When the members of Lumina Wealth Management want to add a national or international perspective to their conversations with clients, they have a resource at their fingertips: economist Gina Sanchez.
 
Sanchez, founder and CEO of Los Angeles-based Chantico Global, is retained by the firm as a member of Lumina’s investment policy team. Also a contributor on CNBC, Sanchez stays in touch with her Wilmington colleagues by telephone and also visits in person on a regular basis.
 
“We think having her as part of our team helps set us apart,” said Meredith Koenig, one of Lumina Wealth Management’s three managing members.
 
“Gina offered something we didn’t have locally,” said managing member Bill Anlyan.
 
Referring to the much-discussed issue of protective tariffs, Anlyan added, “Tariffs are a great example of the benefit of having an economist. We have been communicating with Gina about what the effects might be. We look for unintended consequences of policy decisions.”
 
The new firm also maintains contacts in J.P. Morgan and Goldman Sachs, according to Anlyan.
 
“We don’t have Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan on the phone, but we stay in contact with them and other firms, and have access to their research. We discuss this at a high level with Gina: how we can understand the economy nationally and internationally,” Anlyan said.
 
That understanding then informs the recommendations Lumina Wealth Management makes to clients.
 
“Our focus wants to be on the client’s experience and translating all the data we receive and all the research we access,” Koenig said. “We interpret that, and relate it back to the client and how it affects them.”
 
Lumina Wealth Management formed at the start of the new year. The new firm combines the expertise and experience of Anlyan, Koenig and Ashley Doyle, all of whom worked together previously in the firm of Anlyan & Hively. They have added Luke Burton as the firm’s operations member.
 
Lumina’s clients are individuals, families and nonprofit organizations, Doyle said.
 
“We would like to see everybody have a financial plan: financial planning is more than just deciding what investments to buy. We work with individuals and families making big life decisions, and the decisions you make now affect how you fund the big expenses in life, and your retirement,” she said.
 
Anlyan, who earned a law degree from Duke University School of Law, has spent much of his career working with nonprofit organizations. He served as assistant director for the Duke University Comprehensive Cancer Center, as deputy director at the N.C. Museum of Art and as vice chancellor for university advancement at University of North Carolina Wilmington.
 
That background is an asset in the firm’s work with nonprofits, Koenig said.
 
“It helps us understand [a nonprofit organization’s] goals, and talk about capital campaigns,” she said.
 
Together, Doyle and Koenig have almost 28 years’ experience in the financial field, Anlyan said.
 
Doyle earned her bachelor’s degree in business administration and economics from Greensboro College; she is a certified financial planner professional. Koenig, a financial adviser, graduated from UNCW with a bachelor’s degree in business and a concentration in finance.
 
Burton graduated from Davidson College and worked in a support capacity at a capital management firm in Georgia.
 
Temporarily housed in Lumina Station, the firm will move in early April to new quarters in the First National Bank building at 1508 Military Cutoff Road.