Marguerite (Margy) Kircher is a Senior Vice President, Investments/Financial Advisor at Janney Montgomery Scott LLC in Garden City, a leading full-service wealth management, capital markets, and asset management firm.
Prior to joining Janney in 2017, Margy spent 31 years with Wellington Shields & Co, where she served as Branch Office Manager, General Securities Principal, Registered Options & Security Futures principal, as well as a former equity member of Wellington Shields Holdings LLC.
Before joining the former Shields & Co., she was a registered representative with Sterling Grace & Co., a former NYSE member firm.
At Janney, Margy provides a personalized approach to wealth management serving individual clients, families and small business owners. She offers a wide array of financial strategies including asset management, retirement planning, education funding planning, insurance solutions and estate planning.
In 2018 she joined the Women’s Interactive Network (WIN) at Janney, focused on the advancement, retention and recruitment of women in the workplace.
Margy received a B.A. in Biology/Chemistry from Sweet Briar College, where she was a member of Phi Beta Kappa. Born and raised in Garden City, Margy, her husband Steve, and their children Sable and Cullen are active parishioners at St. Rose of Lima Parish in Massapequa.
In 2002, she began a long career of volunteerism to St. Rose of Lima School where she served on the School Board from 2003-2013, five of those years serving as president. Margy co-chaired the annual St. Rose of Lima Family Festival from 2005 through 2021, collectively working with a committee to raise funds essential to the school operating budget.
She continues to serve the parish as a Eucharistic Minister and as a member of the Parish Council, a group chosen to advise the pastor on pastoral actions and strategic planning.
Years of service to St. Rose of Lima School and parish became the springboard to involvement with other non-profits. Margy serves on the Executive Committee of the Tomorrow’s Hope Foundation II, an organization that has provided more than $30 million in scholarships to approximately 24,000 Long Island-based Catholic school students since its inception in 2005.
She was honored in 2022 at their annual Stars for Students Gala where they raised just over $1 million. As part of her service to Tomorrow’s Hope, Margy has partnered with Junior Achievement USA providing lessons in financial literacy, work and career readiness, and entrepreneurship to hundreds of middle school students.
Since 2018, Margy has served on the Kellenberg Memorial High School Investment Committee, part of their Advisory Board, responsible for advising the board on the administration and management of the school endowment.
Most recently, Margy was appointed to the Dean’s Advisory Board at Long Island University Post College of Management, a mentoring program for business school scholarship students.
“What are the most significant challenges you have as a woman in your industry?”
The financial advisory business has been male-dominated since its inception, and it wasn’t until 1967 when Muriel Seibert became the first woman to purchase a seat on the New York Stock Exchange (there were 1,300 male holders).
When I joined Shields & Company in 1986, I was the sole female producer in an all-male club. I had no role model or mentor, there was no networking, and management was more concerned with coddling the egos of the older men.
Sheer determination, empowerment from being a graduate of an all-woman’s college, and playing up my feminine energy as an advantage allowed me to succeed.
Women can thrive on Wall Street, but they need to be tough, find allies, work incredibly hard, and stay smart about how they shape their careers. Our clients are women too, so building an environment where women can thrive should be everyone’s responsibility.
