Choosing an advisory firm that meets the clients' aspirations may not be met by a firm that utilizes rigid and tax inefficient investment vehicles or products.

Having only one type of investment vehicle to manage your portfolio also limits the opportunities that an investment manager can consider in managing your portfolio.

We believe that all appropriate investment vehicles should be made available for an investment manager in gathering opportunity for our clients.

We also believe that you are an individual and as such desire an individual approach to the management of your assets

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If you invest through a Portfolio Advisory Service, Wrap Program, or Proprietary Mutual fund program you owe it to yourself to stop and think about how your assets are working for you. As a client you are asking the advisory firm that you work with to provide you feedback on investment issues and deliver a return in line with your expectations. Ask yourself these questions:

How am I doing?

Charles Carroll Financial Partners takes time to understand your goals and aspirations and measures the investment results of your accounts in relation to your achieving those goals. We then deliver your investment results in conjunction with a living financial plan to determine your progress toward those dreams. Does your firm?

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Is my return in line with the market?

At Charles Carroll we inform you every quarter of our return to those of many of the market indices, in order for you to ascertain our value add. Does your firm provide this or do they compare themselves to a jumbled derivative of various indices.

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Am I getting added value for the fee that I am paying?

At Charles Carroll we are an independent money manager. Our choice of securities for you is not dependent on proprietary mutual funds or pre-conceived notions of targeted asset mixes. Unlike most portfolio advisory service, or wrap fee products, we build the portfolio for your needs not our firm's needs. We believe that you are an individual and should be treated in that manner. We do not belive that you should be treated as a type of client and grouped into a collective basket of clients. What does your firm do?

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What types of securities do you use in the investment process?

Too often portfolio advisory services, wrap programs, or proprietary fund programs will use only investment vehicles that are part of their platforms. In some instances these investments may be more expensive to employ than other outside product but are used because of the limitations of the broker/dealer's investment service. Charles Carroll believes that the use of lower cost ETFs and individual securities provides cost, tax, and total return benefits that may not be available in other management services products.

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When was the last time that they contacted you?

Charles Carroll Financial Partners (CCFP) has a stipulation in the financial management of your account that requires CCFP to contact you on a quarterly basis. If you do not receive a call from them within a three month period, CCFP will refund a portion of the management fee. Does your current provider of investment services do this for you?

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What services are they providing as part of the fee to have your assets managed?

As part of our investment management services, CCFP will work with every client in providing them a living financial plan. This plan will be updated as part of our service to reflect the changes in your life that may affect retirement outcomes, educational savings, and goal attainment. CCFP considers this a "living" financial plan because as life events occur, your goals and aspirations may as well. Our role is to provide the map toward those goals and aspirations, and the "living" financial plan is a tool to keep you on course.

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Do you have a single contact to provide you a personal touch?

In an effort to reduce costs and focus on product oriented solutions many firms are devising ways to assist clients without a personal interaction. The use of websites, phone banks, intelligent phone systems, and wireless devices is moving the client further away from a personal interaction. Many firms are also placing filters in their systems that intelligently direct calls based upon client usage of their systems. Too much use and you may be spirited to a site where expenses are lower and the interaction unintelligible. CCFP believes that our customers have given us the responsibility of overseeing their future goals and aspirations. These desires should not be left to impersonal machines or unknown employees who may not have the experience or time to listen to your questions. CCFP believes that our customers come first, we believe in the idea of being customer centric.

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Do I have to move my assets to another firm?

No, in almost all situations CCFP will work with you to keep your assets at the custodian where you feel most comfortable. Please remember though that commissions are the responsibility of the client, and some custodian broker/dealers charge more than others. However, transferring assets from one custodian to another has become a more streamlined process and CCFP will assist in that process. What does your firm do?

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What is a key differentiator in the Charles Carroll Financial Partners investment product versus portfolio advisory service product, wrap-fund product, or proprietary mutual fund products?

Many broker/dealer investment services provide customer solutions that are dependent upon, or required to be used with a portion of their own proprietary product. This limits the provider of the service to certain elemental pieces of a puzzle that may or may not fit the picture that they are trying to create for the client. These portfolios become next best solutions, not because of the ineptitude of the managers of these products but because of the limitations imposed by broker/dealers through the use of proprietary product. At Charles Carroll we do not have a limitation as to the investment products that can be employed to assist our clients in reaching their financial goals and aspirations. We use those investment products that best fit the financial picture of our investors in achieving their goals. We are independent from the "noise" created by a broker/dealer master, and as such only have one master, our client.

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What questions should I consider when choosing an investment services provider?

Is the provider of the service receiving a fee to manage the asset base and a fee for the investment products used within the service? Am I considered an individual client or am I one of thousands of other clients lumped into a targeted asset allocation strategy? In my investment portfolio why does it always seem that the funds that are doing so well are never in my portfolio? Ask the provider of the investment service, whether it be a broker, relationship manager, manager, or investment manager of the investment form if their money is invested in the firm's investment management service. If their answer is no, what does this tell you? Who provides you feedback to determine if you are on track to reach your goals or aspirations?

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