Ely Prudent Portfolios is an independent, fee-only Registered Investment Advisor. We are compensated only by our clients and accept no commissions or any other form of compensation from other sources. This reduces the potential for conflicts of interest. As Registered Investment Advisors, we are fiduciaries to our clients holdng us to the highest standard of legal responsibilities, trust and confidence. This fiduciary standard requires us to work for the exclusive benefit of our clients and to act with care, skill, and caution. It also requires us to disclose our compensation and any other conflicts of interest. Returns come from risk, but not all risks are worth taking. As investment advisors it is our job to identify the risks that are rewarded and to determine how much of that risk to take. By structuring a strategy around compensated risks factors we replace costly speculation and guesswork with purpose and direction. We spend our time on what works, not what sells. In his book, Your Money and Your Brain, Jason Zweig explains that "Marketers and the hordes of people who want to separate you from your money understand full well how the anticipation circuits work in your brain." It is our job to maintain a prudent financial process and to impose checks and balances on our clients' emotions to keep them from "...capturing nothing, in the long run, but risk and loss."