EverWise Wealth Management of Raymond James

EverWise Wealth Management of Raymond James You'll find that we're straightforward, accessible and always put our clients first.

At EverWise Wealth Management, we take a personalized approach to wealth management, which includes goals-based planning, investing and relationship management.

02/11/2026

Yesterday I was speaking with a someone about estate planning items, including a will, durable power of attorney, medical power of attorney, HIPAA authorization and advance directive.

We also spoke about her family, travel plans and some other items.

This wasn't a scheduled meeting, just an ad hoc call that lasted about 20 minutes.

At one point, she said she was sorry for keeping me so long on the call.

I told her that she definitely didn't need to apologize. I said that's what we're here for and that talking with clients is the best part of my job. Because it is.

We structure our work so that there is plenty of time for us answer client calls and emails (almost always the same day). I've learned that not all advisors are like this. Many have migrated to more of a doctor or dentist model where the only time you get to speak to them is if a meeting has been scheduled.

That might work for some folks, but I find that being accessible is important to the folks we work with. Scheduled meetings have their place, but so does being available for whatever comes up, so people don't have to wait to talk about something that's important to them.

12/22/2025

Time in the market > timing the market.

Missing just a few of the best days can significantly impact performance.

The S&P 500 index is up 16% year to date. But if you'd missed the 10 best days this year, this 16% gain would have turned into a 13% loss.

This is a powerful reminder to not try to guess or time the market, when it comes to long-term savings. Otherwise, there is a real risk in interrupting the magic of compound growth over time.

*This information should not be construed as a recommendation. Content provided here is for informational purposes only.

12/19/2025

Here's a scenario (based on real financial planning questions that we deal with):

You're considering buying a second home. You don't ever want to rent it out, as you plan on spending quite a bit of time there and also want to let family and friends use it when they want.

One of my questions is, "What price range are you thinking about?"

You say, "$2 million to $4 million."

"That's quite a range," I say.

"Yeah, but I'm not sure what we can afford. Can you help?"

You might be able to figure this out yourself, but you stay busy with your business and family and travel. You used to change your own oil, but you don't do this anymore. You realize that your time is the most valuable resource and you'd prefer to spend it on things you love and are good at. That's why you work someone like us to help be your family's CFO.

You want to see if your current income and assets can fund this purchase and the ongoing property taxes, homeowners insurance and some estimated upkeep costs. And do it without messing up your existing financial plan and future spending goals. We run some estimates to look at what the monthly mortgage payments could be. We make some estimates about property taxes and homeowners insurance based on where the home is. And we look at whether to sell assets to fund the down payment or use a securities-based line of credit for some or all of it. We examine how all of this impacts your retirement and overall probability of success with your financial plan. We factor in all sorts of market return scenarios, not just an average return each year, which is unrealistic. The timing of returns (and downturns) can often have a huge impact.

Based on the existing assets and income, the projections suggest that the $2 million home purchase is doable but $4 million would blow up your financial plan and retirement savings. A $3 million home purchase could work out, but there are scenarios where it might not.

But then you tell me you're going to inherit $2 million when your Dad passes away, and you want to bake this into the analysis. You're a lucky one in that many parents aren't able or aren't willing to do this and/or don't share this information with their children when it actually might be useful for them to know about it.

But we can't know when the inheritance will happen, so we have a few more scenarios to plan for and factor in. Some people may not want to factor this inheritance in at all, but we'll do it if you want to.

The $4m home looks like it could work, if you are sure about this inheritance.

Our role in this is to provide the analysis and numbers and craft this into a story so the client can make the best decision possible with imperfect information. Sometimes it's not always a perfectly clear choice, and that's ok. Real financial planning isn't cookie-cutter and easy.

If this sounds like something you'd like to learn more about, let's talk.

11/03/2025

What does probability of success mean when it comes to your financial plan?

Think of your financial plan like a campaign strategy for your retirement. The probability of success is the metric that tells you how likely it is that your plan will convert, meaning you'll have enough money to support your lifestyle without running out.

How is it calculated?

We use a tool called a Monte Carlo simulation. It's like A/B testing your financial future. The software runs thousands of different market scenarios, mixing in good years, bad years, inflation, assets and spending patterns. It's like testing your campaign across every possible audience segment and platform to see how it performs.

For example:

If your plan succeeds in 850 out of 1,000 simulations, your probability of success is 85%.

So, what do the results mean?

