Leadership Team

Philip Chao founded Experiential Wealth (formerly Chao & Company) in 1992 to provide families and institutions with independent and thoughtful investment management and financial advice. His founding mission is to advocate for his clients and deliver the highest level of care in assisting clients in realizing their long-term financial objectives and outcomes.

For ERISA retirement plan fiduciaries, Philip serves as an ERISA investment consultant in a co-fiduciary capacity – as an ERISA Sec 3(21) – so clients can rely on his advice with complete confidence. Philip also serves in an ERISA 3(38) fiduciary investment manager capacity, taking on full investment decisions. As a plan investment fiduciary, he implements a prudent process consistent with the plan’s investment and funding policies.

As the Principal of Experiential Wealth, Philip is the firm’s Chief Investment Officer setting customized investment guidelines and adopting forward-looking capital market assumptions in constructing portfolios for the firm’s wealth management and institutional clients.

Philip is a passionate supporter of and advocate for the fiduciary standard. He has often advocated with DOL staff in sharing his thoughts and practical applications regarding the ERISA fiduciary definition. His public comments can be viewed on the DOL and the SEC website.

Philip is the founder and managing member of Independent Fiduciary Services, providing directed trustee services to health and welfare trusts. His clients are government contractors subject to the Service Contract Act. More recently, Philip established Nexus338, which solely focuses on mass personalizing institutional-level managed account solutions for retirement plans. Its Individualized Glidepath Solution (iGPS) personalizes portfolios to each retirement plan participant by leveraging Big Data and FinTech.

Philip’s curiosity, knowledge, and years of experience in the financial services and investment management industry make him a sought-after speaker at industry events. He also serves as a business consultant to insurance and investment companies in product design and distribution.

His opinions and writings often appear in InvestmentNews, Advisorpedia.com, CNBC Personal Finance, and Financial Advisor, among other industry news outlets.

Eileen plays an integral and vital investment management role in quantifying and expressing client investment objectives in the portfolio construction process. She values the relationship and trust Experiential Wealth builds with its clients. She strives to reinforce that trust through portfolio monitoring and analysis to align each portfolio with stated client objectives. Eileen is responsible for conducting investment strategy search and manager analysis and preparing quarterly investment and portfolio performance reports. She is responsible for maintaining the firm’s portfolio management system and the execution of trade orders.

Eileen joined Experiential Wealth in 1997. Previously, she was the Assistant Manager for International Business Development at Win Kale Enterprise Co., where she was responsible for budgeting, forecasting, and operational analysis.

Eileen received her Bachelor of International Business from the Fu-Jen Catholic University in Taiwan and her MBA in finance from George Washington University. Eileen is a designated Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and a CFA Society of San Diego member.

Amanda works every day to add value and respond to clients with a sense of urgency and purpose. Her goal is to deliver the experience the Firm owes every client. Amanda prides herself in be anticipatory and responsive to all client matters where the Firm provides service.  From onboarding a client to serving as advocate and liaison with other service providers to deliver an efficient, hassle free and client centric experience.  She takes ownership of every challenge until it is overcome to each client’ satisfaction.

Amanda joined Experiential Wealth in 2005 and continues to be the valuable resource for client service and vendor management. 

Amanda graduated from the University of Maryland with a BA in Economics and from George Mason University with an MBA. She is currently completing her Certified Employee Benefit Specialist Certification (an International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans sponsored program) from the Wharton School of Business. Amanda earned the designation of Group Benefits Associate.

Dr. Charles Tu is the Daniel F. Mulvihill Professor of Commercial Real Estate at the University of San Diego (USD). He is also the Director of the MS in Real Estate at USD School of Business Administration. Dr. Tu earned his Ph.D. from George Washington University (GWU) with concentrations in finance and real estate and completed work to receive the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation.

Dr. Tu is dedicated to conducting applied research that helps improve business decision-making. His research interest includes integrating finance and real estate with asset allocation, derivatives and alternative investments, and capital markets. He has published in the Journal of Portfolio Management, Journal of Fixed Income, and Journal of Real Estate Portfolio Management on topics such as commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS), real estate investment trusts (REITs), and institutional portfolio performance.

In addition to graduate, undergraduate, and continuing education courses at USD, Dr. Tu teaches advanced real estate finance courses for professional organizations such as the Urban Land Institute (ULI) and the Commercial Real Estate Development Association (NAIOP). He also authored Financial Literacy 101, a book that educates high school students about the importance of finance.