Investment management
Invest with discipline.
Not emotion.
How your portfolio is managed — and the team behind it.
The family behind the firm
No one sits down at our table worried about a benchmark — they’re worried about whether the money will last as long as the life it has to carry.
Briggs Financial Group Wealth Advisors is a family-led fiduciary practice built on one word: stewardship.
Founder Ronald J. Briggs Jr., FIC, CRPC® has spent more than four decades helping families answer the questions their money is supposed to serve — when work becomes optional, what can safely be spent along the way, and what the next generation receives. He practices alongside his son, Ronald J. Briggs III: two generations of one family, often planning across two or three generations of yours.
Behind the advisors sits an accredited in-house team covering the terrain a real plan crosses: tax and risk mitigation, net retirement income maximization (NRI Max®), algorithmic portfolio management, Social Security timing, and tax-efficient wealth transfer.
How we serve you
The services we provide
Your plan may touch several of these. Investment management is highlighted because it is what the rest of this presentation is about.
Retirement Planning
Can I retire, and what does it look like when I do?
Investment Management
How your portfolio is built, managed and monitored.
Comprehensive Financial Planning
A written plan connecting income, savings, taxes and goals
Income & Withdrawal Planning
Turning what you have saved into a reliable paycheck
Tax Planning
Proactive strategy through the year, not a scramble each April
Social Security Planning
Modeling the claiming options before you decide
Wealth Transfer & Legacy
Moving wealth to the next generation deliberately
Annuity Review
A straight second opinion on what you already own
1031 Exchange Planning
Deferring gains on investment property, on deadline
DSTs & Opportunity Zones
Passive real estate for landlords who want out
401(k) & Employer Plans
Advice on your largest and usually unadvised account
Estate & Professional Coordination
Working alongside your CPA and attorney
Your advisory team
The people you will work with
Four decades in the industry. Founded an independent fiduciary RIA practice in 2010 and now serves clients nationally from Brighton and Bonita Springs.
(810) 522-6685 · rbriggs@bfgwealthadvisors.com
Finance degree from Central Michigan University. Began his career at one of the largest U.S. insurers before moving to independent fiduciary advice.
(810) 623-2063 · rbriggs3@bfgwealthadvisors.com
Eight years in public accounting — tax compliance and consulting for real estate and private equity — before joining the firm in 2020.
info@bfgwealthadvisors.com
How your portfolio is managed
Your plan and your portfolio need different kinds of expertise.
One of them depends on knowing you. The other depends on watching markets every day. You should not have to trade one for the other.
Builds the plan the portfolio serves
What the money is for. When you will need it. How taxes, income, retirement and the people who depend on you all fit together. The portfolio is one instrument inside that plan, not the plan itself.
Your advisor makes that call, revisits it as your life changes, and stays accountable for it. That work needs their full attention — which is exactly what delegating the day-to-day management protects.
Runs the portfolio behind it
Research, construction, trading and risk management — every market day, by a dedicated team including CFA® charterholders. The depth of investment resource a large institution builds in-house, applied to your account.
It is a full-time job — which is why they do it, and your advisor does not have to.
Part one
Your investment management team
Who manages your portfolio, and how the relationship works.
Introducing
A Smarter Way to Invest
An independent investment management firm that works exclusively with financial advisors. Briggs Financial Group engages A Smarter Way to Invest as sub-adviser for the strategies described here.
2012
An SEC-registered investment adviser since 2017.
CFA® charterholders
A dedicated portfolio management team, not an algorithm alone.
Stays in your name
Held at your custodian, in your name. They manage the portfolio; they do not hold your assets.
Every trade, every day
You and your advisor can see every position and every transaction.
Independently verified
Flagship strategy results are verified by a third-party firm.
Regular commentary
Market updates through your advisor, so you always know what they are seeing.
Who does what
Three roles, one account — and the account is yours.
Adding a sub-adviser does not move your money or change who you call.
The account is opened in your name. Everything below works for you.
