FAQS - This doesn't answer all your questions. But its a start...

How long have you been a wealth manager?

C. Russell Pound has been providing comprehensive wealth management services since the 90's and has spent the majority of his career navigating and dealing with adversity in the capital markets. He's managed his clients' assets through the Long Term Capital Management collapse, the dot.com and real estate bubbles, the Bernie Madoff scandal, the Great Recession and now the bailout of the EU. During these challenging times, his business has helped his clients make educated finance decisions. Referrals have a big part of his business. 

Who is LPL Financial?

For more information about LPL Financial, visit www.lpl.com.

Who is The Private Trust Company (PFTC)?

PFTC provides trust administrative services for individual and family assets specializing solely in providing fiduciary services. Unlike bank trust companies, PFTC allows clients to delegate money management services and maintain their relationship with C. Russell Pound. PFTC serves in an administrative corporate trustee role, providing all record keeping, accounting, and tax preparation for the trust accounts they service. PFTC also ensures that trust assets are managed and distributed according to the terms of the trust.

Who is your ideal client?

Our services are typically best suited for those people that believe that hiring a trusted advisor who is independent and objective, whose interests are aligned with their clients and who act as their client's best advocate in this crazy, ever changing geopolitical environment can:

• Guide, educate, and navigate them through the labyrinth that is economics and wealth planning.
• Prevent them from making big financial mistakes.
• Is able to listen to them, be objective and understand their fears and concerns and provide guidance and action plans to help eliminate those fears and concerns.
• Relieve them of the burden of having to do it themselves.
• Be a voice of reason during difficult and prosperous economic times.

How many clients do you have?

Aside from the obvious, this question really comes in two parts. One is are you established enough that you may focus on me (the client) and that you do not have to pound the pavement to get new clients and the other is do you really have enough time to help me (the client) meet my financial needs? The answer is yes to both, but with a caveat. We are very selective about who we choose to represent and add only a limited number of new clients every year. Our focus is on a commitment to providing excellence and service to our clients and growing organically. We truly, only represent those clients with whom we identify with and that may benefit from our services. Put simply, life is too short not to be surrounded with those you enjoy spending time with.

What kinds of investments do you recommend?

As a fee based wealth management firm we do NOT receive commissions and we do NOT benefit from any recommended investment in our wealth management strategies. We use investment tools that we believe are the most suitable and that may best address our clients' short, mid and long-term goals. This means that we have no preference and are constantly looking for ways to improve our clients' financial well-being. It is our aim is to be proactive and responsive in our wealth management strategies and wealth planning services.

Do you ever make transactions without your client's prior knowledge or consent?

Yes. When our clients hire us they agree, in writing, to pay a fee for us to work with them on a discretionary basis to help them make investment decisions and execute transactions on their behalf. However, before we embark on this relationship and execute any investment strategy or execute any trades, we go through and undertake a thorough understanding of our client's financial background and experiences, and review the parameters of the portfolio that we and the client put together. You should note that discretion is limited to transactions (trades) and asset allocation only; we do NOT act as Power of Attorney.

How much turnover do you have in your strategies?

We are an active manager and a passive manager when needed. And, much of what we do depends on a client's individual needs and the potential impact of the current social, political and economic environment on that client's wealth plan. Generally, we like to keep turnover low to help our clients reduce their taxable liabilities but we do NOT let the proverbial tax tail wag the investment dog. In other words, taxes are one consideration among many whenever making changes to a portfolio. Further, in more volatile markets like the one we experienced in 2008-2009 our clients may expect to see a higher turnover ratio.

Do you consider the tax ramifications of your investment choices?

As mentioned in the previous question, taxes are one consideration among many whenever making changes to a portfolio. As a standard practice, we always consider the after-tax yield of our fixed income investments (bonds) and we seek to minimize capital gains by pairing gains and losses whenever possible and harvesting gains and losses when appropriate. Further, we make it a practice of tracking all positions based on tax-lots allowing us to choose which shares will provide the most tax-advantaged results when we do sell.

What are your fees (AKA, are you expensive)?

