At Carter Financial Management, one of its core “pillars” is education. The firm believes that having educated clients and financial planners is pivotal to the clients’ financial success. This is why the firm continues to host annual client events, like the Carter Investment Conference, to consistently offer clients the opportunity to grow their knowledge.
The firm also maintains a minimum standard that all financial planners must be CFP® professionals. In addition to this standard, the firm encourages all its planners to pursue additional advanced designations, sharpening their expertise and advice to align with the clients they serve.
To further their knowledge base and better serve clients, Joe Meylor CFP®, a financial planner at the firm, became a Certified Private Wealth Advisor® (CPWA®) professional in January. This designation requires at least five years of experience providing service to high-net-worth clients, completing an education program through the Yale School of Management, and successfully passing a certification exam.
The education program focuses on the breadth and depth of complex planning needs of ultra-high net worth (UHNW) clients, owners of closely held businesses, and corporate executives. The core concepts of the coursework were “Human Dynamics”, “Wealth Management/Technical Design”, “Charitable/Family Legacy Planning”, and “Complex/Specialty Client Services”, taught by some of the most well-respected colleagues in the financial planning profession. This spans from understanding the challenges of navigating family concerns of multi-generational wealth to highly sophisticated income and estate tax minimization strategies for clients with large and/or illiquid estates, and many other concepts in between.
The decision to pursue the CPWA program was specifically made because of the large (and growing) number of ultrahigh net worth, business owner, and executive clients the firm is currently advising. It was seen as a great opportunity to differentiate the service offerings and the solutions provided to clients with the most complex needs. With continuing education at the forefront of what the firm does, they look forward to helping more private wealth clients optimize their financial lives.