Ask an Advisor: Is the 60/40 Portfolio Still Enough for Long‑Term Investors?

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The traditional 60/40 portfolio split (60% stocks and 40% bonds) has long been the standard asset allocation for long-term investing. For decades, this strategy has helped investors balance growth and stability, smooth out the impact of market volatility on their portfolio, and follow a logical decision-making framework for investing.

A well-constructed portfolio should continue to balance growth-oriented investments with those designed to provide income, liquidity, and downside protection. But markets and the way economic value is created have changed a lot in recent years, so it might be time to rethink that traditional split.

Ask yourself, if a significant share of economic growth occurs outside the public markets, does a public-only equity allocation still work?

While it’s not for everyone at every stage of their investment journey, strategically incorporating privately held businesses into your portfolio may offer broader growth exposure while managing volatility. The key, however, is doing so thoughtfully, without abandoning your disciplined portfolio construction or a long-term investment strategy.

The Privately Held Opportunity for Investors

By the time a company goes public, it has often already experienced years of substantial growth. While public stocks can still offer attractive returns for investors, waiting until businesses go public may mean missing out on some of the most dynamic phases of value creation.

Today, that opportunity set is far larger than many investors realize. Approximately 86% of companies with more than $250 million in revenue are privately held, meaning public stock markets represent only a subset of the real economy. In other words, a portfolio invested exclusively in public equities captures just a small fragment of American business activity. [1] 

Another potential advantage of venturing outside the public markets? Private companies are diverse. They include family-owned enterprises, founder-led growth companies, highly specialized firms operating in niche industries, and more. From an investment standpoint, accessing that diversity can align well with the core principles of portfolio construction, spreading exposure across different business models and sectors. Relying solely on public markets, on the other hand, can limit access to these important segments of the economy.

Companies Are Staying Private for Longer

In 2000, the typical company went public after about six years. Today, that timeline has stretched to roughly 14 years. Over the same period, the number of publicly listed U.S. companies has declined by about 50%. [1]

For investors focused only on public equities, this can mean gaining exposure later in a company’s lifecycle, after early expansion, operational improvements, and strategic repositioning have already taken place. Private investments, by contrast, may provide access to earlier-stage growth and hands-on business development that public markets increasingly no longer reflect.

Hedging Public Market Volatility with Private Investments

What many individual investors don’t realize is that if you’re only invested in the public markets, you may be exposing your portfolio to concentration risk. Today’s major stock indexes are more heavily influenced by a small group of very large companies than in the past. The Magnificent 7, for example, include seven mega-cap stocks that are weighted heavily in major stock indices. If one company’s performance suffers, the entire index can lose value. 

Private investments, however, have historically behaved differently. One reason is correlation, as private assets tend to move less in lockstep with public equity markets. To be clear, the lack of correlation doesn’t eliminate investment risk altogether, as private investments can certainly experience downturns. However, lower correlation can help smooth overall portfolio volatility over full market cycles.

Private Investing Is More Accessible for Everyday Investors

Historically, private investing was largely reserved for institutions and ultra-wealthy investors. The barriers to entry for individual investors included:

  • High minimums
  • Limited institutional-level access
  • Long lockup periods
  • Complex structures 

In recent years, however, new fund structures, regulatory developments, and investment platforms have made private market exposure more accessible for qualified individuals. Minimum investment sizes have come down in some cases, and product design has evolved to better align with individual portfolio needs.

That said, “more accessible” does not mean they’re appropriate for everyone. Private investments still involve unique risks, including reduced liquidity and longer time horizons. Before putting your money towards something new, you’ll still need to conduct careful due diligence, think about the right asset allocation balance in your portfolio, and consider your long-term investing goals. 

Remember to Maintain Your Portfolio’s Fundamentals

Private investments are best viewed as a complement to traditional assets, not a replacement for them. When incorporated thoughtfully, they can support your diversification objectives and expand growth opportunities without undermining the foundational principles that long-term investing depends on.

If you’re curious whether private investments may have a role in your portfolio, we’re here to help. Reach out and schedule a conversation with our team today to ensure your investment approach remains aligned with your long-term goals.

Sources: 

  1. “Rethinking the 60%.” Blackstone. November 2025.
Sean Gerlin, CFP®, CPWA®, ChFC®, CLU®
Sean Gerlin, CFP®, CPWA®, ChFC®, CLU® Creating Clarity Out Of Complexity
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Sean Gerlin, CFP®, CPWA®, ChFC®, CLU® | Envision Wealth Planners

Sean Gerlin, CFP®, CPWA®, ChFC®, CLU®, is the Founder and Principal of Envision Wealth Planners, a fee-only financial advisory firm serving clients across Central Florida, including Orlando, Winter Park, Maitland, and nearby communities. In 2025, he was honored with the Wealthtender Voice of the Client Award, recognizing his commitment to exceptional client experience and long-term relationship-focused planning. Sean specializes in helping high-income families, business owners, and commercial real estate executives align their wealth with their values through a comprehensive Financial Life Planning approach. Learn more about EWP at envisionplanners.com. 

This material has been edited with the assistance of artificial intelligence tools. The information presented is based on sources believed to be reliable and accurate at the time of publication. This material is for educational purposes only and does not necessarily reflect the views of the author, presenter, or affiliated organizations. It should not be construed as investment, tax, legal, or other professional advice. Always consult a qualified professional regarding your specific situation before making any decisions.

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This article was originally published on Wealthtender and is intended for informational purposes only and should not be considered financial advice. You should consult a financial professional before making any major financial decisions. Wealthtender earns money from financial professionals, which creates a conflict of interest when these professionals are featured in articles over others. Read the Wealthtender editorial policy and terms of service to learn more. Wealthtender is not a client of these financial services providers.

Do you work at Google? Get the resources you need and expert insights from financial professionals who specialize in helping Google employees make the most of their compensation package and benefits.

Whether you’re a new Google employee (aka Alphabet employee) or you’ve moved up the ranks into a management or executive leadership role over a multi-year career, it’s important to make smart money moves with your income and employee benefits. For example:

✅ Do you know the right moves to make to get the greatest value from the Google benefits available to you?

✅If you’re thinking about leaving Google for another job or planning to retire from the company in a few years, are you taking the right steps today to ensure you will receive all of the compensation and benefits that you’ve earned?

Get the Most Value from Your Google Benefits and Compensation Package

Throughout the year, Google provides its employees and executives with updates about their benefits ranging from health insurance and health savings plans to retirement plans like a 401(k), deferred compensation plans, and stock options. While the company offers many useful resources and access to knowledgeable staff who can assist with questions, you’ll also find financial professionals not affiliated with Google who specialize in helping Google employees make the most of their income and benefits.

Whether you work in the Google headquarters in Mountain View, California, another office location around the country, or remotely from home, you may have questions about your compensation package and benefits better suited for a financial professional who can offer unbiased advice and guidance.

For example, sensitive topics like discussing the steps you should take before quitting your job at Google to work elsewhere, protecting yourself in advance of a corporate layoff, or deciding when you should plan to retire are all conversations that may be more comfortable with a trusted financial advisor.

Should you hire a Google specialist financial advisor or an advisor close to home?

You’ll likely find dozens of nearby financial advisors well-suited to help you reach your money goals with a personalized plan. But it may be more difficult to find a financial advisor who specializes in serving Google employees.

Fortunately, many financial advisors offer virtual services so you can meet online no matter where you (or they) live.

This means you can choose to hire a specialist financial advisor who lives hundreds of miles away if you decide their knowledge and experience working with Google employees is a better fit to help with your unique needs.


💡 In the Q&A below, you’ll gain insights from financial advisors who work with Google employees to help them make smart decisions to get the most value from their compensation and benefits, reduce their money stress, and prepare for a comfortable retirement.

🙋‍♀️ Do you have questions not yet answered? Use the form below to submit questions anonymously and watch this article for updates with answers to your questions. You can also reach out to the financial advisors below to set up an introductory call or contact them with your questions by email.


Q&A: Financial Planning Tips for Google Employees & Executives

In this section, you’ll learn how you can make the most of your Google employee benefits and gain valuable tips from financial advisors who specialize in working with Google employees and executives.

Answers to Employee Questions with Richard Siminou, MBA

Richard Siminou is a financial advisor based in Long Island, New York who specializes in offering financial planning services to Google employees. Richard helps his clients get the most value from their Google benefits and compensation package so they can enjoy life and feel confident about their financial future.

Q: As a financial advisor with experience helping Google employees save for their retirement, how do you help them make the most of their employee benefits?

Richard: Employees at large companies are often in a fortunate position — the benefits packages tend to be genuinely strong — but that also means there are a lot of moving parts to coordinate, and the stakes are high.

The first thing I do is make sure no one is leaving free money on the table. That means capturing the full 401(k) match before anything else. From there, we look at whether pre-tax or Roth contributions make more sense given where they are in their career and what their income looks like today versus in retirement.

For employees who receive equity compensation — RSUs, stock options, or an ESPP — that’s often where the bigger conversation happens. Equity can be a tremendous wealth-building tool, but it also creates real risks: concentration in a single stock and a tax bill that catches people off guard at vesting. I help clients build a thoughtful diversification strategy so they’re not overexposed to any one position, and we plan proactively for the tax implications so nothing comes as a surprise.

For employees on a high-deductible health plan, I also make sure they’re maximizing their HSA — not just as a healthcare fund, but as a long-term investment vehicle. Most people don’t realize it’s one of the most tax-efficient accounts available.

What I enjoy most about working with employees of large companies is that they’re often sharp, motivated, and have real wealth-building potential through their benefits alone. My job is to bring all the pieces together — the 401(k), the equity, the HSA, the taxable accounts — into one coordinated strategy so that every dollar is working as efficiently as possible.

Q: When you first speak with a Google employee, what questions do you like to ask to better understand their unique circumstances and determine how you can best help them achieve their goals?

Richard: The first conversation is really about listening more than talking. My goal is to understand not just where someone stands financially, but where they want to go — and what’s standing in the way.

I usually start with some foundational questions: Where are you in your career, and how are you thinking about the next five to ten years? Are you planning to stay with this employer long-term, or is there a possibility of a transition down the road? Those answers shape almost everything else.

From there I get into the specifics of their benefits. Are they capturing the full employer match on their 401(k)? How are they invested inside the plan, and does that still make sense given their timeline? If they receive equity compensation — RSUs, stock options, an ESPP — I want to understand how much of their net worth is tied to a single company’s stock, because concentration risk is one of the most common and underappreciated issues I see.

I also ask about taxes. Not in a technical way at first, but questions like: Did anything surprise you on your tax return last year? Are you feeling like you’re paying more than you should? That opens up a conversation about whether we can do better through smarter use of pre-tax accounts, HSAs, or deferred compensation if it’s available.

And then I ask the question that often matters most: What does financial security actually look like for you? The answer is different for everyone. For some people it’s retiring early. For others it’s funding their kids’ education without derailing their own retirement. For executives it might be building enough outside their employer that they have real optionality. Understanding that goal — that specific vision — is what drives everything else we do together.

Q: Is there a particular benefit available to Google employees you feel isn’t as well utilized or understood by employees as it should be?

Richard: Without question — the HSA, or Health Savings Account. It’s the most underutilized financial tool I see across the board, and it’s a shame because the tax advantages are extraordinary.

Most people treat the HSA like a flexible spending account — they contribute a little, pay their medical bills out of it, and move on. What they’re missing is that the HSA is actually a triple tax-advantaged account: contributions go in pre-tax, the money grows tax-free, and withdrawals for qualified medical expenses are tax-free. No other account does all three.

What I encourage clients to do, if their cash flow allows, is pay current medical expenses out of pocket and let the HSA grow invested for the long term. After age 65, you can withdraw the money for any reason — not just medical — and it essentially functions like a traditional IRA. But if you do use it for healthcare costs in retirement, which most people will have plenty of, it’s completely tax-free. That’s a powerful combination.

The other benefit I’d mention is deferred compensation, for those who have access to it. Non-qualified deferred compensation plans are available at many large employers for higher-earning employees, and they can be a meaningful way to reduce current taxable income and build wealth outside of the standard retirement account limits. But they come with real complexity and risk that needs to be understood before participating — which is exactly where having an advisor in your corner makes a difference.

Q: Beyond Google employee benefits for retirement savings, are there other types of benefits offered by the company that you find valuable to discuss with your clients (e.g., stock, education savings, health savings)?

Richard: Absolutely — and this is actually one of my favorite conversations to have, because most employees are sitting on benefits they’ve never fully explored.

Equity compensation is usually the first place I look. Whether it’s RSUs, stock options, or an Employee Stock Purchase Plan, these can represent a significant portion of someone’s total compensation — and they come with real decisions attached. When do you sell? How much do you hold? What’s the tax impact? I see a lot of employees either ignore these questions entirely or make emotional decisions about their company stock rather than strategic ones. Getting this right can make a meaningful difference in long-term wealth building.

