MEET George Chuang, CFA, President and CEO, Transamerica Financial Advisors, Inc., and Advisory Member of the FSDA.
We are speaking today with George Chuang, please tell us a little bit about yourself.
I was born in Taiwan and moved to Maryland at the age of 8. While in middle school, my family moved to Southern California where I spent over three decades in the Los Angeles metro area before relocating to Florida. I completed my undergraduate studies at the University of California in Irvine, then, earned an MBA from the University of Southern California. I started my financial services career at Bank of America as Assistant Vice President for their mutual fund business. In 1998, I joined Transamerica and served in several different roles, with most of my time in leadership positions for Transamerica’s retail broker dealers. I moved to Tampa in 2009 to join the leadership team in our St Petersburg office.
Tell us a little about your firm.
Transamerica Financial Advisors, Inc. (“TFA”) is a retail broker-dealer and RIA that provides services and products through our independent financial professionals. Almost all of our financial professionals are affiliated with one our retail insurance agencies. Our financial professionals primarily serve the middle market in all 50 states. We have approximately 3100 registered representatives and 1200 investment advisory representative. In serving the middle market, financial literacy and education is a core part of our culture.
Why is it important for Transamerica, to be a member of the FSDA?
Transamerica is very committed to advocacy efforts that help our industry deliver product solutions for our retail clients. Like FSDA, we are very interested in creating better financial futures for the investing public including supporting FSDA’s commitment to financial literacy for Floridians. The networking opportunities through its Outreach programs have also been extremely valuable.
I know that the members at Transamerica are involved locally in the St. Petersburg area. Please tell us a little bit about that involvement and your firm’s “give something back” initiative.
Transamerica’s offices in Florida are located in St. Petersburg. Our St. Pete Foundation Committee and our employees are very involved in our local community. We regularly support the Suncoast United Way, Operation PAR, American Heart Association, Toy for Tots, Habitat for Humanity, Pinellas Hope as well as various other non-profit organizations.
George, thanks for taking time to speak with us today.
