Review of Rockwood Wealth Management (New Hope, PA)

Rockwood Wealth Management – Overview

Rockwood Wealth Management is an independent, fee-only financial planning and investment management firm located in New Hope, PA.

The firm provides personal financial planning and investment management services to individuals, families, and their related entities such as trusts and estates, endowments, and family businesses.

RWM works with clients to define financial objectives and develop strategies for reaching those objectives, some of which include cash flow management, tax planning, risk exposure review, investment management, education funding, retirement planning, estate planning, charitable giving, family business succession issues, and employee benefit issues.

Investment management services include an ongoing review and re-balancing of portfolios based on market conditions and clients’ individual financial circumstances.

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What We Like About Rockwood Wealth Management

1. Rockwood Wealth Management is fee-only:

Its financial advisors offer no proprietary products, accept no commissions, and only recommend no-load financial instruments.

Image Source: Rockwood Wealth Management Review

The firm values its freedom from conflicts of interest and compromises that characterize many Wall Street firms.

It puts its clients first and has an unwavering legal and ethical commitment to ensure that every recommendation it makes is in its clients’ best interests.

2. Strong investment approach:

Rockwood Wealth Management bases its investment approach on the following five tenets:

Utilize diversification effectively to reduce risk
Less volatility results in greater compound return
Employ asset class investing
Use global diversification to reduce risk even further
Design portfolios that are “efficient”

The term efficient, as applied to portfolios, is a concept of modern portfolio theory based on the Nobel Prize-winning work of Harry Markowitz, Merton Miller, and William Sharpe.

3. Rockwood wears its values on its sleeve: The firm has devoted an entire page on its website to its values, the first of which is its “ability to listen and communicate clearly, openly and honestly” with its clients.

4. Account Protection: Rockwood does not act as a custodian of client assets. The firm uses independent custodians such as Fidelity Investments and Charles Schwab Institutional.

5. Rockwood informs and forewarns: The firm’s Knowledge Base section on its website holds white papers and other published works on topics such as variable annuities, hedge funds, and a fascinating piece, entitled “Nobel and Vegas – Perspective on Risk and Return,” that discusses the academic basis of Rockwood’s investment philosophy.

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Rockwood Wealth Management AUMs

Discretionary Accounts: $290,781,626
Non-Discretionary Accounts: $16,212,580
Total Accounts: $306,994,206

A discretionary account allows the investment manager to make investment decisions on a client’s behalf.

A non-discretionary account requires the client’s authorization before any investment action is taken.

Rockwood Wealth Management Fee Schedule

First $1,000,000	1.25%
Next $1,500,000	1.00%
Next $2,500,000	0.80%
Next $5,000,000	0.60%
Above $10,000,000	0.50%

The wealth management fees shown above include financial planning and investment management.

Rockwood Wealth Management Review – Team Members

1. Brian Booth is a senior partner at Rockwood Wealth Management. Brian has over twenty-five years of experience in private wealth management. His focus is on helping people make smart decisions about money. He has significant expertise in the areas of asset management, financial planning, retirement and estate planning, trust and fiduciary matters, and banking.

Previously, Brian was the managing member of the Booth Advisory Group, a comprehensive wealth management firm based in Newtown, PA. At Booth, he worked with privately-owned trust companies as well as with some of the largest private banks operating in New York, Boston, and Philadelphia.

Image Source: Wealth Management Firm – Rockwood

Brian has a B.A. from Rutgers University and did his graduate work at both Fordham University in Manhattan and Boston University School of Management before receiving his Masters of International Business from Edinburgh Business School, UK. He has been a Certified Financial Planner since 1994 and became a Certified Trust & Financial Advisor (CTFA) in 1996.

Brian is the president emeritus of the Princeton Committee on Foreign Relations and a member of both the Foreign Policy Research Institute and the Union League of Philadelphia. He is also the past chair of the American Cancer Society’s Newtown Relay for Life.

2. John Augenblick, CFP, MBA is the president of Rockwood Wealth Management. John specializes in estate and generational planning issues, high-net-worth client needs, planning issues for business owners, planning issues for unmarried and same-sex couples, retirement planning and distribution rules, and tax planning. John graduated from the United States Naval Academy with distinction, earning a degree in systems engineering. While teaching engineering at the United States Naval Academy, John earned his MBA at Johns Hopkins University where he focused his studies on portfolio development, investment analysis, and corporate management. John is a Certified Financial Planner. Before he joined Rockwood, John was a fee-only financial advisor at Toal & Associates, LLC.

John previously served his country as a naval officer in the submarine warfare community. As a certified nuclear engineer, John supervised the operation of naval nuclear reactors and was responsible for nuclear weapons targeting and training. He writes a finance column for the Bucks County Herald independent newspaper and serves as a trustee for the Mercer Museum and the New Hope Historical Society.

3. Thaddeus (Ted) Toal, Jr., CFP is a senior partner and chief compliance officer at Rockwood. He began his career with a well-known Wall Street firm and eventually formed his own firm, Toal & Associates, LLC. Ted graduated from Towson University with a Bachelor of Science degree and received his Certificate in Financial Planning from Florida State University’s Center for Professional Development.

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4. Mark Kelly is a partner at Rockwood Wealth Management. He has over 18 years of experience. His specialty is in working with high-net-worth clients in all aspects of wealth management, including advanced financial planning, asset management, risk management, tax issues, and estate planning. Mark joined Rockwood after spending time at Hirtle, Callaghan & Co. as a portfolio manager, Convergent Wealth Advisors as a director, Pitcairn Trust Company as a personal financial manager, and Coopers & Lybrand as a senior associate. Mark is a co-founder of Copper Beech Advisors. He holds a B.S. in accounting from Pennsylvania State University and a M.Sc. in taxation from Widener University. He is a Certified Public Accountant and also holds the Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst (CAIA) designation.

5. William Aquila, CFP is a Certified Financial Planner at Rockwood Wealth Management. Bill holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Virginia and received his Certificate of Financial Planning from Florida State University.

6. Megan Lottier, CPA is a Client Services and Operations specialist with Rockwood Wealth Management. She contributes a wealth of experience on tax issues to Rockwood. Megan worked as a tax specialist at the Susquehanna International Group, LLP and as a tax manager at KPMG, LLP. Megan graduated magna cum laude from LaSalle University with a B.S. in accounting and a Master of Taxation degree from Villanova University. Megan is a Certified Public Accountant, licensed in the state of Pennsylvania

For other team members, click here.

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Rockwood Wealth Management Review – Services

Rockwood’s services involve financial planning and portfolio management.

Under these two main services, a variety of sub-services are offered which include estate planning, charitable giving, family business succession issues, tax planning, education funding, retirement planning, cash flow management, and portfolio rebalancing.

Rockwood Wealth Management Address Information

New Hope: 6236 Lower York Road, New Hope, PA 18938; Tel: (267) 983-6400

Annapolis: 130 Admiral Cochrane Drive, Suite 200, Annapolis, MD 21401; Tel: (410) 224-0097

To contact Rockwood Wealth Management:

Contact Page: http://www.rockwoodwealth.com/contact.php

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