One Degree Advisors

One Degree Advisors

Janice Thompson launched One Degree Advisors in 2001 in San Diego, a registered investment advisor built expressly as a fee-only practice — no commissions, no product sales. That structure, unusual at inception, eliminated the conflict between selling financial products and giving advice, and it remains the chassis under the firm today. Anthony Saffer now leads as CEO, while Thompson continues as Family Legacy Director, signaling a deliberate, slow-motion leadership handoff rather than a founder-exit event. The firm serves high-net-worth individuals, business owners, and corporate retirement plans, with a client-retention rate it calls 100% on its website. The strategy anchors on evidence-based investing — global diversification, factor exposure, and tax-efficient portfolio construction. Rebalancing is systematic and rules-based, triggered either by calendar intervals or percentage drift, a discipline the firm highlights in its own published materials as designed to strip emotion from asset-allocation decisions. One Degree explicitly avoids one-time plans and partial-asset arrangements, requiring a full balance-sheet view before building the investment portfolio. The firm manages taxable and retirement assets together under a unified tax plan and layers in cash-flow modeling, Social Security optimization, and estate-plan analysis. Its investment content references plain-vanilla 60/40 portfolios and backtests rebalancing versus buy-and-hold, but the firm does not publish specific AUM or disclose individual portfolio holdings. The firm lists 11 team members on its San Diego roster, including five CFP® professionals, a Retirement Plan Advisor, and dedicated client-service roles. Janice Thompson, the founder, holds an MSFS and carries the CKA® designation alongside her family-legacy focus. Anthony Saffer, the CEO, also publishes market commentary and rebalancing explainers under the firm's own content banner. One Degree does not disclose adjacent vehicles, philanthropic foundations, or co-investment clubs. No recent regulatory events or fund launches appear in public disclosures from the last 24 months, leaving the practice defined principally by its fee-only structure and internal education engine. The most durable structural differentiator is the firm's refusal to engage one-time plans or partial portfolio management. Most RIAs offer both; One Degree treats them as misaligned incentives. That posture filters prospective clients before the first engagement, selecting for households ready to delegate the full financial picture. It also concentrates the advisory relationship, tying ongoing planning fees directly to investable assets and making the Compass System — its step-by-step planning framework — the central delivery mechanism rather than an add-on.