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High Quality Investments &

Passive Income Strategies

for the long term.

A Fiduciary and fee only Registered Investment Advisor.

All investments held with Charles Schwab, Inc.

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A Message from Sean Hathaway:

I spent 20 years working in public accounting and corporate finance. I always had a passion for personal investing and was always encouraging and helping people to invest wisely. I started this website and HathawayFinancial primarily to help friends and family. I’ve expanded modestly outside that circle.

I encourage you to use this website as a high-level guide for choosing an investment advisor. Ideally, there may be some useful information here and in my social media (blogs, videos, podcast).

If you have questions about information on this website or would like to explore working with me – which admittedly will not be for most people – feel free to reach out.

What You Must Expect

Unlike 90% of financial advisors, a Registered Investment Advisor is required to act as your fiduciary and serve your best interests. They should never receive “kick-backs” from the funds or institutions where your money is invested.

NO Commissions – NO hidden incentives.

Financial Planning

Many if not most advisors will charge extra for financial planning. Ask up front. Your advisor should provide you free access to sophisticated software that enables you to track detailed cash flows and investment analysis years into the future. Ex. I like and use Envestnet Money Guide.

Investment Management

Your advisor should help you build a diversified tax efficient strategic portfolio serving you for the long term. Your money and investments should be optimized for you. Your investments should be secure and custodied with a reputable financial firm like, Charles Schwab.

Financial Advice

Advisors should be easily accessible and willing to provide real-time advice on all sorts of topics, like the following:

Stock Plans – Options – RSU’s – ESPP – College Savings – Charitable Giving – 401k – Insurance – Estate Planning – Trusts – Small Business Retirement Plans – 10b 5-1 planning

What to Look For

Quality Investments

High quality and low cost investments. What does that mean? You want the best investments for the long term with the lowest fees. It seems obvious, but it’s not as common as you’d think. Many advisors will put you in funds that charge high fees and regularly perform poorly against industry benchmarks. Did you know index funds cost 10x less than industry average and regularly beat active managers?

Fixed Transparent Fee Structure

Make sure your interests and your advisor’s are aligned.There should be no hidden fees. No kick-backs and no commissions. Ex. some advisors will pedal you insurance products or complex annuities, and you can be certain they are being paid on the back-end. Since I started HF, I’ve been charging a flat transparent fee of 0.69% of Assets Under Management (also known as AUM).

Real-time Financial Advice

Any decent financial advisor will be a phone call, text message away or email away. Real-time answers.

Independent and Objective

Make sure your advisor is independent and objective. Seems like I keep repeating this, but there should be no commissions, no selling other products, like insurance or annuities. You should ask if they are a registered RIA and your legal fiduciary.

Latest Technologies

You should ask your advisor about the software and technologies they deploy; after all it is your money and personal data at risk. Ideally they are cloud-based, not paper-centric and give you access to real-time to your investments and financial planning software.

Sean writing and talking about

Finance