The group Justin Nelson leads at JP Morgan was built with an unusual filter. Instead of favoring economics and business graduates, Nelson considers applicants from psychology, biology, engineering, and other fields that seldom feed into private banking.

Nelson is Managing Director and Head of the Asset Management and Financial Principals Coverage Team at J.P. Morgan Private Bank in Connecticut. His team numbers 20 people and oversees more than $15 billion in assets, and he has spent close to three decades in the industry.

The Profile He Wants

Nelson describes his ideal hire in plain terms. “I’m looking for people who are interested in finance,” he told Money Inc, and he pairs that interest with natural aptitude, humility, and sincerity. A candidate’s major hardly figures into the decision.

Psychology graduates have impressed the JP Morgan leader in particular. He sees half of daily advisory work as financial and the other half as interpersonal, so an understanding of how people think and react gives new hires a head start with clients.

Why the Mix Works

A team drawn from many disciplines can examine a client problem from several directions. Justin Nelson experienced this himself. He studied chemistry and economics at Tufts University and later earned an MBA at Columbia University, and that range taught him to synthesize ideas from different fields.

The clients his team serves include high-net-worth individuals and family offices across the country. Their questions frequently involve inheritance, wealth passed between generations, and family relationships. Staff members who handle those topics with tact earn trust that technical skill alone cannot win.

Justin Nelson JP Morgan believes analytical skills can be taught on the job, while emotional intelligence is far harder to train. Hiring for character first gives JP Morgan a team equipped to care for clients’ complete needs. Visit this page for additional information.

More about Justin Nelson JP Morgan on https://about.me/justin-nelson