Sooner or later, the astute high-net worth investor will come around to the realization that he or she needs the services of a low-cost, fee-only registered investment advisor who can provide access to Dimensional Funds.

Behavioral Finance

While classical economics puts rational choice at the center of economic life, behavioral finance shows that our decisions are undermined by our emotions. Most of the investment losses that people receive from the market result from greed and fear, which lead them to buy high and sell low.

In a study ranging from 1984 to 2002, Dalbar (2003) found that on average, mutual fund equity investors achieved only a 2.6% annual return -- less than the inflation rate of 3.1% -- while the stock market as a whole returned 12.2% annually. These investors would have had roughly 17 times more money in the end had just stayed in the S&P 500 index the whole time. Instead, they typically pulled out after about two and a half years -- hopelessly mis-timing the market.

Vanguard's John Bogle found the same story: one dollar invested in the stock market in 1983 grew to be worth $11.50 by 2003...

That same dollar invested in the average mutual fund only grew to $7.10...

Now get this: The average mutual fund investor only had his dollar grow to $4.57 over the same time period

In a study by Morningstar covering the years 1995-2005, even investors who choose the S&P 500 Index achieved real-world returns lagging the index by 3.7% per year -- and these were the smart people.

Why did these investors fare so poorly? Simple: it was due to their reckless, in-and-out of the market, performance-chasing ways. Truly, chasing a hot hand is like picking up a lit cherry bomb.

The steadying influence of an investment advisor can help you secure the long-term returns that the stock market tantalizingly promises, yet rarely delivers -- even to investment professionals.

Wall Street is a school with an expensive tuition. Very smart people lose money there every day. Over the long run, success comes from careful risk management, not from being a genius stock picker. Chasing yesterday's returns condemns you to be forever running behind a train that has left the station.

Instead of betting on the next new thing, the smart move is to deploy your money across global capital markets, and accrue the market returns flowing to capitalism -- a proven, profitable financial system. This is the difference between gambling and investing.

Low Fee & Fee-Only

"The ability to pick 5-star Morningstar funds off a list is not a skill that deserves 1% of assets under management every year. You can buy a list of 5-star funds in a magazine for a few dollars, or go to the library and look them up for free." -- Daniel Wheeler

Our goal is to be affordable and easy to work with. Fees are necessarily kept below the industry average in order to provide clients with the best total returns. A typical low-maintenance client could expect to be charged annual management fees below 1% on the first million dollars, with the tariff falling steeply for larger accounts.

Under the fee-only financial advisor model, clients' interests are put first at all times. There is no hidden agenda to sell inappropriate high-margin securities, no kickbacks or side deals or any of the usual Wall Street monkeyshines. At Conservative Wealth Management LLC, fiduciary responsibility is a sacred trust.