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1. Why is Legend Financial Advisors, Inc. (Legend) fee-only? We want our clients to be assured that our recommendations are always made in their best interest. We believe that if we accept commissions, our clients could view us as having a bias. Furthermore, we are one of the few firms in the country to offer fixed fees when all of our services are packaged together including financial planning and investment management. Under a fixed fee arrangement any type of potential conflict of interest is eliminated entirely. Alternatively, for those clients who desire to utilize only our investment management services, they will be charged a fee based on a percentage of assets.
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2. How long has Legend been in business? Legend was incorporated in July, 1993 and began business operations in January, 1994.
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3. What types of investment strategies does Legend offer? We offer several types of investment strategies, including our Fixed Income Portfolio, Vulture Income Portfolio, Ultra-Conservative, Conservative, Moderate and Aggressive Lower Volatility Portfolios, Opportunity Portfolio, Hedge Portfolio, Asset Allocation Portfolio, Balanced Portfolio, Value Portfolio, Conservative and Aggressive Momentum Portfolios, Multi-Strategy Portfolio, Ultra-Speculative Portfolio and Phoenix Portfolio. New strategies are being added as client needs develop. For further information on each of these strategies, please see our Portfolio Risk Spectrum. Back to top
4. What are Legend's fees for these investment strategies? The fees are dependent upon the amount of assets that are allocated to each strategy, as well as the amount of assets that the client is asking Legend to manage. Generally, depending upon the fee schedule, fees range from 25 basis points (one quarter of one percent) for large amounts of monies, up to one percent subject to a quarterly minimum fee of $2,187.50. If a client is also interested in financial planning as well as other services we offer, or desires several different investment management strategies, we can charge for everything under one combined fixed fee. The initial fee would be established for a two-year period (please see Question #25 for a more detailed explanation). However, to get a better idea of what the actual cost will be, it is best to discuss the fee structure in a meeting with one of the firm’s Advisors and/or Client Development Officers.
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5. How does Legend select outside (private) portfolio managers? We look for portfolio managers with consistent, long-term, excellent track records in a particular investment style. Typically, we like managers who are owners of a management company and who are not so called “marketing machines”, and who have a flexible investment mandate. Specifically, we like to look for portfolio managers who are not interested in having hundreds of millions or billions of assets annually being placed under their management. Portfolio managers, especially mutual fund managers, that are well-marketed attract too many assets. Large dollar amounts under management result in mediocre investment performance over time and are also limited in what investments they can utilize. For example, many well-known mutual fund names such as American Funds, Fidelity, Janus, Putnam, and Vanguard funds are large, bloated with assets, and invest predominantly in large stocks. Consistently, most of their actively managed funds underperform or, at best, perform similar to the S&P 500, especially over longer periods of time. It is very difficult for most portfolio managers to handle large amounts of assets. This is especially true of small stock strategies.
We also believe that we are investing with the portfolio manager. In other words, we are selecting managers, not the actual mutual fund or management company. Therefore, if one of our recommended managers leaves a fund or management company, it is not unusual for us to follow that manager. Legend stands out from its competitors when it comes to the selection of portfolio managers. We routinely conduct extensive interviews with a number of portfolio managers. We usually interview between 50 and 75 portfolio managers per year. Furthermore, this interview process is a major criteria of our selection process. We are always looking for new portfolio managers.
As part of our due diligence process we send out a questionnaire, which contains approximately 120 questions to be completed by the portfolio manager. We have had a number of portfolio managers tell us that the questionnaire is the most extensive that they have ever been asked to complete. We then perform an interview where we typically speak with the lead manager and several other investment team members. Finally, where possible, we will attempt to have a face-to-face interview preferably in the management team’s offices. Once we begin using a manager, we generally have teleconferences approximately once every six months. We believe this process helps screen out problems prior to placing our clients’ money with them. Approximately, only one out of two hundred and fifty (250) managers is added to our Recommended List.
