• You need competent investment advice. You don't know whom to trust. It seems like everybody is out to cheat you and/or sell you something you don't need. Where do you turn? Altruist Financial Advisors LLC was formed with you in mind. We are different from most of our competitors in several ways: You can trust us. We are objective. We aren't affiliated with any other company and we accept no commissions, so we are free to advise you to obtain (what we believe to be) the best financial products available (which often are the ones with the lowest fees). We aren't salespeople. We don't sell anything except financial advice. Many financial advisers are compensated by commissions on the products they sell and are, therefore, primarily salespeople. We believe that arrangement represents a blatant conflict of interest. We are different. We are advisers, not salespeople. We have a complete satisfaction money-back guarantee. We are so confident that we will meet or exceed your expectations of us that we stake our fees on it. If you aren't completely satisfied with the value we provide, we will refund your money. We take ethics seriously. Ethics are important to us. We have a fiduciary responsibility to our clients and we are keenly aware of it at all times. It permeates everything we do. Our fees. Compare our fees to those of other fee-only advisors. We can charge low fees for two simple reasons: We aren't greedy. We're in business to help people, not to make ourselves rich at the expense of others. We have very low overhead expenses. In order to keep our costs down, we’ve avoided expensive downtown offices and other unnecessary expenses. We believe that passing these overhead expenses to our clients would not serve their interests well. We operate out of a very humble home office and are proud of our comfortable, friendly professional manner. We back up all our recommendations with rationale. If we can't adequately justify our recommendations, you shouldn't follow them. We put all our recommendations in writing and footnote them liberally. Our sources include (what we believe to be) the best academic studies available.

     

  • Investments

    We Apply Academic Research to Investing and Investments

    OpelKey's investment recommendations usually, though not always, are in the form of no-load index mutual funds and ETFs from Dimensional Fund Advisors (DFA), Vanguard, and a few others. For an analysis of our current favorites in each of several asset classes, click here.

     

    We usually recommend mutual funds/ETFs instead of individual securities due to their inherent diversification benefits.
     

     

    We usually advocate passively managed (e.g., "index") funds/ETFs rather than actively managed funds/ETFs:
     

     

    Passively managed funds/ETFs usually have lower fees.

     

    Passively managed funds/ETFs don't exhibit "style drift."

     

    Passively managed funds/ETFs tend to have lower turnover than actively managed funds/ETFs. This allows them to have lower transaction costs and somewhat greater tax-efficiency.

     

    Principally due to their lower fees, passively managed funds' long-term performance must exceed that of most actively managed funds/ETFs investing in similar securities. For more information, see Nobel-prize winner William Sharpe's excellent brief article on the subject, "The Arithmetic of Active Management."
     

     

    Generally, we use the following criteria to select individual mutual funds/ETFs because these criteria have been shown to have the most significant correlation with future performance:
     

     

    No Load. There cannot be any sales commissions on any mutual funds we recommend.

     

    Passive Management (e.g., index funds) is preferred to active management.

     

    Low Expense Ratios. Lower is better. We usually recommend the fund/ETF with the lowest expense ratio in an asset class unless we have a compelling reason not to.

     

    Value funds should be as "valuey" as possible. A value mutual fund/ETF should have as high as possible a "book to market" ratio (a.k.a., "book to price" ratio). "Book to market" ratio is simply the inverse of the more often used "price to book" ratio.

     

    Small cap funds should be as small as possible. The stocks in a small cap mutual fund/ETF should have as small a market capitalization as possible.

     

    Diversification. More is better. The more companies a fund/ETF invests in, the less unsystematic risk it has. On average, investors aren't rewarded for taking unsystematic risk, so less is obviously beneficial.

     

    Turnover. Less is generally better. Lower turnover means the fund/ETF pays fewer commissions to execute trades. It also causes the fund/ETF to be more tax-efficient.

     

    Tax Efficiency. For taxable accounts, it is beneficial to minimize both dividend and capital gains distributions if possible.
     

    Note that past performance isn't one of our criteria. That is because, contrary to conventional wisdom, there is very little correlation between past performance and future performance. This has been proven statistically with a high degree of confidence in several academic studies (see relevant academic papers here).

     

    In general, picking mutual funds/ETFs on the basis of their past performance is likely to be little better (or, more likely, a little worse) than picking funds/ETFs at random. There is a better way. That's why we use the above criteria: they have been shown to have a correlation with future performance (i.e., they have been shown to be fairly good predictors of long-term performance).

     

     

    Most of our clients who are managing their investments themselves use Vanguard funds.
     

     

    Clients of the OPELKEY® Portfolio Management Service are typically invested in a combination of principally DFA, Vanguard, AQR, and Bridgeway funds/ETFs, among others.
     

