Ceaser Capital Management, LLC

We manage the most important investment account in the world: Yours.

We don’t approach investing with the intention of earning the absolute highest return on the hottest stock in the market. In fact, for most investment accounts we don’t trade individual stocks, or for that matter, any retail mutual funds you could purchase yourself. Our approach focuses on you—your goals, your time horizon, and your tolerance for risk. Without oversimplifying, think of it like a baseball game: Everyone wants to hit a home run, and occasionally you do. But if you go out swinging for the fences every time, you’re going to strike out a lot. We believe in the value of getting on base, time after time.

Pensions (remember those?) and endowments, some of the largest investment accounts in the world, don’t buy the hottest stocks, they don’t chase returns, and they don’t get in and out of the market, yet for the most part are able to provide benefits for years. How? By determining the appropriate allocation and having broad diversification, they are able to weather the storms as well as show gains when the market does. Whether it’s an IRA or a taxable account, we believe your investment account should be managed in the same prudent manner.

One other thing we believe separates us from many who use the term “financial advisor” is the fiduciary responsibility we have for all of our advisory accounts, which is a regulatory obligation to act in our clients’ best interest. Without taking this responsibility, an advisor is only required to provide what is suitable to a client, not necessarily what is best for them. While it almost seems like a given that an advisor would always act in a client's best interest, the truth is many are not required to. In addition to our regulatory obligations for advisory clients, both Michael G. Ceaser, Jr. and Michael T. Ceaser are Certified Financial Planner® practitioners which means we are bound by the CFP Board's Code of Ethics to the fiduciary standard for all of our clients. Whether you choose to work with us or someone else, we (as well as the Wall Street Journal and New York Times to name a few¹) very strongly suggest any advisor you work with take on a fiduciary standard of care with your account.

Declaration of Independence

One thing we pride ourselves on is our independence. Not just in our philosophy, but how we work. To us, being independent means we are not bound to any one company’s proprietary products. We can choose from a myriad of options, and should something better become available, we will not hesitate to change if it makes sense for our clients. Proof? We place our own personal funds in the very same advisory products that we recommend to our clients. 

Our compensation on advisory accounts is based on fees rather than commission. What difference does that make to you? Consider this: If you are an advisor and you have two options for your client, one of which pays you more than the other, which do you recommend?

Being fee based helps avoid conflicts of interest because we aren’t weighing commissions into what products we recommend. We are up front about our compensation because we feel our clients have a right to know. We put our fees in writing, as well as what our clients can expect from us, our expectations of our clients (don’t worry, they’re easy) and our agreement about what we want to accomplish and how we plan to do so. 

_{1 John F. Wasik, "What to Ask A Prospective Wealth Manager," The New York Times, 19 October 2011. "How to Choose A Financial Planner," The Wall Street Journal, http://guides.wsj.com/personal-finance/managing-your-money/how-to-choose-a-financial-planner/}