Helping You Get the Most Out of Life’s Second Chapter.
Some transitions in life are expected, like retirement, and others can be unforeseen and devastating, like the loss of a spouse. Such drastic life events have significant effects on your income, net worth, and sense of stability, and it can be difficult to face the financial impacts of these changes while dealing with the emotional challenges.
At Adams Chetwood, we have decades of experience walking clients through times of transition and helping them establish a new financial path that brings back a sense of clarity and peace.
Our clients are pre-retirees and retirees with $1 million to $15 million in investable assets. They value transparency, quality, and wisdom.
We help established professionals maximize wealth building opportunities, manage cash flow needs (such as paying for college or helping aging parents), and protect their loved ones through careful planning.
Whether you are an executive in need of assistance with managing special compensation such as stock options or a small business owner focused on building personal wealth and preparing a succession plan, our team can help you navigate these opportunities with ease.
Making a major life change is challenging and intimidating. That’s why it’s important to have a strong team of professionals that have your back. We can help you as you transition careers or prepare for retirement. We have helped hundreds of people successfully navigate the change from building wealth to drawing on wealth, and our expertise will help make the process easier for you.
We can also help you as you face transitions not in your control such as a divorce or loss of a spouse. We have extensive experience in helping people reorganize their family finances, handle changing income streams, and structure their wealth to provide a stable foundation in their working and retirement years.
Five years before and after your retirement are critical for success - we like to refer to this time as the “retirement red zone.” We help people like you transition from accumulating assets to utilizing those assets in your retirement. We will assist you with tapping resources at the appropriate time so you never have to worry about running out of money.
We are also experienced with tax implications from various withdrawal strategies. In addition, we can incorporate a budgeting plan so you can continue to do the things you love such as charitable gifting, traveling, and spending time with family. You deserve a stress free retirement, and we are here to help you get there.
In retirement, how can I do what I want, when I want, and not have to worry about money?
We specialize in helping people retire with confidence. We guide them as they transition from the accumulation phase of life to the distribution phase of life. We believe it is just as important to know what you are retiring toward as it is to know what you are retiring from. The retirement transition can be a stressful time when a comprehensive financial plan is crucial to ensure the accuracy of income projections, estate planning, tax planning and life planning. Having one central team to coordinate all the logistical aspects of your retirement will free you up to focus on more important things. We believe strongly in proactive wealth management and work to coordinate with your CPA’s, estate attorneys, and other professionals to ensure you enjoy financial peace of mind after a long and successful career.
Eric Chetwood, CFP® graduated from the Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2003 with a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration. His primary responsibilities consist of helping clients with comprehensive financial planning and portfolio construction.
In 2007, Eric completed coursework and successfully passed the Certified Financial Planner exam. This year-long curriculum and 10 hour final exam covered various aspects of financial planning.
Away from the office, Eric enjoys effecting change in the local community. He was chosen to participate in the 2007 Leadership Durham program and the 2009 Leadership Triangle program. Currently, Eric serves as a directional Elder at the Summit Church. He also serves on the board of directors for the NC Study Center at UNC-CH and previously served on the board of Samaritan Health Center, an organization that provides medical care to uninsured and low income families in Durham. He and his wife, Allison, have two sons and are passionate about adoption advocacy as well as leveraging their gifts and resources to alleviate physical and spiritual poverty through microfinance and social businesses.
RICK ADAMS began his career as a financial advisor with Wheat First Securities in 1989 remaining with the firm for twenty-five years. During his time there, the company carried six different brand names, the last being Wells Fargo Advisors. He spent much of his career as a Senior Vice-President, Investment Officer eventually leaving Wells as a Managing Partner.
Rick earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. After graduation, he spent one year studying market economics at Grove City College in Pennsylvania. It was here while learning to apply the principles of macroeconomics to stock analysis that he developed his passion for finance. Throughout his career Rick has continued to hone his skills by taking classes in mathematics, statistics, finance, and accounting.
In May 2015, Rick along with business partner Eric Chetwood left Wells Fargo Advisors to form Adams Chetwood Wealth Management Group. Today, Rick focuses on delivering customized investment planning strategies for high-net-worth individuals, families and institutions.
In August 2017, Rick earned his Masters of Finance degree from Northeastern University where he further developed his analytical and financial management skills.
