Modern Financial Advice
We set out to solve many of the industry's failures.
Smart Pricing
Our clients are able to choose a plan that fits their investment and financial planning needs. By offering a subscription service, clients and prospects are better able to understand what they'll be receiving and what they can expect to pay over a lifetime.
Tech Forward
The next generation of investment management and financial planning will increasingly be delivered with digital tools. However, surveys have found investors still covet a personal relationship with a financial advisor.
Always Fiduciary
We started Jeffries Wealth to provide a better alternative to old-school brokers, new-age fintech brokers, and old-school advisory firms with layers of bureaucracy, private equity mandates, and deteriorating service.
Our Story
Modern Financial Advice
Jeffries Wealth Management was created to solve a variety of issues with common financial advisory firms. From outdated technology, questionable ethics, high fees, and a lack of diversity, we can do better.
Everyone deserves a financial plan
Our firm was founded on the belief that with today's advancements in financial technology, the prevalence of subscription-based pricing, and a generation of people wronged by financial professionals we can provide a better alternative to the old way of doing things.
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Most investment advisors require investment minimums that exclude the majority of Americans. Now more than ever we're able to provide relevant financial advice for a variety of families, regardless of their level of wealth.
Modern advice
By utilizing technology and having a tech-forward mindset, we're able to serve more clients and provide better service, for less cost.
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A majority of advisor practices are slow to adopt technology--from portfolio rebalancing, risk analysis, client portals, and more.
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As a new generation of earners enters the marketplace for financial advice, we demand a better client experience, straightforward pricing, and a relationship with someone we can trust.
How we're different
We keep your planning costs fixed and affordable, with no hidden charges and no asset minimums required to work with us. And because we base your planning fee on your needs, not your assets, it won’t increase as your money grows, which makes a big difference in how much you’ll pay over time.
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We're also fiduciary, we have a legal obligation to always act in your best interest. We'll go further than any other financial advisor to eliminate all possible conflicts of interest.
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The state of financial advice
There are two predominant types of companies that are legally allowed to provide investment advice, Broker-Dealers (governed by FINRA), and Registered Investment Advisors (governed by the SEC). Most name-brand advisory firms are Broker-Dealers ("BDs"), like Merrill Lynch (owned by Bank of America), Edward Jones, Northwest Mutual, Raymond James, and more. Registered Investment Advisors ("RIAs") have historically been smaller, and more regional. Recently, these firms have grown their footprint, primarily through the use of private equity money to merge and acquire other RIAs. I'll discuss the implications of this, but I find it can create significant conflicts of interest and hurt investor outcomes. Some RIAs you may be familiar with are Fisher Investments and Cambridge Associates.
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Old-school BDs and BD reps, tend to create revenue based on transactions, both from the spread between the price you pay and what the seller receives and also the commission the rep earns. These types of firms have no fiduciary standard. That means they do not need to have your best interest in mind when recommending stocks, funds, or investment strategies. Sometimes they get paid extra by fund managers to recommend high-fee funds for clients. I've compiled a list of recent fines handed out by the government because of this gross misconduct, which you can find here.
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Registered Investment Advisors ("RIAs"), like Jeffries Wealth Management, fall under a different governing body, which requires all RIAs to act in their client's best interest. We call this being a fiduciary or having a fiduciary responsibility. Most professionals that handle money are held under this standard, like real estate agents.
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The most common business model, or strategy to generate revenue, is to charge a percentage of your invested assets. They might also charge additionally for financial plans, tax preparation, and more. A survey from 2019 found that 46% percent of investors believe they are not paying their advice provider or are unsure how they pay.
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Typically, these firms struggle to grow beyond a certain number of households, maybe 150-300 per lead financial advisor. Firms will then need to grow based on recruiting other lead advisors, which typically requires them to offer a stake in the business and divide the company's profits. Once the firm gets large enough, it will either get acquired by a private equity company or then partner with a private equity company to acquire other firms themselves.
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The mergers and acquisitions landscape in our industry is among the most active across all business sectors. I've compiled a list of recent acquisitions, here. This is important and critical to the future of financial advice. Large RIAs are increasingly controlling the investments of Americans, and to some degree worldwide. As investment into RIAs increases, the ability of these firms to act as fiduciaries becomes difficult. Does the firm invest in new technology, pay higher wages to its workers, hire new specialists to expand services, or do they instead pay a larger dividend to its shareholders? Typically, the courts would rule in favor of the shareholders.
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There's a better business model
The proliferation of subscription-based companies across different industries begs a question, "why not financial advice?" There are a number of companies that do this and amongst the largest would be Facet Wealth, headquartered in Baltimore, MD. They too have investment backing, which is not inherently wrong. To serve as many households as possible as fast as possible, investment was needed. But, the founders and key visionaries have been diluted and own significantly less than the private equity firms that have invested. This again begs the question, will those investors prefer maximizing return, or maximizing client experience and value creation? Regardless, the courts would likely rule these private equity managers are required to act in their investor's best interest. Confusing, right?
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By segmenting service offerings, we're better able to directly correlate the price our clients pay and the services they receive. Only need a tool to create a financial plan? I offer access to the best financial planning application for free. Need investment management, financial planning, risk management, and estate planning? We have a specific package, called "Basic," for that.
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By using technology extensively, up and down our business, we're better able to scale and serve more clients. Instead of raising capital and bringing on investors, we simply franchise our business model and technology to other new advisors, with home-office oversight. This allows us to offer better advice across the world while maintaining a fiduciary standard not clouded by investor requirements.
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Let's face it. The average advisor is 51 years old, 43% of advisors are older than 55, and only 11% are under the age of 35. There's a preference to rely on professionals with more years of experience. However, younger professionals tend to be more aware of modern business practices, strategies, and academic advancements. I've worked at two premier wealth technology firms since 2017. We've spoken with thousands of financial advisors. So many of them had no place managing investors' assets.
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