Frequently Asked Questions

General FAQs

Artemis Financial Advisors offers a different value proposition than is typically available through financial brokerage firms. Some of these differences include:

Our Fiduciary Responsibility

Independent, registered investment advisors (RIAs) have a fiduciary obligation to always put their clients’ needs first. Advisors who are employed at brokerage firms are held to a lower “suitability standard” (which is not a legal standard) under which a broker is supposed to recommend suitable investments. However, he/she does not necessarily have to put a client’s needs ahead of their firm’s needs.

Our Fee Structure

Artemis Financial Advisors relies exclusively on a fee-only model. The firm does not receive commissions or fees from any source other than its clients. In contrast, many brokers are paid via commissions. They have a strong incentive to invest you in products that carry high commissions or loads, which may or may not be attractive investments.

Our Obligation to Disclose

Unlike brokers, registered investment advisors are also subject to strict disclosure rules requiring that they provide to their clients their Form ADV listing potential conflicts of interest and their compensation practices.

Our Independence

We do not have any financial relationships with any brokerage firms or money managers and so we are not obligated to favor, nor are we compensated to push, any firm’s proprietary investment products.

Our Integrated and Personalized Service

Few brokers are trained to provide comprehensive financial planning support, nor are their firms set up to provide personalized support. It is not uncommon for a single broker at a large institution to manage 100-200 accounts. In contrast, we limit our services to a select group of clients in order to provide comprehensive advice in the context of close, long-term relationships.

We are happy to develop a financial plan for clients who either have insufficient investable assets for our ongoing wealth management service or who are currently using another manager. Our plan development process is highly tailored to meet each client’s specific needs, which may include cash flow analysis, investment strategy development, tax planning, education planning, retirement planning, insurance analysis and estate planning.
Please visit our Fees page for full details.

A copy of our current written disclosure statement which describes in more detail our business operations, services, and our fees is available from us upon written request.

Most securities held by new clients will be eligible for transfer without tax consequences and your cost basis information will be retained. We will hold existing client positions that meet reasonable criteria (e.g., will be used for future gifting, are very similar to what we would otherwise purchase, etc.) rather than replacing them to save paying capital gain tax.
Yes. Our clients can certainly set up a retail account(s) that holds the assets they would like to manage on their own, and we would not collect any fee on those assets. We recommend this if a client likes to buy and sell individual securities.
All of the assets we manage on our clients’ behalf are held by our custodian, Fidelity Investments. We work with Fidelity to set up new accounts and to transfer our clients’ assets from their current financial institution. Fidelity will send monthly account statements and all clients have 24×7 online access to their accounts via Fidelity’s website.

In addition to the monthly account statements our clients receive directly from our custodian, Fidelity Investments, each quarter we provide a customized investment performance report, which analyzes the sources and context of performance results aggregated across the accounts we manage on our clients’ behalf. We also have occasional special mailings and email alerts on topics of interest. Clients are encouraged to contact us by e-mail, fax, or telephone at any time to discuss their investments, ask any question, or discuss any financial planning matter.  Finally, we strongly encourage all clients to meet in person with us at least annually to conduct a thorough financial planning and investment performance review.

The relationship between Artemis Financial Advisors and our clients is our most important asset. We strive to maintain their trust and confidence in our firm, an essential aspect of which is our commitment to protect the confidentiality, integrity and security of their personal information. As we believe that all of our clients value their privacy, we do not disclose any personal information to anyone unless it is required by law, or at our clients’ direction.

And, very importantly, we do not sell our clients’ personal information to anyone. For more information on our privacy policy, please review our Privacy Statement.

Divorce FAQs

A Certified Divorce Financial Analyst (CDFA™) is someone who has received specialized training to fully examine the various aspects of the divorce process from a financial perspective.

The firm’s principal, Leigh Bivings, has been a Certified Divorce Financial Analyst since 2012.

Many attorneys are not trained to analyze the financial complexities associated with dividing property and assets in a divorce situation. CDFAs act as a support to both the client and their attorney.
Every divorce situation is different and the journey can take many twists and turns. For complex cases, we therefore work on an hourly fee schedule as we think this is the fairest way to charge for our services.  For more straightforward situations or where the emphasis is on post-divorce financial planning, we charge a project fee much like we do for our financial planning clients.
Unequal knowledge and understanding of financial issues. Significantly greater knowledge of finances by just one partner puts the other person at a disadvantage. It is important that the financially less savvy partner get professional help.
Yes, at Artemis we provide both comprehensive financial planning and wealth management services.