Frequently Asked Questions

About River Wealth Advisors

What services does River Wealth Advisors provide?
In addition to Discretionary Investment Management services, River Wealth Advisors offers comprehensive Wealth Management services, which may include:

• Financial Planning

• Retirement Planning

• Trust and Estate Planning

• Legacy Mapping

• Business Planning

• Female-Focused Investing

We also work with your other professional advisors, like your attorney and accountant, whenever possible. This allows us to gain insight into your full financial picture, which in turn, enables us to provide the most informed guidance and identify tax benefits.

Services are tailored to align with each client’s financial goals, time horizon, and risk tolerance. (Source: https://www.riverwealthadvisors.com/what-you-can-expect)

Who do you typically work with?
We work with high-net worth individuals, families, and business owners who are seeking thoughtful, long-term financial guidance. Our approach is designed to support clients across different stages of life and wealth accumulation.

What custodians do you work with?
Client assets are held with Charles Schwab or Fidelity, independent qualified custodians. This separation helps ensure transparency and independent account reporting.

Do I need a minimum amount to work with you?
Minimums may apply depending on the type of service. We encourage prospective clients to contact us directly to discuss their situation and determine fit.

What does it mean to be a fiduciary?
As a fee-only advisor, River Wealth Advisors adheres to the higher fiduciary standard when advising clients.  Fiduciary is a legally defined term which obligates us to act in the client’s best interests at all times. Under this obligation we have a Duty of Loyalty to put your interests above our own, a Duty of Care to provide prudent advice and a Duty to Disclose any conflicts of interest.

Investment Philosophy and Process

How do you approach investing?
River Wealth Advisors helps clients make productive, long-term financial decisions by developing and maintaining a disciplined strategy around their personal wealth goals. We believe that clients benefit when they gain a better understanding of their tolerance for risk and expectation of reward. Based on our clients' financial goals, we build a long-term portfolio and seek to maintain the proper asset allocation to manage risk and provide a fair return. (https://www.riverwealthadvisors.com/investment-process)

Do you guarantee investment results?
No. All investments involve risk, including the possible loss of principal. While we strive to design strategies aligned with client goals, outcomes cannot be guaranteed.
We believe that clients benefit when they gain a better understanding of their tolerance for risk and expectation of reward. Based on our clients' financial goals, we build a long-term portfolio and seek to maintain the proper asset allocation to manage risk and provide a fair return. (Source: https://www.riverwealthadvisors.com/investment-process )

How often will my portfolio be reviewed?
We formally review client relationships at least annually. However, if you experience a significant life event, such as retirement, a job change, marriage, death of a spouse, divorce, the sale of a business, an inheritance, or a major change in your financial goals, we would reassess your plan and investment strategy sooner to ensure it remains aligned with your circumstances.

How often will my portfolio be rebalanced?

We monitor portfolios on an ongoing basis and rebalance as needed when allocations move beyond our established thresholds, rather than on a pre-set schedule. This helps maintain the intended risk and return characteristics of the portfolio while avoiding unnecessary trading.

Financial Planning

Is financial planning a one-time process?
Financial planning is an ongoing process and may evolve as your goals, financial situation, and market conditions change. Wherever you are in your financial planning journey, River Wealth Advisors is happy to support and guide you in your financial future.

Can you help with retirement planning?
Yes. We help clients evaluate their retirement readiness, develop withdrawal strategies, and consider income sources. We work with clients to formulate a retirement plan that meets your unique goals. We will work with you to identify your needs, wants and wishes, and then help you gather information about the resources you currently have. Once we have that information, we can forecast what you can reasonably expect to accumulate before you retire. We then offer to meet with you on a regular basis to review your plan and determine if any adjustments are needed based on life changes. (Source: https://www.riverwealthadvisors.com/retirement-planning)

Do you provide tax planning?

Yes. Tax management is an important part of our ongoing planning and investment process. We assist with strategies such as tax-loss harvesting, tax-gain harvesting when appropriate, managing realized gains across tax years, determining which securities to sell for distributions, asset location across different account types, and charitable gifting of appreciated securities. Our goal is to help maximize after-tax returns by coordinating investment decisions with your overall tax situation and financial plan.

Do you provide income tax planning?

Yes. Income tax planning is an important part of our financial planning process. We review your tax returns, including your Form 1040, and use that information to model hypothetical strategies for future years. This may include evaluating Roth conversions, withdrawal strategies, capital gains management, Social Security timing, charitable giving strategies, and other planning opportunities designed to improve long-term tax efficiency.

Can you do multi-year tax projections? 