In 1987, Rick married Jane Woodson Adams. The couple have four adult children residing in North Carolina, Colorado, and Louisiana. Rick is committed to helping his community prosper. He serves on the Board of Trustees for Durham Technical Community College and chairs Parents for Educational Freedom in North Carolina. He is also an elder at Restoration Church here in Durham. Rick carries a passion for young people in this area, currently serving on the local board for Young Life. He has also served as a member of the Board of Trustees of Trinity School and the Agapé Corner School, which serves at-risk, inner city youth. For ten years he was on the Board of Directors of Pregnancy Support Services in Durham.
Michelle Disney graduated from the Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a degree in Business Administration and a concentration in Marketing. Michelle has obtained her Series 66 securities registration in addition to the North Carolina Life and Health Insurance license.
In 2010, Michelle went on to earn the CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™certification by completing a rigorous course of study and series of exams covering topics such as insurance and estate planning, employee benefit and tax planning, as well as investment and retirement planning.
As the Chief Operations Officer and Chief Compliance Officer, Michelle’s responsibilities include crafting client financial plans, managing clients’ investment portfolios, directing firm operations, managing the firm’s compliance policies, supervising staff, and directing the business’ marketing initiatives.
Away from the office, Michelle and her husband, Daniel, are involved with animal welfare groups including the Coalition to Unchain Dogs and the Humane Society of the United States.
Originally from Charlotte, NC, Katherine graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill in 2011 and worked for two years as a Branch Service Associate at UBS Financial Services, handling client operations across two complexes. Katherine joined the Adams Chetwood Wealth Management group in March 2016 as a Registered Client Associate.
In July 2017, Katherine was authorized by the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards (CFP Board) to use the CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ and CFP® certification marks in accordance with CFP Board certification and renewal requirements.
The CFP® marks identify those individuals who have met the rigorous experience and ethical requirements of the CFP Board, have successfully completed financial planning coursework and have passed the CFP® Certification Examination covering the following areas: professional conduct and regulation, general financial planning principles, education planning, risk management and insurance planning, investment planning, tax planning, retirement savings and income planning, and estate planning.
As a Financial Planning Associate, Katherine handles operational requests and also helps clients plan for retirement, budget for college savings, review their investments, and analyze their estate planning strategies.
Outside of work, Katherine enjoys running, traveling, reading, serving at her church in the children’s ministry, and learning how to cook new dishes.
Maria Core joined the Adams Chetwood Wealth Management Group in the summer of 2019 as a Client Associate. Maria assists our clients with account administration and operations.
Maria joined us from the Summit College program where she served on staff managing student outreach. In her previous role, Maria organized campus events, trained staff on outreach and communication initiatives, and pioneered a new Summit College program at Meredith. She earned her Bachelor of Science in Mathematics degree from Meredith College in 2016.
Maria lives in Raleigh, and in her spare time, she enjoys painting, practicing calligraphy, traveling, reading, and serving at her church.
Audra joined the Adams Chetwood Wealth Management Group in the spring of 2020 as a Client Associate. She assists our clients with account administration and operations.
Audra grew up in nearby Chapel Hill and graduated from James Madison University in 2017 with a degree in Hospitality Management and a double minor in Business and French. Audra's background also includes her role as a manager at the Washington Duke Inn where she earned Employee of the Year in 2018 for her outstanding client service. Her degree and experience in hospitality have given her the skills to care well for clients and seek opportunities to provide service that exceeds expectations, even in the wealth management industry. As a Client Associate, Audra cares for our clients by ensuring that any required account maintenance runs smoothly and attending to all client requests in a timely manner.
Outside of the office, Audra enjoys riding on the back of her husband’s Harley, cheering on the Boston Red Sox, and spending time with her family and friends. Kevan and Audra got married in August 2020, and they are very excited about living in Durham and finding a new church community together.
Allison has been an integral part of Adams Chetwood since the beginning of our firm, but we finally convinced her to formally join the team in the summer of 2020. Allison's primary responsibilities are helping us communicate and deliver financial peace of mind to existing clients as well as future clients.
Allison graduated from the University of North Carolina in 2003. She majored in advertising and public relations and has worked in marketing and advertising. Allison and Eric have two sons and are passionate about adoption advocacy as well as leveraging their gifts and resources to alleviate physical and spiritual poverty through microfinance and social businesses.