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6. What methodologies/disciplines does Legend employ with regard to mutual funds? The due diligence and investment selection process is extensive. For mutual fund analysis, we screen the entire universe of mutual fund offerings utilizing both Morningstar Principia Pro Plus® and the Bloomberg Professional service. Both Morningstar and Bloomberg are recognized leaders in mutual fund data and research. Because Legend is an independent registered investment advisor, we are not limited, like large or independent brokerage firms, to a proprietary family of funds nor do we have an affiliation with a particular fund family that could be perceived as a conflict of interest. Furthermore, we do not need to purchase on a client’s behalf several funds out of the same mutual fund family (which will have a high overlap among its securities) to lower front-end commissions. For example, if an advisor were to recommend several funds from the American Funds, it is obvious that he is trying to lower the amount of the front-end commissions paid on a percentage basis. American Funds is a mutual fund group that has been heavily fined by The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in recent years. The securities they hold in their mutual funds have a huge amount of overlap due to the gargantuan size of their funds. They are forced to buy only the largest securities—a trait also true of the other large fund groups previously mentioned. In American Funds’ case, they have a policy to not close funds at any dollar amount. They also have a high correlation (similar performance pattern) with their other funds. Therefore, any portfolio based on the American Funds is not diversified. Please note that American Funds is not the only load fund group where this occurs. By far though, they are the most commonly used fund group by commission-compensated advisors, especially brokers.
As mentioned above, once potential candidates have successfully passed our quantitative screens, we submit detailed questionnaires to each mutual fund portfolio manager to begin the qualitative portion of our due diligence process. Upon receipt of the questionnaire, the due diligence process continues as we then conduct several conference calls with the portfolio manager. Typically, we schedule face-to-face meetings with the portfolio manager and their investment team, although not in every case. At this stage, we focus on a mutual fund’s organization, investment philosophy, and culture.
We tend to favor smaller boutique-type mutual fund companies, as measured by assets under management (these firms tend to be poor marketers). The managers are almost always owners of the management firm. Owner-managers often have their name on the door and normally have a significant stake in the fund between their own monies, their relatives, and their retirement plan assets. Also, knowing that they will likely remain as manager and not “jump ship” to another fund provides us assurance that the portfolio composition and strategy will usually remain constant. We seek low expense ratios that are as realistically feasible as possible, based upon the type of fund. Furthermore, because of Legend’s reputation in the investment community and the fact that Legend’s President, Lou Stanasolovich, is the Editor of Risk-Controlled Investing, a nationally-recognized subscription service for financial advisors (3,000 people in the media also receive it monthly), Legend is able to gain and maintain access to funds that either are often closed to other investors or managers who normally do not wish to be interviewed.
Also, during our selection process we examine a mutual fund company’s willingness to close the fund at a certain asset size. This is important because asset size starts to “bloat”. For example, the American Funds, Fidelity, Janus, Putnam, Vanguard, and other fund groups have numerous funds with asset sizes in the tens of billions that are not closed and don’t intend to close. The equity and sometimes fixed income funds that we select by contrast sometimes close at a few hundred million dollars, or at worst between one and two billion dollars. When asset size bloats, performance usually begins to falter. Not many mutual fund groups, especially publicly-traded and well-marketed groups, are willing to close because they derive their revenues by adding new assets. We seek funds that intend to be “fiscally responsible” and conscientious of their existing shareholders. We favor those managers who stand for what we stand for: taking care of the client.
We do not sell mutual funds very quickly for performance reasons. We typically watch them for a minimum of three quarters and place them on our probation list after they have underperformed their peers for an additional three quarters. At the end of those six quarters we will determine whether or not to liquidate the fund.
