Ben Richards, First Vice President - Senior Financial Advisor, began his advisory career in 2003 and joined Merrill Lynch Wealth Management in 2011. Ben works with successful individuals, families and business clients, and using holistic approach and innovative strategies, to help connecting the diverse areas of clients’ financial lives to their most important goals. Areas of focus include values based investing, income investing and income distribution planning, charitable and asset transfer strategies and risk management in capital preservation and asset growth. Ben’s background adds a unique and powerful perspective in helping to meet the needs of our clients, and preserving what they’ve built.
Prior to earning his business degree in International Business and Economics at Western Washington University, Ben lived in Norway and was heavily involved in mountaineering and outdoors survival training at Valdres FHS. Ben has served on many boards in the community for childhood education and senior care organizations, contributing his professional talent to the success of their respective missions locally.
Ben, his wife Jennifer and children Freya and Owen are ever-present at local functions and outdoors enjoying the stunning natural beauty here in the Pacific Northwest.
*Impact investing and/or Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) managers may take into consideration factors beyond traditional financial information to select securities, which could result in relative investment performance deviating from other strategies or broad market benchmarks, depending on whether such sectors or investments are in or out of favor in the market. Further, ESG strategies may rely on certain values based criteria to eliminate exposures found in similar strategies or broad market benchmarks, which could also result in relative investment performance deviating.
I follow the deep-seated Merrill tradition of participating in the communities we serve. This drives my interest in spending time volunteering with organizations in our community.
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.
Bringing fresh perspectives to your financial life
The financial decisions you make today can help determine the future you build for yourself and your family. Carving a clear path forward starts with connecting your life and finances. A Merrill advisor provides access to the investing insights of Merrill and banking capabilities of Bank of America to help you make informed decisions as you pursue your goals.
