Reviewed and updated Nov 2025

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

With whom is Evanson Asset Management®, L.L.C. (EAM) registered?  EAM is a registered investment advisor with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and can do business with clients anywhere in the United States.  We can do business with investors who live overseas if they have a US mailing address and Social Security number.

Is EAM a fiduciary?  Yes.

Can you send me a brochure about your company and services?  We do not use brochures or promotional materials.  Information you need about our fee philosophy, services, and investment strategies can be found on this website.  If you have further questions, you are welcome to call or email us.  Our investment strategy and the research backing it is also found in various articles on our website.

Who wrote the articles on the EAM site?  Dr. Evanson wrote all the articles on our website over several years and they are reviewed and updated occasionally.

How can we contact you?  All EAM employees work from their respective home offices. Every member of our team can be reached by calling 831-333-2060.  If you wish to speak with us please email service@evansonasset.com or your EAM advisor and we will call you.  Our service team is available from 8am - 4pm, Pacific time.

Are references available?  Yes, current client references are available upon request in addition to the SEC required ADV2B advisor disclosure document.  We provide them to prospective clients as a step in forming a business relationship.

Can we meet in person before I become an EAM client?  Yes, we can.  However, we'll need to do so in Monterey, California or Arlington, Virginia.  One of the ways we keep our fees so low is by minimizing the amount of time and money spent on traveling, sales and marketing.  This website provides extensive information on our fees, services, and investment strategies.  Current client references and our SEC required ADV2A & B firm brochure supplement this.  Additional questions can be answered by phone.  With phone and e-mail it's easy and fast to set-up new accounts, discuss financial objectives, make changes in accounts, and exchange pertinent financial information on an ongoing basis.  We are time-efficient as well as cost-efficient.

Where are your clients located?  EAM has clients all over the United States, most of whom we have never met in person.  We also have clients who live outside the US but can only accept them if they have a US address and Social Security number.  Our average client has about $4.0 million with us across 4+ accounts.

Are the investments in my accounts safe?  EAM does not take custody of your funds, major brokerage firms hold them, and we cannot access your funds and can only view your account data.  They are held at broker/custodians who are insured by the SIPC and private insurance.  All account assets are held in your name or entities you have created like trusts and retirement plans.  Neither EAM, nor the broker/custodian firm, nor anyone else can access or distribute funds from your accounts without your permission and knowledge.  Of course, your investments can and will fluctuate in value daily.

Does EAM carry errors and omissions insurance?  Yes.

Does EAM request trading discretion?  Yes, however trades will be discussed with you in advance before they are placed unless you wish otherwise. In special cases your account can be set up as non-discretionary however we and DFA do not recommend this. We strongly prefer to have clients involved with us in discussing allocations and trades and only have a few clients who opt for non-discretionary accounts.

What happens if I want to leave?  You are not locked in, there is no ding fee for leaving, and you do not need to sell the positions in your account.  If you have already paid us for the quarter we will refund the prorated unused amount.

How much experience do you have?  EAM has been a fee-based registered investment advisor working with passive and index investment strategies and DFA since 1995.  We have also used and promoted low fixed annual retainer fees since 1995.

What is the organizational structure of EAM?  Dr. Steven Evanson is the founder and owner of EAM.  Clients are supported by four registered investment advisor representatives and administrative staff.

How does one become a client?  We recommend that prospective clients familiarize themselves with our investment strategies as described in various articles on this site and then schedule a time to talk with us.  We can then review your specific financial circumstances and determine if there is a good advisor/client fit.  If we proceed then we send you an email with forms necessary for establishing a business relationship and other materials, if necessary, for establishing, transferring or linking up existing investment accounts.  After these materials have been returned to us we begin the investment planning process.

Do academic degrees or affiliations provide special skills or insights in passive and index management?  Not really but there is one exception.  I have found that the intensive training I received in research methodology and statistics on the way to a research Ph.D. degree have been invaluable in understanding the strengths and weaknesses and limits of the type of quantitatively based investment strategies employed in passive and index investing.  In addition we communicate regularly with DFA's research department which has over a dozen Ph.D.'s.

What kind of investment strategies do you employ?  We specialize in passive and index investing and primarily use DFA's passive asset class portfolios, Vanguard's indexes, Wisdom Tree high dividend indexes, various ETF's, and maturity laddered bond portfolios.  We do not, however, dictate or limit what clients hold in their accounts.

Do you employ off-the-rack preplanned DFA portfolios?  No.  Each client's allocation plan is custom designed and takes into account many factors including pre-existing positions that may be held, tax issues, risk tolerance, and other factors.  We employ various models as starting points in the allocation planning process but are flexible when designing portfolios.  If a client wants to do so we are happy to use weightings from DFA's sample "balanced" portfolios which are quite close in allocations to what we recommend.

Do you require that prior investment holdings be sold?  No, we are never dogmatic about portfolio holdings but always look at portfolio risks and diversification and are clear and candid in our recommendations and evaluations.  For various reasons, including embedded capital gains, many clients hold individual stocks or previously acquired stocks, bonds, and funds that are outside the models we recommend.

Do you do market timing or tactical asset allocation?  Research suggests that over the long run tactical asset allocation is unlikely to outperform passive strategies.  Please see the article on "Tactical Asset Allocation" on this website.  We do, however, follow all major investment models and usually can address fundamental, technical, and macroeconomic questions relating to allocations.  We are cautious about placing money in equities and often average into positions.  Once allocations are filled, we do not adjust equity to fixed ratios based upon changes in market conditions.  We use strategically designed allocations, not market timing, to control risk, and frequently they stay close to initial targets for years.

