Director of Private Wealth Strategy Christi Shell
Christi Shell is Director of Private Wealth Strategy at Shell Capital Management, LLC. She leads the planning around each family’s capital, tax planning included, and keeps their CPA, attorney and trustee working from one plan.
Her job is to see what specialists see separately.
The whole balance sheet, coordinated.
A family’s CPA sees the tax return. The attorney sees the documents. The trustee sees the trust. Each can do good work, and the costly mistakes tend to sit in the gaps between them.
Wealth gets more complicated when one decision changes the consequences of several others. My role is to understand the whole financial picture, find what’s exposed or disconnected, and work with your professionals to put the important decisions in the right order.
Christi Shell, Director of Private Wealth Strategy
Each specialist sees one part.
- CPAThe tax return
- AttorneyThe documents
- TrusteeThe trust
- Insurance agentThe policies
- Portfolio managerThe investments
The gaps, where costly mistakes tend to sit
Christi sees all five, and the gaps between them.
Planning around the capital
Cash needs, giving and what the portfolio has to do, written down before markets test it.
Tax planning
The timing of gains, losses and withdrawals, planned so the tax is a known cost before you act.
Trust and estate coordination
Making sure trusts, titling and beneficiary designations match the plan, with your attorney and trustee.
Your CPA files the returns and your attorney drafts the documents. Christi makes sure everyone is working from the same plan. If you don’t have a CPA, attorney or trustee yet, we’ll introduce you to ours.
From a first review to decisions that get done.
The result should be less uncertainty about the decisions, not a thicker binder.
- 01The whole pictureEverything you own and owe, on one page.
- 02What’s exposedThe gaps, and what’s disconnected.
- 03Decisions in orderWhat has to happen first, written down.
- 04Owners and datesYour CPA, attorney, trustee, us, or you.
- 05Follow-throughTracked until done, and reviewed each year.
Every wealth decision is a bet.
The question Mike asks of every position, Christi asks of every planning decision: what does it cost if we’re wrong, and what does it leave open?
| The decision | What’s defined | What’s left open |
|---|---|---|
| Insurance | The premium, known before you buy. | What the family keeps if the worst happens. |
| A trust | The cost to set it up and run it, and the control you hand over. | What reaches the next generation, and on what terms. |
| A gift | What leaves the estate now. | What it can grow into outside the estate. |
| Realizing a gain | The tax owed this year, known before you act. | Room to diversify, rebalance or give. |
Size each decision so being wrong is tolerable. That’s ASYMMETRY®, applied to the whole balance sheet.
Banker first. Then the family’s side of the table.
First Tennessee Bank
More than 13 years in banking leadership.
Regions
More than six years as a vice president.
Education
Bachelor of Science in organizational management from Tusculum University.
Continuing study
Yale School of Management’s Wealth Management Theory and Practice program, and a certificate in alternative investments from the CAIA Association.
Certified Wealth Strategist® (CWS®), Accredited Asset Management Specialist (AAMS®), Behavioral Financial Advisor® and Certified ETF Advisor (CETF®).
A farm, a garden and a Shih Tzu named Domino.
Christi and her husband, Mike, live on a farm in McMinn County, in East Tennessee. She keeps a garden and chickens, and shares the house with Domino.
Mike is Shell Capital’s founder and chief investment officer. Christi is your overall wealth manager and adviser, Mike your portfolio manager, and they both advise your family.
Questions about Christi.
Who is Christi Shell?
Christi Shell is Director of Private Wealth Strategy at Shell Capital Management, LLC, an independent, fiduciary registered investment adviser in Knoxville, Tennessee. With more than three decades of experience, she leads the planning around each family’s capital, tax planning included, and works with their CPA, attorney and trustee.
How do Christi and Mike divide the work?
Christi is your overall wealth manager and adviser. Mike is your portfolio manager. They both advise your family, and Christi leads the coordination with your other advisers, so everyone works from the same plan.
Start with the whole picture.
Tell us what changed, and who is already on your team.
If you write, I’ll read it myself.
Mike Shell, Founder & Chief Investment Officer
Related: Private Wealth Management, Family Office and Selling a Business.