Billington Advisors typically offers its clients such services as asset allocation and portfolio design; traditional and non-traditional manager review and selection; portfolio implementation; portfolio monitoring and consolidated performance reporting; and other wealth management services, including such needs as estate, tax, trust and insurance planning, asset custody, closely held business issues, issues associated with the establishment or expansion of a family office, the formation of family investment partnerships or LLCs, philanthropy, family dynamics and intergeneration issues, etc.

As the leading open architecture advisory firm, BA possess a number of distinguishing characteristics that set us apart from other firms. The most important is that BA was designed by leading family office and endowment professionals with extensive experience working as clients of investment consulting firms. When we organized BA we kept the best of the traditional consulting model (mainly its independence) and changed everything else. For example:

• Independence. We are scrupulously independent of the rest of the financial services industry. There are no exceptions to this policy.

• Experience. Wealthy families and demanding institutions need to have the heaviest possible firepower sitting on their side of the table. At BA, we assign to client accounts only senior managing directors who are at the very top of their profession.

• Making our experience count. The most crucial issues-such as asset allocation and manager selection-are handled by BA's managing directors, not by young analysts.

• Intellectual leadership. Since our only stock-in-trade is our intellectual capital, it is important that BA represent the cutting edge in every area that will have an important effect on the growth of our clients' wealth. We happily share our knowledge with investors, primarily via our monthly capital markets flash reports and our series of BA White Papers.

• Centralized knowledge base. At most firms a client receives only the benefit of the knowledge the specific consultant has. At BA, the firm's knowledge base is centralized and is available to all consultants and by extension to all of our clients.

• Performance reporting and monitoring. BA's reports are the best in the industry. They are not only accurate and timely, but in addition we put our clients' results in perspective, telling them in plain English how their portfolios have performed and whether there are issues that should be dealt with during that period.

• Organizational stability. BA has a senior management team whose sole job it is to run the company like a business. For our clients, this translates into minimal personnel turnover, seamless account servicing, and the assurance that BA will be around to advise their grandchildren.