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Chris Chen, CFP®, CDFA®

Retirement Planning. Tax Efficient Investing. Post Divorce Financial Success.

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Insight Financial Strategists LLC Chris Chen, CFP®, CDFA®
Newton, MA

Serving Clients Nationwide

Retirement Planning. Tax Efficient Investing. Post Divorce Financial Success.

7 Certified Advisor Reviews™
Rate this Advisor

781-489-3994

Website

Areas of Focus

  • Divorce Financial Planning
  • Education Tax Planning
  • Estate Planning
  • Financial Life Planning
  • High Net Worth
  • Inherited Wealth
  • International and Cross-border Planning
  • Investment Management
  • Money Psychology
  • Owning a Business
  • Retirement Planning
  • Women & Wealth

About Me

Chris Chen is a Boston, MA area fee-only financial planner serving the entire region and clients across the country.

Chris Chen, CFP® helps guide successful individuals and families with wealth accumulation and preservation, retirement planning, education funding, and family protection strategies. He is especially adept at successfully navigating clients through life transitions that are often challenging such as retirement income planning, expatriation, and divorce financial planning.

As a CFP® professional, Chris works with his clients' own legal and tax advisers to build cost-effective and tax-efficient strategies to help clients achieve their long-term financial goals with wealth preservation, asset growth, and legacy planning.

As a fee-only financial planner, and a Registered Financial Advisor, Chris works with your own legal and tax advisers to build individual financial plans that address high net worth clients unique goals, issues and constraints .

Chris also helps women with divorce coaching and post-divorce recovery, helping clients navigate the financial aspects of divorce, and resetting after the divorce into a financially successful direction.

Chris earned his Bachelor’s degree in Economics from the University of Rochester and his MBA in Finance from the University of Texas at Austin. He is also a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER® practitioner, a Certified Divorce Financial Analyst, and is a trained Mediator, having completed mediation training in accordance with M.G.L. ch.233 § 23C

As a fee-only, fiduciary, and independent financial advisor, Chris Chen is never paid a commission of any kind, and has a legal obligation to provide unbiased and trustworthy financial advice.

Chris has been widely quoted in the Boston Globe, New York Times, Forbes, CNBC, Wall Street Journal, Marketwatch, Investment News, and Bloomberg. He has also been published in the Boston Globe, Kiplinger, and Investopedia. Chris is the Treasurer of the Association of Divorce Financial Planners. He was the founding Director of the Greater Boston Chapter of the Association of Divorce Financial Planners. He is a member of the Financial Planning Association, The Divorce Center, and the Massachusetts Council on Family Mediation.

Professional Designations

  • Certificate in Blockchain and Digital Assets
  • Certified Divorce Financial Analyst (CDFA)
  • CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ Professional
  • Registered Life Planner (RLP)

Affiliations

  • Digital Assets Council of Financial Professionals
  • Fee Only Network
  • Kinder Institute of Life Planning
  • National Association of Personal Financial Advisors
  • XY Planning Network

Primary Location

29 Crafts Street Newton, MA 02458

Meeting Options

  • Video Conference
  • In-Person
  • Phone
Book Intro Call

Compensation Methods

  • Fee Only
  • Flat Fee
  • Hourly Rate
  • Percentage of Assets Managed

What to expect in the first meeting

Click the 'Book Intro Call' button above to schedule a free introductory call. We'll get to know each other and I'll listen to understand your unique circumstances so we can determine the best way to proceed. I look forward to speaking with you.

Offers Investment Management

Yes

About our Firm

Insight Financial Strategists is a boutique Registered Investment Advisor in Massachusetts focused on taking the complexity out of your financial picture. We are your fiduciaries. Our advice is focused solely on our view of your best interests. As fee only practitioners, our interests are aligned with yours.

✅ Our one-on-one approach is grounded in reality and focused on your needs. As wealth strategists, we ensure that you know all the facts about the potential benefits and consequences of your financial decisions, and that you are equipped to make the best decisions for your personal circumstances.

