Stan Barnes is the Managing Director of Barnes Capital Group (BCG), an advisory firm that focuses on wealth management for individuals and organizations that is based on a goal-oriented financial planning process. Two-thirds of the firm’s assets under management are individually managed accounts with the balance in retirement plans such as 401k and profit sharing. The firm also consults with businesses on their group benefits, such as medical, disability income, life and dental; as well as executive compensation.
Stan grew up in Augusta, Georgia and then went off to Lexington, VA where he graduated from Washington & Lee University with a degree in English. He then decided to pursue business and earned an MBA from Emory University’s Goizueta School in Atlanta.
After Emory, Stan was recruited to work on the investment side of Metropolitan Life, first as an analyst in their Atlanta offices and then as a bond trader in their home office in Manhattan. After a couple of years in New York, he and his wife Tenley and their son Travis wanted to get back to the south. That led to the family’s move to Tallahassee, where shortly after, their daughter Colson was born. Stan then joined his father-in-law, Giles Toole in his 30 year- old financial planning practice.
Over the course of Stan’s career in Tallahassee, he has been fortunate to work with a number of talented team-members including advisor, Eddie Hatch (11 years) and head of operations, Kim Lee (26 years). Stan and his team believe that in order to effectively advise clients, you have to put their interests first, but you also need to have developed the expertise and knowledge to counsel them in areas such as retirement planning, investment management and business succession planning. To that end, BCG advisors have MBA’s and professional designations such as Certified Financial Planner that come along with the requirement to satisfy continuing education and a code of professional ethics. “I’d have to say that one of the things I’m most proud of in our business is that we have been trusted enough to be able to sustain long-term client relationships, some of which have spanned close to 30 years. Being engaged in helping with the financial aspects of our clients’ lives you see marriages, births, retirements, the start of new businesses —-and you go through the good times as well as some of the tough times with them. It’s gratifying to be part of their growth and maybe in some small way, to be a part of their successes.”
Stan has been active in the community as a member of Leadership Tallahassee, Class X and served on the Chamber’s Economic Development Board. He currently serves on the board of the Big Bend Hospice Foundation and Flagler College’s Community Advisory Council and is former Chairman of the Community Foundation and a board member of the Florida Economic Club. Weekends find him at St. Teresa beach or in church at Christ Presbyterian where he serves on the team of Elders.
