Frequently Ask Questions

Yes! We act as fiduciaries in all relationships, which means we act in the best interest of the client in every consultation, financial planning, and investment recommendation we make.

We are a privately-owned and managed firm. We are not affiliated or owned by any bank, investment company, publicly traded company, or private equity investors.  This means that there are no outside influences on how we conduct business. This also means we are more closely aligned with our clients as we don’t have sales quotas, products to push, or investors demanding a return on their investment in our business.

In wealth management, it’s hard to “date” an advisor which often leads to skepticism and/or simply avoiding the work of seeking advice. We recognize the immense amount of trust that is placed in us, and we take that seriously.

At the bottom of this page are links to sources from major institutions that try to quantify a primary question on people’s mind: “Is an advisor worth it”.

There are ancient wisdoms that say “Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed” or “The way of fools seems right to them, but the wise listen to advice.”

We believe fiduciary advice is important for all people because everyone needs some level of guidance at certain points in their lives. To be clear, this may not always be on an ongoing basis but through a one-time engagement.

We can help at any level whether answering questions like “how much should I save” or “can I improve my tax efficiency” all the way to helping someone exit a multi-million-dollar business and transition money across multiple generations.

We believe the true value of an advisor is delivered through more than a retirement plan or investment strategy.

Much of the value we provide is in the “intangibles”.  We draw on decades of experience working with hundreds of people to help synthesize best practices and game plan/strategize when life throws a curveball. Perhaps this is like a coach understanding situational awareness when deciding to use a time out or go for it on fourth down.

We also can act as behavioral finance coaches. Human brains are wired for fight/flight, greed/fear etc. These innate wirings lead to people making decisions that might not be in their best interest. Working as a team, we can help navigate emotions and attitudes to ensure sound judgement prevails.

Many of our clients have complex situations (like owning a business, real estate, stock options etc.) that require licensed and credentialed advice and experience. For other clients, they simply don’t have the capacity or desire to manage all aspects of their financial planning, or are afraid of making mistakes etc. In these instances, we can be a good fit.

1 – Morningstar | Value of Advice

2 – Vangaurd | The Value of Personalized Advice

3 – Russell Investments | Why Work with an Advisor

Every client’s situation is unique, so we customize every engagement.

It is important to note that costs are disclosed up front, with a written scope of engagement, before moving forward.

Here are general parameters for the three primary ways we are hired:

• Consultation: a project-based engagement like cash flow planning, running a retirement projection, reviewing a portfolio, or running a business valuation.
  1. 1. On average, our consultations fall between $1,500 to $3,000 and fees can be paid lump sum or spread out monthly.

• Comprehensive financial plan: outlined on the financial planning page of our website.
  1. Our plans begin at $2,500 for individuals and families that do not own businesses or real estate.
     1. If complex assets are involved and/or valuation services needed, we’ll discuss the scope of the engagement in our introductory meeting to determine how much work will go into this element of your planning.
     2. Fees can be paid lump sum or monthly.

• Investment management

We do not have stated account minimums; however, we will suggest alternatives if we feel our services will be cost prohibitive to your success.

• 1. We charge based on “assets-under-management.”
     1. Fee schedule for individuals and families available as a PDF – click here.
     2. Institutional asset management pricing is different. Please contact us for more information.
  2. Fees are deducted monthly (versus the common industry practice of Quarterly) based on month end values. This is done to help reduce the timing risks associated with withdrawing fees at a market low point.
     1. Because we customize portfolios to fit client needs, there are some instances that require quarterly fee-billing.
  3. Fees are billed based on a breakpoint, not average of the fee schedule.
     1. This is a major difference in our approach, which we believe is truly in the best interest of clients. We believe that once a client reaches a breakpoint, ALL money should be charged at the lower level. Most firms average their fees (blended average), meaning that costs go down as assets go up but only on the portion of the portfolio above the breakpoint.

There are several layers of protecting client assets.

First, we never take control of assets or receive checks directly made payable to Three Corners Capital. These transactions are managed by our key service providers, among some others: Cambridge Investment Research and Fidelity Custody and Clearing.

Three Corners Capital

Our job as advisors is a client’s first line of defense. We deploy several practices to ensure the security of client accounts. We are a member of SIPC, which protects securities customers of its members up to $500,000 (including $250,000 for claims for cash). We also carry significant liability protection.

Cambridge Investment Research (CIR)

CIR serves as our Registered Investment Advisor and oversees the compliance of our practice including all our regulatory requirements. CIR provides back-office support, processing services, facilitation of securities transactions, and helps us adhere to regulations.

Cambridge Investment Research, Inc. is a member of SIPC, which protects securities customers of its members up to $500,000 (including $250,000 for claims for cash), and also maintains significant liability protection.

Learn more about Cambridge Investement Reasearch, Inc.

Fidelity and their subsidiary National Financial Services

Fidelity is one of the world’s largest financial services firms and is who we have engaged to serve as custodian for the majority of client accounts.

Fidelity plays a critical role for account administration and service:

• The execution, clearance, and settlement of securities transactions
• Preparing and sending periodic statements of your account and transaction confirmations
• The custody (or safekeeping), receipt, and delivery of funds and securities
• The extension of margin credit upon approval

Securities in accounts are protected in accordance with the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (“SIPC”) with coverage outlined previously. NFS has also arranged for coverage above these limits.

In addition to SIPC protection, NFS provides for brokerage accounts additional “excess of SIPC” coverage. The excess of SIPC coverage will be used only when SIPC coverage is exhausted. Like SIPC protection, excess of SIPC protection does not cover investment losses in customer accounts due to market fluctuation. It also does not cover other claims for losses incurred while broker-dealers remain in business. Total aggregate excess of SIPC coverage available through NFS’s excess of SIPC policy is $1 billion. Within NFS’s excess of SIPC coverage, there is no per-customer dollar limit on coverage of securities, but there is a per-customer limit of $1.9 million on coverage of cash awaiting investment. This is the maximum excess of SIPC protection currently available in the brokerage industry.

Also, according to Fidelity, safeguarding assets goes beyond coverage limits. For example, registered brokerage firms must keep their customers’ securities and cash segregated from their own so that, even if a firm fails, its customers’ assets will be safe. Secondly, as a general matter, customers are not considered general creditors of a failed broker-dealer; customers receive distributions ahead of general creditors. General creditors of a failed broker-dealer do not receive any distribution unless all customers have been satisfied in full.

SIPC doesn’t protect against a decline in the market value of securities. For more details on SIPC or to request an SIPC brochure, visit www.sipc.org