Riverstone Wealth Planners | Chester, New Jersey | Serving Morris County and the NJ/NY Metro Area

 

 

These are the questions we hear most often from individuals and families considering working with us. If you don't see your question answered here, we'd welcome a conversation.

 

About Riverstone Wealth Planners

  • Are you a fiduciary?

    Yes. As a CFP® professional, I am held to a fiduciary standard at all times when I give you financial advice, which means I am obligated to act in your best interest, period. For the products where I earn a commission, such as structured notes and certain annuities, I tell you plainly and show you how I am paid. The duty to act in your interest does not change.

  • Are you independent, and what does LPL Financial have to do with it?

    Yes, I run my own independent practice, not as an employee of a large firm steering me toward its own products. LPL Financial is the independent broker-dealer and custodian that holds client accounts and handles the trading and back-end compliance, which is standard in my world. The advice and the relationship are mine. The plumbing runs through LPL.

  • Are you taking new clients?

    Yes, a small number each year. I keep the practice deliberately small so everyone gets real attention, which means I take on new families selectively and only when the fit is right. The first conversation is where we find out.

  • Can you coordinate with my CPA and attorney?

    Yes, and I prefer to. The best outcomes happen when your advisor, accountant, and attorney actually talk to each other. I handle that coordination so you are not the one relaying messages between professionals.

  • Do I need a certain amount of money to work with you?

    I keep the practice small and selective, so it is more about fit than a hard dollar cutoff. The work I do tends to make the most sense for people facing real complexity, a sizable inheritance, a concentrated stock position, or the sale of a business. If you are not sure whether you are a match, the first conversation will tell us both.

Working With Us

  • Are you a fiduciary?

    Yes. As a CFP® professional, I am held to a fiduciary standard at all times when I give you financial advice, which means I am obligated to act in your best interest, period. For the products where I earn a commission, such as structured notes and certain annuities, I tell you plainly and show you how I am paid. The duty to act in your interest does not change.

  • How do you charge?

    Most of what I do is fee-based, meaning I am paid a percentage of the assets I manage for you rather than commissions on what I sell. For certain investments, such as structured notes and some annuities, I earn a commission, which I disclose clearly before you decide on anything. You will always know what you are paying and why, up front.

  • What does your financial planning cover?

    All of it: turning what you have into reliable income, taxes, investments, estate and legacy questions, and the specific decisions tied to your situation. I build the plan around your actual life and explain every piece in plain language.

  • Can you coordinate with my CPA and attorney?

    Yes, and I prefer to. The best outcomes happen when your advisor, accountant, and attorney actually talk to each other. I handle that coordination so you are not the one relaying messages between professionals.

  • What is your investment approach?

    I build portfolios around your goals and your tolerance for risk, not a single model. Where it fits, I use tools like structured notes and other alternatives that can shape risk and return in ways a basic stock-and-bond mix cannot. These are not right for everyone, and I use them only when they serve your plan. I walk you through how anything works before you own it.

Financial Planning

  • Do you do tax planning?

    Yes, and it runs through everything. I am not your accountant and I do not file returns, but I plan with taxes front of mind, when to realize income, how to handle a windfall, how to manage equity compensation, so you are not handing back more than you owe.

  • What do CFP®, CIMA®, and CPWA® mean?

    They are three of the more demanding credentials in my field, and most people have never heard of them, so here is what each one means for you.

    CFP®, Certified Financial Planner, is the broad one. I am trained to plan across your whole financial life, retirement, taxes, estate, investments, and how they fit together, and I am held to a fiduciary standard when I advise you.

    CIMA®, Certified Investment Management Analyst, is the investment one. It means advanced training in how portfolios are actually built and vetted, the same rigor used at the large firms.

    PWA®, Certified Private Wealth Advisor, is the complexity one. It means specialized training for the complicated situations that come with significant wealth, things like equity compensation, business sales, and layered tax and estate questions.

    Plenty of good advisors hold one. Holding all three is less common, and it is why I can handle the harder situations under one roof.

  • How are you different from a big firm, a bank, or a robo-advisor?

    A robo-advisor gives you an automated portfolio and little else. A bank or a large national brokerage firm often means a rotating team and getting passed between departments. I am one person who knows your whole situation, takes on a deliberately small number of families, and stays with you through the decisions that actually matter. I also spent years inside the large firms, so I know what they do well and where they leave people on their own.

  • Are you independent, and what does LPL Financial have to do with it?

    Yes, I run my own independent practice, not as an employee of a large firm steering me toward its own products. LPL Financial is the independent broker-dealer and custodian that holds client accounts and handles the trading and back-end compliance, which is standard in my world. The advice and the relationship are mine. The plumbing runs through LPL.

Investment Management

  • Are you taking new clients?

    Yes, a small number each year. I keep the practice deliberately small so everyone gets real attention, which means I take on new families selectively and only when the fit is right. The first conversation is where we find out.

  • How often will we talk?

    As often as your situation calls for, and never on a script. We review things on a regular schedule, and more when something changes: a job move, a sale, a loss in the family, a shift in the markets. You will not hear from me only when there is something to sell. This is an ongoing relationship, which is the whole reason I keep the practice small.

  • Do you specialize in working with women navigating a transition?

    Yes. A large part of my practice is women suddenly handling money decisions on their own, after an inheritance, a divorce, or the loss of a spouse, often for the first time. I move at a pace that lets you understand and own the decisions rather than feel rushed through them.

  • What is the widow's penalty, and can you help with it?

    After a spouse dies, the survivor often shifts from filing jointly to filing single the next year, which can mean a higher tax rate on the same income and higher Medicare costs. It blindsides people at an already hard time. Planning ahead can soften it, and it is exactly the kind of thing I watch for.

Tax Planning

  • Do you work with executives who have complex equity compensation?

    Yes, it is one of my core areas. If a large part of your net worth is tied up in company stock, options, restricted units, or deferred compensation, I help you manage the concentration, the tax timing, and the rules about when you can sell. My clients span tech, consumer, and pharmaceutical companies. The industry varies, the equity problem does not.

  • Too much of my wealth is in one company's stock. What can I do?

    One of the most common situations I handle. We reduce that concentration on a schedule that manages the tax hit instead of getting ambushed by it, and for people under trading restrictions, that often means a structured selling plan set up in advance. The goal is to protect what you built without a surprise tax bill.

  • Do you help business owners preparing to sell?

    Yes. I have hands-on experience in the exit process, working alongside investment bankers and attorneys through valuation, deal structure, and the tax and estate work that has to happen before a sale rather than after. I take on a small number of owners deliberately, and the most valuable time to start is years before any deal, while the decisions that shape the outcome are still open.