Table of Contents
Who is Brightwater Advisory and what do we do?
Brightwater Advisory is a fiduciary that offers personal investment counsel and financial planning. Brightwater was established by David Maddux and Katie Maddux in 2014 and is a Registered Investment Adviser (RIA) with the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC).
Note: Registration of an investment adviser does not imply any level of skill or training.
Brightwater has a focus on working with individuals and families. We facilitate a holistic dialogue around personal finance with emphasis on investment objectives and asset allocation suitable to your risk tolerance and expectations. We do not sell insurance products or annuities but instead partner with your CPA, Tax Preparer, Insurance Broker, and/or Estate Lawyer to contemplate all the pieces of your financial picture in order to optimize delivery of your goals.
We execute our client’s investment objectives using a data driven process. After we get to know you and better understand your objectives, one of the first steps is for us to suggest and confirm an allocation model among equities, bonds, and cash. We leverage outside thinking including Ned Davis Research (NDR.com) as a knowledge partner and Morningstar’s research database for quantitative, data driven, analysis. Our core concepts include:
Wealth Preservation: to mitigate the quiet erosive quality of inflation over time.
Wealth Enhancement: Dividend paying common stocks over the course of time are a core asset class that we continue to leverage.
Diversification: One of the basic, simplest tools for increasing the probabilities of investing success and reducing certain risks is to embrace diversification through a global view.
Implementation: We rely on individual common stocks, as well as exchange traded funds (ETFs), which are generally passive allocations to various asset classes to achieve diversification. These ETFs, particularly those from Vanguard, Schwab, State Street and iShares typically have a low or negligible cost structure. For bonds, our preference is to buy individual bonds, but in this low yield environment, diversification, liquidity and yield can be supplemented with an ETF and a select mutual fund that targets a specific debt security or maturity.
1. Why do I need a Financial Advisor?
Why should you pay a financial advisor when you could try to manage your money yourself? People tend to bristle at fees for anything and when it comes to investing, some folks say, “I can handle it on my own.”
Many times someone can because they have the aptitude, time and interest to tend to their investments. However, it is commonplace that someone is missing one of these components, like time.
Because we do more than just “invest” your money We look at your big picture and help you coordinate all the moving pieces
Because we will keep you on track with your investment plan Establishing your investment objectives and a suitable asset allocation is part of what we do
Because you are an emotional creature Markets can get stressful, particularly during very turbulent periods, and if you don’t know yourself going into one of these periods, you will get to during it. We use a process and practice the work of scenario planning and learning to work through uncertainty
Because you do not have the time As part of our relationship, we watch markets and changes in applicable laws for you, and by using the right tools and knowledge resources, we rebalance your portfolio opportunistically and as necessary to align with your goals.
2. How do I enlist the help of Brightwater Advisory?
We like trying to help folks with their money and would welcome the opportunity to compare notes with you. We suggest an initial visit.
We will want to learn about your current status, possible goals, and expectations. In addition, we will share our business and educational backgrounds, summarize the services we provide, walk you through our fee structure, and try to answer any questions you have.
We invite you to call us to schedule an informal discussion about how we can help you. We can be reached at 813.251.6310 or through INFO@BRIGHTWATERADVISORY.COM. We look forward to hearing from you!
3. What should I expect in my first meeting with Brightwater Advisory?
If you have never met with a financial advisor before, you might feel intimidated and you might not know what questions to ask, but do not let that stop you from getting assistance. We will go over your current financial situation so you can describe the retirement accounts you have, like IRAs or Roth 401(k)s. If you have children, you may want to discuss when and if you want to save for their college funding. We will discuss your long-term financial goals and then we will work together to create a game plan for reaching those goals.
Click here for a list of things to bring to our first meeting.
4. What visibility will I have to my investment account(s)?
Your account(s) would be with our primary custodian, Charles Schwab & Co., which has no administrative nor custodial fees. Any outside assets, like annuities or retirement plans can be tracked through our account aggregation software.
You will have daily access to view your accounts at Schwab.com as well as a Brightwater client portal for additional reporting that uses Morningstar portfolio analytics at your household or account level. You give Brightwater access to the account to make decisions within the account (the fancy term is discretion). You can terminate our access at any time, by calling us or calling Schwab.
5. How does Brightwater protect my privacy?
The information you provide to Brightwater Advisory in connection with our services is confidential. We use the information you provide in order to implement your investment plan and perform the services contemplated by our agreement with you.
Our Privacy Policy requires us to update you annually regarding how we treat your personal information. Protecting your personal information is of the highest importance to us. We understand the seriousness and sensitivity of privacy issues. We want to emphasize that our privacy policy provides the following assurances:
We do not sell information about you to anyone; We only use your personal non-public information to conduct authorized business or as provided by law; and We protect that information from unauthorized use.
Please see our Privacy Policy Notice for further details regarding how we protect your non-public personal information. Click here to view our Privacy Policy Notice.
6. How does Brightwater Advisory charge me for their services?
Our traditional Advisory service is an “asset based” fee. In other words, the asset based fee is a pre-agreed percentage of “Assets Under Management” (AUM) and is based on the market value of the Assets in your account(s) as valued by the custodian of your Assets (for example, we use Charles Schwab & Co). You authorize us to deduct the Advisory Fee directly from the account(s) where your Assets are held. Our quarterly portfolio performance reporting will very explicitly present these fees to you in the billing summary and they will also reflect on the Charles Schwab account statement.
In most instances, our standard fee is 1.0% of the first $500k in AUM and then declining to 0.90% for AUM above $500k.
Note: Brightwater may, at its discretion, make exceptions to the foregoing or negotiate special fee arrangements where Brightwater deems it appropriate under the circumstances.
We also provide Investment Planning Consultation which involves a flat fee of $2,500 plus an annual check-up expense of $250 / hour. In this consultative approach, after evaluating your assets and goals, we meet with you to make specific recommendations on a proposed investment strategy including specific types of bonds and maturities, as well as specific areas of the stock market including low cost exchange traded funds (ETFs). It would be up to you to go to your bank or call Morgan Stanley, Charles Schwab, etc. and make those changes – buys and sells, etc.
Brightwater has a focus on working with individuals and families. We facilitate a holistic dialogue around personal finance with emphasis on investment objectives and asset allocation suitable to your risk tolerance and expectations. We do not sell insurance products or annuities but instead partner with your CPA, Tax Preparer, Insurance Broker, and/or Estate Lawyer to contemplate all the pieces of your financial picture in order to optimize delivery of your goals.
7. What if I decide I no longer want a Financial Advisor or I want to try something different?
You can terminate our access or move your accounts at any time, by calling us or calling Schwab.
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