Alex Bridges, CFP®, EA, ChFC®, RICP®

Hi, my name is Alex Bridges, and I’m the founder of Tiverton Wealth & Tax. I’m a financial planner and tax planner, and I’ve been working in the financial services industry since January 2017. I currently hold four professional designations, including the CFP®, EA, ChFC®, and RICP®.

Over the course of my career, I’ve worked at several different types of financial firms. Before starting Tiverton, I was the Chief Strategy Officer for a large financial planning practice based in Houston. Those experiences gave me the opportunity to see how different advisors work with their clients, what works well, and where I think our industry could do a better job.

One of the biggest things I learned is that I believe the best way to work with a financial planner is through a fee only, flat fee relationship.

Fee only means we don't earn commissions from selling financial products or receive compensation from third parties for recommending investments or insurance. Flat fee means you pay an agreed upon amount for the work we do, rather than paying a percentage of your investments. Whether you have $500,000 or $5 million invested, I don't believe the amount of money you have should automatically determine how much you pay your financial planner.

But there was something else I kept noticing throughout my career.

Financial planning and tax preparation often happen in two completely separate places, and I never really understood why.

A lot of financial advisors talk about tax optimization. They'll discuss Roth conversions, qualified charitable distributions, tax efficient withdrawals, and all kinds of other strategies to help their clients potentially reduce their taxes. But then April rolls around, and they tell those same clients to go find a CPA or tax preparer to actually file their returns.

That never made much sense to me.

If we're the ones helping you make these financial decisions throughout the year, why wouldn't we also want to make sure those decisions are properly reflected on your tax return? And why should you have to pay another professional separately for something that is already such an important part of your financial plan?

That's one of the reasons I started Tiverton Wealth & Tax.

Through Tiverton Wealth and our affiliated tax firm, Tiverton Tax, we bring financial planning, investment management, tax planning, and tax preparation together under one relationship.

We want to understand your entire financial picture, not just your accounts.