Private Wealth Management for High-Net-Worth Individuals

Yes, Chicago Partners is a fee-only fiduciary investment advisor.

We do not have outside conflicts of interest or receive commissions for recommending specific investment products. Our only source of compensation comes from our clients, which allows us to provide unbiased advice focused on their best interests.

At Chicago Partners, we define a high-net-worth individual as an investor with more than $1,000,000 in liquid assets. However, we are happy to make exceptions for highly-qualified individuals who have unique situations that may lead to their becoming a high-net-worth individual in the future.

For example, high-earning professionals may be in the wealth accumulation phase of their careers. While they may not have $1,000,000 in liquid assets yet, they may be interested in working with Chicago Partners to prepare for when they do hit $1,000,000 in assets. We evaluate prospective clients on a case-by-case basis.

As high-net-worth investment advisors, we are happy to talk to clients anytime and at their convenience.

At a minimum, we prefer to meet with clients once each quarter to discuss portfolio performance, market expectations, and to learn about any upcoming events in a client’s life they would like to discuss. However, the frequency and length of conversations surrounding a client’s wealth are entirely at the client’s discretion.

While there is no shortage of high-net-worth investment firms in Chicago, some advisors prefer to work with clients locally. Chicago Partners is happy to work with qualified clients regardless of their location.

We currently work with clients across the United States and internationally and are very familiar with working with clients over long distances.

High-net-worth and ultra-high-net-worth wealth management focus on a different set of challenges than traditional wealth management. As a high-net-worth financial advisor, Chicago Partners works with investors to add value through both traditional and non-traditional avenues.

When we build customized portfolios for our clients, we are able to explore options like private and alternative options that are available to them because of the size of their portfolios. These investors are often “qualified participants” or “accredited investors” and can add financial instruments like private equity investments or private credit investments to both minimize market risk to their portfolio and provide opportunities for enhanced returns.

Each client works with their advisor to build a multi-dimensional, tax-efficient portfolio with access to both private and public markets using our 4-Quadrant Investment Approach, which includes:

• The 4-Quadrant Equity Approach
• The 4-Quadrant Fixed Income Approach
• The 4-Quadrant Alternative Investment Approach

In order to keep client portfolios cost-efficient, our investment strategies use a combination of different low-cost approaches to achieve efficiency in every portfolio.

Financial planning for high-net-worth individuals differs in the level of complexity that exists when dealing with larger amounts of capital. For example, planning to pay for college, purchase a second home, and finance a new car every 4 years are all significant outflows of capital that require more exact planning to be able to both make these purchases and stay on track for retirement.

We use eMoney’s Wealth Management System (WMS), which helps us build robust and dynamic financial plans that can account for these types of large purchases, and we use this information to make more informed decisions surrounding the investments in a client’s portfolio.

While some high-net-worth asset management companies have only one portfolio analyst on an account, Chicago Partners clients have unrestricted access to multiple advisors.

A typical client at Chicago Partners will have one primary advisor to serve as their primary point of contact. This primary advisor is always a credentialed advisor like a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) or a Certified Financial Planner (CFP).

A client will also have one or more secondary advisors, who assist in paperwork, creating and updating financial plans, overseeing the portfolio, and managing accounts.

Along with the primary and secondary advisors, clients’ wealth management strategies may also be influenced by the input of other senior-level advisors with experience in different areas, like tax strategy or estate planning.