Mother and NICU Baby

Yangchen Lama

Yangchen Lama is a Director of Adara Development (USA).

As a child in Nepal, Yangchen Lama lived 17,000 feet above sea level in the Himalayas with no electricity or running water.  At age 12, she came to the United States as an exchange student on her own and ultimately graduated with a sterling academic record from Cornell University where she received a BA in International Relations and an MA in Public Administration with a focus on International Finance.  She also earned her Certified Portfolio Manager designation from Columbia University and her Certified Financial Planner designation from the College of Financial Planning. 

Yangchen is currently a Senior Vice President of Wealth Management, Portfolio Management Director and a Family Wealth Director at Morgan Stanley Beverly Hills office.  She runs a very successful wealth management practice that focuses on advising high net worth and ultra-high net worth clients on wealth transfer, family governance, philanthropic planning and other complex disciplines in addition to investment management services.  Prior to that, she was responsible for managing multi-billion-dollar budgets and financial plans for various governmental agencies and higher education institutions in New York and Los Angeles.

Ms Lama was recognized as one of the Top Female Wealth Advisors in the US by Forbes in 2020 and 2021 and also as the Top Wealth Advisor Moms in the US by Working Mothers Magazine in 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020.

Yangchen strongly believes in giving back to her community and the world at large.  She continues to champion access to quality education for children in the US and abroad.  For the past fifteen years, she has been extensively involved in improving the lives of girls in Nepal through a non-profit organization called Hands In Outreach, which provides young girls with educational sponsorship for their primary and secondary educations.  She has also served on several higher education board of trustees in the United States to help make colleges and universities more accessible to families from underrepresented socio-economic levels.  Yangchen currently sits on the Board of Directors of Equality California Institute – an LGBTQ civil rights organization and on the Board of Advisory of Cornell University – Cornell Institute for Public Affairs.  When not in the office or volunteering, she likes to be out on a golf course with her husband and their daughter.