With the following principles guiding us, we provide the professional expertise and trustworthy guidance you need to clear through financial information overload (most of which is designed to sell products), develop your financial confidence and eliminate the stress and worry that can come from money concerns:
- As a fee-only planner, we are paid directly and exclusively by our clients, so you can be sure our recommendations are based on your interests. Unlike most other advisors, we do not receive commissions or referral fees nor do we have compensation arrangements with banks, brokerages, mutual fund or insurance companies that could influence our recommendations. While we make specific investment recommendations for our clients and can assist with implementation we never receive payments from third parties to promote or sell products.
- To work with us, we do not impose net worth or investment value minimums and we do not collect fees based on the size of your investment portfolio. Rather, we offer our services through engagements in which you pay for the time we work on your project and meet with you. These charges are based on our hourly rate and quoted in writing before we start any work.
- We strive to create trusting collaborative relationships with our clients where the primary focus is on the person rather than the money. By integrating life planning in the engagement, we can help you examine what is and is not working for you, why you make the financial choices you do, what is most meaningful to you, and outline a plan of action for your life goals.
- We are bound by a written fiduciary oath to our clients to always put their interests first. You may think all financial service providers offer this, but most do not.
- We’re frugal. Our overhead is low, so we’re able to charge less than many other financial planning firms. This savings doesn’t mean you will receive a “cookie cutter” plan or lower quality service. We still provide professional and competent financial planning that is customized for each client. It does mean that our thriftiness carries over to our planning analysis as we pay close attention to costs versus benefits in the recommendations we make to you.
- Obviously, we need to be profitable to stay in business, but how we achieve that profitability is very important to us. We believe our firm’s ongoing success is a natural result of remaining principled in our conduct and focused on our clients obtaining maximum benefit from our services.
We would like you to think of us as your resource to relevant and objective financial advice for everyday life so you can make those wise money decisions as they come up. When you are ready to talk, you can arrange a Get Acquainted Teleconference with Mary by booking on-line, calling us at 312-528-9077 or sending an email request.