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7. How does Legend select stocks for its clients' portfolios? Legend uses quantitative fundamental analysis to construct individual equity portfolios. We screen for companies whose price-to-earnings or price-to-cash flow represents a discount to their expected earnings growth rate. In addition, Legend examines the trends in positive earnings per share for companies, the magnitude of recent financial changes in the current fiscal year, the next fiscal year’s consensus earnings estimates, debt as a percentage of equity, and the company’s net margin. Also, we evaluate the extent to which all brokerage analysts are revising earnings per share estimates in the same direction and whether or not the company has had positive or negative earnings surprises. Our portfolio construction limits the number of securities in one industry to 15% and each security is equally-weighted within the portfolio. Our belief, that these factors result in positive returns more often, is supported by historical academic research. Periodically, we also apply stop-sell orders to lock in gains and minimize risk.
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8. Does Legend utilize Exchange-Traded Products? The short answer is yes. Legend is willing to entertain the idea of using virtually any type of security if it makes sense from the client’s standpoint. Members of Legend’s InvestmentCommittee have spent countless hours understanding the various types of Exchange-Traded Products (i.e., Exchange-Traded Funds, Exchange-Traded Notes, leveraged funds, inverse funds), how they operate and the differences among them. We have focused on the intricacies of the underlying objectives of these products and the art of trading them efficiently. Many advisors and investors do not understand the number of moving parts associated with trading these types of products and, therefore, purchase securities at a heavy premium to the underlying Net Asset Value or sell at a steep discount to the underlying Net Asset Value. Without knowledge as to how to avoid such difficulties an investor often pays 5.0% or more in effect unnecessarily when trading exchange-traded products.
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9. Does Legend utilize separate account managers? On rare occasions, Legend has in the past formed relationships with some of the premier investment management firms in the world. However, our assets managed by separate account managers are essentially non-existent at this point in time due to how expensive the management fees have become as well as how large minimum account sizes have become (typically $5,000,000.00 or more for the better managers).
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10. Can clients keep their assets where they are and make the changes themselves? No. Typically, clients do not facilitate changes to the portfolio quickly enough nor can we monitor the changes. Furthermore, it is impossible for us to report on a client portfolio without direct downloads from each custodian. Instead, we currently house virtually all of our securities accounts at TD Ameritrade.
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11. What type of Investment Management reporting will clients receive? Legend trades all securities through TD Ameritrade Institutional Services. They do not charge any custody fees. Trades initiated by Legendare executed by TD Ameritrade. An account look-up feature is also available through Legend’s Web site. Trade confirmations and monthly account statements are provided by TD Ameritrade. Organizations can receive these in either paper format or electronically.
We utilize PortfolioCenter™software, a comprehensive performance reporting package, which is used to help us provide clients their quarterly and annual performance reports. Allaccount activity is downloaded and reconciled daily. This data is stored in Legend’s vast computer database and backed up locally and remotely. Any income and earnings distributions can be directed to specific sub-accounts pursuant to a client’s request. These, often times, are conducted electronically. We also use an extensive portfolio rebalancing software called iRebal to assist in the rebalancing process and review client portfolios on an ongoing basis.
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12. Who is TD Ameritrade? LegendusesTD Ameritrade Institutional Services division to custody client assets. TD Ameritrade is the second-largest discount broker in the United Statesand the third largest in the world.
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13. What are the costs to trade at TD Ameritrade? All stocks, exchange-traded funds, exchange-traded notes, and closed-end mutual funds are traded at a flat $9.99 ticket charge.
TD Ameritrade has over 13,000 mutual funds available on its mutual fund network, and in excess of 1,500 in its No-Transaction Fee (NTF) program. In many of our mutual fund portfolios, several of the funds we use do not have any trading fees.
For mutual funds where trading fees are applicable, fund purchases and sales are charged at a flat $24.00 ticket charge.
Occasionally, we have negotiated on an exclusive basis to buy institutional shares of a mutual fund, (lower expense ratios and very high minimums such as $250,000.00 to $5,000,000.00, that we normally can obtain for as little as $1,000.00) as well as have our clients invest in mutual funds that are closed to the general public. This opportunity is available only through Legend because of Legend’s willingness to work with funds that had a short history, but whose managers are long on experience and success.