One of the core goals of our business is that we don’t want to just make rich people richer. We want to care for clients in every way that wealth impacts them: financially, relationally, emotionally and even spiritually. As a comprehensive wealth management team, we get to walk alongside clients through many different chapters in life. Some of those moments are really beautiful. We get to see the sense of accomplishment at a retirement party, and the reflection of a career well spent. We get to listen to stories about travels, grand kids, anniversaries and charitable legacies. The best part of our job is getting to witness the realization of all the retirement dreams that required hours of sacrifice and planning. Most of these moments are wonderful.
However other life chapters are not so wonderful. For example, what is the best way for us to care for clients when they lose a spouse or family member? Is the risk adjusted rate of return important to them when they receive a cancer diagnosis? Sure, there are financial implications from these tragedies that we are equipped to speak about. But in those days and weeks, clients need more than an updated action summary from their financial plan. They need someone who is specifically trained to help them process their loss, loneliness, or fear in a compassionate and loving way.
For that reason, we have hired a client chaplain who can help us care for clients in a more comprehensive manner. Elizabeth has counseled hundreds of people through life’s tough chapters with empathy and wisdom. We are excited and grateful that she is part of our team.
Dream Big, But Plan Accordingly.
WHAT WE DO
Simplify and Organize
Simplifying and organizing your financial life is essential to gaining control over your finances. Together, we will evaluate every aspect of your current financial plan so that you can begin to recognize the financial future of your dreams.
Financial Planning
After an in depth discussion with you regarding your financial situation, we will dive into developing a financial plan for you.
We will build a plan that provides the specific, actionable steps needed to improve your financial standing. Your plan may include some of the following topics and more:
Retirement Planning
Retirement is inevitable. We cannot control the passing of time. That's why we want to help you take control of your retirement planning today. During the financial planning process, we can discuss where you want to be financially during retirement and map out a strategy to get you there.
Estate Investment Planning
Estate planning is a critical step in planning for your family’s future. Having a well thought out plan in case you become incapacitated or predecease your children will make such challenging times easier to navigate for loved ones left behind. We will coordinate with your estate attorney to make sure your wishes are properly documented and implemented.
Education
The cost of college education is constantly growing, and the key to preparing for your child’s future is saving as soon as possible and utilizing the proper investment vehicle. We will help you effectively plan for your child’s education needs.
Insurance Analysis
Preparing for the unknown can be stressful. We will review your current insurance plan and search for any inefficiencies in your coverage. From there, we can help make the necessary adjustments to protect you and your family from unforeseen risks.
Investment Management
The investment plan is a byproduct of the overall financial plan. Everyone is different, and so we create a customized investment plan based on your individual needs and circumstances. Your goals and your tolerance for risk are the two main ingredients that go into making your plan uniquely yours.
Investing is a long-term endeavor. Most of us aim to build wealth over time, but it can be challenging. We believe it is necessary to have a clear sense of your goals and objectives (why you are investing in the first place), and then stick with a disciplined investment strategy.
Typical Client Review
Transparent Pricing
At Adams Chetwood Wealth Management, we deliver financial planning and investment management services that are both comprehensive to cover all aspects of your financial life but also specialized to the needs of our pre-retiree and retiree clients.
It's important to us that our pricing be transparent and clear, and our clients value knowing they pay us a single fee.
Our annualized fee for this service is a flat percentage charged on the assets that we manage:
Client Household
Fee
Households with assets between $1 million to $2.5 million
1% of assets under management
Households with assets between $2.5 million and $7.5 million
0.8% of assets under management
Households with assets between $7.5 million and $12.5 million
0.65% of assets under management
Households with assets above $12.5 million
0.55% of assets under management
401k Advice
For many pre-retirees, their 401k or 403b is one of the most significant parts of their retirement nest egg. Yet, they devote little time to overseeing the investments in their portfolio or blindly trust that the autopilot investment options are the best vehicles to help them reach their goals. One of the core philosophies in our firm is that the investment allocation should be a derivative of the financial plan, not the other way around. In other words, our financial plans can optimize the amount of risk one should take to reach their goals, and if the investment allocation doesn’t match that risk profile, it is as worthless to the client as the nutrition plan or exercise regimen that is crafted and then never gets implemented.