Education savings is another area worth a dedicated conversation, particularly for employees with young children. A 529 plan isn’t an employer benefit in the traditional sense, but many large employers offer payroll deduction into 529 accounts, which makes the habit easy to build. More importantly, it’s a conversation that often gets delayed until it’s too late to let compounding do its work.

Life insurance and disability coverage are benefits people tend to click through during open enrollment without really thinking about. Group coverage through an employer is a great starting point, but it’s rarely sufficient on its own — especially for higher earners — and it doesn’t travel with you if you leave the company. I like to make sure clients understand what they actually have and where the gaps are.

Finally, I always ask about any financial wellness programs or legal services the employer offers. These are frequently overlooked and can provide real value, particularly around estate planning basics like wills and healthcare directives — documents that everyone needs but most people put off indefinitely.

The common thread across all of these is that benefits only create value if you actually understand and use them. My job is to make sure nothing valuable falls through the cracks.

Q: For Google employees thinking about leaving the company to accept a job elsewhere, what actions do you recommend they take before resigning and shortly thereafter?

Richard: A job transition is one of those moments where the financial decisions you make in a short window can have a lasting impact — for better or worse. I always encourage clients to slow down and think through a few key areas before they hand in their notice.

The first thing I look at is vesting schedules. Whether it’s a 401(k) employer match, RSUs, or stock options, leaving before a vesting date can mean walking away from meaningful compensation. Sometimes it’s worth negotiating a start date with the new employer to capture a vesting event that’s just weeks away. That’s a conversation most people don’t think to have.

Equity is the other big pre-resignation consideration. If you hold vested stock options, there’s typically a limited window — often 90 days — to exercise them after you leave. Missing that deadline means forfeiting them entirely. RSUs that haven’t vested yet are generally gone when you walk out the door, so understanding exactly what you’re leaving on the table is critical before making any final decision.

On the benefits side, I encourage clients to take stock of their health insurance situation before their last day. COBRA is always an option but can be expensive, so knowing how quickly the new employer’s coverage kicks in helps avoid any gaps.

For the 401(k), there’s no need to rush a decision, but shortly after leaving I’d recommend rolling it over to an IRA or the new employer’s plan rather than leaving it scattered across former employers. It’s easier to manage, typically opens up more investment options, and keeps your financial picture clean and consolidated.

And finally — the offer letter itself. Before signing, I always encourage clients to look at the full compensation picture at the new employer, not just the base salary. How does the equity package compare? What’s the 401(k) match? Is there a vesting cliff? Understanding the complete package helps make sure the move actually makes financial sense from day one.

Q: For Google employees approaching retirement age, how do you recommend they prepare to make the transition from living off their salary to relying upon other sources of income?

Richard: The transition from a steady paycheck to drawing down from multiple income sources is one of the most significant financial shifts a person will ever make — and in my experience, the people who navigate it most successfully are the ones who start planning it seriously three to five years out, not three to five months out.

The first thing I work through with clients approaching retirement is what I call the income gap analysis. We add up all the guaranteed income sources they’ll have — Social Security, any pension, annuity income if applicable — and compare that to what they actually need to live comfortably. Whatever’s left is what the portfolio needs to cover, and that shapes everything from asset allocation to withdrawal strategy.

Social Security timing is one of the highest-impact decisions in this phase and one of the most misunderstood. Claiming early can make sense in certain situations, but for many people delaying — even by a few years — results in a meaningfully higher monthly benefit for the rest of their life. We model this out carefully based on health, other income sources, and whether there’s a spouse involved.

Healthcare is another area that deserves serious attention, particularly for anyone looking to retire before Medicare eligibility at 65. Bridging that gap can be expensive, and it needs to be factored into the retirement budget explicitly rather than treated as an afterthought.

On the portfolio side, I work with clients to gradually shift their thinking from accumulation to distribution — which is a fundamentally different challenge. It’s not just about how much you’ve saved, it’s about sequencing withdrawals intelligently across taxable accounts, tax-deferred accounts like IRAs and 401(k)s, and tax-free accounts like Roth IRAs to minimize the tax drag over time. Getting that order of operations right can add real longevity to a portfolio.

And then there’s the psychological side, which doesn’t get talked about enough. After decades of saving and accumulating, actually spending that money can feel deeply uncomfortable for a lot of people. Part of my job in this phase is helping clients feel confident and grounded in their plan — so they can enjoy retirement rather than worry their way through it.

Q: For Google employees who have managed their finances on their own to this point, what would you suggest they consider to help them decide if they should begin working with a financial advisor at this stage in their lives?

Richard: I have a lot of respect for people who have taken ownership of their finances and done the work on their own. That discipline and engagement is actually a great foundation for a productive relationship with an advisor. The question I’d encourage them to ask isn’t “have I done okay so far?” — because the answer is probably yes — but rather “is doing this alone still the right approach given where I am and where I’m headed?”

The complexity argument is the most straightforward one. Early in a career, personal finance is relatively simple — contribute to the 401(k), build an emergency fund, avoid bad debt. But as income grows, equity compensation enters the picture, taxable accounts accumulate, families expand, and retirement starts moving from a distant concept to an actual horizon, the number of interconnected decisions multiplies quickly. At that point, the cost of a suboptimal decision — whether it’s a tax mistake, a poorly timed equity sale, or a Social Security claiming error — can far exceed the cost of professional guidance.

I’d also ask: how much time are you actually spending on this, and is that the best use of your time? Many of the people I work with are high achievers who are extremely capable of managing their own finances. But capability and bandwidth are two different things. If financial decisions are getting made reactively — or worse, getting deferred — because life is busy, that’s worth examining honestly.

Another honest question is around blind spots. We all have them. A good advisor isn’t just a technician — they’re a thinking partner who can challenge assumptions, stress test a plan, and flag things you might not know to look for. Most people don’t know what they don’t know until something goes wrong, and by then the cost of finding out can be significant.

And finally, I’d suggest looking at a few key moments as natural triggers for seeking a second opinion: a job change, an inheritance, a major equity vesting event, a divorce, or the death of a spouse. Any one of those situations involves enough complexity and enough at stake that having an experienced guide in your corner is genuinely valuable — not just reassuring.

The goal of a first conversation with an advisor shouldn’t be to hand everything over. It should be to get an honest assessment of where you stand, what you might be missing, and whether there’s enough value on the table to make the relationship worthwhile. A good advisor will tell you the truth either way.

Q: What are some of the unique financial planning challenges you commonly see among your clients who are Google employees and how do you help them overcome these obstacles?

Richard: Working with employees of large companies over the years, a few patterns come up consistently — and they’re worth naming because recognizing them is half the battle.

The first is what I’d call benefits paralysis. Large employers offer generous and often complex benefits packages, and the sheer number of decisions — 401(k) elections, health plan choices, equity grants, deferred compensation options, life insurance levels — can be genuinely overwhelming. The path of least resistance is to set something up during onboarding and never revisit it. I see people years into their careers still invested in the default target-date fund they selected on day one, with life insurance coverage that made sense when they were single but is now completely inadequate for a family. My job is to bring structure and intentionality to decisions that otherwise get made by default.

Concentration risk is another challenge I encounter constantly. When someone has worked at the same company for a long time and received equity compensation along the way, it’s very common for a disproportionate share of their net worth to be tied up in a single stock — their employer’s. There’s often an emotional attachment to that stock, a sense that loyalty or conviction should translate into holding. But from a pure risk management standpoint, having your income and your investment portfolio both dependent on the same company’s fortunes is a vulnerability. I help clients think through diversification in a way that feels rational rather than disloyal.

Lifestyle creep is a quieter challenge but a very real one, particularly among high earners at large companies. As compensation grows — base salary increases, bonuses, equity — spending tends to grow with it, sometimes faster. I work with clients to make sure that as their income rises, their savings rate and investment contributions are rising proportionally, not just their expenses. Building real wealth is about the gap between what you earn and what you spend, not the absolute level of either.

Tax complexity is something a lot of employees underestimate until it bites them. Between equity vesting events, bonus income, potential deferred compensation, and investment accounts, the tax picture for a high-earning employee at a large company can get complicated quickly. I work closely with clients — and coordinate with their CPAs where appropriate — to make sure we’re being proactive rather than reactive when it comes to tax planning.

And finally, there’s the challenge of integration — or the lack of it. Most people manage different pieces of their financial life in isolation. The 401(k) is one conversation, the equity compensation is another, the mortgage is another, the insurance is another. Nobody is looking at the whole picture at once. That’s precisely what I do. Bringing everything together into a single, coherent strategy is where the real value of financial planning lives.

Q: What questions do you recommend Google employees ask financial advisors they’re considering hiring to help them decide if they’re a good fit?

Richard: This is a question I genuinely love, because I think everyone should approach hiring a financial advisor the way they’d approach any other important professional relationship — with real curiosity and a willingness to ask direct questions. The right advisor will welcome the scrutiny. Here’s what I’d encourage people to ask:

How are you compensated? This is the most important question on the list and the one people are most reluctant to ask. Understanding whether an advisor is fee-only, fee-based, or commission-based tells you a great deal about where their incentives lie. There’s no single right answer, but you deserve a clear and honest explanation — not a vague or defensive one.

Are you a fiduciary, and in what capacity? A fiduciary is legally required to act in your best interest. Some advisors are fiduciaries all the time, some only in certain contexts, and some not at all. Knowing where your advisor stands on this — and when — matters enormously.

What is your experience working with clients in situations like mine? If you receive equity compensation, have significant assets in a company retirement plan, or are navigating a specific life transition, you want an advisor who has real familiarity with those circumstances — not someone who will be learning on your time.

What does your typical client look like? This helps you understand whether you’ll be a priority or an afterthought. An advisor whose practice is built around clients at a very different income or asset level may not be the best fit, regardless of how capable they are.

How often will we meet, and what does ongoing service look like? A financial plan isn’t a document — it’s a living relationship. You want to understand upfront how proactive the advisor will be, how accessible they are between scheduled meetings, and what you can expect when your circumstances change.

Who else is on your team, and who will I actually be working with day to day? At larger firms especially, the person you meet with initially isn’t always the person managing your relationship. It’s worth understanding the structure before you commit.

And finally — can you explain a time you told a client something they didn’t want to hear? A good advisor isn’t just a validator. They push back when it matters, flag risks you might be overlooking, and prioritize your long-term interests over your short-term comfort. How an advisor answers this question tells you a lot about their character and their willingness to have honest conversations.

The goal of these questions isn’t to trip anyone up — it’s to find someone you can trust completely with one of the most important areas of your life. The right advisor will answer every one of them directly and without hesitation.

Q: Is there anything that comes up frequently in your initial meeting with Google employees that surprises you?

Richard: Honestly, yes — and the same few things come up more often than you’d expect, even among people who are financially engaged and working at sophisticated organizations.

The one that surprises me most consistently is how many people don’t know what they actually own inside their 401(k). They know they’re contributing, they have a general sense of the balance, but when I ask what they’re invested in and why, there’s often a long pause. A lot of people are in whatever default option they selected years ago and have never revisited it. For something that may ultimately be one of their largest assets, that level of inattention is striking — though I understand how it happens. Life gets busy, the account is out of sight, and as long as the balance is going up it’s easy to assume everything is fine.

Another thing that comes up frequently is a genuine surprise at how much equity compensation they’ve accumulated — and how concentrated that makes them. People receive grants periodically, the stock does well, and before long a significant portion of their net worth is tied to a single company. When I show someone that number visually, as a percentage of their total picture, it often lands differently than they expected.

I’m also consistently surprised by how many people have never looked carefully at their insurance coverage — life, disability, long-term care. They enrolled in whatever the employer offered during onboarding, accepted the default amounts, and haven’t thought about it since. For someone whose income and family situation have changed substantially over the years, that coverage is often badly misaligned with their actual needs.

And then there’s estate planning. I would say the majority of people I meet for the first time — across all income levels — either have no will at all or have one that’s badly out of date. People know they need it, they intend to get to it, and somehow it never rises to the top of the list. It’s one of the first things I encourage clients to address, because it’s not just a financial document — it’s how you take care of the people you love when you’re no longer able to do it yourself.

What ties all of these together is that they’re not failures of intelligence or effort — they’re failures of attention and integration. People are busy, the financial system is complex, and without someone periodically looking at the whole picture, important things quietly fall through the cracks. That’s exactly the gap a good advisor fills.

Q: For highly compensated Google employees and executives, are there any special benefits you believe it’s important to take into consideration when preparing their financial plan?

Richard: Absolutely — and this is an area where the complexity increases significantly and the cost of not having a coordinated plan can be substantial. Highly compensated employees and executives often have access to a layer of benefits that goes well beyond what’s available to the broader workforce, and each one comes with its own set of decisions, tax implications, and risks.

