Excellent leaders, like great financial advisors, are always challenging the status quo, breaking through opaque boundaries, and never giving up on learning new things. They have big ideas and are excellent storytellers, but they are terrible record-keepers. To serve as a Chief Fiduciary Officer, a person must be able to provide strategic business leadership and direction regarding important tasks related to identifying, assessing, mitigating, and managing risk in the Wealth and Asset Management line of business. They must also guarantee that the necessary platform and product controls are in place. Additionally, it entails monitoring and assessing how well risk management is implemented throughout all company business lines, both individually and collectively.
Anna Fedosova, MBA, CTFA, is Sunstone Trust Company’s Chief Fiduciary Officer. She has worked for private wealth and trust companies, including U.S. Bank, Wells Fargo, and First Bank, for 20 years as a senior fiduciary and trust manager.
A top-ranked financial adviser with an exceptional clientele, Anna has helped high-net-worth clients accomplish their short-and long-term goals thanks to her in-depth understanding of fiduciary matters and her sophisticated estate and trust planning abilities. She is a Registered Trust and Estate Practitioner (TEP) and a Certified Trust and Fiduciary Advisor (CTFA). She serves on a board of directors of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners, Orange County Chapter (STEP OC). Anna is a member of the Orange County Estate Planning Council (OCEPC), Women Lawyers Association of Orange County (OCWLA), and Association of Corporate Growth of Orange County (ACG), She speaks fluent English and Russian, in addition to a moderate German, which complements her professional and international background.
Beginning to Achieving a C Level Position
After earning a Bachelor of Science from Moscow University and a Master of Finance from the Moscow University of Statistics and Economics, Anna left Russia for the United States to take advantage of the freedom and chances that America has to offer. She applied for and was hired for a position at First Bank’s Trust and Wealth Management Division while attending college to earn her MBA. There, she worked for 12 years as a trust officer and relationship manager. Although it was the start of her career in finance, it didn’t end there. As her professional development continued, she eventually joined Wells Fargo’s Trust and Investment Division and US Bank’s Private Wealth Division as a Senior Trust Manager and Advisor.
Anna thinks that leaving U.S. Bank for Sunstone Trust Company is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to work in a C-level role for an innovative company that is redefining the wealth management industry. An incentive to prosper and innovate the company’s journey to a prosperous future is taking on this new leadership position as the Chief Fiduciary Officer and maybe evolving into a Partner in the future.
Anna’s main responsibilities at Sunstone Trust are to set up fiduciary policies, supervise the business’ corporate trustee services, monitor, and put internal policies in place that are compliant with state regulations, and lead the acquisition of new clients through sophisticated trust, tax, and estate planning. In order to improve the Trust, Fiduciary, and Wealth Management business lines, she mentors and manages the expanding staff. As a member of the C-suite, she participates in strategic decisions about the company’s direction.
Serving with Trust and Authenticity
The financial sector is being impacted by both the influence of tech-savvy customers and the changing views of regulators regarding new technology. These days, financial growth may be triggered by the pressing of a button. The globe is witnessing a movement away from typical brokerage account portfolios and towards the high-touch service products like private investments and services offered like. Clients of Sunstone Trust have both a sleek user interface for seeing their holdings and quick access to their human advisers.
Sunstone Trust Company’s main office is in Irvine, California, and it concentrates on giving local and international clients advice on how to transfer, safeguard, and preserve their money while keeping their anonymity. In addition, as a FinTech Trust Company, it is working on launching innovative, tech-powered products and services that would separate Sunstone Trust from traditional trust and financial institutions.
Growth as a Leader
Like most individuals, Anna has had ups and downs on a path to achievement and has encountered numerous obstacles. But she learned, without a challenge, there is no incentive to develop and outperform. She says, “Show yourself, be positive thinker, and go forward in the world.”
The definition of Anna’s success isn’t a title; the title is what she was working towards to have something tangible next to her name, but to get to this level was success on its own. As she finds her road isn’t finished yet, she is motivated to get to the highest level she can.
Anna is a very enthusiastic and optimistic person, both professionally and personally. She applies pretty much the same emotions when it comes to her career or her personal/social life. She works and lives with the concept that “my glass is half full” and is not “half empty”.
Accepting a New Culture and Environment
The difficulties Anna has faced since moving to a new country—including learning a new culture, a new language, etc.—have not been limited to any one specific obstacle. But she admits that if she had to choose only one major obstacle, it would be a linguistic barrier. She recalls, “My English was very limited when I arrived in the Unites States, and it was very challenging at the beginning.” She started listening to BBC radio to just pick up the proper pronunciation and read a ton of classical books to learn how to construct the sentences. However, it only motivated her to work harder and accelerated her progress.
Advice from a Leader to Future Visionaries
Anna considers that empathy, confidence, creativity, accountability, transparency, delegation, compassion, humility, vision, and integrity are the most important attributes of successful leaders. She shares with future leaders that it is challenging, no doubt. However, find your own passion and trust your instincts. She asserts, “When you trust your instincts, your true self emerges in the most authentic way. Always push yourself to learn as much as you possibly can and never settle for the status quo. Turn your passion, excellence, and enthusiasm towards laying the foundation for progress. Support and empower other women.”
