40 Under 40 The Class of 2014

Patricia Faginski

Vice President and Financial Advisor, St. Germain Investment Management, age 39

Patty-Faginski-02Patty Faginski’s business card declares that she is a vice president and financial advisor. But she likes to consider herself an educator.

That’s because she spends a good deal of her time providing invaluable lessons — in everything from the need to have a portfolio that’s diverse, to the importance of savings for one’s retirement starting at a very young age.

“A lot of my job comes down to education on financial planning and what people are doing with their money,” she explained. “I consider it my job to help them understand the importance of asset allocation — that’s what it comes down to.”

And she finds this work extremely rewarding, because financial security doesn’t happen by accident — it’s achieved through careful creation of a plan and then effective execution of that plan, and she is involved with both, usually through a conservative approach to investing.

“What I like most about this job is meeting new people, finding out about their lives, figuring out what’s going to work for them in retirement, and giving them goals to set — and meet,” she said.

Faginski started her career in retail, managing a store and its 50 employees, before shifting to financial services and, more specifically, a job in the trust department with the old Woronoco Savings Bank (now Berkshire Bank). She was recruited to St. Germain in 2003, and has moved steadily up the ranks, from assistant vice president in the sales department to vice president and manager of Client Services, to her current post, which she assumed last year.

While assisting, and educating, many of the company’s more than 5,000 clients, Faginski, a single mother of a daughter and a son, is also active in the community, especially with Big Brothers Big Sisters. She’s served on that agency’s board for seven years and recently helped coordinate a major fund-raiser at the Colony Club that gave the organization some needed exposure and opportunities to cultivate new relationships. She has also been active with Habitat for Humanity and the Heifer Project, and is currently the leader of a Brownie troop.

While these various responsibilities make time management a serious challenge, she finds time for activities such as hiking and other sports, and spending time with her children — her most important investment of all.

— George O’Brien