Mark Cernese & Associates

The firm is a small independent registered investment adviser that provides discretionary investment management and financial planning services to individuals and to institutional-type clients, including small businesses, corporations, nonprofits, and government agencies. It offers retirement planning and ongoing portfolio management, developing investment plans jointly with clients to determine suitable asset allocation and objectives.

The adviser emphasizes a passive, cost-conscious approach that relies on diversification, buy-and-hold strategies, and low-cost mutual funds, exchange-traded funds, and individual securities, with options used when appropriate. Portfolios are built around client-specific factors — age, income needs, tax picture, estate goals, and risk tolerance — and the firm generally exercises discretionary authority with bi-weekly or more frequent account reviews.

What is distinctive is that, as a solo practitioner with a relatively small client roster and assets under management, the firm also provides portfolio management for institutional clients, a service that is uncommon among peers of similar size. The principal’s securities licensing and corporate finance experience, along with operational practices such as systematic block trading to allocate average prices across accounts, further differentiate its procedures from many other small independent advisers.