Skip to main content

  • Home
  • Home
  • Clients
  • Philosophies
  • Our Team
  • Contact Us 
    • Ask Us A Question
  • Affiliations
  • Blog
  • Financial Check-Up℠
  • Resources
    • Calculators
    • TD Ameritrade Account Login

BCR® Wealth is passionate about helping people succeed®

Sign up for our monthly newsletter
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
   

Wealth is about more than just money. It should be a byproduct of successfully pursuing your passions; expanding on what’s possible through practical planning and evidence-based investing. At BCR, we are passionate about helping people succeed. We understand that every client has a unique financial situation with its own set of strengths and challenges. We strive to understand each client’s passions and values to develop a comprehensive plan that will help them reach their goals and achieve financial success.

Clients

 

Young Professionals

Young Professionals: Time Is on Your Side

Generations X and Y (born between the early 60s and late 90s) are in the accumulation phase of their lives. These are the years focused on earning and advancement. These are also among the busiest years of a person’s life both at work and at home. During these years, it can be tempting to avoid a deep consideration of your financial future. However, these years are a critical window in achieving your long term success. You’ve got decades of working years ahead of you. Make them work for you.

With young professional advisors on our team, we are your ally, ready to help you make the most of the many wealth-building years that lie ahead. We’ll show you how to realistically balance short- and long-term goals, aggressively minimize debt, invest while you’re young, and patiently let long-term market growth do the rest of the heavy lifting for you.

 

Busy Boomers

Busy Boomers: Near- or in Retirement

As an individual or family with seasoned perspective, you know a thing or two about what you want out of life – during your career as well as onward into retirement. But for all your experience, you may be unsure of just where you stand and what it will take you to get where you want to go. How much is enough?

What do you need in order to be financially secure? Do you need to work longer, save more, or spend less? Maybe you want to keep your fingers in your career on a part-time basis? Are your dreaming about a second career? Or maybe you really are positioned to relax and enjoy the view. If you are part of a couple, are your visions for retirement in synch? Are your risks, legacy plans and philanthropic goals covered?

At BCR, we don’t just manage your money. With advisors on our team that have successfully retired from previous careers, we understand the questions in front of you and want to help you make the most of your wealth.

 

Women and Wealth

Women and Wealth: Realize Your Financial Well-Being

Whether single, married, widowed or divorced; leading a career, a non-profit foundation, or a busy household, women all too often relinquish control of their personal wealth to others. Even if your assets are being well-managed, being under- or uninformed about the specifics of your financial plan can leave you with nagging doubts. The antidote to uncertainty is informed understanding.

With advisors who specialize in women’s finance on our team, we make it our business to help women realize their financial well-being.

Philosophies

 

Fiduciary

 

Fiduciary

 

Aligning Our Interests With Yours

By law, a fiduciary must put the client’s interest above his/her own.  Because Registered Investment Advisors are required to be fiduciaries, BCR℠ acts as a fiduciary for all individuals, families, and retirement plans. Consequently our advice is always and exclusively in our clients’ highest financial interests. 

To understand how a majority of the financial industry works, it is helpful to consider the analogy of a car dealership.  When you walk into a car dealership, it’s no secret that your salesperson’s recommendations are influenced by the dealership’s financial interests, and that you should filter the advice accordingly. In other words, you know that the salesperson not only wants you to purchase a car—s/he wants you to purchase a particular car in order to satisfy specific sales quotas.  Since you know this, you do consider the salesperson’s advice, but you also remember that you must look out for your own interests as they might not match those of your salesperson. The salesperson works for the dealership, not for you.

Unfortunately, when it comes to investing, who an advisor is working for can be far less obvious:

  • Fiduciary advice - A Registered Investment Advisor firm’s fiduciary advice must exclusively advance the client’s highest financial interests ahead of anyone else’s. Specifically, the advisor’s advice must benefit the client even if it does not serve the advisor’s own interests.
  • Suitable advice- Brokers’ suitable advice is to be seen in the same light as the car salesperson’s, and is assumed to be influenced by other interests related to their trading operations. They can recommend securities that profit them more or help them meet sales quotas without disclosing the conflicting incentive.

 

Wealth Care

 

Wealth Care: Your goals should dictate your investments
(not the other way around)

As a full-service wealth management firm, we offer an array of approaches and resources for integrating your financial planning, investment management, risk management, education planning, retirement planning, estate planning, philanthropy and related interests into a cohesive whole.

But more than what we do, we distinguish ourselves by how we do it. What are your greatest life goals and challenges? What are the big decisions that will help or hamper your success? Beyond the money-making considerations, what personal hurdles do you need to address?

From the practical to the sublime: As your wealth managers, we partner with you to focus on your financial success.

