Comprehensive — while virtually every broker, investment advisor and insurance agent promotes themselves as being "comprehensive financial advisors", we focus on analyzing and assisting with implementation of all aspects of your personal financial situation. In addition to the traditional areas of focus including investment planning, risk management (assessment of insurance needs), and cash flow planning (annual, retirement, and educational needs), we delve into
- income tax projections to assess alternative minimum tax (AMT) implications and strategies, year-end planning issues, assessment of potential underpayment penalties, and other tax planning strategies. We will also coordinate your income tax preparation with a qualified CPA firm.
- company benefits and compensation to review 401k plan elections, deferred compensation opportunities, assessments of stock options, restricted stock, and other company-provided incentive compensation, and a review of other company-provided benefits
- advanced estate planning strategies based on current estate tax laws.
Objective — as a Registered Investment Advisor, we will and are obligated to put your interests first. We are not incentivized by investment commissions or the "hot" product that a brokerage firm tries to get off their books onto yours.
Knowledgeable — with our advisors having each worked with CEOs, CFOs and other "top 5" executives of Fortune 500 companies, we have seen aspects of personal financial situations that most other advisors have not. And should we come across a situation that is unfamiliar to us, we will not hesitate to seek additional guidance from our team of attorneys, CPAs, insurance agents, and other advisors.
Focused — we are not advisors who work with 200 to 300 clients each and have a top, middle and bottom tier of clients. We limit the client loads of our advisors to a maximum of 40 to 50 clients so that each client is treated as a top client.
Proactive — our Wealth Management Service is tailored for a specific number of meetings per year, generally 2 to 4 meetings depending on your level of complexity, with unlimited discussions in between meetings. While the one-on-one meetings are focused on a comprehensive review of your overall financial picture, we will also reach out between meetings to discuss aspects of your financial plan that arise during and between meetings. We tailor our service to be your trusted financial advisor and want to be your first call when you have any question pertaining to your personal financial situation.
Priced Right — our core Wealth Management service is a retainer based service. By having one flat fee, you can feel free to pick up the phone without having to worry about running up your bill. And while we find a "percentage of assets under management" fee approach to be appropriate in certain circumstances, this type of fee structure can cloud the objectivity by incentivizing the advisor to make sure that assets are maintained in a certain brokerage account when that might not be in the best interests of the client (think about paying off a mortgage, moving fixed income assets to a CD or money market at a local bank to gain yield, taking a lump sum of a pension, deferring a bonus into a deferred compensation program, or rolling over a 401k). We have structured our platform to offer services under various fee structures, however, our core service is the retainer based comprehensive Wealth Management Service.
