Partnering for the future

BIG PLANS: Oak Leaf Wealth Management owners Jon Sweet, right, and Mark Williams, along with junior partner Marja Sweet, center, provide financial and retirement planning and money-management services for clients across the country. / PBN PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO
BIG PLANS: Oak Leaf Wealth Management owners Jon Sweet, right, and Mark Williams, along with junior partner Marja Sweet, center, provide financial and retirement planning and money-management services for clients across the country. / PBN PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO

Established in 1998, the financial-services firm Oak Leaf Wealth Management is growing its market in northern Rhode Island and efforts to serve women and millennials.

In May, owners Jon Sweet and Mark Williams took over Auclair & Auclair financial planners in North Smithfield and now provide services from that location as well as in Newport, where Williams is based, Sweet said. The company also works out of an office in Rehoboth.

Focusing on financial and retirement planning and money management, Oak Leaf Wealth Management partners with the Commonwealth Financial Network, an independent broker/dealer, enabling Oak Leaf to remain independent and focus on expertise and service, not just products, Sweet said.

In addition, a year and a half ago, the firm hired Sweet’s daughter, Marja Sweet. She had been working at State Street Global in Boston. The younger Sweet brings a contemporary awareness to the business, encouraging the firm to update its website, broaden the topics of e-newsletters, and market to women and millennials, Jon Sweet said.

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Meredith McBride, marketing manager, and Jacki Zahn, office manager, round out the team.

Marja Sweet and McBride are also interested in broadening marketing to women and the younger generation, he said.

“We are in growth mode,” Jon Sweet said, and “in the process of defining that. Marja and Meredith have a real desire to market to women. I had a single mom and never knew my dad, and I support that 100 percent.”

Part of the marketing approach will be communicating more frequently and one-on-one with female clients.

“The quality of one-on-one communication and getting people’s questions answered – if you ever lose sight of that then you’re growing for the wrong reasons,” he said.

Knowing how to communicate with clients also is a priority, Sweet added.

“It’s always going to be something, a market downturn, higher taxes or inflation,” he said. “It’s the challenge of this business, but what I like most [is] putting all of these challenges in perspective for clients.”

The firm has about 800 clients, predominantly individuals, but also small businesses and nonprofits. More than 60 percent of clients are from Rhode Island, he said.

Sweet and Williams, who met in 1988 when they were both American Express financial advisers, are both certified financial planners. Sweet focuses on financial planning while Williams’ specialty is as a money manager, although they make decisions together on portfolios.

“The experience Mark and I have had in the financial-services industry is one where you can’t know everything, so having different expertise and a partner you can rely on is really a benefit,” Sweet said.

Gaining more Rhode Island clients is a long-range goal of the firm.

“Whatever we do, we do want to grow, but we want to do it well,” he said. “We don’t want to change the level of services we offer.” •

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