FAQs

There is no cost or obligation for an initial tmeeting with a financial advisor at Bernicke Wealth Management. This conversation will allow us to understand your goals and financial situation, and it will allow you to ask us questions. The purpose of this conversation is to help you determine if our team can add enough value to justify putting together a more thorough plan.

The wealth managers at Bernicke Wealth Management act as your personal Chief Financial Officer, working with you to build and grow your financial future. One of our goals at Bernicke Wealth Management is to provide you with financial education throughout the process of working with us, starting before you even become a client. Our team of experienced specialists will help coordinate your retirement planning, tax minimization, investment management, and estate planning goals.

The initial consultation is an exploratory meeting to collect goals, financial information, and to decide whether we mutually would like to pursue additional planning opportunities.

Additional plan design meetings are used to identify an individual’s financial strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities. Stress testing financial assets against one’s goals, providing specific recommendations, and comparing one’s uniquely developed investment plan also occurs at these meetings.

You can become a client by calling us today at 866-832-1173. We’re happy to speak with you and discuss your investment and financial goals. Our Team will guide you through every step of becoming a new client. Our hands-on approach respects your time, keeps you informed, and reduces the amount of paperwork needed.

Bernicke Wealth Management focuses on individuals with investable assets of $500,000 or more.

No, you do not have to sell your investments to work with our firm. In fact, there are many circumstances where it makes sense to keep the investments you presently own. Even though we may not directly manage all of a client’s investments, we coordinate what we do manage with our client’s outside-held accounts to ensure the big picture is working together fluidly.

Bernicke Wealth Management has three offices. Our home office is located in Altoona, Wisconsin, and serves the Eau Claire area. We also serve the Twin Cities metro area out of our offices located in Minnetonka and Woodbury, Minnesota.

Ty Bernicke is the President of Bernicke Wealth Management and serves as an Executive Wealth Manager. Ty currently works with a limited number of clients who require wealth and/or investment management services. His research on investment management, retirement planning, and tax minimization strategies has been published or recognized by The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, The New York Times, Futures Magazine, and many other well-known national and international publications. Ty Bernicke and Bernicke Wealth Management give back to the community and environment through numerous charitable endeavors. Ty spends his free time with his wife, two daughters, and one son. He also likes to fish, golf, and exercise.

Bernicke Wealth Management advisors act in a fiduciary capacity for our clients, which ultimately means we are required by law to put your best interests ahead of our own.

Our team has multiple designations including CFP®, CFA, and MBA.

Following the complete analysis of your financial situation, we provide specific recommendations to each client along with a comparison illustrating each investor’s current cost versus the costs that would incur should you choose to move forward with our firm. The fee clients pay is a percentage based on the number of investments we manage. We do not charge separate fees for all the additional services we provide on a comprehensive basis. This fee will vary based on the amount invested, the types of investments recommended, and the scope of services provided. This fee can be as low as .10% or as high as 1.75% but on average is around 1%.

Bernicke Wealth Management uses third-party custodians to hold clients’ investments. Clients can set up online access to monitor their investment accounts and can even set up automatic notifications when activity occurs in any investment account managed by Bernicke Wealth Management. Since we are an independent firm, we can use a variety of custodians. Presently we use LPL and/or Fidelity for brokerage custodian services. For additional information, refer to FINRA’s Brokercheck online service to research the compliance history of any of our licensed staff. In over 38 years of business, we have never had a Bernicke employee receive a regulatory action.

LPL is an independent broker-dealer that provides us access to the securities markets. LPL gives our clients a window to many different types of investments while providing compliance, oversight, and protection of clients’ money. LPL is not an investment; they hold the investments that our clients own. The investments that are held with LPL are uniquely managed for each client. As stated earlier, we do have other custodians like Fidelity that are available but the advantages of utilizing LPL are generally superior for the comprehensive approach that our firm uses.

As Bernicke Wealth Management has grown, we have developed a leadership team that oversees the direction of the firm. We have a formal succession plan with an experienced advisor who is able to fill Ty’s role with a moment’s notice so that none of our clients would be negatively impacted and the business will continue as usual.

Bernicke Wealth Management gets audited at least annually by LPL. During this audit, all of our records are made available to the auditor including our emails. Additionally, Bernicke Wealth Management acts as an Investment Advisor Representative which means that all of our books and records can also be spontaneously audited at any time by the SEC. Additionally, we also can be audited spontaneously by FINRA. FINRA also provides Broker-Check Services, which you can view at brokercheck.finra.org and review any of our licensed employees on that website.

If an emergency or natural disaster occurs, Bernicke Wealth Management has a formal written plan on how to continue business for clients. Our data is kept in an online vault and is backed up on a regular basis. This data could be accessed quickly through multiple locations.

Give us a call at 866-832-1173 or email questions@bernicke.com. We’d be happy to answer any of your questions.