Client Focused

Working with an independent, fee-only, fiduciary Certified Financial Planner® professional has to be more expensive right?

Not at all. We can offer our services at a lower cost than most brokerage and advisory firms for several reasons:

• Independence:  Blue Water is not affiliated with a broker/dealer (Edward Jones, Raymond James, etc.) so we do not have to pay them a percentage of our revenue.
• Smart expenditures:  We don’t need a huge media advertising budget or expensive, glitzy offices.  We put our money into technology that helps keep clients updated on their financial picture (retirement plan, investments, performance, etc.) and helps us run a better business.
• Low cost investment approach:  We use lower cost investment options without commissions and high fees.  The average cost of one of our diversified portfolios is 0.12% - 0.20%, while the average cost of a stock mutual fund is about 1.20% (Morningstar).
• No outsourcing of financial planning or investment management:  We do the work ourselves.  We don't use interns or third party planning services to develop your financial plan.  We also do not use a Turnkey Asset Management Program (TAMP) or model portfolio providers for investment management.  Both outsourced solutions are growing in popularity among advisors, but we feel they just add unnecessary costs and reduce the personalization and flexibility of the portfolio.
• Limited new engagements:  We spend most of our time working for our current clients, not marketing and trying to drum up new business.  We take on a limited number of clients each month, which helps keep our overhead lower.

We find it shocking how few brokers and advisors publicly disclose their costs.  Most websites are just used as general marketing brochures with few details on services and no mention of costs.  We have always been transparent with our Financial Planning fees and our Investment Management fees.