James I. Black & Company

James I. Black & Company provides wealth management, portfolio management, and financial planning to individuals, pension and profit-sharing plan participants, guardianships, trusts, and estates. The firm reports approximately $144 million in assets under advisement across about 130 clients and delivers portfolio management alongside broad-based financial planning services.

The firm’s advisory process begins with an interview to identify goals and risk tolerance, followed by individualized asset-allocation recommendations that may be implemented via customized portfolios, model portfolios, or predetermined strategies; holdings typically include equities, ETFs, mutual funds, corporate and municipal securities, and U.S. government securities. Although JIBC offers both discretionary and non-discretionary services in its forms, its brochure reports that client assets under management are primarily non-discretionary and accounts are monitored and rebalanced on an ongoing basis.

JIBC’s brochure discloses several uncommon features for a firm of its size: it is a registered broker-dealer and SEC/FINRA-registered adviser, is CFTC/NFA-registered as an introducing broker, and is affiliated with a CPO and CTA (ITB Capital Management and ITB Capital Advisors) that sponsor privately offered commodity pools (ITB Premium Fund I and II). The firm also holds or maintains certain client private securities and clears non-public securities (and may directly debit fees), uses third-party custodians such as Interactive Brokers, StoneX, and Marex for most accounts, and notes these regulatory registrations and related-party activities while reporting no material disciplinary events in Item 9 of its brochure.