Appreciation dinner draws 1,000 plus

Nadia Cavner really knows how to throw a party.

In Cavner's 10-year career as a broker and financial advisor, she has built a customer base of about 3,000 clients from all over the United States. On May 3, she thanked more than 1,000 of them with a customer appreciation dinner at the University Plaza Convention Center.

Cavner is senior vice president and senior investment consultant with Firstar Investment Services Inc., a division of Firstar Corporation the eighth largest bank in the United States.

Her third annual dinner was underwritten by Putnam Investments, the world's fourth largest mutual fund company.

Cavner's relationship with Putnam Investments goes deep: she has been Putnam Mutual Fund's No. 1 producer out of 149,000 brokers in volume of sales in financial institutions for the past four years. Her sales volume in 2000 was $50 million, and Cavner said she now manages more than $450 million in assets.

Also, Cavner is one of only 12 mutual brokers worldwide on Putnam Investments Advisory Council and received the George Putnam Award in 1999 for the most assets under management in the company's financial institutions division.

Several associates of the Boston-based firm attended the dinner, including the evening's guest speaker, Putnam Investments Senior Managing Director Richard Monaghan.

In his address, Monaghan informed guests that Cavner is the top producer in the world at Putnam.

"You are the best of the best in our business," he added.

Many representatives of Firstar Bank were also in attendance, including Vice Chairman Richard Davis. Davis spoke for Firstar when he said, "We sleep better at night knowing that Nadia is in our world. We are in the business of making dreams come true, Nadia Cavner is our dream maker."

Cavner said she and her staff of six have built such a large client base through good customer service, which in turn has led to many referrals over the years.

"I really think when you offer great customer service ... when you take good care of (customers) they reward you," she said. "That's really been our bread and butter ... (customers) really have continued to refer us."

Tom Carter, marketing director for Firstar Investment Services, agrees with that philosophy.

"The only way you get people to refer you with enthusiasm is if you give them great customer support," he said. "It really starts with that."

Cavner began serving banking customers in Springfield in 1987 at Savings of America, a savings and loan. Cavner then entered the investment field in 1991, and she has retained the same client base through six different mergers.

"Putting the values of the client first is something that's never going to go out of style," Carter said of Cavner's strong customer ties. He added that 70 percent to 80 percent of her clients are in the Springfield area market.

Cavner said she feels fortunate to work with a team like Putnam.

"When you have professional management like Putnam that you work with, they do a majority of the research and decision making in terms of buying and selling (of stock and bond funds)," she said. "They provide us with a lot of good information that we can continue to rely on."

Cavner's career also includes a consistent ranking in the top 1 percent in sales among investment advisors worldwide for Putnam Investments and Franklin Templeton Investments. She also serves on the Franklin Templeton Funds Advisory Council.