Recognition

Five Star Wealth Manager Award

Lou Melone, CFP® has been awarded the Five Star Wealth Manager Award for 2012 through 2025.  

Branden Carney, CFP® was been awarded the Five Star Wealth Manager Award for 2023 and 2024.

Five Star Professional conducts market-specific research to identify outstanding service professionals.* 

Their research objective is to recognize wealth management professionals who show a commitment to clients, demonstrate strong industry credentials and are evaluated on the quality of their current practice.

14x Winner<br/>

14x Winner

2023 &#38; 2024 Winner<br/>

2023 & 2024 Winner

Clients trust Melone Private Wealth’s financial planners because they provide peace of mind while protecting and growing wealth

Thought Leadership

Episode 1: Behavioral Investing

Episode 1: Behavioral Investing

DBusiness editor RJ King and Lou Melone, CFP®, CEPA® discuss the fundamentals of behavioral investing in episode one.

This new financial planning podcast helps answer a fundamental two part question ‘will you outlive your money, or will your money outlive you? …And the answer comes down to having a plan and understanding behavioral investing.

Unpack Your Financial Baggage by Lou Melone, CFP&#174;, CEPA&#174;

Unpack Your Financial Baggage by Lou Melone, CFP®, CEPA®

For up to sixty years you have been packing your suitcases—unconsciously— with inaccurate and unclear financial strategies and decisions. As you visualize your next thirty years, you have finally come to a realization that hits almost everyone at this point in life: it is time to repack my financial baggage to ensure our future; otherwise, my family and the generations thereafter will never get to where they want to go.

Authority Magazine

Authority Magazine

5 Things Retirees Say They Wish They Were Told Before They Began Retirement, with Lou Melone - an interview with Beau Henderson

Learn more
Authority Magazine

Authority Magazine

The 5 Essentials of Smart Investing: With Lou Melone of Budd, Melone & Company- an Interview with Jason Hartman

Learn more
Authority Magazine

Authority Magazine

5 Things To Look For When Hiring a Financial Planner or Financial Adviser, with Lou Melone and Tyler Gallagher

Learn more
Sales &#38; Cigars: Building Trust with Branden Carney

Sales & Cigars: Building Trust with Branden Carney

Branden has appeared on the Walter Crosby Podcast Sales and Cigars.  His episode is Building Trust with Branden Carney.  During the podcast Branden covered:

  • Building trust with your clients. 
  • The variables that might affect your retirement plans.
  • The financial industry is all about planning. 

Links to Podcast 

Listen Now
Authority Magazine

Authority Magazine

Jason Hartman's Investing During the Pandemic Series

Excerpt from Branden's Interview:

 My first piece of advice to everyone is turn off the news, especially as it relates to the financial markets. Unfortunately, there is never anything good that comes from the ongoing news cycle today. Most of the time, especially as it relates to the financial industry, they are just feeding you the next apocalypse “de jure” that is going to “take down the markets”.

Read More

*The award is based on 10 objective criteria. 

Eligibility Criteria 

  1. Credentialed as a registered investment adviser (RIA) or a registered investment adviser representative;
  2. Actively licensed as a RIA or as a principal of a registered investment adviser firm for a minimum of 5 years;
  3. Favorable regulatory and complaint history review (As defined by FSP, the wealth manager has not; A. Been subject to a regulatory action that resulted in a license being suspended or revoked, or payment of a fine; B. Had more than a total of three settled or pending complaints filed against them and/or a total of five settled, pending, dismissed or denied complaints with any regulatory authority or FSP's consumer complaint process. Unfavorable feedback may have been discovered through a check of complaints registered with a regulatory authority or complaints registered through FSP's consumer complaint process; feedback may not be representative of any one client's experience; C. Individually contributed to a financial settlement of a customer complaint; D. Filed for personal bankruptcy within the past 11 years; E. Been terminated from a financial services firm within the past 11 years; F. Been convicted of a felony);
  4. Fulfilled their firm review based on internal standards;
  5. Accepting new clients. Evaluation criteria - considered:
  6. One-year client retention rate;
  7. Five-year client retention rate;
  8. Non-institutional discretionary and/or non-discretionary client assets administered;
  9. Number of client households served;
  10. Education and professional designations.