     

    For a comparison of DFA and Vanguard mutual funds, along with our current recommendations in each of several asset classes, click here.
     

     

    There are a few other investments which we occasionally recommend when appropriate (e.g., ETFs). OpelKey continuously monitors the investment universe for additional mutual funds/ETFs and other investments which might be prudent additions to our clients' portfolios.

     

     

     

  • Our Guarantee

    We don't think that you should be surprised when you are treated ethically and fairly — you should expect it.

    Altruist is absolutely committed to delivering superior services in a highly ethical fashion at a fair price.

    We are so certain that you will be delighted with the value we deliver that we offer a Complete Satisfaction Money-Back Guarantee.

    When you are shopping around for a financial adviser, we encourage you to ask other companies about their guarantees (if they have one — they probably don't) — and ask them if they are willing to put it in writing. We think that any company who truly believes that they are delivering a quality service should have no qualms with providing such a guarantee.

    Terms:

     

    OpelKey® Financial Planning and OpelKey® Investing Plan Services. If you are not satisfied with the value of our OpelKey® Financial Planning or OpelKey® Investing Plan Services, we will gladly refund your fees to you. The refund is available for 12 months following your enrollment.

     

    OpelKey® Portfolio Management Service. If you are not satisfied with the value of our OpelKey® Portfolio Management Service, we will refund your (non-custodial) fees paid within the six months prior to ending your service. Custodial fees are non-refundable.

    Note that we do NOT guarantee that your investments will necessarily do well — it would be foolish for anybody to offer such a guarantee (except perhaps an insurance company — and you would pay extra for the "performance insurance"). What we do guarantee is that regardless of how well your investments perform, you will be satisfied with the value of the advice you receive from us, given the information available at the time the advice is given.

     

     

     

  • What We Do

  • Services

    OPELKEY offers three types of services:

     
    • OPELKEY Portfolio Management Service provides you with professional management of your investment portfolio.
     
    • OPELKEY Comprehensive Financial Plan Service provides you with analysis and advice on virtually all aspects of your financial life. For many clients, the savings from our advice allows the service to pay for itself in less than a year. This service is designed to prepare investors to transition to the OPELKEY SECURITIES LLC Portfolio Management Service. Prospective clients who do not intend to transition to the OPELKEY SECURITIES LLC Portfolio Management Service should not buy this service.
     

    OPELKEY Investing Plan Service provides you with a completely custom asset allocation, with specific recommendations on tax-sensitive asset location and specific investments. This service is a subset of the Financial Planning Services and is designed strictly to prepare investors to transition to the OPELKEY SECURITIES LLC Portfolio Management Service. Prospective clients who do not intend to transition to the OPELKEY SECURITIES LLC Portfolio Management Service should not buy this service.

    Of course, all OPELKEY SECURITIES LLC services come with our unique Complete Satisfaction Money Back Guarantee.

     

     

    OPELKEY SECURITIES LLC Portfolio Management Service

     

    OPELKEY Portfolio Management Service

    The OPELKEY SECURITIES LLC Portfolio Management Service provides clients with ongoing management of their investment portfolios. We provide this service with a unique twist: any time we feel a change needs to be made in a client's portfolio (which typically is only every two or three months), we put our recommendation in writing, along with detailed rationale. Clients are then able to either approve, reject, or modify our recommendation before it is implemented. This precludes the possibility of unfortunate "surprises" after the fact. Clients are rarely surprised because they are well apprised of the likely (and less likely) effects of everything we do before we do it.

     

    In addition to investments available to all retail investors (e.g., those of Vanguard), Altruist clients are able to invest in the sophisticated institutional mutual funds of Dimensional Fund Advisors (DFA). These funds are designed primarily for institutional investors and may be the best funds available in many asset classes.

    For the OPELKEY SECURITIES LLC Portfolio Management Service, Altruist receives an annual fee based on percentage of assets under management as per the fee schedule below, paid quarterly in arrears, computed based on the value of the portfolio at the end of the quarter.

     

    Fee Schedule for OPELKEY SECURITIES LLC Portfolio Management Service

    First $10,000,000

    0.235% per year (i.e., 0.05875% per quarter)

    Next $10,000,000

    0.11% per year (i.e., 0.0275% per quarter)

    Next $30,000,000

    0.055% per year (i.e., 0.01375% per quarter)

    Next $50,000,000

    0.03% per year (i.e., 0.0075% per quarter)

    Subsequent amounts

    0.02% per year (i.e., 0.005% per quarter)

    There is a minimum annual fee of $30,000 per year (i.e., $7,500 per quarter) for the OPELKEY SECURITIES LLC Portfolio Management Service. Generally, Altruist will not accept accounts of less than $3,000,000, but exceptions may be made on a case-by-case basis.

