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The Alternativ Approach to Wealth Management blends the personal touch of a wealth advisor with a beautiful digital platform to create a magical planning experience you won’t find anywhere else.

Discover the Alternativ Approach

The personal touch from your trusted wealth advisor

An integrated investment platform purpose-built for clients like you

A beautifully designed digital wealth management experience

Start Your Journey to Financial Freedom

1. Schedule an Introductory Meeting

You can schedule a meeting with an Alternativ Advisor using this form or send us an email.

2. Meet with an Alternativ Advisor

Talk to an advisor about your financial goals and learn if our approach is right for you.

3. Get Organized and Personalized

Our team will help you gather everything we need to create your personalized financial plan.

4. Build Your Financial Foundation

We’ll review your current financial picture and identify strategies to achieve your goals.

5. Implement Your Investment Strategy

We continuously monitor your wealth and investment strategy to keep your plan on track.

Alternativ Solutions for Clients Like You

Investment Management

Our team of experienced investment professionals provide tailored investment strategies designed to meet your unique needs and risk profile. We focus on long-term wealth preservation and growth by constructing diversified portfolios using a variety of asset classes, including equities, fixed income, and alternative investments.

Cash Flow & Debt Management

Managing cash flow and debt is crucial to ensuring financial stability and meeting long-term financial objectives. We understand that managing complex financial situations requires a unique approach. That's why we work with our clients to develop customized plans that prioritize their unique financial goals, such as managing complex investments, estate planning, and charitable giving.

Family Legacy & Philanthropy

Everyone has a unique vision for the future of their family. We help clients create a lasting legacy that reflects their values and goals. We assist clients with estate planning, charitable giving, and succession planning to ensure that their wealth is preserved and passed down to future generations or used to support causes they care about.

Insurance & Risk Analysis

At Alternativ Wealth, we understand that managing risk is a critical component of managing wealth. Our team of experts works with clients to identify potential risks and provides customized solutions and risk management strategies. Our goal is to ensure that clients have comprehensive protection so they can have peace of mind knowing that their assets are protected, and their wealth is secure.

Tax Planning & Strategies

Tax planning is a critical component of financial planning, and at Alternativ Wealth, we understand the importance of optimizing tax efficiency. We help clients take advantage of tax-efficient investment vehicles, optimize retirement contributions, and utilize charitable giving strategies to reduce their tax burden.

The Alternativ Investment Philosophy

Risk awareness is critical
Diversification is key to risk control
Private markets are core to a balanced portfolio
Markets are efficient, except when they’re not
Asset returns reflect fundamentals
Transaction costs erode returns

Company News & Market Insights

September 12, 2023

Compound Merges With Alternativ Wealth

Read the article on Financial Advisor Magazine

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September 8, 2023

Market Commentary: August 2023

August Tug of War

It was a challenging month across markets. Signs of moderating inflation along with still robust economic conditions were offset by an increase in interest rates and concerns that the Fed could keep interest rates higher for longer than may be currently priced into markets. Expectations for an economic “soft landing” appear to be a growing consensus, but the substantial monetary tightening of the past two years and the Fed’s assessment that inflation remains too high, has kept uncertainty high.

  • Equity markets declined across the board in August, with the S&P 500 and NASDAQ posting their first monthly declines since February.1 2
  • Longer-dated treasuries sold off in August, pushing the 10-year rate up to a 4.34% on August 22nd, the highest since November 2007.3
  • Q2 earnings fell from year-earlier levels for the 3rd consecutive quarter, but forecasts point to a bottoming in Q3.4
  • Money supply measures have moved higher since April after a year of sharp declines.5
  • Inflation held steady in July from June, but the change from a year earlier ticked up slightly and remains well above the Fed’s 2% target.6
Equity Returns: August and Year-to-Date 2023
Source: S&P Dow Jones Indices7, NASDAQ8

Stocks faltered in August

  • All equity categories saw declines in August despite some strengthening to end the month.9
  • Economically sensitive small cap, value and emerging market stocks fared the worst.10
  • No region showed positive returns in August, with European and Asia ex-Japan stocks posting the weakest returns.11
  • Energy stocks eked out a small gain for August, the only S&P 500 sector to post a positive return. Utilities and consumer staples fared worst for the month, remaining the weakest performers so far in 2023.12
Fixed Income Returns: August and Year-to-Date 2023
Source: S&P Dow Jones Indices

The Fed Remains on the Job

There was no Fed meeting in August, and thus no policy changes to short-term interest rates, but yields for longer-dated treasuries increased during the month. Still, at the annual conference in Jackson Hole, Fed Chairman Powell reiterated that the job to bring down inflation was not yet over: “We are prepared to raise rates further if appropriate, and intend to hold policy at a restrictive level until we are confident that inflation is moving sustainably down toward our objective”.13

  • Fixed income returns were negative in all segments except ultra short term Treasury bills.14
  • Non-US government bonds (emerging and developed markets) fell the most during the month. 15
  • The rise in long-term rates helped lower the “inverted yield curve” measure (10-year treasury yields less 2-year yields) by 25 basis points (after a 15 basis points drop in July).16
  • A negative spread on this measure has historically been associated with a high risk of recession.

