A fiduciary is legally required to act in your best interest at all times. For a registered investment adviser like Lionshead, this obligation is built into our regulatory structure and enforceable by the SEC.

Not every financial professional operates under this standard. A broker-dealer representative is held to a suitability standard, which requires only that a recommendation be suitable for you, not necessarily the best option available. Compensation structures can impact the advice you receive — the distinction matters most when product selection involves commissions.

You can verify any adviser's registration status and regulatory history at adviserinfo.sec.gov. Lionshead's Form CRS and Form ADV are publicly available here.

This is worth asking directly, because the label isn't always reliable. Some advisors are "dually registered," meaning they can operate as both a registered investment adviser and a broker-dealer representative. In practice, this means they can switch between a fiduciary standard and a lower suitability standard depending on the transaction, even while describing themselves as fiduciaries generally.

The cleaner test is compensation structure. An adviser who earns commissions from selling products has a financial incentive that may not align with your interests, regardless of how they describe their obligations. A fee-only adviser is compensated solely by the client: no commissions, no product revenue, no sales incentives or product quotas.

You can confirm an adviser's registration type and disciplinary history at adviserinfo.sec.gov. Ask for their Form ADV in writing — it discloses their compensation structure, services, and any conflicts of interest in plain language.

Yes. Lionshead is not affiliated with any brokerage firm, insurance company, mutual fund company, or bank. We are not subject to product quotas, distribution agreements, or revenue-sharing arrangements. Our structure removes the conflicts of interest common in larger, product-driven institutions.

Our clients are generally individuals, families, and business owners in the New York City metro area and nationwide whose financial lives have grown complex enough that they want one advisor coordinating the full picture. In practice, that often means:

– Attorneys, physicians, bankers, consultants, and executives with high incomes and complex compensation structures

– Families managing multiple accounts, trusts, or entities across different institutions

– Business owners navigating retirement plans, succession planning, or ownership transitions

– Pre-retirees and retirees who want coordinated planning across investments, income, estate, and taxes

– Multigenerational families with estate planning needs that span more than one generation

Our minimum account size is $500,000, though we consider individual circumstances.

Comprehensive wealth management is needed when a client's financial situation has grown complex enough that the pieces stop working together. That might mean multiple accounts at different institutions that aren't coordinated, too much cash sitting in bank accounts that should be invested, equity compensation with real tax implications, property in more than one state, or trusts and business entities that each touch your financial life in different ways. The cost of leaving those pieces unmanaged compounds quietly over time.

For clients with significant estate planning complexity, trusts, or multigenerational transfer goals, our micro family office model often becomes the right structure.

A traditional family office is a private advisory structure for ultra-high-net-worth families. A micro family office applies the same coordination model at a more accessible scale: one central point managing investments, tax planning, estate structure, and risk management together, rather than leaving those as separate relationships that don't talk to each other.

At Lionshead, this service is designed for clients with meaningful estate planning complexity, typically households with significant multi-entity structures, irrevocable trusts, or multigenerational planning needs. If you're not sure whether it applies to your situation, that's a natural thing to discuss in a first conversation. 

Most clients start with wealth management and the scope of the relationship evolves from there.

At Lionshead, planning covers the full scope of a client's financial life, not just the investment portfolio:

– Investment management: portfolio construction, asset allocation, ongoing monitoring and rebalancing

– Retirement planning: 401(k) strategy, IRA and Roth conversion planning, Social Security timing, income planning in retirement

– Tax-aware investing: asset location, tax-loss harvesting, and capital gains management across accounts, and working with your CPA

– Estate and legacy planning coordination: working alongside your estate attorney on trust structure, beneficiary designations, and wealth transfer strategy

– Risk management: reviewing life, disability, and liability insurance for gaps

– Cash flow and savings planning: aligning spending, saving, and investment decisions

– 401(k) advisory for business owners: plan design, fund selection, and participant education

Financial planning is included as part of our portfolio management services and is not billed separatel

We work alongside your existing CPA and estate attorney rather than replacing them. Our role is to make sure the three relationships are coordinated: that your investment strategy reflects your tax situation, your estate plan is aligned with your asset allocation, and decisions in one area don't create unintended consequences in another.

Many of our clients come to us specifically because they have a CPA and estate attorney they trust, but still need someone pulling the full picture together. That coordination role is central to how we work.

No. We do not prepare tax returns nor draft legal documents. Those remain with your CPA and estate attorney. What we provide is tax-aware planning: investment decisions that account for your tax situation, Roth conversion analysis, asset location strategy, and coordination with your advisors so that your financial plan reflects the full picture.

Lionshead charges a fee based on a percentage of assets under management. For micro family office clients, we charge a fixed annual fee starting at $25,000. Our full fee schedule is available in our Form CRS and Form ADV on the SEC's IAPD database.

Many of our clients come to us specifically because they have a CPA and estate attorney they trust, but still need someone pulling the full picture together. That coordination role is central to how we work.

When an advisor earns commissions, their compensation is tied to the products they recommend, which creates a financial incentive that may not align with your interests. With a fee-only, AUM-based structure, our fee goes up when your portfolio grows and down when it declines. Our financial interest is directly aligned with yours. We have no incentive to recommend one investment over another based on what we're paid, because we're not paid by the fund.

Scott Lasky has been in this business for three decades. Some of Lionshead's client relationships have continued for years through major life events — retirements, estate transitions, business sales, and generational transfers. That kind of continuity is rare in this industry, and it reflects something real about how the work gets done.

Lionshead has been independently registered with the SEC since 2017. Scott and Michael Bernstein are both CFP® professionals, and the firm's regulatory history — no disciplinary disclosures — is publicly available at adviserinfo.sec.gov.

The first step is a 30-minute introductory call. It's a straightforward conversation: you tell us about your situation and what you're looking for, and we explain how we work and whether we think we'd be a good fit. No preparation required, no obligation to proceed.

Most people come in with a general sense that their financial life has gotten complicated enough to warrant a more coordinated approach. That's enough to have a useful first conversation. You can reach us at 212-967-5466 or through the contact form on this site.

Entirely up to you. Our office is in Midtown Manhattan at 250 West 55th Street, and we're happy to meet in person. We also meet virtually via secure video conference. Most clients today prefer the flexibility of virtual meetings for regular check-ins, with occasional in-person meetings when it makes sense. We structure it around what works for you.

As often as you want. Most clients have a structured annual planning review and a mid-year check-in as a baseline, but we're reachable by phone, text, or email whenever something comes up — a job change, a tax question, a property decision, a market move that's giving you pause. You'll get a response the same business day, or at the latest the next.

One thing clients consistently tell us is that they don't feel lost or ignored the way they sometimes did at larger firms. There's no call center, no rotating associate, no being passed around. You have a direct line to the people managing your account, and we intend to keep it that way.

– Vague or evasive answers about how they're compensated

– Inability to confirm in writing that they act as a fiduciary at all times

– Pressure to make decisions quickly or purchase specific products

– No publicly available Form ADV or Form CRS

– Disciplinary history on IAPD that hasn't been disclosed or explained

– A service model that can't be described clearly in plain language

Transparency should be the baseline, not a selling point.