Overview
For over 35 years, our firm has delivered independent, objective and comprehensive financial advice for wealthy families, and we continue to be a thought leader in the field.
Today, we have 120 employees serving 299 families, providing investment advice on over $9.8 billion (AUM), and advising on over $21 billion of assets (AUA), as of 3/31/2023.
Our mission is to help families make smart decisions about their wealth, giving them the freedom to focus on the lives they want to lead.
Our investment team develops custom tax-optimized portfolios for each of our clients. We focus on managing risk and identifying investment opportunities we believe will be compelling after taxes and after fees.
Our wealth planning team identifies opportunities and mitigates risks outside our clients’ investment portfolios. We are known for our sophisticated wealth planning strategies, “soft” skills, our suite of family office services, and our multi-generational client relationships.
Learn more about Our Team.
*Assets under management (AUM) are assets for which we provide continuous and regular advice, supervisory, or management services. Assets under advisement (AUA) includes all Assets under management, plus other assets for which we provide advice and implementation services. As of 3/31/2023.
What Makes Us Different
Specialization
We work with families rather than institutional investors. As taxable investors, families face very different challenges than institutional and endowment investors. (For some examples, read our sample Client Stories.)
Focus On Net Investment Returns
Our focus on taxable investors means that we evaluate investments on their after-tax returns. Our team builds diversified portfolios using a combination of low fee, tax-efficient investment vehicles and active managers when their after-tax returns justify their fees. We also add considerable value through tax-optimization of our clients’ portfolios.
Customization
Every family is different. Each has different objectives, balance sheets, tax situations, entity structures, and other needs. Optimizing investment results for each unique family requires building and managing customized solutions. Our investors are not herded into one-size-fits-all commingled funds, which dilute their flexibility and present hidden costs. Read more about Our Services.
No Product Sales
We work only for our clients and we have structured our firm to minimize conflicts of interest. We do not sell insurance and investment products. We do not accept commission income or participate in the fees of investment managers to whom we refer business. We serve as our clients’ advocates in dealing with a broad range of wealth management issues. Read more in our White Paper, The Business of Wealth Management.
Continuity
We are committed to the long-term independence of our firm. In 2011, our founder passed the leadership torch to the next generation of leaders at Ballentine, successfully executing a 10 year leadership succession plan. Today, our ownership includes 19 employee partners. Most of our client relationships are multi-generational, and our clients appreciate that we have a plan for how our firm will be there through these generations. We also help our clients provide for succession within their families by helping each generation acquire skills necessary for successful management of wealth.
What You Can Expect From Us
Helping You to Define Your Objectives
We work with you to articulate the goals that you find most meaningful, both in the short and long term. For instance, your near-term focus may be on gaining access to unique investment opportunities that complement your business, but your long-term priority may be passing wealth onto your children in a way that allows them to thrive. We address the short-term goal while making sure that our strategies promote the long-term goal as well.
We also examine the multiple wealth planning issues involved in your financial life to determine whether any of your articulated objectives compete with one another. Managing competing objectives is an essential part of the work we do.
Helping You Optimize Your Financial Situation
Our clients rely on us to help them with everything from achieving better investment returns to preparing their children to successfully manage inherited wealth. We know how to find untapped opportunities in even the most complex and highly managed financial situations and we focus on the interactions between the financial issues that affect you.
Helping Your Key Advisors Work as a Team
As a new client, you may come to us with highly competent attorneys, accountants, investment, and insurance professionals already engaged. Our mission is not to replace these other advisors, rather to help all the advisors working with you to work as a coordinated team to develop strategies aligned with your objectives.
Peace of Mind
Our ultimate goal is to create peace of mind for you by anticipating your needs, developing contingency plans to deal with uncertainty, keeping risk exposures within limits that are acceptable to you, minimizing taxes, and helping you to achieve overall financial objectives.
Code of Ethics
Our Code of Ethics describes the values and behaviors to which we expect our team members to adhere. These values define our culture:
