The financial advisor landscape includes stock brokers, registered investment advisors, wealth managers, financial planners and many other financial professionals, all of whom play different roles and have different responsibilities to their clients.

Although many advisors use different terminology, in general advisors come in some version of the following:

• Investment managers directly invest in a portfolio of stocks and bonds on behalf of their clients.
• Asset allocators outsource investment management via mutual funds or other investment vehicles and concentrate instead on which managers to hire on behalf of their clients.
• Fiduciary advisors have a legal obligation to act in the best interests of their clients and are paid to offer objective advice.

Ensemble Capital is a fiduciary investment manager. We are paid to deliver objective advice.