Tiedemann Advisors Review

Tiedemann Advisors and its affiliated brands focus on investment management, wealth planning, trusts and estates, governance and education and impact investing for wealthy individuals and families, as well as other entities including foundations and endowments. The firm is independently owned and operates on a fee-only basis, which means there’s no financial incentive for its advisors to push affiliated products or services.

Assets under management: $26,578,120,947

Minimum investment: Varies depending on the fund

Individual investor-to-advisor ratio: 6:1

Fee structure: Percentage of AUM, fixed fees

Headquarters: 520 Madison Avenue New York, NY, 10022 Website: www.tiedemannadvisors.com Phone: 212-396-5900

All information included in this profile is accurate as of May 30, 2022. For more information, please consult Tiedemann Advisors’ website.

Overview of Tiedemann Advisors

Tiedemann Advisors LLC, a subsidiary of Tiedemann Wealth Management Holdings LLC, is a privately owned wealth management firm that caters to the wealthy. In 2016 and 2017, respectively, the firm combined with Presidio Capital Advisors and Threshold Group, which increased its footprint as well as its expertise around impact investing and multi-generational families.

Today, Tiedemann Advisors has a staff of over 120, nearly 70 of whom are investment advisors. The team includes specialists in law, trusts, accounting and taxes.

A look at the founders

The late Carl Tiedemann spent decades on Wall Street in the research, investment banking and hedge fund businesses, and founded Tiedemann Investment Group in 1980. But he found himself unsatisfied with the services available at the time to manage his own family money.

In 1999, Tiedemann teamed up with his son, Michael, and Craig Smith, a trust and estates attorney turned wealth advisor, to launch Tiedemann Advisors. The advisory firm was originally founded as a trust company and later rebranded into a wealth management firm. The founders’ aim was to invest client money with outside independent managers, instead of peddling their own products or proprietary funds.

Carl Tiedemann died in 2016 at the age of 89.

Types of clients

The firm mainly works with high net worth individuals and families, which the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) generally defines as investors with at least $750,000 in assets under management or a net worth of at least $1.5 million. It does not currently serve any individual clients who do not meet this definition.

In addition, the team provides advice to private investment funds, which are only available to Tiedemann clients. The minimum needed to invest in those funds varies, but the requirement can be waived or modified by the managers. That said, investors in the funds must generally be accredited investors, meaning they must have meet one of the following financial criteria:

• Has an earned income that exceeds $200,000 (or $300,000 with a spouse or partner) in each of the prior two years and reasonably expects the same for the current year
• Has a net worth over $1 million, either alone or together with a spouse or partner (excluding the value of the person’s primary residence)

Services offered

Wealthy clients can enlist Tiedemann Advisors for comprehensive wealth management services, which includes managing their investments and planning their financial lives, including their estate, philanthropy, tax, insurance, succession and cash needs. For clients who want their money to work toward specific causes close to their heart, they can find a broad list of impact investing options.

The firm can handle client investment accounts through either a discretionary relationship, meaning clients turn over the day-to-day decision-making and control of their accounts to the firm, or non-discretionary management, where the client maintains control.

In addition to the above services, Tiedemann provides some family office services, including administrative tasks such as bill paying, although additional charges may apply.

Here is a full list of services offered:

• Investment advisory services/portfolio management
• Impact investing
• Financial planning
  • Charitable planning
  • Succession planning
  • Tax planning and management
  • Liquidity planning
  • Insurance/risk management
• Trusts and estates (administered through the affiliated Delaware Trust Company)
• Governance and education
• Family office services

Investment strategy

As an independent firm, unaffiliated with any big banks or brokerages, the firm has flexibility around its recommended investments. It uses a “manager-of-managers” approach, meaning client money is generally placed with outside managers that the firm sources and monitors.

These unaffiliated managers include investment advisors, portfolio managers and investment funds that invest globally across all asset classes. Investments can be made directly with these outside managers or indirectly through commingled funds managed by Tiedemann.

With managed account clients, the firm combines third-party manager exposure/investment themes with shorter-term (around 12 to 24 months) investments in asset classes or regions that the advisor believes will offer a good risk-adjusted return. In general, tactical investment choices typically consist of mutual funds or ETFs, but may also include:

• Stocks
• Bonds
• Futures
• Options
• Other types of derivatives or private investment funds

Clients interested in impact investing can choose from two broad themes: environmental sustainability and socio-economic development.

Tiedemann’s fees

Clients generally pay an advisory fee calculated as a percentage of assets under management. The fee varies based on a number of factors, including how much money the client invests, the asset classes in which they invest and the strategies being used. The maximum asset-based fee paid to the firm is 0.85%.

In addition to this advisory fee paid to Tiedemann Advisors, clients also owe fees to the third-party managers used. Clients are also responsible for custodian and brokerage fees, as well as other internal fees for underlying investments, such as mutual fund or ETF fees.

The fees are typically paid quarterly and can be deducted from client accounts.

Disciplinary disclosures

Tiedemann Advisors discloses no disciplinary events over the last 10 years, meaning it has a clean track record. The SEC requires all registered investment advisors to disclose in their Form ADV any legal or disciplinary actions including criminal, civil or regulatory issues that may be material to a client evaluating the advisor or the integrity of its management team.

For more on the firm, you can go to its Investment Adviser Public Disclosure (IAPD) page.

Becoming a client

1. Reach out to the firm: Potential clients can reach out directly to one of Tiedemann Advisors’ nine offices or fill out the Get In Touch With Us form provided on the firm’s website. The form requests your name, email address and the area in which you’re interested and also includes the option to leave a brief message.
2. Get a formal investment policy statement: Advisors will work with clients who decide to move forward with the firm to develop a formal investment policy statement that reflects the client’s goals, risk tolerance and investment objectives.
3. Choose a custodian: Clients typically custody their assets with Fidelity or Charles Schwab, but can choose another custodian if they prefer.
4. Receive regular reports and account reviews: Clients can expect to receive monthly or quarterly reports from their custodians. Tiedemann reviews client accounts each month. At the beginning of each year, the firm creates a market outlook, which informs its recommendations for portfolio asset allocations. Recommendations are generally updated on a quarterly basis based on economic and market events, though they can change more or less often depending on market conditions.

Locations

Tiedemann Advisors has offices in the U.S. in the following locations:

• New York
• Bethesda, Md.
• Dallas
• Seattle
• Aspen, Colo.
• Wilmington, Del.
• Palm Beach, Fla.
• San Francisco
• Portland, Ore.

The firm is registered to serve clients in 15 states, including some states where it does not have physical locations.

Is Tiedemann Advisors right for you?

Tiedemann Advisors targets a niche clientele: high net worth individuals, families, institutions or businesses. Wealthy investors looking for financial planning, investment management and trust and estate services grouped together in one place could consider the firm. Philanthropists particularly interested in using their investments to contribute to certain causes close to their hearts, such as diversity or the environment, should inquire about the firm’s impact investing resources.

That said, clients with more modest net worths will need to look elsewhere, as will investors who want an in-person relationship with their advisor but do not live near one of Tiedemann Advisors’ nine offices. And even if Tiedemann isn’t your ideal advisory firm match, MagnifyMoney can help you find one that is with the simple form below

The “Find a Financial Advisor” links contained in this article will direct you to webpages devoted to MagnifyMoney Advisor (“MMA”). After completing a brief questionnaire, you will be matched with certain financial advisers who participate in MMA’s referral program, which may or may not include the investment advisers discussed.