Nonqualified deferred compensation plans are one of the most powerful tools available to executives, and also one of the most misunderstood. The ability to defer a significant portion of income — sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars — into a future tax year can be enormously valuable for someone in a high bracket today who expects to be in a lower bracket in retirement. But these plans are fundamentally different from a 401(k). The deferred amounts are technically still a liability of the employer, meaning they’re at risk if the company runs into financial trouble. The distribution elections are also largely irrevocable once made. Getting the strategy right from the beginning matters enormously.

Executive equity compensation tends to be more complex than standard RSU grants. Stock options — particularly incentive stock options, or ISOs — come with specific tax treatment that requires careful planning around exercise timing, alternative minimum tax exposure, and holding periods. The difference between a well-timed and a poorly timed exercise can be measured in tens of thousands of dollars or more.

Supplemental executive retirement plans, sometimes called SERPs, are another benefit worth understanding thoroughly. These are employer-funded retirement arrangements designed to provide additional income beyond what qualified plans like the 401(k) allow, and the terms vary widely from company to company.

Executive life insurance arrangements — things like split-dollar policies or executive bonus plans — also come up frequently at this level and require a careful look to make sure they’re structured in a way that actually serves the executive’s interests and integrates properly with their overall estate plan.

And speaking of estate planning — at the executive level this conversation becomes significantly more involved. We’re often talking about wealth transfer strategies, trust structures, charitable giving vehicles, and in some cases business succession considerations. The financial plan and the estate plan need to be built together, not treated as separate exercises.

What I find most important with highly compensated clients is that all of these pieces — the deferred comp, the equity, the insurance, the estate plan, the investment portfolio — are looked at holistically and updated regularly as circumstances change. The opportunities at this level are genuinely significant, but so are the consequences of getting it wrong.

Q: Is there a particularly memorable experience or a moment you recall with a client who worked at Google when you realized they have unique opportunities and circumstances when it comes to their financial planning needs?

Richard: There’s one that comes to mind that I think illustrates the point really well — and it’s a situation I’ve seen play out in different variations more times than I can count.

I met with a client who had been with a large employer for about twelve years. She was sharp, successful, and by any measure financially responsible. She had been contributing to her 401(k) consistently, had no significant debt, and felt like she had a reasonable handle on her finances. She came to me not because something was wrong, but because her compensation had grown considerably and she wanted a second set of eyes.

When we sat down and actually mapped out her complete financial picture, a few things became immediately clear. First, she had accumulated a substantial amount of vested company stock through RSU grants over the years — far more than she had mentally accounted for — and it represented nearly half of her investable net worth. She had always thought of her portfolio and her equity compensation as two separate things. They weren’t. They were deeply connected, and the concentration risk was significant.

Second, she had been eligible for her company’s nonqualified deferred compensation plan for three years and had never enrolled. Nobody had ever walked her through how it worked or why it might be worth considering. Given her tax bracket, that was a meaningful missed opportunity — not catastrophic, but real.

And third, her estate plan consisted of a will she had drafted before she was married, before she had children, and before her net worth had grown to its current level. It was essentially obsolete.

None of these were failures on her part. She had done a lot of things right. But they were a perfect illustration of what happens when the pieces of a financial life are managed in isolation rather than as a whole. The moment I laid it all out on one page — the portfolio, the equity, the deferred comp eligibility, the estate plan gap — I could see the shift in her expression. It wasn’t alarm, it was clarity. She finally saw her complete financial picture for the first time.

That’s the moment I find most meaningful in this work. Not when something has gone wrong, but when someone who has been doing well realizes they could be doing significantly better — and that the path to get there is clearer than they thought.

Q: For employees who receive a large, unexpected financial windfall — such as a major equity vesting event, a bonus, or an inheritance — what do you recommend they do, and what mistakes do you caution them to avoid?

Richard: If I could instill one habit above all others, it would be this: treat saving as a fixed expense, not an afterthought.

Most people save whatever is left over after they’ve paid their bills and lived their lives. The problem is that for most people, there’s rarely much left over — expenses have a way of expanding to fill available income. The people I’ve seen build real wealth consistently over time are the ones who decided early on to pay themselves first. They automated their contributions, set their savings rate, and built their lifestyle around what remained rather than the other way around.

It sounds simple, and it is — but the discipline of making it non-negotiable, even when the amounts are small, creates a habit and a mindset that compounds just as powerfully as the money itself. The clients I work with who started this early, even modestly, are almost always in a dramatically stronger position than those who waited until they felt they could afford to save more. The right time to start is always sooner than it feels.

Get to Know Richard Siminou, Financial Advisor for Google Employees:

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Quick Facts & Resources for Google Employees

Google Quick Facts & ResourcesDetails / Useful Links
Google Corporate Headquarters Address1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043 (📍 Google Maps)
Overview of Google BenefitsCareers.Google.com/Benefits
How much do Google employees Make?View Google Salary Research on Glassdoor
Where can I learn more about careers at Google?Visit Careers.Google.com
How many people work for Google?Google has over 156,000 employees worldwide (Source: Statista)
What is the ticker symbol for Google stock?Google’s ticker symbols are GOOG and GOOGL, and today, represent equity ownership in Google’s parent company, Alphabet. GOOG shares have no voting rights, while GOOGL shares do.

🙋‍♀️ Have Questions About Your Google Benefits or Career?

Reader Questions Answered

Q: Does Google have a deferred comp plan? If so, who is eligible to participate, and do you have any opinions on the value of the plan to Google employees? – Dan B.

Rebecca Jackson, CPA, CFP® (January 20, 2023): Yes, Google does offer the ability to defer part of bonus compensation on a pre-tax basis.  Depending on your level of bonus compensation and your goals, this could be a great value.


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About the Author
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Brian Thorp

Founder and CEO, Wealthtender

Brian and his wife live in Texas, enjoying the diversity of Houston and the vibrancy of Austin.

With over 25 years in the financial services industry, Brian is applying his experience and passion at Wealthtender to help more people enjoy life with less money stress.

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Do you work at NVIDIA? Get the resources you need and expert insights from financial professionals who specialize in helping NVIDIA employees make the most of their compensation package and benefits.

Whether you’re a new NVIDIA employee or you’ve moved up the ranks into a management or executive leadership role over a multi-year career, it’s important to make smart money moves with your income and employee benefits. For example:

✅ Do you know the right moves to make to get the greatest value from the NVIDIA benefits available to you?

✅If you’re thinking about leaving NVIDIA for another job or planning to retire from the company in a few years, are you taking the right steps today to ensure you will receive all of the compensation and benefits that you’ve earned?

Get the Most Value from Your NVIDIA Benefits and Compensation Package

Throughout the year, NVIDIA provides its employees and executives with updates about their benefits ranging from health insurance and health savings plans to retirement plans like a 401(k), deferred compensation plans, and stock options. While the company offers many useful resources and access to knowledgeable staff who can assist with questions, you’ll also find financial professionals not affiliated with NVIDIA who specialize in helping NVIDIA employees make the most of their income and benefits.

Whether you work in the NVIDIA headquarters in Santa Clara, California, another office location around the country, or remotely from home, you may have questions about your compensation package and benefits better suited for a financial professional who can offer unbiased advice and guidance.

For example, sensitive topics like discussing the steps you should take before quitting your job at NVIDIA to work elsewhere, protecting yourself in advance of a corporate layoff, or deciding when you should plan to retire are all conversations that may be more comfortable with a trusted financial advisor.

Should you hire an NVIDIA specialist financial advisor or an advisor close to home?

You’ll likely find dozens of nearby financial advisors well-suited to help you reach your money goals with a personalized plan. But it may be more difficult to find a financial advisor who specializes in serving NVIDIA employees.

Fortunately, many financial advisors offer virtual services so you can meet online no matter where you (or they) live.

This means you can choose to hire a specialist financial advisor who lives hundreds of miles away if you decide their knowledge and experience working with NVIDIA employees is a better fit to help with your unique needs.

💡 In the Q&A below, you’ll gain insights from financial advisors who work with NVIDIA employees to help them make smart decisions to get the most value from their compensation and benefits, reduce their money stress, and prepare for a comfortable retirement.

🙋‍♀️ Do you have questions not yet answered? Use the form below to submit questions anonymously and watch this article for updates with answers to your questions. You can also reach out to the financial advisors below to set up an introductory call or contact them with your questions by email.


💸 Smart Money Insights for NVIDIA Employees & Executives

This page is organized into sections to help you quickly find the information you need and get answers to your questions:

  1. Q&A: Financial Planning Tips for NVIDIA Employees & Executives
  2. Get Answers to Your Questions About Your NVIDIA Benefits and Career
  3. Browse Related Articles

Q&A: Financial Planning Tips for NVIDIA Employees & Executives

In this section, you’ll learn how you can make the most of your NVIDIA employee benefits and gain valuable tips from financial advisors who specialize in working with NVIDIA employees and executives.

Answers to Employee Questions with Richard Siminou, MBA

Richard Siminou is a financial advisor based in Long Island, New York who specializes in offering financial planning services to Nvidia employees. Richard helps his clients get the most value from their Nvidia benefits and compensation package so they can enjoy life and feel confident about their financial future.

Q: As a financial advisor with experience helping Nvidia employees save for their retirement, how do you help them make the most of their employee benefits?

Richard: Employees at large companies are often in a fortunate position — the benefits packages tend to be genuinely strong — but that also means there are a lot of moving parts to coordinate, and the stakes are high.

The first thing I do is make sure no one is leaving free money on the table. That means capturing the full 401(k) match before anything else. From there, we look at whether pre-tax or Roth contributions make more sense given where they are in their career and what their income looks like today versus in retirement.

For employees who receive equity compensation — RSUs, stock options, or an ESPP — that’s often where the bigger conversation happens. Equity can be a tremendous wealth-building tool, but it also creates real risks: concentration in a single stock and a tax bill that catches people off guard at vesting. I help clients build a thoughtful diversification strategy so they’re not overexposed to any one position, and we plan proactively for the tax implications so nothing comes as a surprise.

For employees on a high-deductible health plan, I also make sure they’re maximizing their HSA — not just as a healthcare fund, but as a long-term investment vehicle. Most people don’t realize it’s one of the most tax-efficient accounts available.

What I enjoy most about working with employees of large companies is that they’re often sharp, motivated, and have real wealth-building potential through their benefits alone. My job is to bring all the pieces together — the 401(k), the equity, the HSA, the taxable accounts — into one coordinated strategy so that every dollar is working as efficiently as possible.

Q: When you first speak with a Nvidia employee, what questions do you like to ask to better understand their unique circumstances and determine how you can best help them achieve their goals?

Richard: The first conversation is really about listening more than talking. My goal is to understand not just where someone stands financially, but where they want to go — and what’s standing in the way.

I usually start with some foundational questions: Where are you in your career, and how are you thinking about the next five to ten years? Are you planning to stay with this employer long-term, or is there a possibility of a transition down the road? Those answers shape almost everything else.

From there I get into the specifics of their benefits. Are they capturing the full employer match on their 401(k)? How are they invested inside the plan, and does that still make sense given their timeline? If they receive equity compensation — RSUs, stock options, an ESPP — I want to understand how much of their net worth is tied to a single company’s stock, because concentration risk is one of the most common and underappreciated issues I see.

I also ask about taxes. Not in a technical way at first, but questions like: Did anything surprise you on your tax return last year? Are you feeling like you’re paying more than you should? That opens up a conversation about whether we can do better through smarter use of pre-tax accounts, HSAs, or deferred compensation if it’s available.

And then I ask the question that often matters most: What does financial security actually look like for you? The answer is different for everyone. For some people it’s retiring early. For others it’s funding their kids’ education without derailing their own retirement. For executives it might be building enough outside their employer that they have real optionality. Understanding that goal — that specific vision — is what drives everything else we do together.

Q: Is there a particular benefit available to Nvidia employees you feel isn’t as well utilized or understood by employees as it should be?

Richard: Without question — the HSA, or Health Savings Account. It’s the most underutilized financial tool I see across the board, and it’s a shame because the tax advantages are extraordinary.

Most people treat the HSA like a flexible spending account — they contribute a little, pay their medical bills out of it, and move on. What they’re missing is that the HSA is actually a triple tax-advantaged account: contributions go in pre-tax, the money grows tax-free, and withdrawals for qualified medical expenses are tax-free. No other account does all three.

What I encourage clients to do, if their cash flow allows, is pay current medical expenses out of pocket and let the HSA grow invested for the long term. After age 65, you can withdraw the money for any reason — not just medical — and it essentially functions like a traditional IRA. But if you do use it for healthcare costs in retirement, which most people will have plenty of, it’s completely tax-free. That’s a powerful combination.

