
Frequently Asked Questions
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TGA Capital Management operates as an independent, SEC-registered investment advisory (RIA) firm specializing in fiduciary personal retirement, strategic asset allocation, and wealth management. We have been providing financial planning services to individuals and small businesses since 1982.
As a Registered Investment Advisor (RIA) operating under a strict fiduciary duty, the firm offers comprehensive wealth management services tailored to individual and business needs:
- Financial Planning: Includes goal analysis, comprehensive wealth management, written financial plans, and tax-efficient strategy coordination.
- Retirement Planning & Analysis: Focuses on active separate account management for retirement purposes, portfolio risk assessment, pension consulting, and guaranteed retirement income strategies.
- Additional Services: Includes estate planning coordination, proprietary investment research, and asset protection through an affiliated insurance firm.
- Financial Planning: Includes goal analysis, comprehensive wealth management, written financial plans, and tax-efficient strategy coordination.
- Retirement Planning & Analysis: Focuses on active separate account management for retirement purposes, portfolio risk assessment, pension consulting, and guaranteed retirement income strategies.
- Additional Services: Includes estate planning coordination, proprietary investment research, and asset protection through an affiliated insurance firm.
Based on the core operational standards of TGA Capital Management, an independent Registered Investment Advisory (RIA) firm based in Braintree, Massachusetts, a financial planner is defined as a credentialed fiduciary professional who takes a comprehensive, goal-based approach to structure and optimize a client’s long-term financial future. Unlike standard product brokers, a financial planner at a fiduciary firm operates under a legal obligation to act solely in the best interest of the client.
TGA Capital Management is compensated through a strict fee-only agreement paid directly by its clients.
How Compensation Works
- Asset-Based Fees: The firm’s revenue is derived from advisory fees collected directly from client accounts. These fees are charged on a quarterly basis and are calculated as a percentage of the total market value of the assets they manage.
- Tiered Fee Schedule: Their structure uses a tiered breakdown. This means that as the overall value of a portfolio increases, the percentage rate charged for the fee decreases.
- No Commissions or Incentives: As a Registered Investment Advisor (RIA) bound by a fiduciary duty, the firm does not accept commissions, transaction fees, or third-party economic incentives. This fee-only model is designed to prevent bias toward specific investment products.
- If you are evaluating this firm, you can verify their exact pricing brackets by requesting Item 5 of their Form ADV Part 2A or reviewing their Client Relationship Summary (Form CRS).
To provide services as an Investment Advisor Representative (IAR) at TGA Capital Management — a Registered Investment Advisory (RIA) firm based in Braintree, Massachusetts — individuals must fulfill distinct licensing, regulatory, and corporate requirements. Because TGA Capital Management is an independent, fiduciary-bound RIA, its advisors must maintain specific professional standards to legally manage portfolios and offer financial planning.
Core Licensing Requirements: To offer advisory services, a representative must satisfy state and federal exam benchmarks through FINRA’s CRD/IARD portal:
- The Series 65 License: This is the primary standard requirement. Individuals must pass the NASAA Uniform Investment Adviser Law Examination, which covers federal securities laws, economic factors, and investment vehicles.
- Alternative Combo: Representatives can bypass the Series 65 if they hold both an active Series 7 (General Securities Representative) and a Series 66 (Uniform Combined State Law) license.
Professional Designation Waivers: Most state regulators (including Massachusetts) will completely waive the exam requirement if the individual holds one of these certifications in good standing:
- CFP (Certified Financial Planner)
- CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst)
- ChFC (Chartered Financial Consultant)
- PFS (Personal Financial Specialist)
- CIC (Chartered Investment Counselor)
- CIS (Chief Investment Strategist)
Firm-Level Registrations & Disclosures: To legally perform services on behalf of TGA Capital Management, an advisor must complete the official onboarding filing:
- Form U4 Submission: Every representative must file a Form U4 to register with the appropriate state or federal regulatory bodies through the firm. This tracks professional history, disciplinary actions, and active licenses.
- Form ADV Part 2B: The firm must draft and distribute a Form ADV Part 2B (Brochure Supplement) directly to clients. This document details the specific advisor’s education, business background, and potential conflicts of interest.
Qualifications of Service & Fiduciary Standards – Because TGA Capital Management operates as an independent RIA, representatives are legally bound by specific operational expectations:
- Fiduciary Duty: Advisors are legally compelled to put the client’s best financial interests above their own or the firm’s.
- Fee-Only / Fee-Based Structure: Unlike brokers who sell products for variable commissions, RIA advisors at TGA typically bill via transparent asset under management (AUM) percentages, flat fees, or hourly rates.
- Insurance Licensing (Optional): Because the firm offers wealth management and works in tandem with insurance planning, an advisor may additionally carry a Life and Health Insurance License to offer risk management products.
As a Registered Investment Advisory (RIA) firm, TGA Capital Management structures our services to support a broad range of personal, corporate, and fiduciary clients. We provide financial planning, portfolio creation, and administrative consulting specifically tailored to different groups with unique needs:
Individuals and Families: TGA Capital Management serves individual investors, trusts, and estates through personalized wealth management.
- Custom Portfolios: We build separately managed accounts (SMAs) designed around the client’s risk tolerance, time horizon, and long-term financial goals.
