Women’s superpower: Investing

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Insights, observations, and ideas to help you in your pursuit of your financial goals.

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Wanted to connect with you during this special time.

Watch my video to see all the ways I can serve and support you on your financial journey.

Merrill Personal Wealth Analysis® can help us build and document your personalized plan, centered on your goals and focused on what you want to achieve.

Where are the Economy and Markets Headed?

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At Merrill, we firmly believe in forging strong relationships with our clients, ensuring their financial goals are understood and met with unwavering dedication.

Our approach to assisting you in achieving your aspirations begins with a close collaboration, where we take the time to thoroughly comprehend what truly matters to you and your family. Our objective is to instill a sense of reassurance, knowing that your investments are being diligently overseen by a trusted advisor who empathizes with your unique requirements.

We maintain regular communication with you throughout every stage of your life, offering guidance, addressing inquiries, and providing advice when needed. We pride ourselves on being accessible and responsive, ensuring you feel supported and informed as we navigate your financial journey together.

Before choosing an advisor, we encourage you to consider the following questions:

  1. What types of clients do you typically work with, and do they share similar financial circumstances as mine?
  2. What is your track record in delivering successful outcomes for your clients?
  3. How frequently can I expect to collaborate with you, and what is the nature of our working relationship?
  4. In what ways can you assist me in staying on track as I pursue my financial goals? How will you assess if I am making progress?
  5. Do you offer investment options that align with my personal values and beliefs?
  6. How do you handle volatile market conditions, and will you proactively communicate with me during such times?
  7. Can you provide clarity on the cost structure of your services, ensuring transparency and understanding?
The topic of fees is often delicate but rest assured that the right advisors embrace such discussions, recognizing the importance of open and honest communication.

We kindly invite you to connect with us if:

✱ You seek the expertise of a thoughtful and dynamic advisor who puts your needs first. ✱ Recent changes in your financial situation, such as marital status, career moves, or an inheritance, necessitate professional guidance.

✱ You would like to receive periodic updates on our financial outlook, gaining valuable insights into the current market landscape.

To get in touch, please feel free to reach us at ☎ 704-339-2166 or ✉ richard.sterling@ml.com. We eagerly await the opportunity to discuss your unique financial circumstances and explore how we can help you achieve lasting financial success.

  • LANGUAGES

    English

  • EDUCATION

    University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

    University of North Carolina at Charlotte

Additional Resources

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

Randy McLeod

Wealth Management Banking Specialist

Merrill

Scott Griffin

Wealth Management Lending Officer

Bank of America, N.A.

NMLS #112175

Ryan Thrower

Wealth Strategies Advisor

Bank of America, N.A.

Where do we begin? It starts with you.

At Merrill Lynch Wealth Management, your financial advisor focuses on the things you care about most- family, goals and priorities - even as they change over the years.

Understanding Your Life

Approach

My approach to investing is grounded in an understanding of you. It all begins with a conversation. I take the time to get to know you — your children's names, how hard you worked to get where you are and how you define success. I'll work together with you to help understand your personal investment style, prioritize your goals and build an individualized plan that reflects your needs. As an investor you can benefit from the investment insights of Merrill, along with access to trust and fiduciary services from Bank of America Private Bank and credit and lending solutions from Bank of America. There’s only one financial approach that really matters — yours.

Capabilities

Merrill’s process is designed to help deliver a customized, comprehensive experience to assist you not only in wealth accumulation and preservation, but in areas that go beyond investments. Providing you with access to the investment insights of Merrill, trust and fiduciary services from Bank of America Private Bank, and the banking and lending solutions of Bank of America offers a way to help you manage all of the pieces of your financial life. Working one-on-one with a Merrill advisor means you have a single point of contact to help you with potential strategies for transferring wealth to the younger generation.

Focus On Individuals, Families and Small Businesses

I believe that financial success can be achieved when you’re able to make investment-related decisions and trade-offs that can help you reach personally meaningful goals. Whether you’re planning your retirement, saving to buy a home or funding a child’s education, the process begins by getting to know you and how you feel about the following:

  • Health: Managing healthcare expenses, now and in the future
  • Home: Upsizing, downsizing, remodeling or buying a vacation home
  • Family: Taking care of your family and other people in your life
  • Leisure: Spending your free time in meaningful ways
  • Giving: Volunteering, mentoring others and giving to charities
  • Work: Working in retirement, selling or starting a business
  • Finance: Bringing it all together and defining your financial goals

Success will be measured by the amount of progress you are making toward reaching your goals, making thoughtfully considered adjustments as events and conditions warrant.