The other benefit I’d mention is deferred compensation, for those who have access to it. Non-qualified deferred compensation plans are available at many large employers for higher-earning employees, and they can be a meaningful way to reduce current taxable income and build wealth outside of the standard retirement account limits. But they come with real complexity and risk that needs to be understood before participating — which is exactly where having an advisor in your corner makes a difference.

Q: Beyond Nvidia employee benefits for retirement savings, are there other types of benefits offered by the company that you find valuable to discuss with your clients?

Richard: Absolutely — and this is actually one of my favorite conversations to have, because most employees are sitting on benefits they’ve never fully explored.

Equity compensation is usually the first place I look. Whether it’s RSUs, stock options, or an Employee Stock Purchase Plan, these can represent a significant portion of someone’s total compensation — and they come with real decisions attached. When do you sell? How much do you hold? What’s the tax impact? I see a lot of employees either ignore these questions entirely or make emotional decisions about their company stock rather than strategic ones. Getting this right can make a meaningful difference in long-term wealth building.

Education savings is another area worth a dedicated conversation, particularly for employees with young children. A 529 plan isn’t an employer benefit in the traditional sense, but many large employers offer payroll deduction into 529 accounts, which makes the habit easy to build. More importantly, it’s a conversation that often gets delayed until it’s too late to let compounding do its work.

Life insurance and disability coverage are benefits people tend to click through during open enrollment without really thinking about. Group coverage through an employer is a great starting point, but it’s rarely sufficient on its own — especially for higher earners — and it doesn’t travel with you if you leave the company. I like to make sure clients understand what they actually have and where the gaps are.

Finally, I always ask about any financial wellness programs or legal services the employer offers. These are frequently overlooked and can provide real value, particularly around estate planning basics like wills and healthcare directives — documents that everyone needs but most people put off indefinitely.

The common thread across all of these is that benefits only create value if you actually understand and use them. My job is to make sure nothing valuable falls through the cracks.

Q: For Nvidia employees thinking about leaving the company to accept a job elsewhere, what actions do you recommend they take before resigning and shortly thereafter?

Richard: A job transition is one of those moments where the financial decisions you make in a short window can have a lasting impact — for better or worse. I always encourage clients to slow down and think through a few key areas before they hand in their notice.

The first thing I look at is vesting schedules. Whether it’s a 401(k) employer match, RSUs, or stock options, leaving before a vesting date can mean walking away from meaningful compensation. Sometimes it’s worth negotiating a start date with the new employer to capture a vesting event that’s just weeks away. That’s a conversation most people don’t think to have.

Equity is the other big pre-resignation consideration. If you hold vested stock options, there’s typically a limited window — often 90 days — to exercise them after you leave. Missing that deadline means forfeiting them entirely. RSUs that haven’t vested yet are generally gone when you walk out the door, so understanding exactly what you’re leaving on the table is critical before making any final decision.

On the benefits side, I encourage clients to take stock of their health insurance situation before their last day. COBRA is always an option but can be expensive, so knowing how quickly the new employer’s coverage kicks in helps avoid any gaps.

For the 401(k), there’s no need to rush a decision, but shortly after leaving I’d recommend rolling it over to an IRA or the new employer’s plan rather than leaving it scattered across former employers. It’s easier to manage, typically opens up more investment options, and keeps your financial picture clean and consolidated.

And finally — the offer letter itself. Before signing, I always encourage clients to look at the full compensation picture at the new employer, not just the base salary. How does the equity package compare? What’s the 401(k) match? Is there a vesting cliff? Understanding the complete package helps make sure the move actually makes financial sense from day one.

Q: For Nvidia employees approaching retirement age, how do you recommend they prepare to make the transition from living off their salary to relying upon other sources of income?

Richard: The transition from a steady paycheck to drawing down from multiple income sources is one of the most significant financial shifts a person will ever make — and in my experience, the people who navigate it most successfully are the ones who start planning it seriously three to five years out, not three to five months out.

The first thing I work through with clients approaching retirement is what I call the income gap analysis. We add up all the guaranteed income sources they’ll have — Social Security, any pension, annuity income if applicable — and compare that to what they actually need to live comfortably. Whatever’s left is what the portfolio needs to cover, and that shapes everything from asset allocation to withdrawal strategy.

Social Security timing is one of the highest-impact decisions in this phase and one of the most misunderstood. Claiming early can make sense in certain situations, but for many people delaying — even by a few years — results in a meaningfully higher monthly benefit for the rest of their life. We model this out carefully based on health, other income sources, and whether there’s a spouse involved.

Healthcare is another area that deserves serious attention, particularly for anyone looking to retire before Medicare eligibility at 65. Bridging that gap can be expensive, and it needs to be factored into the retirement budget explicitly rather than treated as an afterthought.

On the portfolio side, I work with clients to gradually shift their thinking from accumulation to distribution — which is a fundamentally different challenge. It’s not just about how much you’ve saved, it’s about sequencing withdrawals intelligently across taxable accounts, tax-deferred accounts like IRAs and 401(k)s, and tax-free accounts like Roth IRAs to minimize the tax drag over time. Getting that order of operations right can add real longevity to a portfolio.

And then there’s the psychological side, which doesn’t get talked about enough. After decades of saving and accumulating, actually spending that money can feel deeply uncomfortable for a lot of people. Part of my job in this phase is helping clients feel confident and grounded in their plan — so they can enjoy retirement rather than worry their way through it.

Q: For Nvidia employees who have managed their finances on their own to this point, what would you suggest they consider to help them decide if they should begin working with a financial advisor at this stage in their lives?

Richard: I have a lot of respect for people who have taken ownership of their finances and done the work on their own. That discipline and engagement is actually a great foundation for a productive relationship with an advisor. The question I’d encourage them to ask isn’t “have I done okay so far?” — because the answer is probably yes — but rather “is doing this alone still the right approach given where I am and where I’m headed?”

The complexity argument is the most straightforward one. Early in a career, personal finance is relatively simple — contribute to the 401(k), build an emergency fund, avoid bad debt. But as income grows, equity compensation enters the picture, taxable accounts accumulate, families expand, and retirement starts moving from a distant concept to an actual horizon, the number of interconnected decisions multiplies quickly. At that point, the cost of a suboptimal decision — whether it’s a tax mistake, a poorly timed equity sale, or a Social Security claiming error — can far exceed the cost of professional guidance.

I’d also ask: how much time are you actually spending on this, and is that the best use of your time? Many of the people I work with are high achievers who are extremely capable of managing their own finances. But capability and bandwidth are two different things. If financial decisions are getting made reactively — or worse, getting deferred — because life is busy, that’s worth examining honestly.

Another honest question is around blind spots. We all have them. A good advisor isn’t just a technician — they’re a thinking partner who can challenge assumptions, stress test a plan, and flag things you might not know to look for. Most people don’t know what they don’t know until something goes wrong, and by then the cost of finding out can be significant.

And finally, I’d suggest looking at a few key moments as natural triggers for seeking a second opinion: a job change, an inheritance, a major equity vesting event, a divorce, or the death of a spouse. Any one of those situations involves enough complexity and enough at stake that having an experienced guide in your corner is genuinely valuable — not just reassuring.

The goal of a first conversation with an advisor shouldn’t be to hand everything over. It should be to get an honest assessment of where you stand, what you might be missing, and whether there’s enough value on the table to make the relationship worthwhile. A good advisor will tell you the truth either way.

Q: What are some of the unique financial planning challenges you commonly see among your clients who are Nvidia employees and how do you help them overcome these obstacles?

Richard: Working with employees of large companies over the years, a few patterns come up consistently — and they’re worth naming because recognizing them is half the battle.

The first is what I’d call benefits paralysis. Large employers offer generous and often complex benefits packages, and the sheer number of decisions — 401(k) elections, health plan choices, equity grants, deferred compensation options, life insurance levels — can be genuinely overwhelming. The path of least resistance is to set something up during onboarding and never revisit it. I see people years into their careers still invested in the default target-date fund they selected on day one, with life insurance coverage that made sense when they were single but is now completely inadequate for a family. My job is to bring structure and intentionality to decisions that otherwise get made by default.

Concentration risk is another challenge I encounter constantly. When someone has worked at the same company for a long time and received equity compensation along the way, it’s very common for a disproportionate share of their net worth to be tied up in a single stock — their employer’s. There’s often an emotional attachment to that stock, a sense that loyalty or conviction should translate into holding. But from a pure risk management standpoint, having your income and your investment portfolio both dependent on the same company’s fortunes is a vulnerability. I help clients think through diversification in a way that feels rational rather than disloyal.

Lifestyle creep is a quieter challenge but a very real one, particularly among high earners at large companies. As compensation grows — base salary increases, bonuses, equity — spending tends to grow with it, sometimes faster. I work with clients to make sure that as their income rises, their savings rate and investment contributions are rising proportionally, not just their expenses. Building real wealth is about the gap between what you earn and what you spend, not the absolute level of either.

Tax complexity is something a lot of employees underestimate until it bites them. Between equity vesting events, bonus income, potential deferred compensation, and investment accounts, the tax picture for a high-earning employee at a large company can get complicated quickly. I work closely with clients — and coordinate with their CPAs where appropriate — to make sure we’re being proactive rather than reactive when it comes to tax planning.

And finally, there’s the challenge of integration — or the lack of it. Most people manage different pieces of their financial life in isolation. The 401(k) is one conversation, the equity compensation is another, the mortgage is another, the insurance is another. Nobody is looking at the whole picture at once. That’s precisely what I do. Bringing everything together into a single, coherent strategy is where the real value of financial planning lives.

Q: What questions do you recommend Nvidia employees ask financial advisors they’re considering hiring to help them decide if they’re a good fit?

Richard: This is a question I genuinely love, because I think everyone should approach hiring a financial advisor the way they’d approach any other important professional relationship — with real curiosity and a willingness to ask direct questions. The right advisor will welcome the scrutiny. Here’s what I’d encourage people to ask:

How are you compensated? This is the most important question on the list and the one people are most reluctant to ask. Understanding whether an advisor is fee-only, fee-based, or commission-based tells you a great deal about where their incentives lie. There’s no single right answer, but you deserve a clear and honest explanation — not a vague or defensive one.

Are you a fiduciary, and in what capacity? A fiduciary is legally required to act in your best interest. Some advisors are fiduciaries all the time, some only in certain contexts, and some not at all. Knowing where your advisor stands on this — and when — matters enormously.

What is your experience working with clients in situations like mine? If you receive equity compensation, have significant assets in a company retirement plan, or are navigating a specific life transition, you want an advisor who has real familiarity with those circumstances — not someone who will be learning on your time.

What does your typical client look like? This helps you understand whether you’ll be a priority or an afterthought. An advisor whose practice is built around clients at a very different income or asset level may not be the best fit, regardless of how capable they are.

How often will we meet, and what does ongoing service look like? A financial plan isn’t a document — it’s a living relationship. You want to understand upfront how proactive the advisor will be, how accessible they are between scheduled meetings, and what you can expect when your circumstances change.

Who else is on your team, and who will I actually be working with day to day? At larger firms especially, the person you meet with initially isn’t always the person managing your relationship. It’s worth understanding the structure before you commit.

And finally — can you explain a time you told a client something they didn’t want to hear? A good advisor isn’t just a validator. They push back when it matters, flag risks you might be overlooking, and prioritize your long-term interests over your short-term comfort. How an advisor answers this question tells you a lot about their character and their willingness to have honest conversations.

The goal of these questions isn’t to trip anyone up — it’s to find someone you can trust completely with one of the most important areas of your life. The right advisor will answer every one of them directly and without hesitation.

Q: Is there anything that comes up frequently in your initial meeting with Nvidia employees that surprises you?

Richard: Honestly, yes — and the same few things come up more often than you’d expect, even among people who are financially engaged and working at sophisticated organizations.

The one that surprises me most consistently is how many people don’t know what they actually own inside their 401(k). They know they’re contributing, they have a general sense of the balance, but when I ask what they’re invested in and why, there’s often a long pause. A lot of people are in whatever default option they selected years ago and have never revisited it. For something that may ultimately be one of their largest assets, that level of inattention is striking — though I understand how it happens. Life gets busy, the account is out of sight, and as long as the balance is going up it’s easy to assume everything is fine.

Another thing that comes up frequently is a genuine surprise at how much equity compensation they’ve accumulated — and how concentrated that makes them. People receive grants periodically, the stock does well, and before long a significant portion of their net worth is tied to a single company. When I show someone that number visually, as a percentage of their total picture, it often lands differently than they expected.

I’m also consistently surprised by how many people have never looked carefully at their insurance coverage — life, disability, long-term care. They enrolled in whatever the employer offered during onboarding, accepted the default amounts, and haven’t thought about it since. For someone whose income and family situation have changed substantially over the years, that coverage is often badly misaligned with their actual needs.

