Yes!  Benjamin Simerly is proud to be a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER® and holds all applicable licenses for being a financial planner, including the Series 65.  

A CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER® Professional is also known as a CFP®.

We are Fiduciaries, focused on providing advice that is the best for you, not selling products with commissions. 

We are here to help you build generational family wealth, and pass healthy family financial habits on to your children. 

This is for those looking to build habits their great-grandchildren take pride in…

Generally- just say no. 

We aim to help families invest in whatever way works best for them. I

If a client insists on taking the annuity path, we aim to use a “fee-based” annuity instead of one that pays a commission if at all possible. 

We are proudly focused on being a fee-based financial planning practice: we are here for advice and ongoing planning, not product sales. 

The reality is that annuities can be the right fit for some families, but we believe that more often than not, there are far less expensive ways to achieve a better end result.

We are a fee-based financial advising practice: 

We mainly charge based on a % of assets under advisement and/or flat planning fees. 

We only take on clients looking for a relationship lasting generations, and as a result, do not offer one-time planning fees or hourly planning arrangements. 

Along those lines, we do not work with assets split between multiple advisors. 

Imagine what a surgeon would say if you told them they could only see part of your body during surgery! 

We will always present your options and costs upfront for your consideration and focus on the fit between your family and our practice. 

For more information on how we bill, you can check out our About page.

In short, no. 

As noted above, this is about values, not minimums. 

We do our best work with diligent savers, and families dedicated to building generational wealth. 

This often means families with a minimum of 2 million in investable assets if already retired, or families aiming for more than 2 million in today's dollars by the time they retire. Having $1 Million isn’t what it used to be… 

BUT what if you are just as dedicated, and just getting started? 

How do you get help building wealth if many financial planning firms have an asset minimum in the millions? 

We are proud to work with any family or individual that is willing to save their money, work hard, and stick to the plan. 

We do charge money, and to be blunt, if you value your Starbucks more than your financial future (And you can’t afford both at the same time…), then we aren't the firm for you! 

Only families and individuals serious about building healthy financial habits need apply. 

We take time with family, time with our clients, and the wealth that allows for that time with family seriously, and we only spend our time with people who value that time with family as much as we do. 

From families just getting started to those passing wealth to the third generation, the one thing our clients and we all have in common is how we value time with family, and building the healthy financial habits to fund it.

No two people are the same, so why should investments all be identical? 

We offer a wide range of investment options and focus on how they FIT YOU instead of a one-size-fits-all approach. 

Our goal is to lower your costs, invest smarter, and create reliable income in retirement so you can focus on family, and spend more time at the lake (Beaches and mountains are ok too...).

We help clients from all over the United States and can have meetings over both secure Zoom video conferencing and locally in Cleveland, Ohio. 

In fact, you can schedule a Zoom meeting with us right here: https://lakehousefamilywealth.as.me

We do our best work with families looking for a long-term relationship. 

Currently, we do not offer hourly or one-time services. 

From Grandparents, to Parents, to Grandchildren, and beyond, our focus is on your life and your family for decades to come. 

Wealth and financial planning are ongoing pursuits, not one-time achievements.

As a high-service, low-volume practice, we cover all the areas of family financial health, sometimes referred to as a “holistic” planning practice. 

We place significant importance on educating the next generation on healthy financial habits. 

In short, we help quarterback your financial life and work with your other professionals, including your accountant, estate attorney, etc, to help your entire financial picture come together. 

And if you don’t already have those professionals, we can help you find the right ones for you. 

We cover financial planning, wealth management, retirement income planning, family budget counseling, charitable giving strategies, estate planning, insurance optimization, social security timing strategies, high-net-worth and highly-compensated employee saving strategies, and more. 

We are here to help with the whole picture.

As noted above, Lakehouse Family Wealth was founded to help families spend more time together, pure and simple. 

In order to do that, you have not just to build the wealth to fund it, but pass healthy financial habits on to future generations. 

This is about building the values of healthy family financial habits and time with family. 

Far too often the term “wealth” is spoken of as though it is the scourge of the earth, but the reality is that building generational wealth can allow families to weather storms, pay for medical needs, afford an education that is the best fit for every child in the family.  

Most importantly, wealth can help bring focus on time with family. 

Here, you will often hear the term “trust fund kids.”

The reality is that more and more families are working hard to build wealth in trusts, but not so that their kids never work. In fact, it’s just the opposite. 

They want their kids to work even harder than they did! More and more families are building wealth to prevent the unexpected from derailing life, and teaching their children how to build it for their own families in the future. 

Lakehouse Family Wealth was built to help families do just that. We said it before, and we will say it again: As we often say to clients, we want your children to be so financially successful that it drives you absolutely crazy that they have so much more money than you did at that age,  

And we want them to build it themselves! 

For more information on Ben Simerly and the team at Lakehouse Family Wealth, you can check out our About page.

We focus on time with family, passing healthy habits on to the next generation, and fit. 

Many firms bring on as many clients as possible, as fast as possible. 

Many larger firms often place thousands of clients with each “advisor.” 

We are a low-volume, high-service practice looking to help roughly 60 to 90 families over the next 40 years, and if that number grows, it will be by adding to the advisors per # of clients, not to the # of clients per advisor. When we say we spend real time with you and your family, we aren’t kidding. 

We limit the number of new clients we take on each year to make sure each family is onboarded carefully and over a 12-24 month period as we phase into longer-term planning needs specific to each family. 

During our initial meetings, we focus on your values, your goals, and fit. 

And if it's not a fit, we will help you find the right advisor through our extensive network of industry pro's. 

Seriously, we will actually help you find the right firm for you through our network of like-minded practices that all have their own niches, own focus, and own values.