Find answers to your top questions about Neary Financial Planning and our financial planning and investment management services.
A Registered Investment Advisor is a financial professional or firm that provides financial and investment advice, often managing client’s financial portfolios. They must be registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) or a state’s securities regulator. As a Registered Investment Advisor, we have a fiduciary duty when serving our clients. This means we are legally obligated to act in our client’s best interests and must put our client’s interests ahead of our own.
We believe everyone should have access to quality financial advice and education, and strive to make our services accessible to a broad audience. We have no investment minimums; however, we do have a minimum annual fee for our financial planning with investment management service model of $2,400 per year (billed either at $200 per month or $600 per quarter).
We want to collaborate with you as you navigate all aspects of your finances to help you make informed financial decisions. While we do not perform these services ourselves, we have cooperative (non‐financial) relationships with reputable accountants, attorneys and other professionals, and can provide quality referrals. As noted on our Services page, we also offer structured reimbursements for tax preparation and estate planning for households with investments assets of $2,500,000 and above. If you already have an accountant, attorney or other professional you work with, that is great! We can collaborate with these parties as well. Proactive collaboration with our clients and their network of accountant, attorney and other professionals is encouraged, and is of utmost importance to us, as financial decisions often impact multiple areas of personal finances.
When clients utilize our investment management services, their money is held at a third party custodian. A custodian plays a crucial role in managing and safeguarding client assets for Registered Investment Advisors, ensuring they are protected and managed in compliance with regulation requirements. We work with the custodians Altruist and Charles Schwab.
Altruist offers a fully integrated technology suite for investment advisors, providing advisors with advanced tools and technology for account opening, investment management, portfolio analysis, portfolio reporting and billing. The combined resources at Altruist helps advisors create efficiency and scale to improve client outcomes and deliver exceptional service. Altruist is on a mission to make financial advice more affordable and accessible to everyone, and this mission lines up perfectly with ours.
For more information about Altruist, please visit here: https://altruist.com/for-clients/.
Charles Schwab was founded in 1971, pioneering low-cost investing and revolutionizing how individuals access financial markets. Today, it is one of the largest financial services companies in the U.S., offering a full range of investment, banking, and advisory services to clients.
Jay Neary is a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNERⓇ, a certification which serves as the standard for the financial planning profession. To serve as a CFPⓇ, professionals must meet rigorous education, training and ethical standards. Governed by a Code and Standards, a CFPⓇ professional must serve as a fiduciary, acting in the best interest of the client, at all times when providing financial advice.
Jay Neary also holds a Certification for Long-Term Care (CLTCⓇ), a designation that focuses on the discipline of extended care planning. The certification provides the tools and education necessary to discuss the subject of longevity, extended care, and the impact of extended care on families and finances.
Jay Neary has been awarded a Five Star Wealth Manager in 2023 and 2024 by Five Star Professional, as seen in Milwaukee Magazine.
Neary Financial Planning, doing business as Core Planning, utilizes cloud-based technology systems. This allows us to leverage established infrastructure and trusted technology as well as gain access to system alert capabilities. This technology creates a greater reliance on passwords and login activity and as such Core Planning has designed and will continue to develop information policies with this increased risk in focus. Core Planning has detailed policies and procedures related to detection of suspicious activity, prevention of unauthorized funds transfers, user login activity, user access privileges, email use security and guidelines, third party vendor security and diligence, inventory of technology and significant technology system disruption and testing plans. More detailed information is available upon request.
Is your financial advisor a fiduciary? When speaking with a financial advisor, it is important to ask your financial advisor whether or not they are a fiduciary. A fiduciary is legally bound to put a client’s interests ahead of their own.
It is important to understand how your financial advisor is paid. Are they paid via fees or commissions? What are their fees and/or commission rates? If they recommend investments or investment products, what are the associated fees and expenses and/or commissions?
If your financial advisor helps you invest your money, is your money liquid? Liquidity means your money is easily accessible. Some investments are less liquid than others, making it more difficult to obtain your funds.
Is your advisor subject to a non-compete or non-solicit agreement with their firm? This is important should your advisor ever change jobs. Due to the terms of their contract, they may not be able to work with existing clients or prospects without legal ramifications.
How many clients does your financial advisor work with? Depending on levels of support for the advisor, a high client to advisor ratio could mean a lower level of service for clients. An advisor may be reactive with clients as opposed to proactive.
Yes. While we love serving the Milwaukee metro community, we welcome the opportunity to work with clients located anywhere in the United States virtually.