General Investing >> Money Manager Interviews >> September 1, 2003
SUSAN BREAKEFIELD FULTON, a co-founder and the Managing Director of
Fulton Breakefield Broenniman, founded the firm in 1987 along with
Margaret C. Broenniman, after several years of working on the 'sell
side' of the investment industry. The two women launched the firm with
the intention of bringing fee-only investment management services to a
traditionally commission-based field. In 2001, the firm affiliated with
WealthTrust, Inc., when Ms. Fulton's partner, Ms. Broenniman, decided to
ease off into retirement. Since then, Ms. Fulton and her team have
worked to nearly double the size of her firm's assets under management
while continuing to offer the same fee-only services upon which the firm
was originally founded. Her experience, expertise, and honesty are
welcomed by both her clients and the media. She appears often on
programs on CNBC and Fox News Channel, offering her perspective on
current economic and investing topics. Furthermore, she has been
profiled or quoted in several publications, including Time, Smart Money,
Family Circle, Buyside, The Financial Times, Kiplinger's, Investment
News, and the Christian Science Monitor. While Ms. Fulton's experience
in investments extends more than 22 years, her career actually really
took off in the media industry. After college, she began working with
Scripps-Howards newspapers. Her newspaper career led her into broadcast
media at Metromedia where she climbed the ladder at WASH-FM in
Washington, DC, to become vice president and general manager of the
station. After leaving Metromedia in 1981, Ms. Fulton worked at Linsco
(now LPL Financial Services) for a year and a half before making the
decision to start her own investment advisory firm. Her professional
designations that she has earned throughout her career include
Registered Representative, Registered Securities Principal, and
membership in the Registry of Financial Planning Professionals. Ms.
Fulton is very active in philanthropic and professional endeavors. She
is currently a member of the Schwab Advisor Network Advisory Board and
the advisory committee for The Richard Alsina Fulton Center for
Sustainable Living at Wilson College. From 1980 to 1986, she was a
member of the Board of Trustees at Wilson College, her alma mater, and
was the Vice Chairwoman of the Board through 1986. Ms. Fulton remains an
active member of St. Margaret's Episcopal Church in Washington, DC. Profile
TWST: Could you give us a brief overview of Fulton BreakefieldBroenniman and its investment philosophy?
Ms. Fulton: The firm was founded in 1989 by myself and another woman,
Margaret