Old Field Advisors

Old Field Advisors

Old Field Advisors launched in 2005 as a direct rebuke to the asset-gathering model Turbow Marx observed across two decades in institutional sales and investor relations. The firm is a member of the Garrett Planning Network, an international collective of planners who offer advice on an hourly, as-needed basis. It is registered in New York as a fee-only RIA, meaning it accepts no commissions or product-based compensation — a structural choice that aligns its economics with planning output rather than portfolio size. Turbow Marx anchors the practice personally, drawing on a BA in Economics from the University of Michigan and an MBA in Finance from Columbia University. The firm does not report a strategy in the institutional sense. It does not operate pooled vehicles, commit to private funds, or deploy balance-sheet capital. Instead, Old Field Advisors applies planning frameworks to personal balance sheets, with documented expertise in concentrated single-stock positions, equity-compensation schedules, retirement-income distribution modeling, and mission-aligned or ESG-informed portfolios it calls 'conscious capital.' Client relationships proceed either as standalone planning engagements or as planning-led mandates where investment management is optional — a materially different sequence from the industry default. The firm explicitly positions portfolio reviews, equity-comp analysis, and pre-retirement transition work as discrete, billable services rather than loss-leaders for ongoing AUM fees. Old Field Advisors does not publish team size, AUM, or client-count figures. Its mailing address is a post-office box in Setauket, New York, and as of July 2024, all new-client meetings moved to an online-only format. No additional offices, adjacent vehicles, or family-office structures appear in public filings or the firm's own materials. Turbow Marx remains the sole named principal and the face of the business, which suggests a boutique, founder-led practice. There is no visible succession structure or operating-company relationship. Old Field Advisors differs from most RIAs in its explicit rejection of the permanent AUM relationship as a precondition for advice. The firm's website frames financial planning as a product that can be consumed hourly, without an ongoing retainer or asset-transfer requirement. That posture — combined with a client-acquisition funnel built around equity-comp-heavy professionals in pharma and biotech — constitutes a narrow but structurally distinct market position. For an allocator or peer family office, the relevant insight is not deployment capacity but the firm's observable thesis: that high-earning W-2 professionals with illiquid employer stock need fiduciary planning more than they need a portfolio manager.