Beacon Pointe Advisors is a fee-based financial advisor firm founded in 2002. This firm has its headquarters in Newport Beach, California. It also places first on SmartAsset's list of the top financial advisors in Newport Beach.
This firm has received significant industry-wide recognition nearly every year since 2005. This includes placements on the Financial Times' Top 300 RIAs list, Barron's various lists of the top RIAs in the U.S., Forbes' list of the Fastest Growing RIAs in the U.S. and more.
Beacon Pointe Advisors Background
Beacon Pointe Advisors was founded in Newport Beach in 2002. The firm is almost entirely owned by its employees. Shannon Eusey is the primary owner of the firm, technically owning it through Beacon Pointe Holdings, LLC. One outside investor named Royce Yudkoff also holds a stake in the firm.
Among the firm's advisors are 61 certified financial planners (CFPs), 17 chartered financial analysts (CFAs), five certified investment management analysts (CIMAs), five certified public accountants (CPAs) and more.
Beacon Pointe Advisors Client Types and Minimum Account Sizes
The majority of Beacon Pointe's more than 10,000 clients are individuals, with a nearly even split between those with a high net worth and those without. The rest of the client base includes pensions and other retirement plans, charitable organizations, government entities, insurance companies and businesses.
To start a relationship with Beacon Pointe, the firm generally requires you to have at least $1 million in investable assets. However, the firm may decide to reduce or waive this minimum at its sole discretion.
Services Offered by Beacon Pointe Advisors
Beacon Pointe Advisors has no shortage of offerings when it comes to advisory services. Here’s a quick breakdown of what it can do:
- Consulting services
- Financial planning
- Investment policy development
- Asset allocation planning
- Manager and/or mutual fund search
- Third-party manager monitoring
- Performance evaluation
- Custodial search and selection
- 401(k) consulting
- Education services
- Asset Management
- Managed Account Program (combination of financial planning and investment management)
Asset management services at Beacon Pointe come in the form of its Managed Account Program. In some cases, the firm's advisors will manage client assets directly, but most of the time, the firm will recommend third-party managers to oversee a portion or all of client portfolios, then provide continuous reviewing and monitoring of these managers.
Beacon Pointe Advisors Investment Philosophy
Beacon Pointe will generally allocate client assets between no-load mutual funds, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), real estate investment trusts (REITs) and private funds when managing portfolios directly.
Generally speaking, the firm follows a number of core asset classes that it looks to include in client portfolios. These are:
- U.S. Equity
- Non-U.S. Equity (Developed Markets)
- Non-U.S. Equity (Emerging Markets)
- U.S. Fixed-Income
- Global Fixed-Income
- Public Real Estate
- Private Real Estate
- Private Equity (Venture Capital, Buyout or Fund of Funds)
- Hedge Funds (Fund of Funds)
- Real Assets
Within each of these asset classes, Beacon Pointe may decide to adhere to different styles of investment. In other words, depending on the client's needs, the firm may utilize strategies like value investing, growth investing and more.
Fees Under Beacon Pointe Advisors
For its asset management services, Beacon Pointe Advisors charges a percentage-based advisory fee related to your assets under management. For individual clients, there is a wrap fee program with rates ranging from 0.50% to 1.15%, depending on account size. For institutional clients, this rate can vary from 0.30% to 1.00%. As a point of reference, RIA in a Box's recent study on annual advisory fees showed the average rate is 0.95% of AUM.
For consulting services, the firm may charge a fixed, hourly or annual retainer fee. They each go as follows:
- Fixed: at least $25,000
- Hourly: between $350 and $500 an hour
- Annual retainer fee
- Discretionary portfolios: between 0.20% and 0.50%
- Non-discretionary portfolios: between 0.08% and 0.50%
As a fee-based firm, some of Beacon Pointe's advisors receive commissions for selling certain insurance products, which represents a potential conflict of interest. Regardless, the firm abides by fiduciary duty to act in the best interests of its clients.
What to Watch Out For
There are no disclosures listed on Beacon Pointe Advisors' Form ADV, which means it has a clean legal and regulatory record.
Beacon Pointe employs some advisors that can earn commissions from insurance product sales. These commissions have the potential to cause a conflict of interest, but the firm remains obligated to act in clients' best interests due to its fiduciary duty.
Opening an Account With Beacon Pointe Advisors
If you’d like to become a client of Beacon Pointe Advisors, you can contact the firm a few different ways. You can call its headquarters at (949) 718-1600, or you can send an email to info@beaconpointe.com. Visit the firm’s website to find the contact information for its many regional offices in the following cities:
- Newport Beach, CA
- Fresno, CA
- Los Angeles, CA
- Campbell, CA
- Palm Desert, CA
- Riverside, CA
- San Diego, CA
- Santa Barbara, CA
- Scottsdale, AZ
- Boston, MA
- Philadelphia, PA
- Dallas, TX
- Summit, NJ
All information is accurate as of the writing of this article.
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