Overview
White Lighthouse Investment Management Inc. was founded by Jonathan Lachowitz to
provide investment management and financial services to Americans and multinational families
living abroad or in the United States. As of December 31, 2023, the firm had approximately
$498,191,000 of discretionary assets under management and approximately $12,880,000 of non-
discretionary assets for a total of approximately $511,071,000 under management calculated
according to the method prescribed by the SEC.
Investment Management Services
For investment management clients, the firm conducts a discovery process to understand
the clients’ income and net worth, their goals, risk tolerance and other factors that inform the
investment policy that guides the design and management of clients’ portfolios. We create
diversified portfolios with a custom designed asset allocation mostly composed of low-to-
moderate cost, high quality, liquid investments, mostly in the form of Exchange Traded Funds
from companies like Vanguard, BlackRock (iShares), and others though we may use or retain
individual securities and mutual funds.
Financial Planning and Comprehensive Wealth Management Services
We provide financial planning services such as tax, retirement, and estate planning, with
a focus on US cross-border issues, either on a project-basis for clients whom we do not manage
assets, or on an ongoing basis for investment management clients and wealth management
clients. Examples of specialized financial planning include outbound and inbound US planning due
to international relocations; business planning for professionals and owners with operations in
multiple countries; rental real estate planning inside and outside of the USA; expatriation
(surrendering US citizenship or green cards) and naturalization planning; estate and tax planning
for beneficiaries of foreign trusts or complex structures and tax compliance review, including IRS
international compliance programs.
Retirement Account Rollovers
When assessing
a client’s retirement accounts, we may recommend that a client rollover
their retirement plan assets to an Individual Retirement Account (IRA) that the client can choose
to be managed by us. As a result of this rollover, we may earn fees on the future management
of these accounts. This means that our advice may present a conflict of interest, as we may have
a financial incentive to recommend that a client roll over retirement assets into an IRA we would
manage. This potential conflict is disclosed to clients verbally and in this brochure. Clients are
also advised that they are under no obligation to implement the recommendations to rollover
retirement plan assets or to continue with our management, which is always billed in arrears, not
in advance. We attempt to mitigate this potential conflict by requiring that all investment
recommendations have a sound basis, and by requiring advisors to acknowledge their fiduciary
responsibility towards each client. When we provide investment advice to clients regarding their
retirement plan accounts or individual retirement accounts, we are fiduciaries within the meaning
of Title I of the Employee Retirement Income Securities Act and/or the Internal Revenue Code,
as applicable, which are laws governing retirement accounts. The way we earn money may create
some conflicts with our clients' interests, so we operate under a special rule that requires us to
act in their best interests and not put our own interests ahead of our clients. Under this special
rule’s provisions, we must: meet a professional standard of care when making investment
recommendations (give prudent advice); never put our financial interests ahead of our clients’
interests when making recommendations (give loyal advice); avoid misleading statements about
conflicts of interest, fees and investments; follow policies and procedures designed to ensure that
we give advice that is in our clients’ best interests; charge no more than is reasonable for our
services; and give basic information about conflicts of interest.