Savant Investment Group Opens Santa Rosa Office; Lummer Heads it, is Named Chief Investment Officer

Scott L. Lummer of Santa Rosa, has been named chief investment officer for San Francisco-based Savant Investment Group LLC, and has also established the registered investment advisory firm’s new Santa Rosa office.

Lummer, who holds a Ph.D in finance and a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation, will work directly with clients in Sonoma, Napa and Marin counties and will continue to co-chair the firm’s six-person investment committee.

“Scott is the ideal person to be our chief investment officer,” says Thomas Burkhart, founder- CEO of Savant Investment Group, a 20-year-old fee-only financial advisory firm. “He has extensive experience as a portfolio manager, a strong track record as a market strategist and as an educator. He has been a chief investment officer, managing director of a financial research firm, asset allocation advisor to several multi-billion dollar pension and endowment funds, and a finance professor at a major university. “Plus, he’s been active in the Santa Rosa community—as chairman of the board of trustees for Sonoma Country Day School, a director of the 6th Street Playhouse and president of the Mark West Little League,” he adds.

The establishment of the Santa Rosa office reflects Savant’s and Lummer’s initial success over the past year in the Sonoma County market. Lummer was recruited by Burkhart in 2010 to join the firm’s investment committee. Savant is one of the very few financial advisory firms in the U.S. to have an independent committee comprised of two CFAs, two Ph.Ds and a CPA.

The investment committee closely monitors every strategy it recommends to its individual, corporate and non-profit clients. Typically, a financial advisory relies on outside research and advice in making investment recommendations to their clients.

Previously, Lummer was director of research for Atlantic Asset Management, Chief Investment Officer for mPower, and managing director of consulting services for Ibbotson Associates in Chicago, now a subsidiary of Morningstar, that provides investment research and asset allocation strategies to institutional investors. He began his career as an Associate Professor of Finance at Texas A& M University.

A graduate of Purdue University with a B.S. in Mathematics and a Ph.D in Finance, he has written articles for over 25 books and professional investment journals, and delivered speeches and conducted training programs for more than 130 businesses and organizations worldwide ranging from Morgan Stanley to the Securities Analyst Association of Japan. Lummer also co-authored the first edition of the Pension Investment Handbook published by Panel Publishers.

Savant Investment Group, LLC, celebrating its 20th year this month, has over $750 million in client assets under management and 23 employee’s companywide. It also created a 501C (3) foundation in 2005 (The Savant Group Charitable Foundation). The foundation donates funds annually to deserving charities in the San Francisco Bay Area. Headquartered in the historic Clocktower Building in San Francisco, it has offices in Sacramento, Ashland, OR, Santa Cruz, and now Santa Rosa.