What is the money for?
Not your risk tolerance. What you owe the future, and when — the tuition, the sale, the gift, the house that must stay in the family.
Crestbourne/Begin a conversation
Begin a conversation
The first meeting costs nothing and commits you to nothing.
An hour with a partner. Bring the question that has been sitting unanswered — the sale, the trust, the child who is about to inherit. We will tell you plainly whether we are the right firm, and if we are not, who is.
An hour, in person or by videoBoston, Charleston, Zurich — or wherever you are
No cost, no obligation, no follow-up sales callWe will not chase you afterwards
Answered within two business daysBy the partner who would lead your relationship
What the hour covers
Four questions, in this order.
We do not present. There are no slides and there is no proposal at the end of it — a proposal, if there is one, comes later and in writing.
What is already in place?
Existing advisers, trusts, entities and accounts. Very often the first useful thing we do is find a structure that was drafted and never funded.
Who else is in this?
Spouse, siblings, adult children, a business partner. Decisions made without them are the ones that come apart later.
Are we the right firm?
We answer this plainly, in the meeting. If the answer is no, we will name two or three firms we would send our own family to.
Helpful to have to hand — none of it required
- Your most recent investment statements, in whatever form they arrive
- Any trust or will documents, even if you are unsure they are current
- Last year's tax return, or simply a sense of your marginal rate
- A list of the accounts you hold and roughly where
- Anything a previous adviser recommended that you did not act on
- The question you have not been able to get a straight answer to
Bring none of it and the meeting is still worth having. Please do not email documents until we have spoken and agreed a secure channel.
Who you would meet
You will know who answers the phone.
Twenty-two people serve ninety families. Every relationship is led by a partner, and no partner carries more than a dozen. When you call, you will not be routed.
Alistair Crewe
Managing Partner
CFA · Joined 1996
Leads relationships where an operating business is still on the balance sheet. Chairs the investment committee. Takes most first meetings in Boston.
Marguerite Devereux
Head of Estate & Trust
JD, LL.M. Tax · Joined 2004
Works alongside your attorney on structures, funding and trustee duties. Sits in on any first meeting where a succession question is the reason for it.
Ayo Adeyemi
Partner, Family Office
CPA/PFS · Joined 2011
Leads multi-household mandates: consolidated reporting, governance, tax coordination and the next-generation curriculum.
Theo Mensah
Chief Investment Officer
CFA, CAIA · Joined 2008
Owns the allocation framework, the rebalancing rules and manager selection. Joins first meetings on request, and every annual review.
Boston
One Beacon Court, 14th FloorBoston, Massachusetts 02108
+1 617 555 0142
Charleston
42 Broad Street, Second FloorCharleston, South Carolina 29401
+1 843 555 0118
Zurich
Talstrasse 628001 Zurich, Switzerland
+41 44 555 0176
Before you ask
The questions families actually ask us first.
Answered here rather than in a meeting, so the hour can be spent on your situation instead of on ours.
Is there really no cost for the first meeting?
No cost and no obligation. We do not bill for the introductory hour, we do not send a follow-up sales sequence, and if we do not hear from you again we will not chase you.
The meeting exists because we cannot tell whether we are the right firm for a family without sitting with them, and neither can they.
What does the relationship cost after that?
0.85% a year on the first $5M, 0.65% to $20M, and 0.45% above that — tiered, so a $6M relationship pays 0.85% on the first $5M and 0.65% on the rest. Family-office mandates are a flat annual retainer quoted after scoping.
Third-party costs — fund expense ratios, custodian charges, your own attorney and CPA — are separate and paid directly by you. We receive no part of them. The full schedule is on the services page.
Is the $2,000,000 minimum firm?
Mostly. Below it, our fee is a large percentage of what we can add, and a good hourly planner or a low-cost platform will serve you better. We would rather say that in the first ten minutes than take the engagement.
We do make exceptions where a family is close to the threshold, or where the next generation of an existing client family is starting out.
What does "fee-only fiduciary" actually mean?
Fiduciary means we are legally bound to act in your interest, and we restate that duty in the engagement letter rather than in a footnote. Fee-only means every dollar of firm revenue comes from the clients we advise — no commissions, no product revenue, no platform payments, no referral fees received or paid.
One conflict remains and we name it plainly: our fee rises with the assets we manage, so advice to spend, give away or pay down debt reduces what we are paid. Our approach page sets out how we handle that.
Who holds my money?
A third-party custodian, in accounts held in your name. We have authority to trade those accounts and to have our fee debited. We can never move assets out to ourselves or to anyone else.
You receive statements directly from the custodian as well as our quarterly reporting, and you can compare the two at any time.
Will you work alongside my existing attorney and accountant?
Yes, and we prefer it. We do not practise law and we do not file returns. Our role is to make sure the three disciplines agree with each other — which is usually where the value sits, because most families have all three advisers and no one coordinating them.
Can you show me your performance record?
Not in the way the question usually intends. Every family has a different allocation because every family has a different liability schedule, so a single firm-wide return figure would describe nobody's actual experience.
What we will do in the first meeting is walk you through how a portfolio is built, the rebalancing rules we wrote down in advance, and the reporting you would receive each quarter. Past performance does not guarantee future results, and any figure we could quote would not change what happens to your money.
What if we start and it is not working?
You may end the engagement at any time, in writing, with no exit fee and no notice period. Fees are billed quarterly in arrears, so you pay only for the period already served.
Your accounts stay where they are, at your custodian, in your name. We assist with the transfer of records to whoever comes next.
A note on what we are not: Crestbourne does not take custody of client assets, does not manufacture investment products, and does not accept compensation from any third party. Nothing on this page is investment, legal or tax advice, or an offer to buy or sell any security. Investing involves risk, including the possible loss of principal.