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14. How often are accounts traded? Typically, it depends on the portfolio. For some portfolios we have one major rebalancing per year, usually in January or at the end of December (mostly because dividend and capital gain payouts occur in December). During the rest of the year, we may change the portfolios because of market circumstances, the addition or subtraction of a mutual fund, and/or large monetary withdrawals or contributions. We may also adjust to a changing investment environment; however, over time the asset allocation tends to take care of this problem itself. In addition, periodically, we will add a new fund to a portfolio if we believe it will benefit the client. The other major reason we would make changes is because a portfolio manager leaves a fund. This is rare because the large majority of our portfolio managers are owner/managers of the management company that manages the fund, and therefore, are less likely to leave their own funds.
For other portfolios, such as the Opportunity, both Momentum and Ultra-Speculative, among others, trades will be made throughout the year dependent upon internal strategies.
With regard to stock accounts, there are changes throughout the year. These changes are predicated upon company specific news, such as earnings reports, general market conditions, and industry trends, to name a few.
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15. How often will Legend review an investment portfolio? Generally, we review each portfolio on a continuous basis. If circumstances warrant, such as market irregularities or a specific client need surfaces, we will review portfolios immediately.
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16. Why are investment portfolios reviewed so often? Simply, our portfolio management process is designed to do just that. For example, we are always watching for news on our mutual funds and/or stocks and ones we would like to invest in. If there are major economic (interest rate changes) or political changes (wars), we will review a client’s portfolio. When we provide a performance report, we are also looking at the portfolios.
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17. How often will Legend meet with its Investment Management clients after the initial investments are implemented? During the first year for an investment management client, we will probably want to meet with a new client one or two times at a minimum to explain as well as review their first one or two investment management performance reports. After that time, we will provide each client the option to meet with us when each investment management performance report is available. If a client chooses not to have a meeting, we will mail them the report and ask that they schedule a conference call with us.
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18. How often is a client updated on their portfolios? We provide quarterly performance reports, which specifically state the beginning balance, contributions and withdrawals, the different sources of return, the ending balance, and the percentage and dollar return net of fees during that timeframe. We also compare these returns to various indexes, depending upon the type of investment strategy.
The client will also receive from TD Ameritrade a monthly statement online or via the mail, which will list their securities and the associated current values as of month-end. Furthermore, as securities trades are executed, each client will receive a confirmation statement with full details of each buy or sell.
The client may also view all of his/her accounts through the Clients Only section of Legend’s secure Web site. The Clients Only section provides information regarding investment positions, stock and mutual fund quotes, and account balances, to name a few.
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19. Does Legend consult its clients when making trades? Our practice is to consult the client regarding the portfolio’s construction prior to any initial investments being made. We will discuss our different investment strategies and what the client can expect from those strategies. Once a strategy is decided upon it will be stated in the client’s investment management contract. How we plan to invest from a strategic standpoint will be discussed with each client throughout the year. However, we will not discuss each and every trade with the client. All of our accounts are discretionary. Any client may, of course, call us to discuss any moves we are anticipating or have made. Also, in the case of portfolios primarily comprised of open-end mutual funds, if we deem it necessary to have a significant rebalancing for all client portfolios, it is our practice to send a voice-recorded E-mail called an audio postcard prior to executing any securities trades, stating in general what we will be doing and when. This provides the opportunity for clients to call regarding the specifics. In reality very few clients contact us for this purpose.
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20. What does ''discretion'' mean? Discretion means having the ability to trade in a client’s account without the client’s permission. This does not mean that Legend has custody. Custody means that we would have possession of the client’s funds. TD Ameritrade maintains custody. Discretion simply means that we are able to make trades on a client’s behalf.
