Since TFC opened its doors forty years ago, one of the unanticipated and very fulfilling benefits for its founders and employees has been the opportunity to meet and work with a wide assortment of individual clients and their families. The firm's downtown financial district location has drawn engagements from an extensive diversity of individuals, as well as non-profit institutions. Our clientele has included Nobel Economic and Peace Prize recipients, high profile entertainment performers, some of Boston's world-famous clinicians, college presidents, university professors, and faculty deans. We have also had long-standing relationships with entrepreneurs in the world of technology, mavens in a variety of the professions, Massachusetts Lottery winners, school and non-profit endowment boards, as well as individuals - all of whom seek assistance with their retirement plan resources and earned or inherited wealth.

Another unexpected outcome of the firm's growth has been the evolution of its staffing and ownership into the hands of women. Today, the firm is majority-owned by women, and our client advisory personnel are predominantly female. We understand from the CFP Board in Washington DC that less than a quarter of its constituent RIA firms have such a staffing and business ownership profile. Since TFC is a privately and internally owned firm, and intends to remain so, there is no reason to expect this to change in the future.

Many of our individual clients have developed an ambivalent relationship with their financial resources. They are often uncomfortable about whether their approach will meet their needs, and want guidance that is specific to their situation. Most seek a strategic plan to gain a comfortable retirement. Some who are more financially sophisticated and experienced have developed realistic expectations and seek an approach which will track the investment markets with reduced volatility risk. All seem to find TFC's person-to-person advisory format advantageous.

A major feature of our firm's business model as Registered Investment Advisors (RIAs, regulated by the SEC) is that the advice we offer for a fee is necessarily free of bias. Before the early 1980s, the brokerage community offered traditional sell-side commission-compensated "free" personal financial advice to the high net worth marketplace. In contrast, TFC pioneered a new "fee-for-service" model. This approach fostered what has come to be defined as the fiduciary relationship between client and advisor, a stewardship arrangement in which the client's interests are always paramount. This has, in many ways, shaped the tenor of today's personal financial advisor/broker regulatory and compliance environment. We are pleased to have been an early proponent of this national personal financial services evolution.

But none of this would have been possible without the continuing relationships with our clients, some lasting more than 35 years. They have felt free to suggest leading-edge "best practice" service enhancements which we have often integrated into the firm's offerings. Our clients have also referred friends and acquaintances who have subsequently engaged the firm's services as well. We are forever grateful to those who have been part of the firm's growth and success over the years.
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Proceed to Part One — History of the Fiduciary Role in Boston >

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