The Independent Financial Group does not take custody of client assets at any time; nor does IFG have access to client assets; nor does IFG receive any compensation or incentives of any description from the custodians selected. Client accounts are opened in the client’s name at an independent third-party custodial firm which provides custody of client assets.
SEI Private Trust Company
Safety First: Banks carry FDIC insurance. Typically, investment firms carry SIPC plus additional insurance. Why? They are required because your savings and investments are held in “street name” – the institution’s name, not yours.
That’s so those firms can use your money. They can lend it, borrow against it or, in the case of major Wall Street firms, use it in market making activities. Your money is actually an asset of those firms that can be attached by their creditors if those firms should fail, leaving insurance to cover any losses up to a limit. Should that make you feel safe?
Remember the 2008-9 credit melt-down when banks and firms that were too big to fail actually did? Insurers were unable to cover all investor losses because the institutions were using client money for leverage while using insurance to protect the clients.
It’s one of several reasons why I established a custodial relationship with SEI – and 100% of my clients approved.
At SEI, assets are not held in street name. They are not an asset of the custodial firm. Client investments are held at an independent trust company in the investor’s name, and subject to more regulatory scrutiny than the typical brokerage/custodian firm. Creditors have no claim on client assets –they’re owned by the investors in trust, not as assets of the custodian firm.
SEI
SEI, founded in 1968, is one of the world’s largest providers of wealth management solutions, with over 5,000 employees and $2 trillion in assets (as of October 2026) and offices in the U.S., Canada, Ireland, India, Luxembourg, South Africa, and United Kingdom.
Through times of radical change, SEI has been a constant in the financial services industry. SEI has never been bought or sold, and, despite their growth, has been at the forefront of innovation. They’ve been able to take a complex business model and make the processes simple for the end-investor. SEI also has an impressive stable of well-known institutional and corporate clients with which they work closely, in the same fiduciary capacity that I serve you.
And, you’ll love SEI’s technology.
The smart way to manage:
- Your advisor is independent of the asset custodian. IFG receives no compensation from from SEI or any investment provider and has no access to client assets beyond client-approved services.
- Your reporting is objective and technology-driven, provided by independent third parties not related to IFG.
- There are no ‘revenue-sharing’ or ‘back-door’ compensation arrangements.
- All investment charges and compensation arrangements are fully transparent.
To put it bluntly: IFG is not in a position to “cook the books” or put it’s hand in the cookie jar. The independent model simply makes sense.
If this all makes sense to you, IFG may provide the ‘right-fit’ advisory model to help plan your future.
Ready to get started! You can get the ball rolling here!