Top Financial Advisors in Salt Lake City, UT

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Next on the list is another fee-based firm, Crewe Advisors. The firm has the highest asset minimum, asking new clients for at least $2 million in investable assets to open a new account. Formed in 2014, Crewe Advisors is one of the newest on the list. Crewe is a fee-based firm which means its advisors can earn commissions through the sale of certain securities. While this can create a potential conflict of interest, the firm is held to a fiduciary duty to put the needs of the client first. 

The firm offers portfolio management, estate planning, retirement services, tax planning and more. You can find Crewe Advisors just south of Capitol Hill on South Temple.

Advisors at Crewe use fundamental analysis, technical analysis and quantitative analysis to evaluate investment securities. The firm uses a variety of investment strategies typical of most financial advisor firms, including long-term trading, short-term trading, short sales, margin transactions, pooled investment vehicles and options trading.

Each portfolio is individualized, a service that’s usually only found at firms with high asset minimums. This means your advisor will get to know your “financial needs, tax circumstances, family dynamic, lifestyle objectives and risk tolerance” before developing your personalized investment plan.

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Alta Capital Management tops our list of firms serving Salt Lake City and offers investment advisory and portfolio management services. Alta works with associations, corporations, foundations, endowment funds, individuals, high net worth individuals, public funds, religious funds, financial advisory programs and more.

The firm is a fee-only firm and does not receive commissions based on its investment recommendations. Depending on what type of investments you're interested in, the minimum account requirement can vary from $250,000 to $5 million. 

Alta Capital Management has three pillars of its investment approach: profitability, growth and valuation. A profitable company that is worth investing in for Alta is a company that is profitable throughout the entire economic cycle. The firm is highly disciplined to stick to this approach to creating an investment strategy for each unique client. 

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Albion Financial Group is next on our list, a fee-only firm founded in 1982. Several advisors work at Albion Financial Group and services offered include investment management, wealth management and retirement plan services. The fee-only firm does not have a set account minimum that potential clients will need to meet to open an account.

In addition to typical financial advisor services, such as investment management and wealth management, Albion works with a range of clients, from those with lower levels of investable assets to high net worth clients and each client can receive individualized investment management services.

When evaluating securities and making investment decisions, the firm mainly uses fundamental, technical and cyclical analysis.

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Physician Wealth Advisors is a financial advisory firm that is owned by the Utah Medical Association and caters to its members. The firm, which describes its team as "specialists in financial planning for physicians," primarily serves physicians and their families. It also works with other entities connected to the Utah Medical Association, like corporations, foundations, endowments, pension and profit-sharing plans, trusts, estates and charitable organizations. Clients don't have to meet a minimum account requirement to work with the firm.

UMA Financial Services is a fee-based firm, as it earns money from avenues other than the fees its clients pay. Certain employees are licensed insurance agents, and the firm directly earns commissions from the sale of insurance products. It is a fiduciary though, requiring it to act in clients' best interests.

The firm says it strives to make financial planning less confusing and complicated for its clients so they can better protect and grow their budding wealth. It provides its clients with investment management and a range of financial planning services. This includes retirement planning, income planning, risk management, debt management and college funding planning. 

The investment philosophy of the firm rests on the fundamental belief that securities prices are a reflection of all publicly available information, with the exception of misinformation. It acknowledges that misinformation can cause pricing inefficiencies. When constructing client portfolios, the firm diversifies assets across countries and throughout asset classes. The firm strives to build portfolios in accordance with each client's risk tolerance and time horizon. It believes in regularly dynamically rebalancing portfolios whenever pre-determined asset weightings fall out of line.

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TrueNorth Wealth comes in next on our list. The firm is legally registered with the SEC as Association Financial Services. It specializes in serving high-net-worth individuals, particularly a group it describes as "elite intellectual specialists." This group includes physicians, surgeons, business owners and key employees. To begin a relationship with the firm, you'll need at least $300,000.

TrueNorth offers clients a number of financial planning services, including estate planning, income tax planning and investment planning. The firm offers investment management services on a non-discretionary basis, meaning the client will need to approve each trade made in their portfolio. 

TrueNorth Wealth doesn't think there's anyone approach that will fit all clients' situations, so it instead determines its investment recommendations and strategies based on each client's situation. The firm values being comprehensive, so it will also consider the larger economic environment, as well as tax efficiency when crafting an investment approach.

In general, TrueNorth incorporates the tenets of Modern Portfolio Theory when building client accounts. The firm usually steers clear of private placements or other alternative investments, instead opting to use registered funds. It typically will hold securities for over a year. 

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The final firm on the list for Salt Lake City is Tingey Advisors, a fee-only firm that doesn't receive any commissions on the sale of securities. The firm doesn't require a minimum amount to open an account and works with individuals, small businesses and institutions. 

Tingey believes in what the advisors call "value investing" which is to seek to invest in undervalued companies. Some of the most important aspects of making investment decisions for specific businesses include dividend growth, expanding profit margins, strong balance sheets and capable management teams.

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Smedley Financial Services is another firm that’s been around since the early 1980s. Smedley Financial Services has a small team of advisors and allows clients to open an account if they meet the portfolio minimum. For most accounts, this is $25,000. However, there a few that have a $50,000 minimum. Services offered include financial planning, retirement planning, 401(k) rollovers, Social Security planning and women-oriented wealth management.

Certain advisors at Smedley can receive commissions from the sale of insurance products or securities to clients. While this presents a potential conflict of interest, the firm has a fiduciary duty to act in clients' best interests at all times.

One aspect to consider about this firm is that it uses model portfolios. This means set, templatized portfolios that your assets are invested in depending on your financial objectives. The firm has more than 15 model portfolios, more than almost every firm we’ve researched that provides models. 

Each portfolio corresponds with a certain goal, such as growth, conservative risk or cash flow. The main three types are proactive portfolios, designed for risk-averse, market-driven investments; phase portfolios, created for income distribution planning; and tax-efficient portfolios, with a goal to maximize after-tax returns. All except tax-efficient income, tax-efficient growth and tax-efficient growth and income require $25,000 to open. The remaining three portfolios require at least $50,000.

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Jacobsen Capital Management is a fee-only firm. The firm serves a large base of clients, including high-net-worth individuals, individuals, trusts, foundations and retirement plans. The firm earns its compensation through asset-based fees, hourly fees and fixed fees. Jacobsen Capital doesn’t have a set account minimum.

Jacobsen Capital says it believes that a clearly defined, disciplined approach to investing is successful over long-term periods. The firm also says it generally avoids trying to time the market because this leads to unwanted fluctuations in portfolio performance.

JCM mainly invests its clients’ assets in mutual funds, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and separate accounts. The firm says it may also provide advice for private investment funds.