Oldest stockbroker: 106-year-old Irving Kahn sets world record (Video)
NEW YORK, NY, USA -- Irving Kahn, 106, has tracked the market's highs and lows since 1928; now presides over a Madison Avenue firm, Kahn Brothers Group, Inc., with more than $700 million under management , setting the world record for the Oldest stockbroker (oldest living investment professional), according to World Record Academy (www.worldrecordacademy.com).
Photo: Irving Kahn is the world's oldest stockbroker at age 106. He has tracked the market's highs and lows since 1928 -- a year before The Great Depression. (enlarge photo)
The Guinness world record for the youngest licensed stockbroker was set by John Wang Clow who passed the Investment Banking Examination (Series 79) administered by The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), aged 17 years 77 days.
Guinness World Records also recognized the world record for the Oldest Volunteer, set by Violet Robbins, who was a volunteer at the Prince of Wales Hospital, in Randwick, Sydney Australia, aged 107 years 11 months 25 days.
The World's Oldest Stockbroker has tracked the market's highs and lows since 1928 -- a year before The Great Depression.
On the eve of his 106th birthday, Kahn now presides over a Madison Avenue firm, Kahn Brothers Group, Inc., with more than $700 million under management.
"Being in a changeable world, which is always interesting," Irving Kahn said. "That's one good aspect of Wall Street, you never know what the next hour will do."
Kahn's age-defying family came to the attention of Dr. Nir Barzilai at Albert Einstein College of Medicine's Institute for Aging Research. After all, Irving has two sisters and a brother who all made it past 100 years old.
"It's not that we're taking everyone who's 100 years old," Barzilai said. "We're trying to get the best of the best because we want really to understand the biology of those who are best. Those who are likely to maybe get to 110 without diseases."
"(Irving Kahn) has a gene that controls the good cholesterol," Barzilai said. "This is the HDL cholesterol. And we found that people who have this mutation in the gene have higher good cholesterol, but also they are protected from heart disease and from cognitive decline and Alzheimer's."
Mr Kahn said the ups and downs of Wall Street in nearly ten decades of trading are just part of a rapid and changing game. 'That's one good aspect of Wall Street,' he said. 'You never know what the next hour will do.'
His advice: "Reduce the number of words on a page," he said.
"Shorten them. Don't waste a lot of words when you're talking to people, get the bottom line because the only thing you really have is time and you can't really replace that. Time and tide wait for no man."
