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Michael Shenker |
SaxBST
855 Valley Road
3rd Floor
Clifton, NJ 07013
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Release Date: Wednesday, May 28, 2014
Media Contact: Carin McDonald (201) 796-7788
Wholly Owned Subsidiary of SaxBST Serves Individuals, Businesses, Trusts and Employer-Sponsored Retirement Plan
CLIFTON, N.J., May 28, 2014 – SMF Financial Advisors, LLC, the independent registered investment advisor and wholly owned subsidiary of accounting, tax and advisory firm SaxBST, has been named among CNBC Digital’s Top-Rated Fee-Only Wealth Management Firms nationwide. SMF Financial was ranked seventh in the Top 100 list.
CNBC collaborated with Meridian-IQ to create the inaugural ranking and criteria, which included no regulatory issues, professionals on staff, access to third-party professionals like CPAs, asset growth and insurance advice. To make the list, firms cannot accept commissions.
“Since being established in 1999 and registering with the SEC in 2008, SMF Financial Advisors has taken great pride in its investment philosophy and growth rate, both of which are driven by client needs and not a commission structure for our advisors,” said Michael Shenker, CPA, PFS, managing member of SMF Financial and a principal of SaxBST. “This designation by CNBC further validates our mission to stay the course in developing long-term investment strategies grounded in academic research.”
SMF Financial Advisors serves more than 400 clients, including high-net-worth individuals, businesses, trusts and employer-sponsored retirement plans. The firm has over $552 million in assets under management and helps clients achieve their goals through a disciplined, holistic approach to accumulating, protecting and transferring wealth. SMF Financial’s five-year annualized rate of 32.6 percent also was highlighted in the CNBC ranking.
The group remains committed to the mutually held investment philosophies of its predecessor firms, Sax Macy Fromm & Co. (SMF) of Clifton, N.J.; Bollam, Sheedy, Torani & Co. (BST) of Albany, N.Y.; and BST Wealth Management, as well as SaxBST, which finalized a merger between SMF and BST earlier this year.
“SMF Financial advocates an investing approach based on the disciplines of economics and finance generally referred to as Modern Portfolio Theory,” explained Shenker. “We believe passive asset class investing offers a lower cost, lower risk alternative to active selection of individual securities or actively managed mutual funds or separate accounts.”
In addition to its association with SaxBST, the firm is a member of the BAM Alliance, a community of more than 130 independent wealth management firms throughout the United States. SMF Financial also has relationships with Dimensional Fund Advisors (DFA), Charles Schwab Institutional and Fidelity Investments.
SaxBST serves the needs of closely held companies, family-owned businesses, not-for-profit and governmental entities and high-net-worth individuals throughout the New York tri-state area in a wide range of niches. These include real estate, construction, manufacturing and distribution, employee benefits, retail, financial services, healthcare, professional services, not-for-profit, governmental entities and labor unions. The recently merged firm qualifies as one of the Top 100 accounting firms in the country with more than $45 million in combined annual billings.
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Important Notice:
SMF Financial Advisors, LLC (“SMF”) is an SEC-registered investment adviser. The “Top 100 Fee-Only Wealth Managers” is granted by CNBC, an independent association unaffiliated with SMF. Third party rankings and recognition from ratings services are no guarantee of future investment success. Working with a highly rated adviser does not ensure that a client or prospective client will experience a higher level of performance or results. Ratings should not be considered an endorsement of the advisor by any client nor are they representative of any one clients evaluation. The CNBC Digital Team, along with Meridian-IQ created the Top 100 Fee-Only Wealth Management ranking based on scores for the following measures weighted according to a proprietary formula to arrive at a final total rank: AUM, staff with professional designations, average account size, client segmentation, growth of assets, years in business and other key factors. Additional information on the factors and criteria involved for inclusion in this ranking can be found at the following location: http://www.cnbc.com/id/101619698