Annual Letter from Our CEO
Dear Crown family of clients,
Last year I wrote a three-year anniversary letter reflecting on the amazing journey we’ve experienced together in such a short period of time. If you didn’t get a chance to read it, it lives on our website here.
2022 was a tough year for the economy and the markets, but we successfully navigated the many challenges side by side with our clients. For Crown as a company we welcomed new team members, new clients, and worked extremely hard to keep our client goals on track.
First and foremost, I want to thank each and every one of you for trusting us with your most important life goals. Thank you to the many of you that referred your family, friends, and coworkers to us; what an honor that is. These new clients came to us seeking security, a more well-rounded plan, and someone to make it all happen for them. I’m happy to say we’ve been able to deliver that and love working with our new Crown family members. As always, if there’s someone in your life that needs the level of advice and service you get from us, please don’t hesitate to introduce us. We’ll treat the relationship with great care.
We also made some major additions to the Crown team in 2022. In January, Bob LeBeau merged his business into Crown and joined our Investment Committee. All of Bob’s clients joined him on the move which is a testament to his years of quality portfolio management. While Crown adds growth sector specific investing expertise, Bob’s clients gain access to a full planning team. We have already helped many of his clients with retirement planning, tax planning, estate planning, risk management, and the multitude of additional services we delivery via our Personal CFO Assessment process. Our goal for 2023 is to make sure each of Bob’s clients gets to go through that process so we can find ways to save them time, get them better, more holistic answers, and save them money.
In July, we welcomed Sean Casullo into our Charlotte office as a Senior Wealth Planner, bringing our team to nine strong. Sean brings with him over a decade of experience and has already made a big impact on not only our client’s lives, but also on mine. He has stepped up to take over many of my client actions, planning sessions, and review meetings. Our clients have welcomed him with open arms, and we have not missed a beat with getting things done on your behalf.
As we move into 2023, I want to make sure everyone is aware of a change coming in the third quarter. Charles Schwab has purchased TD Ameritrade and is projecting a conversion of TD accounts to Schwab during Labor Day weekend in September. The combined company will become the largest independent advisor custodian in the country, and we are very excited about the enhancements that come from that kind of scale. The security will be stronger, the investment options will be greater, and there will be enhancements to technology, processes, and resources. If you see communication coming directly from TD or Schwab, feel free to set that aside; we are going to build the “Crown Transition Plan” and will communicate those details to you as we get closer to Labor Day. We are very much looking forward to the change and will work to make it as pain-free and seamless as possible for each of you.
I’ll end by wishing you all a prosperous 2023. Our entire team is excited to make it another successful year for each of you!
Sincerely,
Nick Kolbenschlag, CEO