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21. Does a client have to stay with Legend's service for any length of time? Obviously, we would like every client to stay with our service forever. However, there is no obligation to do so. We disclose in our contracts that clients are allowed to terminate our services at any time. Many advisors will make a client wait until the end of the month, quarter, or even the end of the calendar year. However, with our service, a client can terminate their contract at the end of any day. Of course, we will require payment of any fees owed through the date of termination.
Additionally, the only exceptions to the client’s ability to liquidate their investments would be in the event that illiquid types of investments are owned (although we rarely use illiquid investments) such as hedge funds, private equity and venture capital investments, or mutual funds that have restrictions. In these cases, there is very little liquidity, if any.
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22. What does Legend's fee structure for Investment Management services cover? The fee structure noted below represents Legend Financial Advisors, Inc.’s®quarterly investment management fee. This fee is billed on a quarterly basis subject to a minimum quarterly fee of $2,187.50. Also, non-profit organizations are entitled to a 30% discount on all fees listed, subject to our minimum fee schedule.
Quarterly fee schedule for stock portfolios:
a. .2500% on the first $1 million;
b. .1875% on the amount in excess of $1 million, but not greater than $2.5 million;
c. .1625% on the amount in excess of $2.5 million.
Quarterly fee schedule for mutual fund portfolios:
a. .2500% on the first $500,000.00;
b. .1875% on the amount in excess of $500,000.00 but not greater than $2 million;
c. .1250% on the amount in excess of $2 million, but not greater than $5 million;
d. .0625% on the amount in excess of $5 million.
These fees do not cover the transaction fees for purchasing or selling mutual funds, if there are any. We will typically invest in no-load, institutional class mutual funds, which do not carry a front-end sales charge or a deferred sales charge. Institutional share classes normally offer lower operating expenses. We will also utilize open-end mutual funds, which are pure no-load mutual funds, and on occasion front-end load waived mutual funds, which are funds for which investors do not pay front-end commissions.
We try to utilize funds that do not carry a transaction fee but in some cases this cannot be avoided. The current open-end mutual fund transaction fee at TD Ameritrade is $24.00, but is subject to change at their discretion. For individual stock trades, exchange-traded funds, exchange-traded notes, and closed-end mutual funds the commission is $9.99. There may also be short-term trading fees assessed by either the mutual fund and/or TD Ameritrade. This is common with any brokerage firm. These fees are designed to deter short-term market-timing. Legend will not usually incur these types of fees unless, at the client’s urging or request, we are forced to make trades, which would cause such fees to be incurred.
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23. With regard to tax reporting, what is provided at year-end to assist the client with income tax preparation? We mail to every client, generally not later than mid-February, information with regard to all securities trades that have been made, provided the information has been submitted to us. This is contingent on the client, providing us with the cost basis information, of securities that were transferred such as a fund and/or stock that Legend did not purchase for them. Generally, our information is so detailed that we have seen many accountants tell us they use our tax reports as support documents and send them in along with the client’s tax returns to the IRS. With regard to any distributions from mutual funds, TD Ameritrade provides this information via a comprehensive form 1099 at year-end. This is generally provided to the clients on January 31st of each year.
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24. How often will Legend meet with a client for Financial Planning services? For financial planning during the first year, we generally meet with a new client eight to twelve times. The reason that we have so many meetings is because during the first year, there is a great deal of work that needs to be completed, and discussion that needs to go back and forth about various issues. In order to provide our clients with the best possible advice, we must have an excellent grasp of the client’s financial situation. In year two, we generally meet a minimum of once or twice a year. Beyond that, wherever possible, we try to discuss specific changes over the phone versus a meeting so that we can respond to the client’s needs more quickly. We will also provide financial planning updates on the client’s financial situation each year. These updates will include a balance sheet, tax projections, cash flow analysis, insurance evaluations, and reviews of anything else that needs to be addressed.
A good example of this would be if a client were near retirement or in retirement. We would want to create a retirement projection a minimum of once every other year, to ensure that the client is on track for a comfortable retirement. Also, if a client is in retirement and over the age of 70½, we will discuss with him/her any minimum distributions from IRAs or retirement plans that need to be withdrawn on an annual basis.