85–95%: Your plan is optimized, like a campaign with strong ROI across channels.
70–84%: It's performing, but there's room to tweak, maybe by adjusting spending or saving or timing or more.
Below 70%: Time to pivot, like a campaign that needs a new creative or targeting strategy.

Why does this matter?

Just like you wouldn't launch a campaign without testing and forecasting, you shouldn't go into retirement without knowing how resilient your plan is. This number helps you make smart decisions, whether that's scaling back, reinvesting, or adjusting your retirement timeline and financial strategies.

10/08/2025

As a business owner, your 401(k) plan is a powerful tool for attracting talent and building retirement security.

We regularly review these plans and occasionally find issues that can lead to lost savings, compliance headaches or both. At best, they signal weak fiduciary oversight, which can lead to bigger issues later.

Here are a few issues that I've seen recently:

No Cross-Testing:
Professional firms often benefit from cross-tested designs to maximize contributions for owners while staying compliant. Without cross-testing, contributions must generally follow uniform formulas (e.g., same percentage for everyone), which limits how much can go to partners without triggering nondiscrimination failures. Many peer firms use cross-tested or cash balance designs to attract and retain senior talent. Not doing so could make your company less competitive for experienced partners.

Insufficient Fidelity Bonds:
ERISA (the Employee Retirement Income Security Act) requires a fidelity bond equal to at least 10% of plan assets (up to $500k or $1M if employer stock is held). There are also special cases with certain types of plan assets where the coverage may need to be even higher.

If your bond is too low, you're exposed to theft risk and potential Department of Labor (DOL) scrutiny. If fraud or theft happens, the plan is only protected up to the bond amount. And insufficient bond funding is a red flag for the DOL and could trigger an audit.

High Fees:
There are a variety of ways plans pay their 401k recordkeepers. Two of the most common are paying a flat fee per participant and paying a fee based on a percentage of plan assets. The percentage of assets approach can be good for small plans but it can lead to ever-growing costs as assets grow over time, especially if the number of participants doesn't grow much.

These are a few of the issues I've seen recently. All of them can compound over time if plan fiduciaries (maybe that's you or a committee, or a financial advisor on the plan) don't regularly review these retirement plans and make updates as needed.

It takes work and time to review your company's 401k plan and evaluate costs and options, so it may be tempting for some folks to kick the can down the road and not follow a documented process.

Everyone is busy, but sometimes we need to step back and think about the bigger picture behind these plans.

It comes down to helping owners and employees retire with confidence and ensuring they have the best retirement plan possible.

If you have questions about your company's plan, let's connect.

10/02/2025

One thing I've learned from being a financial advisor the past 5+ years is how little most people know about what we do.

We don't sit around looking at stock quotes all day. :)

People may have an idea about what financial planning is or what wealth management is but there's a lot of opacity around the day-to-day jobs to be done.

This is probably a byproduct of how we work with people; when we meet with clients, we often only focus on their specific situation and goals. And we definitely don't discuss other clients with them. And when meeting with potential new clients, it's the same thing.

On any given week we're juggling multiple projects and priorities.

Here are a few example scenarios of our day-to-day:

- Determining which assets to liquidate to raise cash for monthly and/or one-time withdrawal requests, tax payments, etc.
- Facilitating gifts of appreciated stock to non-profits and donor-advised funds
- Identifying strategies for saving clients money on their taxes so they can bring them up to their accountants
- Gathering financial information and life goals to generate new financial plans for clients or to update their existing plans
- Meeting with clients either in-person or virtually
- Coordinating with clients and outside parties to wire money for capital calls
- Reviewing existing 401k plans to determine if we can save money by switching to a new recordkeeper
- Working with business owners to identify their exit number, e.g., what their net from an exit would need to be in order to fund their lifestyle and future goals
- Quarterbacking with clients and lawyers on the set up and maintenance of trust accounts
- Evaluating clients' cash holdings to see if there are ways to increase yield while maintaining liquidity
- Analyzing potential options for dealing with a stock holding that has become a large percentage of someone's assets
- Helping clients evaluate options for buying additional real estate/homes
- Running college funding analyses and presenting various options for how college could be funded in the future
- Meeting with business owners and their employees to educate them on their 401k and retirement plans
- When a client passes away, facilitating the movement of assets from individual account/s to an estate account and determining date-of-death values for potential step-ups in cost basis
- Helping clients learn about options for passing on money to beneficiaries directly and via trusts

My grandma once gave me plastic bowling pins for Christmas with a note that said, "Maybe you can learn to juggle these." I never did. But I'd say we handle this kind of multitasking pretty well.

