FAQs

We provide our services to individuals, families, businesses, trusts, partnerships, not-for-profit organizations and retirement plans who wish to pursue long-term goals based on our strategic approach to managing wealth.

At Lucas Group Financial Advisors, we take a comprehensive approach to wealth management, and managing investments represents only part of the picture.  We focus on each client receiving the following services:

• Getting the PROPER ASSET ALLOCATION in place, and thus making sure that our clients do not take more risk than they have the ability, willingness or need to take. This is the most important investment decision made.
• Providing the DISCIPLINE needed to adhere to the plan so investors do not get caught up in the greed and envy of bull markets, nor the fear and panic of bear markets.
• Ensuring that REBLANCING is done regularly and in the most cost- and tax-effective manner.
• Ensuring that TAX-LOSS HARVESTING is done appropriately.
• Determining proper DRAWDOWN STRATEGIES in retirement.
• Determining how to OPTIMIZE SOCIAL SECURITY benefits.
• Helping provide LONGEVITY INSURANCE against running out of money in retirement.

There is NO COST for our initial Discovery and Investment Plan meetings. We feel it's time well spent to first get to know one another -- before we seek mutual commitment and before we begin charging a fee.

We are a fee-only advisor, with our fees based on a percentage of your assets that we manage. We feel a fee-only approach best aligns our interests with yours, helping us meet our fiduciary standards.

As a Lucas Group Financial Advisors client, there are three different fees you will pay:

1. A fee to Lucas Group for comprehensive advisory services—everything described as services above.  It is our sole source of compensation and is based upon a percentage of the assets we manage in your portfolio.
2. A fee paid to the investment management firm whose mutual funds and ETFs we use to build your portfolio. It varies based on funds and is always fully disclosed.
3. A nominal fee paid to the custodian for processing your trades.

That’s it. These fees will always be fully disclosed and you will never be surprised by extras.

Our minimum portfolio size is $200,000.  However, if your asset level does not currently meet our minimum requirements, but you have unique circumstances you would like to discuss, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Before any changes are made, we first analyze your existing portfolio and discuss our recommendations with you.  Our overall goal is for your portfolio to make sense for you and your lifetime objectives, in the most cost-effective way possible.

Ways we achieve this goal are to:

1. Capture your unique willingness, ability and need to take on market risk via appropriate (often global) diversification
2. To minimize the expenses involved in investing
3. To manage for appropriate asset location between taxable and tax-sheltered accounts
4. To eliminate any unnecessary complexity within the collection of accounts within your portfolio

If existing holdings lend themselves to these objectives, we leave them in place. If changes are warranted, we work with you to ensure any transitions occur as smoothly and cost-effectively as possible.

While you grant us Limited Power of Attorney (LPOA) to execute transactions on your behalf, you remain in control of your assets. Accounts are held in your name at a quality custodian such as Schwab Institutional.

Our philosophy is that equity investments are for growth; fixed income investing has a vital mission all its own: to control overall volatility in a portfolio and provide a stable financial base. It should act as the vehicle for steady, reliable income and contingency reserves. We address your fixed income needs as an integral part of your overall portfolio as well as by considering the special needs, characteristics and (often hidden) costs inherent in the bond market. If a custom bond portfolio makes sense for you, we build one for you based on analysis of each bond's full range of characteristics (sector, maturity, credit rating and more).

Through our relationship with BAM Advisor Services LLC, we have access to strategic fixed income resources and a network of local and national bond dealers that help ensure a wide range of security availability as well as fair and competitive institutional level pricing for you.

If you have already heard of DFA, you may be aware that it seeks to protect the reliability and manage the costs of its funds by requiring investors to access them via a select group of financial advisory firms. BTL Capital is proud to be among the select firms who have access to DFA funds. We often find that they provide the best vehicles for building portfolios that can be cost-effectively designed and managed to target your unique objectives through all types of markets.  However, we receive no commissions for using DFA funds. Whenever we feel there is a better investment option for your particular needs, we use it.