Fiduciary Financial Advisor in Plantation, FL

You have never hired a financial advisor.

For years, there was no reason to. You worked, saved through the 401(k) and made the financial decisions that came up.

When offers of help did arrive, they often came with something attached. An account to open. An investment to buy. A policy to consider.

Now there is more money involved, and the decisions are harder to undo.

Before you hand someone your plan and your investments, you want to know what the relationship actually is.

Whose side is this person on? How does this person get paid? What are you paying for? And if a recommendation would also make the advisor more money, will you know that before you make the decision?

Those are reasonable questions to ask before you hire anyone. Our guide to whether a fiduciary financial advisor is worth it explains what a fiduciary is and what the relationship costs.

Start by Knowing What You Are Hiring Someone to Do

A financial advisor can do very different jobs.

You may need someone to tell you whether the retirement date you have in mind works. You may need help deciding how much to save, what to do with an old account or how your investments should fit together.

You may also want someone to manage the portfolio after those decisions are made.

We separate those questions.

The first job is to build the plan. What are you trying to accomplish? What decisions have to be made now? What can wait? Which accounts already fit the plan, and where is something missing?

Our retirement planning work puts those decisions in order. Our Social Security guide covers one of the choices that often becomes part of that plan.

You can use the plan yourself. You do not have to hire us to manage the investments.

You Should Know Whose Side the Advisor Is On

Holland Capital acts as a fiduciary when providing financial planning and investment advice.

Some financial decisions also affect what an advisor earns.

Suppose you have money in an old workplace account. One answer may be to leave it there. Another may be to move it somewhere else. If moving the money would put it under our management and increase what you pay us, you should know that before you decide.

The same principle applies throughout the relationship.

You should be able to ask why we are recommending something, what it costs you and whether the recommendation changes what we earn.

You should also be free to say no.

Hiring an Advisor Does Not Mean Handing Over the Decisions

You still decide when you want to retire.

You still decide what your family cares about most, how much you want to spend and which goals come first.

Our job is to show you how those choices fit together and what each one does to the rest of the plan.

That means the work should be visible.

You should be able to see the assumptions behind the plan. You should know why we are recommending a change. You should know what we think can stay exactly as it is.

Hiring an advisor should not leave you with another financial statement you do not understand. It should give you someone responsible for making the pieces fit together and explaining the decisions clearly enough that you can make them.

The Investments Come After the Plan

If you want us to manage the investments, we first write down what the portfolio is supposed to do.

That becomes the investment policy statement.

It tells us what the money needs to fund, how much risk fits the plan and what role each account has in the household.

Your 401(k) may stay at work. An old IRA may stay where it is. Something you already own may fit perfectly well.

If changes are needed, we make them because the plan calls for them.

Our asset location guide explains how we think about what belongs in different types of accounts. Our investment management work puts the investment policy into practice for the accounts we manage.

Working with Holland Capital

Holland Capital Management is an independent registered investment adviser and a fiduciary. M. Chad Holland, CFA, CFP® works directly with clients and is responsible for the planning and advice.

The first meeting is a conversation, not a sales presentation. Bring what you have: recent statements, Social Security estimates for both of you and last year’s tax return. We will ask about your work, your family and what you want the next twenty years to look like.

We will tell you what looks fine, what deserves more work and what we would address first. By the end, you will know whether we think there is planning work to do and what it would cover.

The first conversation is free. If there is work worth doing after that, we will define the scope and cost before you decide whether to move forward.

Our offices are in Charlotte, North Carolina and Winter Park, Florida. We work with clients in Plantation primarily by video or phone. When an in-person meeting makes sense, we meet by appointment at the Regus center at 950 South Pine Island Road.

For clients whose investments we manage, accounts are held directly at Charles Schwab in the client’s own name. Holland Capital manages the investments but does not take custody of client assets. If a client ever needs in-person assistance from Schwab, the closest branch is in Plantation at 1179 South University Drive.

We work with clients throughout Florida. You can see the other Florida communities we serve here.

Our what we do page explains how a planning engagement works.

Frequently Asked Questions

Photo: Ebyabe / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.