MEMBER FEATURE: The MacDermott Group at Merrill-Lynch

FEATURING:  Ian MacDermott, Senior Financial Advisor of The MacDermott Group at Merrill-Lynch

The MacDermott Group at Merrill-Lynch in Manchester, NH was formed over 25 years ago by father and son team Wally and Ian MacDermott. Though Wally has since retired, the team has expanded to include Registered Senior Client Associate Ashley Berberian and Financial Advisor Sara Bee, who also serves on NHBSR's Measure What Matters NH Committee.

Ian, who grew up in Bedford, NH, encourages and supports his team in giving back to the local community by participating in various nonprofit organizations. Though The MacDermott Group consists of only three people, the team is actively involved in a host of local organizations, including: Easterseals NH, which provides a multitude of community services, The Farnum Center, which support individuals and families struggling with addiction, NH High Tech Council, which opens up STEM opportunities for students across NH, and the Manchester Police Athletic League, which helps foster positive interactions between inner-city youth and the police.

In developing financial portfolios and strategies, The MacDermott Group finds ways to use investment as a tool to similarly give back to and improve our world. Ian, Sara, and Ashley strive to understand the most important issues to clients both personally and financially, then design financial plans that meet these goals. "What we're seeing," says Ian, "is that more and more people are shopping in their day to day lives and making buying decisions based on goals they see for society and our world. We have the opportunity to direct that same energy and passion towards investing bigger financial assets for even greater positive change." For example, guided by the social and environmental issues most important to their clients, The MacDermott group can develop investment portfolios of companies that support greater representation of women on their executive board and are carbon zero.

"Years ago," remarks Ian, "people might have eliminated parts of an investment portfolio that supported alcohol and tobacco or something else they found detrimental to society. Now we're actually seeing that people are proactively and specifically wanting to invest in companies that can demonstrate a positive track record in supporting causes and a vision of society our clients believe in. And we are also now seeing studies confirm that investing in positive outcomes for society actually results in better stock portfolios and financial results for our client. We've develop ways to screen for and rank the performance of companies and their impact on our world."

Ian believes that investors have a personal and professional responsibility towards driving positive changes throughout society and that they are uniquely poised to do. By aligning clients personal and financial goals with outcomes that are most beneficial to our society, The MacDermott Group at Merrill-Lynch is able to have significant impacts on the kind of companies supported and able to thrive in our society as well as to push other companies to be better. The MacDermott Group very evidently cares about our communities and world and is just as dedicated to helping others drive positive changes throughout our society.

You can reach out to Ian to learn more about The MacDermott Group at Merrill-Lynch at ian.macdermott@ml.com