In 1995, Hale Hooper and Larry Carter met via a mutual client, a high-profile music industry executive on Music Row in Nashville. At the time, Hale was a young financial advisor with J.C. Bradford and Co., and Larry was the Managing Tax Partner at Kraft CPA’s in Nashville. Over the next few years, as their relationship grew and list of mutual clients expanded, the two began exploring the idea of forming a financial-planning based, family advisory practice focusing on a collaborative, objective, holistic approach to wealth management. At the time, the lines separating the worlds of tax planning, insurance planning, private banking and wealth management were beginning to blur. As their idea grew and began to take shape, it became evident that there was an incredible opportunity before them. In short, Larry would need to leave his tax practice and join Hale. Larry was indeed taking a “leap of faith”. As fate would have it, Tammy Rogan agreed to join the upstart practice in early 2000 as senior client specialist, proving to be a major coup for the early stability of the team.

The Carter Hooper Group was officially founded in early 2000 out of a desire to provide a consultative wealth management advisory practice for the benefit of high-net-worth clients and families. Hale and Larry’s vision of providing a “personal CFO”, one-stop-shopping approach to “all things financial” for high net worth clients was finally being realized. In 2001, after a short stint with UBS and after an exhaustive search for a better consulting platform and partner, the team joined Robert W. Baird & Co. This proved to be the beginning of a long, wonderful and rewarding relationship between wealth management team and investment partner. Ultimately, Baird’s culture, values and client-centric focus proved to be the perfect home for a planning-based consulting practice.

In 2005, industry veteran and certified financial planner (CFP) Brian Hanrahan joined the team, followed by senior client specialist Brandi Craig in 2007. In 2013, the Carter Hooper Group expanded its tax advisory practice with the addition of Jordan Marshall, CPA, a former KPMG tax advisor. Finally, in late 2021, Briana Mullenax, CPA, a former Shareholder and tax advisor in the wealth advisory group at accounting firm LBMC, joined the Carter Hooper Group. Briana’s broad experience as tax advisor to high net worth families and head of the family office practice at LBMC is the perfect complement to our well-seasoned, comprehensive wealth management advisory practice.

Most recently, Alanna Jacobson, a former Financial Advisor with Merrill Lynch, joined The Carter Hooper Group in 2023 as Senior Client Specialist.  In early 2024, Annie Duckworth, a CPA and former Tax Advisor in LBMC’s wealth advisory practice, joined our team.  Annie’s experience working with high net worth families further strengthens our tax advisory expertise, bringing the number of CPA’s on our team to four tax professionals and nine total team members.