Michael Hirthler

Michael is the Founder and Chief Investment Officer of Jacobi Capital Management. Michael has almost 40 years of investment experience, beginning in 1985 with Thompson McKinnon Securities. In 1992, he became fully independent and opened a Wilkes-Barre branch office of LPL Financial. Over the years, he quietly and successfully built his investment practice, and in 2008 formed Jacobi Capital Management, LLC, a Registered Investment Adviser. Jacobi is an independent firm focused on providing objective, fee-based investment advice.

Michael is a voracious reader of financial literature and has long enjoyed finding new ways to think about investing, including the impacts of behavioral economics, sociology, and the need to quantify investment decisions. Ultimately, this led Michael to develop a truly multi-disciplinary approach to investing, known as The Jacobi Method - a quantitatively-driven methodology based on academic and empirical studies from financial engineering, value investing, and traditional finance. The resulting proprietary Jacobi strategies form the core of Jacobi Capital Management's investment framework. Michael'ss wide-ranging readings led him to a key teaching of Carl Gustav Jacobi, a well-known mathematician who exhorted his students: "Invert. Always Invert." This idea of turning problems around to consider them from different perspectives is an important component of Michael's multidisciplinary approach -- so important that Michael named his firm after Jacobi, providing a daily reminder to himself and his team of this key tenet.

Michael's commitment to focusing on the individual extends to the community through his philanthropy and active and former involvement with various Boards including the Catholic Youth Center, YMCA, Volunteers in Medicine, Luzerne Foundation, Salvation Army, Junior Achievement of NEPA, Kirby Center for the Performing Arts, Earth Conservancy, and Geisinger Wyoming Valley Medical Center Advisory Board. In 2012, Michael received one of Luzerne County's top community service awards for his commitment to improving the community. In addition to community awards, Michael has been named to the Barron's Top Financial Advisors list nine times and was ranked Best-In-State Wealth Advisors in Pennsylvania by Forbes for the past two years.* In 2024, Michael was named by LPL Financial as a new member of the LPL Ambassador Council Program, which serves as a voice for LPL's broader advisor base and helps deepen relationships with a diverse cross-section of highly dedicated financial professionals.

Jacobi Capital Management was ranked by Forbes in 2023 in the listing of America's Top RIA Firms**. Michael earned his bachelor's degree in Economics from Dickinson College. He lives in Jackson Township, Pennsylvania with his wife Kathleen, and together they have two grown children.



*Barron's Top 1,200 Financial Advisors is based on assets under management, revenue produced for the firm, regulatory record, quality of practice and philanthropic work. 2012 and prior the award is named Top 1,000 Financial Advisors. Hirthler was awarded this honor in 2011, 2012, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024.

The Forbes ranking of Best-In-State Wealth Advisors, developed by SHOOK Research, is based on an algorithm of qualitative criteria, gained through telephone, virtual and in-person due diligence interviews, and quantitative data. Investment performance is not a criterion in either ranking.

**Forbes America's Top RIA Firm's ranking was developed by SHOOK Research and is based on in-person, virtual and telephone due diligence meetings and a ranking algorithm that includes: a measure of each firm's best practices, client retention, industry experience, review of compliance records, firm nominations; and quantitative criteria, including: assets under management and revenue generated for their firms. Read Less