Who We Are

Whether you are a corporate plan sponsor seeking benefits to retain valuable employees or an individual with complex financial needs, Aldrich Wealth has the depth of resources and expertise to serve you.

Planning your financial future or choosing the appropriate plan for your employees is more than just another financial transaction, it is a process that requires expertise, experience, and commitment. At Aldrich Wealth, we have carefully selected a team of financial professionals who are dedicated to providing advice to help clients achieve their financial goals.

Our average advisor has over 13 years of experience in wealth management, financial planning, and tax planning. Although each client’s goals are unique, with our decades of experience, there is a good chance that we have helped someone through some of the same complexities for their personal financial life or their corporate retirement plan needs.

Each and every one of our team members is committed to serving you. Whether we are answering questions about your investment portfolio, reviewing a tax strategy, hosting an employee education session, or fiduciary training for corporate retirement plan sponsors, we are here to guide you.

Our professionals hold designations including CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™, Chartered Financial Analyst®, Certified Public Accountant, Accredited Investment Fiduciary®, Certified Plan Fiduciary Advisor, Certified Specialist in Estate Planning® and Personal Financial Specialist. Aldrich Wealth has been recognized nationally for its investment knowledge and expertise. Our Chief Investment Officer, Darin Richards, has appeared on CNBC providing commentary on current topics related to the market outlook and investment strategies. In the corporate retirement plan industry, many of our retirement plan consultants were recognized by the National Association of Plan Advisors for their technical expertise. Our professionals are frequent speakers on a variety of topics from financial planning to tax-efficient investing and we are recognized by SHRM to o­ffer Professional Development Credits (PDCs) for SHRM-CP® or SHRM-SCP®.

At Aldrich Wealth, we recognize that investment performance is only one piece of a comprehensive strategy. We take a team-based approach to serving clients. For individuals, we include investment advisors, financial planners, and tax professionals to provide a holistic view of each situation. Individuals who find our services most valuable have complex issues ranging from corporate stock planning to charitable giving to experiencing a challenging life event.

For corporate retirement plan sponsors, we help you select the best retirement plan to meet your company goals, providing investment management, plan design, and recordkeeping selection and, through our team approach, bringing compliance services needed to meet your fiduciary obligations. We have decades of experience creating and managing 401k plans for privately-held businesses of all sizes. With a billion dollars of plan assets under management, clients trust Aldrich Wealth to deliver a plan with investment options to meet the needs of business owners and their employees.

Aldrich Wealth was founded as a Registered Investment Advisor to provide transparency to our clients and to operate at the highest fiduciary standard. As an RIA registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission, we are required to maintain a fiduciary standard which means we make recommendations that are in the best interest of our clients. We ensure transparency by disclosing all of our fees upfront.

Aldrich Wealth was founded in May of 1998 as an affiliate of Aldrich CPAs + Advisors. It was born out of a recognition that long-time business clients were experiencing liquidity events and weren’t satisfied with the money management options available to them. They came asking for an improved solution to their needs.

Scott Barchus, Doug Davison, and Steve Tatone realized there was an opportunity to extend these long-term relationships, built over years of service, into the next stage of clients’ financial lives. With an entrepreneurial spirit, the support of Aldrich, and a passion for learning the business of money management, Scott and Doug set out to build a wealth management firm. These were the first two employees and founders of what was then called AKT Wealth Advisors.

The challenges, in the beginning, were numerous and complex. They had no experience and no assets under management and had to navigate the regulatory environment, create infrastructure, establish the process, and define the value proposition. On top of that, they began the business just two years before one of the worst stock market declines in the previous 20 years. Convincing their colleagues at Aldrich and prospective clients to put their faith in them would prove to be a daunting mountain to climb, and at times, test their confidence in their abilities to succeed.

They began the journey by falling back on the guiding principles and foundational tenants that helped build the accounting firm. One of those was the desire to maintain their independence and advocacy for their clients. This forced them to build everything from scratch instead of partnering with many in the industry that approached the firm. While partnering would have been easier, it would have caused them to sacrifice their principles.

Additional core principles they established were driven by other shortcomings that existed in the industry:

• Deliver services clients need instead of selling them something.
• Deliver value to clients beyond portfolio management.
• Build strong relationships and listen to clients.

Recognize and manage risk.

As their first client turned into their second, and their second into their third, and so on, they began to build trust in the people they served which has carried Aldrich Wealth to this point. While this history includes many successes and some failures, it has always been driven by a collective passion to serve clients, a continuous desire to learn and improve the business, a reliance to act and operate on core principles, and an amazing group of professionals who have been attracted to the entrepreneurial spirit and culture that has defined Aldrich Wealth since the beginning—and still defines the business today.

While this brief story describes the start of the journey, there are many more stories of amazing contributions by special people that make up the fabric of who Aldrich Wealth is today—humbled by the hundreds of clients who continue to put their trust and faith in Aldrich Wealth and are committed to continuing to build a premier wealth management firm long into the future.

