at NIU, he gained insights into his future career as part of a student-managed portfolio team. Prior to joining Sequoia, James’ experience included working in the roles of investment manager, project manager in investment research, and financial analyst in both large and small financial organizations. James holds the Chartered Financial Analyst® designation, granted by the CFA® Institute, which entails a rigorous exam requirement.

In addition to the research, James conducts related to building strong client portfolios, he is engaged in research on approaches that enhance institutional experiences as well. His most recent work sets out to provide institutional investors with a more robust way of constructing spending policies. In a paper published in the Financial Analysts Journal, James shows how current practices create poor long-term outcomes, resulting in declining support for beneficiaries over time. He also demonstrates how current methods expose trustees to significant fiduciary risk, and how small errors in implementation can have significant long-term ramifications on portfolio growth. His in-depth and thoughtful research stems from his genuine interest in providing university, public and private foundations, and endowment trustees with an approach that not only optimizes the outcomes of their portfolio’s performance, but also addresses their fiduciary responsibility with regard to spending policies. [You can read the accepted manuscript of James’ paper here.] James’s research was also featured in Pensions & Investments.

James enjoys being engaged in the community with Habitat for Humanity and Paws & Claws. In his free time he also enjoys golfing and playing softball. James grew up in Crystal Lake, Illinois, and now resides in Rochester, Minnesota, with his wife, Brittany, their three young children, and two dogs, Frankie and Jordy.