A: We provide our services to individuals, families, businesses, trusts, partnerships, nonprofit organizations, and retirement plans that wish to pursue long-term goals based on our strategic approach to managing wealth. At Forest, we use a sophisticated method of financial planning, investment management, tax efficiency, and personal relationship to help clients achieve their financial goals.

A: We conduct initial and ongoing deep discovery to determine our clients’ financial needs in relation to their unique values, goals, personal, professional, and institutional relationships, assets, and interests.

A: Basically, it means that we have completed rigorous testing and attend classes and seminars each and every year to keep abreast with the constant changes in personal finance and tax law.

We are both CPAs, or Certified Public Accountants. To become a CPA you must pass a rigorous 2 ½ day exam, have completed an undergraduate degree in accounting and take at least 40 hours per year of continuing education. We are also both CFP^®s, CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNERS. This designation requires another 2 day examination, 3 years of financial planning experience and 30 hours of continuing education every two years. Mark also has a Masters Degree from DePaul University with a concentration in Tax (MST) and JoAnn has a Masters Degree also from DePaul University with a concentration in Finance. We both are also Personal Financial Specialists or PFSs, which is the accounting industry’s equivalent of a CFP^®.

A: We provide fee-only investment management, with all fees paid by the client. We accept no commissions or revenue sharing arrangements. Our fees are based on a percentage of your assets that we manage. We feel that this approach best aligns our interests with yours, helping us meet our fiduciary obligation as a Registered Investment Advisor firm. Our fees are tier-based with breakpoints at which your fees decrease on additional assets. We take a family approach to investing, aggregating assets to determine your fees (while still managing each portfolio according to its distinct policies) so we can provide favorable rates for your immediate family. Please see our fee schedule and examples below.

A: Our minimum fee is $2,500 per year, charged quarterly at $625 per quarter. If your assets under management are greater than $200,000, you would use our normal fee schedule. Please see our fee schedule and examples below.

A: Our fee schedule is based on assets under management (AUM).

For example: Clients with $700,000 in AUM will be charged 1% annually, or $7,000 per year or $1750 per quarter. Clients with $1,200,000 AUM will be charged 0.9% annually, or $10,800 per year, or $2,700 per quarter. Clients with $5,500,000 AUM will be charged 0.6% annually, or $33,000 per year, or $8,250 per quarter.

A: Before making any changes, we analyze your existing portfolio and discuss our recommendations with you. Our overall goal is for your portfolio to make sense for you and your lifetime objectives, in the most cost-effective and tax efficient way possible. We achieve this by capturing your unique willingness, ability and need to take on market risk via appropriate, and often global, diversification. We minimize investing expenses, manage the appropriate asset location between taxable and tax-sheltered accounts and eliminate any unnecessary complexity within the collection of accounts in your portfolio. We leave in place existing holdings that lend themselves to these objectives and work with you to ensure that any transitions due to warranted changes occur as smoothly as possible. This process may be implemented over several years due to tax constraints.

A: While we need a Limited Power of Attorney (LPOA) to execute transactions on your behalf, you will remain in control of your assets. Accounts are held in your name at a quality custodian such as Schwab Institutional, Fidelity Investments or TD Ameritrade.

A: For managing your portfolio, we offer a prudent approach based on our fiduciary relationship with you as your trusted investment advisor. Fiduciary duty is generally considered the highest legal duty one party can have to another. As a Registered Investment Advisor firm, we have a legal responsibility to always act in your best interests -- and we take that responsibility very seriously.

Our evidence-based investment approach tailors your portfolio's level of risk (and expected returns) to your preferences, goals and circumstances. Evidence-based funds retain the benefits of indexing. They are relatively low cost, low turnover and tax efficient. We adhere to the tenets of Modern Portfolio Theory and to the guidelines provided by the American Law Institute in drafting the Uniform Prudent Investor Rule. They indicate the overwhelmingly largest determinant of portfolio performance is its asset allocation -- how your assets are exposed to various risk factors. We build portfolios accordingly, typically using low-cost institutional managers who provide evidence-based mutual funds or exchange traded funds and diversifying globally to reduce non-market risks.

Many other firms offer an approach based on “active management,” which assumes the markets are generally inefficient and allows clever individuals to regularly exploit and profit from the anomalies (beyond the costs of consistently seeking and executing such trades). However, there is overwhelming academic evidence that the collective wisdom of all market players -- especially in today’s electronic era -- results in highly efficient markets. Markets reflect fair pricing almost instantaneously upon release of any good or bad price-related news. Our evidence-based approach heeds the academic wisdom and assumes that the opportunities to exploit inefficiencies are too few and far between to effectively and affordably pursue.

A: Our philosophy is that equity investments are for growth. Fixed income investing has a vital mission: to control overall volatility in a portfolio and provide a stable financial base. It should offer steady, reliable income and contingency reserves. We address your fixed income needs as integral to your overall portfolio as well as by considering the special needs, characteristics and (often hidden) costs inherent in the bond market. If a custom bond portfolio makes sense for you, we build one based on analysis of each bond’s full range of characteristics (sector, maturity, credit rating and more). Our relationship with BAM Advisor Services, LLC, an affiliated entity of the Buckingham Family of Financial Services, gives access to strategic fixed income resources and a network of local and national bond dealers that help ensure a wide range of security availability as well as fair and competitive institutional level pricing for you.

A: DFA seeks to protect the reliability and manage the costs of its funds by requiring investors to access them via a select group of financial advisory firms. You can learn more through dfaus.com.

We are proud to be among the select firms with access to DFA funds. We often find that they provide the most attractive vehicles for building portfolios that can be designed cost-effectively and managed to target your unique objectives through all types of markets. However, we receive no commissions for using DFA funds. If we feel there is a better investment option for your particular needs, we use it.

A: One value add that comes to mind is assisting clients with college planning. We help clients calculate how much to save, researching and assisting with 529 savings plans, sorting through the complex tax credits and planning ahead to take advantage of them. We help them fill out their FAFSA forms and keep them current on changes in tax law regarding education. We do not charge to manage these accounts because in most cases we can find a state direct sold plan that can meet their needs and provide a tax deduction. This leaves more in the child’s account to be used for higher education. Very often a new client comes to FAM with an expensive broker sold 529 plan and they have no idea there are lower cost alternatives available. We help them transfer the account into their state plan to save money and receive a tax deduction. This is a huge savings for them and their family.