Private wealth management · Chicago, Illinois
Mark W. Karstrom managed personal trusts, mutual funds, insurance portfolios, and retirement plans for institutions for more than twenty years before advising private clients.
What the practice is built on
Wealth Management is governed by rules for long-term financial success. These six are applied holistically rather than piecemeal.
Advice given under a fiduciary standard.
Recommendations are made under a fiduciary standard, with compensation, conflicts, and alternatives disclosed and the client's interest placed first. Mark's first decade was spent managing personal trust portfolios — money held for beneficiaries. It is a standard of care he has worked to since 1986.
Drawdowns matter more than benchmarks.
Mark spent a decade as a fixed income portfolio manager, running mutual funds, insurance portfolios, and retirement plans — mandates where not losing money is the measure that counts. Portfolios are built with an explicit view of downside protection, liquidity needs, and the sequence-of-returns risk that does its real damage in the first years of drawing an income.
Breadth of risk, not count of holdings.
Owning many positions is not the same as owning many risks. Allocations are examined for what actually drives them — concentrated employer stock, real estate exposure, credit sensitivity, correlations that rise when it is least welcome — and rebuilt so no single event defines the outcome.
The decision that explains most of the result.
The mix across equities, fixed income, real assets, and cash is set against your spending plan and time horizon rather than a model number. It is reviewed on a schedule and rebalanced with discipline, and changed as circumstances or opportunity change.
Keeping what the return produced.
Asset placement across taxable and tax-advantaged accounts, loss harvesting, distribution sequencing, charitable strategies, and — where suitable — 1031 exchanges and Delaware Statutory Trusts for real property. Coordination with your CPA and attorney.
What passes on, and how well it is understood.
Beneficiary structures, trust coordination, and gifting strategy, set against what you intend for your family. Regular family conversations help make sure the next generation understands the legacy it is inheriting.
Record
Four decades across trust departments, institutional fixed income, and private wealth.
1984
1986 — 1996
Portfolio manager for personal trusts and mutual funds.
1996 — 1999
Fixed income portfolio manager for LaSalle Banks, Scudder Kemper, and Principal Financial Group, managing mutual funds, insurance portfolios, and retirement plans.
1999 — 2001
Insurance portfolio manager.
2001 — 2005
Managing mutual funds, insurance portfolios, and retirement plans.
2006
Entered wealth management the same year, at UBS.
2014 — 2020
Wealth advisor.
2020 — present
Investment Advisory Representative of Realta Investment Advisors, Inc., practicing as Mark W Karstrom Wealth Management. Registered Representative of Realta Equities, Inc., member FINRA/SIPC.
A dedicated practice
For clients holding appreciated real property, the firm maintains a separate practice devoted to 1031 exchanges and DST investments.
For accredited investors only. DST investments are speculative investments and involve substantial risk, including illiquidity, lack of a public market, and the possible loss of the entire investment.
Contact
The first meeting is spent understanding what you hold and what you intend it to do, so both sides can judge whether the fit is right.
Important disclosures
Mark W. Karstrom is a Registered Representative of Realta Equities, Inc. and an Investment Advisory Representative of Realta Investment Advisors, Inc. Neither Realta Equities, Inc. nor Realta Investment Advisors, Inc. is affiliated with Mark W Karstrom Wealth Management. Investment Advisory Services are offered through Realta Investment Advisors, Inc., a US SEC Registered Investment Advisor, and securities are offered through Realta Equities, Inc., Member FINRA/SIPC, 1201 N. Orange St., Suite 729, Wilmington, DE 19801.
Realta Wealth is the trade name for the Realta Wealth Companies. The Realta Wealth Companies are Realta Equities, Inc., Realta Investment Advisors, Inc., and Realta Insurance Services, which consist of several affiliated insurance agencies.
This website does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any security, nor is it investment, legal, or tax advice. Investing involves risk, including the possible loss of principal. Past performance is not indicative of future results. No advice may be rendered until a client agreement is executed.
