FAQs

Our office is located in downtown Miami at 101 NW 8th Street, Suite 200. The majority of our client meetings are conducted via Zoom, which allows us to serve families across the United States. We work with clients in Miami, Miami Beach, Coral Gables, Brickell, and across the country.

Yes — always. CameronDowning is a fee-based, fiduciary Registered Investment Advisory (RIA) firm. As a fiduciary, we are legally obligated to act in your best interest and to disclose any conflicts of interest. Every recommendation we make is designed to serve your goals.

No. CameronDowning is a Registered Investment Advisor (RIA), not a broker-dealer or stockbroker. Stockbrokers are held to a suitability standard — meaning they only need to recommend products that are “suitable” for you, even if better options exist. As a fiduciary RIA, we are held to a higher legal standard: we must always act in your best interest.

Our advisors hold the CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ (CFP®) and Chartered Investment Management Analyst® (CIMA®) designations — two of the most rigorous and respected credentials in the financial planning and investment management industries. CFP® professionals must complete extensive education, pass a comprehensive exam, accumulate thousands of hours of experience, and adhere to strict ethical standards. CIMA® certification focuses on advanced investment strategy and portfolio management.

Yes. Our advisors are CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ (CFP®) professionals. The CFP® certification is granted by the CFP Board and requires extensive education in financial planning, a comprehensive exam, thousands of hours of experience, and a commitment to act as a fiduciary when providing financial advice. When you work with CameronDowning, you are working with advisors held to that standard.

We are a fee-based firm. Our compensation comes primarily through fees paid directly by you — our client — either as a percentage of assets we manage or as a flat financial planning fee. Where an advisor receives commission-based compensation, such as on certain insurance products, we disclose that arrangement and any related conflicts of interest. As fiduciaries, every recommendation we make must be driven by what is best for you.

We are transparent about all costs upfront — there are no hidden fees or surprise charges. For investment management, we charge a percentage of assets under management. You can find our tiered fee schedule here: https://cameron-downing.com/investment-management/. For stand-alone financial planning engagements, we offer flat-fee arrangements. You can find pricing for our financial planning packages here: https://cameron-downing.com/financial-planning-pricing/

When CameronDowning is managing your money, we have a $250,000 assets under management minimum. If we are creating a stand-alone financial plan for you, we have no asset minimums.

Our process begins with a discovery meeting to understand your goals, values, current financial situation, and what matters most to you. From there, we develop a comprehensive financial plan that integrates investment management, tax strategy, retirement planning, and other relevant areas. We then implement the plan together, monitor progress, and meet regularly to adjust as your life evolves. Our goal is to be a trusted, long-term partner — not just a one-time advisor. See our dedicated page on financial planning, which outlines the financial topics we will cover: https://cameron-downing.com/financial-planning-pricing/

The first meeting is about getting to know each other. We will ask you about your financial goals, your current situation, any concerns you have, and what you are hoping to accomplish. You do not need to bring any specific documents — just come prepared to have an open conversation. We will explain how we work, answer your questions, and together determine whether CameronDowning is the right fit for you. There is no pressure and no obligation.

Yes. We offer financial planning as a stand-alone service for clients who already have an investment manager they are happy with, or who simply want objective planning advice without bundling it with investment management. We believe everyone deserves access to quality financial planning, regardless of whether they choose to have us manage their portfolio.

We offer both. Some clients prefer an ongoing advisory relationship with regular meetings and continuous plan monitoring. Others have a specific need — such as pre-retirement planning, a sudden inheritance, or evaluating a job offer’s benefits package — and prefer a project-based or one-time engagement. We are happy to structure our work together in whatever way best serves your needs.

We are a fee-based, fiduciary Registered Investment Advisory (RIA) firm, legally obligated to act in your best interest. Our CFP® and CIMA® professionals provide objective guidance across financial planning, investment management, and tax strategy.

