Our Team
At Best Financial Strategies Group we help a select clientele build, manage, and protect their wealth. And we’re there for our clients throughout life’s transitions – planned and unplanned.
We do this by focusing on the four cornerstones of wealth: Investment Management; Financing and Liability Management; Non-Portfolio Risk Management utilizing insurance and other asset protection strategies; and Estate and Charitable Planning.
Our goals-based financial planning process always begins by listening to our clients. Listening to understand their unique situation, their past experiences, and their goals for the future. With the information clients share with us, we go to work – studying, testing, analyzing, and modeling solutions and strategies to help them meet their needs. We present our findings in plain English, without a lot of technical jargon, and our advice is objective, unbiased, tax-efficient, and cost-effective. We evaluate the performance of our clients’ plans on an ongoing basis and we will suggest adjustments when there are material changes in the markets, in tax laws that effect our clients, and whenever there are major changes – transitions – taking place in their lives.
To every client relationship I bring my education and commitment to ongoing professional development. I earned a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology and Economics from East Carolina University and a Master’s in Business Administration from Campbell University.
In addition to holding the Certified Financial Planner® (CFP®) designation, I am also a Certified Investment Management Analyst (CIMA®), a Certified Private Wealth Advisor (CPWA®), a Retirement Income Certified Professional (RICP®), an Accredited Estate Planner (AEP®), a Certified Exit Planning Advisor (CEPA®), and most recently I obtained a Certification in Long-Term Care (CLTC®). Some people tell me I’m certifiable. I think that’s a compliment.
A quarter century of experience in the financial industry has impressed upon me the importance of exercising my judgment with care, skill and caution. And growing up, watching, and working with my father in the family’s haberdashery, engrained in me the value of bespoke – custom-tailored – solutions, a heritage that carries on at Best Financial Strategies Group.
My parents also taught me the responsibility that comes with my surname: always give your best effort, always place your clients’ best interests first, always do your best to help others, and always strive to be the best husband and father you can possibly be. I’m truly blessed with a wonderful wife, Heather, and our sons, Avery and Worth. They are constant reminders of the importance of family and the impact that my work has on my clients and their families, now and for generations to come.
Emily Pittman serves as Senior Registered Private Client Associate for Best Financial Strategies Group. She prides herself on being able to form meaningful relationships with their clients where they become like family. She works hard to understand her clients’ passions and what drives them, while being their cheerleader and advocate.
She started her career at Wells Fargo Advisors in 2015 and holds the Series 7 and 66 licenses. She earned her BSBA degree from East Carolina University with a concentration in Finance.
Outside of the office, Emily enjoys baking, spending time with family, friends, her yellow lab, Emmett and red lab, Ruby. She currently resides in Wayne County, where she was born and raised.
As a Financial Advisor, Barbara is dedicated to helping individuals develop investment strategies that line up with their needs, goals and risk tolerance. Her mission is to provide every client with targeted, comprehensive financial advice and portfolio strategies - delivered with the highest level of personal service and professional integrity.
She strives to help each one of her clients plan for a financial future in a way that best meets his or her goals. Planning takes more than a single session to put wealth to work in support of your life goals. It takes a process. As your life circumstances change, so must the investment strategies she uses to help keep clients on course toward their objectives.
Barbara has over 20 years of experience in the Financial Industry, serving in numerous capacities including Market Leader of multiple locations for 8 years. This experience has provided her with the tools needed to help clients with a holistic approach to investment planning and placing clients' needs at the forefront of every decision that is made.
Away from the office she enjoys spending time with family, reading, visiting the beach, and worshiping with her church family at The Bridge Church. She also enjoys volunteering in the community, where she has served on the Partners in Education committee for Wayne County Public Schools, numerous sporting organizations and church youth programs.