Picture two kinds of clients. One is closing in on retirement after three decades of saving, wanting to know if the money will last. The other is younger, holds company stock suddenly worth more than it used to, with no idea what a badly timed exercise could cost in taxes. Many advisors serve one of those people well. Friend Wealth Group was built to serve both.

Who They Are

Friend Wealth Group is a father-and-son financial advisory team practicing through RBC Wealth Management in Raleigh. Joe Friend, CPFA™, CRPC®, Senior Vice President and Senior Portfolio Manager, works with retirees, families, and business owners on retirement income, tax strategy, and legacy. Alexander Friend, CFP®, Financial Advisor, works with families, executives, and business owners on retirement and goal planning, equity compensation, sale or IPO planning, and succession, and builds the team's model portfolios. Jessica Couts, Registered Client Associate, is usually the first point of contact.

Four Decades in the Making

Joe Friend has been advising North Carolina families and businesses since 1987, building the practice around local business owners. Many of those relationships now span multiple generations. Alex joined in 2022, the year the practice took the Friend Wealth Group name, and spent his first years building out the equity-compensation side of the business. He earned his CFP® in 2025.

What They Do Today

The client base is a genuine blend by design: retirees and pre-retirees remain the largest group, alongside a faster-growing base of executives and business owners in the decision-heavy part of their careers.

Day to day, the practice covers retirement income planning, tax-considerate strategies, estate planning coordination, 401(k) and deferred compensation review, equity compensation planning (ISO/NSO exercise strategy, 83(b) elections, QSBS analysis under Section 1202), and direct CPA coordination before year-end.

Alex leads new engagements using the CFP Board's seven-step financial planning process: understanding the client's full situation, identifying and prioritizing goals, analyzing where things are currently headed against the alternatives, developing recommendations, presenting them, implementing in stages rather than all at once, and monitoring on a regular schedule, with a standing rule that a life change is a phone call, not a wait-until-the-next-meeting item.

Alex says the first meeting often catches people off guard. In his words:

"How little of the first meeting is about investments. People come in expecting to talk about performance and allocation, and instead we spend an hour on their family, their business, their taxes, and what they want the next ten years to look like. In my experience the portfolio conversation comes last, and I think that catches people off guard."

That order matters most for executives and entrepreneurs, because the blind spots in that group tend to be quiet ones. Underestimating concentration is the biggest one: when salary, bonus, options, and retirement all ride on one company, that's one bet, not four. None of it is exotic. It's just easy to miss while you're busy building wealth.

A common version of the problem:

Take an executive holding incentive stock options in a private company heading toward a sale. Exercising all at once in the transaction year can trigger significant AMT and forfeit long-term capital gains treatment. Exercising earlier starts the holding period. And if the stock meets the Section 1202 requirements, that can be really helpful for federal taxation. Outcomes vary by circumstances. What doesn't, Alex says, is the timing: "Most of the value in these situations comes from planning 12 to 24 months ahead, not at closing."

Equity Is a Position, Not a Plan:

"Owning a lot of something that has gone up is not the same as knowing what you intend to do with it. The second thing I repeat: decide what the money is for before you decide where to put it. The order matters more than people expect."

Two Advisors, One Household

Both advisors work with families. Joe leads the multigenerational and legacy relationships built over four decades; Alex leads financial planning across the practice and the executive and business owner side, and builds the model portfolios. When they disagree, they settle it fast, with no politics and no career risk. The result for clients is speed and candor.

Asked what that looks like for clients day to day:

"It mostly looks unremarkable, which is the point. You call and you reach us, not a queue. Jessica knows your accounts and your name without looking them up. If you email in the afternoon about a wire or a beneficiary change, our goal is to get back to you that day or the next morning. At a very large firm, you can be well served and still feel like a ticket number. There are three of us, we know every household, and we live in the same city our clients do."

The RBC Wealth Management platform underneath all of this was a deliberate choice, too. The team wanted both halves: large-firm resources (research, lending and banking, executive stock plan services, estate and philanthropic specialists) with a three-person team in Raleigh who still pick up the phone.

Looking Ahead: Building for the Triangle's Next Chapter

Asked where the practice is headed, Alex says it's about doubling down, not pivoting:

"Deeper in the same direction rather than broader. Retirement and family relationships that built this practice are its foundation, and they'll stay that way. The growth is on the pre-transaction side: equity compensation, business sale preparation, and liquidity-event planning, where the Triangle has the most unmet need, so that's where we're investing: better planning tools, more education for founders and executives, and the capacity to serve more of those families well. Growing the team is part of that. The goal is to be the obvious call for a specific kind of situation, while staying the practice that's known families here for four decades."

Regionally, the Research Triangle accounted for 73.2% of North Carolina's venture deals in 2025, up from 67.9% in 2024, according to the Center for Entrepreneurial Development (CED), with funding reaching $3.4 billion.

Why Raleigh

Alex is a Raleigh native who played hockey through college at Milwaukee School of Engineering and came back to Raleigh on purpose: Joe's four decades of relationships are here. Outside the office, he's active in his church and, with his wife (an NC State graduate), in the Catholic Campus Ministry at NC State. The team supports the Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina and gives each holiday season to Healing Transitions, InterAct, Saving Grace Animal Center, the Wake Tech Second Chance Scholarship, and the North Carolina Museum of Art.

Plan Your Consultation

• First conversation: Complimentary, no obligation.
• Best fit for: Families and business owners with some complexity: equity compensation, a concentrated position, or a transition on the horizon.
• Website: fwgrbc.com
• Office: Friend Wealth Group, RBC Wealth Management, 3800 Glenwood Ave, Suite 400, Raleigh, NC 27612
• Alex Friend: 919-571-6249 | [email protected]
• Joe Friend: 919-571-6259 | [email protected]
• Social: LinkedIn (Alex) | LinkedIn (Joe) | Facebook | Instagram

Follow @friendwealthgrouprbc for more from the team. Friend Wealth Group is a proud Best of Raleigh Gold Partner. Follow @thebestofraleigh for more.

Disclaimer: RBC Wealth Management does not provide tax or legal advice. All decisions regarding tax or legal implications of your investments should be made in consultation with a tax or legal advisor.