✅ We are educators as well as advisors that will give you realistic ideas of where different financial paths may take you. Working back from your set goals or ideals, we guide you through an individualized financial plan that not only gives you a sense of where you need to focus your attentions, but will also give you insight on how to avoid potential pitfalls.

✅ We will work with your accountant, lawyer or other professional aids to ensure that your finances are fully optimized to take advantage of all opportunities to put your money to work for you and your family. We will identify the financial risks that you may currently face and propose realistic solutions to help you protect against those risks.

Our investment practice is based on the academic research of the past 50 years resulting in a focus on long term investing, diversification, and asset allocation based on your risk capacity as an investor and your individual goals.

Academic research on market efficiency guides our thinking: in markets that are very liquid, information is processed and reflected in stock and bond prices too quickly for any market timing strategy to justify the cost. Trying to outsmart the market in the short term is usually a futile and costly endeavor.

Your risk capacity is based on your own risk tolerance, spending and income, time horizon and net worth profiles. Academic research has clearly identified diversification and asset allocation as the main tools to manage long term risk.

We apply those financial tools to your individual and family needs, including your circumstances, your goals, your opportunities and your limitations to tailor your investment plan to your overall financial and retirement plan.

We believe that costs have a potentially major impact on returns and net worth growth. Costs come in many forms: direct expenses, hidden expenses, taxes, opportunity costs, and our fee. We work to optimize costs to ensure that you get value for your money and that your investments are well taken care of without unnecessary expenses.

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Economics from the University of Rochester. MBA in Finance from the University of Texas.

Awards and Honors

  • Five Star Wealth Manager for 2024 for the fifth year
  • 36 Top Influencers for Financial Advisors
  • Investopedia Top 100 Financial Advisors 2019
  • Investopedia Top 100 Financial Advisors 2018

Hobbies and Interests

  • Animal Rescue
  • Animals
  • Eating Out
  • Family
  • Hiking
  • Photography
  • Sailing
  • Wine
  • Yoga

SEC Lookup

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Who We Serve

  • Baby Boomers
  • Blended Family
  • Divorce
  • Dual Income Family
  • Expats
  • Gen X
  • Living in Retirement
  • Physicians
  • Single Women
  • Widow
  • Women in Transition
  • Women Professionals
  • Women’s Finance

To make Wealthtender free for readers, we earn a nominal monthly fee from financial advisors and firms in exchange for marketing services (including being featured on this profile page), subject to terms of use. This compensation creates a natural conflict of interest when we favor their promotion over others. Wealthtender is not a client of these advisors or firms. Testimonials may not be representative of other clients’ experiences and do not guarantee future performance or success.

Write a Review


By clicking submit, you acknowledge this review is based on your own experience and reflects your genuine opinion. You also agree to our review policy, privacy policy, and terms and conditions, and give this financial advisor permission to publicly display your review on their website.

From the crisis of divorce, to calm confidence and stability

✅ Wealthtender Certified Advisor Review™
Jul 28, 2024
I have worked with Chris 5* years. In the beginning, I had just begun a complicated divorce from a decades-long marriage, and I was overwhelmed. Chris' empathy and compassion were immediately apparent, as was his wisdom and compassion. His careful attention to detail; his clear directions about what to consider and do when, and his willingness to prepare for and testify in court, were profoundly timely and helpful. In the process I gained knowledge and increased competence in managing my own financial affairs, something I had not done much of during my marriage. Chris' respectful, trustworthy, expert, and mindful guidance around how to run my sole proprietorship clinical psychology practice, build my personal savings strategy, consolidate and restructure my retirement portfolio, and most recently orient me to a comprehensive money management strategy and retirement planning, has been utterly eye-opening and very welcome. I trust him completely. Chris is truly a gem as a financial advisor and human being, as are the other people he recommends, hires, and mentors. I am deeply grateful to Chris, and he has highest praise without reservation.
Relationship to Financial Advisor: Current Client
Compensation: This reviewer received no compensation for this review.
Conflicts of Interest: There are no material conflicts of interest.
Avatar for Deborah
Deborah

An Investment in more ways than one!

