Balanced
Rock
Investment
Advisors
Who We Are
Our Story
When Dan Flannery started doing business in the Roslindale neighborhood of Boston in 2011, his goal was to establish a fee-only, fiduciary-only™ firm that would serve the whole community. With low fees and no account minimums, Dan believed he could provide affordable financial advice to people without selling commission-based financial products. Turns out, when you drop the suits, the fancy downtown office, and the bloated C-level salaries — while getting smart about technology – you can provide high-quality advice and sustainable, personalized service at an affordable price.
Balanced Rock was founded on the values of fairness, respect for all people, and long-term thinking.
Dan began to get the word out about Balanced Rock at the Roslindale Village Farmer’s Market with his wife and infant son by his side on Saturday mornings. Since then, Balanced Rock has attended and supported Farmers Markets and other community events across the greater Boston area, building our client base from a core of dedicated Farmers Market supporters. Why pay for marketing that doesn’t help anyone when you can pay for marketing that supports local farmers and the community? We think shoppers can see the similarities between the “know-your-farmer” movement and the transparent honest advice our clients get from working with a fee-only advisor.
The environmental and social concerns of these clients have helped shape our investment offerings, including the development of our Values+Value® investment strategy and our DIAL-In (Direct, Impact, Alternative, and Local Investing) program. Eliminating middlemen and unnecessary fees is core to our model in all aspects of personal finance, so we began purchasing Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) data directly to build low-cost, customized client portfolios. But clients also wanted opportunities beyond traditional public markets; they wanted to invest in community economies, climate justice solutions, and local businesses. This led to our DIAL-In program.
For some clients, financial planning means figuring out how much they need to save, how much they can afford to spend and when they can retire. For other clients, financial planning is about how much they can give away while still meeting their personal goals. In 2020, Balanced Rock began providing philanthropic giving advice in addition to philanthropic planning. Our giving advice is client driven, but largely grounded in a philosophy of systems change, frontline community leadership, political tipping points, social movements and efficient use of capital.
BELOW: Tri-County Farmers Co-op Market in Du Bois, Pennsylvania. 1944. Library of Congress.
