What We Don’t Do
What we do is important, but what we don’t do is equally important.
It’s rare to find a firm willing to issue a list of what they don’t do – consider this a list of items you may want to investigate with other firms. We hope this improves your understanding of our industry and fosters more trust in us.
We do not:
- Ignore other assets, held away accounts, dependent needs, insurance, or the like – we plan holistically considering your entire balance sheet
- Sell you any products. Unlike firms offering proprietary products, insurance, or structured notes – we are free of conflicts of interest.
- Receive any compensation, monetary or otherwise, from anyone other than our clients.
- Pay any compensation, monetary or otherwise, for referrals.
- Ignore the tax implications of investments or turnover. We’re pretty sure we all live in the same world – one where taxes matter.
- Purchase particular share classes or utilize separately managed accounts. It’s not in the best interest of the client to purchase assets that must be sold to be transferrable. We don’t attempt to trap clients and cause them to have unnecessary capital gains.
- Tell you we provide unique portfolios and then secretly map clients into one of a few “model” portfolios. This is widely practiced and certainly not unique. We provide truly unique portfolios for each client.
- Outsource key functions of our relationship. The planning process and investments decisions inform each other, therefore, planning and portfolio construction are integrated, not outsourced.
- Avoid conversations concerning fees – all of our fees are transparent and clearly presented and we welcome and encourage questions and comparisons.
- Hide conflicts of interest. Go ahead and ask us any question – we have nothing to hide and endeavor to be completely transparent.
- Confuse you – we welcome all questions and desire to fully educate you on all aspects of our work, your plan, and investment recommendations. We communicate with complete candor and transparency.
Our industry is particularly opaque and confusing to consumers. If you need some guidance to help you make the difficult decision of whom to hire as your financial advisor, we invite you to read our hopefully helpful piece: Help me Find an Advisor. In order to understand how we conduct ourselves we welcome you to learn more about the two pillars of wealth management: financial planning and portfolio management.
