Morningstar Advisor - June/July 2012 - (Page 13)

Peggy and Chad Creveling, executive director and managing director, Creveling and Creveling Private Wealth Advisory dual nationality married couples from different cultural backgrounds and differing measures of wealth. Reconciling these different cultural approaches plays a significant part in the advising process. “We provide a forum and a framework for them to bring those different ideas together,” Chad says. “We don’t provide the solution per se, but we help them work through and reach an understanding.” It Takes a Professional Team In line with their personalized approach, the Crevelings have kept their business small. Clients come largely through referrals and include small-business owners, entrepreneurs, and corporate executives. How they caught our eye: Brought fee-only, fiduciary planning model to expatriate clients in Bangkok. Career path: Both graduated from United States Military Academy at West Point—he as a Distinguished Graduate (top 5% of his class) in 1986 and she Phi Kappa Phi (top 10%) in 1988. She was a military intelligence officer, he an Army Airborne Ranger before they moved to Thailand in 1993 to pursue new careers. Each earned the Chartered Financial Analyst designation in 1996. They each worked as equity analysts and researchers at various firms before launching Creveling and Creveling in 2006 in Bangkok. Personal: Married. Peggy is co-chairwoman of the American Chamber of Commerce in Thailand’s Business and Economics Committee. They both enjoy skiing and dancing salsa. Favorite funds: They use funds from Vanguard, Schwab, SPDR, iShares, PIMCO, and WisdomTree. The Crevelings say they strive to offer services normally associated with much larger firms. To offer their clients the most comprehensive and up-to-date research, they maintain an institutional relationship with Charles Schwab in the United States and other reputable custodians. They also have a research partnership with Litman/Gregory and use Morningstar Advisor Workstation for its global database and ability to track client portfolios across multiple currencies. Their investing emphasis is on strategic and globally diversified portfolios based on exchange-traded funds and index mutual funds, which provide inexpensive and tax-efficient investment options. Transparency is also a vital component to their business. Creveling and Creveling is licensed by the Ministry of Finance in Thailand—the first foreign investment advisor to be so, Chad says. The firm also voluntarily submits to regulation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. “I just think there’s a demand for what we’re doing,” Chad says. “The biggest thing is people don’t know about us. We’re small. We spend our time advising.” K Philip Bader is a journalist based in Bangkok. ates, they began to work with their clients more regularly. “We see that there’s actually a tremendous amount of need for someone who can actually come in and analyze a household like we used to look at a company’s finances,” Peggy says. “We analyze and advise on the household’s finances, partnering with our clients as a household CFO.” Needs of Expats regular follow-up. Clients often move from country to country in the region. They have multiple bank accounts in multiple currencies. They change jobs and employment benefit packages. “There are all these permutations just by being an expat,” Peggy says. “It was one of the things that brought us into this. We were looking for that advice once. We personally were looking for someone who did what we’re doing, and there was no one that we could find.” Another challenge is the diversity of perspectives on financial planning, particularly among For expatriates whose financial investments can span multiple tax jurisdictions and currencies, and whose busy lives often preclude having the time and resources to take full control of their finances, that level of service requires enormous flexibility and MorningstarAdvisor.com 13 http://www.MorningstarAdvisor.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Morningstar Advisor - June/July 2012

Morningstar Advisor - June/July 2012
Contributors
Letter From the Editor
Be Worth Remarking About
How Important Is Stewardship?
From West Point to Points East
Where a Fund’s Secrets Lie
Getting Fund Directors on Board
Managers Prep for Housing Rebound
Four Picks for the Present
Investment Briefs
A Hedge Against Career Risk
Natural Gas Reaches Capitulation
Family Matters
How Good Stewardship Predicts Superior Performance
Stewardship Goes Back to the Fundamentals
On the Go for Fixed Income
Where Shareholders Ride First Class
Dangers Lurk in Exchange-Traded Notes
Stocks on Sale in a Strong Market
A Good Steward Is Easy to Find
Our Favorite Mutual Funds
50 Most Popular ETFs
Undervalued Stocks With Wide Moats
Buffett Rule’s Biggest Losers

Morningstar Advisor - June/July 2012