FAQs
Here are some common questions and answers about us. Of course, if you don’t find the answer here or want more information, we invite you to call our office for answers.
If you are a current client and have questions, please click here.
Interested In Working With Lou?
Yes, we would love to meet with you, and if you have been referred by one of our existing clients, you will get first priority for a meeting.
The vast majority of our clients are fee-based. There may be some investments we make for you that are commission-based, such as 529 plans, but we will never recommend an investment because there is a commission involved. Your success is our first and only priority.
At your first meeting, we’ll discuss what is most important to you and tell you as much about Lou and Gottlieb Advisory Group and Royal Alliance Associates as you wish to know. At this point there are no decisions to be made, no commitments to be made and no forms to sign.
Some clients bring all of their financial information to the first meeting. Others prefer to bring only themselves and their thoughts. Bring whatever statements and information you wish to talk about with us.
There is no fee for our first meeting, and there will likely be no fee for our second meeting either. This is a time for us to get to know each other and lay the groundwork for your financial plan. If you choose to engage Gottlieb Advisory Group for financial planning and/or asset management services, you will then have all associated fees and costs explained to you BEFORE you sign any paperwork.
No. Lou has never turned away a client because they didn’t have enough money. He has established relationships with clients as young as 20 years-old who have a minimal amount of money to begin saving. Our relationship with Royal Alliance Associates, Inc. provides us many options and direct fund access to make a difference in every client’s life, regardless of their account balance.
If you are referred by one of our clients, we will set up a meeting right away. If you found us another way, Lou will first talk with you over the phone to ensure we can provide what it is you are looking for. Click here to contact us about setting up a meeting.
In most cases, you will hold investments which can be sold immediately or as of the close that day. Depending on the investment platform you are utilizing, the resulting cash proceeds are available in your account within 1 or 3 business days after the day of the sale. From there we can instruct your custodian to either send you a check, direct deposit into to your bank (ACH) or wire to your bank.
IRA accounts require a form to be signed (by federal law) which will ask if you would like us to withhold taxes for you. We can help you determine how much should be withheld and will be more than happy to work with your tax preparer to make this determination.
The security of your accounts is our highest priority. When you request money, we first verify your identity. We then direct your custodian to send your money to your account's address of record or bank account that is already on file. All electronic communication is encrypted and password protected.
Royal Alliance Associates, Inc. is an independent broker-dealer that provides Gottlieb Advisory Group with back office, technology, regulatory and operational support. Thanks to our association with the firm, we can offer you access to thousands of diverse financial strategies. Royal Alliance is not in the business of creating and marketing their own investment products—their only “products” are service and support. Therefore, we can offer objective, independent investment advice, with no obligation to promote any particular investment.
While we are supported by Royal Alliance, we work for our clients.
Pershing is a trusted, established, and financially stable financial services firm that provides “clearing” services for our practice. A clearing firm works with various financial exchanges to handle confirmation, delivery and settlement of your financial transactions, to ensure that those transactions are processed in a timely and efficient manner. In addition, Pershing creates and sends statements and transaction confirmations to our clients. Like all clearing firms, Pershing is overseen by the SEC and FINRA, the regulatory bodies that oversee broker-dealers.
Each account has $500,000 SIPC insurance against fraud, as well as an additional policy through Lloyds of London.
If your account is held directly with Pershing, LLC in either an Advisory account or a general brokerage account, you will make your deposit check payable to Pershing, LLC. If your account is held directly at a fund company or institution, you will make your check payable as directed in the application of your specific fund company. You never write a check to Gottlieb Advisory Group LLC or any of its members.
Log into the Royal Alliance website and click on the "Go Paperless" icon near the top right of the home page. Select the documents you want by regular mail and the ones you want to access digitally. Royal Alliance doesn't email the documents; rather, you'll get an email notification when new documents are available to view. You can change your settings at any time on your Profile Tab under Document Delivery. As always, if you have any questions or assistance, please contact our office.
For your security, Royal Alliance passwords have an automatic lock-out feature if a password login attempt fails three times. Should this occur, please contact our office and we will work with Royal Alliance to reset your password.
Just call our office and after having properly identified yourself, we’ll take care of the rest.
Your custodian sends out a final tax statement after they have received all pertinent information from the companies with whom you have invested. Unfortunately, your custodian cannot control when they receive this information, but, in most cases, it is provided no later than March 15th. If you feel it’s getting late and you haven’t yet received all of your tax statements, please give us a call. We will check to see if your tax statements have been mailed and work with you to make sure you get your tax statements in a timely manner.
Although we try to make our statements as straightforward as possible, we know that investment account statements can be confusing, especially for new clients. No matter what your question is, we encourage you to call our office. It’s very important for you to understand what the statement is saying about your financial picture and it can be very helpful for us to review it together.