Service 01 — Fee-Only · Fiduciary · Minnesota

Investments

Evidence-based, low-cost portfolio construction aligned to your timeline and risk tolerance. No proprietary products. No hidden fees.

93%
of active funds underperform
their index over 20 years
01 Investments02 Retirement03 Tax Planning04 Insurance05 College Savings06 Home Purchase07 Emergency Fund08 Budgeting09 Other Goals
Planning PrincipleLow cost beats active management. Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication — a diversified index portfolio outperforms most of what Wall Street sells.
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Why It Matters

Most investment advice is built around what earns the advisor a commission, not what works for you.

Decades of academic research on asset pricing — from Fama-French factor models to the efficient market hypothesis — have produced a clear conclusion: a diversified, low-cost portfolio consistently outperforms the average actively managed fund after fees.

The problem is not that individual investors lack intelligence. The problem is that the traditional brokerage model is structurally misaligned. Advisors earn commissions on products. Products with higher commissions get recommended more. You pay more. Your returns are lower.

Fee-only investment management removes that conflict entirely. You pay a flat fee. Every investment decision is made on its merits — not its margin.

Active vs. Index — 20-Year Track Record
% of active U.S. equity funds that underperformed their benchmark, after fees
Your Inputs
Time horizon
Risk tolerance
Income needs
Tax situation
Existing assets
Portfolio Design
Asset allocation
Fund selection
Account location
Cost minimization
Ongoing
Rebalancing
Tax-loss harvest
Drift monitoring
Annual review
Your Outcomes
Expected return
Drawdown limits
Cost transparency
Goal progress
What We Don't Do
Market timing
Stock picking
Annuity sales
Proprietary funds
The Cost of FeesSmall differences compound into large ones
$100,000 Over 30 Years
Low-cost index (0.1% total) vs. typical broker model (1.75% total) · 6% gross return assumed
$574K
Low-cost outcome
$318K
High-cost outcome
$256K
Lost to fees
0.05%
Typical index fund ER
A 1% fee difference is not a small thing.Over 30 years, that 1% annual drag compounds into hundreds of thousands of dollars — money that would otherwise be yours.
Conservative
40/60
40% stocks, 60% bonds. Shorter time horizons or lower risk tolerance. Prioritizes capital preservation.
Moderate
60/40
60% stocks, 40% bonds. The classic balanced portfolio. Long-term growth with meaningful cushion.
Aggressive
80/20+
80%+ stocks. Long time horizons. Accepts higher short-term volatility for higher long-term return.
What Goes WhereAsset location — often overlooked, always important

Asset allocation is which investments you own. Asset location is which accounts hold them. The same portfolio can have meaningfully different after-tax outcomes depending on where each asset sits.

Tax-inefficient assets — bonds, REITs, actively traded funds — belong in tax-deferred accounts where their income isn't taxed annually. Tax-efficient assets — index funds, buy-and-hold stocks — can sit in taxable accounts without much drag.

Tax-Deferred (401k / IRA)
Bond funds — interest taxed as ordinary income
REITs — high dividend distributions
High-turnover active funds
Inflation-protected securities (TIPS)
Taxable / Roth
U.S. total market index funds
International index funds
Tax-managed equity funds
Municipal bonds (taxable accts only)
Sample Portfolio Allocation — Moderate
60% equity / 40% fixed income · diversified across factors