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When you sell a business, receive a major equity payout, or inherit significant assets, the quality of advice you receive starts to matter in a different way.
At that point, the question is not, “Do I have an advisor? — It is, “Whose incentives does my advisor really work for?”A fiduciary approach is designed to answer that clearly. Croak Capital is a fee-only, fiduciary registered investment adviser (RIA). By structure and by law, our work is built around your interests, not product economics.
What does “fiduciary” actually mean?
The legal foundation
As a fiduciary RIA, Croak Capital is subject to regulation under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940. That framework requires us to:
- Put client interests ahead of our own
- Disclose conflicts of interest clearly
- Provide advice that is informed, prudent, and tailored to each client’s circumstances
This is not marketing language. It is a standing legal obligation that applies to the entire relationship, rather than just at the point of sale.
Three working pillars of fiduciary duty
In practice, fiduciary duty at our level rests on three pillars:
1) Loyalty — We design our compensation and investment platform to minimize conflicts. That means:
- No product commissions
- No revenue-sharing from fund companies
- No proprietary products that we are financially motivated to sell
2) Care — Recommendations must be grounded in thorough analysis and a clear understanding of your balance sheet, tax picture, and objectives. “Good enough” is not the standard.
3) Transparency — When you partner with Croak Capital, you should understand:
- What you pay
- How we are compensated
- Why we are recommending a given strategy
- The potential risks and trade-offs
If any of that is unclear, we have not met the standard.
Comparing fiduciary and suitability in practice
Many investors still work with advisors who operate under a suitability framework. That standard requires that a recommendation be generally appropriate at the time it is made, but may still pay the advisor more than an alternative that would serve you better.
How the two models differ
Preserving wealth for the next generation ide your assets across generations.
- Fiduciary RIA (like Croak Capital)
- Ongoing duty to act in your best interest
- Fee-only compensation from clients
- Open-architecture investment platform
- Independent third-party custody
- Written disclosure of conflicts and fees (Form ADV)
- Suitability-based /Commission-driven model
- Recommendations must be “suitable” but not necessarily optimal
- Advisor may earn upfront and ongoing product commissions
- Proprietary products and house funds are common
- Obligations often focus on the moment of sale, not the life of the relationship
In the broader industry, it’s still common for a large portion of business-sale proceeds to be directed into high-commission annuities or complex private products, where the advisor is paid a significant upfront percentage for implementation. A fiduciary, fee-only structure is intentionally built to avoid that kind of misalignment.
Fee-only vs. fee-based: Why words matter
“Fee-only” and “fee-based” sound similar, but they’re entirely different ways of approaching fiduciary advisory.
- Fee-only
- The only compensation comes from clearly disclosed advisory fees paid by the client.
- No product commissions, no trailing sales charges, no referral payments from sponsors.
- Fee-based
- Advisors may charge an advisory fee and receive commissions on products sold.
- The structure can blur when advice stops, and sales begin.
Croak Capital is fee-only. That single design choice removes a large category of conflicts before they ever arise.
Why fiduciary duty matters after a business exit
A business sale or major liquidity event often exposes three risks at once:
- Product pressure — Newly liquid wealth attracts a surge of pitches: insurance structures, private placements, niche funds. Many pay high upfront commissions.
- Rushed allocation — There is often pressure, both internal and external, to “get the money working” quickly, rather than following a thoughtful, staged plan.
- Tax and estate complexity — Capital gains, multi-year tax planning, and updated estate documents all arrive at the same time.
A fiduciary approach is designed to slow the process down, align incentives, and give you a framework instead of a product menu.
How does Croak Capital approach post-exit capital?
For post-exit entrepreneurs and high-net-worth families, we typically:
- Establish an appropriate cash and short-term reserve
- Map out spending, giving, and reinvestment priorities
- Build a multi-year deployment and diversification schedule, not a single allocation event
- Coordinate with your CPA and estate attorney so tax and estate strategies are integrated from the start
The goal is not clever products; our goal is to preserve flexibility, manage risk, and align the structure of your new wealth with the life you actually want to live.
Concentrated stock: Where fiduciary incentives show up fast
Many exit clients arrive with a large percentage of net worth tied to one company, whether through founder equity, roll-over stock, RSUs, or options.
A fiduciary frame changes how that is handled:
- Our compensation does not depend on whether you hold or sell a specific security.
- We are free to focus on the actual trade-offs:
- The amount of risk you’re willing to keep in one name
- The tax cost and timing of diversification
- Whether tools like exchange funds, 10b5-1 plans, or charitable strategies are appropriate
- How this position interacts with your broader estate and tax plan
The output is a documented, multi-year plan for reducing concentration risk that you understand and can execute without reacting emotionally to short-term market moves.