 

Evidence-Based Investing

Evidence-Based Investing: Building Wise Wealth

Just as our wealth management services are driven by the most important factors of all – you and your personal goals – our investment strategy is driven by the most important principles that contribute to confident investing:

  • Knowing and heeding the scholarly evidence that informs us which market factors are within our control, which are not within our control, and which are best ignored as distracting noise.
  • Structuring your portfolio so that you’re investing with, rather than against, the market and its expected returns.
  • Managing the “human factor” (i.e., your own behavioral instincts that trick you into making faulty financial decisions).
    • By incorporating the science of investing into our practices, we seek to build not just better portfolios, but better investors.

Home

  • Facebook Like
  • Google Plus One
  • Tweet Widget
  • Linkedin Share Button

Our Team

Photo of team member

Marshall Rathmell

CFP®, CPA/PFS
×

Marshall Rathmell

Email: mrathmell@bcrwealth.com

Marshall’s time is split at BCR Wealth allowing him to continue his enjoyment of working with the financial puzzles clients bring to the table while managing the firm and mentoring associates who will one day take care of our clients themselves.

Marshall was born and raised in Birmingham. At least six generations of his family have called Birmingham home, as well.  He is fortunate to have a large number of family members living within a short distance of his home.

Marshall and his wife, Susan, met while at the University of Alabama and married in 2007.  Susan is a clinical psychologist at the Birmingham Veterans Affairs Medical Center.  They have two young children. Their son, John Marshall, was born in 2008 and their daughter, Amelia, was born in 2011. Both children attend Brookwood Forest Elementary School and have a myriad of after-school sports and activities.

Marshall is committed to community service and serves in leadership positions in several of Alabama’s non-profit organizations.  His community service has lead him to being in the Leadership Birmingham class of 2018 and having been named 2015 Top 40 Under 40 by the Birmingham Business Journal.

Bio
Photo of team member

Sandra Cleveland

CFP®, CCPS
×

Sandra Cleveland

Email: scleveland@bcrwealth.com

Sandra is a partner and wealth manager at BCR.  She values the long-term client relationships as they celebrate their achievements, not just in moving towards their goals, but in having peace of mind that they are on track to achieve their future dreams.

Sandra’s focus is on clients who are getting serious about their preparation for financial independence – whether that looks like a traditional retirement or a career shift.  She is particularly interested in helping women explore their next steps by defining the life they desire, creating the financial plans that support their goals and helping them stay on track.  

Sandra and her husband, Mastin, have two adult daughters and two dogs.  Their daughters are Ashley, a mental health counselor in north Alabama and Adrienne, a CPA, who lives in North Carolina with her husband, Caleb and their two young sons, Elliott and Oliver.  Their dogs are Charlie, a King Charles Spaniel, and Molly, a Chihuahua.  

Sandra serves in leadership roles in civic organizations that support women in business and the community in the greater Birmingham area.  She supports the Vestavia Hills community through political, civic and philanthropic service in non-profit organizations.  She spends her free time pursuing physical fitness, reading, organizing game nights and spending time with family and friends.     

 

Bio
Photo of team member

Norman Berk

CFP®, CPA (inactive), PFS, J.D.
×

Norman Berk

Email: nberk@bcrwealth.com

Norman founded BCR Wealth in the mid-1990s after a career managing a local CPA firm. 

Norman and his wife Phyllis moved to Birmingham in the 1970s where they raised their three children.  They moved to Massachusetts in 2014 and enjoy being closer to their children and grandchildren.  He currently works at our Massachusetts office.

Norman’s career includes working with a large international CPA firm both in their New York City office and then in Birmingham, Alabama.  He then established a CPA firm, which ultimately grew to be one of the largest local CPA firms in Birmingham.  Norman is a law school graduate having passed both the New York and Alabama Bar exams.  He is also a CPA, not active, and Certified Financial Planner. ®

Bio
Photo of team member

Harold Sasnowitz

CFP®, MBA
×

Harold Sasnowitz

Email: hsasnowitz@bcrwealth.com

Harold manages the New Jersey office of BCR Wealth.  Harold’s focus is preparing professionals for and prospering during, their retirement years.  He likes the idea of sharing the reality of investment strategies and outcomes.  Harold’s expertise is avoiding the mistakes people make in investment decisions.

Harold was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, when the Dodgers played at Ebbetts Field, and long for their return to Brooklyn.

Harold and his wife, Meryl, met during their high school years.  Meryl is a retired teacher.  They have three married daughters and 18 grandchildren.  Harold refers to the grandchildren collectively as their Return on Investment, and individually as their dividends.  Harold has been learning saxophone since 2011, and recently purchased a tenor saxophone. He especially likes playing and listening to jazz.  Harold attends a jazz camp each summer.  