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25. How does Legend charge for its Financial Planning services? Again, we are fee-only. We do not receive any commissions whatsoever. We charge for financial planning under a combined fixed fee arrangement, which includes fees for investment management. The fee will be fixed for a two-year period and will be billed quarterly, in advance. Our minimum fee for this service is $10,000.00 annually. Our fees range from the minimum up to $100,000.00. However, for most clients the typical fee will range from $10,000.00 to $60,000.00. The fee quoted is based upon the complexity of the client’s situation, the types of portfolios to be managed, monies that we oversee but do not directly manage, the degree of organization of the client information, and how thorough and responsive the client is to our requests. Our fee is for 365 days of service.
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26. Please describe Legend's Financial Planning process. The process for financial planning involves extensive data gathering of all financial information. First, we will request that a client complete one or more of our comprehensive data gathering questionnaires as well as provide us with all of their financial information. We will then send out individual questionnaires to insurance companies for all of their insurance policies and annuities. We will prepare authorization letters on the client’s behalf to each of their other professional advisors. We will then converse with the client’s employer’s human resources personnel as well as their accountant, attorney, insurance agents, bankers, and stock brokers, as necessary. Once we have obtained this information, we will begin preparing financial statements. The financial statements include a balance sheet, an income tax projection, as well as a cash flow analysis. We will also provide the client with support pages to determine how we made up the balance sheet and other statements. We will then have a data verification meeting to ensure that we have all pertinent information and that it is correct. From there we will develop other projections, such as education funding, estate death tax, retirement calculations, IRA distribution analysis, insurance reviews, and survivor analysis. When this is complete, we will then begin reviewing with the client their overall financial situation as well as what issues they need to have addressed in each area. The areas that we will cover will include basic finance issues such as refinancing mortgages or other debt, analyzing a client’s liquidity, and discussing any cash flow and/or savings issues that may arise. We will spend time discussing how to reduce income taxes, and funding children’s educations in a tax-efficient manner, if applicable. In addition, we will review all of the existing estate documents, as well as suggest alternative ways to plan the estate. We will also analyze exactly how much life insurance, if any, is needed and review all of the different insurance coverages in-depth. Furthermore, we will discuss with the client an overall investment strategy to meet their goals. If a client is near or in retirement, we will spend a great deal of time discussing those issues including distribution strategies from retirement plans.
Once we provide a client with recommendations, we will then assist in the implementation phase.
In the implementation phase, some of the value-added services that Legend provides, which most firms do not, include speaking with the client’s employer’s human resources personnel; their accountants; actuaries; attorneys; bankers and insurance agents to ensure that everyone is on the same page. For example, we often see clients who have complicated will and trust documents, but the titling of their assets and beneficiary designations are incorrect. As a result their estate will not flow properly. Therefore, if major changes are needed we will discuss this with the client’s attorney. If necessary, we will meet with the client and his/her attorney to review estate planning strategies. The same applies for income taxes, in that we will provide any information that we are aware of, in advance of income tax preparation time to the client’s accountant, so that he/she will have all of the necessary information to prepare the client’s income tax returns. We will also coordinate with the client’s various insurance agents to ensure that the client has the proper coverage. When it concerns banking, we will provide the bank with updated financial statements to facilitate any lending and/or refinancing on behalf of the client. Also, if a client is missing an advisor, we will suggest one that has been pre-screened by us. Legend will always assist in the implementation of its recommendations wherever possible.
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27. What if a client has a large position in one stock? What assistance will Legend provide in this situation? This is not an unusual occurrence since a number of our clients have large stock option awards from their employers.
