PAMELA S. RIGSBY, CFP®, CPFA®
Founder, PWS
Branch Manager, RJFS
Since the start of her financial services career in 1994, Pam has been helping individuals and small business owners accumulate and preserve wealth.
Pam graduated from the University of Central Florida in 1989 with a BA in Business. She started in the hospitality industry right out of college, but gravitated to finance when she moved to Asheville, NC. She spent the next 15 years of her career at A.G. Edwards before founding her own practice, Pursuit Wealth Strategies, in 2009 and forming a relationship with Raymond James. She was also named to Working Mother’s 2019, 2020, and 2021 lists of the Top Wealth Advisor Moms and was named to the Forbes 2020, 2021, 2022 & 2023 Best-In-State Wealth Advisors as well as Forbes Top Women 1,000 Wealth Advisor in 2020 & 2021 as well as Forbes America’s Top Women Wealth Advisors Best-In-State List for 2022 and 2023.
For her individual clients, Pam’s goal is to get them from one chapter of their lives to another by helping them plan for both their short-term needs and long-term goals. She has a distinctive style of finding the right investments, using both passive and active strategies, and making sure the strategies used are designed to get through tough and changing markets. Pam’s dedicated to the financial wellbeing of those she works with and takes an invested approach in their lives to make sure they are checking all the right boxes when it comes to finances. Small business owners need extra guidance when it comes to creating their own retirement plans. They often face issues of succession to family members or other individuals while needing income of their own. Since each business is unique, Pam enjoys designing solutions for each individual owner, taking full advantage of the tax benefits and other complex strategies.
When Pam is not hard at work, she is a wife to Howard and mom to Kylie and Clay. She is an avid tennis player, enjoys cooking, gardening and all things sports. You can also find her cheering on her favorite teams; UCF and NC State or visiting her daughter and son at UNCW. Besides her family, Pam’s greatest joy is her love of church and giving back to others whenever she can. She loves to support charities and has participated in summer mission trips with her family. Pam’s current focus is her service of aiding the homeless.
Pam is a registered General Securities Sales Supervisor and is licensed in Life, Health, Disability and Long-Term Care insurance, as well as most recently achieving her Certified Plan Fiduciary Advisor (CPFA) designation. In 2004, she became a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ professional.
Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards Inc. (CFP Board) owns the certification marks CFP®, CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™, CFP® (with plaque design), and CFP® (with flame design) in the U.S., which it authorizes use of by individuals who successfully complete CFP Board’s initial and ongoing certification requirements.
*Membership is based on prior fiscal year production. Re-qualification is required annually. The ranking may not be representative of any one client’s experience, is not an endorsement, and is not indicative of advisors future performance. No fee is paid in exchange for this award/rating.
he Forbes Top Wealth Advisors Best-In-State 2023 ranking, developed by SHOOK Research, is based on an algorithm of qualitative criteria, mostly gained through telephone and in-person due diligence interviews, and quantitative data. This ranking is based upon the period from 6/30/2021 to 6/30/2022 and was released on 4/4/2023. Those advisors that are considered have a minimum of seven years of experience, and the algorithm weights factors like revenue trends, assets under management, compliance records, industry experience and those that encompass best practices in their practices and approach to working with clients. Portfolio performance is not a criteria due to varying client objectives and lack of audited data. Out of approximately 39,007 nominations, 7,321 advisors received the award. This ranking is not indicative of an advisor’s future performance, is not an endorsement, and may not be representative of individual clients’ experience. Neither Raymond James nor any of its Financial Advisors or RIA firms pay a fee in exchange for this award/rating. Raymond James is not affiliated with Forbes or Shook Research, LLC. Please visit https://www.forbes.com/lists/best-in-state-wealthadvisors/?sh=181ba856ab97 for more info.
The Forbes ranking of America’s Top 1,000 Women Wealth Advisors, developed by SHOOK ™ Research, is based on an algorithm of qualitative and quantitative data, rating thousands of wealth advisors with a minimum of 7 years of experience and weighing factors like revenue trends, AUM, compliance records, industry experience and best practices learned through telephone and in-person interviews. Portfolio performance is not a criteria due to varying client objectives and lack of audited data. Research Summary (as of February 2021): 32,810 nominations were received based on thresholds (9,785 women) and 1,000 won. This ranking is not indicative of advisor’s future performance, is not an endorsement, and may not be representative of individual clients’ experience. Neither Forbes nor SHOOK receive a fee in exchange for rankings. Raymond James is not affiliated with Forbes or Shook Research, LLC. Please visit https://www.forbes.com/top-women-advisors for more information.
Working Mother’s Top Wealth Adviser Moms, SHOOK ™ Research considered women advisors with children living at home under 21 years of age. The ranking algorithm is based on qualitative measures derived from telephone, virtual, and in-person interviews and surveys: service models, investing process, client retention, industry experience, review of compliance records, firm nominations, etc. and quantitative criteria, such as assets under management and revenue generated for their firms. Investment performance is not a criterion because client objectives and risk tolerances vary, and advisors rarely have audited performance reports. Rankings are based on the opinions of Shook Research, LLC. Neither Shook nor Working Mother receives compensation from the advisors or their firms in exchange for placement on a ranking. Research Summary (as of 3/31/2021): from a total universe of 300,000 advisors, based on our thresholds we received 33,123 nominations, of which approximately 20% (6,624) were women and less than a quarter (1,400) at the time were mothers with children under the age of 21 and living at home. A final list of the top 500 advisors was then compiled based upon the quantitative criteria. Raymond James is not affiliated with Working Mother or Shook Research, LLC. This ranking is not indicative of an advisor’s future performance, is not an endorsement, and may not be representative of individual clients’ experience. Neither Raymond James not any of its Financial Advisors or RIA firms pay a fee in exchange for this award/rating. For more information see www.shookresearch.com
The Forbes ranking of America’s Top Women Wealth Advisors Best-In-State, developed by SHOOK Research, is based on an algorithm of qualitative and quantitative data, rating thousands of wealth advisors with a minimum of seven years of experience and weighing factors like revenue trends, assets under management, compliance records, industry experience and best practices learned through telephone and in-person interviews. Portfolio performance is not a criteria due to varying client objectives and lack of audited data. This ranking is based upon the period from 02/04/22 to 09/30/22 and was released on 02/02/2023. Research Summary (As of February, 2023) 38,314 nominations were received and approximately 1,700 women won based on thresholds. This ranking is not indicative of an advisor’s future performance, is not an endorsement, and may not be representative of individual clients’ experience. Neither Raymond James nor any of its Financial Advisors or RIA firms pay a fee in exchange for this award/rating. Raymond James is not affiliated with Forbes or Sho ok Research, LLC. Please visit https://www.forbes.com/lists/