When Nedra Agnew was working in the U.S. foreign service, her trajectory seemed clear: she was on a path that could one day have led to an ambassadorship.<\/p>\n
Then, in the early 2000s, her partner at the time was a financial advisor and was looking for a trainee with a CFP to join his team. She wasn\u2019t looking for another job at the time, but Agnew specialized in administrative work, crisis management and dealing with people. \u201cI remember having the thought, there\u2019s no reason why I can\u2019t be successful in this career,\u201d she recalls.<\/p>\n
She took a meeting with a manager who declared she was \u201ctoo logical\u201d to ever pass the Series 7 General Securities exam, which covers everything from arcane securities regulations to understanding how municipal bonds and stock options work. Agnew practically took that as a dare: She studied, sat for the test and passed, finding herself in an entirely different career\u2014one she says has brought every zigzag of her past experience, from working in healthcare to the foreign service, together into one profession.<\/p>\n
Agnew\u2019s story began in Detroit, where she attended a specialized high school with a focus on chemistry and biology. \u201cI\u2019ve been a quant for a long time,\u201d she laughs. At the University of Michigan she veered into political science, sociology and economics, before completing graduate work in public health administration. After graduating from Michigan\u2019s School of Public Health in 1977 with a master\u2019s, she worked as a hospital planner and administrator for the U.S. Army, then taught as an adjunct at UC Berkeley\u2019s school of public health. She also helped implement California\u2019s tobacco tax initiative. \u201cI\u2019ve done a little bit of everything,\u201d she says. \u201cThe dots all connect.\u201d<\/p>\n
When Agnew eventually stepped into wealth management in 2001, it wasn\u2019t a clean break from her past. Her healthcare background gave her an appreciation for how health costs affect clients across the income spectrum, while her public-sector work taught her how to manage large systems and budgets. In her words, advising individuals was like shifting from full-size trains to model trains: the same complexity, but on a more intimate scale.<\/p>\n
Today, Agnew, 71, leads a $300 million (assets), six-person team at Merrill based out of Vienna, Virginia. She describes it as intentionally eclectic\u2014different generations, skills and backgrounds, all working horizontally rather than in silos. Among her clients, who have a typical net worth of between $2 million and $5 million, are equally eclectic stories: One is a cattle rancher who also ranks nationally as a motocross competitor. The rest of her client base includes policy professionals, engineers, scientists and oceanographers, alongside art collectors, business owners and entrepreneurs. Beyond financial assets, Agnew likes to pay attention to clients\u2019 \u201cpassion assets\u201d\u2014whether it\u2019s a baseball card collection, a yacht, or a rare textile\u2014and works them into their financial plans. \u201cSometimes those are more precious to people than the money,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
Agnew has also spoken publicly about her own experience as a first-generation Black wealth advisor. In a Merrill article, she recalled how her grandmother relied on money orders to pay bills\u2014a reminder, she says, of how quickly things have changed for families like hers. \u201cMany of us are first-generation wealth creators, and we want our children to have a different experience,\u201d she noted. To that end she emphasizes not just financial structures but instilling values and discipline for the next generation.<\/p>\n
Agnew deliberately keeps that family-centered view as a focal point of her practice, maintaining a client base of under 200 households, though many of those relationships span multiple generations and branches. She\u2019ll even sit down with clients\u2019 children before college to practice creating a consistent signature\u2014something to prepare them for opening their first account. \u201cIt\u2019s funny, but those kids never forget it,\u201d says Agnew. \u201cThey always call me later.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her investment philosophy is straightforward: \u201cInvestments are fuel, nothing more.\u201d What kind of fuel depends on the stage of life\u2014income for a 95-year-old, growth for a 30-year-old, legacy portfolios for clients planning across generations. She rejects one-size-fits-all solutions, but she\u2019s equally skeptical of overcomplicated products. \u201cIf a client can\u2019t explain why they own something in plain terms, then they shouldn\u2019t have it,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
Agnew puts heavy emphasis on education to keep clients steady through volatile markets. During downturns, she doesn\u2019t get panicked calls. \u201cOur phones don\u2019t ring because we\u2019ve put the time in upfront,\u201d she says. She tells clients it\u2019s about \u201ctime in the market, not timing the market,\u201d and filters the noise with what she calls her \u201cCNN diet\u201d\u2014limiting her exposure to daily headlines. \u201cYou can\u2019t manage money glued to a screen watching numbers float around,\u201d says Agnew.<\/p>\n
Off the clock, Agnew tends a 20-by-30-foot community garden plot where she grows more zucchini and tomatoes than she can eat, leaving extras on neighbors\u2019 doorsteps. She also serves on the board of the Girl Scouts of the Nation\u2019s Capital, mentoring teenagers each summer at \u201cCamp CEO,\u201d and is active on arts and decorative crafts boards.<\/p>\n
Now two decades into her advisory career, Agnew says her biggest lesson is also her guiding principle: \u201cIf you want to be bullish about something, be bullish on people.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Nedra Agnew was working in the U.S. foreign service, her trajectory seemed clear: she was on a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":242327,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[64,63,99,186,144584,144585,144583,144582,184,185,4679,144586,41584,21960],"class_list":{"0":"post-242326","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-business","11":"tag-finance","12":"tag-first-gen-wealth-creators","13":"tag-investment-philosophy","14":"tag-merrill-advisor","15":"tag-nedra-agnew","16":"tag-personal-finance","17":"tag-personalfinance","18":"tag-stock-market","19":"tag-the-agnew-group","20":"tag-top-advisor","21":"tag-wealth-management"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242326","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=242326"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242326\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/242327"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=242326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=242326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=242326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}