Wealth managers do not pay a fee to be considered or placed on the final list of Five Star Wealth Managers.

*Melone Private Wealth, LLC (“MPW”) is a registered investment advisor. Advisory services are only offered to clients or prospective clients where MPW and its representatives are properly licensed or exempt from licensure.   Melone Private Wealth provides investment advisory and related services for clients nationally.

Disclosure: This award was issued on 05/01/2025 by Five Star Professional (FSP) for the time period 08/21/2024 through 02/28/2025. Fee paid for use of marketing materials. Self-completed questionnaire was used for rating. This rating is not related to the quality of the investment advice and based solely on the disclosed criteria. 3715 Detroit-area wealth managers were considered for the award; 289 (8 % of candidates) were named 2025 Five Star Wealth Managers.  The following prior year statistics use this format: YEAR: # Considered, # Winners, % of candidates, Issued Date, Research Period. 2024: 3,651, 278, 8%, 5/1/24, 9/5/23 - 2/29/24;  2023: 3,550, 312, 8.7%, 5/1/23, 9/5/22 - 3/3/23;  2022: 3273, 304, 9%, 5/1/22, 9/3/21 - 3/11/22; 2021: 3260, 275, 8%, 5/1/21, 8/10/20 - 3/19/21; 2020: 3105, 284, 9%, 5/1/20, 8/1/19 - 3/20/20; 2019: 2987, 347, 12%, 5/1/19, 8/21/18 - 3/19/19; 2018: 3069, 322, 10%, 5/1/18, 8/30/17 - 3/19/18; 2017: 1836, 356, 19%, 5/1/17, 8/24/16 - 2/24/17; 2016: 1961, 630, 32%, 4/1/16, 10/22/15 - 3/9/16; 2015: 2238, 627, 28%, 5/1/15, 10/22/14 - 3/9/15; 2014: 3448, 658, 19%, 5/1/14, 10/22/13 - 3/9/14; 2013: 2762, 749, 27%, 5/1/13, 10/22/12 - 3/9/13; 2012: 2658, 745, 28%, 5/1/12, 10/22/11 - 3/9/12. Wealth managers do not pay a fee to be considered or placed on the final list of Five Star Wealth Managers. The award is based on 10 objective criteria. Eligibility criteria - required: 1. Credentialed as a registered investment adviser (RIA) or a registered investment adviser representative; 2. Actively licensed as a RIA or as a principal of a registered investment adviser firm for a minimum of 5 years; 3. Favorable regulatory and complaint history review (As defined by FSP, the wealth manager has not; A. Been subject to a regulatory action that resulted in a license being suspended or revoked, or payment of a fine; B. Had more than a total of three settled or pending complaints filed against them and/or a total of five settled, pending, dismissed or denied complaints with any regulatory authority or FSP's consumer complaint process. Unfavorable feedback may have been discovered through a check of complaints registered with a regulatory authority or complaints registered through FSP's consumer complaint process; feedback may not be representative of any one client's experience; C. Individually contributed to a financial settlement of a customer complaint; D. Filed for personal bankruptcy within the past 11 years; E. Been terminated from a financial services firm within the past 11 years; F. Been convicted of a felony); 4. Fulfilled their firm review based on internal standards; 5. Accepting new clients. Evaluation criteria - considered: 6. One-year client retention rate; 7. Five-year client retention rate; 8. Non-institutional discretionary and/or non-discretionary client assets administered; 9. Number of client households served; 10. Education and professional designations.  FSP does not evaluate quality of services provided to clients. The award is not indicative of the wealth manager's future performance. Wealth managers may or may not use discretion in their practice and therefore may not manage their clients' assets. The inclusion of a wealth manager on the Five Star Wealth Manager list should not be construed as an endorsement of the wealth manager by FSP or this publication. Working with a Five Star Wealth Manager or any wealth manager is no guarantee as to future investment success, nor is there any guarantee that the selected wealth managers will be awarded this accomplishment by FSP in the future. Visit www.fivestarprofessional.com.