The Irick Group

Who We Work With

We work with accomplished individuals, families, business owners, executives, athletes, and organizations whose financial lives are often as complex as they are successful. Our clients value thoughtful advice, personal attention, and a long\-term perspective. They come to us not simply to manage investments, but to bring greater clarity and coordination to the many financial decisions that accompany significant wealth. **Corporate Executives** Success at the executive level often brings complex compensation, concentrated positions, liquidity considerations, and demanding professional responsibilities. We help executives bring those moving pieces together into a thoughtful financial strategy—one that considers compensation, investment management, risk, liquidity, tax considerations, and the goals of both the individual and the family. As your career evolves, your financial strategy should evolve with it. **Founders, Business Owners \& Entrepreneurs** When you've built a business, your personal wealth and your life's work are often deeply connected. We help business owners think strategically about both sides of that equation—from managing personal wealth and investing in growth to retirement planning, succession, wealth transfer, and philanthropy. Our goal is to help you make decisions today that support both the future of your business and the legacy you want to create beyond it. **Nonprofit Organizations** Your organization's mission depends on thoughtful stewardship of its financial resources. We work with nonprofit organizations to help address investment management, strategic planning, administrative needs, fiduciary responsibilities, and other financial considerations—while keeping the organization's long\-term mission at the center of the conversation. **Multigenerational Families** For families with significant wealth, preserving assets is only part of the equation. We help families think about what they want to pass to future generations—not only financially, but also through values, knowledge, responsibility, and purpose. Through thoughtful wealth transfer strategies, family wealth education, philanthropy, and long\-term planning, we help families create a framework for future generations to become thoughtful stewards of what has been built. **Professional Athletes** A professional athletic career can create extraordinary opportunities along with a unique set of financial considerations. We help athletes navigate the complexities that accompany significant and sometimes rapidly changing wealth—from cash flow and investment management to risk management, lifestyle decisions, and long\-term planning. Our goal is to help you make the most of the opportunities you've earned while building a financial foundation for the life and legacy you envision beyond your playing career.

Investment Statement

There is no single investment strategy that is right for every client. We build portfolios around the factors that matter most to you—including your goals, time horizon, risk tolerance, liquidity needs, income requirements, family circumstances, and values. As your circumstances change, we believe your strategy should have the flexibility to change with them. We draw on Merrill's broad investment platform to access opportunities across global public and private markets, with careful attention to cost, tax efficiency, diversification, and purpose. We believe you should understand what you own, why you own it, and how it fits into the larger plan. **Wealth Guidance** Financial decisions are rarely made in a vacuum. Markets move, circumstances change, and emotions can influence even the most carefully considered plans. We serve as a sounding board when the environment becomes uncertain or emotions run high. By staying connected to your goals, values, and intentions, we help you maintain perspective and make decisions with the long term in mind. Our conversations are designed to keep your wealth aligned with the life you want it to support. **Risk Management** Risk is about more than market volatility. We look at risk in the broader context of your financial life—including your investments, family, business, estate, liquidity, and long\-term objectives. Rather than defining success solely by a benchmark, we focus on whether your financial strategy is helping you pursue the outcomes that matter most to you.

Impact & Values-Aligned Investing

**We believe your wealth can reflect what matters to you.** For some clients, investing is about more than financial returns. They also want to understand how their capital may affect the companies, communities, and causes they care about. Impact investing can provide an opportunity to pursue financial objectives while also seeking measurable social or environmental outcomes. We begin by listening. What do you care about? What principles guide your decisions? What kind of impact would you like your wealth to have? Those conversations may lead to investment strategies aligned with a range of personal priorities—including environmental goals, faith\-based values, support for women and girls, community priorities, or other causes and principles that are meaningful to you. We can help explore a broad range of impact\-oriented investment opportunities, including customized portfolios, mutual funds, exchange\-traded funds, and separately managed accounts, where appropriate. Ultimately, the question is personal: **How do you want your wealth to make a difference—and is your investment strategy aligned with that purpose?** *~\*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.~*

