Helena Borgstrom Pemberton , PhD Behavioral Economics

Helena came out of an academic behavioral-economics program before joining the multi-family office where she now works with concentrated-stock clients on decision process rather than asset allocation. Her conversations happen in parallel with the portfolio manager’s. Where the PM is deciding whether to sell, Helena is making sure the client can actually follow through on whatever decision gets made, and that the decision itself is not being driven by a reference point that has nothing to do with the client’s goals.

The behavior she sees most often is IPO-price anchoring. A client joined a company in 2019, watched it IPO at $78 in 2021, peak at $216 in late 2021, and is now sitting on shares trading at $94 with a blended cost basis near $12. The client treats $216 as the reference point and every scheduled sale at $94 as a loss even though the after-tax proceeds exceed what the entire position was worth at vest. Helena works with the client to decouple the reference from the peak, using a pre-committed sell schedule expressed in percentage-of-position terms rather than price terms so that sales happen on calendar dates regardless of where the stock trades. Clients who commit to a schedule two years out sell roughly 60% more of their concentrated position than clients who trade discretionarily on sentiment.

She reviews content on selling discipline, behavioral risk, and how to talk to advisors about concentration.