Why Choose Us

Get an advisor who truly gets you.

You deserve a financial advisor who sees you as more than just your portfolio. Our proprietary discovery process was designed by a psychologist to generate insightful, purposeful answers.

This process helps us get to know you on a deeper level and build a lasting relationship. Not one just about numbers and charts, but about your life, your dreams, and your goals.

Our Approach

Get the right plan for the right reasons.

We will always design your investment strategy in your best interests. The reasons you choose to invest matter and those reasons fuel our commitment to excellence, steady growth, and enduring professional relationships. Our fiduciary approach places your interests first in:

  • Investment management
  • Retirement planning
  • Estate planning
  • Risk management
  • Tax planning
  • Philanthropic planning

As fiduciaries, we will always:

  • Put your interests first
  • Act in utmost good faith
  • Provide fair and full disclosures
  • Never mislead you or any other client
  • Disclose all conflicts of interest in a full and fair manner
Collecting Handpicked Ripe Grapes during the Autimn Harvest

Partner with a team to build your dream.

When you choose us, you’re getting more than an advisor; you’re getting our whole team. Our experts collaborate seamlessly, each bringing expertise and experience to the table, to provide a holistic approach to your financial well-being. As independent, fee-only advisors, we make decisions based on what’s best for you, ensuring personalized solutions that reflect your values and beliefs.

Fee-only

As fee-only financial advisors, our only source of compensation comes from our clients. This ensures that our clients’ interests align with ours.

Independent

Petersen Hastings is an independent advisory firm. We make our own decisions relating to financial planning and investments independent of commission incentives and brokerage pressure to push certain investment products. This independence allows us to directly decide what is best for our clients, not merely what is suitable, and allows us to serve you as a fiduciary.

Local

As a local firm with locations in the Tri-Cities (Kennewick, WA) and Walla Walla, we offer a boutique size and feel yet provide institutional reach and resources. It’s the perfect balance for your financial well-being.

Experts

Petersen Hastings is a member of the Zero Alpha Group (ZAG), a group of independent advisory businesses with the best minds in the investments industry. Through this group, we assist each other in financial planning techniques, portfolio construction, and additional management methods to enhance the client experience. Through the collective bargaining power of this group, we have access to investments and other resources not available to most financial advisors.

Why should you choose a fiduciary?

Over 84 percent of brokers/dealers are held to a suitability standard: any investment product sold to a client only needs to be “suitable” for them, not necessarily in their best interests. At Petersen Hastings, we’ve chosen a different level of performance and accountability.

The advisors at Petersen Hastings are among the 16 percent of Registered Investment Advisors who are subject to a fiduciary standard. We have chosen a more disciplined, ethical path for our firm because it’s the right thing to do for our clients and their families.

As fiduciaries, we promise we will always:

  • Put your interests first
  • Act in utmost good faith
  • Provide fair and full disclosures
  • Never mislead you or any other client
  • Disclose all conflicts of interest in a full and fair manner

Accredited Investment Fiduciary

All Petersen Hastings wealth advisors have earned the Accredited Investment Fiduciary® (AIF®) designation. The AIF designation represents a thorough knowledge of and ability to apply the fiduciary practices, and empowers investment professionals with the fiduciary knowledge and tools needed to serve your best interests.

CEFEX–Centre for Fiduciary Excellence

Petersen Hastings undergoes a rigorous examination of our investment processes by the Centre for Fiduciary Excellence(CEFEX) and is certified as a fiduciary steward and advisor, verifying that global fiduciary standards have been met or even exceeded.*

Disclosure

*Investment News & Dover Research (2012)

*CEFEX assessment process is based on the international standard, ISO 19011: Guideline for quality management system auditing. The assessment is evidence-based, and all work is reviewed by the CEFEX Registration Committee to ensure impartiality and consistency.

The assessment typically includes document review, client file sampling, on-site visits and interviews with senior representatives at the firm. The assessment is conducted by CEFEX Analysts who must hold the Accredited Investment Fiduciary Analyst® designation and a minimum of the ASPPA 401(k) Administrator (QKA) designation for ASPPA certifications. CEFEX Analysts maintain annual assessment training.

Where applicable, the assessment methodology includes questionnaires on regulatory matters, developed by expert attorneys.

The CEFEX certification standards are organized according to a four-step management process. The steps are analogous to the global ISO 9000 Quality Management System standard, which emphasizes continual improvement in a decision-making process.