Sudden Wealth

Receiving significant wealth unexpectedly can change your financial life overnight. Whether it comes through the sale of a business, an inheritance, a career breakthrough, a legal settlement, or another life event, sudden wealth can bring both opportunity and difficult decisions. Our role is to help you slow down, understand what has changed, and make thoughtful decisions before making permanent ones. We work with a select group of individuals and families who are navigating new wealth, helping them bring structure and perspective to investment management, cash flow, estate planning, family conversations, philanthropy, and long\-term goals. We believe wealth is most meaningful when it serves a purpose. Our goal is to help you use your resources intentionally—to enjoy the life you've worked to build, provide for the people you care about, and create the legacy you envision.

Custom Lending and Credit

We know that building wealth goes beyond just investing. It includes customized lending solutions and fully integrated banking to help you grow both sides of your personal balance sheet. Together, with our credit and mortgage specialists through Bank of America, we can create customized credit solutions, to fund everything from real estate to unexpected niche opportunities. This includes guidance and access to home financing, home equity lines of credit, securities based lending, custom lending and custom mortgages. We help you strategically think through when and how to borrow, and the implications it will have on your wealth plan and investment plan. In addition, with fully integrated banking\- your savings, checking and credit cards are all in one place making your everyday banking needs seamless. As an Irick Group client, your dedicated Banking specialist will provide you with white glove, concierge support around your holistic banking needs, which will limit your need to ever visit a branch or a financial center.

Our Fees

We believe in being transparent around our fees. We charge an advisory fee for assets under management here at Merrill within our Investment Advisory Program. Specifically, this fee depends on how much we are managing in assets and which investment strategies we use for your portfolio. When we develop your investment strategy, we identify investment vehicles that are personalized to your unique goals, time horizon, risk capacity, and values\- while also taking into consideration investments that are low cost and tax efficient. Our fee covers all of our advice– everything from investment advice to guidance around wealth planning, strategic credit, philanthropy, cash flow analysis, navigating concentrated positions and broader estate \& tax planning in coordination with your attorney and accountant.

Insight

**Insight** In a life with significant wealth, the financial decisions you make can often have a cascading effect — impacting you, your family, your business and even the greater community. We understand the nuances of these challenges and can help give you the insight you need to navigate important conversations and make more informed decisions. * Access [information and ideas](https://www.pbig.ml.com/latest\-thinking/research\-insights.html) to help you pursue your goals * Tap into the knowledge of specialists who work closely with your Merrill Private Wealth advisor

Simplicity

**Simplicity** Wealth should liberate you, freeing you to pursue passions and interests. Managing the ever\-increasing complexity of your financial life, however, can quickly become all\-consuming. At Merrill, we work to help transform the way you interact with your wealth by distilling that complexity into clear findings and thoughtful guidance, grounded in a personalized plan. What's more, as a Merrill Private Wealth Management client, you have access to a [full range of solutions and services](https://www.pbig.ml.com/solutions.html) designed to help you address the challenges and opportunities significant wealth can bring.

Perspective

**Perspective** Considerable wealth requires a much longer\-term vision — a commitment to maintaining your wealth throughout your lifetime and for generations to come. We're familiar with the demands that kind of time horizon puts on your needs. With our diverse knowledge and experience, we can help safeguard you against reactionary thinking while identifying opportunities in the future. Plus, as a client, you have access to our dedicated Private Wealth Services, including: * [Merrill Center for Family Wealth](https://www.pbig.ml.com/solutions/merrill\-center\-for\-family\-wealth.html)^®^ * [Strategic Wealth Advisory Group](https://www.pbig.ml.com/solutions/strategic\-wealth\-advisory\-group.html) * [Family Office Services](https://www.pbig.ml.com/solutions/family\-office.html)

Recognition