Knows your goals, your plan and what the money is for. Builds and maintains the plan. Selects the strategy. Engages the sub-adviser on your behalf, and can replace it.
Builds, trades and monitors the portfolio day to day. Never takes possession of your assets.
Holds the account and the money. Sends your statements and tax documents directly to you.
Illustrative. Custody arrangements, account types and service models vary; your advisor will confirm the custodian and the specifics that apply to your account. A Smarter Way to Invest, Inc. does not take possession of client assets.
Meet the team
The people managing your portfolio.
Investment Strategist
Senior Portfolio Manager
Quantitative Research
& Operations
Four decades of combined investment experience, including CFA® charterholders. Ronald J. Briggs Jr. is associated with both Briggs Financial Group and A Smarter Way to Invest. Because of that, the two firms are not independent of one another, and the arrangement creates a conflict of interest that is described in full under Important Information.
Part two
Why discipline matters
Markets will always be uncertain. Your process shouldn't be.
Our why
The #1 question every investor should ask
Most investors have never been told what discipline guides their portfolio, or how it would be applied in a difficult market. Without a defined plan, portfolio decisions default to the least reliable guide there is: how the market makes us feel.
Emotion is expensive
Fear and euphoria push investors to sell near bottoms and chase near tops — locking in losses that time and discipline would have healed.
Hope is not a strategy
“Buy and hope” leaves a portfolio fully exposed to every storm, with no defined plan for when — or how — to manage risk.
Discipline is the answer
A defined, repeatable process decides before emotions run high — so short-term feelings never drive long-term decisions.
The cycle of investor emotions
Emotions peak at exactly the wrong moments.
The feeling that it is safe to invest is strongest at the top. The urge to get out is strongest at the bottom. A defined discipline makes the decision before the feeling arrives.
Hypothetical illustration for educational purposes only. Not indicative of any specific investment or actual results.
The cost of reacting
The best days and the worst days arrive together.
$10,000 invested in the S&P 500 and left alone, January 2006 through December 2025.
The same $10,000 if you missed only the ten best days over those twenty years.
If you missed the forty best days — less than you started with.
Why this happens
Six of the ten best days occurred within two weeks of the ten worst days. The moments that feel most like the time to get out are usually adjacent to the days you cannot afford to miss.
What we take from it
Not that you should ignore risk — but that reacting to it emotionally is expensive. Risk should be managed by a defined, unemotional process, decided in advance.
Source: J.P. Morgan Asset Management, Guide to Retirement, 2026 edition. Hypothetical illustration based on the S&P 500 Total Return Index; returns are gross of fees, taxes and trading costs. Indices are unmanaged and cannot be invested in directly. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.
Buy and hope · one of three
Markets go up over time. They can also go nowhere for a decade.
S&P 500 Index price level, January of each year (log scale). Price return only — excludes dividends.
“Time in the market” is sound advice over a lifetime. It is a harder thing to live on when the flat stretch lands in the years you were counting on.
Thirteen years. The index finished 15% higher in total — while inflation ran in double digits.
Thirteen years. The index finished 4% higher in total, with two declines of more than 45% along the way.
Time in the market helps. It is not a plan on its own.
Source: S&P 500 Index price level, January of each year (multpl.com). Price return only; excludes dividends. The index is unmanaged, cannot be invested in directly, and does not reflect fees or expenses. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.
Buy and hope · two of three
An index fund is less diversified than it looks.
Share of the S&P 500 Index held in its ten largest companies. Year-end index weights; 2025 figure as of 12/31/2025.
Owning “the market” sounds like owning five hundred companies. Today, more than forty cents of every dollar in an S&P 500 index fund sits in just ten of them.
Index returns now track a handful of very large companies closely — mostly in one sector. That has worked well recently. It also means the concentration is a bet, whether or not it was chosen.
The last time concentration approached these levels was 2000. The technology-heavy Nasdaq-100 then fell 78% from its high and took fifteen years to recover it.