    In addition to the above fees which Altruist receives, clients will be responsible for mutual fund expenses and custodial fees.

    For more information on the OPELKEY SECURITIES LLC Portfolio Management Service, click here.

    For more information on why hiring an investment advisor might be beneficial, click here.

    OPELKEY SECURITIES LLC Comprehensive Financial Plan Service

    This is our premier service offering. It includes a comprehensive analysis of nearly all aspects of your financial life. The end result is typically a 60-70 page document summarizing our analyses, recommendations, and rationale. It includes a 12-month consultation enrollment whereby you will be able to consult with Altruist financial planners at no additional fee, for 12 months.

    OPELKEY Comprehensive Financial Plan

    For many clients, the savings from our advice allows the service to pay for itself in less than a year. This service is designed to prepare investors to transition to the OPELKEY SECURITIES LLC Portfolio Management Service. Prospective clients who do not intend to transition to the OPELKEY SECURITIES LLC Portfolio Management Service should not buy this service. For more information on the OPELKEY SECURITIES LLC Comprehensive Financial Plan, click here.

    Fee: $2,950.

    Note that when you subsequently go on to purchase our OPELKEY Portfolio Management Service, we will credit your account for $1,000 in order to avoid a duplication of fees for overlapping services.

    OPELKEY SECURITIES LLC Investing Plan Service

    Investors who have no need for the comprehensive, holistic analyses of the OPELKEY SECURITIES LLC Comprehensive Financial Plan can enroll in the OPELKEY SECURITIES LLC Investing Plan. The OPELKEY SECURITIES LLC Investing Plan focuses exclusively on Investments, preparing the client to transition to the OPELKEY SECURITIES LLC Portfolio Management Service. Those who do not intend to transition to the OPELKEY SECURITIES LLC Portfolio Management Service should not purchase this service. Unlike the OPELKEY SECURITIES LLC Comprehensive Financial Plan, the OPELKEY SECURITIES LLC Investing Plan does NOT include a 12-month consultation enrollment. For more information on the OPELKEY SECURITIES LLC Investing Plan product, click here.

    Fee: $1,350.

     

  • Ethics are Important to us

    We have a fiduciary responsibility to our clients and we are keenly aware of it at all times. It permeates everything we do.

     

    INTEGRITY

    Integrity is the most basic prerequisite to earning and retaining your trust. We will uphold the very highest standards of integrity. We will not compromise our principles for any reason. Character is at least as important as competence in the financial services profession, possibly more so.

     

    HONESTY

    Honesty and openness are the keystones of the adviser-client relationship. We will be truthful and candid with you. We will never make a promise that we do not intend to keep. We will not tell you what you want to hear if we believe it not to be true. If we are unable to meet a commitment, we will inform you as such as early as possible and attempt to fairly renegotiate the terms of that commitment.

     

    OBJECTIVITY

    An adviser who has conflicts of interest is likely to give self-serving advice. The most common such conflicts are the widespread practice of the adviser being compensated by commissions on products they sell to their clients. In such a situation, one shouldn't be surprised that advisers (acting largely as salespeople) may tend to recommend products which maximize their own commissions, rather than those which are in the best interests of the client (which may be the ones with the lowest fees).

    Independence and impartiality, therefore, are fundamental to any adviser who is serious about acting in good faith and in the best interest of the client.

    We will endeavor to avoid conflicts of interest whenever possible. We accept no soft dollar commissions. In fact, we accept no commissions of any sort from any entity. We do not receive fees or compensation from any party based on the referral of a client or the client's business. We prefer to be paid solely by our clients. Our fees aren't dependent in any way on any client's purchase or sale of a financial product.

    If we were paid by any external party (or by a client as the result of their purchase or redemption of a financial product), it would represent a potential (or actual) conflict of interest and would endanger our all-important objectivity (or, just as important, your perception of our objectivity).

     

    COMPETENCE

    We will endeavor to constantly increase our professional knowledge. We continuously brainstorm for improved strategies which might better help you to realize your financial goals. If we should believe that a strategy we previously recommended to you can be prudently improved, we aren't afraid to tell you so. We back up our recommendations with detailed rationale in writing — if we can't convince you that a particular course of action is prudent, you shouldn't follow it. Our advice is based on (what we believe to be) the best academic research and careful analysis, never a "hunch."

    Our uncompromising commitment to ethical behavior allows us to be uniquely confident of the quality of our service and the likelihood of your satisfaction therewith. We back up this confidence with our Complete Satisfaction Money-Back Guarantee.

    In addition to our own Code of Ethics, we are also committed to complying with the following standards:

     

    The Financial Planning Association (FPA) Standard of Care Policy and Code of Ethics Policy.

