In the early 1960s, Siggi began investing in stocks. One stock that particularly caught his interest was Wilshire Oil Company of Texas. With help from friends and relatives, he led a proxy battle and in 1965 was elected to the Wilshire board of directors. Six months later, at the age of 39, he was elected president and chief executive of the company. During his tenure, Wilshire acquired a large interest in the Trust Company of New Jersey, a full-service, commercial bank. Siggi became a director in 1969 and was elected chairman and president two years later. Over the next thirty years, he grew the bank’s assets from $181 million to more than $4 billion.