✅ Wealthtender Certified Advisor Review™
Mar 5, 2024
One of the best decisions of my life was making that first call to Chris. In a sea of many, Chris stands out as a true gem. His knowledge goes far beyond finance and when navigating unknown water, having Chris at the helm has made all the difference in being able to face the future with confidence. I have had Chris by my side through some challenging years that included a divorce, putting kids through college and planning for my future. i would not feel the security I feel today if it were not for his guidance, counsel and wisdom. Chris understands my financial goals and has helped me achieve them. With his expertise and skill, he has known when to anchor me and when to propel me forward and I have yet to go off course. I am so grateful to have Chris in my life.
Relationship to Financial Advisor: Current Client
Compensation: This reviewer received no compensation for this review.
Conflicts of Interest: There are no material conflicts of interest.
Avatar for Ann
Ann

5 stars

✅ Wealthtender Certified Advisor Review™
Jun 25, 2023
As a single woman with a successful engineering career, I knew how to save but not how to use savings to plan for my future. I was scared of losing money with investments. With Chris’s help, I refocused my attention to thinking about my goals and aspirations. Chris helped me understand the complexities of trying to retire early and how to manage them. I gained a better feel of the subtleties of risk and investment options, and the role of asset allocation. I have become more informed about the relationship between my life, financial planning, and investments. As a result of having a trusted partner in my financial planner I feel financially secure and my anxieties have reduced. If you feel that you need a financial planner, consider Chris!
Relationship to Financial Advisor: Current Client
Compensation: This reviewer received no compensation for this review.
Conflicts of Interest: There are no material conflicts of interest.
Avatar for Emily K
Emily K

Peace of Mind

✅ Wealthtender Certified Advisor Review™
Jun 5, 2023
Chris has been my financial planner for several years. I can confidently say that he has brought a deep sense of peace and security to my life. I have always been anxious about my finances, especially when it comes to retirement. However, Chris’s guidance with retirement planning has transformed my outlook. He took the time to understand what I wanted from life and then put together a clear plan that fit my needs. Now, I have a solid understanding of how much I will be spending during retirement, where my retirement income will come from, and how I can plan for a meaningful legacy. I highly recommend Chris to anyone seeking peace of mind about their finances.
Relationship to Financial Advisor: Current Client
Compensation: This reviewer received no compensation for this review.
Conflicts of Interest: There are no material conflicts of interest.
Avatar for Sylvia
Sylvia

Highest praise

✅ Wealthtender Certified Advisor Review™
May 9, 2023
I can't sing any higher praises for Chris Chen. He has been a guiding light for me during a very complicated period of creating a divorce agreement. He is thoughtful, prompt with his responses, and incredibly professional. He has a unique gift of being able to communicate complexities in finances in a straightforward and understandable way. He offers balanced guidance and has been my true north for all matters to related to the puzzle around the finances of my divorce. I trust Chris completely with all financial matters.
Relationship to Financial Advisor: Current Client
Compensation: This reviewer received no compensation for this review.
Conflicts of Interest: There are no material conflicts of interest.
Avatar for Jennifer
Jennifer

Compassionate

✅ Wealthtender Certified Advisor Review™
May 1, 2023
Chris Chen is very compassionate and not only helps with financials but helps you emotionally. He takes the time to listen and speak with you.
Relationship to Financial Advisor: Current Client
Compensation: This reviewer received no compensation for this review.
Conflicts of Interest: There are no material conflicts of interest.
Avatar for Amy
Amy

College and retirement planning

✅ Wealthtender Certified Advisor Review™
Apr 19, 2023
Have worked with Chris for many years. Highly recommend him. Paying for two children's college tuitions were not easy feats, and would have been more difficult without financial directions from Chris. We are now focused on building our nest egg for retirement, and are glad that he is here to help.
Relationship to Financial Advisor: Current Client
Compensation: This reviewer received no compensation for this review.
Conflicts of Interest: There are no material conflicts of interest.
Avatar for Helena
Helena
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