Brent Kessel

Brent Kessel is both the C.E.O. of Abacus Portfolios and President and Chief Investment Officer of Abacus Wealth Partners, which has 900 million dollars in client assets under management and was named one of the “top 250 wealth management firms in the U.S.” by Bloomberg Wealth Manager. A cutting-edge firm, Abacus focuses on the inner dimensions of money as a critical component of the financial planning process and is widely acknowledged within the wealth management industry as a national leader in this niche. Kessel is the author of It’s Not About the Money: Unlock Your Money Type to Achieve Spiritual and Financial Abundance, which combines the latest financial thinking with ancient spiritual wisdom to shed light on the relationship between people and their cash, and provides a program for attaining financial and emotional security.

A leader in his field, since 1998 Kessel has been sharing his unique combination of financial and spiritual asset management philosophy in a more public way. After being trained by two veteran financial planners to lead their workshops on the inner dimensions of money, he created his own, “The Yoga of Money.” He has since led popular workshops on money and personal growth in the United States and Europe, facilitated trainings for dozens of financial advisors and given speeches at major consumer financial conferences.

Since 1989, Kessel has counseled multi-millionaires as well as people of more modest means. He knows firsthand people’s suffering in financial matters, and has been instrumental in offering real relief, whether by helping single moms to put their kids through college or inspiring the super-affluent to create a more balanced and fulfilling relationship to their wealth.

Dubbed a “Financial Soul Searcher” by Research magazine, Kessel has been widely quoted in national publications such as BusinessWeek, The Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, Kiplinger’s Personal Finance, CBS Marketwatch, Dow Jones, The Los Angeles Times, The Chicago Sun Tribune, Bloomberg Wealth Manager, The Journal of Financial Planning, Investment News, Ticker and Financial Planner, as well as broadcast interviews on National Public Radio (NPR) and Sirius Satellite Radio. His work on spirituality and money has also been featured in Newsweek and he is the exclusive money columnist for Yoga Journal. Kessel has been profiled in the books Silver Spoon Kids and The Inheritor’s Handbook and named one of the top 250 financial advisors in the United States by Worth magazine.

Kessel earned his economics degree from UCLA and holds the CFP® designation. He lives in California.

It's Not About the Money: Unlock Your Money Type to Achieve Spiritual and Financial Abundance

Principles of Generosity and Compassion from the World’s Spiritual Traditions

Investing for Sustainability: How to Choose an Investment Strategy that Will Work Based on Your Personal Values