Our approach
We would rather explain our reasoning and be questioned on it than present conclusions and ask to be trusted. Everything below is how that commitment shows up in practice.
Principles
These are operating rules rather than aspirations. Each one changes something specific about how we are structured or how we spend our time.
01
We are compensated by our clients and by no one else. No commissions, no revenue sharing, no proprietary funds, no payment for placement. The absence of those incentives is what makes objective advice possible.
02
An allocation is an answer to a question about spending, obligations and time. We refuse to build one before that question has been asked properly, which is why the first ninety days involve more analysis than trading.
03
Markets are not forecastable with any reliability. Cost, tax drag, diversification, rebalancing discipline and behaviour are. We concentrate effort where evidence says it changes outcomes.
04
Private markets, hedged strategies and bespoke structures belong in some portfolios and not others. The test is a durable expected return, not sophistication for its own sake.
05
Material recommendations are documented with their reasoning so they can be reviewed later — by our investment committee, and by the client. Advice that cannot be re-examined is difficult to trust.
06
We work alongside your attorney and accountant rather than replacing them. Most of the value in a complex situation is created in the seams between advisers, and we take responsibility for those seams.
Fee transparency
Lumarra charges a single advisory fee based on assets under advisement, tiered so that the marginal rate falls as a relationship grows. Planning, reporting and administration are included — there is no separate charge for advice.
We receive nothing from any manager, custodian, insurer or platform. Where a third-party fund fee exists, we show it alongside our own so the all-in cost of the portfolio is visible on a single page.
Families with substantial assets held away, or with needs that do not fit an asset-based arrangement, can engage us on a flat retainer instead.
Investment process
A long-horizon policy portfolio set against the family's spending floor, reviewed annually and rebalanced to bands rather than to a calendar.
Open architecture with a strong prior toward low-cost, tax-efficient implementation. Active mandates must clear a documented, repeatable edge.
Asset location, loss harvesting, gain deferral and charitable funding are treated as part of the investment process, not as a year-end exercise.
Concentration, liquidity, leverage and counterparty exposure are monitored across the whole balance sheet, including holdings we do not manage.
Next step
Fees, conflicts, performance, who does the work. We would rather answer them at the start than at the end.
