Five Star award winner Matthew W. Fortney, MBA, CFP®

You and Your Investment Representative: A Relationship of Trust

Perhaps your doctor, lawyer, and accountant are trusted advisors. Through years of working with them, they have come to know your family and your particular needs. How about your investment representative? Have you built the same kind of trusting relationship with him or her? Your investment representative could be a resource to tap for financial planning information through the many stages of your life.

Investing for Long-Term Goals: Your investment representative can help you create a portfolio with an asset allocation strategy that suits your family's needs and goals while maximizing your potential returns. He or she can also assist you with regular portfolio reviews. When rebalancing your portfolio becomes necessary, your investment representative may help you consider any moves to make in the most tax-efficient manner.

Short-Term Savings: Are you among the many Americans who have neglected to create a cash cushion? Having between three and six months cash available can help you pay for unexpected expenses and potentially safeguard your long-term investment goals. Without short-term savings, you may find yourself having to sell investments to meet your obligations. If you have no such fund, your investment representative can help you find the money to build the cash account.

Retirement: With more and more Americans living longer, healthier lives, it's quite possible that today's retiree could spend upwards of 20 or even 30 years in retirement. That raises an important question: Are you setting aside enough savings to help support a lengthy retirement? Your investment representative can help you determine how much money you'll need to retire and then work with you to build the portfolio that can help you fund the kind of retirement you have in mind.

College: In recent years, the cost of a college education has outpaced the rate of inflation. Your investment representative can help you come up with creative potential funding solutions for your children's education.

Estate Planning: Contrary to conventional thinking, estate planning is not just for the wealthy. With some planning, you can potentially minimize gift and estate taxes and keep more of your assets for those you care about. You have many options for estate planning, and many experts recommend using a qualified professional to develop an appropriate plan.

An investment representative can help whether you have a specific need or are looking for some general information. As a trusted advisor, your investment representative may help you find solutions to the financial decisions you face.

Back to Home Page

This award was issued on 11/1/20 by Five Star Professional (FSP) for the time period 2/17/20 through 9/18/20. Fee paid for use of marketing materials. Self-completed questionnaire was used for rating. This rating is not related to the quality of the investment advice and based solely on the disclosed criteria. 3048 Connecticut-area wealth managers were considered for the award; 285 (9% of candidates) were named 2020 Five Star Wealth Managers. The following prior year statistics use this format: YEAR: # Considered, # Winners, % of candidates, Issued Date, Research Period. 2019: 3147, 289, 9%, 11/1/19, 2/18/19 - 9/27/19; 2018: 3178, 293, 9%, 11/1/18, 2/15/18 - 9/21/18; 2017: 2218, 283, 13%, 11/1/17, 2/15/17 - 9/11/17; 2016: 1985, 417, 21%, 10/1/16, 3/25/16 - 9/28/16; 2015: 2398, 468, 20%, 11/1/15, 3/16/15 - 9/10/15; 2014: 3926, 515, 13%, 11/1/14, 3/16/13 - 9/10/13; 2013: 2263, 531, 23%, 11/1/13, 3/16/12 - 9/10/12; 2012: 2204, 503, 23%, 11/1/12, 3/16/11 - 9/10/11.

Click to access BrokerCheck

Because of the possibility of human or mechanical error by DST Systems, Inc. or its sources, neither DST Systems, Inc. nor its sources guarantees the accuracy, adequacy, completeness or availability of any information and is not responsible for any errors or omissions or for the results obtained from the use of such information. In no event shall DST Systems, Inc. be liable for any indirect, special or consequential damages in connection with subscriber's or others' use of the content.© 2017 DST Systems, Inc. Reproduction in whole or in part prohibited, except by permission. All rights reserved. Not responsible for any errors or omissions.
#1-655862

Wealth managers do not pay a fee to be considered or placed on the final list of Five Star Wealth Managers. The award is based on 10 objective criteria. Eligibility criteria-required: 1. Credentialed as a registered investment adviser (RIA) or a registered investment adviser representative; 2. Actively licensed as a RIA or as a principal of a registered investment adviser firm for a minimum of 5 years; 3. Favorable regulatory and complaint history review (As defined by FSP, the wealth manager has not; A. Been subject to a regulatory action that resulted in a license being suspended or revoked, or payment of a fine; B. Had more than a total of three settled or pending complaints filed against them and/or a total of five settled, pending, dismissed or denied complaints with any regulatory authority or FSP's consumer complaint process. Unfavorable feedback may have been discovered through a check of complaints registered with a regulatory authority or complaints registered through FSP's consumer complaint process; feedback may not be representative of any one client's experience; C. Individually contributed to a financial settlement of a customer complaint; D. Filed for personal bankruptcy within the past 11 years; E. Been terminated from a financial services firm within the past 11 years; F. Been convicted of a felony); 4. Fulfilled their firm review based on internal standards; 5. Accepting new clients. Evaluation criteria-considered: 6. One-year client retention rate; 7. Five-year client retention rate; 8. Non-institutional discretionary and/or non-discretionary client assets administered; 9. Number of client households served; 10. Education and professional designations. FSP does not evaluate quality of services provided to clients. The award is not indicative of the wealth manager's future performance . Wealth Managers may or may not use discretion in their practice and therefore may not manage their clients' assets. The inclusion of a wealth manager on the Five Star Wealth Manager list should not be construed as an endorsement of the wealth manager by FSP or this publication. Working with a Five Star Wealth Manager or any wealth manager is no guarantee as to future investment success, nor is there any guarantee that the selected wealth managers will be awarded this accomplishment by FSP in the future. Visit www.fivestarprofessional.com.