Who we are

Fifth Set Private Wealth Management

Game 7. Bottom of the ninth. Two outs. Two-minute warning. Sudden death overtime. Final Round. Fifth Set. We celebrate these pivotal moments in sports because this is where success or failure resides. Champions demonstrate resolve and discipline in succeeding in these moments.

Life, like sport, requires a strategy for success in these pivotal moments.

What is your strategy? Is it simply imagining what your goals are? Truly defining your game plan for a successful investment experience and financial future requires more than that.

We offer clients The Fifth Set Discipline™, our tailored evidence-based investment approach to successful long-term investing. To position yourself for success at life’s pivotal moments, consider working with Fifth Set Private Wealth Management.

Ian’s Fifth Set Story

OUR TEAM

Ian A. Post – CFA, CFP®

Ian A. Post is the founder and principal of Larchmont, New York-based, Fifth Set Private Wealth Management LLC, a Fee-Only, SEC-registered investment advisory firm.

Prior to founding Fifth Set, Ian’s career began as a fundamental equity research analyst at Citigroup, Credit Lyonnais, and CIBC World Markets. It was during this time that Ian, driven by his examination of competing investment management approaches, decided to create Fifth Set to offer clients customized wealth management strategies built on a foundation of the fiduciary standard of client care and evidence-based financial theory.

Ian launched Fifth Set Private Wealth Management with the goal of creating a better wealth management experience for clients. An experience that promotes greater confidence and reduced stress in clients’ financial lives.

Ian lives in Larchmont, New York with his wife Dana and children, Emma and Jake.

In his time outside the office, Ian, with his family, continues his life-long passion for the outdoors and nature. His family enjoys local nature hikes and seeking out new fishing locations. They also enjoy nature at home with Mrs. Muffin, their bearded dragon as well as cats Jax and Igor.

As an athlete in midlife, Ian’s passion for fitness continues to grow. He enjoys personal training, yoga, Peloton and running. Ian also recently fulfilled a lifelong aspiration to take up ice hockey and enjoys playing forward for Club Fit of the Westchester division of Hockey North America.

Ian A. Post – CFA, CFP®

Education

Credentials

Associations

SETH VARNHAGEN

Seth Varnhagen is Wealth Management Advisor Emeritus at Fifth Set Private Wealth Management.

Seth joined Fifth Set in 2021 and brings more than thirty-five years of financial services experience.  In 2006, Seth launched North Castle Advisors LLC, an independent, fee-only Registered Investment Advisory firm, that provided evidence-based portfolio management services to high-net-worth individuals.  At Fifth Set, Seth will continue in that role.  Seth began his career in financial services at Citibank, where he held various roles over a fifteen-year span.  Seth has been an avid investor since he was a young adult. In the mid-1990’s, he became dissatisfied with traditional active investment management and began a search for a better approach.   Through a series of meetings with Dimensional Fund Advisors, Seth became aware of evidence-based investing.  He first implemented portfolios based on this approach for himself and his family beginning in 1995.

Seth lives in Dobbs Ferry, New York with his wife, Suzi.  Their daughter, Rebecca, and son, Alex, are both adults pursuing professional careers.

In his time out of the office, Seth takes long daily walks in the hills in Westchester County with his dogs, Percy – an English Pointer, and Trace – a Treeing Walker Coonhound.   He is also a committed, but not very accomplished golfer and quite a good cook.

Each summer, as he has for nearly thirty years, Seth and his family spend a week on Upper Saranac Lake in the Adirondack Mountains at Colgate University Camp, a retreat for faculty, staff and alumni (Seth’s wife is an alumni).  With nine families being “together” for 25 years, the “kids” have grown up together and the “grown ups’” are all close friends.  Meeting each summer is a truly magical experience.

Education

Megan Kelly

Megan Kelly is a Wealth Management Associate at Fifth Set Private Wealth Management

Megan joined Fifth Set in 2022 from Vanguard where she worked as an investment specialist. At Vanguard, she helped clients understand Vanguard’s investment options and collaborated with them so they could invest with confidence. She also assisted clients to better understand their existing portfolios and the overall capital markets. Prior to Vanguard, Megan worked for a private wealth management firm where she gained knowledge about tax issues and financial planning. During this time, Megan’s true passion for financial planning formed. In 2020, Megan graduated from Kutztown University in Pennsylvania where she majored in finance and financial planning in addition to playing for the school’s Division II women’s soccer team.

Megan lives in Boynton Beach, Florida.

In her time outside of the office, Megan enjoys going to her local beach in Boynton Beach, running, traveling, and spending time with her family.

Education

PARTNERS​

Fifth Set Private Wealth Management works with a select group of corporate partners that provide the building blocks of our client experience. By working with these firms, Fifth Set is able to combine boutique independence with the complete range of investment management, financial strategies and institutional asset custody our clients expect.

Institutional Asset Custody

Fifth Set Private Wealth Management has selected Fidelity Investments (“Fidelity”) and Charles Schwab & Co., Inc. (“Schwab”) as the primary custodians for our clients’ accounts.

Charles Schwab & Co., Inc

Schwab Advisor Services serves independent investment advisory firms like ours and includes the custody, trading and support services of Charles Schwab & Co., Inc.  Having Schwab act as custodian for client assets provides us access to a wide range of services that help us serve our clients.  Schwab has more than 30 years of experience serving independent advisors.  As a registered broker-dealer and a member of the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC), Schwab is subject to certain regulations intended to protect assets held in brokerage accounts maintained at Schwab.

+ Learn more about Schwab Advisor Services

Fidelity Investments

Fidelity Investments® provides clearing, custody, or other brokerage services to Fifth Set Private Wealth Management through National Financial Services LLC or Fidelity Brokerage Services LLC, Members NYSE, SIPC.  Working with Fidelity Investments® gives Fifth Set Private Wealth Management access to a wide range of products and services that can help us serve the needs of our clients.  Through our relationship with Fidelity Investments®, you will receive a simplified, consolidated statement each month reflecting all your investment positions and transactions in your Fidelity brokerage account.

+ Learn more about Fidelity Investments

INVESTMENTS

Vanguard

Vanguard is ubiquitous in the investment world as a low-cost provider of investment solutions. Founded by John Bogle in 1975, Vanguard now manages over $7 trillion in assets (as of January 2021), $4 trillion of which is invested through index funds. Through low-cost, transparent exposure to global asset classes, Vanguard index mutual funds and ETFs provide efficient building blocks for client portfolio construction.

+ Learn more about Vanguard

Dimensional Fund Advisors

Dimensional Fund Advisors (Dimensional) is a global asset management firm with over $600 billion in asset under management (as of 12/31/2023). Dimensional has a unique investment approach that focuses on implementing the best ideas in financial science. Founded by two students of University of Chicago Professor and Nobel Laureate Eugene Fama in 1981, Dimensional continues its a strong collaboration with the academic community. Dimensional incorporates the findings of leading financial researchers into practical, cost‐effective investment solutions. Dimensional is headquartered in Austin, Texas, and has trading offices across North America, Europe, and Asia, enabling the firm to cover global markets and manage strategies continuously.

+ Learn more about Dimensional

JOIN OUR MAILING LIST

Subscribe to Fifth Set’s Passing Shots blog