Tim Smith
President
Fairway Asset Management
I Left Because My Clients Became a Number
The Story
I spent the first ten years of my career at Merrill Lynch, Smith Barney and Wachovia. I learned a great deal there and I don't regret any of it.
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But the model at a big firm is volume. You manage more relationships than any one person can genuinely keep up with, and past a certain point you're not advising anyone, you're maintaining accounts. You know the names. You don't know the lives.
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That bothered me more each year. The moments where this work actually matters are specific and personal. Someone deciding whether they can retire a year early. A widow trying to understand what she's been left with. A business owner who's about to have more liquid money than he's ever had and no idea what to do with it. You can't help with any of that if you're managing several hundred relationships at once.
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So in 2007 I started Fairway Asset Management. The whole point was to work with fewer people and know them better.
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Nearly thirty years and more than 500 families later, that's still the arrangement. I have gone from working with over 500 families at the big firms to less than 70 families now. Clients are no longer a number. They are a deep and meaningful relationship to me.
What this actually means for you
You talk to me. Not to a service team, not to whoever picks up. If you call, you get the person who built your plan and manages your portfolio.
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I know your situation without looking it up. That sounds small until you've experienced the alternative, where every conversation starts by re-explaining your own life.
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I'll tell you when I think you're wrong. That's most of what you're actually paying for. An adviser who agrees with everything you propose isn't providing advice.
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And I'll tell you if we're not a fit. In the first conversation, before anybody's wasted a year finding out. I'd rather send you somewhere better than take on a relationship that doesn't work for either of us. There is a reason that I only work with 70 families now...they have to be a good fit.
How we are paid
Planning and Asset Management
For planning and portfolio management, we're paid a fee based on the assets we manage. That's the whole of our compensation on the advisory side. No commissions on the investments, no payments from fund companies, nothing that rewards us for trading more than necessary. When your account grows, we do better. When it doesn't, we don't. Our fee is all inclusive of the asset management and the financial planning.
Insurance and Annuities
Not every client wants to invest in the stock market. The firm is also licensed for insurance and fixed annuities for those clients, which is compensated by commission rather than by fee. It's a small part of what we do, and if it ever came up in your situation we'd walk you through how it works and what the alternatives are before you decided anything.
where your money is held
Your accounts are held at Charles Schwab, not at our firm.
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That separation matters. We're authorized to manage the investments in your accounts. We never take custody of your money. Your statements come directly from Schwab, your money moves only between accounts in your own name, and you can log in and see everything we do, whenever you want.
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You don't have to take our word for what's in your account. You can check.
Halena Shinn- Client Liaison
Halena joined Fairway Asset Management in 2009 from Advent Software and has been here ever since. She started right after her second daughter was born. Now her girls are driving and in college.
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She's the person who makes sure nothing falls through the cracks. New account paperwork, transfers, distributions, the Schwab forms nobody enjoys, and the required minimum distribution you forgot was due in December.
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Most clients end up talking to Halena as much as they talk to me. In seventeen years, I've never seen her lose track of anything.
OUTSIDE THE OFFICE
Family first, and that is why I built the practice the way I did. We moved from the Bay Area to San Clemente to be closer to our 3 adult kids. The rest of our extended family is still in the Bay Area, so we are up there all the time.Â
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When I am not working or with family, I am either working out or playing pickleball, which I am told is a cliché for a man my age and which I intend to keep playing anyway. I also love fishing, hiking and going to the beach.
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I try to get a lot of physical activity in since I have a major weakness for pastries. It is actually a bit of a problem.
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To me life is about three things- People, Passion and Purpose
The Firm
Fairway Asset Management, Inc. is an independent registered investment adviser, founded in 2007. As a registered investment adviser, we act as a fiduciary when providing investment advice.
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We have offices in San Ramon and San Clemente, California, but we work with clients across the country as well.
