CEO, Chief Strategist
Wendy Whitehurst
“A goal without a plan is just a wish.”
Our Founder
As the Founder and Chief Strategist of Next Level Advisor, Wendy brings more than two decades of experience in marketing and business growth.
A seasoned professional, she has worked with national financial services companies like AAA, Aetna, AMEX, Discover Card, GM MasterCard, Raymond James Financial, and LPL Financial with nearly 25 years as a marketing consultant through her firm. Since 2007, after serving as Independent Publisher of Business Leader Magazine, she developed a niche working with wealth management firms and their centers of influence.
Wendy was Director of Advisor Solutions with a fast-growing RIA and was instrumental in their growth from inception in 2014 to date. In less than 3 years, 51 IARs joined the RIA, 38 firms, and AUM soared from $0 in 2014 to over $1.25 billion as of Q417. She has worked with more than 100 advisors and more than 75 firms to help launch their business.
In early 2019, Wendy collaborated with LPL Financial to help launch their Strategic Wealth Services division in April of 2020. She currently has a vital and exclusive role with Strategic Wealth Services (SWS) to build the marketing infrastructure needed for incoming advisors that leave the employee or wire house model to form their own firm with LPL’s elite SWS division.
LPL SWS wraps their arms around teams that are joining and forming their own firm for the first time. These teams have a dedicated CMO, CTO, CFO, and virtual admin so that they are set up for success from day one. The slogan for LPL SWS is You Own It, We Run It.
Wendy is a native of Charlotte, NC, and received a BA in Economics from UNC Chapel Hill and an MBA from Queens University in Charlotte. She was named one of Mecklenburg County’s 50 Most Influential Women in 2012 and 2018. In 2013 her company received an award for Small Businesses Making a Difference in the Community.
She has been involved with charitable events including the launch of the Curry Celebrity Golf Classic benefitting the Ada Jenkins Center, Save A Life Golf Classic benefitting LifeShare and the Wine Spectacular benefitting the Lake Norman Community Clinic. Wendy had her own fundraising organization, Not Just Shopping, for eight years.
She and her husband and two daughters reside in Charlotte. Emily, her oldest daughter graduated from UNC in Charlotte and has launched a clothing line with her sister called SisterStash that can be found on Instagram @sisstash. Megan is attending UNCC as a junior and continues to promote her jewelry company MEyes.
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