Portfolio Management

Fee Only Advisory Structure

• Hired and paid only by the client
• Not compensated by any investments used.
• Not compensated by Schwab or Ameritrade
• Firms charge low trading fees but no commissions earned on transactions
• Advisory fees deducted from accounts with no tax consequences.

Advisory Fees start at a maximum of 1% for the first $100,000 and decreases incrementally for larger dollars. The next $150,000 is .75% and the next tranche is .65%. We also take into consideration the nature of the account and as accounts surpass $1,000,000 or several million the fees become very favorable. We also evaluate the situation and can make adjustments to be as fair as possible for the actual services we are providing. 

In short our overall fee structure is among the lowest in the industry without a loss for personal service!

Discount Brokers

Discount brokers take orders to buy or sell a security.  They do not have reps that call the client and they do not make recommendations. Because of this, the transaction fees they charge to place orders are very low compared to the traditional stock broker you would actually talk to for advice.

It should be noted that over the years, discount firms have morphed into situations where they start to provide other services where they do charge fees. This can become confusing to the consumer.  We use only discount services to get the lowest transaction costs along with excellent services.  There are many firms we can use but we have chosen Charles Schwab and TD Ameritrade.  The clients account is held by them. The client authorizes the discount firm to allow an independent advisor to place trades for their benefit.  The client can also make trades but usually does not.  The client could also terminate this agreement at any time.

Investments Used

• Exchange Traded Index Funds:  ETF’s
• No Load and no Transaction Fee Mutual Funds
• Individual Stocks or Bonds
• Money Market and Cash accounts.
• Treasury issues and bank issued C.D.’s.

The objective is to build many levels of diversification across different markets and different types of securities.

Tracking and Reporting

Schwab and Ameritrade Provide:

• Monthly or quarterly reports directly from Schwab or Ameritrade.
• “On Line” access to their account and the option to get all correspondence electronically.
• Automatic Transaction confirmations.
• Ten years history stored in PDF Format. This includes monthly statements and transaction reports
• Tax information (1099’s etc) at year end in a PDF or paper format that is also stored on the web page.
• Realized and Unrealized capital gain and loss information.

We Provide

• Simple to read quarterly snapshot of all holdings and year to date performance.
• Easy to understand quarterly newsletter
• Proprietary Database that tracks all transactions, dividends, fees etc.
• Comprehensive third party web portal where client can, view all of their investment and banking accounts including those that we do not manage.

It is not unusual for a client to tell us that for the first time they have a solid understanding of where they stand financially