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FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
What is a family office?
How can Connemara assist the small, single family office?
We are a small multi-family office. How can Connemara assist us?
We have worked hard throughout our working lives. We hope to retire in relative comfort. We are not, however, extremely wealthy. Is Connemara interested?
How does Connemara differ from other financial planning and investment advisory firms?
Does Connemara offer ongoing investment advice?
What are Connemara's typical fee ranges?
We are an international family with family members and business interests located across the globe. What can Connemara do to help our family members in the Washington, DC area?
Does Connemara offer legal services?
How can I learn more about Connemara?
What is a family office?
In the financial industry, family offices are usually associated with ultra-affluent families of extremely significant wealth. These private offices manage and oversee wealth accumulated by these families, frequently over generations. But let's face it. All of us in our own way have our own family office. It could be a kitchen table. It could be desk or a home office. It could be personal files managed alongside work or business files. It is wherever and however we take care of our personal finances.
At some point, things become too complex or too time-consuming. We have more important priorities. We have too many other responsibilities. We are not on top of things. Small things slip, then larger ones. Perhaps we are even taken advantage of. Busy dual-income professionals. Time-challenged senior executives. Professional athletes. International business and financial executives. Diplomats. Divorced individuals starting over. Affluent retirees with other interests and passions. Seniors who are no longer able to get around as easily as they once did. For such individuals and their professional advisors, Connemara is a trustworthy and cost-effective solution for the effective management and coordination of a broad range of personal financial and time management issues.
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How can Connemara assist the small, single family office?
Many single family offices struggle with finding the right operating model and competent, reliable staff for their specific needs. Connemara provides valuable insight and guidance regarding professional staffing and work flow. It also assists with outsourcing , coordination, and supervision.
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We are a small multi-family office. How can Connemara assist us?
Smaller multi-family offices have many of the same management and staffing issues as single family offices. In addition, they often must balance more complex needs and different family priorities while maintaining a reasonable cost structure. Connemara provides value-added consulting services in this regard. Coordination and supervision take on added importance in the multi-family office setting.
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We have worked hard throughout our working lives. We hope to retire in relative comfort. We are not, however, extremely wealthy. Is Connemara interested?
Yes. Connemara balances providing management and consulting services to family offices of families of considerable means with professional, broad-based personal financial planning and investment advisory services for individuals and families from all walks of life. Mr. Conway, President and Founder of Connemara, began his legal career as an active volunteer with the Legal Aid Bureau, Inc. of Howard County, Maryland. As a private banker, he worked with some of the world's wealthiest individuals and families. He is committed to providing professional, cost-effective services to all wherever possible.
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How does Connemara differ from other financial planning and investment advisory firms?
Financial planning is an extremely broad term. As delivered by the financial industry, it can take many forms. Planning is offered by representative of large financial institutions, including banks, broker-dealers, and insurance companies. Small, independent firms also offer planning, often in conjunction with tax preparation, investment management, or insurance sales. Planning may be done essentially as a loss leader by firms primarily interested in selling other products or services, or it may be a core competency.
Planning is often provided by those who earn commissions or fees generated by the implementation of planning recommendations. "Fee-based" planning is offered by those earning fees as well as commissions. "Fee-only" planning is provided by firms limited to charging on a fee-for-service model. Even within "fee-only" practices, however, business models, core competencies, and service delivery modes vary considerably. Most "fee-only" planning practices have now moved to a model predicated primarily on charging an ongoing fee based upon a percentage of "assets under management". Thus, the economics of such practices have become largely investment-driven. Asset gathering and ongoing "investment management" tends to be the true focus of such firms.
In some cases, professionals at these firms are highly qualified and engage in careful and thoughtful individual security analysis and selection on behalf of clients. In other instances, however, firms merely layer unproductive management expense atop further management expense. Such firms in reality are no more than rank middlemen, collecting fees not for their investment management expertise per se, but rather for "investment manager management" of dubious merit. The value of paying ongoing fees to such firms ultimately depends on the value-add as perceived by the client. Many investors, caught on a nightmarish Merry-Go-Round of changing managers, mediocre performance, high portfolio turnover, and poor tax management, are understandably looking for a better, more cost-effective way of handling things. For certain individuals and families, Connemara may provide a compelling alternative.
Connemara is a "fee-only" professional planning and advisory practice. It does not manage client investments or collect ongoing fees for managing other investment managers. Unlike many other firms, it does not incorporate or operate alongside a tax or accounting practice or investment management operation. It does not sell insurance, investments, or any other financial products. While Connemara's President and Founder, Thomas B. Conway, does practice law, he does so separately and independently through the boutique estate planning, legacy, and business planning law firm of Altman & Associates.
