Our Process

Typically a client will schedule an initial consultation. Here is a list of items that are helpful to have at that meeting: Initial Meeting Checklist. Some clients will elect to complete our investor profile questionnaire prior to that meeting. Once we have gathered all of your information, we then use a financial planning system called MoneyGuidePro to put together a full financial plan. Part of that plan is a portfolio review and recommendations.

We use your risk tolerance quiz along with your other financial data to create a suitable asset allocation. This asset allocation helps us to create a composite benchmark to compare your existing portfolio and to create a proposed portfolio. The composite benchmark ultimately helps us to "keep score".

We create the proposed portfolio by selecting money managers in the asset classes deemed suitable by the risk tolerance quiz. We choose to work with money managers with proven track records over extended periods of time. Money managers are filtered and selected from a list based upon the following criteria:

*Performance in the top quartile of asset class for the past 3 years

*Beta <1.00, Beta is a measurement of risk compared to asset class

*Manager tenure over 3 years

*Lower than average expenses

*Lower than average turnover

*Scandal free

We compare your existing portfolio and your proposed portfolio after all fees. For qualifying accounts we will normally charge a fee based upon assets under management. This puts us on the same side of the table as you. There is no bias as to what investments we use.

Once you decide to follow our advice, we will create an investment policy statement. The investment policy statement is a document that states what allocation we will maintain, what benchmarks we will compare performance against, and how we are paid. Then we will transfer the accounts and allocate them accordingly.

We like to meet with our clients at least annually, but many of our clients prefer to meet quarterly. In addition, we have the investments set up on an alert system which will notify us daily if any of our funds have had material changes, such as a manager change, fee increase, style drift, or if the fund has underperformed for a period of time. Our office will also handle all of your service requests, including address changes, beneficiary changes, distributions or contributions. If you need anything, just call or email.