Investment Management Questions

• Which investment company will have my money?

  Charles Schwab. Although clients may request us to use a broker-dealer of their choosing, we generally recommend that clients open brokerage accounts with Schwab. We are not affiliated with Schwab. The client will ultimately make the final decision of the custodian to be used to hold the client’s investments by signing the selected broker-dealer’s account opening documentation.

• Is investing risky?

  All investing strategies we offer involve risk and may result in a loss of your original investment which you
  should be prepared to bear. Many of these risks apply equally to stocks, bonds, commodities, and any other
  investment or security. That’s why we don’t day trade and focus on long-term investing. 

• What is your company investment philosophy? 

  We prefer passive index investing to keep fund expense fees low.  Through strategic asset allocation, we
  construct our long-term target weights for asset classes and strategies based on the client’s time horizon, risk
  tolerance, and required rate of return to meet his or her financial goals. Through tactical asset allocation approaches,
  we may deviate from target long-term weights established according to our strategic asset allocation approach within tolerance ranges based on our return expectations for asset classes and investment strategies at a given point in the market cycle. 

• Do you provide active and passive investing options?

  We may choose investment vehicles that are considered passive, active, or a combination of both styles.
  Passive investing involves building portfolios that are composed of various distinct asset classes. The asset classes
  are weighted in a manner to achieve a desired relationship between correlation, risk and return. Funds that passively
  capture the returns of the desired asset classes are placed in the portfolio.
  Active investing involves a single manager or managers who employ some method, strategy or technique to
  construct a portfolio that is intended to generate returns that are greater than the broader market or a designated
  benchmark. Actively managed funds are also designed to reduce volatility and risk.
  We may engage in both passive and active investing in your portfolio. However, we strive to construct portfolios
  of funds and individual securities that we believe will have the greatest probability for achieving our clients’
  personal financial goals with the least amount of volatility and risk rather than attempt to outperform an arbitrary
  index or benchmark.

• View an example of how we charge for investment management only services.

  For example, an account valued at $100,000 would pay an annual advisory fee of 1.00%, based on the
  calculation:

  $100,000 x 1.00% = $1,000. The monthly fee would be $1,000/12 = $83.34 monthly

   

• Which is better Wealth Management for a flat-fee or Investment Management for a percentage-based fee?

  The fee model best for clients depends on the amount of investable assets, especially if you have a large amount invested. For example, if you have $500,000 invested, you’ll pay $5,000 annually to an advisor charging 1% of assets under management without any financial planning, but you may only pay $3,600* per year for flat-fee wealth management with Mountaintop Wealth which includes comprehensive financial planning. *Complexity and client needs may increase price*