Calvin Williams, Jr. is the Founder and CEO of Freeman Capital, an automated wealth management platform for retail customers. Calvin aims to close the wealth gap in overlooked communities across the country through increasing access to financial planning, investment management, and financial education.
Russ Alan Prince: Tell me about Freeman Capital.
Calvin Williams: Freeman Capital is the only Black-owned automated wealth management platform registered by the SEC. We are a personal financial planning and wealth-building platform for those who have traditionally been ignored by the industry. Specific wealth-building actions have been isolated to only those with existing wealth and we are focused on breaking through this barrier and expanding the accessibility of wealth-building tools and strategies to all.
With guidance from Certified Financial Planners, we provide clients of any income background with the financial building blocks to increase their cash flow and assets, as well as grow their wealth. We provide a similar level of financial/investment advice and education that high-net-worth and ultra-high-net-worth wealth managers deliver to their clients, but at an affordable rate. We are on a mission to enforce the concept that wealth is achievable, attainable, and accessible regardless of income level or the size of one’s bank account.
Prince: What steps has Freeman Capital made to help close the generational wealth gap in America for underserved individuals and families?
Williams: Freeman Capital offers a suite of financial planning tools designed from the ground up for underserved communities. We help customers close the wealth gap by giving them guidance, security, and confidence in step-by-step action plans to build wealth all for the price of a cell phone bill.
We provide financial planning, investment management, and insurance at scale. Vanguard says that a financial advisor can add 3% a year to a client's assets. 3% a year over 30 years, will DOUBLE a person's wealth. We serve black and brown high earners who are living check to check and put them in a position to build generational wealth through proper and holistic financial planning.
We provide end-to-end wealth management such as budgeting, cash flow, and estate planning through our platform and are helping to identify where individuals are in their wealth journey. Action items are tailored to the user’s unique needs and goals, and when the user completes them, an additional three actions are added to their profile.
Based on these goals, we help clients leave behind a legacy by complementing their plans with estate planning, tax planning, insurance, and investment guidance. By making one-on-one financial planning accessible and available to everyone we have been helping to close those wealth gaps and will help more as we go forward. Freeman is not your traditional wealth management firm; we are providers for everyone and for every income level.
Prince: How can the wealth management industry and HNW individuals be more inclusive to underserved investors and make an impact in addressing the wealth gap?
Williams: To be more inclusive, as an industry, there need to be more solutions that are designed from the ground up that are specifically built for underserved communities. Their needs, problem set, and psychology are different from the traditional wealth management client, and trying to apply traditional solutions to their unique problems will end up limiting their growth potential.
This is why our model of financial planning-as-a-service has been so successful. By providing individualized advice from a company that understands their specific state of mind and finances, we are showing that wealth is achievable, attainable, and accessible. It has been proven that a key problem to building wealth is access. Yet, we are seeing the wealth gap persist even with increased access.
We believe the best way to make an impact is to make financial planning advice accessible. Anyone can invest, but not everyone has the luxury to receive financial planning advice. The best way for the industry and for HNW individuals to get involved and make an impact would be to underwrite the cost of subscriptions/services. This would help get first-time customers initial exposure to financial planning, allowing them to see the benefits, incorporate it into their daily lives, and ultimately pass down that knowledge to their families.
RUSS ALAN PRINCE is the Executive Director of Private Wealth magazine (pw-mag.com) and Chief Content Officer for High-Net-Worth Genius (hnwgenius.com). He consults with family offices, the wealthy, fast-tracking entrepreneurs, and select professionals.