Financial Advisor in Boulder CO
Fee-Only, Fiduciary Financial Advice for Boulder Residents
At HighPass Asset Management, we serve Boulder residents who are looking for objective, personalized financial guidance from an advisor with no conflicts of interest. We are a fee-only, fiduciary wealth management firm based in Denver, registered with the SEC, and built to serve high-net-worth individuals and families across Colorado.
If you are searching for a financial advisor in Boulder who will put your interests first and tell you the truth, we would be glad to talk.
What We Do for Boulder Clients
Good financial advice covers more than a single area of your financial life. Your investment decisions affect your taxes. Your tax strategy shapes your retirement income. Your estate plan depends on how your assets are titled and managed today. At HighPass, we coordinate all of it.
Investment Management
Disciplined, value-oriented portfolios built for the long term.
We manage custom investment portfolios grounded in value investing principles. That means buying quality assets at attractive prices, emphasizing dividend-paying investments for income and inflation protection, and managing the tax impact of every decision with in-house CPA oversight.
Retirement Planning
A reliable income strategy for the retirement you are building toward.
Whether retirement is five years away or twenty, the planning decisions you make now determine what your options look like later. We help Boulder clients answer the questions that matter most: how much is enough, when is the right time to retire, how to draw down assets efficiently, and how to cover healthcare costs and longevity risk without running out of money.
Tax Planning
In-house CPA expertise that the majority of Boulder financial advisors cannot offer.
Tax planning and investment management are inseparable at HighPass. Our in-house CPA works alongside your investment strategy from the start, so tax efficiency is built into the decisions we make rather than considered after the fact.
If you already work with a CPA who prepares your returns, we coordinate with them directly and provide a complete tax package to make the process straightforward.
Estate Planning
Making sure your wealth passes to the right people in the right way.
A well-built estate plan does not happen automatically. Trusts need to be funded. Beneficiary designations need to be current. Assets need to be titled correctly. Many people have estate planning documents in place but have never completed the implementation steps that make those documents effective.
Why Boulder Residents Choose HighPass Asset Management
100% Fee-Only, No Exceptions
We are compensated by client fees alone. We earn no commissions, sell no financial products, and have no incentives tied to what we recommend. Roughly 90% of financial advisors earn some form of commission income. That creates conflicts of interest that are genuinely difficult to see from the outside. At HighPass, that conflict does not exist.
Full-Time Fiduciaries
We are legally required to act in your best interest at all times. That is the fiduciary standard, and it is the standard we hold ourselves to on every engagement, with every client. Many advisors operate under a lower suitability standard. The two are not the same, and the difference matters when the advice gets complicated.
CFA and CPA Expertise on One Team
Our founder Ethan S. Braid, CFA, has spent over 33 years managing investment portfolios for high-net-worth clients. Our advisor Stelio Elenis holds both the CFA and CPA designations and brings over a decade of tax experience serving high-net-worth individuals, trusts, and businesses. That depth of combined expertise is something very few financial advisory firms in Colorado can match.
Accessible from Boulder, Personal by Design
Our office is located at 4600 S. Syracuse Street in Denver, a straightforward commute from Boulder. Most client work can also be handled remotely for those who prefer it. Either way, you work directly with an experienced advisor who knows your situation in detail. We keep our client relationships close and our service genuinely personal.
33+ Years of Experience
Our team brings over 33 years of combined wealth management experience to every client relationship. We understand the financial considerations specific to Colorado, including the state’s income tax structure, the profile of wealth that Boulder’s professional and entrepreneurial community tends to build, and the planning questions that come up most often for families at this stage of life.
Who We Work Best With
HighPass is a strong fit for high-net-worth individuals and families in Boulder who want coordinated, objective financial advice. Our clients typically come to us in one of these situations:
- They are working with a commission-based advisor and want to understand whether they are getting objective advice
- They have significant assets but no integrated plan covering investments, taxes, and estate planning together
- They are a business owner, executive, or professional with complex tax and income planning needs
- They are within ten years of retirement and want a clear, stress-tested income strategy
- They have recently sold a business, received an inheritance, or gone through a significant financial transition
- They want a smaller firm that will know their name and their situation, not a large institution where they are just an account number