Investment management for independent minds.
Better questions lead to better outcomes. We're obsessed with both.
Q: What exactly is Vermillion Private Wealth?
A: It’s just me. I handle portfolio management, financial planning, writing, and answering the phone. There is no junior analyst, no investment committee, no intern writing model allocations, and no separate “relationship manager” whose job is to keep you from bothering me.
Q: Really? Another wealth manager? Why?
A: Because most financial advice operates on borrowed assumptions. Everyone's running the same playbook: modern portfolio theory, efficient markets, and retirement calculators that pretend the future is knowable. I’ve spent years studying markets as complex systems. Markets are emergent, not mechanical.
Q: So you're contrarian?
A: I'm skeptical of consensus when consensus hasn't examined its premises. There's a difference. I draw on a wide range of subjects, including Austrian economics (Hayek and Mises) and Popperian epistemology. Most advisors study finance. I study how knowledge works and apply that to money.
Q: That sounds... academic.
A: It's the opposite. Academia gave us the efficient market hypothesis and sixty-year retirement plans that assume stability. I'm interested in what actually survives contact with reality.
Q: So you’re an active manager?
A: Guilty. While index funds work great for most people, they can’t sidestep bubbles, go to cash when nothing is cheap, or overweight a wonderful business trading at a discount. I can.
Q: Who are your clients?
A: The money I look after belongs to a group of families who take wealth seriously enough to want someone to help them build and preserve it. Oh, and some of that money is my own family’s.
Q: Do you beat the S&P 500 every year?
A: No. Anyone who promises that is selling something (usually fear or greed).
Q: Then how do I know you’re any good?
A: Read a sampling (or all) of my essays and whitepapers. If you enjoy them and you like how I think about risk, money, and human nature, we’ll probably be a good fit.
Q: You're a writer?
A: I'm an investment manager who writes. Or a writer who manages investments. The point is: if I can't clearly explain why I’m doing something, I shouldn't be doing it.
Q: What's your investment philosophy?
A: Prices don't reflect perfect information; they reflect humanity: millions of people making provisional guesses with incomplete information. That single insight reshapes everything about portfolio construction, risk, and resilience.
Q: Are you always this philosophical?
A: Yes. Philosophy clarifies decisions. But I know the difference between metaphysics and the moment your kid’s college tuition is due.
Q: What do you actually do all day?
A: I read obsessively, write, think, study markets, meet with families, adjust plans, review risks, and check the assumptions behind the assumptions. If that sounds unglamorous, that’s because real investment work is.
Q: How do you get paid?
A: A percentage of assets under management that gets smaller as your account grows. No commissions, no kickbacks, no performance cuts. Full schedule is in the ADV if you’re into legal jargon.
Q: Favorite book most clients haven’t read?
A: The Inner Game of Tennis. It's ostensibly about tennis (and I love tennis). But it's actually about why people seize up under pressure. Turns out the same thing that makes you double-fault on match point makes you buy at the top or sell at the bottom. I reread it when I notice myself overthinking things.
Q: What kind of clients don’t work well with you?
A: People who want hot tips, guaranteed returns, or someone to blame when markets misbehave. I work well with people who appreciate long-term thinking, intellectual honesty, and transparency.
Q: This seems like a lot.
A: Wealth is a lot. It deserves serious thought. If you want someone to nod along and rebalance your 60/40 portfolio once a year, I'm not your guy. If you want someone who's thought carefully about what wealth actually means and how to build something that lasts, let’s talk.
Q: Can I have lunch or coffee with you before deciding?
A: Yes, but only if you’re willing to talk about Stoicism, jazz, books, or monetary policy.
Q: What next?
A: Let’s chat.
From the people we work with.
All testimonials have been provided by current clients. No client was compensated for providing these testimonials. Vermillion Private Wealth gained each clients permission to publish their testimonial. Outcomes are personal and specific for each client and one client’s results do not guarantee identical outcomes in the future for another client. The testimonials shown have been selected from among all client feedback.
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If wealth were an absolute measure, two people with identical balance sheets would yield matching internal states. They never do. Wealth is not like height or temperature; it is closer to pressure, a force created by the relationship between two things rather than the magnitude of one.