Financial Adviser Joins Board of Trustees

Robert Nicholson, Ameriprise senior financial adviser in Stockton, Calif., has joined the Westmont Board of Trustees. Nicholson has been a member of Westmont’s Athletic Advisory Board for four years and serves as co-chair along with Athletic Director Dave Odell. A Stanford graduate, he says that he and his wife were not blessed with children, so God gave them hearts for being involved in and influencing the lives of young adults.

“We have been absolutely floored by the consistency of our experience with Westmont students and their ability to articulate why they are here and what their experience has meant to them,” Nicholson says.

A basketball player at Stanford who later served as an assistant coach and recruiter, Nicholson says his love of athletics was also a draw to Westmont. “The athletics here are reminiscent of when I was in college rather than the big-time Division I athletics factories we see so often today,” he says. “Of course the athletes are also bigger, stronger and faster than in my day,” he adds.

Nicholson is active in local athletics, serving as a high school and college basketball referee for more than 35 years. He is a board member for the Stanford Alumni Network of San Joaquin and has been a guest lecturer at San Joaquin Delta College and the University of the Pacific.

“I hope that my common-sense approach along with a continuing desire to learn and have an influence will be beneficial in some way to Westmont,” he says.

Nicholson’s areas of expertise as a financial adviser focus on retirement and estate planning, including family and business succession planning, charitable giving, and, of course, savings plans for college.