Yes. Multi-year tax projections are part of our financial planning process. We look beyond annual tax-loss harvesting and evaluate strategies over multiple years, including the timing of withdrawals, Roth conversions, capital gains, Social Security benefits, and Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs). This allows us to identify opportunities to improve tax efficiency and make more informed planning decisions over the long term.

What level of estate planning are you able to perform? 

We provide estate and legacy planning as part of our comprehensive financial planning process. This includes legacy mapping, which helps align your assets with your goals for family, charitable giving, and future generations. We also evaluate tax-efficient wealth transfer strategies, beneficiary designations, account titling, charitable gifting, and Roth conversion opportunities to help preserve more wealth for both you and your heirs.

While we do not draft legal documents such as wills or trusts, we work closely with your estate planning attorney to help ensure your estate plan, tax strategy, and legacy goals are aligned.

Do you include planning for the death of a spouse? 

Yes. Planning for the loss of a spouse is an important part of the financial planning process. We help evaluate the impact on income, taxes, Social Security benefits, Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs), investment accounts, and estate planning objectives.

We also review survivor income needs and identify strategies that may help reduce future tax burdens, since a surviving spouse often moves from Married Filing Jointly to Single filing status. Our goal is to help ensure the surviving spouse remains financially secure and that assets are transferred according to your legacy goals. Equally as important, because we get to know our clients, we are here to help support and guide the surviving spouse during this difficult time.

Fees and Accounts

How are you compensated?
Clients are charged an annual advisory fee, based on a percentage of assets under management. The annual fee is prorated for new clients and paid quarterly in arrears , based upon the market value of the assets under our management on the last day of each quarter. (Source: https://www.riverwealthadvisors.com/how-we-get-paid )

Do you charge fees for any type of purchase period? 

River Wealth Advisors does not charge any fees associated with transactions in client accounts. Custodians (Charles Schwab and/or Fidelity) do have fees associated with certain transactions. Our clients incur prime brokerage fees at these custodians associated with the purchase of fixed income securities through other institutional brokers. For Schwab, the cost is $15/trade and for Fidelity it is $20/trade. The impact of these nominal transaction fees on client returns is taken into consideration when placing trades.  

Do you receive fees or commissions on any type of purchase/sale, third-party referral fees, 12b-1 fees, insurance compensation, or other compensation? 

No. As a fee-only advisor, River Wealth Advisors adheres to the higher fiduciary standard when advising clients about investments. This means we do not receive commissions for transactions and provide objective wealth management advice based solely on the merits of the investment.

Getting Started

What is the process of becoming a client?
The process generally begins with an introductory meeting to understand your goals and determine whether our services are a good fit. If appropriate, we then develop a plan and outline next steps to ensure we are aligned on your goals and timing.

What information should I prepare for an initial meeting?
It is helpful to provide details about your financial accounts, income, expenses, goals, and any existing planning documents. However, the initial meeting is really focused on us learning about your objectives, timeline, risk tolerance, and learning how we can best work together. We can collect the appropriate documents after the meeting if that is more convenient.

Risk and General Disclosures

What risks should I be aware of when investing?
Investing involves various risks, including market volatility, interest rate changes, inflation, and economic conditions. Diversification and planning can help manage risk, but they cannot eliminate it. There is one thing we know with certainty; markets will change. They will go up, down, stabilize, and repeat, not necessarily in that order. Our commitment to our clients is to mitigate unnecessary risk, not react emotionally to the market, and position them to achieve their financial goals. (Source: https://www.riverwealthadvisors.com/investment-philosophy)

Disclosure: The information provided in these FAQs is for general educational purposes only and does not constitute personalized investment advice. Not all services will be appropriate or necessary for all clients, and the potential value and benefit of the River Wealth Advisor’s services will vary based upon the client’s individual investment, financial, and tax circumstances. Past performance does not guarantee future results. The receipt of personalized and tailored services, or the client’s access to financial or professional resources should not be construed as a guarantee of a particular outcome. All investing comes with risk, including risk of loss. The effectiveness and potential success of an investment management strategy, including those described here, depends on a variety of factors, including but not limited to the manner and timing of implementation, coordination with the client and the client’s other engaged professionals, and market conditions. River Wealth Advisors does not provide legal, tax or accounting advice and does not prepare legal documents or tax returns. Clients should consult qualified legal, tax, and accounting professionals regarding their individual circumstances. Additional information about River Wealth Advisors is available in its Form ADV, available at https://www.riverwealthadvisors.com/policies-disclosures. Please contact us to discuss your specific financial situation.