Is ATX Portfolio Advisors® right for you?
Does managing your wealth take too much time?
Is managing your investments a chore?
Do you base investment decisions on tips or hunches?
Is financial planning confusing or overwhelming?
Do you tend to buy high and sell low?
Do you want your financial advisor to put your interests first?
If you answered yes to any of the questions above, see below for "Why ATX Portfolio Advisors®?"
ACCOUNTABLE WEALTH MANAGEMENT
FEE-ONLY (When You’re Up)
When my son or daughter fell off their bikes as children, I would comfort them and wipe off the blood, dirt, and tears. Then I encouraged them to get back on the seat and keep pedaling. Why should investing be any different? We can't predict when the next fall is going to happen in the markets any more so than when the next wipe-out in the driveway may occur, but we can be there for you with salve and encouragement when the next tumble occurs.
The support and confidence we provide comes from over two decades of financial planning and wealth management experience, an evidence based investing approach based on research from leading academics, and putting your success ahead of our profits. When downturns occur, we want you to know that we're all in this together. That is why we offer flexible Pricing, including a “Fee Only (When You’re Up)” option where we waive our advisory fee anytime your account value falls below the previous quarter ending amount. 1
That's Accountable Wealth Management. If you are looking for more accountability from your investment advisor, we should get acquainted.
-Jeff Weeks, CFP®
Founder & Principal
ATX Portfolio Advisors ®
Why ATX Portfolio Advisors®?
ATX Portfolio Advisors® is an independent fee-only financial planning and registered investment advisor firm located in Austin, TX. We provide comprehensive and objective advice and wealth management to business owners, executives, and affluent professionals to organize, grow, and protect their wealth. We operate under a fiduciary standard of care to our clients.
We work with clients on a fee only basis.
FINANCIAL PLANNING
We believe that the first step to successful investing is to have a financial plan. We use state of the art psychometric tests and planning tools to assess your goals, risk tolerance, risk capacity, and preferences to help develop plans for the following areas:
Financial statement preparation and analysis
Insurance and risk management
Employee benefits
Investments
Income tax
Retirement
Estate
TRANSPARENCY
At ATX Portfolio Advisors®, you'll never have to wonder how we get paid or what our motivations may be. We take pride in being fully transparent about our business. You can see how our Portfolios are constructed, as well as our Pricing here on our website. All of our accounts are held at third party custodians in separate accounts that provide reporting and online access.
VALUE
We are committed to your success as an investor by offering the resources and knowledge of a large firm, coupled with the personalized attention of a small company. We get to know you, your purpose, your priorities, and your preferences. We build, test, and manage financial plans to help keep you pointed in the right direction with perspective formed from decades of experience. Finally, we do all of this with flexible fee options.
EXPERIENCED WEALTH MANAGEMENT
Evidence-BAsed Investing
Our portfolios are managed to emphasize investment factors that have been shown to lead to higher returns in the long run. We invest in the broad markets but tilt towards companies based on size, relative price, and profitability.
Research by economists such as Eugene Fama, Kenneth French, Robert Novy-Marx, and others has shown that this evidence-based approach led to better performance than traditional capitalization-weighted indices such as the S&P 500®.2,3,4,5
ATX Portfolio Advisors primarily employs Dimensional Funds Advisors in our Accountable Portfolios due to their approach that embraces evidence-based investing, their strong track record, and low costs.
6
Regular Re-Balancing
Regular re-balancing can reduce risk and improve returns.7 We monitor portfolios daily and re-balance with cash flows, or if your account drifts too far from target allocations. At least once per year ,we will reevaluate your purpose, risk tolerance, and preferences and re-balance accordingly.
BOND LADDERS
We offer the management of individual bond ladders of high quality bonds. Ladders can add predictability to your portfolio, which can be appealing when paired to your income needs. Laddering also allows for the purchase of typically higher yielding longer maturity bonds when shorter bond rungs come due.
TAX Sensitivity
We seek to maximize your after-tax returns through a variety of tax sensitive management strategies. We invest in low-turnover mutual funds that tend to limit unexpected capital gains distributions. We opt for tax free investments, such as municipal bonds, in taxable accounts and locate less tax sensitive investments, such as Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs), in tax favored accounts when it is prudent. We also will seek to harvest taxable losses, when appropriate, to offset gains and to provide opportunities for tax deductions.
If you are at the stage of life where you are taking income from your portfolio, we will also advise you on tax-efficient withdrawal tactics such as the sources, sequence, and amounts that lead to the lowest tax consequences.
1 Net of fees, deposits, and withdrawals.
2 Indices are unmanaged and you cannot invest directly in an index.
3 The Standard & Poor's 500 (S&P 500®) is an unmanaged group of securities considered to be representative of the stock market in general. It is a market value weighted index with each stock's weight in the index proportionate to its market value.
4 See "Value vs. Growth: The International Evidence". For more, see Kenneth French's website of data and working papers.
5 Chen, Long and Chen, Long and Novy-Marx, Robert and Zhang, Lu, An Alternative Three-Factor Model (April 2011).
6 Rebalancing can entail transaction costs and tax conseqvuences that should be considered when determining a re-balancing strategy.
7 David Swensen, Chief Investment Officer, Yale Endowment: see his book Unconventional Success: A Fundamental Approach to Personal Investment (2005) ISBN 0-7432-2838-3, Free Press. See Table 6.4 "Rebalancing Smoothes the Market Cycles". Swensen; page 196
Have you heard the tale of a three-legged chicken? It serves as an apt metaphor for the "too good to be true" products marketed to unsuspecting investors. Recently, a client of mine was reminded of this tale when dealing with a complex Guaranteed Minimum Withdrawal Benefit (GMWB) variable annuity. Sold by a "friend" years ago, this annuity promised guaranteed income and stock market growth. Unfortunately, it turned out to be more of a cautionary tale than a golden goose.
Years later, the underlying investment value hadn't grown significantly. My client had been paying high annual fees—over 2%—which steadily eroded returns. When he wanted to move the account, he faced hefty surrender penalties, as high as 7%. Thankfully, we found a solution that helped him preserve his investment, but it underscored the dangers of chasing unrealistic guarantees.
For anyone considering "guaranteed" products, let me share a story about a chicken...