Wilson | Amiri

Seven Priorities. One Plan.

Money is rarely about money. It is about the seven things money touches. Merrill organizes wealth conversations around seven Life Priorities. We use them as the agenda for the first meetings and the checklist for every meeting after it. The order changes with every client. The list does not. Six of them are the reason for the seventh. ``` ``` #### **HEALTH** *What would a serious health event cost this plan, and who would absorb it?* ``` ``` #### **HOME** *Where do you want to live, and does the balance sheet support it without forcing a sale?* ``` ``` #### **FAMILY** *Who depends on this, and how prepared are they for it?* ``` ``` #### **LEISURE** *What are you actually working toward, and when does it start?* ``` ``` #### **GIVING** *What are you most passionate about, and what would real impact there take?* ``` ``` #### **WORK** *What is your business or your career worth, and what happens the day you step away?* ``` ``` #### **FINANCES** *Does the whole structure actually hold together?* ``` ``` ##### ***Most advisors will talk to you about the seventh. We start with the other six.***

Who We Build For

Almost everyone we work with has one asset carrying more weight than the rest of the balance sheet. That is usually where we start. ### The Practice ##### *Physicians, Dentists, and Veterinary Practice Owners* Your practice is your largest asset, your income, and your retirement plan at the same time. Very little else you will ever own carries that much concentration in one place. Our footing in healthcare predates this career. Adam supported Harvard Medical School on how health systems learn and improve, and serves today as a board director in the behavioral health space. We understand the operating pressure clinicians carry, and how little of it ever appears on a balance sheet. Acquisition and expansion financing. The building instead of the lease. Cash balance and 401(k) design that actually moves the tax number. Buy\-sell agreements funded rather than filed. And exit planning that begins years before the consolidator letter arrives. ``` ``` ### The Enterprise ##### *Founders, Business Owners, and Private Capital Principals* You did not build this in order to sell it. But one day you will stop running it, and the distance between those two sentences is worth several years of planning. Adam grew up around a family business and is building a practice from scratch today. We know what it feels like when the enterprise, the payroll, the personal guarantee, and the retirement plan are all the same decision. The same holds for principals of private capital firms, where the household, the management company, the carry vehicle, and the funds are four balance sheets that only ever get treated as one. Valuation and exit readiness three to five years ahead of the event. Pre\-liquidity wealth transfer. Qualified small business stock review alongside your counsel. Lending against personal assets and partnership interests when you want liquidity without a sale. And a plan for the day after the wire clears. ``` ``` ### The Grant ##### *Executives With Concentrated Equity* When most of your net worth is denominated in one ticker, every decision becomes a timing decision. Vest, exercise, hold, borrow, or sell, and each of those carries a tax consequence and a window attached to it. Equity compensation was a dinner table conversation in Adam's family long before it was his profession. We watched capable people treat a grant like a bonus rather than a position. 10b5\-1 plans and officer and director requirements handled with Merrill's equity award specialists. Concentrated position strategies. Net unrealized appreciation analyzed before a rollover rather than after one. Deferred compensation elections made against a real income plan. And enough liquidity elsewhere that selling is a choice rather than a requirement. ``` ``` ### The Estate ##### *Families, Retirement Through the Next Generation* The paycheck stops and the portfolio has to replace it. That one transition changes how every dollar should be invested, taxed, and titled. The first retirement Adam ever thought hard about was in his own family. Decent income, reasonable savings, and a quiet stress that came entirely from the absence of a plan rather than absence of money. That is the reason this practice exists. Income sequencing and a withdrawal policy you can hold through a bad year. Required distributions converted into charitable ones where it fits. Roth conversion windows used before the brackets close. Then the other direction. We work with the rising generation as deliberately as with the wealth creators, through a program we call Waypoints. Eight stages, from a first allowance to a first child, and the family meeting most families never quite get around to holding.

Waypoints

## **++A Rising Generation Series++** ``` ``` Most families transfer the money and assume everything else transfers with it. It does not. Waypoints is how we prepare the next generation. Eight stages from a first allowance to a first child, each built around the moment that actually matters rather than a date on a calendar. Adam is Gen Z. That is not a disclaimer, it is the point. He started out teaching financial literacy to students through the Arizona Council on Economic Education, and Waypoints is the same work with the family in the room. Every stage in it is an emotional event before it is a financial one, and that is the part a checklist never covers. The plan you built is half the inheritance. This is the other half. ``` ``` ### **The Allowance Years** ##### *Ages 6 to 13* Spend, save, share. One real family budget planned and executed start to finish. A savings account that shows compounding in numbers a child can see. ### **The First Paycheck** ##### *Ages 14 to 17* A paycheck taken apart line by line. Credit literacy before there is anything to damage. First real market exposure. ### **Leaving Home** ##### *Ages 18 to 22* A semester budget with a goal attached. Their own credit report pulled and read. And the support conversation, which is the real content. ### **The First Real Job** ##### *Ages 22 to 28* Benefits, match, HSA, and the first equity grant handled correctly. The highest leverage hour in the series. ### **The First Home** ##### *When It Happens* A budget built backward from the rate they actually qualify for. Family financing structures where they make sense, and the parent decision stated out loud before the search begins. ### **Before the Wedding** ##### *Engagement* Two financial pictures on the table before the day. Prenuptial conversations handled as a family conversation first. Their own estate plan executed rather than discussed. ### **One Household** ##### *Marriage* Joint or separate, and who owns which decisions. Documents reviewed, beneficiaries updated, and the new spouse's place in family meetings decided deliberately. ### **The Next Generation** ##### *A First Child* Guardians declared and documents refreshed. Then the grandparent structures that start the series again, one generation up. Stage eight returns to stage one, with everyone moved up a seat. ``` ``` ##### ***A legacy of empowerment not entitlement. That is the standard we build against.***

Boutique-like with a Balance Sheet

The oldest tradeoff in wealth management is size. Choose the boutique and give up the bench. Choose the institution and become a number. This practice was built to refuse that trade. The boutique\-like half is attention. A deliberaretly short client roster. Calls returned inside two hours, email inside twenty\-four, and a practice that answers on the weekend, because the moments that move a balance sheet do not check the calendar first. The institution half is reach. A bank in the building, so lending and banking are designed into the plan. Specialists in estate, concentrated positions, business transition, and philanthropy, convened as your situation requires. Technology and security infrastructure a boutqiue cannot build and a family should not live without. Small enough to answer its own phone. Large enough that the answer is rarely no.

Personalized planning

**Helping you create a personalized plan** At Merrill, we go beyond the traditional role of an advisor. * Your goals, concerns and attitude about investing are the foundation of your plan. * We actively listen and provide personalized advice — ensuring we understand what matters most to you and your family. * We're committed to creating a personalized plan that evolves with you to help you live well today while preparing for the future.

Team and resources

**Giving you access to our teams and solutions** Your advisor is one part of an experienced team dedicated to helping you achieve your goals. Acting as your single point of contact, your advisor provides personalized strategies and connects you with: * Bank of America specialists, such as mortgage or trust professionals * Timely insights from BofA Global Research1 to help you stay informed and navigate ever\-changing markets * A [full suite](https://www.ml.com/solutions/all.html) of Merrill investing and Bank of America banking solutions ^1^~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](http://www.sipc.org/), and wholly owned subsidiary of Bank of America Corporation ("BofA Corp.").~

Recognition