Absolutely. The majority of our client meetings are conducted via Zoom, which allows us to serve families across the United States. Whether you are in Miami or across the country, we make it easy to stay connected and on top of your financial plan without needing to come into the office.

Sí. We offer meetings in Spanish for clients who prefer to discuss their finances in their native language. We understand that financial planning involves nuanced, personal conversations — and being able to have those conversations comfortably, in the language you think in, makes a real difference.

We understand that busy professionals and families do not always have the flexibility to meet during standard business hours. Please contact us to discuss scheduling options — we do our best to accommodate your availability and make working with us as convenient as possible.

This depends on your specific country of residence, visa status, and other regulatory factors. Serving non-U.S. residents involves additional compliance considerations, and eligibility varies by situation. We encourage you to reach out so we can understand your circumstances and let you know whether and how we can help.

The CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ certification is granted by the CFP Board to advisors who complete extensive coursework in financial planning, pass a comprehensive exam, log thousands of hours of experience, and commit to acting as a fiduciary when providing financial advice. It is widely regarded as the gold standard certification in the financial planning profession.

Anyone can call themselves a financial advisor — the title alone requires no specific education or ethical commitment. A CFP® professional has demonstrated competency across retirement, tax, insurance, estate, and investment planning, and is obligated to put your interests first when giving financial advice. The credential is awarded to those who have relevant training, experience, and are bound by the highest ethical standards.

Not necessarily. Fees depend on the firm’s structure, not the credential. At CameronDowning, our fees are those published on our wealth management pricing page and financial planning pricing page, and our advisors are CFP® professionals.

No. Florida has no state estate tax and no inheritance tax. Most Florida families will not owe estate tax — but that doesn’t mean they don’t need an estate plan.

Yes. Estate planning is about far more than taxes. It determines who inherits your assets, who makes financial and medical decisions if you become incapacitated, and who cares for minor children. Core documents — a will, durable power of attorney, healthcare directive, updated beneficiary designations, or a family trust — matter at every level of wealth.

Yes — as part of comprehensive financial planning, we address your estate plan: reviewing existing documents, checking beneficiary designations and account titling, and working alongside your estate planning attorney to make sure your plan matches your financial goals. If you do not have an estate plan, or if it needs to be updated, Christian Cameron, J.D. on our team is an attorney and has an LL.M in Estate Planning. He can work with you on your legal documents. The CFP® professionals do not draft legal documents or provide legal advice; that work is done by an attorney.

A comprehensive financial plan typically covers your goals and cash flow, retirement projections, investment strategy, tax planning, insurance and risk management, employee benefits and equity compensation, and estate planning. If there is a topic you want to prioritize, we’ll spend more time on it. If there is a topic that isn’t relevant, no need to waste time discussing it. The output isn’t just a document — it’s a set of prioritized recommendations and a roadmap with specific steps which you can act on.

Most people seek out an advisor around a big life change or financial change: a new job, a financial windfall, a property sale, a tax surprise, a business sale, an inheritance, marriage or children, or the five-to-ten-year window before retirement. If your financial life has become more complex than your time or expertise can manage, this is a great time to hire an experienced CFP® professional.

Most advisors charge in one of four ways: a percentage of assets under management, a flat fee for a financial plan, hourly rates, or earn commissions by selling products. At CameronDowning, we charge a percentage of assets under management for wealth management or a flat fee for a comprehensive financial plan. What matters is that fees are disclosed clearly upfront. CameronDowning publishes its fees on our website — you can review our wealth management pricing and financial planning pricing pages.

Your financial plan will include reviews of life insurance, disability income insurance, health coverage, auto, umbrella liability, long-term care, and — especially in Miami — homeowners, windstorm, and flood coverage. The goal is matching coverage to what you actually need to protect: your income, your family, and your assets. Being over-insured wastes premium dollars; being under-insured risks everything else in your plan.

