Foundation Wealth Management is an Independent Registered Investment Advisor with over $450 million under management and a client retention rate of 95%. Foundation Wealth Management provides professional consulting services to personal wealth management clients and retirement plan sponsors. As opposed to many of our competitors, we don’t focus on selling products that benefit us, we provide personalized planning and solutions to benefit you.
Our only obligation is to you. Sound straightforward? It is.
Our Team
Pamela Hardin, Founder and President
Pam is the founder and President of Foundation Wealth Management. She grew up in a small town in Southern Illinois where her parents instilled in her a great respect for education, professionalism, and personal responsibility.
Pam attended Georgetown University where she received her BSBA in Finance and International Management. She earned her MBA at the State University of New York with an emphasis in Finance.
Pam has been a Certified Financial Planner (CFP) since 1993.
She established FWM in answer to her desire to provide expert, objective financial advice and investment management to individual clients and plan sponsors.
Matthew Hardin, Chief Compliance Officer
Matthew S. Hardin is a securities attorney and regulatory compliance consultant, mediator, and arbitrator, and is licensed to practice law in Pennsylvania, Missouri and Illinois.
Mr. Hardin consults firms throughout the United States on regulatory legal/compliance/risk management issues, performs due diligence and compliance reviews and internal investigations of SEC registered broker-dealers, investment advisers and investment companies.
He gained his experience through over 20 years in the financial services industry, including 6 years with the broker-dealer and investment adviser affiliates of The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc.; 3 years with the mutual fund complex of Federated Investors, Inc.; 4 years at Banc One Corporation and 4 years at the United States Securities and Exchange Commission.
Mr. Hardin received his Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the University of Dayton in 1983, his Juris Doctor from Pepperdine University in 1986, and his LLM in federal securities regulation from Georgetown University in 1987.
Hannah Rae Leone, Operating Officer
Hannah is a graduate of the Missouri School of Journalism at the University of Missouri. While pursuing her degree in Strategic Communication, Hannah was also a member of the Honors College and was chosen to study abroad in Prague.
Following that, Hannah completed the course of study to obtain her Masters of Business Administration, also at the University of Missouri. During her MBA program, Hannah studied and worked abroad in Ireland where she received her Six-Sigma Green Belt certification following completion of her quality improvement project at the Hertz European Service Centre.
In addition to managing the daily operation of the firm, Hannah is charged with ensuring that each client receives concierge-level service. Hannah also heads up lead development efforts at FWM.
Daniel Ladd, Financial Advisor
Dan is a financial advisor at Foundation Wealth Management. Born and raised in St. Louis, Dan knew that, upon completion of his MBA, he wanted to work at a local financial services firm. He enjoys the challenge of analyzing complex financial data and finds the dynamic nature of his work extremely rewarding.
Dan works with new clients from the data gathering meeting to the completion of the onboarding process, ensuring a smooth beginning to the FWM relationship. He prepares comprehensive financial analyses and reviews for existing clients. Additionally Dan acts as a liaison between FWM and other financial professionals, including clients’ estate planning attorneys, CPAs, private bankers and insurance agents.
Dan joined the team at Foundation Wealth Management after graduating from Missouri State University with a Master of Business Administration & a Bachelor of Science in Accounting.
Dan also maintains his CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ (CFP®) designation. Outside of the office, Dan works hard training for half marathons and triathlons.
Our Investment Committee
Our Investment Committee conducts a comprehensive review of our “Preferred Funds List” on a quarterly basis.
In general, our “Preferred Funds List” consists of no-load, low-expense ratio mutual funds. FWM selects preferred funds for each of the 19 asset classes utilized in our approach to Modern Portfolio Theory.
More specifically, we consider multiple factors when analyzing each investment option, including:
- Absolute performance in down market cycles
- Relative peer group performance
- Management structure and tenure
- Relative expense ratio
- Style consistency
- Diversification of individual holdings
- Turnover ratios
- Embedded capital gains
- Fund Stewardship (i.e. an overall assessment of a mutual fund’s fiduciary duty to its shareholders)