FAQ
Q What specific financial, investment and insurance products and services do you offer?
A You will find a complete list under the "Products and Services" tab on this website.
Q Do you have a minimum investment amount?
A Our guideline is to work with individuals, families, corporations, and groups that have $250,000 to $5,000,000 of investable assets that we would manage.
Q Is there a charge for an initial consultation?
A We allow up to four complimentary hours for initial discussion, orientation, fact finding and analysis with a new prospect. Experience indicates that this provides sufficient interaction time to determine if there is a good match.
Q How do you get paid?
A The advisory fee for actively-managed, fee-based accounts of $500,000 to $1,000,000 is 1.2% per year. Accounts from $1,000,000 to $2,000,000 pay 1% per year. Larger and special situation accounts are separately negotiated.
Fees are invoiced based on end of quarter assets for the following quarter. On inception of a new account, a fee is initially invoiced based on the value of the inception assets for the remaining number of days in that quarter.
Some products such as insurance and annuities are purchased on a commission basis. The commission amount for the latter securities vary by product and provider.
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CD’s and specific, individual fixed income securities such as a Treasury, a corporate or a municipal bond have a fee imbedded in the price you pay for the instrument. That is determined by the provider and is normally less than 1%. The rationale for this is that these specific securities are normally purchased for their rate of return with the idea of holding them until they mature. In other words once these debt securities are purchased they are not normally actively managed on a continual basis. If they are purchased for capital gains opportunity, and not for income through maturity, they would fall in the actively-monitored status and be subject to that fee schedule.
Insurance and annuity products are purchased on a commission basis. These commissions vary with the product and the provider.
Special Projects or Research Advice such as financial plans or investment advice would be subject to negotiations and based on the unique requirements of that effort.
Q Can you send duplicate statements to my accountant or any other person who I designate?
A Yes, duplicate statements can be sent to your accountant or other designated person. We often coordinate directly with a client's accountant to provide them with cost basis and other information needed in tax reporting. If research has to be done on securities not purchased through us, there could be an additional charge for the time and services associated with that research.
Q Are you product neutral?
A Yes. We use RBC Correspondent Services (formerly RBC Dain Rauscher) as the custodians for our clients’ assets. Under their custodial umbrella we have a very broad array of publicly-traded securities to offer our clients. Also, on a case by case basis, we can arrange to provide proactive investment advice to individuals who would prefer to keep their money at whatever custodian they choose. Second, from an insurance and annuity standpoint we can do business with most of the major carriers in the marketplace.
Q Are there any other charges?
A Other charges may be incurred for activities such as buy/sell transactions, mailing, and handling. Such charges will vary with the specific transactions and also with the custodian.