It is our desire to provide competent, conservative, and professional investment management. We also respond to the needs of our clients, with particular sensitivity to their financial goals and individual concerns. Often clients need a financial “family doctor” to help them deal effectively with non-investment matters, without becoming overwhelmed by complexities and details. To maximize our usefulness, we make it our business to be conversant with a number of financial subjects, and to know as much as possible about the style and quality of some of those in the other disciplines whose services might be required by our clients.

Some of the assistance we provide includes:

• Help in structuring realistic investment strategies by drawing on our knowledge of the capital markets, both current and historical, and our understanding of our clients’ financial circumstances.
  
  
• Advising clients on asset allocations and fund selections within retirement plans we do not directly manage.
  
  
• Steering clients away from get-rich-quick “investments” that are too good to be true.
  
  
• Assisting clients in establishing estate planning goals.
  
  
• Counseling clients during divorce negotiations on the financial implications of settlement options. We also assist in the structuring of pre-nuptial agreements and the melding of two financial families into second marriages.
  
  
• Reviewing and advising clients on insurance plans (including life, long-term care, etc.) and assisting them in working with insurance agents.
  
  
• Helping with the selection of accountants and attorneys, then interfacing with those professionals, as needed, to achieve the best possible results for our clients.
  
  
• Providing guidance when re-financing homes, including evaluation of financing alternatives and the selection of mortgage brokers, where needed.
  
  
• Guidance in financing children’s educations, including the creation of educational trusts and the funding of custodial accounts.
  
  
• Retirement counseling, including projection of potential income and expenses.
  
  
• Assistance to financially inexperienced elderly clients in dealing with necessary tasks such as checkbook balancing and bill paying.
  
  
• Helping clients with the financial details of hiring caretakers for and organizing the affairs of elderly parents.
  
  
• Helping families when there have been competing financial tensions, often by suggesting solutions that the parties could not suggest to one another.

We encourage our clients to consult with us whenever they have questions. Our fees are based on portfolio values and we do not tack on an hourly amount for talking to us. Many of our clients feel these “value added” services are at least as important to them as the day-to-day management of their portfolios. Of course, many clients don't anticipate needing this extra support when they hire us. We have found, however, that in the course of a long-term relationship, it is a rare client who doesn't eventually seek our help in several of the above areas.