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AZA Capital Management
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Who We Serve

Wealth Management

We help individuals and families pursue their investment and retirement goals with financial planning and adaptive portfolios that adjust as markets change.

Adaptive portfolios, personal attention

Your portfolio starts from a baseline that fits your goals and comfort with risk. As conditions change, we adjust it within a set range, leaning more opportunistic when investments look attractively priced and more conservative when they look expensive.

You can also talk directly with the people who manage it. We get to know your plans, explain what we're doing and why, and are there when big decisions come up.

Explore our approach

Your comfort zone

Bonds Stocks

More opportunistic

Your baseline

More conservative

Illustration only. Not an actual portfolio or results.

  • Portfolio management Adaptive, value-seeking portfolios built around your risk tolerance, using low-cost investments.

  • Tax-aware investing We weigh the tax cost of changes and aim to hold each strategy where it's most tax-efficient.

  • Financial planning Goals-based planning and income projections, tested across a wide range of market outcomes.

  • Retirement decisions We clarify the trade-offs on pensions, rollovers, and withdrawals before you commit.

Why AZA?

For nearly 30 years we've helped individuals, families, and organizations pursue their goals with disciplined portfolio management and personal attention.
Value-seeking and adaptive

We build your portfolio around your goals and lean toward what looks attractively valued as conditions change.

Direct access

You can talk directly with the people who make the investment decisions, by phone, email, or in person.

Employee-owned

We're owned entirely by the three principals who shape our investment decisions, so we take a personal interest in every client.

Fiduciary, fee-only

We're legally bound to act in your best interest, and we're paid through advisory fees, never commissions or product sales.

Independent

We have no ties to a bank, brokerage, or insurance company, so our advice isn't shaped by a parent company's interests.

Third-party custody

Your accounts are held at an independent qualified custodian, which provides built-in checks and balances.

Geared for life's stages

Many clients come to us in the years around retirement, but our approach is designed to adapt as your needs change.

Building wealth

A longer time horizon generally lets you take on more risk, but what you pay for an investment still matters. We pair risk management with a search for opportunity as your savings grow.

Approaching retirement

We help you work through big decisions, such as a pension lump sum or a 401(k) rollover. Our value-seeking approach can also tilt your portfolio away from higher-risk investments at a time when a major setback is hardest to recover from.

In retirement

We model your income needs and test your plan across a wide range of market outcomes. As you draw from your savings, our adaptive approach aims to help manage sequence-of-returns risk, the chance that a large loss early in retirement does lasting damage.

Lump sum or monthly pension?

Enter the figures from your benefit packet to see the return your lump sum would need to match your pension, and how long the money could last. It takes about five minutes, and your results appear right away, no email required.
Try the pension analyzer
Example
Lump sum amount
$500,000
Monthly pension (single life)
$3,000
Your age
65
Cost-of-living adjustment
None

To match this pension over an expected lifetime, the lump sum would need to earn about 3.9% a year.

Leaving a job with a 401(k)?

Answer a few questions about your plan and your retirement to see the factors that matter most, whether you keep it in your plan, roll it to an IRA, or move it to a new employer's plan. It takes about five minutes, and your results appear right away, no email required.
Try the rollover guide
Example
Your age
58
Your status
Leaving within 12 months
Plan type
401(k)
Retirement accounts
2–3

Reasons to keep it in your plan

Withdrawals from this plan can avoid the 10% early-withdrawal penalty; after a rollover to an IRA they generally can't until 59½.

Reasons to consider a rollover

Combining accounts can simplify tracking, withdrawals, and required distributions.

How we keep you informed

Most of our work happens in the background, so we keep you informed. And when you want to talk, you reach the people making the decisions.

  • A monthly market recap on what moved markets and how we're reading conditions

  • Quarterly performance reports with our market commentary

  • Twice-yearly market overview webinars

  • A note from us when significant events move markets

  • Regular check-ins from your advisor by email or phone

Getting started

  1. Step 1

    First conversation

    A 30-minute introduction to talk through your goals, your questions, and what you have today.

  2. Step 2

    Baseline and proposal

    We review your accounts and goals, then propose a plan and portfolio, with our fee stated in writing.

  3. Step 3

    Ongoing care

    We manage your portfolio, adjust it as conditions change, and meet with you at a pace that suits you.

Our process in practice

Fictional client examples of how we apply our approach for different kinds of clients.

Fictional client examples provided for illustration only.

Start with a conversation

A no-obligation, 30-minute introduction with investment people, not salespeople. If it seems like a fit, we'll follow up with a written proposal.

Schedule a conversation 312-429-0880

Contact Us

Whether you're interested in AZA or already a client, we're glad to hear from you.

Schedule a conversation

Interested in AZA? Book an introductory call, with no obligation.

See available times

Call us

312-429-0880

Send us a message

Questions or comments? Send us a note and we'll be in touch.

Please don't include account numbers or other sensitive details.