[heading type=”h1″ ]Press Release
[heading type=”h4″ ]FIVE STAR: Best in Client Satisfaction Wealth Managers (SM) Announced
Charlotte, NC – Recognizing the industry’s leading wealth managers for their ability to provide unparalleled service to clients, Five Star Professional and Charlotte Magazine have honored Kelly Weaver with the 2013 Five Star Wealth Manager award for his outstanding service as a professional. This is his third consecutive annual award.
The Five Star Wealth Manager acclamation is awarded to an elite group of wealth managers in Charlotte, representing less than seven percent of wealth managers in the county. Candidates are evaluated on client retention rates, client assets administered and a favorable regulatory and compliance history.
The Five Star program, now entering its eighth year, is the largest and most widely published wealth manager award program in North America. As part of the research process for the 2013 Five Star Wealth Manager program, firms and peers nominate award candidates. Award candidates are evaluated against 10 objective criteria to determine the 2013 Five Star Wealth Managers in more than 40 major markets.
On the research surveys, recipients were asked to select only wealth managers whom they knew through personal experience, and to evaluate them based upon nine criteria: customer service, integrity, knowledge/expertise, communication, value for fee charged, meeting of financial objectives, post-sale-service, quality of recommendations and overall satisfaction.
Each wealth manager nominee was also reviewed for regulatory actions, civil judicial actions and customer complaints as reported by FINRA (the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority) and other regulatory agencies.
Then, before finalizing the list, wealth managers were reviewed by a blue-ribbon panel. The blue-ribbon panel was comprised of knowledgeable individuals from within the financial services industry. Although panelist comments were incorporated into the final score, safeguards were built into the review process to reduce the ability of panel members to influence the composition of the final list on the basis of company affiliation.
The resulting list of 2013 FIVE STAR Wealth Managers represents those wealth managers in the Charlotte area who scored highest in client satisfaction. These wealth managers represent less than 7 percent of the wealth managers in the Charlotte area. We hope this list serves as a referral network for the 150,000 readers of Charlotte Magazine. Is this list exhaustive? Of course not. There are undoubtedly many other excellent wealth managers who, for one reason or another, are not on this year’s list.
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RESEARCH DECLARATIONS:
As with any research or recognition program, it is important that we provide you the following declarations:
The 2013 FIVE STAR: Wealth Managers do not pay a fee to be included in the research or the final list of FIVE STAR: Best in Client Satisfaction Wealth Managers.
The overall evaluation score of a wealth manager reflects an average of all respondents and may not be representative of any one client’s evaluation.
The FIVE STAR Award is not indicative of the wealth manager’s future performance.
Wealth managers may or may not use discretion in their practice and therefore may not manage their client’s assets.
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 Crescendo Business Services or Charlotte Magazine.
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 Crescendo in the future.
The research process for the FIVE STAR: Best in Client Satisfaction Wealth Manager Program, managed by Quantitative Market Intelligence (QMI), incorporates a statistically valid sample in order to identify the wealth managers in the local market that score highest in client satisfaction. QMI does not include wealth managers on the list unless their score is statistically valid. At least fifty percent of the wealth managers in the market have a statistically valid score.
For more information on the FIVE STAR Award and the research/selection methodology, go to: fivestarprofessional.com/wmresearch.
Important Note: The Five Star Wealth Manager is an award based on client satisfaction. Respondents evaluate criteria such as customer service, expertise, value for fee charge, and overall satisfaction. The overall score is based on an average of all respondents and may not be representative of any one client’s experience.
