Windermere Private Wealth Management

Private Wealth Advisors
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We provide customized services supported by the broad capabilities of a global institution. Working with a limited number of clients, we are able to offer you and your family personalized attention for all aspects of your financial life, now and for future family members.

Meet the Team

The private wealth advisors with Merrill Private Wealth Management are rigorously trained to help meet your specialized needs with relationships based on trust and personalized service.

Additional Resources

The following specialists do not make securities recommendations. Please contact your Merrill Private Wealth Advisor if you have questions about how a specialist might be able to assist you.

Sheau-Lei H Ellison

Structured Credit Executive

Bank of America, N.A.

LaToya Marks

Wealth Management Banking Specialist

Merrill

Michael Duffy

Private Wealth Strategist

Merrill

Strategies designed to help you achieve your goals

As a client of Merrill Private Wealth Management, you have access to services and resources ordinarily reserved for the world’s largest institutions. We work with individuals, families spanning multiple generations, business owners and executives. Using a goals-based wealth management approach, we put our clients at the center of every personalized strategy.

Our Approach

Guiding clients who are looking to the future

You are the focus. Private wealth management, in our view, is exactly that—private. It must be individualized to the client, and be focused, sensible and confidential. Those are the hallmarks of the guidance we can provide.

What we do. Windermere Private Wealth Management strives to deliver innovative wealth management strategies and investment vision to individuals and families who face the complexities of significant wealth. Our role is to offer perceptive strategic guidance to meet your needs, and to help you find, evaluate and take advantage of the opportunities to build and sustain your wealth for the years ahead.

Who we work for. Clients include individuals, couples and families located across the country, with a majority concentrated in Florida. We work with corporate C-suite executives, professional athletes, entrepreneurs and business owners. We have assisted several clients who have started, built and then sold companies, or taken them public.

The value of our experience. Managing wealth is complicated. Investing news and opinion are more than plentiful. What is in short supply is thoughtful, capable, reasoned advice and guidance that directly affects your life, your wealth and your legacy. Rich Millar and Stan Smith, our team's private wealth advisors, are highly trained and dedicated to the delivery of innovative financial strategies often demanded by the intricacies of substantial wealth. With more than three decades of professional experience to draw upon, Rich and Stan focus on a small number of ultra-high-net-worth families so they can devote the necessary time and understanding to help them manage the financial responsibilities—including strategies for risk and tax minimization—that can accompany great wealth.

To be able to provide the personal attention and responsiveness they believe is required to support their business, Rich and Stan team with Brent Jordan, our team's Merrill Lynch Wealth Management Advisor, who can broaden the range of clients we service. This emphasis on teamwork helps us create a personalized financial strategy for each client, including in-depth analyses, tracking and a wide range of targeted reports to help clients understand where they are and where they may be headed.

Rich, Stan and Brent have worked as a team for close to 15 years, and have 52 years of combined experience in financial services and investing. They can help you cut through the marketplace noise to develop an outlook specific to your own life.


Merrill Private Wealth Management
Merrill Private Wealth Management provides tailored strategies to help meet the distinct needs of individuals and families with substantial wealth. Clients are served with a boutique-like approach by teams of rigorously trained and experienced advisors who are skilled in working with wealthy clients, their families and businesses. Clients can enjoy a caliber of resources and future-focused strategies that is typically reserved for the world’s largest enterprises. 

Merrill Lynch Wealth Management
Merrill offers a broad range of brokerage, investment advisory and other services, including insurance and investment analytics. Our advisors are available to work closely with the clients’ other trusted advisors, including accountants, attorneys and tax specialists. We can provide access to trust and estate planning services through Bank of America specialists.



"Our team is centered on putting the interest of clients first. We can offer extensive resources and capabilities to help you manage the many dimensions of your wealth."

Rich Millar, CIMA®
Senior Vice President
Senior Resident Director
Private Wealth Advisor

1 Capability offered by Bank of America, N.A., and its bank affiliates. 
2 Capability offered by Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated(also referred to as “MLPF&S” or “Merrill”).

