By Mary Beth Hislop

Leaders of Stanford Investment Group celebrated their 25th anniversary Oct. 4. Pictured from left are Vice President Carolyn Bell, Chairman and Co-founder Bob Gee, President and CEO Helen Dietz and Vice President and Co-founder Don Finsthwait.

What started as a conversation over a couple of glasses of wine between two co-workers several years ago flowered into a celebration Oct. 4 when Bob Gee and Don Finsthwait commemorated the 25th anniversary of Stanford Investment Group Inc. with the firm’s employees and clientele at the Los Altos Golf & Country Club.

Started in 1982 as a two-man spinoff from San Francisco-based Capital Concepts Investment Corp., Gee said the Mountain View firm’s success stems from the relationships its 23 employees have built with investors through the years.

Finsthwait said it’s all about trust.

“Most people are too busy to learn about investments,” he said. “We are their trusted advisers to help them with (financial) decisions.”

Gee and Finsthwait credit much of the company’s growth to today’s President and CEO, Helen Dietz, who joined the company 20 years ago.

“When the market was down 20 percent, that’s when I started,” Dietz said.

Dietz brought her experience as the first of Charles Schwab’s five regional advisers and her background in finance and economics to the company. She immediately initiated a wealth management approach for clients that diversified their portfolios in stocks, bonds and mutual funds.

Mark John Bluth of Mountain View is one of the group’s first clients. Bluth said Dietz’s advice has paid off handsomely.

“I could have retired years ago,” Bluth said of his investment successes. “The big mistake people make is being overinvested in the company they work for. Helen preaches diversification.”

Company Vice President Carolyn Bell said advisers offer clients an array of investment choices, from real estate above the ground to oil and gas below it, depending on their needs and circumstances. Bell agreed that diversification is key to investments.

“Those who weren’t offset by the dot-com bust … they didn’t have everything in one basket,” she said.

Although the investment group specifically targets wealthier people in the upper-income bracket, Bell said she has clients who are house-rich but cash-poor.

“There are reverse mortgages,” she said of programs that utilize home equity. “There’s a lot of different ways you can approach that.”

Financial planning and asset management are relatively young concepts, according to Finthswait. In the ’70s and early ’80s, investing was all about tax shelters, he said.

“There was no interest in the stock market,” he said of that bearish economy.

Today, investments are still evolving, according to Bell. Many clients are interested in donating to charitable organizations, taking care of their families and establishing philanthropical trusts.

In the spirit of that trend, Stanford Investment will make a charitable contribution to Northern California Urban Development, which is establishing a credit union for underserved residents in East Mountain View and East Palo Alto.

The donation is a way to give back to the community and help those who are on opposite ends of the financial spectrum, according to Bell.

Semi-retired and living in Chicago Park, Gee serves as chairman and is proud of the group’s growth under a second generation of management. Finsthwait still makes his home in Los Altos and serves as vice president, along with Bell.