When asked about her greatest accomplishment, Karen Ostarticki’s response is quick: Sebastian.
The Bedminster mother is speaking of her son Sebastian Sanchez, who is known in the Somerset Hills as a three-sport champion athlete. Sanchez, an honors student, four-year letter winner and 2015 graduate of Bernards High School, was a member of the baseball team and captained the wrestling and football teams. He received numerous state athletic honors, including the prestigious 2015 Maxwell Club New Jersey High School Player of the Year.
Sanchez went on to the Ivy League, playing football for the University of Pennsylvania, where he was the 2016 Ivy League Champion, and earned a BS in Economics from the UPENN’s Wharton School of Business. Today, he is an analyst at Prudential Global Investment Management in Newark.
“He is my rock star,” Ostarticki says.
Sanchez’s work ethic and accomplishments are a testament to the impact Ostarticki, a single mom, had on his mindset, raising him to be driven, financially savvy and a man with a foundation in faith.
Ostarticki, a financial advisor and senior portfolio advisor at Merrill Lynch Wealth Management (the wealth management division of Bank of America) in Bedminster, was already working in finance when a divorce put her life into a tailspin. “I know what it means to live in poverty and I know what it means to have abundance. For me, finance is personal; it’s why I’m a bit different than other advisors.”
While Sebastian was growing up, Ostarticki modeled an economically savvy lifestyle, bringing her son to the financial sessions she taught at church-based programs. “I talked to him about debt. I told him things like he should rip up his credit card the first time he couldn’t pay off the debt,” she says. “I taught him the difference between a want and a need.”
Ostarticki brings the same commonsense knowledge to her clients as she helps them manage concentrated stock positions or deal with the changes brought about by transition events like retirement, inheritance or the sale of a business, working in concert as necessary with clients’ attorneys, accountants and other advisors.
“When I first speak with clients, I ask them a lot of questions to help me identify their risk profile and to help them prioritize their goals to complete their Personal Wealth Analysis,” she says. “Understanding clients and forging a relationship is key.”
Major considerations include allocation of funds. Times have progressed from the pandemic era when people were not working or were changing jobs. “People got comfortable sitting on a lot of cash in high yield market mutual funds averaging about 5 percent. They have concentrated stock positions. However, long term those are not good strategies. You need a well-diversified portfolio with equities, stocks and alternative investments based on your risk profile and your timeframe for reaching your goals,” she says.
Ultimately, she says, it’s not how much you make; it’s how much you keep. “Pay yourself first and plan for retirement,” she says. “We do not know what the state of Social Security will be in the future.”
She stresses the importance of understanding how investment vehicles in your portfolio are taxed. Employer-sponsored plans like 401(k)s will generally be subject to ordinary income tax (because contributions and growth were tax deferred, rather than tax free) upon withdrawal, but Roth IRAs are based on funds that have been taxed, so will grow tax free. “If your employer matches your contribution, you should try to meet that amount if you can,” she says. “Also, consider your legacy: Do you want to contribute now or after your death?”
She also reminds clients with college-age children that they can take out loans for education, but there are no loans for retirement.
Ostarticki is passionate about advocating for women. She is the Membership Director for the Central New Jersey chapter of the LPGA Amateurs and is connected with women’s groups through local Chambers of Commerce and the church.
She empowers women to ask questions about their finances. “Women are not raised to speak about their finances, but it’s key,” she says. “Have these discussions across generations. For example, maybe grandparents who want to reduce tax liabilities can contribute to a 529 plan for their grandkids.”
Where you invest is also important. “Statistics show that companies are more successful with females on their boards,” she says. “This is one reason that 99 percent of my clients are invested with an ESG trait, which is a framework used to evaluate a company’s sustainability and ethical impact. If you’re investing your money, let it do good work.”
Learn more at fa.ml.com/New-Jersey/Bedminster/Karen-Ostarticki.
I talked to Sebastian about debt. I told him things like he should rip up his credit card the first time he couldn’t pay off the debt. I taught him the difference between a want and a need.