Meet Shardea Ages | Founder & Wealth Advisor

I am a strong advocate for education. Today, education can come in many forms, such as self-study and certifications. I found personally that my career catapulted when I decided to pursue my CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER ™ designation. It is a certification that carries a lot of meaning in the financial services industry. It means that I have experience, education, and the fiduciary responsibility to consistently put the needs of my clients ahead of my own.-every time. Ultimately, I decided to invest in myself and trust that the success would follow. I was correct.  

My firm, Collective Wealth Partners (CWP) is an Atlanta- based wealth management firm dedicated to supporting the creation of wealth for Black and other resilient communities of color through comprehensive advisory services and holistic financial planning. While we are based out of Georgia, we have clients throughout the United States. There are 4 partners, Kamila Elliott, CFP® , Emma Foulkes, CFP® , Brian McKinney, CFP® and me, along with 3 support staff members. Kamila and I began discussing our master plan for this firm in July 2021 and we brought on Brian and Emma later in the year. 

Collectively, our partners have over 70 years of financial services experience with large firms that cater to wealthy and usually white clients primarily. We ultimately decided that we want to work with more diverse clients, wealthy diverse clients of course, but also first-generation wealth builders who may not have large investable assets but do have significant salaries and an interest in being more strategic with their money.  

Starting this firm was more difficult than any one of us imagined. Because our industry is highly regulated, we worked with a compliance consultant and attorneys that advised us on the proper way to build the firm. The first few months were quite stressful if I am being honest, because we had to learn how to run the business. Previously, we operated as advisors exclusively. We were only responsible for serving our clients, and suddenly we had to be compliance officers, finance officers, operations officers, marketing professionals, etc. Although there are 4 of us, we all had to wear many hats on top of continuing to service our existing clients and prospecting new ones. For me personally, it has been an exercise in trust and delegation. I naturally want to be involved with every aspect of this firm, as it is truly my passion project, but I had to quickly learn that if I want this firm to be nationally recognized and bigger than me, I needed to rely on my partners. 

Today, I am extremely proud of what we have built so far. We have over 200 clients nationally and we are constantly meeting with new prospective clients. Our goal is to be the firm of choice for both advisors and clients who are committed to closing the racial and gender wealth gap. I truly believe that we are well on our way to accomplishing our vision. 

While there are many great individual minority advisors in our space, we are one of the largest black owned firms with the most CFP® professionals in the nation. Every engagement is led by a credentialed CFP® practitioner and we have a team approach when working with clients. While we all provide comprehensive financial planning–retirement planning, cashflow management, debt management, insurance planning, education planning, tax and estate planning–we also individually hold more expertise in different areas.  For example, I work with a lot of business owners, professionals with side businesses and United States citizens that want to relocate internationally. Because of my background and current pursuit of the Behavioral Financial Advisor certification, I also specialize in helping clients manage their debt and cashflow by understanding their relationship with money, values and changing behaviors and mindset. The financial experiences that we witnessed as children have a major impact on our own financial behaviors, so I love incorporating this aspect into my practice and my clients have found it to be very meaningful. I’m able to share this expertise with CWP clients who work with other advisors. Similarly, my colleagues offer their specific expertise to my personal clients.  

Our collective approach to our client’s financial journey has proven to be a true distinguisher among our peers.

I fall in love with Atlanta every year that I live here. I am constantly uncovering new sights, parks and restaurants. My absolute favorite place in the city is my home. There aren’t too many other places where I can own a home on the lake with a tennis court in the backyard and still be in the city. That said, I would invite my friend to come visit during my favorite music festival, One Music Fest. OMF is always an incredible time, there are always relevant acts, great food trucks and an overall amazing time. I love live music, so we would also go to Apache Cafe to enjoy local talent and enjoy a good meal and strong drinks. During the stay, we would grab some salmon egg rolls from Big Dave’s Cheesesteak and walk it off at Sweetwater Creek State Park. 

Throughout my career I had the great fortune of working with many people that saw my potential and poured into my development over time. There are too many to name here. To recognize someone though, I would say that my biggest supporter has been my husband, Clinton Ages. Clinton not only is a fantastic husband, but he also happens to be an Executive Coach. He is skilled at making processes more effective, creating and pursuing goals strategically and improving one’s mindset. For me, he has been an invaluable component of my success and a great partner enabling me to take on more risk.