By Phyl Newbeck, Vermont Maturity correspondent.
SilverLake Wealth Management was founded in 2002 with the goal of redefining the financial planning and investment management landscape in Vermont. The founders envisioned a firm that would rise above the norm, prioritizing their clients’ needs over proprietary interests and providing truly objective financial advice.
The company’s staff includes certified financial planners and chartered financial analysts, who are seasoned veterans in their fields.
“We help guide our clients through all stages of the investment life cycle,” said Managing Partner Jeff Steele. “We work closely with their accountants and estate attorneys. Our approach has consistently been to provide objective, high-value financial planning and fiduciary management to our family of clients.
The advisors at SilverLake Wealth Management come from a variety of backgrounds. Several managing partners spent years working at other financial service providers. The eleven-person staff have a collective 200 plus years of experience. Partner, Tom Golonka Chair’s the Vermont State Pension Investment Committee and is a Trustee of the University of Vermont Health Network Board and Greg Steele was a head trader on major Wall Street trading desks where he held Managing Director titles. Managing Partner Ted Riehle believes that SilverLake’s relatively small size is an advantage. “Because we are a small business, we uniquely understand the needs and challenges other small business owners face,” he said.
The financial planners at SilverLake are fiduciaries; a label not held by all wealth management firms. As such they are legally and ethically obligated to work in the best interest of their clients. Unlike many financial advisors who are merely distributors of products, SilverLake staff serve as consultants and fiduciary’s for their clients. “As an independent firm, we can provide access to world-class products and license best in class technology, offering objective views and a terrific client experience at a fair cost,” Steele said.
SilverLake’s founding partners worked at major brokerage firms but left because they felt that since those businesses were not fiduciaries, they were not working in the best interests of their clients. “SilverLake was founded to get back to the basics of client service,” Riehle said. “You won’t find us pushing products or recommending expensive planning strategies or investment vehicles against your best interest. Our priority is to take care of you by building a plan tailored to do just that. We work together as a team, and we’re invested in you.” SilverLake Wealth Management offers a number of different services including retirement planning, investment management, tax planning, cash, debt and expense management, insurance planning, education planning, and estate planning strategy. Advisors try to simplify the financial lives of their clients by consolidating accounts and savings under one roof. Client assets are held at Charles Schwab or Fidelity, but SilverLake advisors also oversees emergency funds at competitive yields often with little to no management fee.
Although most of their clients are based in Vermont, SilverLake provides services for people in 39 other states. In many cases, those are Vermonters who have moved away but that number also includes friends and relatives of Vermonters who have recommended their services. The company is pleased by the number of word-of-mouth referrals they have received over the years. Riehle is proud of the fact that SilverLake has multi-generational clients. In some cases, parents or grandparents will bring their kids in to help get them educated about saving money. Once that generation begins working, they may establish a Roth IRA through SilverLake. “This helps teach the next generation to save and invest for the next 50 years,” Steele said. “If they do that, they’ll be way ahead of the game.”
Steele noted that in some cases the firm is already advising the fourth generation of a family. “Once we start working with a family, typically we’ll keep working with them,” he said. “Choosing a fiduciary as your financial advisor can be a crucial step in preparing for your financial future,” Steele said. “At SilverLake, we understand the importance of this role and are committed to serving our clients with integrity, trust, and dedication. Together, we can help you navigate the complexities of your financial life, providing strategies and advice to ensure your success.”
Golonka noted that working with a wealth management firm isn’t only for the wealthy, adding that his firm advises people from a wide range of backgrounds. “We try to make sure people aren’t intimidated,” he said. “We want them to know there is no such thing as a stupid question. We try to make people comfortable so they can become better savers and better investors and be prepared for retirement.”
Steele said that some clients, after working with SilverLake’s planners, discover they have more money than they thought. “Sometimes there are people who could be spending a lot more money and don’t because they are afraid that they won’t have enough for retirement,” he said. “One of my partners calls us financial therapists. With some people, we are able to lay out the probabilities and they discover that they could have been taking vacations without worrying about retirement funds.”
Most of SilverLake’s work consists of financial reviews. People ask the SilverLake to look at existing accounts to see where they might be paying too much. Many clients also have questions about pensions and general financial planning. In the case of estate distribution, Steele describes the firm as being the quarterback for the decision making, combining their knowledge with those of the client’s attorneys and accountants.
Steele highlighted that some of the company’s most successful clients have achieved significant wealth in “blue-collar” industries without necessarily having formal education credentials. He shared an example of a client from a large family who left school after seventh grade to help support his siblings and later went on to fund college educations for several of his nieces and nephews. These are the types of clients who truly make the business fun and provide lessons for us that no diploma offers.
While some large firms may measure success in commissions or production quotas, SilverLake uses a different metric, the personal relationships we develop over multi generations.
“The bigger firms often use production quotas to measure success, “We prefer to measure our success by the relationships we have and the stories of our clients’ achievements we are privileged to hear and be involved in.”
Finally, all the partners interviewed expressed their gratitude to their expert support staff, led by Michelle Holden, whom they credited with playing a significant role in the firm’s ongoing success.
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