Adviser's Value
Morningstar calls it Gamma (the value of better financial planning decisions); Vanguard calls it Adviser's Alpha. Obviously a difficult value to quantify, Morningstar has estimated an adviser's value over time to be equal to an extra 1.59% investment return per year; Vanguard's CIO Tim Buckley stated it can be up to 3% per year (1.5% from smart allocation decisions, 0.6% from tax efficiency, 0.5% from reducing costs, 0.4% from rebalancing).
This concept is a good summary of some of my goals in working with my clients:
1. Smart investing decisions: Staying on-track with asset allocation (smart rebalancing) and making good buying & selling decisions. Many retail investors underperform institutions due to fear-based decision-making that leads to buying-high & selling-low. One of my goals is to avoid chasing returns and making these kinds of mistakes.
2. Tax-efficiency: Optimally allocating money between taxable and tax-deferred accounts, making opportunistic withdrawals to reduce capital gains, and choosing tax-efficient investment vehicles.
3. Cutting costs by selecting low-cost investments and product types, as well as looking for other non-investment-related opportunities to reduce cash outflows.
4. Improved decision-making with regard to retirement income strategies, social security decisions, loan repayment, cash flow allocation, etc.
Please see Code of Ethics
If an individual or firm is registered as an investment adviser, you can look them up at the following SEC website to view information about them as well as their Form ADV parts 1 and 2. To look me up, follow the link below and select 'Investment Adviser Search' on the left menu. Select the 'Firm' category and search 'Nicholas Phelps' :
http://www.adviserinfo.sec.gov/IAPD/Content/Search/iapd_Search.aspx
If an individual or firm is registered as a broker, you can look them up here:
http://www.finra.org/Investors/ToolsCalculators/BrokerCheck/