Sources: RBC Wealth Management, "The Great Narrowing: S&P 500 concentration"; Nasdaq-100 Index drawdown from its March 2000 high to its October 2002 low. Indices are unmanaged and cannot be invested in directly. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.
Buy and hope · three of three
Bonds do not always cushion the fall.
S&P 500 Total Return Index and Bloomberg U.S. Aggregate Bond Index. The 60/40 blend is 60% S&P 500 / 40% Bloomberg U.S. Aggregate, rebalanced annually.
The traditional answer to risk is a fixed mix — 60% stocks, 40% bonds — held through everything. It rests on one assumption: that when stocks fall, bonds will rise.
In 2008 that assumption held. In 2022 it did not, and the portfolio built to be the safe choice had its worst year in decades.
Diversification is worth having. It is not the same thing as risk management — because it only works when the assets behave the way the model expects.
Indices are unmanaged, do not incur fees or expenses, and cannot be invested in directly. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.
Part three
How we manage money
The process behind every portfolio we run.
What we do differently
Data decides. Emotion doesn't.
A systematic, data-driven process is built to produce better long-term outcomes than judgment exercised under pressure — because the decision is made before the pressure arrives.
Fundamental analysis
Business quality, financial health and durability decide what your portfolio is allowed to own. Never stories, hunches or tips.
Technical analysis
Objective market data — price, volume, market breadth, trend — informs how much risk the portfolio should be carrying right now.
A repeatable discipline
Written down, applied the same way every time, and explainable to you in the worst week of the year.
A process you can have explained to you is the difference between a portfolio and a pitch.
Inside every portfolio
Every portfolio follows the same four steps.
A defined mandate
Every strategy starts with a written objective: what it owns, why it owns it, and the job it is built to do. The rules are written before a single dollar is invested.
Rules-based construction
Every holding must earn its place through a defined screening process — financial filters, fundamental analysis, and ranking.
Systematic risk management
Risk is managed by process, not prediction — diversification standards within every strategy, plus market signals that adjust exposure in the Dynamic and Tactical portfolios.
Relentless re-evaluation
Every holding is measured against the same criteria that selected it. When it no longer qualifies, it is replaced — without hesitation and without attachment.
Managing risk systematically
A defined answer to “what do we do now?”
Within the Dynamic and Tactical portfolios a pair of proprietary market signals — Alpha and Omega — read objective market data: price movement, the volume behind it, how broad the move is, and longer-term trend. Together they produce a single outlook, and the portfolio carries more or less risk accordingly — systematically, and without a judgment call in the moment.
| Alpha | Omega | Market outlook |
|---|---|---|
| Buy | Buy | Bullish |
| Buy | Sell | Caution |
| Sell | Buy | Caution |
| Sell | Sell | Bearish |
Schematic illustration only — not actual signal readings, market data, or portfolio results. This is not a prediction of market tops or bottoms and is not a guarantee against loss. See Important Information.
The active-management spectrum
Three disciplines, so your portfolio's level of activity matches your goals.
Strategic
Actively managed and fully invested through the cycle, with a low degree of change — built to pursue long-term growth.
For investors comfortable riding out short-term volatility.
Dynamic
Adjusts exposure up or down as market conditions change, aiming for a smoother ride and better risk-adjusted returns.
For investors at or near retirement — or anyone who wants growth with less turbulence.
Tactical
Moves decisively toward safer assets when signals deteriorate, aiming to reduce market exposure in major downturns.
For long-term investors who want the most active risk management.
There is no single right discipline — there is the right discipline for you. We will match one to your goals, your timeline and your comfort with risk.
Part four
What this could mean for you
Why the size of the declines is the number that compounds.
Why losses matter more than gains
Losses and gains are not symmetrical.
A portfolio that falls 50% needs to gain 100% just to get back to where it started. And the gain that digs it out arrives in the moments that feel worst — which is exactly when the urge to sell is strongest.
