Brian Corley

Brian Corley(opens in new window), who graduated with a BA in Economics and a Minor in Political Science in 1995, is a Senior Managing Director and Portfolio Manager at First Republic Bank’s Private Wealth Management Group in San Francisco, California. In 1998 Brian accepted a position as Principal and Portfolio Manager with Golden Triangle Securities(opens in new window).

In 1999 while still working for Golden Triangle Brian entered Golden Gate University (GGU). He completed his Masters of Science in Finance as well as obtained his Graduate Certificate in Financial Planning at GGU in 2002. He left Golden Triangle to become a Private Client Advisor for Wells Fargo(opens in new window)’s Private Banking Group.

In 2004 Brian completed the Certified Investment Management Program (CIMA)(opens in new window) through UC Berkeley and shortly thereafter became an Accredited Investment Fiduciary (AIF)(opens in new window). In 2008 Brian founded Astera Financial Group(opens in new window) and served as its Chief Investment Officer until 2012 when First Republic purchased his firm. He and his entire Astera team continue to operate as a Private Wealth Management team at First Republic in San Francisco.

“Economics helped form the foundation for much of my future education around finance and capital Markets,” Brian stated in a recent email. “Academic finance tends to focus on numbers and formulas while economics tends to focus more on human behavior and the ongoing challenges in trying to balance human emotions within the context of financial decisions and trade-offs. After leaving the academic world and entering the real-life world of advising human beings on financial decisions you realize that very few decisions are made solely on the numbers and formulas and are far more often dictated by peoples’ past experiences and emotions. Economics provided me with a tremendous foundation and understanding of people and markets on which I was able to then specialize my education and training beyond my undergraduate degree in order to prepare for the specific career I was focused on.”  (Last Updated 9/6/16)