     

    The National Association of Personal Financial Advisors (NAPFA) Code of Ethics and Fiduciary Oath.

     

    The CFA Institute's Code of Ethics and Standards of Professional Conduct.

     

    The Certified Financial Planner (CFP) Board's Code of Ethics and Professional Responsibility.

     

    The Investments & Wealth Institute Code of Professional Responsibility.

     

    The Society of Financial Service Professionals (SFSP) Code of Professional Responsibility.

  • How We Save you $

    Many people assume that we focus exclusively on managing our clients' investments. Nothing could be further from the truth. While it certainly is important to prudently invest one's money, the surest, easiest, and quickest way to increase your wealth is to spend less in unnecessary fees and expenses. Ben Franklin was right: if you stop unnecessarily spending $1,000 per year, you have made yourself $1,000 more wealthy by the end of the year.

    We are obsessive about helping our clients save money and making prudent decisions regarding their finances. Here's some examples of how we prudently help our clients save money:

     

    Avoid High Fee Mutual Funds. The average mutual fund in the US has an expense ratio of about 1.15%. Altruist's recommended portfolios typically have weighted average expense ratios of under 0.5%. Many mutual funds charge as much as 1% or more annually in 12(b)-1 fees. Altruist avoids recommending funds with 12(b)-1 fees.

    Example: If you were investing $30,000 per year into a mutual fund with a 5% sales load, you would be paying about $3,000 too much per year (due to the sales load).

    Example: If you have $300,000 in typical mutual funds (i.e., with an annual expense ratio of 1.15%), you are paying at least $1,950 per year too much in annual fees. If you instead used a diversified portfolio of best-in-class funds (which might have a weighted average expense ratio of less than 0.5%), you would be $2,400 richer every year (all else being equal).
     

     

    Avoid Whole Life Insurance Policies. We find that many people who buy life insurance either buy too much or the wrong kind or both. This is often because they asked a life insurance salesman how much and what kind they should get. Of course, the life insurance salesmen tend to recommend large amounts of the highest commission variety (whole life). For more information on Life Insurance, see here.

    Example: If you were paying $2,000 per year for a whole life policy when you could be paying $200 per year for a term policy with the same coverage, you can save $1,800 per year in unnecessary premiums. It is far better to increase your wealth, rather than the insurance company's or the insurance agent's.

    Example: If you were paying $2,000 per year for a whole life policy when you have no need for insurance at all, you are unnecessarily throwing away much of that money — you can save yourself $2,000 per year and get a return of your small cash value by canceling the policy.
     

     

    Avoid Variable Annuities. All except the lowest cost Variable Annuities are appropriate investment products for almost nobody. Their high fees usually dramatically exceed whatever benefit of tax-deferral they might promise. The extent of the fees is scandalous: it is not unusual for annual fees to be two to three percentage points higher than necessary. If you realize the extent of the high annual fees and desire to roll it over to a lower fee Variable Annuity, you often are charged outrageous "surrender fees" of as high as 10 percent or more.

    If you are unfortunate enough to be in one, we may be able to help. If you are in a Variable Annuity inside a 403(b) plan, you may be able to roll it over into a 403(b)(7) mutual fund without the high fees. If you are in a Variable Annuity inside an IRA, you definitely can roll it over into a mutual fund inside an IRA without the high fees. If you are in a Variable Annuity outside tax-deferred retirement plans, you can roll it over to a low cost Variable Annuity.

    Unfortunately, the act of rolling over the Variable Annuity may cause you to incur a surrender fee. We find that it often makes sense to pay the surrender fee in order to avoid continuing to pay the excessive annual fees. It is an uncomfortable situation to be in where you have a choice of either continuing to pay outrageous annual fees or paying an outrageous surrender fee, but we can't help this (we didn't put you in this position). The best strategy, of course, is to avoid getting into such predicaments in the first place.

    Example: If you are currently paying 3% in annual fees (including management, administration, and mortality and expense fees) for your Variable Annuity, you are paying more than two percentage points too much per year. If you have $100,000 in such a Variable Annuity, you are wasting at least $2,000 per year by unnecessarily paying exorbitant fees.

     

    Pay Down High Interest Debt First. While it may seem obvious, we've seen many folks paying down low interest debt before their high-interest debt. One example is (low interest) mortgage debt vs. (high interest) credit card debt. Many people make extra principal payments on their mortgages while carrying large balances on high-interest credit cards. Given a choice, it is almost always better to pay off the higher interest debt first. This can save large amounts of interest.

    The above examples are just that: examples. Our Comprehensive Financial Plan looks at virtually all aspects of your financial life to identify areas where you can prudently realize savings. It's easy to see how our service may pay for itself in just a few months. Would you like help identifying ways to prudently save money?

     

     

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