Illustration one · building wealth
Participate in most of the gains. Avoid more of the losses.
Two hypothetical $1,000,000 portfolios over 25 years, invested through the same hypothetical market. One is static. The other captures 92% of the gains and 65% of the losses.
| Static | Risk-managed | |
|---|---|---|
| Annualized return | 7.0% | 7.8% |
| Volatility | 15.4% | 12.4% |
| Worst decline | -35% | -24% |
| Ending value | $5.42M | $6.59M |
Giving up some of the best years is what buys you the smaller declines — and across this full cycle, the smaller declines are worth more.
Hypothetical illustration for educational purposes only. Does not represent any actual investment, account, or strategy offered by A Smarter Way to Invest or Briggs Financial Group, and is not a prediction of future results. No fees, taxes or trading costs are reflected. All investing involves risk including possible loss of principal.
Illustration two · living on your wealth
In retirement, the size of the declines matters even more.
The same two hypothetical portfolios and the same return sequence — but now you are withdrawing $45,000 a year, rising with inflation.
When you sell to fund income during a decline, those shares never recover. That is why a smoother path matters more once withdrawals begin.
| Static | Risk-managed | |
|---|---|---|
| Income taken over 25 yrs | $1.54M | $1.54M |
| Lowest balance reached | $574k | $771k |
| Value after 25 years | $904k | $1.82M |
Same income. Same return sequence. The portfolio that fell less finished with roughly twice as much left.
Hypothetical illustration for educational purposes only. Uses the same hypothetical 25-year return sequence as the previous page, with a $1,000,000 starting balance, $45,000 withdrawn in year one, increasing 2.5% annually. Actual results would differ.
Why this matters
It is not about predicting.
It is about not needing to.
Smaller declines
Less ground to recover means more of your money spends its time growing rather than getting back to even.
A smoother path
Lower volatility makes a plan more predictable — and makes it far easier to stay invested when markets are difficult.
Decisions made by the discipline
The rules are set before the storm. Nobody has to make a good decision on the worst day of the year.
A different approach to the risk-off sleeve
If a fixed index annuity is part of your plan
Some plans use a fixed index annuity, rather than bonds, for the conservative part of a portfolio — paired with a growth-focused equity strategy.
The next three pages explain the trade-off honestly: what the floor gives you, and what you give up to get it. Whether it belongs in your plan is a decision we make together, in writing, before anything is purchased.
The risk-off question
What is the conservative part of your portfolio actually for?
Most portfolios hold bonds for one reason: to lose less than stocks when stocks fall. That is a job, not an asset class — and bonds are not the only way to do it.
Bonds
Pay interest, and often rise when investors move to safety — which is real protection when it works. But bonds carry interest-rate and credit risk of their own, and they can fall at the same time as stocks, as they did in 2022.
A fixed index annuity
Credits interest linked to an index up to a stated cap, and credits zero in a year the index falls — the contract value does not go down with the market. A floor instead of a cushion. In exchange, you give up the gains above the cap and access to the money for a period of years.
Illustration three · a different risk-off sleeve
The same stocks. A conservative sleeve that never had a losing year.
The same hypothetical market as the earlier illustrations. Both portfolios hold 60% stocks. One holds 40% bonds; the other holds 40% in a fixed index annuity with an 8.5% cap and a 0% floor.
| With bonds | With an FIA | |
|---|---|---|
| Annualized return | 5.8% | 6.6% |
| Worst year, risk-off sleeve | -13.0% | 0.0% |
| Worst decline, portfolio | -17.8% | -22.2% |
| Ending value | $4.06M | $4.98M |
The trade is visible in the table. The annuity sleeve never lost money and finished ahead — but in the years stocks fell hardest, bonds rallied and the annuity simply credited zero. A floor is not a cushion.
Hypothetical illustration for educational purposes only. Assumes an annual point-to-point crediting strategy with an 8.5% cap and 0% floor applied to a hypothetical index price return. Annuity caps are set by the issuing insurance company and can change. All investing involves risk including possible loss of principal.
