Brian is Back!

He didn’t actually leave but he is back as this quarter’s newsletter feature!

As you may know, Brian Weisman founded Columbia Asset Management in 1997. What many of you may not know is that Brian is an avid gardener! He attributes this passion and skill to his mother who taught him everything from how to plant bulbs and prune plants to when to trim back peonies. When his girls were younger he would have them help him water the flowers and pick out the composition for the planters each spring and now, at ages 15 and 16, they still spend this quality time with him and seem to have acquired a green thumb of their own. Kelsey likes to do most of the watering, while Aria prefers to do the perennial planting (but will grudgingly help water when needed).

Another perhaps unexpected pastime of Brian’s is that he’s started cooking gourmet meals and tried his hand at baking recently. I’ll admit I looked up the definition of “gourmet” to not overstate these meals but if the food is high quality, care is taken in the preparation of the meal and it is eaten slowly: boom, gourmet! A surprise to the fellow bakers in the office, he chose cheesecake as his first baking endeavor. Cheesecake is not easy to get right but he pulled it off! He shared with everyone in the office and it was very tasty!

While these things aren’t obvious hobbies for Brian, I think it is fair to point out that gardening and cooking/baking aren’t that dissimilar from investing. You must make a plan, do research, be patient. You’re really investing in the future in each of these instances: foliage, food and funds to spend in retirement.

Since I grazed over the fact that Brian’s children are now of driving age a few paragraphs ago, I’d like to confirm that they are in fact taking driving lessons! Brian has been taking them to practice driving in the U-M East Medical Campus parking lot for a little over a year. By the start of the new year, Aria will be chauffeuring Brian around on the weekends (not really). And Kelsey will be ready to roll (literally) by the end of ’23. As a junior (Aria 16, class of 2024) and sophomore (Kelsey 15, class of 2025) both girls are starting to set their sights on colleges with resume prep and SAT testing. Next year, Brian will be out of the office a bit, visiting colleges with his kids – and he is looking forward to the next leg of parenthood!