New Harbor Financial Group

Michael Preston, the firm's co-founder and Chief Investment Officer, chairs the investment committee and oversees all asset-allocation and manager-selection decisions. CEO John Napolitano focuses on client relationships, tax strategy, and business development. The two founders jointly approve any allocation shift exceeding 5% of a model portfolio, a concentration of authority that keeps the process fast-moving but creates key-person risk.

The firm uses a proprietary trend-following model that adjusts equity exposure based on moving averages and volatility signals, typically rebalancing monthly. Preston and his team overlay factor tilts — value, momentum, and low-volatility — implemented through direct indexing rather than packaged ETFs to maximize tax-loss harvesting for each family. Fixed-income and alternative sleeves are managed separately, with private-credit commitments funded from reduced bond allocations during 2023.

New Harbor does not originate direct private-equity deals. The firm accesses private credit and real estate through fund commitments to managers like AQR, Cohen & Steers, and RealtyMogul. The firm's network — concentrated in New England industrial and professional-services families — occasionally surfaces co-investment opportunities, but these are evaluated case by case and never pooled across all client accounts.

New Harbor is a multi-family office registered as an RIA. It serves between 30 and 50 families, none of which is the originating wealth source. The firm remains deliberately small — the founding team has publicly stated a preference to cap the client count below 60 to maintain the bespoke tax and estate-planning work that requires deep engagement with each family's CPA and attorney.

New Harbor does not operate a branded charitable entity. Napolitano, a CPA, advises clients on donor-advised funds and private foundation structures, and the firm has hosted Forbes-roundtable discussions on tax-efficient giving, but all philanthropic accounts are held directly by clients or through national DAF sponsors like Fidelity Charitable.

The firm evaluates co-investment opportunities brought by its fund managers but has no dedicated co-investment program. In practice, the focus remains on diversified fund commitments, with direct deals limited to in-region commercial real estate syndications where the family office can conduct its own underwriting. No pooled co-investment vehicle has been offered across the client base.

New Harbor charges a fee based on assets under management, following an RIA fiduciary model. The firm does not earn commissions, soft-dollar rebates, or placement-fee revenue from fund managers. All private-fund expense ratios are disclosed and netted against fees, a structure the founders have cited as the original rationale for leaving the broker-dealer channel in 2000.