How Croak Capital delivers on the fiduciary promise
Client assets are held at independent third-party custodians (such as Schwab), not at Croak Capital. That provides:
- Direct client access to accounts
- Safeguards around money movement
- Clear separation between advice and asset custody
On the investment side, we use an open-architecture platform that lets us select from a wide universe of public and — where appropriate and suitable — private strategies, without being paid by product providers.
Private markets under a fiduciary lens
For qualified clients, we may incorporate:
- Private equity and venture strategies
- Private credit
- Institutional real estate vehicles
- Exchange funds for concentrated stock
Throughout our process, each idea is looked at through the same lens:
- Does it improve the overall portfolio’s risk/return profile?
- Are the fees, lockups, and risks justified and clearly understood?
- Is the position appropriately sized relative to liquid net worth?
We do not receive compensation from sponsors. That allows the decision to remain squarely about fit, not distribution.
Integration with your full advisory team
Croak Capital works alongside:
- CPAs to coordinate tax projections, capital gains, and multi-year planning
- Estate attorneys to ensure titling, trust structures, and investments are aligned
- Insurance professionals when life insurance or risk-transfer solutions are appropriate
Our role is to be the constant at the center of the table, making sure each specialist’s work fits into one coherent plan.
Is your current advisor a fiduciary? Practical tests
Labels can be murky. Here are grounded ways to evaluate the relationship:
Questions to ask directly
- “Are you a fiduciary 100% of the time for all of my accounts?”
- “Are you compensated in any way other than the fees I pay you?”
- “Do you receive commissions, revenue sharing, or other payments from product providers?”
- “Who is your custodian, and are my assets held in my name there?”
Documents to request
- Form ADV Part 2A and 2B — the disclosure documents all RIAs must provide. These outline services, fees, conflicts, and disciplinary history.
- A clear fee schedule, in writing, that shows how your costs are calculated.
Hesitation, vague answers, or resistance to providing ADV documents are strong signals that the relationship may not be built on a full fiduciary foundation.
Frequently asked questions:
It means your advisor has a legal duty to put your interests first, disclose conflicts, and provide advice that is careful, informed, and client-centered. Registered Investment Advisers (RIAs) operate under this standard for the entirety of the advisory relationship.
A fiduciary RIA is obligated to act in your best interest at all times and is typically paid through transparent advisory fees. Brokers historically have operated under a suitability framework and may receive product commissions. Regulation has evolved, but the core difference remains: RIAs are built around ongoing fiduciary duty; brokers are built around transactions.
Not automatically, but they often go together. Fee-only means the advisor’s only compensation comes from advisory fees paid by clients. Many fee-only firms are RIAs and fiduciaries, but you should still verify registration and review Form ADV to confirm.
Independent custody ensures assets are held by a third-party custodian, not the advisor. This protects against fraud, maintains direct client access, and prevents unauthorized transfers — an essential safeguard required by SEC rules for RIAs.
After a sale, you may face large tax bills, concentrated positions, and a flood of product offers. A fiduciary advisor is not paid more to steer you into higher-commission vehicles, which allows the plan to focus on pacing, diversification, and long-term strategy instead of transactions.
Yes. A fiduciary can be very helpful for post-exit wealth management, including concentrated stock diversification, tax-efficient deployment of sale proceeds, and coordination with your CPA and estate attorney to protect newly liquid assets.
Not necessarily. Fee-only fiduciaries charge explicit advisory fees. Commission-based models may appear cheaper up front, but can embed significant product costs over time. The key is understanding your total cost in dollars and percentage terms, regardless of model.
We coordinate. That means sharing planning assumptions, reviewing entity and trust structures, and aligning investment decisions with tax and estate strategies. The CPA and attorney remain the tax and legal authorities; we make sure the financial implementation matches their work.
You can search the SEC’s Investment Adviser Public Disclosure (IAPD) website using the firm’s name. There you’ll find registration status, Form ADV filings, and any disclosed disciplinary history.
Fiduciaries are legally liable for breaches. Clients can file complaints with the SEC, pursue arbitration, or take legal action. Fiduciaries also maintain professional liability insurance to protect against losses from negligence.
Experience a fiduciary relationship built for post-exit wealth
If you have recently sold a business, manage $2M+ in investable assets, or are navigating inherited or equity-derived wealth, the structure of your advisory relationship matters as much as the investments themselves.
Croak Capital’s fiduciary, fee-only model is built to:
- Align incentives with your interests
- Coordinate with your tax and legal team
- Provide a disciplined framework for decisions after major liquidity events
To explore whether our approach is a fit, call (419) 464-7000 or request a confidential conversation at croakcapital.com/contact. A senior advisor will follow up to understand your situation and outline how a fiduciary structure could support your next stage.
Also Read:
How to invest $5M+ after selling my company: Do I need a family office
Why Ann Arbor Professionals Should Work with a Fiduciary Financial Advisor
How to Get Started with Estate Planning for Wealthy Families and Entrepreneurs
Risks of keeping $5M+ in one bank: how do UHNW families manage wealth safely