The business plan outlines an investment advisory firm focused on providing clients with low-cost, tax-efficient portfolios through a fee-only structure. The firm aims to differentiate itself by intensely focusing on fund fees and expenses, being fully transparent about costs and performance, and providing a high level of service to all clients regardless of account size. Key aspects of the plan include offering holistic financial planning, maintaining a strong fiduciary duty to clients, and marketing primarily through local advertising and networking within the community.

1. Business Plan
02/26/2014
Firm Philosophy:
Provide clients with unbiased advice, seeking to find the best investment options, with an eye
firmly fixed on cost. Suitability, simplicity, risk-reduction, tax-efficiency, and expense-
minimization are all priorities of the firm. Ensuring that clients are educated about costs is
essential in our role as true fiduciaries. Simple, low-cost, tax-efficient, well-diversified portfolios
that generate benchmark-beating risk-adjusted returns are what we aim to create for clients.
Value Proposition:
Save clients money both with our fee-only fee structure and our laser-like focus on fund fees and
expenses, aligning our interests with those of our clients and ensuring that one of the few areas of
return that we can control is wealth accretive, rather than wealth-destructive. Provide clients of
all account sizes and income levels with the kind of face time you’d expect from a full-service
wealth management firm. Provide truly holistic financial planning with a strong emphasis on our
role as fiduciaries – we will be very vigilant about any potential conflicts of interest, while
making transparency in all aspects of client relations priority #1.
Differentiation:
 Intense focus on shareholder costs (E.R.’s, fees, etc.)
 High level of transparency related both to advisor compensation and performance
 100% independent (no proprietary products)
 No sales quotas and no favored products
 Service level equal across the board regardless of account size – premium service for all
clients
 In-house research conducted b y advisers
 Fee-only fee structure avoids conflicts of interest and saves clients money
 Focus on tax-efficiency
 True commitment to client education (create booklet with basics every investor needs to
know AND questions to ask your adviser.)
 Expert advice on socially responsible investing
 Focus on charitable giving
Services to be Offered
 Investment management
 Insurance planning/advice
 Hourly consulting
 Portfolio reviews
 Tax-planning

2.  Estate planning
 401(k) plan management and consulting (corporate)
 Retirement planning and consultation (personal)
 Institutional portfolio management (local non-profits, etc.)
Compensation/Fee-Structure
 Fee-only (no commission); account fee break-points below:
0.5—1.0% AUM fee:
$5,000—$500,000: 1%
$500,001—$1,000,000: 0.75%
$1,000,001 < $: 0.5%
 $150/hr. non-client portfolio reviews
 $150/hr. general investment consultation
 $200/hr. special projects
MarketNiche(s):
 Retirees
 Middle-income investors left unattended to by wealth management firms (strive to provide
“true wealth management-level service to the middle-income investor.)
 UVA employees
 Young investors just starting to save
 Teachers/professors
Marketing/Advertising:
 Radio; interviews, ads on NPR (look in rolodex for contact)
 Newspaper: Monday business section of D.P.; ads in D.P., the Hook, C’ville Weekly,
Pennysaver, etc.
 Online ads: banner ads on various websites (D.P.?); Facebook targeted ads, Google, The
Sabre, other local/regional sites
 UVA bus ads
 Billboards
 Logo: outline of the state of VA, within which “Stackpole and Black CommonWealth
Management” appear. All letters are green, except for “Wealth” in CommonWealth, which
will be in shiny gold letters, plus the acronym SBCM will be bolded in black.

3. Advertising Pitch Ideas:
 Despite what you may have heard, $1 million is NOT the magic number most people will
need to retire. While most financial planners would have you believe that you’ll need to
reproduce 80% of your current income to retire comfortably, we’ll show you how that’s a bit
misleading. You don’t need to create more stress and pressure in your life, you need to find
ways to alleviate it. Let us help—with a cost-conscious, simplified, set-it-and-forget-it type
of investment plan, our team of savvy advisers will walk you through every step of the
process; listening to your concerns while tailoring that plan to your unique needs. With the
right plan and the right adviser, the ups and downs of the market will seem like a silly game.
Slow and steady wins the race, and it’s no different with building wealth. Shed the worry and
pick up the phone—peace of mind is just a call away.
 Mention adviser cost and our value proposition in that regard
 While targeting middle-income investors is a priority, we need to figure out a way to do so
without alienating high-income investors – focusing on cost can address this
Networking:
 Identify certain potential “pipelines,” i.e. high volume referral partners (CPA’s in particular).
 CPA’s, attorneys, doctors (?), analysts, non-profit administrators
 CFA Institute functions, Morningstar conferences, BNI, Chamber of Commerce, CCFA,
CNE, churches, gyms
Products/Publications:
 Weekly blog (market news with interpretation and analysis, cost focus)
 Proprietary cost tools (adviser cost and risk, turnover cost, etc.) – possible apps
 Deconstructed Index Fund™ (patent pending)
 Motley Fool article syndication with profile plug (may link firm’s blog).
 Periodic whitepaper publication on blog—submit to larger publishers (Forbes, Morningstar,
etc.) for more potential traffic, readership, and national exposure, while building the firm’s
reputation in the process
 Reasonable Retirement Calculator—calculates what you’d need to save for a comfortable
retirement, factoring in average social security income for someone of similar age, income
level, and work history, and deducting work-related expenses, as well as any applicable
personal loans, etc. (mortgage, car), to arrive at a more “reasonable” estimate for needed
savings at retirement.
 Dave’s book (plug/mention of firm inside jacket and/or back of book)
Other Areas of Focus:
 Charitable giving accounts
 Socially responsible investing
 Tax-loss harvesting strategies

4.  Trust administration
 GIPS-compliant investment performance record-keeping (especially as it relates to adviser
performance).
Office Particulars:
 “Public” investment library (maintain catalog—input client check-outs in CRM software—
add late-fees to client accounts).
 Keurig machine with variety of coffees/teas; nice mugs (with firm logo)
 Various snacks for clients
 Appealing artwork
Performance Measurement:
 Client retention statistics
 Prospecting method efficacy analysis
 Advertising revenue generation
 “10-K” annual review with revenue break-down
 Networking and lead-generation analysis
Budgeting:
 Office (including technology)
 Advertising
 Personnel
 Travel
 Compliance
 Insurance
ProfessionalDevelopmentand Mastery:
 Continuing education/series 7, 66, etc.
 Mentorship opportunities (Preston Wines, etc.) to gain ideas on best practices
 CFA/CFP/CPA > aspirational designations and areas of expertise (either hire an in-house
CPA and/or CFP, or one/both of us attain those designations ourselves).
 Investment/financial planning conferences
 Lynda.com courses for technical skill-building
 Coursera.com finance courses (compare notes of what we’ve learned- specific topics related
to our business if possible).
 Investment club administration (?)
 Pursuit of Masters in finance
 At-home education through reading
 Continued freelance journalism