Third Stanza Group

Third Stanza Group is a fee-only, state-registered investment adviser that offers comprehensive financial planning, discretionary portfolio management, and qualified retirement plan consulting to entities such as plan sponsors, trusts, estates, charitable organizations and business clients. Rather than charging a separate planning fee, the firm bundles written financial plans and ongoing advice into its asset‑based advisory services and charges fees on a percentage‑of‑AUM basis.

The firm’s investment process emphasizes a tactical allocation strategy intended to reduce risk and pursue improved performance, using a mix of exchange‑listed securities, mutual funds/ETFs, options and cash positions as potential hedges; it may occasionally recommend specific stocks or redistributions for concentration or tax reasons. Financial planning is delivered through consultation and typically documented in a written plan, with implementation occurring on a discretionary basis after client approval.

Noteworthy features for a firm of this size include its recent formation and very small operational scale — as of December 31, 2025 it reported $38,200 in discretionary AUM and a single client — and a concentration in plan consulting despite not acting as a Section 3(21) or 3(38) investment manager. The brochure also discloses outside business activities that could create conflicts of interest (one managing member participates in an employee stock purchase plan at a publicly traded employer and another is an independent insurance producer who states an intention not to accept insurance commissions), and those conflicts are explicitly disclosed to clients.