Standard homeowners policies do not cover flood damage. If your home is in a FEMA-designated high-risk flood zone and you have a mortgage, your lender will require flood insurance. Even outside high-risk zones, many South Florida homeowners carry it — flooding from storms and rising water is common in low-lying areas, and coverage is available through the National Flood Insurance Program or private insurers.

The right number depends on your savings, debts, and goals — which is why we calculate it as part of your financial plan rather than relying on a rule of thumb. The question to ask yourself in deciding if, or how much, insurance to purchase is this — will other members in my household suffer financially if I die too soon? If so, what amount will be enough to ensure they have what they need to live and thrive?

There is no universal number — it depends on what retirement costs you. At CameronDowning, we will create a retirement projection for you to answer that question. We use your current spending, apply a reasonable inflation assumption, factor in Social Security, pensions, healthcare costs, how your portfolio is invested, and other income sources where applicable. That projection — stress-tested against bad markets — is a core part of every retirement plan we build.

You can claim as early as 62 or as late as 70. Claiming too early permanently reduces your monthly benefit. Also, each year you wait to claim Social Security between ages 67–70 your benefit increases by roughly 8%. The right timing depends on your health, history of longevity in your family, other income sources, and spousal benefits. For married couples especially, the claiming decision can be worth tens of thousands of dollars over a lifetime, so it deserves real analysis rather than a default choice.

Yes — Florida is one of the most tax-friendly states for retirees. There is no state income tax, which means no state tax on Social Security, pensions, IRA or 401(k) withdrawals, and no state estate or inheritance tax. Homeowners also benefit from the homestead exemption. Federal taxes still apply, which is why tax-efficient withdrawal planning matters even here.

Tax preparation is backward-looking — filing an accurate return for the year that already happened. Tax planning is forward-looking — arranging your finances now to legally reduce taxes in future years. Strategies like Roth conversions, tax-loss harvesting, charitable giving, and choosing which accounts to draw from in retirement all happen before filing season. We focus on tax planning as part of your financial plan and coordinate with your CPA at filing time.

No. Florida has no state income tax on wages, investment income, or retirement income. The state raises revenue primarily through sales and property taxes instead. Federal income tax still applies, so tax planning remains important for Florida residents.

The biggest lever is which accounts you draw from, and when. Coordinating withdrawals across taxable, tax-deferred, and Roth accounts — along with strategies like Roth conversions in lower-income years, qualified charitable distributions after age 70½, and managing Medicare premium (IRMAA) thresholds — can meaningfully reduce lifetime taxes. The right sequence depends on your specific mix of accounts and income.

A common guideline is keeping PITI (Principal + Interest + Taxes + Insurance) and your HOA below about 28% of gross income — but in Miami, the purchase price is only part of the story and keeping this rule of thumb isn’t always possible. Property taxes, homeowners insurance, flood coverage, and HOA fees can add substantially to the monthly cost. We recommend budgeting from the all-in monthly cost, not the mortgage payment alone, and stress-testing it against your other goals before you commit to buying your dream home. If a real estate purchase is among your financial goals, we’ve helped many families with a budget that shows what they can actually afford to buy. Don’t rely on how much you are pre-approved for from a mortgage lender, as this often isn’t a true reflection of what you can afford. Creating a budget is especially important when planning for one of the biggest financial decisions you will make in life. We can help you with this.

It depends mostly on your interest rate, your other savings, and your temperament. Mathematically, if your mortgage rate is low, investing extra dollars in markets has historically offered better long-term returns — but forward-looking market returns can be uncertain. Liquidity matters too: money in home equity is hard to access. The right answer, though, depends often on answering this question — will paying off my mortgage help me to sleep better at night? If the answer is “yes” then sometimes the correct path to take isn’t one focused on return on investment but rather return on well-being.

