With over 40 years of combined experience and tenure at large Wall Street broker-dealers, our  decision to become independent and partner with United Capital in 2007 was prompted by the unprecedented changes in the financial services industry. Rather than wait for our concerns to be validated (which unfortunately became reality in 2008), we decided that a proactive change was appropriate and in the best interest of our clientele. We are independent wealth advisers with no proprietary products to sell, and are completely aligned with our clients best interests.

William L. Swearingen, II
Managing Director

Mr. Swearingen began his Wall Street career in 1987 after completing his BBA in Finance at Texas Tech University. In 1994, he had the opportunity to join Wall Street boutique firm Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette (DLJ) as Vice President, Private Client Group.

David J. Swearingen
Managing Director

Mr. Swearingen graduated from Texas Tech University in 1990 and immediately joined Merrill Lynch's executive training program. In 1997, David joined his brother William at Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette (DLJ) as Vice President, Private Client Group where they decided to pool their knowledge and resources.

Swearingen Financial

During their tenure at DLJ, the Swearingen's had the opportunity to attend a private equity conference in New York for which the key note speaker was David Swensen, Yale University's Chief Investment Officer of their multi-billion dollar Endowment. As a result, William & David have spent the past decade studying the core philosophies and disciplines of higher education Endowment portfolios. Upon DLJ’s acquisition by Credit Suisse in 2000, they were asked to return to the Merrill Lynch Private Client Group as Vice Presidents. In December 2004, they took the position of Director at Bear, Stearns & Company.  With concerns over the overall direction and agendas of main steam Wall Street, they decided to separate themselves from Wall Street in December 2007 (prior Bear’s change in March of 2008) and joined United Capital Financial Advisers, Inc, an independent investment advisory firm. 

J. Mark Rawlings
Relationship Manager

Mr. Rawlings started his career in 1993 at the Public Accounting firm of Ernst & Young LLC consulting for and serving the needs of major financial institutions and private investment companies. He earned the designation of Certified Public Accountant (CPA), hold his FINRA Series 7 and 63 securities licenses and the NASAA Series 65 Uniform Investment Adviser Law Exam, and is currently a Certified Financial Planner® applicant. He is also license by the Texas Department of Insurance. He has focused the majority of his career on providing individuals with sound investment advice and offering life-relevant advice and financial planning strategies uniquely designed to achieve their individual goals and objectives. In his free time, Mark enjoys cycling and spending time outdoors.

Leah Bailey
Practice Manager

With almost a decade in the financial industry, Ms. Bailey's experience encompasses a variety of roles, including five years as a municipal bond broker and three years at a private bank where she performed operational management and monitored compliance regulations. She holds a FINRA series 52 and actively purses additional security licenses to keep pace with a dynamic industry and career.
At United Capital, she provides operational oversight for the completion of new business, investment repositioning, trading activity and compliance protocols. These processes help maximize the client's experience, as well as improve efficiency within the practice as a whole. In her spare time, she enjoys practicing yoga, painting and connecting with friends or family over dinner.
In her spare time she enjoys practicing yoga, painting and connecting with friends or family over dinner.

OUR CORE BELIEFS:

• Wall Street has lost touch with the individual investor. Today’s large Wall Street investment firms do not understand the individual client’s needs nor do they have the resources to provide truly unbiased solutions. Further, Wall Street broker-dealers have an inherent conflict of interest as it relates to their fiduciary responsibilities to the client.
• Risk is something that investors prefer to avoid. Through extensive risk analytics and portfolio “stress testing”, we strive to deliver personalized solutions with the highest probability of success given a family’s unique circumstances, goals, and aspirations.
• Returns are random. No one really knows what asset classes will perform best (or perform poorly) in the months and years to come. By accepting this reality, we believe that market, sector, and asset class timing is a zero sum game.
• Control only what is controllable. Controlling and monitoring ones overall risk profile relative to personal goals and aspirations is the ONLY thing that is controllable. We cannot control nor predict what the capital markets will deliver.

OUR OFFERING OBJECTIVES:

• Our goal is to act as our clientele’s personal “family office”. Because we have no proprietary product and are 100% aligned with our customer’s best interests, our hopes are to assist with any and all financial decisions. Monitoring and managing multiple accounts can be a daunting task for busy executives.
• Complimentary asset consolidation web-site. Via our relationship with eMoney, both customers and prospective clients are offered access to our web-site which allows for complete consolidation of ALL financial accounts at one site, including 401(k)s, NSO accounts, restricted stock accounts, deferred comp plans, and outside brokerage/bank accounts.
• Prior to engaging any relationship, we encourage individuals to participate in a series of web based calls to get a better understanding of our One Best Financial Life™ platform.
• We believe that separation of attorneys, tax professionals, and investment managers allows for a healthy checks and balances system. We encourage and help to quarterback the coordination and collaboration with other providers.
  • Concentrated Stock / Option Analysis
  • Trust, Estate, and Philanthropic Strategies
  • Intergenerational Wealth Transfer
  • Tax Planning
  • Executive Compensation Planning
  • Insurance Analysis and Planning
  • Investment Management

REPRESENTATIVE CLIENTELE:

Our primary focus is on assisting individuals and families who have successfully accumulated substantial wealth and wish to keep the corpus intact. A large portion of our practice is designated to serving the unique circumstances and needs of senior executives of publicly traded corporations and owners/senior management of privately held companies.