FRED TANNENBAUM
Staff Writer

When investment-advisory firm Novare Capital Management opened in late 1999, partners Bill Baynard Jr. and Don Olmstead thought they'd picked the perfect time.
The Dow was near its peak — at more than 11,000 points — and the Novare partners were looking forward to working for themselves. They targeted customers with $500,000 to $4 million in investments.
Then the tech bubble burst. The recession hit. The Sept. 11 attacks and corporate scandals drove the markets down. These days, the Dow hovers around 8,000 points.
Baynard and Olmstead couldn't control the market, but they had to find a way to open clients' doors.
They hit the streets and haven't stopped.
That has meant lots of meetings and lots of miles driving through the Carolinas and Georgia, often in Baynard's black 1994 Lexus, which the duo jokingly calls "the company jet."
Though up to 70% of their clients are in and around Charlotte, Baynard and Olmstead make repeated trips to Atlanta and Augusta, Ga., Spartanburg and occasionally Jacksonville, Fla.
"We've had to tell our story many times," Olmstead says, admitting there were points in the early days

when they recalled how good a steady First Union paycheck had been when they worked together at the bank in the 1980s and 1990s.
Their story includes customized portfolios, personalized portfolio management and the use of individual securities. Novare also works with clients' trust and estate attorneys, accountants and investment bankers. The firm bases its fees on a percentage of assets under management. Fees are on a sliding scale between 0.8% and 1.25% on assets up to $2 million. The charge drops to 0.6% for the next $2 million.
Last year, Novare nearly doubled its assets under management to $35 million, and the partners hope to reach $50 million this year. The firm also wants to double its client base to 60. Last week, it hired Mark Bass, formerly of A.G. Edwards & Sons Inc., as a managing director.
"We're working as hard today as we did when we started," Olmstead says. "Business just doesn't happen sitting here."
Suzanne Bledsoe, Charlotte regional president of U.S. Trust Corp., trusts Novare enough to refer clients when they don't meet U.S Trust's investment threshold. She says wealth and asset management really is a referral business.
"The best way to get referral sources is to identify and develop relationships with them," Bledsoe says.