Beyond price and location, scrutinize the building’s financials: HOA fees, reserve funding, pending special assessments, and the status of its milestone structural inspection — Florida law now requires older buildings to inspect and fund reserves, and assessments can run into tens of thousands per unit. Also budget for the building’s insurance costs, which flow into HOA fees. The age of the building is an important part of your due diligence. A beautiful unit in a poorly funded building is a financial risk. Work with an experienced, local realtor who is very familiar with the buildings and how the associations are run, especially in the Brickell, Downtown, Midtown core of the city.

Crypto is a highly volatile asset — prices have historically swung far more than stocks, and unlike a business, crypto produces no earnings. That doesn’t mean it has no place in a portfolio. On the contrary, at CameronDowning we believe crypto can have a place in a diversified portfolio — but position sizing matters: any allocation should be small enough that a total loss wouldn’t change your financial plan. At CameronDowning, we include crypto exposure through a spot ETF as a small position in our model ETF portfolios.

The IRS treats crypto as property, not currency. That means selling crypto, swapping one coin for another, or using crypto to buy something are all taxable events — you owe capital gains tax on any appreciation, at short-term or long-term rates depending on holding period. Exchanges now issue tax forms, and unreported crypto activity is an IRS enforcement priority. Good record-keeping of cost basis matters. At CameronDowning, we believe that holding crypto in a regular brokerage or retirement account — not in a crypto-first custody platform — will provide you with the strongest measure of security and simplicity to keep your assets in one place. For many of our clients we offer spot Bitcoin ETFs in our model investment portfolios.

We help clients make crypto decisions in the context of their overall financial plan — position sizing, tax consequences, and how it interacts with your other goals. We do not manage crypto positions or provide advice on trading crypto. At CameronDowning, we include and provide advice around crypto ETF positions we include in client model portfolios that we manage.

We build diversified portfolios primarily using low-cost ETFs, matched to your financial plan rather than to market headlines. We don’t chase hot stocks or try to time markets — decades of evidence show that costs, diversification, discipline, and tax efficiency are what investors can actually control. Your portfolio’s job is to fund your goals with the least risk necessary, not to beat a benchmark at any cost.

Waiting for a pullback feels prudent, but historically it has cost investors more in missed gains than it saved in avoided losses — markets spend most of their time at or near all-time highs. Time in the market has mattered far more than timing the market. If investing a lump sum at once feels uncomfortable, spreading it over a set schedule is a reasonable middle path — the key is having a plan rather than waiting for a feeling. Many of our wealth management clients apply a method called dollar cost averaging. Dollar cost averaging is an investment strategy where you invest a fixed amount of money at regular intervals regardless of the asset’s price, which spreads purchases over time to reduce the impact of volatility and avoid trying to time the market.

Usually, the most valuable move is the one you don’t make. Your portfolio is constructed knowing downturns happen regularly — selling during one converts a temporary, unrealized loss into a permanent loss. Downturns do create real opportunities: rebalancing into lower prices, tax-loss harvesting in taxable accounts, and Roth conversions at depressed values. That’s where we focus when markets fall.

Start with the math and ask this important question — “Can I make a higher percent return in the market than the interest rate I am paying on my debt?” High-interest debt like credit cards (often 20%+) beats any reasonable long term investment expectation, so getting rid of these loans first is typically going to be the right call. Paying off lower-rate debt is less clear-cut. For example, if you hold a mortgage at only 3 or 4% interest, it is likely you can invest available cash for a higher return than this. In other words, the math tells you that quantitatively you are likely better off investing your money rather than paying off your mortgage. With that said, you may feel strongly about living debt-free. There is no right or wrong here. You may come to the conclusion that paying off your mortgage is the right decision for you as your primary focus is return on well-being vs. return on investment. This is a perfectly valid argument in favor of paying off your mortgage, especially since this is a very personal decision and the appropriate choice will depend on the person.

The two proven methods are the avalanche and the snowball. The avalanche pays the highest-interest-rate card first, which saves the most money mathematically. The snowball pays the smallest balance first, which builds momentum through quick wins. The best method is whichever one you’ll actually stick with. It’s also worth checking whether a 0% balance transfer or consolidation loan can cut your interest rate while you pay it down.

