Lexington Wealth Management stresses relating to clients on personal level. As a young accountant with a big CPA firm, Michael Tucci once got a dirty look from one of his bosses for addressing by first name the CEO of company whose books Tucci was examining. To the partner's surprise, however, the CEO, many years Tucci's senior, responded with equal familiarity.

"We'd been getting to know each other over the course of the time I was there, and we'd been talking about a lot of different things," says Tucci. "That taught me that people will really open up and respond to people they feel comfortable with."

Real empathy

About 10 years ago Tucci and his business partner Kristine Porcaro made this "strategy of embracing clients as individuals" the cornerstone of their boutique advisory business Lexington Wealth Management.

"By fostering real empathy for each of their financial situations while we use innovative vehicles to safeguard their wealth -- such as our early adoption of alternative investments and a fully transparent, best-in-class reporting package -- we know that Lexington's unique approach is resonating with the marketplace," says Tucci.

Last fall the Lexington added two senior team members to its team. Gary Pomerantz, formerly an advisor with Lexington, Mass.-based Wingate Financial Group joined as a managing director in charge of financial-planning services; Adam Kerr, formerly with Neuberger Berman's private-asset team in Boston, joined as wealth-management director with responsibility for business development and client-service initiatives.

"Gary and Adam are exciting additions to our team," says Tucci, Lexington's president and CEO. "Along with their impressive expertise, they bring with them a clear willingness to help us forge personal connections with clients: a quality that we believe is of the utmost importance."

Prior to Wingate, Pomerantz was a v.p. with Boston-based financial-planning and asset-management boutique TFC Financial Management. Before that, he was financial-planning consultant with Harvard University.

At Neuberger Kerr provided investment-management and financial-planning services to the firms clients, including high-net-worth individuals, trusts, and small to mid-sized foundations and endowments. He has also worked at State Street Global Advisors, Devonshire Partners, and Putnam Investments.

Lexington has about $200 million in assets under management or supervision, according to a spokesman. The firm has an office in New York in addition to its headquarters in Lexington, Mass. -FWR

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