And then there’s estate planning. I would say the majority of people I meet for the first time — across all income levels — either have no will at all or have one that’s badly out of date. People know they need it, they intend to get to it, and somehow it never rises to the top of the list. It’s one of the first things I encourage clients to address, because it’s not just a financial document — it’s how you take care of the people you love when you’re no longer able to do it yourself.

What ties all of these together is that they’re not failures of intelligence or effort — they’re failures of attention and integration. People are busy, the financial system is complex, and without someone periodically looking at the whole picture, important things quietly fall through the cracks. That’s exactly the gap a good advisor fills.

Q: For highly compensated Nvidia employees and executives, are there any special benefits you believe it’s important to take into consideration when preparing their financial plan?

Richard: Absolutely — and this is an area where the complexity increases significantly and the cost of not having a coordinated plan can be substantial. Highly compensated employees and executives often have access to a layer of benefits that goes well beyond what’s available to the broader workforce, and each one comes with its own set of decisions, tax implications, and risks.

Nonqualified deferred compensation plans are one of the most powerful tools available to executives, and also one of the most misunderstood. The ability to defer a significant portion of income — sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars — into a future tax year can be enormously valuable for someone in a high bracket today who expects to be in a lower bracket in retirement. But these plans are fundamentally different from a 401(k). The deferred amounts are technically still a liability of the employer, meaning they’re at risk if the company runs into financial trouble. The distribution elections are also largely irrevocable once made. Getting the strategy right from the beginning matters enormously.

Executive equity compensation tends to be more complex than standard RSU grants. Stock options — particularly incentive stock options, or ISOs — come with specific tax treatment that requires careful planning around exercise timing, alternative minimum tax exposure, and holding periods. The difference between a well-timed and a poorly timed exercise can be measured in tens of thousands of dollars or more.

Supplemental executive retirement plans, sometimes called SERPs, are another benefit worth understanding thoroughly. These are employer-funded retirement arrangements designed to provide additional income beyond what qualified plans like the 401(k) allow, and the terms vary widely from company to company.

Executive life insurance arrangements — things like split-dollar policies or executive bonus plans — also come up frequently at this level and require a careful look to make sure they’re structured in a way that actually serves the executive’s interests and integrates properly with their overall estate plan.

And speaking of estate planning — at the executive level this conversation becomes significantly more involved. We’re often talking about wealth transfer strategies, trust structures, charitable giving vehicles, and in some cases business succession considerations. The financial plan and the estate plan need to be built together, not treated as separate exercises.

What I find most important with highly compensated clients is that all of these pieces — the deferred comp, the equity, the insurance, the estate plan, the investment portfolio — are looked at holistically and updated regularly as circumstances change. The opportunities at this level are genuinely significant, but so are the consequences of getting it wrong.

Q: Is there a particularly memorable experience or a moment you recall with a client who worked at Nvidia when you realized they have unique opportunities and circumstances when it comes to their financial planning needs?

Richard: There’s one that comes to mind that I think illustrates the point really well — and it’s a situation I’ve seen play out in different variations more times than I can count.

I met with a client who had been with a large employer for about twelve years. She was sharp, successful, and by any measure financially responsible. She had been contributing to her 401(k) consistently, had no significant debt, and felt like she had a reasonable handle on her finances. She came to me not because something was wrong, but because her compensation had grown considerably and she wanted a second set of eyes.

When we sat down and actually mapped out her complete financial picture, a few things became immediately clear. First, she had accumulated a substantial amount of vested company stock through RSU grants over the years — far more than she had mentally accounted for — and it represented nearly half of her investable net worth. She had always thought of her portfolio and her equity compensation as two separate things. They weren’t. They were deeply connected, and the concentration risk was significant.

Second, she had been eligible for her company’s nonqualified deferred compensation plan for three years and had never enrolled. Nobody had ever walked her through how it worked or why it might be worth considering. Given her tax bracket, that was a meaningful missed opportunity — not catastrophic, but real.

And third, her estate plan consisted of a will she had drafted before she was married, before she had children, and before her net worth had grown to its current level. It was essentially obsolete.

None of these were failures on her part. She had done a lot of things right. But they were a perfect illustration of what happens when the pieces of a financial life are managed in isolation rather than as a whole. The moment I laid it all out on one page — the portfolio, the equity, the deferred comp eligibility, the estate plan gap — I could see the shift in her expression. It wasn’t alarm, it was clarity. She finally saw her complete financial picture for the first time.

That’s the moment I find most meaningful in this work. Not when something has gone wrong, but when someone who has been doing well realizes they could be doing significantly better — and that the path to get there is clearer than they thought.

Q: For employees who receive a large, unexpected financial windfall — such as a major equity vesting event, a bonus, or an inheritance — what do you recommend they do, and what mistakes do you caution them to avoid?

Richard: If I could instill one habit above all others, it would be this: treat saving as a fixed expense, not an afterthought.

Most people save whatever is left over after they’ve paid their bills and lived their lives. The problem is that for most people, there’s rarely much left over — expenses have a way of expanding to fill available income. The people I’ve seen build real wealth consistently over time are the ones who decided early on to pay themselves first. They automated their contributions, set their savings rate, and built their lifestyle around what remained rather than the other way around.

It sounds simple, and it is — but the discipline of making it non-negotiable, even when the amounts are small, creates a habit and a mindset that compounds just as powerfully as the money itself. The clients I work with who started this early, even modestly, are almost always in a dramatically stronger position than those who waited until they felt they could afford to save more. The right time to start is always sooner than it feels.

Get to Know Richard Siminou, Financial Advisor for Nvidia Employees:

View Richard’s profile page on Wealthtender or visit his website to learn more.

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Quick Facts & Resources for NVIDIA Employees

NVIDIA Quick Facts & ResourcesDetails / Useful Links
NVIDIA Corporate Headquarters Address2788 San Tomas Expressway, Santa Clara, CA 95051 (📍 Google Maps)
Overview of NVIDIA BenefitsVisit Life at Nvidia
How much do NVIDIA employees Make?View NVIDIA Salary Research on Glassdoor
Where can I learn more about careers at NVIDIA?Visit this Career Page on NVIDIA.com
What is the ticker symbol for NVIDIA stock?The NVIDIA ticker symbol is NVDA. Visit NVIDIA Investor Relations


🙋‍♀️ Have Questions About Your NVIDIA Benefits or Career?




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About the Author
Brian Thorp, Founder and CEO of Wealthtender profile picture

Brian Thorp

Founder and CEO, Wealthtender

Brian and his wife live in Texas, enjoying the diversity of Houston and the vibrancy of Austin.

With over 25 years in the financial services industry, Brian is applying his experience and passion at Wealthtender to help more people enjoy life with less money stress.

Connect with Brian on LinkedIn

Find financial advisors in Newport News, Virginia ready to help with your financial planning needs so you can enjoy life more with less money stress.

Whether you have lived in Newport News for years or recently moved to town, you may need help finding the right financial advisor in the community best suited for your individual needs.

It’s important to first consider your own financial planning priorities before choosing an advisor. Here are a few quick tips to help you get started along with financial advisors in Newport News featured on Wealthtender you may want to add to your shortlist.

As you prepare to interview financial advisors in Newport News who may be right for you, get to know local financial advisors featured on Wealthtender.

📍 Map: Financial Advisors with their Primary Office Location in Newport News

Double-click (or pinch the map on mobile devices) to zoom in and expand the details for financial advisors whose primary office location is in Newport News.

📍Double-click or pinch pins to view more.

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The Benefits of Hiring a Financial Advisor in Newport News

Hiring a financial advisor can be a great move to help you build a long-term investing strategy. Advisors can help you build an investment portfolio to meet your financial goals and help you plan appropriately for retirement.

As a resident living in Newport News, hiring a financial advisor who lives nearby and understands the local economy, cost of living, and regional employers can be quite valuable, especially if your individual circumstances are deeply tied to such factors.

Do you work for one of the largest employers in Newport News? If so, there’s a good chance the local financial advisor you hire will also have other clients who work there. This knowledge could prove valuable if they are already familiar with your employee benefits, such as a 401(k) plan, Health Savings Accounts, and other components of your total compensation package.

When you reach out to financial advisors you’re considering hiring, let them know where you work and ask if they are familiar with your employer’s unique benefits and compensation structure.

Quick Tips For Hiring an Newport News Financial Advisor

Before hiring a financial advisor in Newport News, here are a few quick tips to help you find the best advisor for you.

1. Decide Which Services You Need

Before hiring an advisor, determine what services you need from them. Whether it’s full-service investment management or a plan focused on a specific area of your finances, put together a list of what you’d like help with before contacting an advisor.

Though most people use a financial planner simply to invest for retirement, this is only a small part of what many advisors offer. Here’s a quick rundown of potential services a financial advisor may offer you:

  • Budgeting and money management
  • Debt management
  • Insurance planning
  • Retirement planning
  • Other investment planning
  • Inheritance planning
  • Estate planning
  • Tax planning

As you can see, financial advisors can help you with your entire financial picture, not just investing. As you start to plan for life’s bigger milestones, you should consider finding a financial advisor that specializes in those areas.

Finding the right advisor can help you minimize risk, maximize gains and take advantage of tax breaks while investing for your future. They can also help you protect your assets with the right kinds of insurance and help you pass on your financial legacy with a proper estate plan.

2. Consider Your Budget and Payment Preferences

Once you have a list of services you would like, review the fee structures financial advisors offer. Finding a balance between the services you need and the cost of those services will help narrow down the field of advisors you may want to work with.

If you are looking for a full-service advisor to manage all of your investments, consider searching among fee-based financial advisors. If you want to manage your money yourself, consider the flat fee and monthly subscription advisors for ongoing support.

3. Interview Multiple Financial Advisors

Once you have chosen the services and fee structure you prefer, it’s time to contact a few advisors and interview them. Here are questions to ask financial advisors:

  • What services do you provide?
  • What are all the ways you get paid? (fee transparency)
  • What is your investment strategy?
  • How do you measure investment performance?
  • How do we communicate about my plan?

Interview multiple advisors to get a feel for who you want to work with. A combination of fees, services, and customer service will help you determine the best fit for your financial advice.

4. Review Financial Advisor Credentials

Once you find an advisor (or two) you feel comfortable with, it’s always a good practice to check their credentials and the firm’s details. You can do this at the Investment Adviser Public Disclosure (IAPD) website

You can check both the individual and the firm to view their background and experience details, as well as any disciplinary action taken against them or their firm.

As licensed financial professionals, there is oversight into how financial advisors conduct business, so running a quick (free) check on them is recommended.

For additional information about advisor credentials, read our article to learn the most popular designations held by financial advisors, as well as specialized credentials which may be important to consider if you have unique financial planning needs.


Frequently Asked Questions & Additional Resources

How do I know if I’m ready to hire a financial advisor?

You should strongly consider hiring a financial advisor if you have a significant amount of money available for saving or investing. This could occur after years of making annual contributions to a retirement plan like a 401(k) through your employer or suddenly if you receive a large inheritance or sell your house for a large profit.

But even if you don’t have a lot of money saved, many financial advisors and planners provide reasonable pricing options and valuable services you should consider, especially if you’re facing a significant life event. For example, if you’re starting a new job, getting married, starting a family, getting divorced, lost your job, starting or selling a business, or approaching retirement age, working with a trusted financial advisor or planner may prove worthwhile.

Before I hire a new financial advisor, should I fire my current advisor?

You don’t need to fire your current advisor before beginning your search for a new financial advisor. In fact, your new advisor can help coordinate the transition of your assets from your previous financial advisor.

Where can I read reviews about financial advisors written by their clients to help me decide if I should hire them?

After 60 years of regulatory prohibition of financial advisor reviews in the US, a rule issued by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) became effective on May 4, 2021 that means both financial advisors and directory websites that help consumers search for a financial advisor can collect and display financial advisor reviews, an important factor worth considering when choosing who you’ll hire to manage your investments and life savings. 

Wealthtender is the first independent advisor review platform designed to be fully compliant with the new SEC rule, and we look forward to helping you evaluate financial advisors based on reviews written by their clients.

I’m a local financial advisor interested in being featured in this guide. How do I get started?

Thanks for your interest. We look forward to learning more about your practice and helping you attract your ideal clients where you may be a good fit based on their individual needs and circumstances. Please click here to learn how you can join local financial advisors featured on Wealthtender.

How Much Does a Financial Advisor Cost?

➡️ How Much Does a Financial Advisor Cost? Read the Article

About the Author
A headshot of Brian Thorp, the founder and CEO of Wealthtender

About the Author

Brian Thorp

Brian is CEO and founder of Wealthtender and Editor-in-Chief. He and his wife live in Austin, Texas. With over 25 years in the financial services industry, Brian is applying his experience and passion at Wealthtender to help more people enjoy life with less money stress. Learn More about Brian

Securing extra income is never a bad thing, but it can feel like you’ve made a mistake when the tax bill arrives. As a high-net-worth individual in the thick of your top-earning years, you’re steering important decisions, capitalizing on opportunities, and winning big. But that success can come at a steep price without careful tax planning. 

