Why Small Businesses Matter
Shop small, do big things for your community
Why Small Businesses Matter puts a spotlight on the local merchants who donate their time, talent, goods, and services for the betterment of our community. The shop local movement spreads virally as local businesses who are “tagged” have the opportunity to share their story!
You're IT HJ Sims!
Four questions with William B. Sims, founder of HJ Sims.
Why did you start your business?
My father, Herbert “Herb” J. Sims, started the company in 1935 on Wall Street when he was 24 years old. The country was in an economic depression throughout most of the 1930s, but Herb discovered excellent investments in tax-free bonds for his clients. His differentiator was to dig deeply into the credit characteristics of each bond. For example, he found that a municipality’s utility revenue bonds were generally more secure credits than that same municipality’s general obligation bonds.
I joined my father’s business, HJ Sims, in 1973, after having worked in the bond department of Merrill Lynch. While my dad was managing the financing of non-profit hospitals throughout the country, I concentrated on financing senior living communities. Moving forward to today, HJ Sims had financed $ 30.1 billion total projects throughout the U.S., with plenty in the pipeline.
My daughter, Elizabeth, joined the firm in 2013 after having worked at Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan. She is the Chief Investment Officer in our private wealth management practice.
What is your best-selling product/service?
Our private wealth management expertise and our senior living industry investment banking experience are our noteworthy services. With regard to private wealth management, we employ sophisticated models to demonstrate what would happen to investors’ portfolios under a variety of future scenarios. In addition to recommending certain equity funds, we often guide our clients to purchase individual bonds with specific maturities, so that investors receive all of their investment back on a date certain, as well as receiving interest income every six months until the bond is repaid at maturity.
How many local businesses do you use to support your business (products and services) and can you name them?
We work with a variety of quality vendors within Fairfield County for design, print, and mailing solutions. For example, we work with Voornas Design of Norwalk and Success Printing of Norwalk.
Have you "reimagined" your small business?
We are always reimagining our business; nothing ever stays the same. We continually evolve our products and services for our clients. We place a priority on excellent client service, advising our clients on their entire financial well-being, including their lifestyles, needs, values, families, and goals. Our clients receive customized solutions that get them where they want to go.
Taking into consideration all of the components of our entire clients’ financial picture is what we call our “entirement® approach.” Many clients have stayed with us throughout a number of generations. Our clients’ success is our greatest endorsement.
HJ Sims is located at 2150 Post Rd #301 Fairfield. Visit HJ Sims online here, and make sure to check out their Facebook and Twitter pages as well!
Mr. Sims nominate Sturges Ridge of Fairfield, operated by Benchmark Senior Living.
HamletHub thanks Fairfield County Bank for making our Why Small Businesses Matter series possible!