Before you decide
What an annuity gives up, in exchange for the floor.
A fixed index annuity is an insurance contract, not an investment account. If it belongs in your plan, it belongs there with the trade-offs understood in advance.
Access is limited
Withdrawals above the free amount during the surrender period incur charges, often for seven to ten years. This is not the sleeve you spend from first.
Caps are not guaranteed
The insurer sets the cap and may lower it at each renewal, subject to the contract minimum. Crediting also excludes index dividends.
It is the insurer's promise
Guarantees depend on the claims-paying ability of the issuing insurance company. An annuity is not a bank deposit and is not FDIC insured.
A Smarter Way to Invest, Inc. does not sell, issue or recommend insurance products and does not receive insurance commissions. Any annuity recommendation is made by your advisor or insurance professional, who may receive a commission.
Take a second look
Does your portfolio have a discipline?
Whether you work with us or not, every investor deserves clear answers to three simple questions.
What investment discipline guides my portfolio?
Is there a defined philosophy and process — or a collection of products gathered over the years?
How are buy and sell decisions actually made?
Are they driven by objective data and defined rules — or by judgment calls made in the moment?
What is the plan for the next major downturn?
Is there a defined process for managing risk when markets fall — or is the plan simply to hope it comes back?
What happens next
A short, straightforward process.
A short questionnaire establishes both your comfort with risk and your capacity for it.
We look at your current portfolio and show you the risk you are actually taking today.
A specific portfolio matched to your profile, with its objective, its holdings and how it is managed laid out in full.
No obligation. Either way you leave with a clearer picture of your risk profile — and whether what you own today lines up with it.
The next conversation is about your portfolio specifically — what you own now, and what we would recommend instead.
Start a conversation
(810) 522-6685 ·
rbriggs@bfgwealthadvisors.com
bfgwealthadvisors.com
Brighton, Michigan · Bonita Springs, Florida
Important information
Disclosures
Asset management and investment advisory services provided by investment adviser representatives doing business as Briggs Financial Group Wealth Advisors, Inc. (“BFG”) are offered through SimplyRIA Advisor Network, LLC, an SEC-registered investment adviser. BFG and SimplyRIA Advisor Network, LLC are separate entities and are not affiliated. Registration with the SEC does not constitute an endorsement of the firm by regulators, nor does it indicate that the adviser has attained a particular level of skill or ability. BFG is responsible for determining whether any strategy is suitable for you and for the advice it provides. A Smarter Way to Invest, Inc. acts solely as a sub-adviser or model provider with respect to the management of designated investment strategies. Compensation arrangements between the firms, and the fees applicable to your account, are described in your advisory agreement and in each firm's Form ADV Part 2A.
Ronald J. Briggs Jr. is the founder of Briggs Financial Group Wealth Advisors and is also associated with A Smarter Way to Invest, Inc. as its founder and Chief Investment Strategist. Additional personnel are associated with both firms. Because of this common involvement, the two firms are not independent of one another. The recommendation that your account be managed by A Smarter Way to Invest therefore presents a conflict of interest: compensation paid to the sub-adviser benefits persons who are also associated with BFG. You are not required to use A Smarter Way to Invest, other sub-advisers and strategies are available, and you may direct your advisor to use an alternative at any time. This conflict, and the manner in which it is addressed, is described further in each firm's Form ADV Part 2A, which you should read before investing.
Sub-advisory services offered through A Smarter Way to Invest, Inc., 1024 E. Grand River Ave., Brighton, MI 48116, an SEC-registered investment adviser. This material is provided for illustrative and educational purposes only. It does not constitute an offer or solicitation for the sale or purchase of any security, does not address any individual's specific situation, and is not to serve as the basis for any investment decision. Investing involves risk, including the possible loss of principal. No investment strategy, including asset allocation or diversification, can guarantee a profit or protect against loss in periods of declining values. Form ADV Part 2A is available from your financial advisor, by calling (810) 588-6178, or at www.ASmarterWaytoInvest.com.