Maybe your current advisor does, too. Or maybe there is room for improvement. It would be fun to explore your situation to see if there is anything we can do to optimize things and be helpful.

08/27/2025

2 recent scenarios I've seen illustrate the importance of financial planning and maintaining a disciplined, consistent approach to finances.

1) A woman I worked with recently passed away at the age of 101. She had a long, healthy life and was mostly independent until the final days. She passed away with her estate in order and money leftover for distributions.

2) A couple came to us with a home health care expense that they hadn't anticipated. The care is costing them $9,000/month for one of them who needs it. Given their spending, income and assets, this isn't sustainable long-term. We helped them determine how to pay for this expense in the most tax-efficient manner. But, they are going to have to make some really tough choices if this care continues to be needed long-term.

It's never too early to start planning - for things you expect and for the things you may not.

It's easy to let work dictate your priorities, especially if you are a business owner or busy exec or parent. But it's important to prioritize financial planning while you still may have time to make tweaks and changes that have the potential to put you on a good path for the future.

07/07/2025

Lack of effort and strategy isn't always what hurts business growth.

Lack of visibility is.

The best leaders demand visibility into their key metrics, marketing campaigns, sales numbers, product usage, customer health, employee time and any key areas that can help them determine if they are on track or not.

And the faster you can get this visibility, the faster you can course correct.

That same discipline around visibility into business metrics is often lacking when it comes to owners and execs' own personal financial metrics.

Many smart folks I talk to simply don't know if they are on track for a work-optional life, haven't looked at how resilient their financial plans are to volatility and don't know the probability of being able to achieve all their goals when it comes to spending on things they need and want throughout their lives.

If this is something you'd like to gain more visibility into, let's chat.

*This post written after a great July 4th weekend that included ribs on the smoker, a kids' bike parade, time at the pool, NC-legal fireworks, and yours truly finishing in the top 3 in the splash contest from our pool's high dive.

06/26/2025

File this under things a financial advisor may do that you may not have had exposure to, but may be handy to know as life unfolds.

- Buy municipal bonds for tax-free income and principal preservation
- Help transition assets from joint and/or individual accounts to a trust
- Do financial 101 meetings with clients' kids
- Explain how a corporate trustee works and why someone may want to use one
- Help a business owner decide what to do with cash in the business.
- Put together a financial plan for someone who was afraid of running out of money
- Help a business owner get a disability insurance policy
- Explain the details and pros and cons of using a home equity line of credit vs. securities-based line of credit for a specific situation

It's fun to be deeply involved in our clients' lives and I'm lucky to be able to do things like this on a regular basis.

06/24/2025

Most business owners and marketing/sales/tech folks I work with are great at setting goals for their companies and teams.

You've got lead gen goals, meeting goals, close rate goals, revenue goals, product-led growth goals, etc.

But when's the last time you set goals for your own finances? When's the last time you asked what your personal wealth number is?

I'm talking about how much you need to step away, become work-optional or feel financially free.

Most have never done this math.

We do all sorts of projections and scenarios on this front with folks we work with. But here's a starting point.

What are your monthly expenses?

Multiply this by 300.

This gives you a back of the napkin number based on the 4% rule. The 4% rule is based on research by William Bergen regarding the rate of withdrawal you may be able to safely take from your investments each year without running out of money. It's based on a 50% stock and 50% bond portfolio and assumes you need your money to last 30 years. It's not perfect but it's a start.

Once you have this number, you can build a plan with your financial advisor to determine if this is a reasonable goal and think about how to try to reach it.

Let me know if this is something you'd like to explore further.

06/20/2025

If you're running a growing business but you're not seeing your net worth increase, you're not alone.

Here are the top 3 reasons I see business owners struggle to build real wealth:

1) Lifestyle Creep
As your revenue grows, so do expenses - team, software stack, office, lifestyle, etc.

2) Lack of Separation
You may not have established clear lines between business money and personal money.

3) No Strategy Outside the Business
All of your energy goes into growing the business. Nothing is happening beyond this.

To fix this, you need to:
- Build a system that pays yourself first
- Separate business and personal money
- Start investing monthly - even $500 helps build the muscle.

If you don't take care of your financial future, no one else will.

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3515 Glenwood Avenue
Raleigh, NC
27612

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