When I was a kid, every Summer I’d go to my granddad’s house and we’d count pennies together.
His family emigrated to the US when he was young, looking for that piece of the American dream. He taught me the importance of saving and investing.
We’d sit at his kitchen table and count out the pennies he’d saved for me that year by the hundred. We’d pack ‘em into rolls and take ‘em to the bank.
He’d introduce me to the bank manager, making sure I firmly shook his hand and looked him in the eye.
With the money we counted that Summer we would buy the largest savings bond we could and place it in the family safe-deposit box where it would live, gathering interest until I was ready to go off to college.
When I left for school to study engineering and computer science I cashed-in those bonds and put the money into a balanced mutual-fund offered by my brokerage, thinking they had my back. The year was 2008. Over the next several months I watched as my life savings, along with the precious memories I had with my grandfather, disappeared.
This is my story, but it’s also the story of countless Americans. I swore that I would do everything in power to make sure nothing like that ever happened to anyone I knew ever again.
Finishing school I moved to New York, a few blocks from Wall Street. From there I got a job as a broker, becoming one of the youngest vice-presidents of a FINRA broker dealer at the time, perhaps ever. I learned about trading, fixed computers on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, interacted with professional traders who were my clients, and wrote financial software for myself and my firm.
Since then I’ve helped take companies public and built technology for some of the largest banks and organizations in the world including the Federal Reserve.
In 2020 I created Merriwether Investments, Inc. to honor my ancestors including my grandmother and my namesake, the explorer Meriwether Lewis of Lewis and Clark. It is with their adventurous spirits that I stake my mission: to ensure that everyone who ever counted a penny with their grandmother, can count on those pennies for generations to come.
I’m Richard Meriwether Swensson II, and it is my great pleasure to introduce you to Merriwether Investments, Inc. A new kind of Registered Investment Advisor where professional advice meets cutting edge technology. Together we can create a personalized financial plan that meets your goals. Join us today!"
