James Noel and Pat Clevenger, co-founders of Ryewood Financial, have over 40 years of advisor experience with Northwestern Mutual. Our firm values working with business owners and entrepreneurs with a core focus of rewarding and retaining a highly skilled and competitive workforce. We specialize in 401(k) and non-qualified employer benefits that are uniquely designed to elevate executive and key-p
erson compensation. Our 401(k) client’s range in size between $1M - $25M of plan assets. We believe human capital is the most important asset allowing a business to excel, grow, and drive success. Most businesses have a range of compensation across the ownership team, management, and the skilled labor demographic of their workforce. We believe the philosophy of aligning culture and compensation allows our successful clients to reinvest time and money to all levels of their organizational structure. The rules around compensation and tax can be complicated and difficult to navigate for many of our employer groups to understand and evaluate. We partner with our clients to develop a compensation philosophy that aligns with their cashflow and revenue projections for their business models. Most clients want to enhance employee compensation without giving away equity in their companies. We believe designing the appropriate compensation philosophy will reward the ownership team with higher net income and business valuations. Our firm specializes in business succession planning which ultimately creates liquidity for shareholders who want a timely exit or sale of their corporate stock or shares.
