From North Ridge to Savant: A Conversation with Brian Lawrence and Adam Cornwell
When North Ridge Wealth Advisors joined Savant Wealth Management in May 2026, the most important thing, at least to North Ridge founder Brian Lawrence, CFA®, and partner Adam Cornwell, CFP®, CFA®, was what didn’t change.
“Same team, same office, same relationships,” Adam says. “The day-to-day experience for our clients is continuous.” What did change is the depth of support Brian and Adam can now bring to every engagement: estate planning attorneys, CPAs, and specialists across Savant’s national network, available to North Ridge clients for the first time. Our goal was to ensure we did not have any disruption as a result of the acquisition and to help clients gain access to additional resources and services.
That continuity reflects something central to how both advisors work. Brian and Adam are not in the business of transactions. They are in the business of relationships. Adam backpacks and vacations with clients. Brian traces his interest in investing back to the moment his father showed him stock certificates that had belonged to his grandfather. They think about clients in terms of lives, not accounts.
The Instinct to Act, and Why It May Cost You
Ask Brian about the most common financial mistake he sees, and he does not hesitate. “Believing they can predict or control what markets are going to do,” he says. “It doesn’t matter how smart someone is.”
During the pandemic, we had many conversations with clients concerned about market volatility and potential further declines. In some cases, investors considered moving out of the market or reducing exposure. As markets ultimately recovered, those who remained on the sidelines may have missed part of that rebound, which can affect longer-term outcomes compared to those who stayed invested during that time.
Adam sees the same pattern, especially among high-income professionals. Executives and business owners are often used to being right, to making bold calls that pay off. Markets, he says, are one place where that skill may not transfer. There are times when clients feel strongly about a particular opportunity and choose a path that differs from their advisor’s guidance. When those investments do not perform as expected, we believe it can highlight the challenges of managing risk and the importance of a disciplined investment approach.
The wise approach, both advisors believe, is not a better prediction. It often involves staying invested for the long term, keeping costs low, and building a portfolio aligned with your actual situation, though no strategy can eliminate market risk or guarantee results.
Adam draws on an unexpected source of wisdom here: his years working as a bear guide. “When you encounter a bear, every instinct tells you to run. But running triggers the prey drive. It’s exactly the wrong move.” The key, he learned, is to override that instinct through education and preparation. He applies the same thinking to market downturns. The clients who may be better positioned are not the ones who react fastest. They are often the ones who have a plan in place.
What Financial Independence Actually Means
For Brian, financial independence is not a number. It is a feeling. “It is seeking peace of mind in the process,” he says. “And you can’t back into that from a spreadsheet alone.”
His process starts not with a balance sheet but with a conversation about life: What does your life look like today? What do you want it to look like in 20 years? What matters to you? The financial plan follows from those answers. The number is a byproduct of the vision, not the other way around.
Adam adds that clients can potentially miss the mark in both directions. He has seen those who have had millions in their late 90s and are still adding to their portfolios every month, paralyzed by the fear that it’s not enough. On the other side, he has watched others inflate their lifestyle with every income increase and never build real security. He identifies personally with the “Millionaire Next Door” principles: living within your means, investing consistently, and avoiding lifestyle creep. He says those values often resonate especially with first-generation wealth builders, a group he is drawn to working with.
Giving Back, and Starting Early
Brian’s philanthropic instincts run through how he has built his practice. His volunteer work with Habitat for Humanity came first, a way to help improve lives at a grassroots level, in his own community. Later, the firm began donating $100 to Financial Beginnings, a financial literacy nonprofit, for every new client brought on.
Now he uses donor-advised funds (DAFs) both for his own giving and as a strategy for clients who want to give more intentionally, a tool that helps expand and leverage the impact that started at the community level. “The goal is to connect the financial plan to what clients actually care about,” he says. “For a lot of people, giving is a big part of that.”
That commitment to financial education extends to the next generation. Both Brian and Adam enjoy working with clients’ children and grandchildren, helping set up Uniform Gift to Minors Act (UTMA) accounts and Roth IRAs for minors with the goal of planting the seeds of financial literacy early. Adam enjoys speaking to university finance groups and young professionals about building wealth the right way from the start. “Getting someone started on low-cost, index-based investing with a fiduciary advisor in their 20s can be a valuable long-term approach for some investors,” he says. “The compounding can help support long-term growth.”
Brian puts it simply: “My grandfather gave my father stock certificates. My father passed that on to me. That’s how I got into this business.” That sense of continuity, of knowledge and confidence passing from one generation to the next, is what both advisors say drew them to this work in the first place. And now, with the resources of Savant behind them, they believe they have more tools than ever to help clients build something worth handing down.