Connemara's sole mission is to provide pure, unbiased, conflict-free professional financial planning and investment advisory services without any underlying goal of related product sales. Unlike most firms charging ongoing fees based upon a percentage of assets under management, Connemara charges a simple flat, fixed fee for its services in virtually all cases. In a very limited number of cases, Connemara may bill certain clients by mutual agreement on an hourly, as-needed basis.
Clients are able to obtain the professional planning and investment advice they need without the constant drip-drip-drip of fees from their accounts. Who needs this leakage, not to mention the excess weight of layers-upon-layer of management of questionable value? Over time, clients can potentially save tens of thousands of dollars.
Even better, clients are not limited to one particular investment management firm. They can seek out, utilize, and pay for the services of highly qualified investment personnel and firms with specific investment, insurance, or other expertise while having the benefit of periodic thoughtful and coordinated reviews by Connemara for a reasonable flat, fixed fee. If primarily self-directed, they can meet with Connemara on an as-needed basis for periodic reviews, legal and tax coordination, and independent investment insights. Freedom with a safety net.
Where necessary, Connemara steps in as an advocate of its clients' best interests and deals with various financial institutions and representatives. This can be another important value-add at a time of uncertain future financial regulation.
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Does Connemara offer ongoing investment advice?
Yes. Planning is essential, yet so is ongoing investment advice that coordinates closely with such planning. The only constant is change. Our personal needs change. Economic conditions change. Businesses change. Managers change. Advisors change.
It is exceptionally difficult to keep our own lives on track. Many things are beyond our control. Experienced, competent, unbiased investment advice is critical if we are to keep our plans on schedule. Connemara works with clients and their investment managers to minimize needless complexity and to maximize occasional opportunities while avoiding numerous potential legal, tax, and investment pitfalls.
In ongoing, comprehensive planning engagements, Connemara meets with clients on a quarterly or semi-annual basis to review their investments and related personal finances. Where appropriate, Connemara prepares a written memorandum in plain English summarizing its findings and recommendations. Connemara supplements these quarterly or semi-annual reviews with periodic contacts to make clients aware of specific developments that may impact them. Connemara discusses with clients a number of issues, including relevant legislative, economic, business, and investment issues. Connemara provides such periodic and ongoing advice for a reasonable flat, fixed fee.
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What are Connemara's typical fee ranges?
Connemara's fees vary widely depending on the nature and extent of the specific engagement. Specific financial planning issues can often be addressed for as little as $750-$1,500, with some cases requiring a fee of $10,000 or more. Basic, comprehensive planning with accompanying investment advice and recommendations can often be accomplished for $2,000-$5,000, with some cases requiring a fee of $50,000 or more. Basic family office management and consulting engagements may be as little as $5,000-$10,000, with more significant and complex assignments necessitating a fee of $75,000-$250,000 or more.
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We are an international family with family members and business interests located across the globe. What can Connemara do to help our family members in the Washington, DC area?
Connemara has a special interest in working with diverse families of international backgrounds. Thomas B. Conway, Connemara's President and Founder, has established professional contacts within the legal, tax, and business communities to assist clients in achieving cross-border objectives effectively and efficiently and in compliance with various and complex laws, rules, and regulations, and customs. Connemara assists by organizing, coordinating, and supervising various legal, tax, financial, and other professionals and by serving as an advocate and protector of its clients' best interests.
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Does Connemara offer legal services?
No. All legal services provided by Thomas B. Conway, Connemara's President and Founder, are provided through his association as an attorney Of Counsel with Altman & Associates, a boutique estate planning, legacy, and business law firm with offices in Rockville, Maryland and Columbia, Maryland. Through his legal practice and experience, however, Mr. Conway is trained to recognize many important legal as well as tax issues that arise in conjunction with personal financial planning and investment management. Mr. Conway can be reached via email at Altman & Associates at tom@altmanassociates.net.
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How can I learn more about Connemara?
Please see Form ADV Part II as well as the firm's privacy policy on the "About" page. Those seeking fee-only financial planning and investment guidance are encouraged to visit the National Association of Personal Financial Advisors website at www.napfa.org as well as the site of the Garrett Planning Network, www.garrettplanningnetwork.com. For more information on family offices, see the "Resources" page.
Please feel free to call Connemara today at 301.998.6595. We promise to get back to you promptly! Or email us at info@connemarafamilyoffice.com or at tom.conway@connemarafamilyoffice.com.
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