Fraser Wealth Management - Woodstock, Illinois

Mark H.

We got started with FWM in 2014 after having - and moving from - 2 or 3 previous financial planners. The last, after about 2 years, had come up with a possibly well-intended but sketchy-sounding scheme. We had also learned that the good friends who referred us to that planner had left him due to great disappointment, along with another good friend to whom we had recommended that same planner. We've sinced learned of others who left our previous planner and have chosen to work with FWM.

We had become aware of FWM through their work for a longtime respected nonprofit. We received great information and advice from them, and especially Social Security information that was unique among planners at the time. It made a big - and very beneficial - difference in our retirement plans.

Their motto is "Integrity leads, trust follows." As fiduciaries, they are held to the highest professional standards. They are required by law to not just guide clients towards what is *acceptable* for a client, but, in good faith, what is *best* for a client.

I could go on, but I encourage you to explore whether Fraser Wealth Management might be a more appropriate fit as a trusted financial planning partner.

Christine G.

My husband and I have been working with Derek for almost three years, and we couldn’t be happier with the experience. With his guidance, we’ve been able to radically improve our retirement outcomes and develop stronger saving habits. He always takes the time to understand our goals, explain things clearly and provides personalized advice. Thanks to Derek, we feel confident and secure in our financial future.

Ted H.

I've had a great experience with Fraser Wealth Management. They are genuinely focused on helping people succeed. Highly recommend!"

Ken N.

Years ago, my wife and I selected Tim to handle our IRA’s, and to guide our much-delayed retirement planning. We made the right choice.

After 2 disastrous experiences with commission-based advisors, I’m sure we were not easy clients. Tim addressed our needs very differently. He listened carefully to our specific needs and concerns, and explained in an understandable way the realities of moving from accumulating assets to spending them. He spoke from experience about where the knowns and unknowns were, and how to control them. Most importantly, we were immediately much more comfortable with the whole process.

The plan he helped us prepare came at no charge, where others might expect a 4 digit fee. And in all other areas, costs have been reasonable and well explained in advance.

Some years later now, Tim’s advice has proven to be rock solid. We are grateful for his excellent service, and recommend his firm without reservation.

Amanda H.

My husband and I started going to Derek and are very happy! We trust him with our investments and his feedback. Our financial future looks brighter!

Bill W.

We had struggled at first managing our money ourselves, but that led to very little return, and without the knowledge or time we were getting older and not having a plan that would sustain us in retirement. I finally tried someone a friend recommended. He put our money in a plan that assured us would be managed, we paid high fees and lost more than $50,000 in less than two years.

I had known Tim as we both serve on the Trinity Oaks Christian Academy board. After many years of little financial success, my wife and I finally asked Tim to tell us about his services. He first asked many questions about our plans, timing and needs and then had us take a test to get an idea on how much risk we'd tolerate. Well eye opening that we really didn't like too much risk and our last advisor had us in way more risk than we should.

Tim put together a plan that we outlined should provide a path to get to retirement in 10 years. We feel so comfortable that we have someone not only to guide us and watch as we navigate all the crazy world events, we can bounce ideas off him regularly and get great guidance.

We are super happy with the service, fees and everything else with Fraser Wealth Management, so much so I had Tim start a 401K plan for my company and all the employees. We've had it for a year now and just looked at the performance of the plan he put together and it returned over 15%.

Need help, call Tim.

G W.

I worked with Tim several years ago.

Firstly, Tim was VERY expensive. He charged 125 bps+ for his services, which involved him calling me once every 3-6 months and a "once a year" in-person meet to rebalance my fund allocations. He provided little to no value on fund allocation...I get the sense he just played a lot of golf (in the office with his putting green and most weekends)...to this day I cannot believe I paid him 1%+ each year to "manage" my money. Waste of money; I would have been much better off using a low-cost index fund provider like Vanguard or Fidelity. I would have had similar or better returns at a 10x lower cost.

Secondly. I was decades away from retirement and he highly recommended I lock up a significant portion of my savings at the time in an inflexible, costly annuity product. This was bad financial advice. I'm not sure what his financial incentives were but it was bad advice. Now, these funds are stuck in an annuity product that has fewer fund investment options which are typically more expensive. Again, this money would have been better allocated in a Traditional IRA which is similarly tax-efficient and lower cost. This single bad piece of advice has been incredibly costly to me, and I'm really disappointed given that I trusted him to give me good advice.

All in all, wealth advisors are not worth the money in my opinion, and in particular, Tim is not worth his hefty fee (again, in my opinion). Before working with Tim, ask yourself this question - if you assume most wealth managers cannot "beat the market," but if Tim really had the skill to "beat the market" why would he be managing your money?

Flyin F.

I highly recommend Tim Fraser and the whole Fraser Wealth Management team for your financial needs.

Eight years or so back, we were looking for a financial planner. We had been handling our own retirement accounts with mediocre success, and with retirement on the horizon, we wanted professional guidance. A friend recommended going to a Fraser Wealth Management Social Security Seminar. We were quite impressed with Tim and his team, and learned a lot about Social Security. After a long vetting process, we set up a meeting with Tim to discuss how he could play a role in our financial future. We were very impressed with Tim’s knowledge base, ideas, and personalization of a plan to fit our needs – not the cookie cutter plan we heard so much about from other financial planners.

The plan Tim came up with was amazing. It was comprehensive, well thought out, and included aspects we never thought about. The tools he has at his disposal are impressive as well. Being a conservative, analytical, number cruncher I was very pleased to see how easily changing one piece of data in the plan could affect the overall plan. Fraser Wealth Management’s way of doing business was far superior to all the numerous companies we looked at. This is not something to take lightly, after all, this is our financial future. The rest of our lives is riding on this, and we wanted to make the best decision possible. Tim and Fraser Wealth Management is the best decision.

It wasn’t just the plan that makes Fraser Wealth Management the best choice. Their commitment to great ongoing service adds to their value. Their semi or annual reviews, which ever you prefer, make sure you are all on the same page, and their customer service is outstanding. Whenever we have a question, Tim is either there or responds, literally, within minutes. If, by some chance, Tim is not available, Taylor takes care of it by answering our question or finding the answer. Someone is always available to us as clients. Tim also thinks outside the box to make sure our total plan is complete (long term health care for example) and offers many options. And, like the commercial says, Fraser Wealth Management does better when we do better.

Lastly, I’m very particular about who I trust my money to. I don’t just want a good company, I want good, trustworthy, upstanding people to work with. Fraser Wealth Management not only meets my standards, they exceed them.