No. Debt is a tool — what matters is what it costs and what it buys. A reasonable mortgage on a home you can afford, or a loan that grows your earning power or business, can build wealth. High-interest consumer debt that funds spending does the opposite. A useful test: is the interest rate low relative to what the borrowed money earns or saves you, and would your finances survive if your income paused for a few months? Read more on this topic by checking out our blog post Good Debt Bad Debt.

A common guideline is three to six months of essential expenses — closer to three if your household has two stable incomes, closer to six (or more) if your income is variable, you’re self-employed, or you’re the sole earner. Keep it in a high-yield savings or money market account where it’s safe and accessible; this money’s job is availability, not growth. In hurricane-prone Miami, having part of it quickly accessible is worth extra thought. While three to six months is the general rule of thumb, there are various reasons why we might recommend 12 months or more for an emergency fund, or perhaps none at all (if you have other assets and ready sources of cash, for example).

At its best, your budget is a financial self-awareness tool. Start by tracking, not restricting — most people don’t know where their money actually goes until they look at two or three months of real spending. The best budget is the one you’ll maintain. At CameronDowning, we believe your budget is the foundation of your financial plan. We work closely with you to not only create a sound cash flow framework, but also to help empower you to establish a spending plan that you’ll enjoy working through over the long term.

How much money you set aside for the future is the single most controllable driver of when you can retire; it matters more than investment returns in your early accumulating years. At CameronDowning, we differentiate between saving and investing. Saving is what you do at the bank. Investing is what you do in markets. After you create your budget, we’ll work alongside you to determine how much you can afford to set aside for the future now and how much you should be contributing towards retirement. There are multiple critical variables to work through here to ensure that you can live the life you want today and also feel secure about your financial future.

Robo-advisors do one thing well: automated, low-cost portfolio allocation. What they don’t do is planning — coordinating taxes, equity compensation, insurance, estate documents, retirement withdrawal strategy, or talking you out of a costly decision in a down market. If your finances are simple, a robo-advisor is a reasonable start. As complexity grows — higher income, equity comp, family, approaching retirement — the value shifts decisively toward working with a CFP® professional who sees your whole picture.

Generally yes, with precautions. Reputable apps connect through aggregators like Plaid using encrypted, read-only access — the app can see transactions but can’t move money. Before linking: confirm the app uses a known aggregator rather than storing your banking password, use a unique password and two-factor authentication on the underlying accounts, and delete connections from apps you stop using.

Look closely at where the money actually sits. FDIC insurance protects deposits at a bank — many fintech apps aren’t banks; they hold your money at partner banks, and if the fintech middleman fails, getting your money back can be slow and complicated even when it was technically FDIC-insured. For your emergency fund and cash savings, we prefer accounts held directly at an FDIC-insured bank or at a major brokerage custodian in your own name.

The economy and the stock market are not the same thing. The market is forward-looking and economic data looks at what happened in the rear view mirror. Markets move on expectations, usually well before economic data confirms a recession, and often recover before it officially ends. By the time headlines declare a downturn, much of it is typically already priced in. Your portfolio was built knowing recessions occur regularly; reacting to economic forecasts — which are wrong remarkably often — is one of the most reliable ways to lock in losses.

Inflation is the quiet risk: it erodes purchasing power every year, which is why “safe” cash loses value over long periods and why your plan can’t just preserve dollars — it has to grow them. A sound financial plan builds in an inflation assumption for spending, healthcare (which inflates faster), and retirement income needs. Over long horizons, owning productive assets like stocks can be a way to outpace inflation.

Rate changes ripple everywhere: bond prices move opposite to rates, borrowing costs shift, and savings yields follow. But markets price in expected rate moves before they happen — trading around Fed announcements is speculation, not strategy. Where rates matter practically is in planning decisions: what your cash earns, refinancing opportunities, and the yield your bond allocation provides. Those we act on; predictions we don’t.