Bio
Photo of team member

Kristie Clayton
×

Kristie Clayton

Phone: 205-298-1234

Email: kclayton@bcrwealth.com

Kristie Clayton joined our team in November 2015 as the Operations Manager. She comes to us with a background in both Medical Administration and Finance.

 

Kristie takes great pride in providing excellent customer service and believes in taking advantage of opportunities to make a difference, one person at a time. She is passionate about growing herself and those around to exceptional levels.

 

Kristie was born and raised in Oklahoma. She relocated to Alabama in 2010 to be with her husband, Kevin. Together they have 3 Chihuahuas, Hercules, Trae and Sissy. Kristie enjoys Oklahoma Sooner football, OKC Thunder basketball and the Atlanta Braves.

Bio
Photo of team member

Mark Hume
×

Mark Hume

Email: mhume@bcrwealth.com

Mark joined BCR in August 2018.  He is excited to join this team as they share a common alignment of philosophies and values in the world of financial planning.  Building long-term relationships and imparting a positive influence on a family’s financial habits and strategies creates tremendous career satisfaction for Mark.

 

Mark has lived in Birmingham since 2006 and married his wife Edan in 2010.  Edan is a CPA and the Corporate Tax Director for Iberia Bank. They have a son named Shepherd who was born in 2013.  He is absolutely their greatest joy. They also rescued a small collie mix recently and named him Sparrow. He has been a wonderful addition to their family.

 

Mark, Edan, and Shepherd enjoy being outdoors whenever possible, especially if it includes a trip to the Blue Ridge Mountains where they often escape to relax.  They love traveling to different places creating lifelong memories from interesting and beautiful experiences. Once the temperatures cool off just a bit you can find them enjoying time with friends and family on their back patio around a fire.

Bio
Photo of team member

Clay Wood
×

Clay Wood

Email: cwood@bcrwealth.com

Clay became a part of the BCR family in March of 2017 as an Associate Advisor. He is originally from Crossville, Alabama. Clay attended the University of Alabama; there, he received a Bachelor’s in Consumer Sciences with a concentration in family financial planning and counseling.

Clay has a passion for helping people achieve their individual goals.

Clay and his wife, Lauren, met at The University of Alabama and started dating shortly after Clay graduated.  Clay and Lauren love both of their pets; Stevie Nicks their dog and Arya their cat. 

Clay enjoys staying active, cooking, The University of Alabama sports, the Atlanta Braves, traveling, and spending time with his family.

Bio
Photo of team member

Leighton Lindstrom
×

Leighton Lindstrom

Email: llindstrom@bcrwealth.com

Leighton joined the BCR Wealth team in December 2017 as an Associate Advisor. Originally from Huntsville, AL, Leighton attended Auburn University where she received her bachelor’s degree in public relations.

After moving to Birmingham and gaining five years of experience in marketing, Leighton decided to pursue her passion for helping families and individuals achieve their life goals through wise financial decisions. Leighton believes in continual personal growth and development, and she is committed to helping others reach their full potential.

Leighton enjoys being outdoors, exercising, reading, Netflix, dogs, and spending time with friends, family and her fiancé Cody.

Bio
Photo of team member

Ashley Moman
×

Ashley Moman

Email: officeassistant@bcrwealth.com

Ashley joined the BCR Wealth team in March 2018 as Office Assistant. She is a Birmingham native with a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Auburn University. She has a background in small business management and non-profit administration.  Ashley’s passion for helping people to live their best lives has allowed her to work all around the world – from the chilly winters of Quebec to the dusty sandstorms of West Africa.

Ashley enjoys long walks in nature, hiking, running, reading, and hanging out with her African housecat, Ron Weasley.

​

Bio
 

Contact Us

Ask Us A Question

 

Alabama

Phone: 205-298-1234
Fax: 205-298-1230

1952 Urban Center Parkway
Vestavia, AL 35242

Get Directions

New Jersey

Phone: 607-238-7718
Fax: 607-238-2859

22 Lenox Ave
Clifton NJ 07012

Get Directions

Massachusetts

Phone: 205-586-6132
Fax: 339-502-8901

95 University Ave #2240
Westwood MA 02090

Get Directions

Affiliations

BCR Wealth is an independent firm that puts its clients’ interests first.  In order to maximize the value we provide clients we have affiliations and strategic alliances with other organizations including:

  • Sitemap
  • Legal, privacy, copyright and trademark information
 

© 2019 Berk Cleveland Rathmell Wealth Strategies LLC.. All rights reserved.

Website Design For Financial Services Professionals