About
Proctor Financial did not become one of the most trusted New England money management firms overnight. The firm’s ethical principles come from the very top. Soon after graduating from Harvard, firm founder Tony Proctor went to work for one of the big investment companies. He was immediately successful, as he had been his whole life, but found himself increasingly disturbed at how the firm treated client assets and what that said about its values.
His new employer, like many large financial houses, put pressure on Tony and his peers to do things to help the firm at the expense of their clients. There was pressure to sell investment and insurance products regardless of whether they made sense for a given client’s portfolio, pressure to make sales quotas, pressure to invest all client money right away, when many times the best thing for the client would have been to let the assets build momentum where they were.
The conflict in interests between what was best for clients and what he was expected to do to benefit the firm forced Tony to reconsider his career path. These were not the values by which he was raised. He knew the way the firm treated its clients was wrong, but he also realized that the big firm’s values were ultimately self-defeating. With characteristic confidence and maturity, Tony founded Proctor Financial in 1994 at the tender age of 24 with two simple values at its core:
- Put client interests first, in the belief that doing right by clients would lead to success for the firm.
- Become the most expert financial planner he could be – and hire others who were equally expert – so that clients of the firm would get the best he could give.
In 1996, Proctor Financial managed $2.4 million in client assets. Today, Proctor Financial manages more than $200 million in client assets. Tony Proctor’s vision of a financial planning house built entirely around client interests has found its place.
Expertise and Certified Financial Planning®
To serve clients as effectively as possible, Tony wanted the top designation in the industry and set out to become a Certified Financial Planner, or CFP®, achieving this goal in 1996.
Anyone can call himself or herself a financial planner. Proctor Financial feels that any planner serious about helping clients must become a CFP®, in Tony’s words, “To learn what there is to learn.”
See our FAQs for the differences in designations
Tony Proctor, Steve Doucette, and John Grub are CFP®‘s. Every Proctor Financial planner must be among the best educated in the industry to serve Proctor Financial clients. It is the only way we can deliver on the promise of doing the best job we can for our clients, and the best way we know to give our clients the peace of mind they deserve from working with a financial planner.
A Thumbnail Sketch of Our Clients
Our clients are each unique, but they do share certain characteristics. Typically, clients of Proctor Financial have between $500,000 and $10 million in investable assets, as well as valuable real estate. While this makes the majority of our clients millionaires, they tend not to be the type to show off their success or even to think of themselves as especially wealthy.
What We Do for People
Proctor Financial provides a sense of security and confidence to our clients by taking over the day-to-day investing decisions that most people dread, and ultimately, ignore. By freeing our clients of this responsibility, they are able to enjoy their lives more fully. And by using our proprietary TCM™ system when managing investments, Proctor Financial is able to deliver an individually customized money management solution not found anywhere else. (For a more complete discussion of how our TCM™ system works, click here.) Unlike most firms, however, we view our relationships with our clients holistically. Proctor Financial goes beyond just investment management services, taking the extra steps necessary in retirement planning to truly give our clients peace of mind. These extra steps include:
- planning to provide increasing income in retirement;
- estate planning strategies and document reviews to minimize estate taxes;
- looking for ways to save on taxes;
- planning to avoid nursing home expenses;
- planning for the best way to fund college expenses; and
- making the most of benefits at work and executive compensation packages.
By taking these extra steps, in addition to providing investment management, Proctor Financial makes it easier for our clients to put an end to worrying about retirement planning, knowing that it has been addressed professionally. Without doing these extra things for our clients, we would not be delivering on our second core value.
What We Do for Businesses
In addition to individual retirement planning, we offer expertise in business planning, helping companies choose the most cost-effective retirement plan solutions with the best investment choices for their employees. In addition, we can help with transition plans for company owners approaching retirement, making certain that the fruits of all their hard work don’t disappear the day they stop working. We have broad experience working with the owners of employer stock options, with strategies for maximizing after-tax return and minimizing the risk of employer stock options.
We Believe in Education
The more people understand their choices, the more likely they are to choose wisely. This is especially true in financial matters, where it seems a separate language has been created to confuse and confound. Proctor Financial feels that in order to communicate effectively with our clients, we all need to be on the same page. Therefore, we regularly offer retirement planning seminars to educate our clients and the public about retirement planning issues. These courses consist of ten hours spread over four evenings where people interested in planning for and managing their retirements can learn the language, the strategies, and tactics for a successful retirement from a Proctor Financial CFP®.
That Proctor Feeling
Our client-focused values have created an unusually close-knit community between Proctor Financial employees and our clients. We believe it is our common goals that unite us. We know that this community is built upon our belief in and strict adherence to our two core values. The people who work here have all been carefully chosen, sharing a belief that clients should be treated like family. Don’t be surprised if our clients tell you they enjoy coming in for their periodic reviews.
We’ve noticed a qualitative difference in how people approach and manage retirement when they enter it knowing they have a partner helping to make sure they are financially secure. One of the delights in our business is using our expertise to help our clients maintain or improve the quality of their lives long past their working years.
If you’re interested in working closely with capable and client-focused financial planners, we’d like to hear from you.