Some or all alternative investments may not be in the best interests for certain investors. Certain alternative investments carry significant risk and are not subject to the same regulatory oversight as mutual funds and other traditional investments. For these reasons, access to alternative investments may be limited to investors who are designated as sophisticated, high-net-worth investors.

Our Philosophy

We believe your unique goals should be at the center of all of your financial decisions and form the foundation of your financial strategy. Because significant wealth requires customized goals-based financial strategies, we believe in building lasting relationships with a limited number of clients, taking the time to understand your most important priorities for today, tomorrow and your long-term future. Our philosophy celebrates collaboration. Working with a team of specialists, we draw on the resources and insights of a global financial institution to create strategies that reflect your aspirations for yourself and current and future generations of your family. Finally, we believe that while significant wealth brings complex challenges, our experience, passion and perspectives can help you simplify your life.

An approach to help you define and address your risk tolerance

Windermere Private Wealth Management offers a very wide range of banking and investment services to a select clientele. When beginning new client relationships, we focus on finding out, in detail, what you need and what you are looking for.

A MIND-SET TO HELP YOU MANAGE FOR RISK

We are gratified to work with a diverse group of clients who have generated wealth in different ways. Almost all of the people and families we work with look to us to help them:
  • Sustain and grow their wealth
  • Identify risk and manage for it
We feel the conventional view of risk is too narrow and it is more than just a measure of price volatility of your investments. We consider other elements of risk—including the loss of capital and the loss of purchasing power of your investments—to be equally important. And we recognize that how you generated your wealth can determine your wealth structuring needs and your feelings about risk. For instance, entrepreneurs and professional athletes can think quite differently about risk than other individuals, and that affects how we work for them and how we help them manage their investments.
 
Conscientious risk management calls for assessing and understanding your assets and liabilities, your experience and temperament as an investor, your tax exposures and your attitude toward balancing risk and return. Investors can sometimes take too little risk, rather than too much. We’re here to help you gauge what risk level may be right for you and your goals.


Our rigorously trained private wealth and financial advisors provide clients with a direct line to all of the resources and capabilities of a truly global investment firm—in ways that are more in keeping with a small, very exclusive boutique. Concierge services, family meetings, and private seminars and events are all part of the experience.



"We’ve been colleagues for 15 years, and we deeply respect each other’s skills and abilities to work with clients. Individually, we have different interests in the disciplines of private wealth management. The group structure is horizontal—not vertical. It’s collaborative. The entire Windermere team works on each client account."

Stan Smith, CPM®
Senior Vice President
Private Wealth Advisor



CPM® is a registered service mark of the Academy of Certified Portfolio Managers.

*Banking products and services provided by Bank of America, N.A.


Direct access to a global firm’s deep intellectual capital

The investing insights of Merrill and banking convenience of Bank of America form a major, far-reaching duo. With access to this extraordinary caliber of resources, Windermere Private Wealth Management offers financial advice and guidance supported by research and thought leadership of tremendous depth and scale.

Portfolio Management Strategies
  • Discretionary and non-discretionary strategies
  • Liquidity management
  • Risk management
  • Alternative investments
  • Professionally managed accounts
  • Market-Linked investments
Concentrated stock management
  • Hedging strategies
  • Trust services
  • Exchange funds
  • Selling programs
  • Block trades
  • Equity collared position strategies
Banking and lending
  • Securities-based lending
  • International financing
  • Sophisticated deposit and cash management strategies
  • Custom lending solutions
  • Home financing
  • Aircraft financing
  • Art loans
Estate planning and trust services
  • Personal trust services
  • Charitable trusts and foundations
  • Fiduciary investment management
  • Trust administration
  • Estate planning strategies
  • Estate settlement and administration
  • Services for individual trustees
Philanthropy
  • Philanthropic strategies
  • Charitable grantmaking solutions
  • Donor-advised funds and foundation consulting
  • Planned giving guidance and management
  • Endowment management and consulting
  • Compliance
  • Governance and succession planning
Family office services
  • Family wealth transition consulting
  • Income tax preparation and consulting
  • Personalized administration services
  • Financial and consolidated reporting
  • Private asset safekeeping and custody
  • Multicurrency accounts
  • Cross-border settlements
Tax-minimization strategies
  • Tax-minimizing concentrated stock management
  • Tax-efficient investments
  • Tax-advantaged credit and lending
  • Private placement
  • Life insurance
  • Qualified small business stock considerations
"This broad platform of services has evolved over decades to address the many aspects of your financial life, no matter how complex they may be. Windermere Private Wealth Management is your single point of access to services that include cash management, family wealth transitions, extensive capital markets capabilities and Bank of America banking and lending."