If you’ve ever been shocked to see what you owe Uncle Sam, you’re not alone. And if you’ve been surprised to find that there’s no quick, easy fix to this, you’re in good company. I regularly meet with successful business owners who are not only taken aback but deeply frustrated by how much they owe, especially after a strong year or unexpected income event. 

The reality is that effective tax planning takes years of strategic, proactive positioning and attentive execution to get it right. Working with a knowledgeable advisor who understands your unique situation can make a considerable difference, helping you keep more of what you’ve worked so hard to earn.

Tax Alpha as the Foundation

Before diving into the importance of strategic tax planning, it helps to zoom out and revisit a concept I’ve written about before: tax alpha

In that article, I explained that tax alpha is the value created by managing investments with taxes in mind—not by chasing performance, but by narrowing the gap between what your portfolio earns before taxes and what you actually keep after them. Strategies like smart retirement contributions, deliberate asset location, tax-loss harvesting, and charitable planning all work together over time to improve after-tax results. 

The takeaway is that two investors can earn the same market returns and walk away with very different outcomes depending on how tax-aware their portfolios are. And the framework is intentionally broad and ongoing, focusing on improving efficiency year after year as your portfolio grows.

Long-term tax planning, however, takes that idea a step further. Instead of asking, “How do I make my portfolio more tax-efficient this year?” it asks, “What do I expect, given multiple possible scenarios, and how do I prepare for it now?”

When a future taxable event is on the horizon, such as a business sale, a partnership exit, or the eventual sale of highly appreciated stock, your planning window opens well before the transaction occurs. This is where multi-year strategies become powerful. By harvesting losses in advance, using tax-aware long/short strategies, and structuring portfolios with future gains in mind, you can stay invested while building a reservoir of tax offsets.

In short, tax alpha improves outcomes over time. Proactive tax planning shapes the outcome of major financial moments, often years before they happen.

When You Know a Taxable Event Is Coming

It’s common for clients to hold back on sharing news about potential additional income with their advisor. Maybe you’re not sure it’ll come through, don’t want to get ahead of yourself, or simply aren’t used to talking about financial windfalls until they’re real. But when you have a trusted relationship with your advisor, it’s worth mentioning these possibilities early, even if they feel uncertain. It gives you more room to plan thoughtfully and avoid surprises later.

A taxable event is any financial action that creates a tax obligation, such as selling an asset at a profit, earning income, receiving dividends or interest, or taking distributions from retirement accounts. For business owners and high earners, the most impactful taxable events are often capital gains tied to a future sale or liquidity event—something you’ve likely been anticipating for some time. [1] 

The key is recognizing these triggers early. Even if timing isn’t certain, planning for possibilities opens the door to smarter strategies, like harvesting losses in advance or positioning investments more thoughtfully. You don’t need perfect clarity to plan well. You just need openness, foresight, and time on your side.

Capital Gains and the Power of Planning Ahead

For many business owners and high earners, capital gains taxes are the single largest cost tied to success. A capital gain occurs when you sell an asset, such as a business, partnership interest, or stock, for more than you paid for it. Long-term capital gains are taxed at preferential federal rates (0%, 15%, or 20%), but they’re often layered with the 3.8% net investment income tax and state taxes. When you add it all up, the bite can be a big one, particularly in a large liquidity event. [2]

Research from the Brookings Institution and the Tax Foundation highlights why this matters so much for entrepreneurs. In essence, capital gains taxes influence how and when owners sell, how deals are structured, and how much they ultimately keep. The challenge is that by the time a sale is imminent, many of the best planning opportunities are already behind you. [3, 4]

That’s where planning ahead changes the equation. If you expect to sell a business or unwind a highly appreciated position in the future, even if timing isn’t certain, you can start preparing years in advance. One of the most effective tools is tax-loss harvesting, which involves intentionally realizing losses to offset future gains. Harvested losses can be carried forward indefinitely, creating a valuable reservoir to apply against future capital gains. [5, 6]

Let’s take a look at how this could work.

Consider my client, Tom (name changed to maintain confidentiality). He knew he would be selling his business a few years down the line; at least that was the plan. So Tom began tax-loss harvesting in his brokerage account, ultimately three years before selling his company. Because he started making strategic moves well in advance, he was able to realize losses in down markets while staying invested, accumulating $400,000 in carried-forward losses. 

When Tom eventually sold the business for a $2 million gain, those losses immediately offset $400,000 of taxable income. Tax-loss harvesting saved him roughly $95,000 in combined federal and state taxes. Without leveraging this multi-year approach, Tom would have faced the full tax bill with limited options. The planning didn’t happen overnight, but the payoff was substantial when it mattered most.

You don’t have to sit on the sidelines. With smart positioning, you can remain invested, participate in market growth, and quietly reduce the tax impact of a future sale. Capital gains may be unavoidable, but the size of the bill is often negotiable with time, planning, and the right strategy.

Using Tax-Aware Long/Short Strategies to Manage Future Capital Gains

Tax-aware long/short strategies are designed primarily to stay invested while being intentional about when gains are realized. Instead of relying solely on selling appreciated assets, which can trigger large capital gains taxes, the move is to separate market exposure from tax consequences.

At a high level, a long/short approach pairs long positions (investments you expect to grow) with short positions (stocks you believe will decrease in value), and sells borrowed shares to offset market risk. When implemented with tax awareness, the strategy seeks to realize losses during normal market volatility while deferring gains for as long as possible. Those realized losses can then be used to offset future capital gains, including gains tied to a business sale or the sale of concentrated company stock.

The benefit isn’t just tax reduction; it’s flexibility. You can remain invested, maintain diversified exposure, and gradually build a bank of losses that may be applied when a large taxable event occurs down the line. Over time, this approach can materially reduce the after-tax cost of success.

These strategies aren’t about avoiding taxes or making aggressive bets. They’re the result of thoughtful execution, disciplined risk management, and alignment of investment decisions with known or likely future tax outcomes. When used properly, tax-aware long/short strategies turn time into an advantage rather than a constraint.

Why Choosing the Right Financial Advisor Matters

Strategies like multi-year loss harvesting and tax-aware long/short investing only work when they’re executed correctly. Choosing the right advisor goes beyond assessing credentials alone. High earners and business owners should work with a financial professional who understands complexity and collaborates with other experts as needed. These strategies require disciplined trading, accurate reporting, and ongoing coordination across investment, tax, and planning teams. 

The goal is to apply the right strategies at the right time, in the right way. If you know a major tax event may be ahead, now is the time to start the conversation. Planning early creates options and better outcomes. Reach out to discuss how proactive, coordinated tax planning could work for you.

Sources: 

  1. https://www.investopedia.com/terms/t/taxableevent.asp
  2. https://www.brookings.edu/articles/what-are-capital-gains-taxes-and-how-could-they-be-reformed/
  3. https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/capital_gains_tax.asp
  4. https://taxfoundation.org/blog/how-does-capital-gains-taxation-affect-entrepreneurial-activity/
  5. https://www.investopedia.com/terms/t/taxgainlossharvesting.asp
  6. https://www.morganstanley.com/articles/tax-loss-harvesting

This article was originally published here and is republished on Wealthtender with permission.

About the Author

Headshot of Sean Gerlin, CFP®, CPWA®, ChFC®, CLU®
Sean Gerlin, CFP®, CPWA®, ChFC®, CLU® Creating Clarity Out Of Complexity

Sean Gerlin, CFP®, CPWA®, ChFC®, CLU® | Envision Wealth Planners

[Cryptocurrency’s downward spiral in the fourth quarter of 2025 reinforced a visceral understanding of the asset’s volatility and the difficulty of determining the rationale for the continued sell-off. Articles during this period were prevalent with head-scratching and grappling with the market dynamics behind the price collapse. All the while, retail and professional investors were being burned in crypto ETFs, which had reached over $150 billion in assets.

This crypto price downturn underlined the fact that we are all investing in an extreme state of uncertainty, and relying only on assumptions, extrapolations, and predictions in such an environment is a risk that needs to be actively managed. Suggestions for adding a price trend risk management system or overlay became a topic of discussion.

To explore this further, I reached out to Rocco Pellegrinelli, CEO and Founder of Trendrating – an advanced alpha discovery and trend analytics research platform that offers investment managers a risk and opportunity management overlay to any portfolio holdings, including crypto ETFs. He sent me a research flyer that illustrated how his AI-driven price trend model issued crypto ETF trend downgrades well before conventional research or traditional methodologies detected the shift. The research was first published on December 3, 2025, on FactSet and Bloomberg, which provided a strong validation of Trendrating’s capability to anticipate market shifts before they became apparent. This early warning mechanism is crucial in the crypto space, where volatility is high, and quick adjustments can make a significant difference in managing both risk and opportunity for investors. I asked him questions to better understand how his research platform was designed to validate and capture price trends on the growing number of crypto ETFs.]

Hortz: Can you explain your thinking behind building the Trendrating research platform?

Pellegrinelli: Our goal has always been to develop the investment research tools that professional investment managers need and deserve by offering broader market intelligence than what conventional data and tools provide. We fill this critical knowledge gap.

We firmly believe that professional managers’ investment strategies and models will profit from better information that is based on pragmatic fact-finding. This enables the discovery of factual insights that have a measurable impact on the quality of the investment decision process.

Our core belief is simple: understanding and respecting price trends is not optional – it is essential. Market research needs to reflect not only fundamentals but also sentiment, momentum, and patterns that often precede headline events.

Hortz: What does “respect for” and monitoring price trends provide investment managers?

Pellegrinelli: On the one hand, it provides an early warning system. It’s like being able to feel the slight vibration of a railroad track coming from a distant but fast-approaching train or being able to see beneath calm waters to discern the gathering undercurrents and rip tides that could potentially pull strong swimmers, or investors in our case, dangerously underwater.

Likewise, positive price trend indicators signal the building of favorable underlying momentum – reading the gathering trade activity as it is happening in real-time, from large institutional and other major players building positions.

This provides great support for managers in their buying and selling decisions.

Hortz: How is this applied to crypto ETFs?

Pellegrinelli: Instead of trying to figure out the big picture as to what is going on in the crypto industry or attempting to forecast Bitcoin’s price direction, the research platform focuses on reading the underlying trade activity of a crypto ETF to see what is actually happening on the ground, to determine what pressures are building that can affect the ETF price.

We remain cooly independent from the crypto story and prognostications about cryptocurrencies. We harbor no biases or desired outcomes on the underlying assets that we are monitoring. We focus on validating price trends as they are happening. This provides us with clarity and dedication to our singular efforts to provide a more targeted risk and opportunity management system for our professional investor clients.

Hortz: How is your Trendrating system different than other trend analysis tools?

Pellegrinelli: Unlike other trend rating systems, our advanced AI-driven trend analytics can isolate every trade to validate and capture price trends as they are happening, as opposed to others that may mathematically work off of day-end prices or other methods.

Conventional methodologies can have drawbacks that need to be managed. Momentum can be late, as it requires several months of price action before identifying a trend and therefore works primarily with long-lasting trends. Technical analysis indicators can help, but many of them can be inconsistent across different market cycles (ranging or trending) and volatility phases.

Trendrating offers an AI-driven, multi-factor model that decodes buying versus selling pressure, the driving force behind medium-term trends. Our advanced AI technology makes it easy to monitor over 17,000 stocks globally and receive timely alerts on any trend reversal. 

That is why our research platform was able to issue a bear trend signal across crypto ETFs near their tops before most of the price drop damage was done. Their sharp drop illustrates how quickly market sentiment can turn and how fast huge losses are produced. That is why best-in-class research and methodology to detect price trend reversals in time should be part of any sound investment process.

Hortz: Any other thoughts you can share on how advisors, asset managers, and other professional investors can use this type of advanced price trend analysis research tool?

Pellegrinelli: We specifically designed our modern data research platform with AI technology (including an AI Assistant) and enhanced market intelligence capabilities that, in a few clicks, can be quickly added as a research and decision-making overlay to any investment manager’s current investment process, including management of crypto ETFs.

We currently invite and offer managers extended free trials to demonstrate and prove with facts how our advanced AI price trend analytics and alpha discovery research platform can provide enhanced market intelligence, strengthen risk management, and improve investment performance for any manager, using any investment methodology.

This article was originally published here and is republished on Wealthtender with permission.

About the Author

A middle-aged man, Bill Hortz, with short dark hair wearing a dark pinstripe suit, white dress shirt, and a maroon tie, posing against a plain gray backdrop. He has a slight smile and is looking directly at the camera.