From our side (the advisor), analyzing and monitoring each clients 401k is very time intensive because the structures and investment options are different for most every plan. We want to thoroughly research every fund offered in order to provide excellent advice for our clients, but also need an incentive to be compensated for our ongoing time and expertise. That is how we came up with our individual 401k monitoring and advice service. You can engage us to provide the following:
Analyze your retirement plan structure and investment options
Customize a 401k allocation that integrates with your financial plan and empirically optimizes your ability to reach your financial goals
Actively monitor your 401k so that any macroeconomic changes we make in your global allocation are reflected in your 401k
Provide an annual financial check up on your 401k for rebalancing recommendations, allocation changes and financial plan integration
Enjoy the peace of mind of knowing that all your retirement accounts are rowing in the same direction
The cost for 401k monitoring is 0.8% annually (or 0.2% per quarter) which is slightly less than our usual agreement. We give a bit of a price break since the only thing we can’t do on your behalf is place the trades within your retirement plan. It is so important that all of your investment accounts complement each other and abide by the same risk profile. Many pre-retirees are hoping their 401k will get them to their retirement goals, but struggle to articulate what they own or why they own it. If you’d like help making sure that your 401k is propelling you toward your retirement goals and not subjecting you to unforeseen risks, just let us know. We are happy to show you a sample of our analysis at no charge.
We will not be right all the time, but we do want to be wise all the time.
If we are wise all the time, we will be right enough of the time.
- Rick Adams, founder
NEWSLETTER
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Adams Chetwood Wealth Management is based in the Raleigh-Durham area of NC, but we serve clients all over the country. We are available to meet with you virtually, in person, or by phone, whichever is most convenient for you.
Please click below to schedule a meeting. You can also email or call us to set up your first consultation. We look forward to guiding you to financial peace of mind.
We are currently fully staffed. However, we are always eager to meet exceptional servant leaders who are passionate about guiding clients to financial peace of mind.
If you have more than 7 years of experience in an RIA, and are intimately familiar with the Schwab RIA platform, we'd love to get to know you. Give us a call.
Client Associate – Full Time
Job Summary:
Our ideal Client Associate has prior professional client service experience and a strong desire for a long term career in the financial services industry. You are poised and polished in dealing with high net worth clients and have excellent communication skills. You enjoy utilizing your exceptional organizational and problem-solving skills to solve client issues, keep the internal business systems on track, and improve business processes. The ideal candidate enjoys attention to detail, thrives in a fast-paced environment, and has a hunger to learn.
Job Description:
Account administration- 70%
Process fund transfers (transferring assets, deposits, withdrawals, retirement plan rollovers, etc.)
Prepare and process paperwork for client transactions, including but not limited to opening new accounts, closing accounts, account title changes, address changes, etc.
Establish client files and maintain client data in CRM program
Maintain and update internal systems including contact management and portfolio reporting software
Maintain and update the firm’s internal Operations Manual
Proactively take operational tasks off of COO and Advisors’ plates
Manage and own all client requests received, ensuring timely resolution of issues
Verify accuracy of information provided by internal and external back office before implementing solutions for clients
Compliance implementation– 30%
Learn the firm’s compliance program and processes and implement all compliance initiatives under supervision of the CCO
Manage the firms’ interns as they complete select compliance initiatives and ensure timely and accurate completion
Maintain and update the firm’s internal Compliance Manual
Qualifications:
Minimum of Bachelor’s degree (preferably in Business Management, Economics, or Finance) - required
1+ year of experience in client service and/or operations in the financial services industry - preferred
Desire for a long term career in the financial services industry - required
Proficient in Microsoft Office suite (with an emphasis on Excel expertise) - required
Successful completion of a background check, fingerprint screening and previous employment verification
Other Skills and Experience:
Organized and meticulous with an extreme attention to details
Excellent verbal and written communication skills
Motivated self-starter able to “own” client problems and manage the solution from start to finish
Able to take ownership of deliverables and meet firm deadlines for both short- and long-term projects
Professional presentation skills with prior client facing work experience
Ability to exercise good judgment by recognizing urgency and setting priorities to manage several tasks at once
A low-ego, team player
Demonstrated ability to work successfully in an entrepreneurial, small company environment.
Uphold firm’s purpose, vision and values.
Compensation:
Salary is commensurate with experience
Employees may earn quarterly bonuses based on firm wide goals and individual performance goals
Benefits include:
Fully paid health insurance for employees
401k with match and discretionary profit sharing
Paid vacation
Paid parental leave
Paid time off for volunteer/service projects
Paid FPA membership
Ongoing career development, including training/certification reimbursement
To Apply:
Please complete the Client Associate Questionnaire. You will be able to submit your resume and cover letter here as well.