"Professional insight and perspective, developed through diligent hard work and experience, are required to manage wealth today. Each day, we commit 100% of our focus and abilities to help you realize a more productive financial future."

- Erick J. Ellsweig, CIMA^®
Senior Vice President–Wealth Management
Wealth Management Advisor

Providing Customized Financial Guidance

KM & Associates is a seasoned team of wealth management professionals – highly educated, extensively trained and broadly experienced in finance and investing.

Over the years, we have expanded our skill sets and professional certifications to address the ever-increasing wealth management needs and challenges you face today. Our practice is multidimensional and client-focused.

Exceptional Capabilities

We have a core focus on developing diversified investment portfolios designedto help meet your objectives and support your wealth strategy. Drawing on the investment insights of Merrill Lynch and the banking strength of Bank of America, we can also assist you with other dimensions of wealth structuring, including:

• Intergenerational wealth transfers
• Estate and legacy planning services
• Retirement income strategies
• Liquidity management and other business services
• Concentrated stock/concentrated wealth strategies
• Personal and commercial banking.

Client Facts

From our offices in North Carolina, we work closely with a select number of affluent individuals and families from the Southeast and throughout the country. By design, we maintain a low client-to-advisor ratio so we have the time, energy and resources to deliver advice and guidance, tailored to you in a personalized manner.

Our individual clients include entrepreneurs and other professionals, C-suite executives, entertainers and business owners. Often, they come to us seeking strategies to preserve the wealth they've worked so hard to build. Our objective is to help them maintain their financial independence and set a strategy designed to move them toward their long-term goals.

"We work with you to set reasonable goals and return expectations. Then we help you structure your portfolio to optimize a projected return level while balancing acceptable risk."

- Christopher L. Kohly, CFP^®
Financial Services Associate

What is Important to You?
The Discovery Process

A wealth management strategy should have scope and scale. It should take into account every aspect of your financial life. During initial meetings, we will take the time necessary to develop a detailed profile of you and your financial situation. This is our chance to listen and discover what role wealth plays in your life. It's our opportunity to understand your financial vision–and your concerns.

• What are your immediate liquidity needs from your investments? Is your current lifestyle sustainable over the long term?
• How much investment-related income will you need to live comfortably in retirement? Are you concerned about outliving your assets?
• What is the balance between your assets and liabilities? Is your wealth too concentrated in one stock or your own business venture?
• Is leaving a financial legacy important to you? Do you have strategies in place for charitable giving or transferring wealth to the next generations of your family?

Answers to questions like these provide a foundation for the goals-based, individualized wealth management strategy we create together.

Understanding and Managing Risk

It's easy to forget that, in investing, risk can work for you as well as against you. We use various Merrill Lynch Wealth Management diagnostic tools to evaluate your tolerance for risk versus the projected investment returns needed to reach your goals. We also consider liquidity needs, time horizon, lifestyle maintenance questions, and your ambitions to grow your wealth to meet aspirational goals when we assess your risk tolerance.

It is too simplistic to calculate how much risk you can or should take in your investment portfolio, based only on your age. For example, we may implement conservative, long-term preservation-of-capital strategies for both a 65-year-old who has retirement income needs and a 40-year-old entrepreneur whose other wealth is concentrated in his or her business.

"The Merrill Lynch platform leads the industry in terms of breadth, depth and flexibility. You have access to investment opportunities in every important capital market in the world."

– David Marcus, CFA^®
Vice President
Investment Associate

How We Think Through Your
Portfolio Structure

Diversification, asset allocation and research are the time-tested building blocks of our approach to structuring your portfolio. Generally, we recommend apportioning your investment capital across a range of asset classes that may include:

• Equities (domestic and international | all sectors, all capitalizations)
• Fixed income (corporates, municipals, governments, agencies | all maturities, all credits)
• Cash and cash equivalents
• Real estate
• Alternative investments, such as hedge funds, commodities and private equity partnerships

Before we suggest any investment, our team researches it, gauges the potential downside risk and considers how it may correlate with other assets in the portfolio. Once again, our goal is to help you structure your portfolio balancing risk and return.

Discretionary Portfolio Management

Erick J. Ellsweig is specially qualified through the Merrill Lynch Personal Investment Advisory^® (PIA) Program. PIA is Merrill Lynch's discretionary investment platform that allows you to delegate the day-to-day management of your account to your Portfolio Manager, who creates and manages customized investment solutions tailored to your unique needs and goals. This discretion allows our team to respond to market changes, price volatility and global events, as well as changes in your personal circumstances. Ongoing customization helps your portfolio to stay on track to meet your financial goals.

"The KM & Associates client service model is built on communication, responsiveness, courtesy and accuracy. Our entire team is committed to delivering consistent, high-quality service that exceeds your expectations."

- Kimberly Reece and Kristen Fisher Swindell
Registered Client Associates

Clients Nationwide, Local Connections

We are proud of our ability to provide personalized coverage to clients in many states, and we're equally proud of our connections to Greensboro, the city we call home. Erick J. Ellsweig's family owned a home furnishings manufacturing business in North Carolina for four generations. As a former executive of that company, he knows numerous business leaders and is familiar with the challenges facing entrepreneurs. Other team members have gone to college here, are raising families here and are actively involved with civic organizations throughout Greensboro proper and Guilford County.

Global Resources

Part of what KM & Associates offers to all clients is access to the remarkable resources of Merrill Lynch and Bank of America. Among these resources is BofA Merrill Lynch Global Research, which in 2012 was ranked as the top research organization by Institutional Investor magazine. With approximately 700 analysts in more than 20 countries (as of the beginning of 2012), the group offers in-depth market and economics research, as well as access to high-quality investment ideas.

For families with elite levels of wealth, we are a gateway to the Private Banking and Investment Group of Merrill Lynch. We work with HB Associates of Atlanta, Georgia. Headed by Private Wealth Advisors Roger Hunt and Scott Bass, this group concentrates on the special situations and unique challenges of managing the financial complexities of ultra-high-net-worth families.
www.pwa.ml.com/HBAssociates

Working With Your Other Advisors

As experienced professionals, we recognize that your other trusted advisors can make valuable contributions to your overall wealth management strategy. At your direction, we will work with your CPA, tax preparers, trust and estate attorneys, or other members of your professional advisory team to see that all the elements of your wealth strategy mesh together seamlessly.

Get to Know Us

Erick J. Ellsweig
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David Marcus
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Christopher L. Kohly
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Kimberly Reece
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Kristen Fisher Swindell
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Brian W. Smith
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