Questions worth answering clearly.

A fee-only investment advisor receives compensation exclusively from the clients it serves. Fee-only firms accept no commissions, no product revenue, no trailing fees, no insurance renewals, and no payments of any kind from mutual fund companies, insurance companies, or any other third party.

It matters because it removes a structural conflict of interest. When an advisor’s compensation depends on which products you buy, their recommendations are not neutral. When the only source of compensation is the advisory fee you pay, the advisor and the client are on the same side of every decision. Woodard & Company is a fee-only firm.

A fiduciary is legally obligated to place the interests of their client above their own, at all times, in every decision. This is the highest standard of care in the investment advisory profession, and it is the standard that governs our firm.

Many financial professionals operate under a lesser standard, the “suitability” standard, which only requires that a recommendation be appropriate, not that it be the best available option for the client. As a fiduciary, we are bound to the higher standard, by law.

Client assets at Woodard & Company are held in direct custody with Fidelity Institutional, an independent qualified custodianQualified CustodianAn independent, regulated financial institution that holds client assets separately from the advisory firm. Required for all Registered Investment Advisors under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940.Close ×. This means our firm does not take physical possession of your assets, they are held by a nationally recognized custodian, Fidelity, with SIPCSIPCThe Securities Investor Protection Corporation. A nonprofit, member-funded organization that protects clients of brokerage firms against the failure of the brokerage, up to defined limits.Close × coverage on eligible accounts.

Fidelity generates and delivers your account statements directly, which provides independent verification of your holdings. You can also log into the Fidelity client portal at any time to view your accounts.

The Market Leaders Portfolio is one of our flagship investment strategies. It is a focused portfolio of approximately twenty to fifty blue-chip equities, the primary leaders or emerging leaders of their industry groups. The portfolio is generally sector-neutral to the S&P 500 and emphasizes long-term holding periods with minimal taxable turnover.

You can read more about the Market Leaders Portfolio on our Investment Strategy page.

Lifestyle planning is how we describe financial planning for clients who are thinking about more than just retirement. For many of our clients, particularly those in their thirties, forties, and fifties, the question isn’t “when can I retire?” It’s “when can I buy the beach house?” or “when can I take a sabbatical?” or “when can I step into a second career?”

Lifestyle planning treats those goals with the same structured discipline that retirement planning receives. We map the path from today to the life you are actually planning for, and align the portfolio to fund it. Learn more on our Financial Planning page.

Financial planning is offered as a complimentary service to investment clients of Woodard & Company. Our CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ professionals work with clients on retirement planning, lifestyle planning, tax-efficient strategy, and estate coordination, all as part of the investment advisory relationship. There is no separate planning fee. Details on our Financial Planning page.

Tax efficiency is a core discipline of how we manage portfolios, not a seasonal afterthought. Joan Woodard, our Chief Financial Officer, is a CPA, and her training shapes our approach. We pay deliberate attention to asset location (placing the right holdings in the right account types), tax-loss harvesting, long holding periods, and coordination with your CPA on year-end planning.

For clients approaching or in retirement, we also engage in withdrawal sequencing, Roth conversion planning, and Required Minimum Distribution strategies, all with an eye on the after-tax return that actually reaches you. More context on our Financial Planning page.

Our firm is designed for clients with significant long-term assets who value a deliberate, relationship-based advisory experience. Specific minimums are discussed during the introduction conversation, as they depend on the type of services required. We are selective about the clients we take on, not out of exclusivity, but because meaningful counsel requires meaningful understanding, and we want to be sure the fit is right on both sides. Our complete fee structure is disclosed on our Fees page.

Every significant decision, asset allocation, security selection, portfolio rebalancing, strategic shifts, is made by our Investment CommitteeInvestment CommitteeThe group of advisors at the firm responsible for collective investment decisions. Our committee meets twice weekly, and more often as market conditions warrant.Close ×. The Committee includes the senior advisors of the firm, and decisions are made collectively, not by any single individual.

