Raj Bhatia is founder of The Bhatia Group, a wealth management team within Merrill Private Wealth Management. For more than 40 years, he has helped high net-worth clients acquire, grow, and preserve assets—allowing them to pass their wealth to successive generations. One of Bhatia’s favorite anecdotes about his success is the story of signing his first client. “He was a young resident doctor living in the northern suburbs, and I was so excited that I put the phone down without realizing that I did not have his address. When I called back for his address, I realized that I didn’t own a car and would need to switch commuter trains because I lived in the western suburbs,” recalls Bhatia, who holds the Certified Investment Management Analyst (CIMA) designation sponsored by the Investments & Wealth Institute (The Institute) at the Wharton School. “I called him again and asked if he—a prospect at the time—would come pick me up from the train station and drop me back there an hour later. He was quite amused at my request but agreed. I spent an hour with him and his wife that evening where he told me about his hopes and dreams as a married 29-year-old resident with a 6-month-old daughter. In the last 15 minutes of our meeting, he became my client and still is today! That was my first lesson learning that empathy comes from deep listening and that the understanding we develop in listening to our clients over time is the only sustainable advantage we have as advisors.”

The Bhatia Group is located at 110 N. Wacker Drive in Chicago. Call 312-325-2676 or visit pwa.ml.com/bhatiagroup/#team. You can connect with Bhatia on LinkedIn.