FAQs

The firm was founded by 38 year industry veteran Frank Armstrong in 1993 as an independent, fee-only, Registered Investment Advisor (RIA). Today the firm has grown to 12 professional employees serving 500 clients in over 30 states with assets under management of over $500 million dollars. Based in Coconut Grove, FL Investor Solutions is a widely recognized by the media for providing prudent disciplined investment strategies tailored to the individual needs of its clients.

We have a single mission: Improve your security and help you to meet your goals. We don’t manufacture product, sell anything, custody assets, underwrite new issues, trade our own accounts, make markets, or loan money. At best those activities are a distraction from the core mission, at worst they generate unmanageable conflicts of interest. We are independent of any outside control and free to devote our entire resources to meeting your unique needs.

You are not just a number here. Your first hint that we aren’t a giant impersonal machine will be that we have a live person answer all your calls. Your investment advisory team services a limited number of clients and will know you and your family’s situation intimately.

Our business revolves around you. We work directly for you, not some Wall Street Bank seeking to maximize its own profits. The quality, experience, credentials and qualifications of our advisors are second to none. We are thought leaders in the advisor space and focus all of our intellectual capital on portfolio management and financial advice for your particular situation.

Importantly, we are totally independent and as a fee-only advisor we have no financial ties to any other custodian, product producer, or service provider. We never receive commissions on any assets we recommend. This leaves us free to pick the very best products and providers for our clients with no outside influence or conflicts of interest.

We believe we provide compelling value to several types of clients that are underserved and/or overcharged:

• Individuals, trusts and/or families wishing institutional quality management of their assets to meet their needs for reliable retirement income and/or growth of principal for future enjoyment.
• Qualified Corporate Retirement Plans.
• Not for profit and other institutions

We pride ourselves on our intellectual capital. Our advisors all have advanced academic degrees in related fields, professional certifications and years of experience in helping clients to achieve their goals.

As trusted advisors wealth managers our professionals create and implement strategies designed to efficiently assist you to meet your financial goals. By bringing our experience and discipline to your problems we free you up to spend time doing the things that matter to you.

Wealth managers have access to intellectual capital, systems, products and services which are seldom available to individuals or small institutions. And, we bring a discipline to the practice of investment management honed from years of experience and financial research.

Each client is assigned a team consisting of a senior advisor and associate advisor that will be completely familiar with your entire financial picture.

You can view your account daily on your custodian’s web site, or through the Investor Solutions site. Your custodian provides monthly position and transaction and reports, and Investor Solutions provides monthly performance reports.

Each client of a taxable account receives a realized gain loss report from Investor Solutions, and your custodian will provide you with a 1099 for your tax return.

Absolutely! After our initial review and analysis we will present you with a comprehensive plan tailored to your unique situation and needs. Only after we agree on a plan and you accept it, will we implement and manage it for you until you tell us otherwise.

Yes, the majority of our clients reside outside the state of Florida.

Our personal attention starts with a live person answering the phone, and a team of advisors and operations staff dedicated to serving your needs. We communicate with distant clients by phone, email, Skype, fax, and internet meeting technology. Many have remarked that they find that we are as responsive as advisors in the next building.

Generally no, unless there are very significant tax issues, we will make trades under the investment policy that we have agreed on with you in advance. Of course, your custodian will promptly report all activity in your account, and you will have 24/7 access to account details on the custodian’s web site.

Yes. As part of our process as we begin to work together we will develop and provide you with a complete investment plan for your approval prior to your becoming a client.

Of course, with your permission we will share financial information (i.e. tax estimates, realized gain loss information, minimum required distributions, etc.) with any of your other professional advisors.

Investor Solutions executes all trades for the accounts we manage. We will arrange for a non-managed account if you wish to execute trades outside of our managed accounts. You can make those trades directly with your custodian. We neither report on nor charge for these accounts.

In most cases we can manage your account with your employer’s plan for you and report on it as part of your total financial picture.

We review all client accounts frequently for rebalancing, tax loss harvesting, or other tax management opportunities. Additionally, every cash flow provides an opportunity to rebalance your portfolio back to target weights.

Of course, we want to have a long close personal relationship with you. However, not all clients want regularly scheduled weekly meetings. In addition to our detailed monthly reports, our wealth management clients have virtually unlimited access to their advisory team whether by personal visits or phone, email, or web conferencing. We are here to serve you. You set the number of visits you are comfortable with or that your situation requires.

Our investment philosophy is based on rigorous academic research into market behavior and the sources of returns. We don’t make forecasts or attempt to predict market movements. Rather we manage risks in an attempt to provide an optimum outcome over time tailored to the individual needs or our clients.

Investors should take no more risk than they can afford and are emotionally able to bear. So, choosing the right level of risk is an important key to success. Once they have established the appropriate level of risk, it’s critical that they remain fully invested through the market cycles.

At every risk level, we work very hard to optimize performance and manage risks through broad diversification and exposure to those factors that generate returns.

Because equity markets can be volatile portfolios must be designed to weather occasional storms, provide sufficient liquidity to meet anticipated cash flow needs, and allow the investor to sleep well at night, while meeting the investor’s financial goals. The most efficient way to accomplish that is to divide the portfolio into two portions:

• A safe portion which will provide for anticipated withdrawals for several years into the future, and temper the risk of the portfolio as a whole.
• The risky portion will fluctuate in value as markets constantly adjust, but provides the opportunity for higher returns to hedge inflation and generate real growth.

Optimum portfolios can be devised for any individual investor’s unique situation by properly combining the two segments. That division should be driven by carefully considering the investment’s time horizon, cash flow needs and the investor’s risk tolerance.

• Equities: True Global diversification with a distinct tilt toward smaller companies and value pricing, foreign and domestic real estate, and commodities futures.
• Fixed Income: Short to medium term high quality, broadly diversified portfolios.

We execute our asset allocation plans using exclusively passive investments because we are unaware of any credible evidence which proves that the selection of individual securities or attempts to time the market do anything but add risk and cost while reliably reducing returns.

Individual stocks carry huge risks as opposed to fully diversified portfolios, and there is overwhelming credible evidence that individual security selection increase costs, risk, tax exposure, while reducing returns.

We provide efficient, economical, tax sensitive and effective exposure to targeted segments of the global economy through passive investments including institutional class index funds, exchange traded funds (ETFs) and structured funds. All assets are marked to market every day, totally transparent, fully disclosed, liquid, audited, registered, and appropriately regulated.

Our fees are paid directly by our clients based on the amount of assets under our management. Importantly, we receive no compensation from any other source, and have no financial tie to any product provider, custodian, or service provider which eliminates the vast majority of conflicts of interest that permeate the financial services industry.

In addition to our fee, each of the mutual funds or exchange traded funds (ETFs) have an internal operating fee, and the custodian may collect transaction fees on some trades. The total costs of investing through us compare very favorably with many no-load mutual funds.

No, we don’t custody assets. For your protection all your funds will be held by a leading independent third party custodian in an account registered in your name. We can never take a penny of your funds (unless you specifically authorize us to deduct your fees quarterly).

We are authorized to direct your custodian to make trades on your behalf in your account. However, we are not authorized to transfer funds except if you specifically authorize us in writing to transfer to an account with identical registration in your name, or by a letter from you specifically authorizing payment to a third party.

Your privacy is a primary concern of Investor Solutions. We will never share financial or personal information with anyone else without your express permission in advance.