Investment Management Athens, GA

When it comes to managing your wealth, it’s not about chasing trends or reacting to headlines — it’s about following a disciplined, evidence-based investment strategy tailored to your individual financial goals. At Arch Financial Planning, we provide investment management services to business owners, retirees, and professionals in Athens, GA and beyond, using a proactive approach grounded in research and guided by your unique financial situation.

We’re a fee-only, fiduciary financial planning firm — not a brokerage or insurance agency — and we believe our clients deserve straightforward advice, low-cost investment products, and a clear path to financial independence. Our approach combines portfolio management, retirement planning, and risk management into a cohesive, long-term strategy.

Let’s break down the key components of our investment philosophy.

You’ve saved diligently—we help you grow and protect your investments for what comes next.

– Cecil Staton, CFP®

Focus on What You Can Control

The financial markets are unpredictable, but there are several factors within your control that can have a big impact on your financial life:

Diversification:
We go beyond just the S&P 500. Our portfolios are broadly diversified across thousands of companies in the U.S. and internationally, with exposure to real estate, small-cap, value, and emerging markets. This helps reduce volatility and improve long-term risk-adjusted returns.

Tax Efficiency:
We use low-cost mutual funds and ETFs from firms like Dimensional and Vanguard that are designed to minimize tax drag. Strategic tax-loss harvesting and asset location are incorporated into our investment management services to help you keep more of what you earn.

Turnover:
Our investment strategy is long-term and disciplined. We avoid frequent trading, which can trigger unnecessary capital gains and increase costs. Less turnover = less tax and more compound growth.

Risk Tolerance:
We create personalized financial plans based on your comfort with risk, liquidity needs, and long-term goals. Your portfolio is designed to be resilient through market ups and downs, tailored to your unique needs.

Managing Emotions: From Optimism to Fear

One of the most important services a fiduciary financial planner provides is behavioral coaching. The financial media often fuels anxiety with breaking news and short-term predictions, making it hard to stick with a sound investment strategy.

We help clients stay calm during market downturns and avoid chasing returns during euphoric rallies. Emotional investing can lead to poor financial decisions — buying high and selling low. We act as your accountability partner, guiding you through volatility with clarity and confidence.

At the beginning of each day, we remain focused on your long-term goals, not yesterday’s headlines.

Understand the Dimensions of Return

Decades of academic research and data support the idea that certain characteristics — or dimensions of return — explain differences in expected investment performance. We incorporate these into our portfolios:

• Company Size: Small companies tend to outperform large ones over long time periods.

• Price (Value): Companies trading at lower relative prices (value stocks) have historically outperformed more expensive (growth) stocks.

• Profitability: More profitable companies tend to deliver higher returns over time.

These factors are built into the investment strategy of fund providers like Dimensional Fund Advisors, giving you access to institutional-level asset management designed to capture long-term market premiums.

Look Beyond Headlines and Recent Trends

Markets move fast, and so does the news cycle. But reacting to headlines is not a strategy. Instead of speculating on interest rates, the Fed, or election outcomes, we take a data-driven approach grounded in decades of market evidence.

Recent trends might drive short-term returns, but we focus on building a portfolio that supports your financial goals five, ten, or twenty years from now. True financial success comes from discipline, patience, and a well-crafted plan — not trying to predict what happens next.