Frequently Asked Questions

1. What is Wealth Management?

Wealth Management refers to a total and comprehensive program for managing all the components of your wealth. This involves integrating the tax implications, estate planning, and investment planning with your lifestyle goals. You delegate to us the management of your financial assets. Wealth Management goes far beyond the more familiar and limited financial planning advice, money management services, or specific investment advice that most financial advisors provide.

2. What is The DarrowCFO™ Advantage?

The DarrowCFO™ Advantage is a six-step program that ensures that your wealth management interests align with your strategy for managing your wealth. It then progresses through a series of processes that builds on your needs and desires to preserve, grow, distribute, and manage your assets in a manner consistent with your risk tolerance that accommodates changing tax laws to build estate plans that genuinely reflect your wishes and desires.

3. What does "fee-only" mean and how much do your personal wealth management services cost?

Fee-only means our firm is paid by our clients and our clients only. We receive no commissions, payments, or fees with the many entities which we deal with in order to deliver a complete program to the client. It is important for clients to understand that we do not "sell" financial instruments as a broker; rather, we align our interests with providing you the best possible service in meeting your wealth needs.

4. How do we begin?

We begin with The Right Fit™ Meeting, the opportunity to explain our operating philosophy and wealth management program to ensure compatibility with your desires for asset and estate help.

5. How do you keep clients informed on matters as they progress?

We take special pride in our commitment to personal service. We provide timely reports on a fixed schedule. As a result, clients can feel confident that when discussing the particulars of their investments, our Certified Financial Planning^® and other financial professionals have access to most of the clients' information and can provide timely and accurate response to client concerns.

6. How do I know you will provide personal attention to my financial and estate planning needs?

Clients who are familiar with our firm know our reputation for building long-term relationships through trust and attention to the details of a client's assets. We are truly committed to involvement in client issues. We understand that clients who come to us have concerns that directly impact their financial lives, frequently after a lifetime of work. We know from our experience that successful wealth management means understanding and dedicating our efforts to both help clients grow their assets and protect those assets as well. That has been and always will be our operating philosophy.

7. How often do you communicate with clients?

We maintain a strong policy of keeping clients informed. We provide regularly scheduled reports and copies of relevant documents, and we schedule periodic conferences to ensure that the client is up-to-date. We communicate with the client promptly as changes of significance emerge. We encourage an open and informed relationship with clients, working closely with them and seeking to respond creatively as matters arise.

8. Why do an estate plan?

If you do not create an estate plan, you create the potential for significant confusion, unnecessary expense, and unwanted surprises for your loved ones. Moreover, proper estate planning can financially provide for your family upon your death according to your wishes and eliminate or reduce estate taxes. It is not emotionally easy to do this type of planning. However, as the old saying goes: there are two things guaranteed in life, death and taxes. You must plan for both.

9. What does an estate plan consist of?

It depends upon the amount of financial assets you have. Our high-net worth clients are faced with a myriad of choices to minimize tax liabilities and ensure a distribution consistent with their wishes. Especially important is the creation of appropriate trusts, funding for those trusts, and the management of those trusts. We are involved with you every step of the way to ensure that you consider all the options.

10. Why shouldn't I go to a large firm for my investment advice?

Most large firms are selling some form of securities and generate revenue through the purchase and sale of these securities. Other firms, even those that market themselves as fee-only, focus almost exclusively on the securities component, analogous to our Darrow Money Management Program. They are also limited to the number and types of funds to which their corporate groups have arrangements. The DarrowCFO™ Advantage goes far beyond this. Our involvement covers all the factors that influence the economic status of the client. In addition, we work with best-in-class financial groups. This means that when, in our judgment, we deem a security, a firm, a fund, or any instrument to be at risk, we seek alternatives.

11. Where are you located?

The Darrow Company is located in Concord, Massachusetts, 15 miles Northwest of Boston - and Los Angeles, California