BT Wealth Management, a leading Registered Investment Advisor headquartered in Atlanta, is proud to announce that Clay McDaniel has been promoted to partner. McDaniel has served as the firm’s Director of Research since September 2015 and has more than 13 years of experience with family offices, hedge funds and Registered Investment Advisors.
 
“Clay is a differentiator,” BT Wealth Management Managing Partner and Chief Investment Officer Scott Craig said. “Not only has he helped take the firm’s research process to another level, but through his network we find opportunities not typically seen by firms like ours.”
 
Founded in 2008, BT Wealth Management has benefited from rapid growth in recent years, pushing it past $700 million in discretionary assets under management, as of February 28, 2018. McDaniel is a member of the firm’s six-person investment committee, which includes Craig, Ken Thrasher, a co-founder of the accounting firm Bennett Thrasher, with which BT Wealth Management is affiliated; Jeffrey Call, a partner at Bennett Thrasher; and fellow BTWM partners Cliff Draughn and Win Walstad. McDaniel and his team research investments globally across all asset classes. He has a strong background in private and alternative investments and has performed full investment and operational due diligence on funds across a wide variety of sizes and strategies. McDaniel’s role also includes risk modeling, communications, consulting and working with specific clients to construct and tailor portfolios to meet their needs.
 
McDaniel came to BT Wealth Management from Zurich Alternative Asset Management in New York, where he served as Director, Hedge Funds. At ZAAM, he helped manage investments in hedge funds, private equity and real estate and was responsible for manager selection and due diligence across fixed income and credit-related strategies, among others.
 
“I am grateful for this promotion and am excited to continue the partnership with Scott that we forged nearly 30 months ago,” McDaniel said. “We are still in the early stages of what is possible for a firm like ours. We have a deeply experienced and talented team, intensely focused on helping each individual client achieve financial success. It is very satisfying to play a role in that success, to build a portfolio that helps meet his or her financial goals.”
 
“We think of portfolios as a whole and not just as a collection of assets,” said McDaniel, who is a Chartered Financial Analyst. “Every asset, every strategy, needs to serve a purpose. Sometimes, that purpose is largely on its own and sometimes it is in connection with the other investments. Experience has taught us that predicting the future is nearly impossible, so our goal is to build portfolios that are resilient to whatever happens in the future.”
 
McDaniel earned a Bachelor of Business Administration degree and a Master’s in economics from the University of Kentucky. In his spare time, he enjoys writing music.