Financial planning is our core service. Managing investments is just one important piece of proper wealth management. Our financial planning reviews cover cash management, debt planning, investment management, education expense funding, insurance and employee benefit reviews, income tax planning, retirement or longevity planning, and estate planning. There are six steps to the review process: 

1. Establishing and defining the relationship between you and us 
2. Gathering your personal information and understanding your goals and objectives 
3. Analyzing and evaluating your current financial status in the areas noted above 
4. Developing and presenting recommendations and/or alternatives 
5. Implementing the agreed-upon recommendations 
6. Monitoring the recommendations and making changes as needed 

Owning stocks and bonds, either individually or through funds or ETFs, is not enough. We believe that an adequately diversified portfolio consists of stocks, bonds and alternatives. Given the record low global interest rate environment, select alternatives are designed to provide a return stream that does not directly depend on the level or direction of interest rates. Declining rates act as a tailwind to traditional investment asset classes, but rising rates act as a headwind. 

One important goal that many of our clients share is for their investments to generate a sustainable cash-flow stream in retirement. This requires a balanced approach that considers both return, risk, and cash flow needs. A portfolio withdrawal rate (cash needed / investment balance) that is too high can short-circuit any investment plan. We measure cash needs before designing portfolios. Although this sounds like an obvious step, it is not done by the vast majority of investment advisors.

We provide financial planning driven wealth management. Many other firms provide investment management only, or offer only ancillary financial advice. Others pitch products, not solutions. As noted above, we follow a six step process that includes collecting and analyzing all of your financial documents at the onset of the relationship. We then proceed to review every area that impacts your personal finance, whether that be income and estate tax planning, debt management, insurance, retirement planning, or employee benefits. Our goal is to leave no stone unturned. 

Once we go through our extensive planning checklist and provide a comprehensive list of recommendations, we design a diversified investment plan and document guidelines in an Investment Policy Statement (IPS). The benefit of an IPS is to have a written understanding of investment guidelines, created in a rational setting, which will enhance consistent, disciplined, and prudent investment management. Having clearly established guidelines should reduce the probability of initiating impromptu portfolio changes that could hinder the achievement of established objectives. Recommended investments are assigned to taxable, tax-deferred or tax- free accounts with the goal of maximizing tax savings. After the portfolio is implemented, we monitor, rebalance and reallocate the portfolio based on changing economic environment and adherence to the agreed-to IPS. 

Finally, we periodically review planning sections to uncover new planning recommendations as your financial circumstances change.

We simply cover more ground than most and have developed a service model that enables clients to feel confident that all areas of their financial life have been addressed. Our client-to-advisor ratio of less than 40:1 allows us to provide a high level of attention to each and every individual who hires us. It doesn’t matter how good an advisor is if he or she does not have the time to engage in your planning.

There are many different definitions of the term fiduciary—a legal definition and a regulatory definition, a dictionary definition and a layman’s definition. We think the best definition is as follows: “A financial advisor held to a fiduciary standard occupies a position of special trust and confidence. As a fiduciary, the advisor is required to act with undivided loyalty to the client. This includes disclosure of how the advisor is to be compensated and any corresponding conflicts of interest.” We believe that not only should potential conflicts of interest be documented, they should be minimized or eliminated whenever possible. Every potential conflict of interest is a potential barrier preventing complete trust that an advisor’s recommendations are putting your interests first.

Yes, there are important differences. In short, advisors who are compensated on a “Fee-Only” basis are compensated solely by their client and not by third parties from the sale of investment or insurance products. “Fee-Based” refers to a compensation system in which an advisor may be paid by either fees or commissions from the sale of investment or insurance products. Fee-Based advisors generally are not fiduciaries for their clients—because there can be a strong financial incentive to recommend products that will enhance compensation to the advisor.

As Fee-Only Financial Advisors, we are compensated 100% by our clients. This has been the case since the company was founded in 1983. We believe that this method of compensation represents the cleanest, most transparent and conflict-free way of charging in the industry. The fees we charge for coordinated financial planning and investment advisory services are often less that other advisors charge for investment management alone.

We generally impose a minimum $1,000,000 in financial assets. This excludes business interests, real estate and personal property. However, we make exceptions on a case by case basis.

Investment management is as much art as science. No two advisors will take the same approach to selecting investments for any one client. Spreading investments among more than one advisor decreases the chances that the overall portfolio will be managed in the most efficient and effective manner. Even if on an individual level each advisor were to develop a perfectly reasonable allocation, the fact that more than one approach is being taken increases the odds that sum of the parts will not work as expected. 

Also, many brokers or other advisors develop an investment plan that is completely unrelated to the planning process, which makes it difficult to coordinate with them. Finally, it is often economically inefficient to have more than one firm allocating investments from both a fee and taxation perspective. We believe that having a portfolio managed by a firm involved in the financial planning process increases the likelihood that a client’s financial goals will be met.

There are a host of behavior biases that we all have that can get in the way. The following short videos from Franklin Templeton are both educational and a fun way to learn how these biases influence our behavior:

• Loss aversion
• Herding
• Home country bias
• Availability bias
• Present bias

Typically, we would talk via phone to ensure our services match your needs. If we seem like a mutual fit, we invite you in for a complimentary consultation to gain a thorough understanding of your concerns and to explain our services in greater detail. If you are married or have a life partner, we prefer to meet with both of you to ensure accurate communication and understanding of all concerns and objectives.