Veris Wealth Partners is a San Francisco-based financial advisor firm. The firm works primarily with individual clients, along with some charities, retirement plans and investment funds. Veris has a plethora of financial planning and investment management services available for clients to take advantage of.
As a fee-only firm, Veris earns all of its revenue purely from the advisory fees that clients pay. This differs from a fee-based firm, where advisors may earn commissions by doing things like selling insurance products or overseeing securities transactions.
In addition to its headquarters in San Francisco, Veris has offices in New York, Niwot, Colorado, and Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
Veris Wealth Partners Background
Founded in 2007, Veris Wealth Partners is employee-owned by Alison Pyott, Casey Verbeck, Jane Swan, Lori Choi, Michael Lent, Nicole Davis, Patricia Farrar-Rivas, Richard Chen and Stephanie Cohn Rupp.
The Veris team has several accredited professionals, including two chartered financial analysts (CFAs), two certified financial planners (CFPs) and a financial paraplanner qualified professional (FPQP).
Veris Wealth Partners Client Types and Minimum Account Sizes
High-net-worth individuals make up the largest portion of the client base at Veris Wealth Partners, followed closely by non-high-net-worth individuals. The firm also works with charitable organizations, pension and profit-sharing plans, family offices, trusts, plus a hedge fund called the Veris Global Sustainability Fund.
To become a client at Veris Wealth Partners, the firm generally requires a minimum account size of $2 million. The firm does, however, waive this minimum at its discretion, which explains why the firm counts dozens of non-high-net-worth individuals as clients.
Services Offered by Veris Wealth Partners
You can take a look at the following breakdown to get an idea of the service offerings at Veris Wealth Partners:
- Investment management
- Asset allocation planning
- Investment policy statement (IPS) determination
- Financial planning
- Retirement accumulation planning
- Retirement income planning
- Education and college planning
- Employer retirement planning [reviewing 401(k) or 403(b) asset allocations]
- Employee benefits planning
- Budget and cash flow planning
- Financial impact planning for life events such as a new job, divorce, inheritance, asset liquidation or the birth/death of a family member
- Consulting
- Providing mission-related investing and impact investing education
- Development of mission-related investing and impact investing guidelines
- IPS drafting, or review to address financial and mission/impact guidelines
- Impact investment manager search and selection
- Miscellaneous consulting such as the selection of a bookkeeper or a family office
Veris Wealth Partners Investment Philosophy
Veris Wealth Partners centers its investment philosophy around five primary tenets:
- Portfolio construction driven by client goals
- Strategic asset allocation and disciplined rebalances
- Long-term perspective to maximize growth opportunity
- Environmental, social and governance (ESG) sustainability principles add value
- Investors can have impact across all asset classes and strategies
The firm generally constructs client portfolios using mutual funds, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), private equity funds, real estate funds, fund-of-funds and third-party investment managers. Veris practices impact investing and sustainability investing, which seek out companies and investments that don't have connections to excessive carbon emissions or environmental degradation.
Fees Under Veris Wealth Partners
Veris Wealth Partners charges a percentage-based fee for investment management services, which normally adheres to the following schedule:
| Fees at Veris Wealth Partners | |
| Asset Level | Annual Fee Rate |
| First $2MM | 1.00% |
| Next $3MM | 0.75% |
| Next $5MM | 0.50% |
| Above $10MM | 0.40% |
In dollar terms, here's approximately how much you would pay in annual fees for different account sizes:
| *Estimated investment management fees do not include brokerage, custodial, third-party manager or other fees, which can vary in amount. | |
| Estimated Investment Management Fees at Veris Wealth Partners* | |
| Your Assets | Veris Wealth Partners Fee Amounts |
| $500K | $5,000 |
| $1MM | $10,000 |
| $5MM | $42,500 |
| $10MM | $67,500 |
For financial planning or consulting services, the firm may charge a fixed or hourly fee. If fixed, the fee will range from $2,500 to $10,000 for financial planning and $5,000 to $250,000 for consulting. This variance depends on the nature of the services being provided. If hourly, the fee will likely range between $250 and $1,000.
What to Watch Out For
Veris Wealth Partners has no disclosures listed on its Form ADV, meaning it has a clean legal and regulatory record.
As a fee-only firm, you won't have to worry about Veris advisors recommending certain products and services simply to generate a commission. As mentioned earlier, their compensation comes from the advisory fees that clients pay, not insurance agencies or broker-dealers.
Opening an Account with Veris Wealth Partners
To open an account with Veris Wealth Partners, you can visit the firm's website and fill out the contact form with your name and email address, or you can call the firm's San Francisco headquarters at (415) 814-0580.
Veris Wealth Partners is based in San Francisco in the Russ Building, on the corner of Montgomery Street and Bush Street. In addition, the firm has offices in Portsmouth, New Hampshire; Boulder, Colorado; and New York City.
All information is accurate as of the writing of this article.
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