Your Advisor For Life

A fiduciary to all clients putting the client’s interest first and foremost before the firm, as opposed to doing something that is suitable which is the common standard many financial firms are held to. Suitability is a much lower standard of care for a client

We certainly can still help you. We fully embrace technology and often use a combination of the phone and webinars to communicate. With our webinar capabilities you can speak to us face to face. Also, you can see any necessary documents with our screen sharing capabilities. Making it convenient to connect with us anywhere as long as you have a computer and internet connection.

All client assets are custodied at TD Ameritrade which holds over $1.2 Trillion (as of FY 2018) in assets. TD Ameritrade is Lloyd’s of London Insured and SIPC insured with very robust security measures. This means your assets are always safe and secure viewable at any time.

Passive Investing is the idea of simply tracking a benchmarks performance as close as possible before fees. A perfectly tracked benchmark means the investment performance is identical to the benchmark minus any fees. At the core of passive investing is the premise that markets are efficient, meaning that markets are extremely competitive with investors all over the world participating to the point where all securities reflect all current information. If this premise holds true then there is no reason to stock pick but to rather own the market or an index. The most commonly cited index’s are the S&P 500 and the DOW jones industrial average to represent “the market”. However, there are thousands of indices so many people could invest passively but have a variety of outcomes based on what indices they decide to track for their investment portfolio. Grow With Me believes broad indices offer excellent low cost exposure for a variety of investments and often employs passive investments while focusing on the asset allocation to adjust for the proper risk exposure a client is willing and able to bear.

Active Investing is investing to try and outperform an investment benchmark after fees. Active investing is based in that markets are not always efficient and that at times securities are mispriced to allow for opportunity to outperform the market.  Active investing can also have a target goal of minimizing risk to maximize the risk return profile of an investment. Active management has undergone a lot of scrutiny in recent decades due to many investment managers underperforming their respective benchmarks over time. Grow With Me believes active management does have its place to employ at times in the investment world under proper care as some markets are more efficient than others with many more investors involved in the price discovery of a security than others. An example of this would be a large blue-chip stock trading on an American stock exchange that has lots of analysts watching it due to its size then comparing a small company looking in a foreign emerging market country that few people own due to its size and lack of analyst research.

Every payment structure has its conflicts; however, we believe commission-based investments have more than others. The first is different commission investments pay different levels of commission. The other issue is most of this pay is front loaded to when a client signs paperwork. Creating very little incentive to care about the client once the commission is paid. We earn our pay as we continue to maintain your relationship as a client.

For investment accounts we charge a small percentage of the account managed. This cost is fully disclosed before your investments are managed. Clients typically pay this directly from the investment account managed so there is no need to pay from an outside account.

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 For ongoing personal financial planning clients are charged $150 starting a month. Depending on the level of complexity involved in a client’s case, this monthly fee could be higher though most clients will be at the $150 mark.

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To give clients flexibility, we offer hourly or project based financial planning. Hourly rates start at $150 depending on scope of the work. Project based planning is negotiated ahead of time with the client to avoid any finished cost uncertainty for the client.

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We do not receive any additional payment then what is outlined above. That means there is no commissions for the investments we recommend or hidden kickbacks from investment companies. We are only paid by the client on the terms agreed upon. All payment agreements are discussed and agreed upon before a client is ever charged.

This is how the insurance business works and there is very little that can be done to structure it any other way. People will pay the same price for the same insurance product regardless where they buy insurance, as prices are set with the state.