What makes Agate Pass different from the rest?
Everyone at Agate Pass has worked in both Institutional and Private Wealth investment positions, and we appreciate the important differences. Three of us are Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) Charterholders, bearing the “gold standard” designation in the investment industry. This requires adherence to CFA Institute's Code of Ethics, which ensures that we put clients' interests ahead of our own. Furthermore, our experience in the industry sums to over 120 years!
Having been through the high-pressure corporate jobs, we have opted to take life a bit more relaxed. We take-on clients who we WANT to work with, with no pressure to grow bigger for size’s sake. We treat those clients like family, and spend more time with them, so we can understand them better than any banker or stock-broker. As a boutique, we have that luxury, and we use it to benefit our clients.
We carefully hand-pick securities directly for our clients, keeping costs down, and control high. We don’t hand your money over to anyone else, diminishing accountability! As research analysts, we understand the financial statements and competitive dynamics of the companies we hold for our clients. We establish what we believe is an “intrinsic value” of our companies, which let’s us know when things are over-priced or under-priced. That’s so much better than trying to judge a company by its stock movements!
How do I know that my information and money is safe and protected?
A critical concept in wealth management is the use of an independent, third-party custodian, to physically hold our clients’ securities and investments. This provides out clients with SIPC- or FDIC- insurance, and an independent accounting of and access to your assets. We do not create your financial reports ourselves. We currently use Charles Schwab & Co., a leading publicly-traded custodian with state-of-the-art encryption and anti-fraud technology. You can log into your account 24/7 and see your portfolio, transactions, performance, and/or even access your tax information each April.
As an SEC-regulated RIA (Registered Investment Advisor), our compliance requirements are high. We follow tight procedures for controlling client information, use encryption on our emails, and we treat client information confidentially. We also adhere to the CFA Code of Ethics and Standard of Conduct.
What do your services cost?
We only make money through one mechanism, and that is a management fee that is based on your assets under management (AUM). We currently include all of our high-touch services and wealth planning methods in that one fee. The only way that we can earn more money is to make our clients wealthier!
Our Fee Schedule is published in our Form ADV filing with the SEC, and is available upon request. We bill our clients transparently each quarter, in-advance. For your convenience, fees are deducted directly from the client’s account by the client’s custodian. If a client leaves, they are entitled to a per-diem rebate of the unused days in the quarter, which must by law be paid within 10 days.
Importantly, we do not put our own investment-inventory in our client accounts (as we have none!) We do not earn commissions nor receive any form of incentive money – those would diminish our objectivity and independent thinking.
Do you have an account minimum?
To add maximum value for our clients, a typical, “balanced” account (both stocks and bonds) necessitates about $400,000 per asset class to diversify properly and cost-effectively. Thus, something approaching $1 million is our sweet-spot.
What if I have other questions, or would like to explore becoming a client?
We encourage you to always read the Form ADV for any investment adviser you may work with. Ours is available by request. Please use the “contact us” form, at the bottom of the home page, or call us during normal business hours. You have nothing to lose, and possibly, very much to gain!
If you have more questions, give us a call or take a look at our firm brochure here:
https://adviserinfo.sec.gov/IAPD/Content/Common/crd_iapd_Brochure.aspx?BRCHR_VRSN_ID=575386