True Alpha Partners, LLC

True Alpha Partners, operating primarily as True Alpha Wealth Management, delivers comprehensive, goals-based financial planning and investment management services. The firm designs personalized strategies, leveraging a holistic approach that integrates various financial aspects to address unique client objectives. They emphasize tailored solutions to assist individuals and entities in navigating complex financial landscapes.

The firm’s foundation is built upon the collective expertise of its leadership, including key financial advisors like McKean, Chad, and Tessa Steinemann Drouhard. Their experience in wealth management underpins the firm’s commitment to guiding clients through significant life transitions with thoughtful financial strategies. This collaborative insight into client needs drives the service model.

True Alpha Wealth Management serves affluent individuals, families, and businesses seeking sophisticated financial guidance. The company’s vision centers on becoming a primary source of financial advice, dedicated to empowering clients to achieve and sustain long-term financial aspirations. They aim to foster enduring relationships by consistently delivering tailored support to reach evolving financial goals.

High-Level Overview

True Alpha Wealth Management is a client-centric wealth management firm founded in 2018, specializing in retirement planning, holistic financial guidance, and investment management for affluent individuals, families, businesses, executives, physicians, attorneys, and business owners.[1][2][3] Its mission emphasizes transparency, integrity, and a financial planning-first approach as fiduciaries, delivering true risk-adjusted returns (alpha) through long-term relationships, tax-efficient strategies, and personalized services like Income Notes for market-like returns with minimized risk.[1][3] The firm focuses on key sectors including retirement transitions, executive compensation optimization, healthcare and legal professional planning, and business succession, while partnering with Kestra Private Wealth Services to support independent advisors.[3][4] Though not a venture capital player in the startup ecosystem, it influences wealth preservation for high-net-worth clients navigating life events, fostering multigenerational financial stability.[1][3]

Origin Story

True Alpha Wealth Management was incorporated on March 7, 2018, in Sandusky, Ohio, as a corporation prioritizing transparency and client well-being from day one.[1][6] Key leaders include Managing Partner and CEO Steven H. Hafner (CF2®, AIF®), Managing Partner and COO Elizabeth A. Skrinak (CFP®, CF2®), Founding Partner and Director of Financial Planning Tessa E. Steinemann (CFP®, CDFA®), and Managing Partner and CFO Chad E. Wicker (AAMS®), with earlier mentions of President Brian Duttera and Vice President Elizabeth Skrinak.[1][6] The firm's evolution centers on a goals-based, multigenerational team approach, expanding from core retirement planning to comprehensive services for life's transitions, including a 2023 affiliation with Kestra Private Wealth Services for enhanced advisory support.[3][4] This backstory reflects a shift from traditional advising to innovative, fiduciary-driven wealth strategies amid growing demand for personalized retirement income solutions.[1][3]

Core Differentiators

• Client-Centric Fiduciary Model: Operates with a financial planning-first philosophy, assessing needs before product recommendations, and providing ongoing reviews, tax-loss harvesting, and bespoke strategies as fiduciaries committed to integrity.[1][3]
• Specialized Expertise: Tailored services for niche groups—retirement plans for business owners, executive optimization (e.g., Sherwin Williams, UPS clients), tax efficiency for physicians/attorneys, and exit planning via Certified Exit Planning Advisor Tyler McKean.[3]
• Innovative Tools: Unique "Income Notes" for risk-minimized income generation; holistic support for life transitions like sudden changes, with local creativity and Kestra-backed infrastructure.[1][3][4]
• Long-Term Partnership: Multigenerational team delivers extraordinary service, performance monitoring, and availability, aiming for "true alpha" in risk-adjusted returns beyond standard growth.[1][2]

(Note: The firm is not BBB-accredited but holds an A+ rating, with 7 years in business and 1 employee per some records, though leadership suggests a team structure.)[6]

Role in the Broader Tech Landscape

True Alpha Wealth Management operates primarily in traditional wealth management rather than tech startups, riding trends in retirement income security and tax-efficient planning amid aging populations, executive stock volatility, and complex business exits.[3] Timing aligns with post-pandemic wealth transfers and market uncertainty, where fiduciaries like True Alpha provide stability for professionals in tech-adjacent sectors (e.g., executives from corporations like UPS). Market forces favoring them include rising demand for personalized advisory amid fee compression in robo-advisors and the Kestra partnership enabling scalability without losing independence.[4] They influence the ecosystem indirectly by safeguarding wealth for innovators, physicians, and owners, enabling sustained investment in tech and startups through preserved capital, though distinct from VC firms like Alpha Partners.[5]

Quick Take & Future Outlook

True Alpha is poised for growth via Kestra's network, expanding tailored retirement and transition services as boomers retire and Gen X/Millennials seek multigenerational planning.[4] Trends like AI-driven tax optimization, sustainable income products, and business succession amid economic shifts will shape its path, potentially increasing AUM through affluent client referrals. Its influence may evolve toward broader high-net-worth tech executives, solidifying as a steadfast partner in financial journeys—echoing its founding commitment to deliver true alpha beyond returns, into enduring client prosperity.[1][3]