Bennington Financial Planning Group

Bennington Financial Planning Group provides ongoing portfolio management and financial planning to individuals, trusts, estates, charitable organizations and businesses, and — as disclosed in its Form ADV — also reports serving state and municipal government clients. Its services include Investment Supervisory Services with client-specific Investment Policy Statements, discretionary management when authorized, hourly financial planning engagements, and portfolios composed primarily of mutual funds, stocks, bonds, ETFs, REITs, annuities and covered-call strategies.

The firm emphasizes fundamental analysis when constructing client portfolios, supplemented at times by technical and cyclical analysis, and employs both long- and short-term trading with covered-call writing as an available tactic. Accounts are reviewed on a bi-weekly or monthly basis, advisors may trade with written discretionary authority, the firm aggregates block trades across accounts, and it charges both percentage-of-assets fees for management and hourly fees for planning work.

A distinctive operational feature is the firm’s affiliation with and recommendation of an affiliated broker-dealer to all clients, with advisors dually registered as broker-dealer representatives and a clearing arrangement through a national broker; the ADV discloses that advisors split time between the affiliated broker-dealer and the advisory business. Unlike many peers, the firm requires use of its recommended custodian rather than allowing client-directed brokerage, and it documents safeguards such as a written Code of Ethics and a practice of executing client transactions before personal trades to address potential conflicts.