- Wealth Planning: We provide written financial plans and directly coordinate tax- efficient investment solutions and estate planning strategies.
Companies and Small Businesses: We partner with small business owners and corporations to manage institutional
assets and navigate corporate planning.
- Asset Allocation: We design corporate investment accounts using strategic asset allocation models, utilizing a core mix of fixed-income assets, equities, and ETFs.
- Business Coordination: We help businesses protect corporate wealth and align financial strategies with the company’s operating needs.
Pension and Profit-Sharing Plans: We act as a service provider for qualified retirement programs, including 401(k)s, pensions, and profit-sharing plans.
- Plan Administration: TGA offers qualified plan administration to help employers properly maintain and organize their employee retirement benefits.
- Fiduciary Consulting: We provide specialized corporate consulting to ensure that company retirement and profit-sharing plans remain compliant with regulatory requirements.
Yes. Please call us and we can discuss any information you need before moving forward with our services. Thank you.
- We are available during normal business hours and can be reached 24/7.
- We work exclusively on your behalf regarding your financial concerns.
- We will meet in person or communicate via virtual, email, or over the phone.
- We will meet with you to review your accounts generally quarterly, and we are available during normal business hours.
- We return calls immediately when received or no later than 12 hours.
- We return calls or emails during the same day.
- Please review our CRD Client Relationship Summary.
TGA Capital Management centers its investment philosophy on an active management approach driven by proprietary research to build personalized, risk-adjusted portfolios. As a fiduciary Registered Investment Advisor (RIA), the firm structures individual client accounts based on a blend of tactical market responsiveness and long-term financial planning objectives.
Core Investment Pillars
- Active Portfolio Management: The firm rejects purely passive tracking. Instead, they actively monitor, adjust, and rebalance assets to capture market opportunities and manage volatility.
- Core-Satellite Structure: Portfolios primarily deploy a fixed-income and dividend-driven core focused on tax-sensitive cash flow. They supplement this foundation with strategic satellite allocations in growth equities, ETFs, REITs, closed-end funds, and MLPs.
- Proprietary Research & Customization: Portfolios are constructed as Separately Managed Accounts (SMAs) rather than pooled funds. This grants individual ownership of securities tailored specifically to a client’s risk tolerance, time horizon, and cash flow needs.
- Downside & Risk Management: Portfolios are mathematically calibrated via risk assessment modeling to cushion against market contractions while maintaining targeted paths toward sustainable retirement distributions.
TGA Capital Management determines investment recommendations by combining personalized goal analysis with rigorous, independent financial research to match an individual’s specific risk tolerance.
They develop their portfolios through the following approaches:
- Core-Satellite Strategy: Portfolios use a fixed-income and dividend-driven “core” combined with secondary, strategic satellite positions in equities and ETFs.
- Independent & Fundamental Research: Recommendations are backed by deep fundamental and technical analysis, including reviewing SEC filings (Form 10-K, Form 10-Q) and leveraging data from institutional sources like Morningstar, Bloomberg, JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, and Schwab Ratings.
- Personalized Financial Planning: Investment advice is heavily customized. Recommendations are based on a client’s specific time horizon, capacity for risk, and individualized investment policy statements.
- Active Management Focus: They actively monitor portfolios to adjust to market conditions rather than passively tracking indices, focusing heavily on strategic asset allocation and separate account management.
TGA Capital Management primarily implements Strategic Asset Allocation (SAA) through separate account management, focusing on a fixed-income and dividend-driven core to navigate volatile markets. Our models blend passive and active management, utilizing secondary satellite positions in equities and ETFs tailored to individual risk tolerance. To achieve the desired balance, TGA’s portfolio construction relies on the following structural breakdown:
- The Core: A foundation built on fixed-income investments and high-dividend equities to provide stability and consistent income generation.
- Satellite Allocations: Secondary exposures to broader equities and Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) to capture growth and sector-specific opportunities.
- Investment Vehicles: The portfolios are constructed using a diversified mix of securities, including individual equities, closed-end funds, REITS, and Master Limited Partnerships (MLPs).
The firm builds these portfolios on a discretionary basis, determining the exact asset mix by running detailed expense and risk analyses to align with each client’s specific long-term goals.
How TGA Capital Management Tracks Performance:
- Active Portfolio Monitoring: Their team actively oversees, adjusts, and evaluates asset allocations in response to changing market conditions.
- Goal and Benchmark Comparison: They routinely analyze client portfolios against established risk tolerances and personal retirement milestones to gauge real-world performance.
- Risk and Volatility Assessments: Using analytical tools (including integrations like Riskalyze), they measure how a portfolio’s returns stack up against its exposure to market volatility.
- Separate Account Management (SMAs): For clients utilizing separately managed accounts, performance tracking is individualized, providing exact clarity on specific holdings rather than pooled fund averages.
It depends if your account is for specifically for retirement or individual accounts. Retirement accounts are tax-deferred until withdrawal or until required by RMDs. We can also compare the benefits of doing Roth/IRA conversions, etc.
Individual accounts can be taxed on income and capital gains, but we also do tax harvesting on taxable accounts to minimize gains. Utilize tax-free income securities or utilize the qualified dividend rule in the allocation of a portfolio. We can also provide a tax planning element to your specific requirements.
- Charles Schwab & Company, Inc.
- Nationwide Retirement Services
- Vanguard Retirement Services

