For Paul R. Martel, philanthropy has never been about following a formula. It has been about following a passion.
For more than 35 years, Paul has built a career as President and founder of YHB Investment Advisors in Connecticut, where he also serves as trustee and executor for many clients. He is also the founder of YHB Charitable Endowment, Inc., which sponsors donor-advised funds.
But alongside his career in investment management, Paul has spent nearly three decades pursuing a very different kind of investment, one measured not in financial returns, but in lives changed.
“I learned that easing the suffering of others, saving a life, or bringing sight to the blind were things I could do; and I have never stopped,” Paul shared when he was recognized by Invest in Others in 2023.
That commitment has taken him around the world and led to an extraordinary body of humanitarian work.
Paul has organized 12 surgical missions providing free care to critically ill children. After a decade of leading surgical teams abroad, he established a clinic in Riobamba, Ecuador, in 2007. What began as a clinic has grown into a four-story, multispecialty hospital providing care to communities throughout the region. Paul founded a charitable foundation in Ecuador in 2012 and, two years later, established Partners for Andean Community Health (PACH), a U.S.-based nonprofit supporting the work.
Over the years, his efforts have provided free medical care to tens of thousands of people in Central and South America. He has personally invested more than $1 million in developing and equipping the clinic and continues to travel to Ecuador to help manage operations, support medical teams and address clinical and equipment needs.
In 2023, Invest in Others recognized Paul’s extraordinary commitment with its Lifetime Achievement Award.
The recognition, and the support that came with it, became another important chapter in Paul’s philanthropic journey.
A New Perspective
This year, Paul returned to Invest in Others in a very different role: as a judge for the 2026 Invest in Others Awards.
Instead of having his own charitable work evaluated, Paul found himself reviewing the stories of other financial advisors who, like him, have made giving back an integral part of their lives. And he says the experience has been consistently inspiring.
“The work of the finalists I have judged is always inspiring.” But Paul believes there is something bigger happening through the Awards. “It is the work of Invest in Others that broadcasts this work, inspires a huge industry audience and directly invests in and encourages the finalists to do more.”
For Paul, that mission is personal. “In my case, the support Invest in Others has granted me has come at very critical times, making things happen that I would have never thought possible.”
That support illustrates an important part of what the Invest in Others Awards are designed to do. The Awards don’t simply recognize charitable work, they help provide the resources, visibility and encouragement that can enable advisors to deepen and expand their impact.
Paul knows firsthand what that can mean.
No Formula. Just Follow Your Passion.
After receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award, Paul said several people approached him with a similar question: How can I someday be in the same position?
His answer may be the simplest, and most powerful, lesson of his philanthropic journey.
“Looking back, there is no formula or process to follow,” Paul says.
Instead, he encourages advisors to identify what moves them and pursue it wholeheartedly.
“If you have a passion for helping others, do that; a passion for healing the suffering, do that; for feeding the hungry; do that.”
And then, perhaps most importantly:
“Follow your passion without fear.”
Paul believes that doing so can lead to places you never imagined, with relationships, memories and joy that stay with you forever. His own life is proof.
From his investment management career in Connecticut to surgical missions across the globe, from a small clinic in Ecuador to a multispecialty hospital, Paul followed a desire to help people in need and kept going wherever that passion led him.
His humanitarian work has now been recognized at the highest levels, including Ecuador’s highest civilian honor, which Paul and FIBUSPAM recently received for their humanitarian contributions.
And now, as a 2026 Awards judge, Paul is helping shine a light on advisors who are beginning, or continuing, their own journeys of impact.
His story has come full circle: once an Invest in Others honoree, now helping select and encourage the next generation of advisors whose passion for giving back can change lives.
As Paul reminds us, there may be no formula for becoming a philanthropic leader.
There is simply the choice to follow your passion and see where it takes you.
