For those who’d rather not run with the herd.
One advisor handles the whole of it—the plan, the portfolio, the tax planning, the conversations with your attorney and your accountant. For a short list of families.
Brian R. Littlejohn, MBA, CFP®, CFABasalt & Aspen, Colorado
No commissions.
Sherwood is paid by its clients and nobody else. No products sold, no referral fees, no trailing fees from funds. The industry calls this fee-only and fiduciary.
One person.
No junior advisors, no service team, no rotation. The advisor you meet is the advisor who does the work.
Investment manager and financial planner, in one person.
Brian holds the CFA charter for the investing and the CFP® certification for the planning. The charter is mostly an institutional credential—in CFA Institute’s 2024 survey of its members, about three percent described their job as financial planner. Brian does both jobs, for a small number of families, one at a time.
$3 million.
The minimum in investable assets. The fee schedule is one click away.
Monitored every day.
The plan.
Every family starts with a written plan you sign—what the money is for, how much risk you can live with, what you won’t own.
The portfolio.
Built to that plan by Brian, one family at a time. Two families with the same amount of money end up with different portfolios, because the plans differ.
The course corrections.
Brian monitors every portfolio every day, and reviews the plan behind it several times a year. Most days nothing needs doing. Some years there are two course corrections, some years ten—whenever the markets or your life call for one.
The tax return.
For families with complex returns, Brian reviews the return each year. Your accountant prepares it; Brian reviews it to see whether the plan actually happened.
The rest of it.
The questions that arrive with money are part of the same conversation: retirement, Roth conversions, insurance, philanthropy, the estate plan, and what to tell the children and when. Brian works alongside your accountant and your attorney.
The person who picks up is the person who wrote the plan.
When you call, it’s Brian who picks up or calls you back. Not a secretary, not an associate who has to look you up. He knows the situation because he’s the one who handles it, and he keeps the number of families small enough that this stays true.
Meetings happen where you’re comfortable—the office in Basalt, the office in Aspen, or somewhere quieter still. For established clients with complex planning to do, that sometimes means Brian comes to you.
The families who work with Sherwood tend to be low-profile by choice, and the practice is run to match. One advisor handles your file. No team, no rotation, no call center.
At a large firm you’re client #1,764. At a larger one, #22,677. Here, nobody is a number. Clients are more like family.
Your accounts are held at Charles Schwab, in your own name.
Sherwood never holds your assets.
Why not just use Schwab?
A fair question.
Your accounts will sit at Schwab either way. The question is who advises on them.
Schwab and Vanguard both offer advice for less than one percent, built largely on model portfolios. That’s a real option, and for many households it’s the right one.
What a fee here buys is different: one person who wrote your plan, built your portfolio, and knows your situation in depth. The same person holds the CFA charter for the investing and the CFP® certification for the planning. When the planning gets complex, he can come to you.
If you want an advisor with the credentials, the education and the experience to do both jobs—one who cares how it turns out for your family, and keeps the list short enough to know it—call Brian.
Read the column first.
Brian has written a column for the Aspen Times and the Aspen Daily News since 2022. Roth conversions, what to do in a down market, how to tell whether you’re an illiquid millionaire. Plain language and real numbers, written for people who live here.
If you want to know how he thinks before you call, it’s all here.
- Aspen TimesDon’t ignore the emotional side of estate planningAugust 7, 2026
- Aspen Daily NewsHow to prevent the liquidity crunchJuly 17, 2026
- Aspen TimesNervous about U.S. investments? GoodJune 17, 2026
Get the column by email.
One note a month, when the new column runs. Unsubscribe any time.
Brian R. Littlejohn, MBA, CFP®, CFA
Air Force pilot and civil engineer, 1999 to 2007. Methodical by his own description, and a checklist person. Advising families since 2007; formed Sherwood in 2014, on a professor’s advice. Member of NAPFA, the fee-only advisors’ association. Serves on the Pitkin County Retirement Board. Lives in Aspen.
More about Brian →A first call, as long as it takes.
A conversation about where things stand and where you’d like to go. If Sherwood can get you there, Brian will tell you what happens next. If it can’t, he’ll say so and point you somewhere better.
The practice is built for families at $3 million and up. Brian keeps a waiting list for people who aren’t there yet. If that’s you, say so.