Brent Jordan, CFP®
Senior Vice President
Wealth Management Advisor

 
Some or all alternative investments may not be in the best interests for certain investors. Certain alternative investments carry significant risk and are not subject to the same regulatory oversight as mutual funds and other traditional investments. For these reasons, access to alternative investments may be limited to investors who are designated as sophisticated, high-net-worth investors.

Merrill, its affiliates, and financial advisors do not provide legal, tax, or accounting advice. You should consult your legal and/or tax advisors before making any financial decisions.

Options involve risk and are not suitable for all investors. Before engaging in the purchase or sale of options, investors should understand the nature of and extent of their rights and obligations and be aware of the risks involved in investing with options. Prior to buying or selling an option, clients must receive the options disclosure document Characteristics and Risks of Standardized Options. This document is available by contacting your Merrill Financial Advisor.

Merrill Lynch Family Office Services are offered through Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated (also referred to as “MLPF&S” or “Merrill”). In connection with its Family Office Services, Merrill is not acting in the capacity as a broker-dealer, nor as a registered investment adviser. Accordingly, through its Family Office Services, Merrill is not offering, and its clients are not paying for, advice with respect to securities, the purchase or sale of securities, or the valuation thereof, nor do Merrill Lynch's Family Office Services encompass financial planning, discretionary account management, or any other securities-related accounts, products or services. Merrill offers a broad array of brokerage and investment advisory accounts, products and services through other parts of its business outside of Family Office Services, which are subject to separate agreements, disclosures, and fee arrangements, and may be procured by applying or enrolling and contracting through those other business channels. Please contact your Financial Advisor or Private Wealth Advisor with questions regarding Merrill's brokerage or investment advisory offerings.

Any information presented in connection with BofA Global Research is general in nature and is not intended to provide personal investment advice. The information does not take into account the specific investment objectives, financial situation and particular needs of any specific person who may receive it. Investors should understand that statements regarding future prospects may not be realized. BofA Global Research is research produced by BofA Securities, Inc. (“BofAS”) and/or one or more of its affiliates. BofAS is a registered broker-dealer, Member SIPC, and wholly owned subsidiary of Bank of America Corporation. BofA Global Research does and seeks to do business with companies covered in its research reports. As a result, investors should be aware that the firm may have a conflict of interest that could affect the objectivity of this report. Investors should consider this report as only a single factor in making their investment decision.

Trust, fiduciary, and investment management services[, including assets managed by the Specialty Asset Management Team,] are provided by Bank of America, N.A., Member FDIC, and wholly owned subsidiary of Bank of America Corporation (“BofA Corp.”), and its agents.

Banking products and services provided by Bank of America, N.A.

A Portfolio Manager can help clients pursue their objectives by managing on a discretionary basis his own Personalized or Defined Strategies, which may incorporate individual stocks and bonds, Merrill model portfolios, and third-party investment strategies.

Building your portfolio through a customized investing process

Five model portfolios, each defined by its level of risk, are the foundation of Windermere Private Wealth Management investment process. We assess your experience and personality as an individual investor, and we work with you to develop a profile of your tolerance for investment risk. We then help you develop an appropriate portfolio matched to your profile and needs.

