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| Ivy League Financial Advisors, LLC |
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Mission statement:
Achieving Life Goals
At Ivy League Financial Advisors, our mission is to help our clients achieve their life goals through the proper management of their financial resources.
We understand that making financial decisions is extremely complicated. We also understand that our clients will have to make difficult decisions during their lives. Our role is to help our clients understand their choices and the tradeoffs among various strategies. Over time, we help clients implement the strategies they have selected to reach their stated goals.
These five Core Values are crucial to delivering on our promise to our clients:
Competency. We maintain the highest standards of proficiency in wealth management. Our staff professionals have a breadth of education and training, including certifications as a Certified Financial Planner™ and Accredited Investment Fiduciary®. In addition, we stay on top of new developments in personal finance by attending numerous conferences and workshops each year.
Comprehensiveness. We believe that only comprehensive financial planning will truly enable our clients to define and reach their goals. Our holistic approach looks at the entire picture. And we look at the big picture for the long term, as we anticipate how our clients’ lives will evolve over years and decades.
Fee-Only Compensation. We deliver services on a Fee-Only basis. This is the only way to ensure that financial advice is given with complete objectivity. We have no hidden agenda.
Client-Centered. Our fiduciary relationship ensures that our clients’ interests are always first. We live by the Fiduciary Oath of the National Association of Personal Financial Advisors, which is unique in the financial services industry.
Complete Disclosure. Prior to an engagement, all of our fees and potential conflicts of interest are disclosed.
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Overview:
Since 1999, Ivy League Financial Advisors has been recognized as one of the top wealth managers in Maryland, Washington D.C., and Virginia by Financial Advisor Magazine and Wealth Manager Magazine. We developed our reputation by delivering superior service and independent thinking that is built on a client-first commitment.
Ivy League Financial Advisors: A Higher Standard of Financial Advice ©
Three factors set us apart from other independent wealth managers. These factors helped us to be named a top wealth manager in the Washington D.C. metro area.
The Fiduciary Standard. As a fiduciary for our clients, we are required to act with undivided loyalty them at all times. We live by a commitment to transparency in our compensation. We charge no hidden fees, and we receive no commissions, discounts, or kickbacks from providers of financial products. Also, we disclose all potential conflicts of interest prior to our engagement as an advisor, and prior to any financial decision. Few other “financial advisors” can make these promises.
NAPFA Membership. Ivy League Financial Advisors is a proud member of the National Association of Personal Financial Advisors (NAPFA), the premier organization for financial advisors. In the early 1980s, NAPFA pioneered the concept of Fee-Only financial planning, and it holds its members to the highest standards of education, experience, and conduct in the industry. Learn what it means to be a NAPFA Advisor.
Our Service Model. Unlike big-name broker/dealer firms, we don’t treat clients like just another account number. Each client receives individual attention that is focused on their unique financial situation and planning goals. We build long-term relationships with clients that grow stronger as their lives evolve, their goals are achieved, and new goals emerge.
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History:
The genesis of Ivy League Financial Advisors started back in 1993. As a new graduate from the Amos Tuck School of Business Administration, Christopher Brown, Ivy League’s founder, had just gotten married and decided that it would be wise to buy life insurance. As Mr. Brown met with the insurance representative, he got a distinct impression that the agent wasn’t listening to his needs and was only trying to sell him a product to generate a commission.
Mr. Brown then set out on a mission—to become more educated about personal finance. Business school had taught him much about corporate finance, but very little about personal finance. Mr. Brown’s curiosity led him from reading personal finance publications to enrolling in the College for Financial Planning’s Certified Financial Planning CFP® program in 1995. While working full-time as a management consultant in the New York Metropolitan area, Chris finished the CFP® coursework and passed the comprehensive exam in 1997 obtaining his CFP® license. In 1997, Chris attended his first NAPFA Conference and decided that he wanted to set up the business to be “Fee-Only” from the beginning. Since its inception, Ivy League Financial Advisors has never taken $1 in commissions from sales or referral fees.
Chris and his wife Denise wanted to start a family but didn’t want to “put down roots” in the New York Metropolitan area. So in 1999, they relocated closer to Chris’s parents (in Richmond, VA) and Denise’s sister (in Bethesda, MD), and Chris set up Ivy League Financial Advisors LLC (formerly known as CommonWealth Advisory Group LLC) from his home in Gaithersburg, MD.
He ran the business as a solo practitioner until 2006, slowly building up the firm’s client base. In 2006, he hired Lisa Crivella to be Director of Operations from the Virginia Tech Financial Planning program and moved the “headquarters” of Ivy League Financial Advisors from his home office to our current location at 11. North Washington Street, Suite 250, in the Rockville, MD Town Center. Kristin Bostic Bushong was added as Director of Marketing and Public Relations in 2012.
The client base has been built slowly, with careful attention being paid to the unique needs of each and every client.
Today, over 14 years later, Ivy League serves over 100 clients and families and manages over $125 million for its wonderful clients. |
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