AMPHORA WEALTH MANAGEMENT - Key Persons
Educating and empowering others has been a theme in Amy's life. As a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ and CERTIFIED COLLEGE FUNDING SPECIALIST® she's known for listening, guiding and inspiring others through a holistic wealth management plan. Protecting and growing one's wealth, helping business owners seize opportunities, finding additional sources of college funding, generating tax efficiencies are what energize Amy! She understands how to navigate the important topics as one manages life's financial landscape, including areas such as pre-retirement, long term care, divorce, death of spouse, inheritance and real estate. As a child Amy loved putting puzzles together. Now, she enjoys putting all of the financial pieces together for others. She is also an avid life-long learner and community leader.
Throughout the early years of her career as a bank vice president and later, as a small business owner, she had the opportunity to connect with advisors in specialties such as law, tax, wealth management, estate planning, insurance, real estate. She worked with truly talented individuals, who gave great advice in their respective field. Yet, what was needed was a holistic, integrated approach between all advisors. An idea was sparked and when she opened her own firm she knew that she would encourage clients to bring in all of their advisors to experience an integrated format. When they couldn't get their team of advisors together, the clients were left getting great advice from each specialty, but the individual advice could at times be in conflict with others. Then, Amy met Eric through a mutual client and witnessed his comprehensive knowledge base. The firm he founded, was holistically integrating an academic, research-based wealth management philosophy and financial planning with his tax, legal and business background. They immediately knew they could join forces and offer their clients even more. The rest, as they say, is history!
Eric founded Amphora in 2011, and serves as its Manager. The firm was formed based on requests from many of his law clients over several years. Eric's clients who were business owners, professionals, athletes, and coaches all had the same problem: they were seeking, but could not find, clear financial and tax guidance on all matters relating to their wealth.
During this time, Eric met Gordon S. Murray, a twenty-five year Wall Street veteran. When posed with the complaints Eric heard from his law clients about their dissatisfaction with financial markets and advisors, Gordon explained how the financial services industry has traditionally operated to the detriment of the individual investor. He also outlined how he believed the industry should operate. This model, later articulated masterfully in the book Gordon co-authored along with Daniel C. Goldie entitled, The Investment Answer, parallels the Amphora investment approach for its clients. Eric's meeting with Gordon changed his outlook on the industry and spawned the idea to create a new firm.
Eric's meeting with Gordon changed his life in other ways. You see, at the time Eric met Gordon, he was terminally ill with a brain tumor. Gordon chose to spend his last days speaking the truth about the financial industry in order to help many others avoid the pitfalls of bad advice. Eric admired him greatly for this and has emphasized delivering the bold truth to clients in telling them what they "need to hear" rather than what they "want to hear."
Eric has spent his entire career as a lawyer listening to clients, understanding their perspectives on issues and challenges they faced, and providing measured advice towards a solution. He often explains that many of the issues facing his athlete clients who perform on the world stage are identical to the physician, the professor, and the entrepreneur. The satisfaction for him comes in shaping a plan, helping the client execute it, and seeing the client enjoy the fruits of the plan over their lifetime.
Eric studied Psychology at Villanova University before he had a brief minor league baseball career with the Philadelphia Phillies. It was in the minor leagues that Eric first began advising athletes (often in the bull pen during the game) on all matters relating to money, business, and many times psychology. He was flattered that his teammates trusted his advice.
Eric then returned to Villanova for his law degree. He, along with a group of highly-motivated classmates, created The Villanova Sports and Entertainment Law Journal, now a leading academic publication focused on the legal aspects of sports and entertainment law.
Eric then moved to North Carolina and practiced law for the next sixteen years. He maintains his law license and continues to provide advice to a small cadre of clients in the areas of estate planning, business, and tax matters.
Eric met his wife, Kristen, while in high school. As Eric says, "I needed a date to the prom." Kristen knows that the need for a prom date just accelerated what he was too shy at the time to do otherwise. That was 36 years ago. They have a son, Jackson, and a daughter, Georgia which keep them particularly busy on weekends with athletic events.
In 2008, Eric joined a small group of motivated fathers to found the Carolina Baseball Club, a non-profit travel baseball program based in Chapel Hill. He was determined to instill "the love of the game" in his son and many others. So far it has worked as the program now has over 100 players and growing.
Books he often recommends to people
For our investment approach I'm constantly giving away Larry Swedroe's original book, The Only Guide to a Winning Investment Strategy You'll Ever Need, of course Gordon and Daniel's The Investment Answer. He has also been known to share John Eldredge's Wild at Heart: Discovering the Secret of a Man's Soul, and anything from Wayne Dyer.