Bill Hortz

Founder Institute for Innovation Development

Bill Hortz is an independent business consultant and Founder/Dean of the Institute for Innovation Development- a financial services business innovation platform and network. With over 30 years of experience in the financial services industry including expertise in sales/marketing/branding of asset management firms, as well as, creatively restructuring and developing internal/external sales and strategic account departments for 5 major financial firms, including OppenheimerFunds, Neuberger&Berman and Templeton Funds Distributors. His wide ranging experiences have led Bill to a strong belief, passion and advocation for strategic thinking, innovation creation and strategic account management as the nexus of business skills needed to address a business environment challenged by an accelerating rate of change.

Find financial advisors in Burlington, Vermont ready to help with your financial planning needs so you can enjoy life more with less money stress.

Whether you have lived in Burlington for years or recently moved to town, you may need help finding the right financial advisor in the community best suited for your individual needs.

It’s important to first consider your own financial planning priorities before choosing an advisor. Here are a few quick tips to help you get started along with financial advisors in Burlington featured on Wealthtender you may want to add to your shortlist.

As you prepare to interview financial advisors in Burlington who may be right for you, get to know local financial advisors featured on Wealthtender.

📍 Map: Financial Advisors with their Primary Office Location in Burlington

Double-click (or pinch the map on mobile devices) to zoom in and expand the details for financial advisors whose primary office location is in Burlington.

📍Double-click or pinch pins to view more.

Showing

The Benefits of Hiring a Financial Advisor in Burlington

Hiring a financial advisor can be a great move to help you build a long-term investing strategy. Advisors can help you build an investment portfolio to meet your financial goals and help you plan appropriately for retirement.

As a resident living in Burlington, hiring a financial advisor who lives nearby and understands the local economy, cost of living, and regional employers can be quite valuable, especially if your individual circumstances are deeply tied to such factors.

Do you work for one of the largest employers in Burlington? If so, there’s a good chance the local financial advisor you hire will also have other clients who work there. This knowledge could prove valuable if they are already familiar with your employee benefits, such as a 401(k) plan, Health Savings Accounts, and other components of your total compensation package.

When you reach out to financial advisors you’re considering hiring, let them know where you work and ask if they are familiar with your employer’s unique benefits and compensation structure.

Quick Tips For Hiring an Burlington Financial Advisor

Before hiring a financial advisor in Burlington, here are a few quick tips to help you find the best advisor for you.

1. Decide Which Services You Need

Before hiring an advisor, determine what services you need from them. Whether it’s full-service investment management or a plan focused on a specific area of your finances, put together a list of what you’d like help with before contacting an advisor.

Though most people use a financial planner simply to invest for retirement, this is only a small part of what many advisors offer. Here’s a quick rundown of potential services a financial advisor may offer you:

  • Budgeting and money management
  • Debt management
  • Insurance planning
  • Retirement planning
  • Other investment planning
  • Inheritance planning
  • Estate planning
  • Tax planning

As you can see, financial advisors can help you with your entire financial picture, not just investing. As you start to plan for life’s bigger milestones, you should consider finding a financial advisor that specializes in those areas.

Finding the right advisor can help you minimize risk, maximize gains and take advantage of tax breaks while investing for your future. They can also help you protect your assets with the right kinds of insurance and help you pass on your financial legacy with a proper estate plan.

2. Consider Your Budget and Payment Preferences

Once you have a list of services you would like, review the fee structures financial advisors offer. Finding a balance between the services you need and the cost of those services will help narrow down the field of advisors you may want to work with.

If you are looking for a full-service advisor to manage all of your investments, consider searching among fee-based financial advisors. If you want to manage your money yourself, consider the flat fee and monthly subscription advisors for ongoing support.

3. Interview Multiple Financial Advisors

Once you have chosen the services and fee structure you prefer, it’s time to contact a few advisors and interview them. Here are questions to ask financial advisors:

  • What services do you provide?
  • What are all the ways you get paid? (fee transparency)
  • What is your investment strategy?
  • How do you measure investment performance?
  • How do we communicate about my plan?

Interview multiple advisors to get a feel for who you want to work with. A combination of fees, services, and customer service will help you determine the best fit for your financial advice.

4. Review Financial Advisor Credentials

Once you find an advisor (or two) you feel comfortable with, it’s always a good practice to check their credentials and the firm’s details. You can do this at the Investment Adviser Public Disclosure (IAPD) website

You can check both the individual and the firm to view their background and experience details, as well as any disciplinary action taken against them or their firm.

As licensed financial professionals, there is oversight into how financial advisors conduct business, so running a quick (free) check on them is recommended.

For additional information about advisor credentials, read our article to learn the most popular designations held by financial advisors, as well as specialized credentials which may be important to consider if you have unique financial planning needs.


Frequently Asked Questions & Additional Resources

How do I know if I’m ready to hire a financial advisor?

You should strongly consider hiring a financial advisor if you have a significant amount of money available for saving or investing. This could occur after years of making annual contributions to a retirement plan like a 401(k) through your employer or suddenly if you receive a large inheritance or sell your house for a large profit.

But even if you don’t have a lot of money saved, many financial advisors and planners provide reasonable pricing options and valuable services you should consider, especially if you’re facing a significant life event. For example, if you’re starting a new job, getting married, starting a family, getting divorced, lost your job, starting or selling a business, or approaching retirement age, working with a trusted financial advisor or planner may prove worthwhile.

Before I hire a new financial advisor, should I fire my current advisor?

You don’t need to fire your current advisor before beginning your search for a new financial advisor. In fact, your new advisor can help coordinate the transition of your assets from your previous financial advisor.

Where can I read reviews about financial advisors written by their clients to help me decide if I should hire them?

After 60 years of regulatory prohibition of financial advisor reviews in the US, a rule issued by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) became effective on May 4, 2021 that means both financial advisors and directory websites that help consumers search for a financial advisor can collect and display financial advisor reviews, an important factor worth considering when choosing who you’ll hire to manage your investments and life savings. 

Wealthtender is the first independent advisor review platform designed to be fully compliant with the new SEC rule, and we look forward to helping you evaluate financial advisors based on reviews written by their clients.

I’m a local financial advisor interested in being featured in this guide. How do I get started?

Thanks for your interest. We look forward to learning more about your practice and helping you attract your ideal clients where you may be a good fit based on their individual needs and circumstances. Please click here to learn how you can join local financial advisors featured on Wealthtender.

How Much Does a Financial Advisor Cost?

➡️ How Much Does a Financial Advisor Cost? Read the Article

About the Author
A headshot of Brian Thorp, the founder and CEO of Wealthtender

About the Author

Brian Thorp

Brian is CEO and founder of Wealthtender and Editor-in-Chief. He and his wife live in Austin, Texas. With over 25 years in the financial services industry, Brian is applying his experience and passion at Wealthtender to help more people enjoy life with less money stress. Learn More about Brian

Two men are pictured side by side. The man on the left is bald, wearing a suit and tie, and is against a light, blurred background. The man on the right has short hair, wears a dark sweater, and stands before a window with lights behind him.
Daniel Kenny, Chief Executive Officer, and Kristian Borghesan, Chief Marketing Officer, of FutureVault | Image Credit: Institute for Innovation Development

[Digital Vaults combined with AI and private Large Language Models (LLMs) create an increasingly important category of data management — Intelligent Document Processing (IDP) — where static documents are transformed into dynamic enterprise assets. Firms can now extract, structure, and contextualize critical data from documents, at scale and automatically, into an intelligent system that delivers real-time insights, automated workflows, and compliance-ready outputs.

This technology category has been growing at a CAGR of 37% because it provides financial organizations significant value compared to standalone data. The technology can be used to summarize documents, extract key data points, and query across multiple documents or an entire document vault. Integrating IDP capabilities with a digital vault platform provides a powerful solution for managing and deriving insights from an organization’s massive amount of document-driven data.

To better explore the technology evolution of AI-powered Digital Vaults, we reached out to Daniel Kenny, Chief Executive Officer, and Kristian Borghesan, Chief Marketing Officer, of  FutureVault –  an award-winning white-label, AI-Powered Digital Vault platform for financial institutions. They have been early pioneers of the Client Life Management Vault™ and this emerging Intelligent Document Processing solution.]

Hortz: Can you explain what Intelligent Document Processing is and why it has emerged as an important technology advancement for financial firms?

Kenny: Intelligent Document Processing, often referred to as just IDP for short, refers to the use of AI, machine learning, and language models to automatically classify documents, extract relevant data, and understand context across unstructured content such as PDFs, scanned images, emails, documents, and forms. Unlike traditional Optical Character Recognition (OCR), which simply converts text from an image into characters, IDP now understands what a document is, what information matters, and how that information should be used downstream. In financial services where documents are foundational to many critical client interactions, operational processes, and regulatory requirements, this distinction is critical.

IDP has emerged as an essential capability because the industry has reached the limits of manual and semi-automated document handling that is required to not only scale but even to simply manage the status quo.

Borghesan: Institutions and firms are managing growing volumes of documents while facing tighter regulatory scrutiny, higher client expectations, and pressure to operate more efficiently. Traditional processing methods introduce risk through inconsistency, incompleteness, and human error, and they scale linearly with headcount.

It is essential to acknowledge that data embedded in documentation is worth materially more than raw data due to the context it holds and represents, as well as its inherent richness. In the context of applications, loans, and especially legal matters, disputes, and litigation, the document is almost always the golden source of truth. 

IDP addresses this by turning documents (where data is captive) into structured, reliable data that can be governed, audited, and integrated into enterprise systems. Something financial institutions have needed for a long time but have not had the tools to do this effectively and at scale until now.

Hortz: Can you expand on the benefits and use cases of Intelligent Document Processing for financial services?

Borghesan: The benefits of IDP extend well beyond efficiency, although that is often where firms see impact first. By automating document classification, validation, and data extraction, IDP materially accelerates processing times across onboarding, compliance, account servicing, audits, reporting, and so on. Tasks, over the course of a year, that once required manual review of thousands, better yet, millions of pages can be completed in hours or days with far greater consistency and traceability.

Just to give you one real-world example, we recently partnered with a large insurance conglomerate on a document processing initiative involving approximately twenty million pages of scanned historical documents. Using IDP, we classified and identified document types, extracted specific data fields from each, and delivered the output in a structured format ready for ingestion into their internal systems. The project was completed in roughly five weeks.

Kenny: On the flip side, using traditional, manual document review, this effort would have required dozens of resources and taken years to complete. In reality, it would likely never have been completed at all. That gap between what is theoretically possible and what is practically achievable is where IDP delivers its greatest value.

Hortz: How do AI and LLM systems unlock the value of data contained within documents, and how do they determine what information to extract?

Kenny: AI and private large language models (LLMs) unlock document value by interpreting context, structure, and meaning rather than relying on rigid templates or fixed rules. Financial documents vary widely in format, language, and quality – particularly when dealing with scanned or legacy content. LLMs are able to understand these variations and identify relevant information even when documents are incomplete, inconsistent, or poorly structured, which is where traditional automation almost always fails and leads to operational leaks.

Borghesan: The information extracted from documents is usually driven by the business rules and requirements of the enterprise. Different functions care about different data and different firms might be required to evidence differing information and data. Compliance teams may focus on completeness, signatures, and disclosures. Advisors may need beneficiary details, asset values, or restrictions. Operations teams may prioritize identifiers and system-ready fields. Effective IDP systems are designed to align extraction logic with specific use cases, ensuring that the output is accurate, relevant, and usable—not just technically extracted, but operationally meaningful.

Hortz: What specific capabilities are you designing for advisors and clients by integrating AI and LLMs with digital vault technology?

Borghesan: For advisors and clients, the integration of AI and private LLMs contained within a secure digital vault provides a “single source of truth” where all documents across the relationship reside, reducing friction and increasing clarity.

Today, it is more than common for critical client information to be spread across dozens of documents across multiple systems, making it time-consuming and costly to assemble a complete picture; not to mention this results in a poor experience on both sides. By applying an intelligence layer on top of a digital vault, advisors can surface timely and relevant information and insights across documents without manually searching or combing through files one by one.

Kenny: This foundation enables higher-value capabilities such as rolled-up document summaries and Next Best Actions for advisory teams. Advisors can quickly understand what has changed, what is missing, or what requires attention – whether that is expiring documents, incomplete records, or opportunities to deliver better advice all around.

The goal is not necessarily automation for the sake of automation, but to remove administrative burden and reduce the risk of oversight, allowing advisors to focus on informed decision-making and higher-quality client engagement.

Hortz: What other advancements or applications do you see emerging with Intelligent Document Processing?

Kenny: The next major advancement in IDP that we see is the shift from reactive processing to proactive, autonomous, end-to-end workflows. Rather than documents being reviewed after the fact, intelligence can be applied as documents enter the system from any source (client, third-party systems, advisor uploads, etc.), triggering actions such as routing tasks, updating records, flagging exceptions, or initiating follow-ups automatically. This reduces delays, eliminates manual handoffs, and improves overall governance.

