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Our Approach

Compassionate

Our financial advice is customized to you and is based on your unique goals, intentions, values, experiences, and relationships. We dedicate a meeting to listen to you and ask questions about your history, your aspirations, and what “makes you tick". This enables us to know how best to advise you. And we know life is complicated—we’re here to guide and support without judgement.

Conflict Free

Our only compensation comes from client fees. We don’t accept commissions from product or service providers. We work exclusive for you. We believe our “fee only” approach allows us to give advice in the best interest of our clients.  

Consistent

We promise to do what we say: walk alongside you and provide financial guidance and investment management as your life changes. Consistent, thoughtful advice is always based on your priorities.

Comprehensive

We look holistically at your financial situation. We are looking out for your overall financial health, which includes discussing a broad array of topics.

Collaborative

Financial planning is an ongoing, collaborative process. We are not here to tell you what to do. We are here to listen, assess your situation and your desired outcomes, and provide what we believe to be the best courses of action. It is a process of us working together. We provide specific advice, and if you would like to take a different course of action, we can develop alternatives and inform you of the possible outcomes of each alternative.

Fee Only, Fiduciary

Having financial product sales targets, commission payout rates that vary by product, or promises of free trips to the Bahamas like some financial firms have can taint the advice of an advisor. To avoid this conflict of interest, we do not sell any financial products or receive any commissions, referral fees, or kickbacks from insurance or investment products. Our only compensation comes from our clients. People should get what they want from an advisor: expert advice, not a sales pitch.

We provide advice based on what we believe to be in the best long term interest of our clients- that’s the fiduciary standard.

We are proud to be fee only fiduciaries.

Flat Fee For Service

Because we are comprehensive in our approach, we believe that a flat fee for ongoing advice is best aligned with our clients’ interests. Want to invest in real estate instead of the stock market?  We can help advise you on that. Want to reinvest in your business? Let’s work together to see what optimizes your financial position and quality of life. One flat fee gives us the flexibility to advise on your money wherever it is, rather than just on what’s in an investment account.

The fee is based on your personal circumstances, the complexity of your financial situation, and the responsibilities delegated to us. While not a perfect metric, a client’s net worth, income, and life stage are good proxies for determining complexity.

After an introductory call, you can complete a basic questionnaire that will help us customize a quote for you. Fees are typically locked in for two years, then we reassess. Some people pay for the cost of service from their investment accounts, others pay via a secure payment system. The choice is yours.

The cost for additional services, such as business consulting, are often project based and specific to the timeframe, complexity, and scope of work you need.

Investments

Many studies have shown that it is very difficult to consistently "beat the market." While not impossible, beating a benchmark consistently is definitely improbable. Because so many experts are conducting investment analysis and aggressively competing at once, most investment markets are very efficient- meaning the opportunities to beat the market are far and few between.

We believe that it is not worth the high expense to attempt to beat the market through individual security selection or very active strategies. We want to design portfolios that have a high probability of reaching our clients’ financial goals using a mix of highly diversified, low-cost mutual funds and exchange traded funds. For some clients we will use individual securities or other portfolio construction techniques when appropriate. The goal is to only take as much risk as needed to achieve the desired outcome.

We don’t control the stock market, nor do we pretend to be able to predict the future. Most investors should stay invested in the market, rebalance their portfolio, and focus on the other areas of their finances that they can control.

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10 Matthew Street, Lower Level | Goshen, NY 10924
© Great Path Financial Planning | Disclosures | Customer Relationship Summary

Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards Inc. owns the certification marks CFP®, Certified Financial Planner™ and federally registered CFP (with flame design) in the U.S., which it awards to individuals who successfully complete CFP Board’s initial and ongoing certification requirements. Semitam Bonam LLC d/b/a Great Path Planning (“Great Path”) is a registered investment adviser with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission offering advisory services in the State of New York and in other jurisdictions where exempted.Registration does not imply a certain level of skill or training. The presence of this website on the Internet shall not be directly or indirectly interpreted as a solicitation of investment advisory services to persons of another jurisdiction unless otherwise permitted by statute. All written content on this site is for information purposes only. Opinions expressed herein are solely those of Great Path, unless otherwise specifically cited.Material presented is believed to be from reliable sources and no representations are made by our firm as to another parties’ informational accuracy or completeness. All information or ideas provided should be discussed in detail with an advisor, accountant or legal counsel prior to implementation.