This material should be regarded as general or educational information on healthcare or Social Security considerations and is not intended to provide specific healthcare or social security advice. If you have questions regarding your particular situation, please contact your legal or tax advisor.

Your approach to investing

Drawing upon research in the field of behavioral finance, Merrill developed the Investment Personality Assessment to help us get to know you better as an investor and potentially help you refine your own investing preferences. By gaining a deeper understanding of how you think and feel about investing through this assessment, we can customize the financial approach we develop together to help you pursue what matters most to you. Our Investment Personality Assessment is one of the ways to help us get to know you - to understand your goals and priorities. These questions will help us provide you with additional insights and resources.

Understanding your goals and priorities

Your life and goals change. We have tools to help you keep track of these changes so they can be reflected in your financial approach.

Philosophy

I believe the best financial approach is the one that helps you pursue your goals. That's why, from the start, we talk about your aspirations and encourage you to ask questions about issues that matter most to you. Calculating how to manage future health care expenses? College on the horizon? Considering the sale of a business or purchase of a home? Preparing to pass your wealth to future generations? It all starts with a plan intended to help you manage, grow, and preserve your wealth today, while also considering the impact it can have for years to come. With access to the investment insights of Merrill and banking solutions from Bank of America, I will work with you to develop an approach designed to help address your financial needs.

Welcome

My mission, first and foremost, is to understand you and what matters most to you. Armed with that information I can ask thoughtful questions -- listening carefully, then understanding in detail where your wealth stands today and where you’d like it to be tomorrow. I help you design and implement a personalized plan intended to help you and your family pursue financial goals while helping manage investment risk. My approach is to focus on potential solutions that can help turn goals into reality.

Staying on Track

We understand that both your life and the financial markets can change over time. By checking in to discuss changes in your life and revisiting your financial approach, our goal is to help you stay on track to achieve what's most important to you.



Reviews to help you
stay on track

We’ll meet with you to review your goals and the progress you’ve made toward reaching them. We’ll also discuss any adjustments needed to your financial approach to help you stay on course.



    Changes in your life
    and to your goals

    Your life and goals change. As these changes occur, we can update your approach to reflect them.

    #DigitalMerrill

    MyMerrill is your online destination for access to your financial information, secure communications, and a robust offering of tools and capabilities.

    Your advisor is a click away within our site or mobile apps

    You can manage account security with our customizable security capabilities such as touch ID, one time passcode, and other security features

    Access to your complete financial life is available with My Financial Picture, Merrill’s asset aggregation tool

      Let’s Have a Conversation

      Helping you reach your goals starts with getting to know you personally. Through understanding what matters most to you, together I can help you create a financial approach that reflects your personality. Only then can I offer an approach that is built around your life priorities and the advice you need to help you address fluctuations in the market and changes in your life. Let’s work together to help you achieve your goals.

      Why Merrill?

      As Merrill Lynch Wealth Management Advisors, we will sort through the financial complexities of your life, helping you build a customized investment approach to address your needs and pursue your goals.


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      We put you first, every day.
      Learn more about the dedicated one-on-one relationship you can have with a Merrill Lynch Wealth Management Advisor.

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      Transcript of Video 

      No question too big or moment too small
      For every question you have, every decision you make and every answer you need, we are with you to listen and help guide you along the many paths your life can take. Watch this video to see some questions we can address together.


      The Power of the Right Advisor®
      Working with a dedicated Merrill advisor means you get personalized investment strategies from Merrill plus access to comprehensive financial solutions only Bank of America can deliver.

      Personalized advice from a dedicated financial advisor.

      We get to know you and your family, your financial situation and what matters most to you.

      A comprehensive approach, built around your life’s priorities.

      Drawing from our experience and the best thinking of Merrill, together we will design an approach that reflects your unique needs, priorities and financial situation.

      Adjusting your investment approach as your life and the markets change.

      We will work to help you stay on track, regardless of what the markets are doing.