Investment Strategies Built Around Your Life

Your investment portfolio should be built around your goals, not a one size fits all approach. As independent fiduciaries, we provide objective investment management designed around your financial plan, risk tolerance, time horizon, and long term objectives.

What Fiduciary Investment Management Actually Means for You

The word "fiduciary" gets used a lot in financial services. What it means in practice is that we are legally required to prioritize your interests over our own — every time, on every decision. As an Registered Investment Adviser, F3 Capital operates under this standard by law, not by choice or marketing preference. Many advisors who appear independent still operate under a suitability standard, which only requires that a recommendation be "suitable" — not necessarily the best option for you. That distinction matters enormously when it comes to how your money is managed over a 20- or 30-year retirement.

 

Our investment management approach is also fully independent. We hold no affiliations with broker-dealers or parent companies, which means no pressure to recommend proprietary funds, no revenue-sharing arrangements, and no conflicts hiding inside the products we select for your portfolio.

Portfolio Management That Starts with a Plan, Not a Product

Most investment firms start with asset allocation models. We start with your financial plan. Before we build or adjust a portfolio, we understand where your income will come from in retirement, what tax buckets your assets sit in, when you'll need to draw from each account, and what your actual risk tolerance looks like — not just what a questionnaire says. Investment management in isolation is incomplete. Managed as part of a comprehensive retirement strategy, it becomes one of the most powerful tools for building and preserving wealth across decades.

 

Our planning team includes a CPA and an estate attorney partner who work alongside us throughout this process. Tax efficiency, estate implications, and withdrawal sequencing all inform how we structure your portfolio — not as afterthoughts, but as inputs from the start.

Who Our Investment Management Services Are Built For

Our investment management clients tend to share a few common circumstances. They are approaching retirement or already in it, and they want a portfolio that generates income without outliving their assets. They have accumulated meaningful wealth across multiple accounts — 401(k)s, IRAs, taxable brokerage accounts — and need someone to coordinate those assets strategically. They have worked with advisors before but felt like their portfolio was managed in isolation from the rest of their financial life. Or they are business owners who need their personal investment strategy to work alongside their business financial planning.

 

If any of those describe you, our approach was built with your situation in mind.

How We Manage Your Portfolio

Discretionary Management

We manage your portfolio on a discretionary basis, meaning we can act on your behalf without requiring your approval for every trade. This allows us to respond to market conditions, rebalancing needs, and tax-loss harvesting opportunities quickly — without the delays that come from a back-and-forth approval process. You stay informed; you're not burdened with every decision.

Asset Allocation and Diversification

We build diversified portfolios across asset classes, geographies, and risk profiles based on where you are in your financial journey. For clients approaching or in retirement, that means balancing growth potential with income stability — not defaulting to an overly conservative model that leaves real return on the table, and not chasing performance in ways that expose you to unnecessary volatility.

Tax-Efficient Investing

Where your assets are held matters as much as what those assets are. We coordinate asset location across taxable, tax-deferred, and tax-free accounts to reduce your overall tax drag over time. This includes decisions around which investments belong in which account types, when to harvest losses, and how to position the portfolio for eventual Roth conversions or RMD management. Our CPA partner is part of this conversation.

Ongoing Monitoring and Rebalancing

Markets move. Life changes. Your portfolio needs to keep pace with both. We monitor your investments continuously and rebalance when allocations drift beyond their target ranges, when your plan changes, or when tax-loss harvesting creates a meaningful opportunity. This is not a set-it-and-forget-it model — it is active stewardship of your financial future.

Transparent, Fee-Based Pricing

We are compensated through a transparent fee structure, not commissions. You know what you pay, and you know it is not tied to which products we recommend. Our fee-based financial planning model means our incentives are aligned with your outcomes — when your portfolio grows, we grow with you. When we recommend a change, it is because the change serves your plan.

Frequently Asked Questions About Investment Management

  • What is fiduciary investment management and why does it matter?

    A fiduciary investment advisor is legally required to act in your best interest on every decision — not just recommend something "suitable." At F3 Capital, our fiduciary obligation means we select investments based on what serves your plan, with no commissions, no proprietary products, and no conflicts of interest shaping our advice. For retirees and pre-retirees managing significant assets, this distinction can have a substantial impact on long-term outcomes.

  • How is F3 Capital different from a brokerage or a bank's investment arm?

    Banks and broker-dealers often operate under a suitability standard and may recommend in-house products that generate revenue for the firm. As an Registered Investment Adviser, we have no parent company, no proprietary funds, and no revenue-sharing agreements. Our only obligation is to your financial plan.

  • Do you manage investments for clients outside of Portsmouth, NH?

    Yes. While our primary office is in Portsmouth, we serve clients throughout New Hampshire and across New England — including Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Maine — as well as clients in other states remotely. We are licensed in 13 or more states and work with many clients entirely through virtual meetings.

  • What types of accounts do you manage?

    We manage a wide range of account types, including traditional IRAs, Roth IRAs, 401(k) rollovers, taxable brokerage accounts, and trust accounts. For business owner clients, we also work with SEP-IRAs and other employer-sponsored plan assets. Coordination across account types is central to how we manage for tax efficiency.

  • How often will I hear from you about my portfolio?

    You will receive regular portfolio reviews as part of your ongoing relationship with us. Beyond scheduled reviews, we monitor your investments continuously and will reach out proactively if market conditions or changes in your plan warrant a conversation. You will never be left wondering what is happening with your money.

  • What is discretionary portfolio management?

    Discretionary management means we are authorized to make investment decisions — trades, rebalancing, tax-loss harvesting — on your behalf without requiring your approval for each individual action. This allows us to act quickly when opportunities or risks arise. You set the parameters and goals; we manage the day-to-day execution within them.