How do DFA's offerings compare with Vanguard's index fund offerings?  There is not enough historical data to clearly answer this question.  An article on this site, "Are DFA Strategies Superior?",  compares DFA, Vanguard, and ETF's in detail.  An academic paper presented on the Morningstar/Vanguard Diehards chat site, #59269, (drafted on July 20, 2007) compared similarly allocated equity portfolios for DFA versus Vanguard for 1999 through 2006 and found a statistically significant advantage for DFA with DFA outperforming Vanguard by about 1.5% to 2.4% per year depending upon how it was calculated.  I tracked DFA versus Vanguard returns for several quarters in the 1999 through 2001 period and estimated a DFA advantage of 1.5% to 2.0%.  On a few occasions DFA has compared competing funds with identical names and DFA came out ahead by about 1-1.5% annually due to DFA's more rigorous definitions of asset classes.  Sampling periods are far too short to establish statistical confidence and we cannot assume past differencs will continue.  A portfolio 50% in equities and 50% in fixed would likely show an advantage of 0.75% to 1.0% for DFA over Vanguard since  DFA's fixed offerings produce about the same returns as Vanguard's.  These numbers also clearly illustrate why percentage advisor fees of 0.75% or more may take some or all of the additional returns DFA's strategies are likely to add above other alternatives.

Do you offer estate planning, tax planning, real estate advice, or insurance advice in addition to financial planning and portfolio management?  We incorporate these matters into investment discussions with clients but EAM strongly recommends that these specialties be handled with oversight by appropriate personally selected professionals.  EAM recommends that estate planning be done only with attorneys specializing in estate planning, tax issues be discussed with your C.P.A., real estate with brokers and attorneys specializing in real estate, and insurance with no-load insurance companies.

Do you do tax-loss harvesting?  Yes, but only upon client request.  We are not proponents of the practice.  Please see the article on "Tax Loss Harvesting" on our website.  While tax-loss harvesting generates loss-carry forwards it resets the cost basis downwards in an amount equal to the additional capital gains that will be realized when the new replacement positions are presumably liquidated at some time in the future.  This may result in no net tax advantage long-term or even higher taxes if capital gains taxes have risen when positions are sold.

How much money does EAM manage?  As of January 2025, EAM manages more than $5 billion in assets.

Does EAM receive commissions or kickbacks from brokerage firms or fund companies?  No, EAM is a fixed fee-based, fee-only advisor, and we are paid solely paid by our clients and not by DFA or any financial companies.  This assures complete objectivity in our planning and financial advice.  We sometimes receive free meals, seminars and special corporate hotel rates when visiting DFA's offices or conferences and an occasional free meal at a special conference event from Schwab or other brokerages but not often and not much.

What are EAM's fees?  EAM charges a fixed quarterly retainer fee, typically ranging from $625 per quarter to $2000 per quarter, or $2,500 to $8,000 per year.  Our fee is not based on assets under management.  We manage some small accounts for less and in a few cases complicated family accounts may be more.  Usually one fee covers all accounts for one nuclear family.

What brokerage firms do you use?  Most client assets are kept at Schwab, a discount brokerage with offices throughout the US, although we also manage client accounts at Fidelity.  We do not take custody of your assets.  The broker/custodian holds them..  Your accounts are insured by the SIPC and additional private insurance the brokerages purchase.

Does EAM do financial planning?  Yes.  When developing an allocations plan unless otherwise requested we take into account a client's total financial picture.  EAM's services are listed elsewhere on this site under fees and services.  We have a CFP on staff who will prepare formal financial plans upon request.  It is the only service we charge extra for, $200/hour.  A typical plan runs $800-$1,200.

How often do you rebalance portfolios?  Truman Clark of DFA examined rebalancing in detail in three papers published online in Fall 2001.  He concluded that "the proposition that a rebalancing strategy can increase expected return is dubious, " and cautions that "simulations with historical returns may provide misleading estimates of the benefits...," and "don't employ naive, mechanical rebalancing rules."  We look at key ratios influencing risk and return every 90 days and rebalance per Truman Clark's recommendation that it be done when the benefits appear to outweigh the costs, a subjective non-quantitative judgment.  An article covering research on rebalancing can be found on the site.  We will rebalance portfolios whenever clients request.

Is there an account minimum?  Our minimum is $500,000 across a family's accounts although we do make exceptions.

Once a client, what comes next?  We will guide you through the account opening and transfer process, review your current holdings, discuss financial issues relevant to your investments, develop an allocations plan, refine it if necessary, then implement it, sometimes in stages over time, sometimes all at once.  We are also available for answering investment related questions and handling changes in client accounts. Most appointments to speak can be arranged within 24-48 hours.

What reporting will I receive on my accounts?  Every quarter you will receive a detailed computerized analysis of performance, IRR, allocations, and position values along with a narrative comment on your accounts, a market commentary which examines underlying conditions in various asset classes, and a pre-paid envelope to send us our management fee.  Our reports are mailed out every 90 days in the first two weeks of each new quarter.  You will also receive monthly statements from the broker/custodian you are using along with access to your accounts online any time you wish.

Can we incorporate existing stock, mutual fund, or bond positions, or do I have to sell everything if I move to EAM?  No, you are not required to sell anything.  We will review all your holdings and if you wish to retain some current holdings we will classify them in appropriate asset classes and use them in constructing your portfolio plan.

Do most brokerage firms allow access to DFA funds?  No.  The major firms we use, Schwab and Fidelity, provide access to DFA.

Can I have access to DFA's asset class funds on a one-time consulting basis?  No, we do not do one-time consults.  Portfolios should be monitored regularly and reports should be generated regularly.

Will I work with Dr. Evanson?  Dr. Evanson is not taking on direct management of accounts at this time.

What if Dr. Evanson or your advisor becomes disabled or dies?  We have a succession plan in place for a prompt and orderly transition.