Stern Capital Management

Stern Capital Management

Stuart Stern founded the firm in 1994 after the Northridge earthquake damaged his California home, prompting a move to New Jersey. He had been a private banker at a large Beverly Hills firm. His son Alan Stern later joined the practice, which operates from a single office in Old Bridge. The firm positions itself as an independent, fee-based registered investment advisor (RIA) that holds a fiduciary duty — a deliberate break from the commission-driven models Stern encountered earlier in his career. The practice blends financial planning with portfolio management, constructing models that the firm's own employees also use. As of December 2025, reported regulatory assets under management stand at $297 million (per the firm, December 2025). The client base includes individuals, high-net-worth families, and business entities. While the firm does not publicize discrete asset-class allocations or named direct investments, its regulatory filings describe a mix of equity and fixed-income securities, mutual funds, and ETFs. The geographic footprint centers on the Northeast, with Old Bridge, New Jersey serving as the sole recorded advisory location. The firm reports serving over 500 families across its three-decade history. It remains small by headcount, with Stuart and Alan Stern appearing as the only named investment professionals on its public-facing materials. No separate philanthropic vehicles, real-asset arms, or club memberships are disclosed. In December 2025, the firm published an updated AUM figure of $297 million, reflecting the scale it has built since relocating from California. Stern Capital's structural distinction is the deliberate simplicity of a family-run, single-office RIA. There are no outside private-equity backers, no multi-office expansion, and no layered fund vehicles. The father-and-son team applies the same investment models to their own assets that they construct for clients — an alignment mechanism that remains rare even among fiduciaries.