Frequently Asked Question (FAQ):

What Is Your Minimum Investment?

My answer is always: "it depends".

Basically, it is not about the amount of your investable assets, we won't draw that line.

It is more about the fit: If you are a young investor and a good saver (that will all come out in the Wealth Forecast) and have a long-term, wealth building goal and understand that wealth is not created instantaneously (i.e. via gambling), but is a gradual building process, you will be a good fit.

We have a host of multi-generational families in our (High Rock) care (including our own children and grandchildren) and a broad cross-section of clients that give us the experience of preparing investing strategies for lots of folks from many walks of life.

We try to limit ETF MER costs to our clients by using actual securities in our Fixed Income and Tactical models, but will use ETF's in our Global Equity model, but always with an eye to keeping MER costs to a minimum.

At the moment, MER costs for the majority of our clients are approximately 0.03% to 0.06% (of the total portfolio, depending on how fully invested you are) in a balanced 60% equity / 40% fixed income style of portfolio.

If you are in a fully invested 60/40 ETF portfolio, by comparison, you are probably paying an additional 0.30% to 0.50% (or more) on top of whatever your advisor is charging you. Have you investigated what your ETF MER costs are? It is important (especially in the low return environment we have been in for the last few years), you definitely should research this. If your advisor isn't forthcoming (they should be able to provide exact details, not just approximate data) that is a definite warning flag.

In our smaller client portfolios, where we can't get securities (usually bonds) in smaller denominations, we will have to use bond ETF's and that will add to the portfolio's MER cost, but we will always be completely transparent about the MER costs and do our best to keep them as low as possible.

So smaller portfolios may have some additional MER costs, but our level of service and commitment to you should more than compensate.

If we are the right fit.

The "fit" works both ways: we need to be the right fit for you and you need to be the right fit for us.

But unlike many investment advisory practices at banks and large financial institutions, you don't get shuffled to a lower tier of service and investment options if you are a smaller client.

Our discretionary management (you still have separately managed accounts, SMA, held at our custodian, RJCS, as opposed to a pooled fund) allows us to buy and sell securities simultaneously for every client: there is no discrimination or priority as to size when it comes to trading.

So our big clients are happy and our smaller clients are happy.

Everybody has a plan tailored to their specific goals and a matching portfolio strategy.

There is a new low-cost, fiduciarily responsible alternative to the old school, expensive, big bank or investment dealer style of growing your money with the service and care (risk management) that you will not get at a robo-advisor and High Rock (recognized by the Small Investors Protection Association, SIPA, as a "new breed") is leading the way forward.