# Prudent Investor Advisors Prudent Investor Advisors is a Registered Investment Advisor based in Folsom, United States. ## Overview - **Organization type:** Registered Investment Advisor - **Headquarters:** Folsom, United States - **Region:** North America - **Address:** 101 Parkshore Drive, Suite 100, Folsom, CA 95630, United States - **Founded:** 2007 - **Assets under management:** Undisclosed - **Website:** prudentllc.com - **LinkedIn:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/prudent-investor-advisors-llc ## Regulatory record - **CRD number:** 121922 - **SEC file number:** 801-63481 - **Registration status:** Registered - **Reports private funds:** No - **IAPD record:** https://adviserinfo.sec.gov/firm/summary/121922 ## About Gary K. Allen and Jeffrey B. Coontz established Prudent Investor Advisors in 2007, building the RIA around a specific ERISA mechanism that allows retirement plan sponsors to transfer fiduciary duties for investment selection and monitoring. The firm is headquartered in Folsom, California, and derives all revenue from client fees, accepting no third-party compensation. Its client base spans plan sponsors, non-profit foundations, endowments, and private family trusts. The firm's investment process is rooted in constructing legally sound, academically oriented, and cost-efficient portfolios for qualified retirement plans. Asset classes deployed include domestic and international equities, fixed income, and cash equivalents within defined contribution plan lineups. Prudent Investor Advisors does not manage participant-level accounts; advice is delivered solely at the plan level to protect sponsors from additional liability. The firm documents its methodology in a proprietary Investment Policy Statement and reviews its performance with each sponsor client annually. Led by principals Allen and Coontz, the firm maintains a compact team whose consultants average fifteen years of retirement plan industry experience. The firm added financial advisor Gabe Uruburo to focus on wealth management and retirement planning. Prudent Investor Advisors distributes quarterly market reviews and conducts participant education programs compliant with Department of Labor Interpretive Bulletin 96-1, measuring success by participant investment behavior rather than engagement metrics alone. In 2025, the firm published its Q4 and Q3 quarterly market reviews, continuing a regular cadence of client and affiliate communications. The firm's structural edge is its willingness to act as an ERISA Section 3(38) fiduciary, a posture that legally shifts investment-selection liability away from plan sponsors entirely. Most advisors in the retirement space operate as Section 3(21) co-fiduciaries or non-fiduciary brokers, leaving sponsors exposed. Prudent Investor Advisors enforces this liability transfer through a binding investment advisory agreement and annual performance reviews, an architecture that directly addresses the liability gap ERISA creates for employers who are not investment professionals. ## Sectors - Pension and Retirement - Wealth Management ## People - Gary K. Allen — Principal - Jeffrey B. Coontz — Principal - Gabe Uruburo — Financial Advisor ## Questions ### What specific fiduciary protections does Prudent Investor Advisors offer 401(k) sponsors that typical advisors do not? Prudent Investor Advisors operates as an ERISA Section 3(38) investment manager, accepting sole responsibility and liability for selecting, monitoring, and replacing plan investment options under a written contract. This is distinct from Section 3(21) co-fiduciary arrangements, where the advisor provides recommendations but the sponsor retains full liability, or non-fiduciary broker relationships that offer no liability relief. The firm formalizes the liability transfer through a binding investment advisory agreement and reviews its compliance with each sponsor annually. ### Who makes investment decisions at Prudent Investor Advisors? Principals Gary K. Allen and Jeffrey B. Coontz lead investment decision-making and senior management. The firm employs a team of retirement plan consultants averaging fifteen years of industry experience, but it does not publicly name an investment committee or detail the number of voting members. The firm's proprietary Investment Policy Statement governs its prudent investment process. ### How does Prudent Investor Advisors structure its compensation? Prudent Investor Advisors operates on a fee-only basis, accepting no compensation from third-party plan vendors. All revenue comes directly from clients under fully disclosed terms, an arrangement the firm states helps avoid conflicts of interest. Specific fee schedules are detailed in individual investment advisory agreements with each plan sponsor. ### What types of clients does Prudent Investor Advisors serve beyond 401(k) plans? While the firm specializes in ERISA-governed retirement plans, it also provides portfolio management and financial planning services to non-profit foundations, endowments, and private family trusts. The same prudent investment process — described as legally sound, academically oriented, and cost efficient — is applied across these distinct pools of capital. The firm targets sponsors, not high-net-worth individuals, as its primary relationship. ### How does Prudent Investor Advisors document and review its investment process? The firm maintains a proprietary Investment Policy Statement that codifies its prudent investment methodology. Each year, a Prudent Investor Advisors representative meets with the plan sponsor client to review performance and confirm that designated fiduciary duties were carried out prudently. This annual review is a contractual obligation embedded in the investment advisory agreement. ### Is Prudent Investor Advisors independent from plan recordkeepers and third-party vendors? Yes, the firm states it is totally independent of all plan vendors. By refusing third-party compensation and operating on a client-fee-only model, Prudent Investor Advisors asserts it avoids the conflicts of interest common among advisors who accept revenue-sharing payments or commissions from recordkeepers, mutual fund companies, or insurance providers. ## Related profiles - [Prudential M&G](https://altss.com/profile/prudential-m-g) - [Prudent Investors Network](https://altss.com/profile/prudent-investors-network) --- Last updated: 2026-06-03T20:00:00.000Z Canonical page: https://altss.com/profile/prudent-investor-advisors Maintained by Altss — https://altss.com — methodology: https://altss.com/methodology