We believe there are five things that set us apart from other financial advisory firms.
- Fee-Only. We are a fee-only firm and do not sell products that pay us a commission (cash-value life insurance, annuities, individual municipal bonds, etc). We also do not accept any type of referral fee. Our only source of revenue is the direct fee that our clients pay us.
- Flat-Fee. Most “fee-only” firms charge assets under management (AUM) fees that typically equal 1% to 2% per year of the value of the client’s managed portfolio. We do not charge AUM fees and instead charge flat fees that are quoted in dollars.
- Project-Based Focus. More than 98% of the clients that hire us are Do-It-Yourself (DIY) investors who pay us for “as needed” or “project based” advice. In other words, these clients pay us a one-time fee rather than an ongoing or subscription-based fee. These clients can rehire us, at their discretion, when they see a need for follow-up advice. Over an investment lifetime, paying for advice on an as-needed basis this results in much lower costs compared to paying ongoing fees.
- Narrative format. We try to avoid overwhelming our clients with an abundance of charts and graphs. Instead, we deliver our advice in a narrative format and only use charts and graphs sparingly. Our goal is to communicate our recommendations in plain English that is clear and easy to understand. We believe that “to write well is to think clearly” and that financial advice is best delivered in a narrative format.
- Simplicity. Our goal is to promote simplicity with our recommendations. Leonardo Da Vinci said that “simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” If there are multiple solutions to a problem, our bias is to favor the simplest solution. We only recommend a more complex solution if it has a clear advantage over a simpler alternative.