There are different strategies that we can utilize to defer income taxes and diversify investment portfolios. Some of these strategies include:
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Utilizing what are called “Equity Collars” and/or Pre-Paid Variable Forwards, which would allow a client to protect his/her individual stock position in terms of the existing gain. Sometimes this can be done without any direct cost to the client. The client would then be able to obtain money from the proceeds of the stock to invest in a diversified portfolio. -
Utilizing what are called “Exchange Funds,” also known as “Completion Funds”. This is a partnership when each client, together with a number of other individuals in a similar situation, combine their large ownership positions of a single stock into a diversified portfolio of stocks contributed by individuals with similar single large holdings, so that each partner would own a portion of that portfolio without having to liquidate their existing stock position. Obviously, this strategy substantially reduces the investment risk as compared to owning a single stock. -
Utilizing what is called “Tax Loss Selling”, also known as “Loss Harvesting”. This strategy can, over time, chip away at a large stock position if the client has losses at present and develops future losses with other securities that the client owns. -
Utilizing “Charitable Trusts” to avoid any large capital gains taxes. This involves contributing highly appreciated stock to a Charitable Trust, selling it within the trust, thereby avoiding capital gains taxes, diversifying the proceeds within the trust into other securities, and taking a larger annual income from the trust for the rest of one’s lifetime as well as perhaps his/her survivor’s lifetime. -
Hiring an outside portfolio manager that manages large numbers of stocks to whittle away at large capital gain positions (known as a tax-managed portfolio) by harvesting positions that lose monies in addition to building a more diversified portfolio.
Depending upon which of these strategies suit the client’s situation best, we will assist the client every step of the way.
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28. What makes Legend different from banks, brokerage firms and/or other financial advisory firms? Legend is different from other financial advisory and brokerage firms as well as banks in a number of ways. First, Legend’s service initiatives are designed to be unparalleled. Clients will receive a number of phone calls from us discussing various aspects of bringing them on board initially and then providing them with ongoing service. Legend provides advice on all aspects of our clients’ finances while at the same time, assisting them with the implementation of their recommendations. Legend’s service initiatives are designed to be unparalleled. No detail of a client’s finances is overlooked. Reviews of employment contracts, real estate leases, wills, trust agreements, stock option agreements, property and casualty insurance, non-qualified deferred compensation agreements, private investments, hedge funds, corporate minutes, buy-sell agreements, retirement plan documents, business income tax returns, U.S.savings bonds, and even the evaluation of retirement village contracts are routine at Legend. Interaction with the client’s other advisors, such as actuaries, accountants, attorneys, bankers, insurance agents, and employee benefits specialists to ensure that everyone is working on behalf of the client is an everyday occurrence. Brokerage firms and banks do not supply this type of service while other financial advisory firms may only offer a few of these services, and often in a superficial manner. Legend by contrast, offers its services in a very detailed and comprehensive manner.
From an investment standpoint, most advisory firms offer one service: asset allocation with mutual funds. Some of these advisory firms are compensated by commissions (Class A shares when buying mutual funds) or exorbitant fees. Other firms sell clients Class B shares where expense ratios often exceed 2.0% annually and Class C share mutual funds which charge 1.0% annually of assets regardless of portfolio size. This is a very expensive option for clients with more than $500,000 in assets. Legend, by contrast, offers numerous investment portfolio strategies as mentioned earlier.
Banks and brokerage firms sometimes provide a few of the same investment offerings as Legend. However, the advisory fee charges are frequently at twice the cost and are provided without an understanding of and oftentimes without concern for their clients’ overall objectives.
The bottom line at Legend is that our team focuses on the client’s financial goals, providing unparalleled service, and conflict-free advice while being compensated only by the fees it charges.
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29. Is there a charge for the initial meeting? Legend does not charge any fees to prospective clients until they actually decide to become clients. In a few instances, this has taken as many as three meetings and often includes a few phone calls to clarify points of our service, before a client comes on board. Back to top
For any questions where further explanation
is needed, please contact Louis P. Stanasolovich at (412) 635-9210 or via
E-mail at
legend@legend-financial.com.
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