Money Supply and Inflation

Economist Milton Friedman famously said that inflation “is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon in the sense that it is and can be produced only by a more rapid increase in the quantity of money than in output.”17 He was specifically referring to “persistent” inflation rather than supply shocks that may drive prices higher temporarily. The chart below shows a broad measure of the “quantity of money” for the U.S. The sharp rise in this M2 gauge of the money supply in the early months of the pandemic is easy to see. Of course, that surge was designed to rapidly and substantially address the dramatic drop in the supply of goods when the global economy shut down in the first months of the Covid pandemic.

Money Supply: M2
Source: Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. M2 consists of currency, bank deposits, short term time deposits and money market funds.18

The jump in the supply of money offsetting a temporary smaller supply of goods would not necessarily have created persistent inflation, but critics of the Fed would instead point to the continued above pre-pandemic trend growth in M2 in the months after May 2020 as a large reason why inflation rose to such elevated levels in 2022 and is now requiring aggressive tightening efforts by the Fed to bring down. These efforts certainly increase the risk of recession.

Just as increases in the money supply can fuel inflation, reductions can serve to lower demand and prices. The impact is not immediate, however. The substantial declines in M2 that began in the spring and summer of last year have indeed begun to impact inflation. The chart below shows the year-over-year change in inflation for the Personal Consumption Expenditures index, the Fed’s preferred measure of inflation when removing the volatile food and energy components. Much of the recent rise and fall in inflation comes from those volatile commodities, especially energy prices.

Year-Over-Year Change in Inflation
Source: US Bureau of Economic Analysis, Personal Consumption Expenditure Price Index19

The headline inflation numbers (those that do not exclude food and energy) have been cut in half from the peak in June 2022. That feels like substantial progress, but there’s still another halving of inflation needed to bring the rate down to the Fed’s target of 2%. The picture is less encouraging when removing food and energy prices, with the Core PCE still 2.5 times higher than the Fed’s goal. The debate among investors and also within the Fed is whether there has already been enough tightening to bring these inflation numbers down to the target or if the Fed will have to restrict policy and raise rates further to finish the job. It’s a difficult question to answer given the imprecise nature of how monetary policy impacts inflation and the economy. The markets seem to have priced in no more rate hikes from the Fed as well as a soft landing for the economy so any changes in that trajectory would almost certainly drag down prices for both stocks and bonds.

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September 7, 2023

Compound and Alternativ Wealth merge to form $1B+ digital family office

NEW YORK and SAN FRANCISCO – Compound, the tech-enabled financial and tax advisor for tech executives, announced today that it is merging with Alternativ Wealth, one of the fastest growing RIAs in the country, to form Compound Planning—a $1B+ digital family office serving entrepreneurs, professionals, and retirees across the country.

“I am delighted to announce the strategic merger between Compound and Alternativ,” said Christian Haigh, CEO of the newly combined firm. “Together, we now provide the most robust wealth management technology and service offering, enabling our advisors to deliver a personalized planning experience that feels magical for our clients.”

As a result of the merger, Alternativ Wealth will rebrand as Compound Planning while increasing assets under management to ~$1.2 billion, supported by a team of 50+ employees nationwide. The combined company’s technology platform will provide their advisors with a digital experience that spans the front, middle, and back offices, accompanied by a beautiful digital dashboard for clients.

“I started Compound to be a one-stop-shop for tech professionals to manage their personal wealth, so they could spend less time worrying about their finances and more time on what matters most in their lives,” says Jordan Gonen, founder of Compound. “With this integration and Christian’s leadership, I am extremely excited to continue improving our offering and bring our modern technology and services to many more advisors and clients.”

For more information, visit compoundplanning.com

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September 7, 2023

Introducing Compound Planning

I have exciting news.

As of today, Alternativ has merged with our industry peer, Compound. Together, we’ll be called Compound Planning.

The combined firm will have over $1.1B AUM; a proven distribution strategy; and an experienced team across wealth, investments, tax, operations, marketing, product, engineering, and sales.

This merger allows us to provide more support for our financial advisors, and most importantly better serve our clients. We are now positioned better than ever to deliver a client-centric financial, tax, and investment planning experience.

Compound Planning exists to provide a personalized wealth management experience for entrepreneurs, professionals, and retirees, powered by a world-class team and modern technology.

We are confident in our road ahead and we are excited to serve you for decades to come.

To learn more, please visit compoundplanning.com.

Christian

Chief Executive Officer

Compound Planning

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September 7, 2023

Two RIAs Merge into $1.1 billion digital family office

InvestmentNews

Read the article on InvestmentNews.com

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September 7, 2023

Digital RIAs Merge to Form $1.1 Billion RIA

Read the article on Barrons.com

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