Frequently Asked Questions

What should I expect during my initial consultation?

Our initial consultation will be a brief, fact finding, get to know you conversation. We are interested in learning about your family, your career, your goals, and your plan for achieving them. We will also discuss our background, process, and philosophy on helping our clients pursue their goals. This meeting is complimentary.

What makes you different as an independent firm?

Being affiliated with an independent Broker/Dealer (Commonwealth Financial Network) gives us access to a large majority of the registered securities available. Commonwealth Financial does not engage in any investment banking or underwriting activities, and subsequently offers no “proprietary” investments, such as new bond or stock issued that must be brought to market. This takes away any possible conflict of interest that could arise when choosing investments for our clients, and is a major reason we choose to business with them.

How do you choose the investments you use for your clients?

Like any marketable service or product, it is typically up to the investment company to get in front of us. We are inundated with 5-10 calls/day, probably twice as many emails, too many pieces of mail to count, and even the occasional pop-in. Through our own research, due diligence, conference attending, and networking with other advisors, we are able to seek out investment companies that have not called on us, and weed out the ones we do not want to pursue any further.

We then meet in person with representatives of each company, typically on a monthly or quarterly basis. They provide us updates on their particular offering and investment space, keep us aware of any managerial changes, and explain their investing and decision making process. Often we will meet with a representative from a certain company for years prior to using their investment offerings. We take these meetings very seriously, and if we do not fully trust the representative of the company, we certainly will be much less inclined to use their investment, no matter what their track record may show.

For our most trusted companies with whom we have a large holding of client assets with, we will make very effort to attend their respective due diligence meetings each year, where we can get more in-depth analysis, meet the managers and/or owners of the company, and network with other advisors to learn the best possible ways to utilize that investment for helping our clients work toward their goals.

How do I set up an appointment?

To schedule an appointment, please call our office anytime Monday through Friday, between the hours of 8am-5pm.

More Questions?

Do you have a question not answered here? Please call or email John, () with any questions you have.