We believe that our fees are quite reasonable for the proactive and responsive customer service that our clients have come to demand and deserve. We believe in transparency and clarity in our clients knowing exactly what they are paying and what they are paying for. We understand that paying fees for services isn't for everyone and generally, those who are ultra-sensitive about fees do not become our clients. However, those that become our clients know that they have found an independent, objective advocate whose interests are aligned with their own. Our fees vary depending on services provided, and the following is a list of fees in general:

• For our financial planning clients, we charge a one-time fee that ranges between $2,500-$15,000 depending on complexity of the plan. On average, one may generally expect to pay between $3,000 to $5,000 for a comprehensive wealth plan.
• Our advisory clients also pay an industry standard management fee for their customized asset management plan. This is calculated on a quarterly basis and is based on any gain or loss, and any additions or subtractions from the portfolio. The percentage fee range is based on the assets that we manage for you. One could expect 1.5% per annum for those clients that meet our asset minimum (per household) of $300,000 to 0.70% for those clients that exceed $5,000,000 in assets under our management. Our typical client has between $1,000,000 to $3,000,000 under our management and pays about 1% annually.
• If appropriate for a client's situation, we provide services on an hourly basis in lieu of the fees listed above in the range of $150~$400 per hour. This is at the discretion of C. Russell Pound and by written consent of the client and is determined on a case-by-case basis.
• It should be noted that private placements as well as Life (including Annuities), Disability and Long Term Care insurance policies have their own unique standards for compensation. These are only utilized and recommended when they add value and are appropriate or useful to the client's wealth plan and financial well-being. If recommended, our clients receive an explanation of the benefits and drawbacks and what options are available to them. They will also have an understanding of our compensation related to offering such services.

Are there any fees associated with transferring my accounts to your management?

We don't charge anything to transfer your accounts to LPL Financial (our custodian), however your previous custodian may charge closure or transfer fees (many of which are minimal, but you should be aware of them before transferring). Some investments also carry contingent or deferred sales charges or withdrawal penalties if transferred before a given or certain period of time has passed. We always evaluate these issues prior to transfer to our firm and do our best to minimize and/or eliminate any negative impact that transfer fees may cause.

Will you work with only a portion of our portfolio?

No. Many clients believe that they are hedging their bets by having multiple advisors. The phrase we normally hear is, “I don't want all my eggs in one basket.” We believe that when dividing and implementing a financial plan among multiple advisors is really not having a plan at all. There are, in fact, a multitude of risks that one takes on when dividing the duties among multiple advisors. One is the propensity to pit one advisor against another or going with the hot hand, so to speak. This often creates over or under exposure to a particular investment or asset class and doing so may create risk in a portfolio instead of helping to reduce risk making any kind of risk-management approach nearly impossible. It also potentially creates issues associated with improper titling of accounts (one of the more common estate planning mistakes) and this may cause undue stress on beneficiaries and could cost the estate literally thousands if not millions of dollars. I liken this to, “too many hands in the cookie jar” or “too many chefs in the kitchen.” When too many advisors are involved, things tend to get convoluted and problems ultimately arise. The bottom line is that you will be creating a wealth plan that has purpose and its proper implementation is critical to your financial success. We believe in having a vision, a plan of action to make that vision a reality, and not complicating things along the way by having a single guide. Our clients learn from us to make their financial decisions like they're running a business; make a business plan, have an action plan to make the business plan a reality, hire a good financial team to implement, monitor, guide and help you make changes as the environment changes and most importantly, help you to keep your emotions in check and make objective, sound decisions.

Our clients must be willing to work with us on an exclusive basis.

What if I no longer wish to be your client and wish to transfer my account and or manage it myself?

Our management fees are pro-rated for the time that we manage your money and there are no fees to close your relationship with us. You are not penalized. Therefore, if you feel that you are not getting the kind of service out of our relationship that you expect and we are not able to resolve your issues, we will do our best to help make your transition a smooth one and re-pay you the amount of pro-rated fees that we have collected for the time period that we are no longer managing your accounts. It should also be noted, however, that our custodian may charge minimal fees for processing the closing of your accounts.