Jake Northrup

Virtual. Paperless. Transparent. If those characteristics and a redefinition of fees define the future of financial advice, then Jake Northrup may be in the forefront of the avant-garde. While studying finance at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, the Boston-area native decided he would become a financial adviser when he saw the invaluable help his family’s adviser provided after his father’s untimely death. Northrup, 28, enrolled in a CFP program during his last year at college, and was hired by Ballentine Partners, an RIA in Waltham, Massachusetts. Over five years, he became a senior wealth adviser and earned a CFA. When his wife took a job in Rhode Island last year, he decided it was time to go out on his own, seeing “a huge opportunity in serving high-income, high-debt young families,” whose net worth is often negative.

Holding a certification as a student loan specialist, he focuses on cash flow and tax and life planning, maintaining an active educational presence on social media. Northrup charges fees based on a percentage of income, saying “as income grows, complexity grows, and my value grows.” His approach, he says, “is to be a total open book.”

– Evan Cooper