Gratitude

We enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving and Christmas, spending time with friends and family.  I have so much to be thankful for.  I am blessed to have such a wonderful family and to share time with so many exceptional friends.

I am also quite fortunate to have work family and friends who have helped me build and operate a successful business.  Thanks to the loyalty and strong work ethic of our partners and staff, we have a close-knit and high-performance team serving our clients.  Our work environment has always been healthy and enjoyable, and it continues to be a great joy to come to the office every day to spend time with such a friendly and talented group of people.

I am thankful that my father took the leap of faith to leave a secure position with a bank to create our firm nearly 50 years ago.  He spent the early years establishing his credibility and slowly building a business so that when I graduated from college 10 years after the founding, there was a role for me to play in the small company.  Little did I know how much I would enjoy working in the wealth management profession 38 years ago.

I am very appreciative that my dad chose to include “Fiduciary” in the name of the business.  As fiduciary advisors, we hold ourselves to the highest ethical standards and everything we do is in our clients’ best interests.  In the past few years, there has been lots of discussion in the investment advisory community about who is a bona fide fiduciary.  We have proudly served as fiduciaries to our clients since inception, long before the term came into vogue.

I am especially thankful for clients who let us work for them.  I understand the significance of our client’s decision to entrust the management of their hard-earned financial assets to our care.  We don’t take our role as a trusted advisor lightly and try to always exceed client expectations.  There is no higher satisfaction than being able to provide meaningful service and advice to people who we admire and appreciate.

I am thankful for the other professionals with whom we can work alongside.  We are so fortunate to work with excellent legal and accounting advisors who share our client-focused mission.  We rely on these outside advisors to capably lead our clients through their legal and tax issues and to help guide us as we assist in these areas.

I am thankful for vendors and other service providers who partner with us in crafting an outstanding client experience.  There are many people and businesses who we depend upon to help us perform at the highest level possible.  We would have a difficult time delivering a quality experience without top notch custodians, portfolio management software, research and analytics tools, to name just a few.

In this holiday season, I would like to express my gratitude to the many fine people who have helped me and our 13-person firm for nearly 50 years to achieve an essential and positive role in our clients’ financial lives.