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Take charge of your financial future with a plan that is all about you.

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Developing a healthy financial life requires thoughtful preparation in every stage. Yet too often, I find that investors don’t have answers to essential questions that help them prepare for tomorrow, such as: 

  • Do I have enough money to retire the way I want?
  • Are my financial decisions supporting my lifestyle?
  • Do my investments relate to my goals?
  • Are my children developing healthy financial habits?
  • Am I going to outlive my money?

Because lives are ever-evolving, working to ensure your decisions support the lifestyle you desire is an ongoing process. So I dedicate my career to helping the clients I serve find the answers they need to develop lifelong financial wellness.


Complete Wealth Management
With over 30 years of experience, I work closely with families, corporate executives, and retirees who seek a dependable financial guide to help all family members make sound financial decisions.  To do so, I believe that providing consistent, caring service is necessary for lifelong wealth management. Whether I’m advising a corporate executive transitioning into retirement or client’s college-bound child, I bring the focus, analysis, and strategies to guide you toward your goals.

As I work with clients, the following tenets support each relationship:
  • Personalized Service: Who you are and what you care about in life matters greatly to me. So I design every aspect of my support to reflect your and your family’s unique needs.
  • Analysis & Research: I carefully study the markets and research different financial outcomes in order to identify your personalized strategies. I can also provide you with access to the investment insights of Merrill and the banking convenience of Bank of America to support the full range of your goals.
  • Multigenerational Support: As your family’s financial resource, I enjoy including your loved ones in your wealth management goals and conversations. By doing so, we can proactively help every individual fulfill their financial potential.
  • Attentive Listening: You have unique thoughts, concerns, and goals. Throughout your financial life, I will listen to you and provide strategic guidance that helps foster confidence in your decisions.

Identifying Opportunities and Risks
From my perspective, framing your wealth management around your specific goals is just one aspect of creating a healthy financial life. To increase your financial wellness, I believe you must also identify the opportunities and risks that exist on the horizon.

I will support you by:
  • Researching current and upcoming market environments
  • Analyzing potential setbacks, gaps, and results of financial decisions
  • Providing periodic reports that detail your current financial health
  • Suggesting revisions to maximize the opportunities ahead of you
  • Talking through any concerns or considerations you have
By deeply assessing your opportunities and risks, I strive to help you better understand your financial life. In every step, my goal is to help you find clarity in your wealth management so you and your family enjoy the life you desire.

My Personal Highlights
“The greatest aspect of my job is the opportunity to meet and work with so many different people with unique life stories. Every day, I appreciate the ability to serve and guide them to their dreams.”
  • CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ certificant
  • Hold the Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor℠ professional designation
  • Portfolio Manager
  • Bachelor’s degree from Seton Hall University
I live in Randolph with my wife and three children. Outside of the office, I enjoy spending time with my family, working out, and reading.

  • EDUCATION

    Seton Hall University

Professional Staff

Supported by the global resources of Merrill, my team is comprised of talented and experienced individuals committed to building strong client relationships based on trust and personalized service.

Additional Resources

The following specialists do not make securities recommendations. Please contact your Merrill Lynch Wealth Management Advisor if you have questions about how a specialist might be able to assist you.

Michael K Costo

Retirement Specialist

Bank of America, N.A.

Francisco J. Escalante

Wealth Management Banking Specialist

Merrill

Tricia Kropp

Wealth Strategies Advisor

Bank of America, N.A.

Where do we begin? It starts with you.

At Merrill Lynch Wealth Management, your financial advisor focuses on the things you care about most- family, goals and priorities - even as they change over the years.

Understanding Your Life

Welcome

Placing the investor at the center of the planning process—while maintaining a market focus — is my goal in helping you work through difficult financial transitions and decisions that can occur in your life. The process begins by getting to know you, your family and financial situation, understanding your risk tolerance, time horizon, liquidity needs, goals, priorities and unique financial concerns. From there, a personalized financial strategy is designed, drawing upon the investment insights of Merrill and accessing the credit, lending and banking solutions available from Bank of America. As your needs or market conditions change, I will meet with you to track and adjust your approach, as necessary.

Philosophy

I believe the best financial approach is the one that helps you pursue your goals. That's why, from the start, we talk about your aspirations and encourage you to ask questions about issues that matter most to you. Calculating how to manage future health care expenses? College on the horizon? Considering the sale of a business or purchase of a home? Preparing to pass your wealth to future generations? It all starts with a plan intended to help you manage, grow, and preserve your wealth today, while also considering the impact it can have for years to come. With access to the investment insights of Merrill and banking solutions from Bank of America, I will work with you to develop an approach designed to help address your financial needs.

