FatTail Financial Advisory Group is an independent financial advisory firm providing financial planning and wealth management services. “Fat tail” is a term in probability theory referring to the unforeseen, extreme risks and rewards we face in our lives and in our investment portfolios. We call ourselves FatTail Financial Advisory Group because we work to mitigate these risks.

Using concepts from the fields of behavioral economics and post-modern portfolio theory when appropriate, we guide our clients through the complexities of the financial arena teaching our clients to use the financial system to their advantage. We specialize in working with people preparing for retirement or already in retirement, with entrepreneurs, and with people wishing to do socially-responsible and sustainable investing. Many of our clients are in the health care, financial services and teaching professions.

What makes us different?

You do not have to go it alone. We have gone through what you are going through. We are easy-going but firm. We are patient. We have learned that sometimes you have to have a sense of humor to strike at life's foibles. We get to know our clients and their families. As their goals are long-term, our relationship is long-term. We ask personal questions to solve personal dilemmas. We look at the big picture when looking at your finances and the world.

Our advise to all is to do what you love doing. Our founder, Helen Beichel, began working in the financial services industry in Boston in the mid-1980's working as an 800-number telephone customer services representative, answering question and resolving problems for shareholders of Keystone Mutual Funds. She came to enjoy the problem-solving aspect of the position. However, her real interest at the time was international affairs. She had saved money for graduate school, receiving her M.A. International Affairs from the American University in Washington D.C. While in Washington, she worked for an ecumenical, non-profit organization doing advocacy work related to democracy and human rights in the Korean Peninsula. She then spent two years teaching in South Korea deciding not go into academia, but to return to the financial services field bringing her teaching and organizing skills as well as her expertise in world affairs with her.

Our philosophy is that money is a tool to help us achieve our life goals. At FatTail Financial Advisory Group, we feel our role is to support our clients in their process of doing that. By doing so, we contribute to the health and happiness of our world community. We feel our area of expertise is not in the development of new financial products but in the application of those products. We believe in taking a big picture approach, taking the theoretical and making it practical for the average person. We feel a sense of satisfaction when clients buy new homes, set up new businesses, send their grandchildren to college, avoid taxes, and leave a legacy.