Managing Funds

Greetings, all! We hope your year has gotten off to a productive start! At the Bona Fide base, we have been busy and it is shaping up to be an amazing year of growth and development. For this newsletter, we are going to focus on a topic we haven’t really touched upon in the past. It is a question we receive from time to time and we felt there would be some value in devoting a newsletter to it. The question is, ‘Why do I have to transfer my accounts to TD and/or Betterment for you to manage them?’. If this is something you’ve ever wondered about, we hope the following links will provide you with some answers.

  • ReadThis article from Investopedia highlights the best way to move from one advisor to another. Many of the same reasons apply to why someone would want to move their accounts from one location to another. One of the great benefits of working with an advisor to do so is that we handle all the details for you so you have the time and peace of mind to focus on your other obligations – consider this a concierge or white-glove service. Once all the accounts are in one place, keeping track of investment records and transaction history, maximizing tax efficiency, ensuring investment fees are as low as possible, and securing trades at the lowest possible cost are all easily achieved.
  • Watch: If you are working with us, we hope you are already sold on the reasons for having a financial advisor. The Money Guys do an excellent job of illustrating the value of working with a financial professional, and more so, a CFP, who is a fiduciary working for you and only you! In How and When to Hire a Financial Advisor, a stat we love is that of the 271,700 financial advisors in America only 3,700 are fee-only. We are proud to be fee-only fiduciaries, not driven by commissions or other sales fees. When you work with Bona Fide Finance and move your accounts over, the fees you pay are transparent and you can be sure that we are working to maximize your gains and minimize your fees. When you have accounts spread all over the place, you have no such assurances. As touched upon in the video, talking about this sometimes feels a bit self-aggrandizing, but sometimes it is important to beat on your own drum.
  • Listen: Ok, so we are deviating a bit from our original topic, but we felt with all the news around Robinhood and Gamestop these days, you might forgive us for this detour (and it does relate in a very important way). This podcast from MarketPlace breaks down what has gone on so far with Robinhood, Gamestop, and the Reddit group that has been making waves through the market. To bring this back to our original topic, one of the benefits of having your accounts under the Bona Fide umbrella is that we act as a kind of filter for you when these kinds of stories pop up. When we handle your investments, we ensure that you will stay above the fray when storms of irrationality flair up.

We hope these links have provided you with some clarity as to the benefits of moving your accounts to be managed by Bona Fide. It is an important decision and part of the holistic management process that is crucial to your long term financial success. Lastly, we want to remind you that your accounts are always yours. You always have full control of them and your money isn’t locked away from you. If you would like to chat more about this aspect of the business, we are always happy to take the time and answer any questions you may have. Feel free to share these links with friends and family and please reach out with any comments you have.

Make it an amazing month!
The Bona Fide Family

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Bonnie Martinek

Administrative Assistant
Bonnie (Ben’s mom!) is a mother of 9 and a grandmother of 17. She has lived in rural Indiana her whole life and has a master’s degree in Special Education. In her own words, she’s done a little bit of everything but is a master of none (teaching, construction, manager of a corn maze, CNA, farm work, cashier, auto bodywork, and the list goes on!). Widowed in 2019, she is reinventing herself through her work in the day-to-day operations of Bona Fide Finance and client relations. Bonnie loves getting to know our clients and is happy to serve them well!

Deb Martinek

Relationships Specialist

Deb has been with Bona Fide Finance since its inception in 2015 and long before that with her support of Ben studying for the CFP designation and the dream of starting the business of helping individuals and families meet their financial goals.

She fills the Relationships Specialist role – Deb is typically the first encounter our new clients have as she walks them through our service offerings and introduces them to the map of financial literacy.

She has a bachelor’s degree from Ball State University and a master’s degree from the Franciscan University of Steubenville. Deb lives in Bismarck with Ben and their two young daughters, is a card-carrying member of the CDL club (read more about those adventures here) and is happiest reading an epic novel, solving a 1000-piece jigsaw puzzle, or working in her kitchen where she can serve love to the people in her life through quality food (clients enjoy her holiday shipment of homemade goodies each December!).

Ben Martinek

CFP®, EA, CSLP®, RICP®, Founder and Advisor

Ben Martinek, CFP®, EA, CSLP®, RICP®, is the founder and lead advisor at Bona Fide Finance, an independent, fee-only firm dedicated to helping doctors, young professionals, and growing families take control of their financial future. With a deep understanding of student loan debt—having tackled his own—Ben specializes in guiding clients through debt repayment strategies, smart investing, and comprehensive financial planning so they can build wealth with confidence. Ben’s passion for financial planning comes from his desire to provide honest, objective advice tailored to each client’s unique situation. He loves seeing the impact of his work, whether it’s helping a family pay off student loans years ahead of schedule, setting up an early retiree for financial freedom, or giving clients the peace that comes from knowing their finances are in order. His clients appreciate his thoughtful, high-touch approach, often saying that working with him has changed their lives.

Before launching Bona Fide Finance in 2015, Ben’s career path was anything but conventional. The fourth of nine children, he grew up in rural Indiana and initially pursued a path in academia, earning a B.A. in philosophy and classical languages, followed by a master’s degree in philosophy. Along the way, he explored careers in construction and truck driving—logging over 600,000 miles across the U.S. with his wife, Deb—before finding his true calling in financial planning.

Now based in Bismarck, North Dakota, Ben and Deb stay busy raising their two daughters, Edith and Virginia. Since their truck-driving days, Ben is happiest on a long road trip—preferably behind the wheel of his TDI Volkswagen Jetta. He enjoys sailing on Lake Sakakawea, camping in their vintage ’90s pop-up camper, and smoking a pipe by the grill. A lover of strategy board games, he favors Clans of Caledonia (mostly because Deb refuses to play Risk with him). When he’s not working with clients, he can be found smoking meat, gardening, hiking, or diving into The Lord of the Rings or Dune. Ben also serves on the school board for his daughters’ Montessori school and is actively involved in pre-marriage ministry in the Bismarck Diocese.