Two young financial planners at the Merrill Lynch branch office on Beachland Boulevard give much of the credit to their teammates in the Shambo-Ashdown Wealth Management Group for the individual accolades they have received this past year from such respected publications as Forbes, Barron’s, Investment News, and On Wall Street.
Island residents Brian Shambo, 39, and Jeremy Schwibner, 34, have both been named to lists identifying the top young wealth-management advisers in the state and nation.
Shambo’s name has appeared on “Top 40 Under 40” lists published by Investment News and On Wall Street, as well as being included on both Forbes’ and Barron’s state-by-state list of America’s top financial advisers.
Schwibner was included on Forbes’ “2017 America’s Top Next-Generation Wealth Advisers List.”
For Shambo, one of the group’s senior vice presidents, and Schwibner, who came through the Merrill Lynch training program after a career in land management and golf course design, the team concept has proven wildly successful.
“If you look around the country at what’s happening in our industry, it makes sense to be a team,” said Shambo, who partnered with Mark Ashdown six years ago to form the group, which has since grown to nine members.
The group currently has 219 clients – about 65 percent are local – and manages $1 billion in assets.
“Financial planning is complex,” Shambo said. “We’re not just stock brokers. We provide our clients with a wide array of services, including banking, retirement planning, estate planning . . . Doing all these things well is difficult for one person.
“Being able to have people focus on one area is better than having one person trying to focus on 10 areas,” he added. “And, as a team, we’re able to leverage each other’s strengths, talents and skill sets to better serve our clients.
“There’s still a lead adviser, but anyone on the team can work with that client.”
“We recognized what our clients want from us, and we’ve grown a lot faster than we thought we would,” said Schwibner, whose wife, Jenna, is a local dentist. “It probably sounds like a commercial, but what we do differently from other teams or firms is what separates us.”
Shambo said the national and state recognition “helps tremendously” in a business where word-of-mouth matters.
“This business is all about earning trust, and all you have is your reputation,” Shambo said. “We’re handling a family’s most valuable assets, and perfection is expected. That’s what’s demanded of us.
“So when you get this kind of recognition – when your name is on these lists and you’re mentioned in the Wall Street Journal – people know you’ve proven yourself and you’ve achieved a certain level of respect in the industry and the community.
“That’s what’s you’re striving for.”