This structure provides both the benefit of multiple perspectives and the continuity of an institutional decision-making process, rather than the idiosyncrasies of a single advisor. It is one of the ways we ensure that the discipline of the firm, not the mood of a person, governs the portfolio. More on our process on the Investment Strategy page.

The first step is a conversation. Request an introduction through our contact page, and we will arrange a time to meet, in our office, by video, or by phone, whichever is convenient. The initial meeting is no-obligation, and its purpose is simply to understand your situation and determine whether we can be genuinely helpful.

If we move forward from there, we walk you through our fee structure, our Form ADVForm ADVThe regulatory disclosure document a Registered Investment Advisor files with the SEC and provides to clients. Part 2A describes the firm’s services, fee structure, and potential conflicts of interest.Close × disclosures, and the account-opening process with our custodian, Fidelity Institutional.

Our office is in Bermuda Run, and the largest concentration of our clients is in the Winston-Salem and broader Piedmont Triad area, including Greensboro, High Point, Clemmons, Lewisville, Advance, and Mocksville. That said, our client base is not defined by geography. We serve clients across thirty-two states and, in a handful of cases, in other countries. Relationships with Woodard & Company are built on fit and trust, not on a ZIP code.

Distance has never been a barrier to a working relationship. We meet clients in our office, by video, or at a location convenient to them, depending on preference.

Fidelity Institutional is our custodian. That is the extent of the relationship. Every Registered Investment AdvisorRegistered Investment AdvisorAn investment firm registered with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission and held to a fiduciary standard. Registered Investment Advisors file a disclosure document called Form ADV that describes services, fees, and any conflicts of interest.Close × is required by the Investment Advisers Act of 1940Investment Advisers Act of 1940The federal statute governing investment advisors in the United States. It establishes fiduciary duty, requires registration and disclosure, and mandates independent third-party custody of client assets.Close × to hold client assets with a qualified third-party custodian, we chose Fidelity for the strength of its platform.

We are independent, and we receive no compensation, rebates, revenue-sharing, or soft-dollarSoft-Dollar ArrangementsAn arrangement under which a brokerage firm provides research or services to an advisor in exchange for directed trading. This can create conflicts of interest. Woodard & Company pays for its research directly.Close × arrangements from Fidelity. When we select mutual funds or exchange-traded funds for client portfolios, we screen independently across the entire universe using Morningstar and our own research. Fidelity-branded funds compete on the same basis as every other manager. Read the full custody arrangement on our Custody page.

We have begun incorporating AI tools into our research process in a supplementary capacity, to help monitor news flow, synthesize large volumes of macro and earnings data, and stress-test investment theses across a broader set of scenarios than was previously practical. AI does not replace the judgment of our advisors or our Investment Committee, and it will not.

Our philosophy on this is straightforward: the depth of our client relationships and the experience of our team remain the foundation of everything we do. Technology is a tool that serves that foundation, nothing more.

Portfolios are reviewed continuously by the Investment Committee, not on a fixed quarterly or annual schedule. We make tactical reallocations when the underlying economic or market environment meaningfully changes, or when an individual position’s thesis evolves, rather than on a calendar-driven basis. The goal is deliberate movement in response to real changes, not reactive movement in response to noise.

Yes, and we encourage it. Most of our clients have existing relationships with a CPA, an estate attorney, or an insurance professional, and our preference is to coordinate directly with those advisors rather than working in isolation. Investment strategy, tax planning, and estate planning work best when the professionals managing each are aware of one another’s work.

Directly from Fidelity Institutional. Your monthly account statements are generated and sent by Fidelity, not by our firm, which provides an independent third-party record of your holdings. In addition to Fidelity’s monthly statements, clients receive a quarterly account statement from Woodard & Company, delivered either electronically or in print. You can also log into the Fidelity online portal at any time to view your accounts, holdings, and transactions. The separation is part of how the custody structure protects you.