2013 Five Star Wealth Manager*

The FIVE STAR Wealth Manager list is created by Crescendo Business Services LLC. It includes less than 3% of 1,726 wealth managers in the Chesterfield area in 2013. Wealth managers were identified by surveys conducted with more than 5,911 households, more than 5,151 registered financial professionals, and 1,692 financial service companies in the Chesterfield area that are registered with FINRA or the SEC. Wealth managers were evaluated across ten criteria: (a) Credentialed as an investment advisory representative, a FINRA-registered representative, a CPA or a licensed attorney; (b) Actively employed as a credentialed professional in the financial services industry for a minimum of five years; (c) Favorable regulatory and complaint history review; (d) Fulfilled their firm review based on internal firm standards; (e) Accepting new clients; (f) One-year client retention rate; (g) Five-year client retention rate; (h) non-institutional discretionary and/or non-discretionary client assets administered; (i) Number of client households served. (j) Educational and professional designations. Favorable and unfavorable evaluations are included in the score. Each wealth manager is reviewed for regulatory actions, civil judicial actions, and customer complaints. A favorable regulatory and complaint history is defined by Five Star Professional to mean that the wealth manager has not: *Been subject to a regulatory action that resulted in a license being suspended or revoked, or payment of a fine; *Had more than a total of three settled or pending customer complaints filed against them (excluding dismissed complaints) with any regulatory authority or through Five Star Professional’s consumer complaint process; *Individually contributed to a financial settlement of a customer complaint; *Filed for personal bankruptcy; *Been convicted of a felony. Five Star Wealth Managers do not pay a fee to be included in the research or final list. Scores reflect an average of all respondents and are not representative of any one client's evaluation. The Five Star award is not indicative of the wealth managers’ future performance. Wealth managers may or may not use discretion in their practice and therefore may not manage their clients’ assets. Working with a FIVE STAR Wealth Manager or any wealth manager is no guarantee as to future investment success, nor is there any guarantee that the selected wealth managers will be awarded this accomplishment by Five Star Professional in the future. The inclusion of a wealth manager on the Five Star Wealth Manager list should not be construed as an endorsement of the wealth manager by Five Star Professional or the magazine. Five Star Professional is not an advisory firm. For more information on the Five Star award and the research/selection methodology, go to: fivestarprofessional.com.