Approach

Every relationship begins with a conversation, helping you identify and prioritize which goals matter most to you. Whether it's transferring wealth to the next generation, customizing your financial approach to help you pursue your passions, or providing advice and guidance to help you stay informed, I start by listening to learn more about you and your family.

Your approach to investing

Drawing upon research in the field of behavioral finance, Merrill developed the Investment Personality Assessment to help us get to know you better as an investor and potentially help you refine your own investing preferences. By gaining a deeper understanding of how you think and feel about investing through this assessment, we can customize the financial approach we develop together to help you pursue what matters most to you. Our Investment Personality Assessment is one of the ways to help us get to know you - to understand your goals and priorities. These questions will help us provide you with additional insights and resources.

Understanding your goals and priorities

Your life and goals change. We have tools to help you keep track of these changes so they can be reflected in your financial approach.

Capabilities

Merrill’s process is designed to help deliver a customized, comprehensive experience to assist you not only in wealth accumulation and preservation, but in areas that go beyond investments. Providing you with access to the investment insights of Merrill, trust and fiduciary services from Bank of America Private Bank, and the banking and lending solutions of Bank of America offers a way to help you manage all of the pieces of your financial life. Working one-on-one with a Merrill advisor means you have a single point of contact to help you with potential strategies for transferring wealth to the younger generation.

Focus On Individuals, Families and Small Businesses

I believe that financial success can be achieved when you’re able to make investment-related decisions and trade-offs that can help you reach personally meaningful goals. Whether you’re planning your retirement, saving to buy a home or funding a child’s education, the process begins by getting to know you and how you feel about the following:

  • Health: Managing healthcare expenses, now and in the future
  • Home: Upsizing, downsizing, remodeling or buying a vacation home
  • Family: Taking care of your family and other people in your life
  • Leisure: Spending your free time in meaningful ways
  • Giving: Volunteering, mentoring others and giving to charities
  • Work: Working in retirement, selling or starting a business
  • Finance: Bringing it all together and defining your financial goals

Success will be measured by the amount of progress you are making toward reaching your goals, making thoughtfully considered adjustments as events and conditions warrant.

This material should be regarded as general or educational information on healthcare or Social Security considerations and is not intended to provide specific healthcare or social security advice. If you have questions regarding your particular situation, please contact your legal or tax advisor.

Staying on Track

We understand that both your life and the financial markets can change over time. By checking in to discuss changes in your life and revisiting your financial approach, our goal is to help you stay on track to achieve what's most important to you.



Reviews to help you
stay on track

We’ll meet with you to review your goals and the progress you’ve made toward reaching them. We’ll also discuss any adjustments needed to your financial approach to help you stay on course.



    Changes in your life
    and to your goals

    Your life and goals change. As these changes occur, we can update your approach to reflect them.

    #DigitalMerrill

    MyMerrill is your online destination for access to your financial information, secure communications, and a robust offering of tools and capabilities.

    Your advisor is a click away within our site or mobile apps

    You can manage account security with our customizable security capabilities such as touch ID, one time passcode, and other security features

    Access to your complete financial life is available with My Financial Picture, Merrill’s asset aggregation tool

      Let’s Have a Conversation

      Helping you reach your goals starts with getting to know you personally. Through understanding what matters most to you, together I can help you create a financial approach that reflects your personality. Only then can I offer an approach that is built around your life priorities and the advice you need to help you address fluctuations in the market and changes in your life. Let’s work together to help you achieve your goals.

      Why Merrill?

      As Merrill Lynch Wealth Management Advisors, we will sort through the financial complexities of your life, helping you build a customized investment approach to address your needs and pursue your goals.


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      We put you first, every day.
      Learn more about the dedicated one-on-one relationship you can have with a Merrill Lynch Wealth Management Advisor.

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      Transcript of Video 

      No question too big or moment too small
      For every question you have, every decision you make and every answer you need, we are with you to listen and help guide you along the many paths your life can take. Watch this video to see some questions we can address together.


      The Power of the Right Advisor®
      Working with a dedicated Merrill advisor means you get personalized investment strategies from Merrill plus access to comprehensive financial solutions only Bank of America can deliver.

      Personalized advice from a dedicated financial advisor.

      We get to know you and your family, your financial situation and what matters most to you.

      A comprehensive approach, built around your life’s priorities.

      Drawing from our experience and the best thinking of Merrill, together we will design an approach that reflects your unique needs, priorities and financial situation.

      Adjusting your investment approach as your life and the markets change.

      We will work to help you stay on track, regardless of what the markets are doing.