Borghesan: Over time, this leads to autonomous processing loops where document data continuously improves enterprise operations. Incomplete or inconsistent information is identified immediately, risks are surfaced earlier, and downstream systems stay aligned without manual intervention.

For institutions, lines of business, and advisory teams this means stronger controls, cleaner data, and better client experiences and personalized advice delivered at scale.

This article was originally published here and is republished on Wealthtender with permission.

About the Author

A middle-aged man, Bill Hortz, with short dark hair wearing a dark pinstripe suit, white dress shirt, and a maroon tie, posing against a plain gray backdrop. He has a slight smile and is looking directly at the camera.

Bill Hortz

Founder Institute for Innovation Development

Bill Hortz is an independent business consultant and Founder/Dean of the Institute for Innovation Development- a financial services business innovation platform and network. With over 30 years of experience in the financial services industry including expertise in sales/marketing/branding of asset management firms, as well as, creatively restructuring and developing internal/external sales and strategic account departments for 5 major financial firms, including OppenheimerFunds, Neuberger&Berman and Templeton Funds Distributors. His wide ranging experiences have led Bill to a strong belief, passion and advocation for strategic thinking, innovation creation and strategic account management as the nexus of business skills needed to address a business environment challenged by an accelerating rate of change.
Professional headshots of two men in suits. Left: Donald E. Morgan, III, CFA, Managing Partner and Chief Investment Officer. Right: Doug Pardon, Partner and Co-Chief Investment Officer. Their names and titles are displayed below their photos.
Image Credit: Institute for Innovation Development

[The capital structures of companies in the high-yield universe have expanded greatly from traditional high-yield bonds to an array of alternative financing solutions that include bank loans and private credit. Regardless of the growth of these various credit instruments, it remains a cyclical asset class with spreads widening/tightening based on market fundamentals and idiosyncratic issues around capital structures, providing an enhanced opportunity set for income investors.

To better understand how the growth of the alternative credit markets expands opportunities for high-yield investors, we were introduced to Donald E. Morgan, Managing Partner & Chief Investment Officer and Doug Pardon, Co-Chief Investment Officer of  Brigade Capital Management– a global alternative asset management firm, founded in 2006, that employs a multi-strategy, multi-asset class approach to investing across the broad credit universe. They have been developing best-in-breed credit expertise in fundamental corporate and alternative credits with a proven, cycle-tested active investment process to deliver risk-adjusted returns aligned to client needs.

We asked them questions to better understand their perspectives on the global credit universe, their Brigade High Income Fund (BHIIX), and their research and portfolio construction process utilizing credit rotation across the full high yield capital structure.]

Hortz: Can you give us a brief overview of the high-yield investment universe and some of the different investment areas you are working with?

Morgan: When most people think about the high-yield universe, they are thinking about corporate high-yield bonds. That asset class is a trillion-dollar-plus marketplace comprised largely of unsecured fixed-rate bonds that historically financed leveraged buyouts. That is still the core of what many fund managers focus on.

Throughout our careers, Doug, the team, and I have looked at the entire capital structure of companies which gives us a broader perspective on what we call “opportunistic” or “multi-asset credit”. It has increasingly been known as the alternative credit space where a broadly syndicated loan market has developed. These are typically first lien, but are sometimes second lien loans. These securities tend to be floating rate with five to seven years in maturity and attractive yields.

Pardon: We also have a large, structured credit team that has been actively involved in the development of the collateralized loan obligations (CLO) market over the last 15 or 20 years. These are structured vehicles that purchase broadly syndicated loans and are structured to fund those investments through the issuance of debt. There are BBB and BB portions of CLOs that would be part of our universe.

Other areas include preferred stocks, busted convertible bonds, and stressed and distressed debt. We are looking for risk-adjusted opportunities across a very broad universe of higher yielding securities that are generally sub-investment grade.

Hortz: How would you describe your fixed-income multi-strategy and multi-asset class investment style and methodology?

Morgan:  Our high-yield strategy allows us to opportunistically invest in the below-investment grade asset classes we just mentioned. Within these asset classes, we have a multi-sector approach driven by our research team. Our analysts cover different industries and sectors, searching across the full spectrum of high-yield credit for risk-adjusted opportunities that we believe offer much better relative value.

We also employ a bottom-up strategy. The research team is looking at individual companies and modeling them. Even in “bad” sectors, there can still be good ideas discovered from a bottom-up perspective. By analyzing these asset classes and industries, and then employing bottom-up research, we develop a large set of ideas and opportunities that we focus on. From there, we narrow down this universe based on the best risk/reward opportunities. The full focus is to protect principal by having a “margin of safety” for downside protection. Beyond that, we are looking to maximize the yield while also seeking total return.

Pardon: Additionally, we have a top-down macro and tactical twist to our multi-strategy approach. You will find that these asset classes are cyclical and experience opportunistic events. Something will happen in the economy – there will be a recession, credit spreads will widen and the asset class can experience high volatility in those periods, or there will be some sort of financial crisis over a shorter period of time that will cause spreads to blow out.

When credit spreads are wide, we feel like the market’s offering you a lot of “fat pitches”. We will actively move down in credit quality focusing on weaker B and CCC securities primarily within the high-yield bond universe.

Conversely, when credit spreads are tight, we will tend to lean into some of these other asset classes where we would be looking for alternative opportunities, including bank loans, and upgrade the credit quality of the portfolio by focusing on stronger B or BB securities to maximize liquidity.

Hortz: Can you further explain some of the alternative credit areas you follow and how you opportunistically manage these different sectors to add income and growth to portfolios?

Morgan: There are inefficiencies in all asset classes, including these other high-yield investment areas. What we are always looking for is when they are offering much better relative value or when, for whatever reason, we have a significant advantage over our competitors.

For instance, we have exposure to busted convertible bonds and have the flexibility to opportunistically increase that exposure when we see attractive value. If you think about a convertible bond, most are issued at par at a time when people are optimistic about the company’s stock price. Over time, if that stock has traded down for whatever reason – missed earnings, industry fundamentals – these bonds, because they are highly sensitive to the stock price, will trade down and hit what is referred to as a bond floor. They tend to have 2% – 3% coupons, which means this bond floor can be 75-80 cents on the dollar.

Now you have a security that is not very sensitive to the underlying equity. It has a low current yield because the coupon is low, but an attractive yield to worst due to the lower dollar price. If that bond trades from the eighties to par, you are going to have a high total return on that security. We will look at those credits and value them. If we feel that there is particularly good asset coverage and downside protection, we will step in.

The convertible bond market basically becomes an inefficient market in the sense that there are not a lot of people focused on this universe. The convertible arbitrage funds have gotten out of these securities. A convertible mutual fund wants more equity sensitivity. This is sort of an unloved security within a small asset class.

Pardon: On the CLO side, if you buy a broadly syndicated loan at SOFR+300 basis points (“bps”), you are usually facing a single individual issuer, and the outcome of that investment is going to be solely focused on how that issuer performs. Conversely, in the CLO market that issues BB or BBB securities, a lot of these securities are bought by hedge funds or levered vehicles, and in periods of market volatility, you will see sellers of CLO debt out of these vehicles.

When volatility forces levered players to sell, we will step in and buy a BBB CLO at a spread that is wider than the overall underlying issuers of the broadly syndicated loan market. So, you can own a BBB bond of a CLO that owns 400 different issuers, versus an individual issuer loan where you are facing that single company. And the only way to really have realized losses on that investment is if 10% of the portfolio defaults year after year, which is highly unlikely. In those types of environments, the inefficiency arises because there are more sellers and illiquidity. We can step in and, from a relative value perspective, do so at a higher spread in these securities than individual loans with much better downside protection.

We will also look at preferreds. Recently, there was a financial institution that wanted to issue preferreds to raise regulatory capital. Preferreds can pay dividends, in kind or in cash, but we structured this preferred 5% wider in yield than their underlying unsecured bonds. We also put a feature in where there would have to be a minimum level of high cash interest. I would say that our ability to do this gives us an advantage and you are just not going to find a lot of high-yield investors that are looking at the preferred part of the market.

So those are a few of the things that we look at. We also will look at stressed municipal debt, commercial real estate or other areas, but that gives a flavor of the types of differentiated areas we can opportunistically take advantage of.

Hortz: Talk to us about the capabilities of your proprietary in-house research. How was it structured differently to compete with other researchers and be effective across the full high-yield credit universe?

Morgan: One of the differentiating factors for our firm is that we have always been a partnership from day one and a lot of our research analysts are equity partners in the firm, creating one team that is growing together. I also think that the breadth of the research and the experience of our team members stack up very well against our competitors. We have 19 people on the research side with senior analysts having an average of over 20 plus years of experience, covering the same sector(s) for the majority of their careers. They have seen industry cycles and developed deep knowledge in these areas of what drives success or failure for companies within their respective industries.

The other differentiator is that the research team covers the entire capital structure of companies we are covering. Our chemical analyst is not just covering their high-yield bonds but also any syndicated loans, busted convertibles, preferreds, and fielding club deals for loans looking for extra yield and growth potential. We are all working together on the High Income Fund, so we do not have separate teams within the firm. Those are some of the differentiating factors.

Pardon: We built our firm into a diversified investment business extending our high yield expertise into some of the more interesting areas of the expanding marketplace and building the stability of a broader-based firm. The uniqueness of our overall organization has become an attractive place for specialized investment analysts to land and help us build our team. With our team, an analyst has a diversified skill set having invested for many years, not only in long-only, but also as a hedge fund investor. That adds a little bit of a unique dynamic.

Hortz: How is your Brigade High Income Fund (BHIIX) strategy positioned within your broader platform, and what makes it distinct from other high income or multi-sector credit funds?

Morgan: Within our platform, this Fund is an opportunistic high-yield credit fund that can expand into multi-sector and especially alternative credits. It is our only retail mutual fund across our investment platform, so for these investors, it is the only way to get access to our institutional high-yield investment process.

What sets this Fund apart from the broader retail high-yield mutual fund universe is the expanded high-yield universe that we are open to and actively investing in. You will see our core base of income generating high-yield bonds go up or down – depending on where we are on the credit cycle – and we can increase our weightings to alternative credit markets that can help either dampen volatility, maintain high income, generate total return, or meet other investment and risk control objectives. While there are other high-yield funds that have flexibility, having dynamic and purposeful access to alternative credits like structured credit, bank loans, as well as participating in club deals, allows us to have a more diversified and differentiated high-yield income approach.

Another nuance of this differentiation is that most of our peer group runs incredibly diversified and one-dimensional portfolios, with hundreds and hundreds of issuers at very small weightings across the portfolio. We have a more concentrated approach, and while we are benchmark-aware, we are not closet indexers by clearly being in other asset classes that are not in the broader high-yield index.

Pardon: As mentioned before, we will always have a core base of high-yield bonds generating income, but we will spend a lot of time thinking about where we are in a particular credit cycle and looking for where the best high-yield investments appear across our expanded opportunity set. Our opportunistic, or tactical, investment approach is where we are truly most differentiated.

A lot of the larger funds in this category are highly diversified, but for the most part, they may be focused on getting beta exposure to the asset class. While that is fine for some people, there is an opportunity to generate a fair bit more than that if you can have an opportunistic approach, coupled with the ability to perform deep research into alternative credits that are not as easy to find. Those two pieces are what we bring to the table.

Hortz: What type of investor or portfolio objectives is this strategy best suited for?

Morgan: We address investors who seek high income and capital preservation- such as retirees living on a fixed income. Our goal is to strive to meet those objectives through sector rotation and individual bottom-up security selection of securities that are out-yielding the market, where we see high current risk-adjusted returns and income. We place strong emphasis on capital preservation and maintaining a margin of safety in our investing approach.

This article was originally published here and is republished on Wealthtender with permission.

About the Author

A middle-aged man, Bill Hortz, with short dark hair wearing a dark pinstripe suit, white dress shirt, and a maroon tie, posing against a plain gray backdrop. He has a slight smile and is looking directly at the camera.

Bill Hortz

Founder Institute for Innovation Development

Bill Hortz is an independent business consultant and Founder/Dean of the Institute for Innovation Development- a financial services business innovation platform and network. With over 30 years of experience in the financial services industry including expertise in sales/marketing/branding of asset management firms, as well as, creatively restructuring and developing internal/external sales and strategic account departments for 5 major financial firms, including OppenheimerFunds, Neuberger&Berman and Templeton Funds Distributors. His wide ranging experiences have led Bill to a strong belief, passion and advocation for strategic thinking, innovation creation and strategic account management as the nexus of business skills needed to address a business environment challenged by an accelerating rate of change.