Our Philosophy

Many investment firms in the marketplace often appear to offer very similar services and advice. In order to create some separation from that noise and to plant a few flags in the ground, we have outlined below a few of our core beliefs at RiverTree.

Fee-Only Business Model – Many different ways exist to legally deliver financial products, services and advice. All of them have their pros and cons for advisors, but our belief is that clients are best served by an independent, fee-only investment advisory firm. It is the most transparent, the most free from conflicts, and encourages the most mutually beneficial relationship between client and advisor.

Fiduciary Duty – The definition of fiduciary duty is simple: to always act in the best interest of the client. You would expect every professional providing financial advice, services or products naturally would operate by this standard, yet so many do not. We just believe it is the only way to operate, and that it is the standard which all clients should expect.

Active Management – Plenty of academic studies exist which attempt to prove the futility of actively managing an investment portfolio. These reports use very long time frames and tons of data to argue that setting in place some kind of static index allocation will eventually lead investors to as good as or better net results than active management. We believe that human intelligence can add value to this process, and logical, organized and flexible active management can help capture upside and minimize downside over time in a meaningful way. We believe that no historical period of investment history is ever repeated and therefore using that history as a baseline is a flawed way to invest for the future. We believe that 20 or 30 years is too long for most investors to wait to find out if their advisor’s philosophy is correct.

Communication – When surveys are conducted among investors, the item most often reported in unsatisfactory advisory relationships is a lack of communication. We believe that a firm entrusted to invest a client's resources should have clear and open lines of communication at all times, and it should be the advisor who is the more proactive in initiating those contacts to make sure the client always feels informed and updated.

Gratitude – Our firm is very grateful for the group of clients who find our services valuable. We always are aware that without them, our business would not exist, and we feel compelled to express our gratitude to our clients whenever opportunities arise.

AN INVITATION
If the beliefs outlined above are the kind you might want in your investment advisory firm, then we simply invite you to contact us. Let’s have an initial communication to determine the possibility of a match between our firm and your needs and objectives. The process can begin on our Contact page, which can be found at the link below.