The portfolio illustrations in this presentation are hypothetical and are provided for educational purposes only. They do not represent any actual investment, client account, or investment strategy offered or managed by A Smarter Way to Invest or Briggs Financial Group, and they are not an indicator or guarantee of future or actual results. The illustrations are constructed from a hypothetical sequence of annual returns created for this presentation; the sequence does not correspond to any specific historical period and is not the return of any index, portfolio, account or strategy. The “risk-managed” portfolio is a mathematical construction that assumes participation in 92% of each gain and 65% of each loss; no actual strategy captures gains and losses at fixed rates. The illustrations reflect no advisory fees, transaction costs or taxes, all of which would reduce results. Actual investor results will differ.
The fixed index annuity illustration is hypothetical and does not represent any actual annuity contract, insurer, or crediting rate. Caps, participation rates and spreads are set by the issuing insurance company and may change at each contract anniversary, subject to contractual minimums; index crediting typically excludes dividends. Fixed index annuities are insurance contracts, not investments, and are not bank deposits, not FDIC insured, and not guaranteed by any federal government agency. All guarantees are subject to the claims-paying ability of the issuing insurance company. Withdrawals in excess of contractual free-withdrawal amounts during the surrender period are subject to surrender charges; withdrawals before age 59½ may be subject to a 10% federal tax penalty.
A Smarter Way to Invest, Inc. does not sell, issue, endorse or recommend insurance products and receives no insurance commissions. Any annuity or insurance recommendation is made solely by your advisor or licensed insurance professional, who may receive a commission. Where a representative of Briggs Financial Group is separately licensed to sell insurance products, commission compensation creates a conflict of interest. Read the contract, prospectus where applicable, and all disclosure documents in full before purchasing.
All investing involves risk, including the possible loss of principal. Risks may include interest rate risk, geopolitical and political risk, default and credit risk, regulatory risk, liquidity risk, manager error, business cycle and macroeconomic risk, and systematic risk. Focused single-asset-class strategies are non-diversified and concentrate exposure in a specific asset class or market sector. International strategies involve additional risks including currency fluctuation and political and economic instability. Certain strategies may use leveraged exchange-traded funds, which involve substantially greater risk than unleveraged funds.
Certain strategies within the Dynamic and Tactical disciplines apply proprietary technical trading signals, Alpha and Omega, which use algorithmic techniques such as trend analysis, price-action movements, relative strength, volume, moving averages and momentum-related strategies. The signal chart in this presentation is a schematic illustration and does not depict actual signal readings, actual market data, or the performance of any portfolio. There is no assurance that these strategies and techniques will yield positive outcomes or prevent losses.
Third-party statistics cited in this presentation are attributed on the page on which they appear. Market-participation figures are sourced from J.P. Morgan Asset Management, Guide to Retirement, 2026 edition. Index-concentration figures are sourced from RBC Wealth Management. Long-run S&P 500 index levels are sourced from multpl.com and reflect price return only. Indices are unmanaged, do not incur fees or expenses, and cannot be invested in directly. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.
No performance results of any A Smarter Way to Invest strategy are presented in this material. Strategy performance information is contained in current strategy fact sheets, which are available from your financial advisor and which should be reviewed in full, including all accompanying disclosures, before any investment decision. Fact sheet performance is based on hypothetical model return data and includes back-tested periods; results were not actually achieved by any specific investor or client portfolio.
Advisory and sub-advisory services are provided for a fee. The advisory fee applicable to your account, including any portion paid to A Smarter Way to Invest, is set out in your advisory agreement and is described in Form ADV Part 2A. Fees and expenses reduce investment returns over time. None of the illustrations in this presentation reflect advisory fees, transaction costs or taxes.
Neither Briggs Financial Group nor A Smarter Way to Invest provides tax, accounting or legal advice. Please consult your own tax and legal professionals regarding your specific situation.
