In my role, I meet with prospective families searching for a new financial planner. Many people we meet have a specific issue they are trying to solve, but some just have a general sense they could do better.

Recently I asked a potential new family how much they were paying their current financial advisor; they said, “Nothing.” Nothing? In reviewing their statements, we knew they were getting charged 1.00% on the value of the managed assets plus additional fees on the underlying holdings, but I wanted to ensure they knew the answer. After an awkward silence, I asked them if they knew their asset allocation or long-term performance. They didn’t have a good answer for either question.

As a client of Hill Investment Group, we take pride in the clarity and simplicity of our communications and reporting. We always want you to know your asset allocation, portfolio performance, and fees. While many in our industry hide from these vital signs, we lean into ensuring you know them. Awareness brings several benefits to our relationships. If this message seems obvious, we agree, and yet it is rare that we meet with folks who have a clear sense of these three vital answers.

If you have a friend or family member that doesn’t know or can’t get the answers to these “vital signs,” there’s good news. We can help. 

Click here to schedule a Discovery meeting with PJ.

We often ask prospective clients if they are clear on their fees, returns, and allocation. Most are fuzzy on the answers. In our world, we value transparency and keep a close eye on fees, exerting pressure where there is room for a reduction. We are pleased to share that Dimensional Funds just announced meaningful reductions in management fees for the equity funds we invest in for our clients and ourselves. The majority of our clients will experience 20% lower fees on the equity portion of their Dimensional investments. We’ll be sharing the details in future client meetings, but for now, know that the odds of long term success just got better!

We work for our clients. It’s that simple. We value the work of our partner firms (mutual fund companies and custodians), but we never forget who we serve and our fiduciary duty to them. To that end, you should know we routinely ask our partners for better options and lower fees – when and where appropriate. Hill Investment Group is pleased to announce significant fee reductions related to 14 funds in our recommended portfolios. The largest reduction is a 20% drop in fund expenses and the smallest change is 3.6% in one of our fixed-income solutions. Big or small alterations, it’s good news and savings for clients. We will not list individual funds here, but look forward to sharing the details with you during your next review. For now, we end this post with a quote from Dimensional Co CEO Gerard O’Reilly:

“We expect to do better than benchmarks and peers, after fees, so we fight for every basis point. We continue to gain insights from research and innovate across all aspects of our process.”