Clients who have similar risk profiles and whose portfolios mirror the same model may have similar investment holdings. But all portfolios are customized to the characteristics and preferences of each client. In this process, we take into account your risk tolerance, time horizons, liquidity and income needs, targets for tax minimization, return objectives, diversification needs, and the costs associated with the recommendation .

We are vigilant about tracking investment performance and market trends, and we like to meet with clients regularly throughout the year to review the investment markets and to discuss any changes to your life that may require strategic or tactical course corrections.

ASSET ALLOCATIONS AND INVESTING TACTICS

Our primary investment universe consists of ETFs (exchange traded funds), mutual funds, stocks and bonds. In addition, we may suggest alternative asset classes, including hedge funds and private equity partnerships, for certain qualified investors.

We can assist corporate executives who have concentrated wealth positions and seek to hedge the risk of those positions or to monetize them with minimum tax consequences. We also can provide services to public company executives and managers, including helping them to implement 10b5-1 selling plans.

EXTENDED SERVICES, GUIDANCE AND COLLABORATION

Over the years, our private wealth management team has extended its capacity in response to the evolving needs of the clients. Our wealth management services include estate planning services, charitable giving strategies, and tax minimization strategies. Accessing specialists at Bank of America and Bank of America Private Bank(formerly US Trust), we can also offer clients innovative uses of trusts as key building blocks to a thoughtful estate strategy.

At your request, we will collaborate with your other professional advisors, including your attorney, CPA or tax preparer, and business manager, so that your broader wealth management arrangements are coordinated.


"Our investment approach is driven by the belief that helping clients manage for risk is the first priority, followed by investment returns. We have a profound respect for the downside risk of the markets, and we assist clients in structuring their portfolios with that in mind. We strive for absolute returns, and we are not inclined to try to beat a market index."

Rich Millar, CIMA®
Senior Vice President
Senior Resident Director
Private Wealth Advisor

Some or all alternative investments may not be in the best interests for certain investors. Certain alternative investments carry significant risk and are not subject to the same regulatory oversight as mutual funds and other traditional investments. For these reasons, access to alternative investments may be limited to investors who are designated as sophisticated, high-net-worth investors.

Merrill, its affiliates, and financial advisors do not provide legal, tax, or accounting advice. You should consult your legal and/or tax advisors before making any financial decisions.

Trust, fiduciary, and investment management services are provided by Bank of America, N.A., Member FDIC, and wholly owned subsidiary of Bank of America Corporation (“BofA Corp.”), and its agents. Bank of America Private Bank is a division of Bank of America, N.A.

A Commitment to Service

Merrill Private Wealth Management is committed to providing a select group of clients with highly personalized one-on-one service. When you work with us, our knowledgeable, rigorously trained private wealth advisors will gain a deep understanding of your goals, help you develop a multigenerational wealth strategy, and help you update your strategy as needed. We are committed to providing you access to the investment insights of Merrill and the banking convenience of Bank of America, and Merrill will continue to invest in client tools and new technology to enhance your overall experience as you and your private wealth advisor pursue what’s most important to you.

Let's have a conversation

Your dedicated Merrill Private Wealth Management team is ready to help you pursue what’s most important to you.

Our Vision

For clients of substantial means, Merrill Private Wealth Management provides an experience that is both powerful and personal. We are dedicated to helping you pursue your goals for today while developing an approach designed to support your family members for the years to come.

Your private wealth advisor and team of specialists work with a limited number of clients, enabling them to focus their time, training and passion on helping you simplify your personal and business finances and prepare your next generation.

Boutique-like service with the access to the investment resources of Merrill and banking convenience of Bank of America

We combine the personalized attention and feel of a smaller firm with the power and insights of a global financial institution, creating financial strategies tailored to your unique situation.

A relentless commitment to transparency and customized strategies

As our client, know we are working in your best interests, providing goals-based financial strategies designed to anticipate and help meet your evolving financial needs.