Oregon Business Magazine Top 100 Companies to Work For in OregonCompanies from a variety of sectors and locations across the state of Oregon participated in a survey. Oregon Business Magazine’s 100 Best Companies to Work for in Oregon survey continues to highlight workplace and employer best practices for increasing employee productivity, engagement, and satisfaction. The survey is sent to employees of participating companies divided into six sections: Work Environment; Management & Communications; Decision-making & Trust; Career Development and Learning; Benefits & Compensation; and Sustainable Practices (used to determine the 100 Best Green Workplaces in Oregon list). Within each section are 4 workplace qualities (11 in Sustainable Practices) on which employees rate satisfaction and importance. There is also an optional demographic section and two open-ended questions asking what employees like about their workplace and what they would like improved. Award is to Aldrich Group of Companies.

Accounting Today Top Firms by AUM
The Accounting Today “Wealth Magnets” Top Firms by AUM is an independent listing produced annually by Accounting Today and SourceMedia. The list is based on data gathered from CPA wealth management and financial planning firms, broker-dealers, and Accounting Today research. The ranking is based on each firm’s reported or researched amount of assets under management as of the end of the previous calendar year or later, and does not evaluate the quality of services provided to clients; nor is it indicative of a firm’s future performance. Neither the firms nor their employees pay a fee to Accounting Today in exchange for inclusion in the Wealth Magnets ranking.

Portland Business Journal Top 20 Most Admired Financial Services Company in Portland
To generate the rankings for Portland Business Journal’s Oregon’s Most Admired Company, surveys were sent to 3,000 CEOs in Oregon and southwest Washington. They were asked to select three companies they admired in eight different industries, as well as three companies they admired most across all industries. Approximately 500 leaders responded to the survey. Companies eligible for consideration were not limited to those based in Oregon and southwest Washington, but included any business with a substantial presence in the region. Respondents identifies their first, second and third-place choices in category. Points were calculated in the following manner: first place received three points, second place received two points, and third place received one point. Award is to Aldrich Group of Companies.

Portland Business Journal’s Fastest-Growing Private 100 Companies Survey:
This ranking is based on both revenue growth percentage and revenue growth amount over the past three years. The ranking is based on each firm’s self-reported information. Please see the qualifications here. The firms nor their employees pay a fee for consideration in the ranking. Ranking does not evaluate the quality of services provided, nor is it indicative of future performance.

San Diego Business Journal Best Places to Work 2023
The Best Places to Work in San Diego program is a survey competition to determine which participants are the best employers. The process is managed by Best Companies Group (BCG) and winners are published by the San Diego Business Journal. Best Companies Group is an independent research firm specializing in identifying and recognizing great places to work. BCG manages programs worldwide, including the US, Canada, and the UK. The process includes two surveys to gather detailed data about each participating company. BCG conducts the surveys, analyzes the data and determines the winners and rankings. Part I – Employer Questionnaire (EQ): The employer (main company contact) will complete this survey, detailing company policies, practices, benefits and demographics. The employer will be asked to complete the EQ online. Part II – Employee Engagement & Satisfaction Survey (EESS): The employee survey is an in-depth set of statements (78) that employees will be asked to respond to on a 1-5 Likert scale of “Strongly Disagree” to “Strongly Agree”. This section of the survey will also include two (2) open-ended questions, and seven (7) demographic questions. If e-mail and internet technology is not available for use by company employees, BCG also has paper surveys available.

National Association of Plan Advisors (NAPA)
The National Association of Plan Advisors was created by and for retirement plan advisors. Membership is also open to other retirement industry professionals who support the interests of plan advisors. NAPA is the only advocacy group exclusively focused on the issues that matter to retirement plan advisors. NAPA is part of the American Retirement Association, based in the Washington, D.C. area. For more information, please visit www.napa-net.org

NAPA Top Women Advisors
The NAPA Top Women Advisors were selected from more than 600 nominees, who were asked to respond to a series of questions, both quantitative and qualitative, about their experience and practice. Those questions were then reviewed anonymously by a panel of judges. Selected women were honored in three separate categories: Captains (all-stars who happen to be principals, owners, or team captains of their organizations); All-Stars (top producers who have their own practice); and Rising Stars (top producers who have less than five years of experience with retirement plans as a financial advisor).

NAPA Top Retirement Plan Advisors Under 40
The NAPA list of Top 100 Retirement Plan Advisors Under 40, a.k.a “Aces” is based on applications received from more than 600 nominees designated by NAPA Firm Partners. Those applications are then vetted by a blue-ribbon panel of senior advisor industry experts based on a combination of quantitative and qualitative data submitted by the nominees, as well as a broker-check review.

NAPA Top DC Advisors Teams
The NAPA Top DC Advisor Teams list is a compilation of NAPA member firms by teams, broadly defined as being in a single physical location and having at least $100 million in DC assets under advisement (AUA) based on self-reported year-end data. NAPA collected data via a survey sent out to firms/teams. All NAPA members who respond with over $100 million in AUA are listed.

Third-party rankings, recognitions, or ratings are no guarantee of future investment success and do not ensure any level of performance or results. Unless otherwise noted, no fee was paid for consideration of any ranking or award. They should not be construed as an endorsement and are generally based on information prepared and submitted by the firm.