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peace of mind
Our clients’ assets are custodied at Fidelity Investments, one of the largest investment custodians in the world. This means that our clients grant us the ability to choose investments for them, but we do not hold their assets. Our relationship with Fidelity provides our clients with the peace of mind of a third party custodian without placing any limits on our investment options.
See our FAQ section for more details.
aligned interests
As a Registered Investment Advisor, we have a fiduciary responsibility to our clients. This Fiduciary Standard means that we are legally required to put the interest of our clients ahead of our own. Many of our competitors are only required to meet the much less stringent, “suitability standard”. The Suitability Standard means that the Advisor is only required to recommend a suitable investment, but is not required to put the client’s interest above the Advisor’s or their firm’s interest. We believe this is a critical distinction.
Click for more details - FAQ.
performance
Our performance is among the best in the industry.
Click for more details - Strategies & Performance
costs
Our fees, on average, are well below our competition, because of our unique ability to manage assets in-house.
Click for detailed information - Management Fees
service
Every member of our firm is both an owner and client of Willingdon. We all have a vested interest in the satisfaction of our clients. We pride ourselves in having better responsiveness and more regular proactive contact with our clients than our competitors.
insightful communication
We write our own monthly newsletter providing insightful commentary on timely issues, which we send to each of our clients.
Click for an archive of past additions - Willingdon Views
competency
We focus on attention to detail in every aspect of our business from portfolio management, to financial planning, client service and reporting.
We have all the appropriate designations to manage money and provide sound financial planning advice- CFA, CFP®, MBA, CTFA- see FAQ section for more details. Many of our competitors focus on financial planning and asset allocation but outsource the investment management to mutual funds. We have a diversified mix of professionals with varying areas expertise that allow us to do both. This distinction is what keeps our fees lower than our competition.
We work closely with our client’s CPAs and attorneys with tax and estate planning issues.
control
We use individual stocks and bonds as opposed to mutual funds. Lower expenses, better tax efficiency and better oversight and control of the portfolio are significant advantages to owning individual securities as opposed to mutual funds (see management fees tab for more details).
Here are two examples:
Diversification - Owning individual securities avoids overlap which is a consistent problem with mutual fund portfolios. Investors that own mutual funds often don’t realize that several of their funds own the same stocks and/or bonds which creates overlap and leads to less diversification.
Owning individual stocks and bonds is much more efficient from a tax planning perspective. Tax loss harvesting and avoiding wash sales are two of the tax strategies that are dramatically simplified using this approach. We work with our clients and their CPAs to help them take advantage of these opportunities.
