Since 1999, I have managed investments for individuals and families. With your permission, I make the decisions so that you can relax and enjoy your time.
My Mission
My first priority is to make sure you are comfortable with your investments. I feel that investing success is based on creating a plan. I seek to understand your feelings about risk, reward and your investment time horizon. Then, I create a unique plan for you based on core principles of investing. That is, investment success requires a globally diversified portfolio of stocks and bonds. The investments should be held for the long term, rebalanced occasionally, and expenses kept in check. My clients hire me to make the decisions for them, but to also be transparent about my process.
“The individual investor should act consistently as an investor and not as a speculator.”
My history & insights from Thomas Leo Arms
- March 1999, hired as a stock broker trainee at Piper Jaffray & Co. -- a mere 41 years after my father, Thomas Leo Arms, started at the same company.
- September 27, 1999. First day of cold calling and managing client assets and expectations.
- February 22, 2000. My father and mentor is diagnosed with colon cancer. He tells me that now is the time we are going to work together.
- Summer 2000. Tom is back to work. He mentors me to work on the day to day operations. He teaches me patience.
- Summer 2000. Tom informs me that most everything a young advisor hears is wrong. The right thing is to be patient and have a well diversified portfolio. Never, ever sell for the sake of a commission. "Managers hate it, clients appreciate it."
- "Someday Leo, you'll have to change your business to fee only. It's simpler for clients and I would do it if I were younger."
- "Do the right thing for your clients, always. The best thing for the client always come first."
- "When you hear people say, 'This time is different.' don't believe them. It is never actually different, they just forgot the lesson of the last time this happened."
- October 28, 2005. Tom passes on to the next life.
- 2006. Piper Jaffray & Co. brokerage is sold to a foreign bank. I leave for one of the last brokerages, Morgan Stanley.
- Morgan Stanley merges with Smith Barney to become the largest brokerage in the United States. As one of over 14,000 brokers, I feel a strong sense that my clients will be best served if I can be totally independent of the Wall Street sales culture.
- 2011. I establish Thomas Leo Advisory, a fee only Registered Investment Adviser firm.