Why MCF
Every firm says wealth management, tax planning and estate planning. Here’s how to tell who means it.
Ten tabs open, every site saying the same words. These are the questions that separate them, worth asking anywhere, including here.
Start with these
- How many CPAs are on my team?
- Who prepares my tax return, and have they seen my plan?
- Is my estate plan tracked to done, or handed off?
The checklist
The questions to ask any firm
Six questions that separate the websites from the work. Take them into every first meeting; the answers should be specific, and quick.
How many CPAs are on my team?
Tax advice is only as deep as the people credentialed to give it.
Who prepares my tax return, and have they seen my plan?
Planning and preparation only compound when the same team does both.
Is my estate plan tracked to done, or handed off?
A drafted document isn’t a finished plan until it’s signed, funded and done.
When do my advisor, my tax specialist and my planner meet about me together?
Coordination you can’t put on a calendar is coordination you can’t count on.
Who is accountable for my whole picture?
When the answer is three names, the person holding it together is usually you.
How does the firm get paid on the advice it gives me?
You want the incentives on the table before the recommendations are.
Ask us all six. The first conversation exists to answer them.
Talk With an AdvisorThe comparison
The rows that tell firms apart
The first three rows read the same on nearly every advisory site. The last four are where the answers separate; those are the ones worth asking about.
Investment management
Financial planning
Says “tax planning”
Tax return projections reviewed during the year
Returns prepared and filed by the same team *
Estate planning counsel coordinated in-house *
One advisor accountable for the whole picture
A generic column, not a named competitor; plenty of firms do good work. The difference worth asking about is how much of this work happens in one place.
* Services are tailored to each client’s circumstances and engagement. Not all services described are provided to every client; tax preparation and in-house estate planning coordination are provided for qualifying relationships.
Legal services are provided by licensed attorneys through separate legal engagements where applicable. MCF Advisors, LLC is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice.
Our commitment
Three choices that shape the advice
Founded in 2004, we are an independent, privately owned advisory firm that’s deeply integrated in the lives of individuals, families, and business owners. We take responsibility for what matters most to you, protecting what you’ve built to carry your values forward with clarity and confidence.
Independent
No parent company. No product shelf to move. Advice is the product, and every recommendation rises or falls on whether it serves you.
Privately owned
The people who own MCF work here. Decisions are made for clients and for decades, not for quarters.
One team under one roof
Advisors, CPAs, estate planners and specialists on the same payroll, at the same table. Coordination isn’t a referral away: it’s the org chart.
How we decide
The Triangle of Success
Every firm makes calls where the client’s interest, the team’s capacity and the firm’s economics pull in different directions. We wrote down the order we resolve them in.
MCF's Triangle of Success
Decision-making priority
Team news
Partners, promotions and people
Careers
Interested in joining our team?
Best Places to Work in Kentucky, eight years in a row. We’re always interested in meeting advisors, CPAs, estate planners and client-service professionals who fit.
Questions
What people ask while deciding
What makes MCF different, in one sentence?
Advisors, CPAs and estate planning counsel working as one team, in one place, accountable for getting the whole plan executed, not just written.
Is MCF a fiduciary financial advisor?
Yes. MCF Advisors is an SEC-registered investment adviser, and as fiduciaries, our recommendations are guided by our clients’ best interests.
What does the first conversation cost?
Nothing. It’s how both sides decide whether the fit is right; you’ll leave knowing what we’d focus on first, whether or not we work together.
Ask us the hard questions.
Bring all six from the checklist. The first conversation costs nothing, and answering them is how both sides decide.