Financial
We are proud to offer premier financial planning and exclusive investment services to our clients.
“As a Certified Financial Planner myself, I understand that health insurance is one small piece of a person’s financial plan & failure to consider all essential areas of concern leaves a client vulnerable to unforeseen circumstances. We think of financial planning as insurance for your livelihood, which is why we offer complimentary financial plans and exclusive investment services to our clients..”
Your Personal Financial Architects
We help clients organize their lives by getting their “financial house” in order . While this end goal might be simple, the process to get there may seem daunting. Therefore, we make it easy by providing a full financial overview (“Blueprint”) covering essential topics such as investments, insurance, retirement, estate, and tax planning, just to name a few. When we do our job right, our clients can act with confidence and lower their financial anxiety. More than 90% of our clients engage in both a financial planning and an investment relationship with us which helps to actively track and achieve their goals. Get started on your Blueprints today. Click on the links below to learn more and start building your Financial Plan.
Process
The steps from start to finish
Timeline
Ongoing tracking of your plan throughout the year
Fees
Schedule a free consultation.
Investment Philosophy
We strive to produce investment returns that expose our client portfolios to markedly less risk and volatility over an entire market cycle while still preserving capital. We believe that this “protection of principal” mentality has proven effective during the most highly volatile conditions of recent market cycles. As investors, we focus on the securities we believe are undervalued and often possess company specific catalysts for future appreciation and attractive total-return potential. Looking forward, we feel that our goal of providing steady, consistent performance will continue to differentiate our strategy and make our investment selection particularly attractive.
What makes us unique
First and foremost, we are “fiduciaries”. Unlike the majority of financial advisors today, fiduciaries have a legal obligation to do what is best for their clients & not their pocketbooks or bottom lines.
We’re proud to offer our clients access to exclusive services that are normally only available to pensions and endowments. We are able to do this because, our partners manage many Institutional accounts and can provide the same investment opportunities to you that would otherwise be limited to clients in excess of $25M at other firms.
Our advisors operate as Registered Investment Advisors (RIAs), which means they are held to a fiduciary standard. We sign a fiduciary contract with every one of our clients outlining our duty of loyalty and care, which is quite rare in the industry. Simply put, we make recommendations that are best for you, period. Our advisors work with TD Ameritrade, Charles Schwab, Fidelity, and others. This allows them to review your account holding to make sure you are in the best products for you. Most of the time very few adjustments are needed; however, for the ones that do need help, advice is provided as a free benefit to being a part of our family. The clients that choose this service usually come away feeling more confident about their investment allocations from a free second opinion regardless of any changes are recommended.
Retirement
As a Retirement Income Certified Professional (RICP), it’s never too late to review your Retirement plan. Retirement planning is all about finding that ideal harmony of risk and returns. The standard practices are not able to keep up with the loss of purchasing power from this modern inflation and economic upheaval. We strive to find the balance that keeps you on top and not underwater.
We offer advice, plan design and creation for many Defined-Benefit or Defined-Contribution plans like 401(K)s and other profit sharing arrangements.
Get started with your plan today.
Proven Process
We promise a deep commitment to listening and providing full financial planning advice. Below outlines the sets in our financial planning process:
Step 1. Discovery
We will both learn a lot about each other and determine if this is a good fit for an ongoing relationship. This is your chance to ask whatever questions you have about our services, philosophies, process and fees.
Step 2: Clarify (Data Meeting)
We (utilize) several tools to help us understand what is important to you and why. We review your goals, current and future. During this meeting, will also review your current financial situation and clarify some of your financial data.
Step 3: Development
After you have defined your goals, our team takes your information and creates a personalized strategy to help you pursue them. You will receive a detailed strategy for all the key financial areas that apply to your situation.
Step 4: Implementation
The very best financial plan is worthless if the plan is not implemented and monitored. If you need estate planning, we will coordinate with your attorney to make sure it gets done. If you need insurance, we’ll make sure you get it. We will ensure that you have a solid investment portfolio that is goal-based, diversified, allocated appropriately and professionally managed.
Step 5: Monitor and Adjust
As time goes by, circumstances change. Your plan may need to change too. Today’s goal may not be the same as tomorrow’s dream. As your life changes, new things become important to you. That’s why it is important to review your goals and objectives on a regular basis with annual planning reviews and ongoing monitoring.
Timeline-Quarterly Meetings
1st. Quarter meeting:
In the first quarter meeting, we review the previous year; cash flow, savings rate, return on investment(s), inflation rate, and ultimately how well we worked to help you achieve your goals. We provide our outlook for the current year and will recommend appropriate changes to your investments along with your financial plan to keep advancing your financial goals.
2nd Quarter meeting:
In this meeting, we rebalance all outside accounts, re-evaluate your risk tolerance, and ensure your investments reflect your risk tolerance and your goals. We spend time discussing in greater detail your investments; how they work and why you own them. You should know why you own every investment.
3rd Quarter meeting:
This is the protection meeting. We have designed this meeting to focus on protecting your overall financial plan and leveraging other professional relationships (all independents) to take the necessary steps. We review your insurance policies from Home & Auto, Life insurance, and Long Term Care insurance, to your estate plan and the necessary documents. If you are still employed, we review your eligible benefits through your employer and help you to select the appropriate coverage before your open enrollment period ends, saving you time and money.
4th Quarter meeting:
This is a tax planning meeting. In this meeting, we will run a tax projection for the current year based on account distributions, capital gains and dividends, and earned income, as well as deductions. We are able to identify opportunities before the year ends and upcoming challenges so you can have months to prepare.
In addition to tax planning, we use this time to re-balance all outside accounts as many studies have illustrated semi-annual re-balancing is the most effective strategy to help your investments reflect your risk tolerance.
Financial Planning Fee
We offer a free introductory financial plan for our clients. For families and small businesses interested in engaging in an ongoing planning relationship we charge an annual fee to cover the 4 meetings a year. That fee is based on the complexity of your financial situation, and ranges from $600 for the most simple client to $1500 for a small business where we will review your cash flow, P&L and balance sheet.
In addition to normal online functions, we provide all clients with access to a personal cloud financial planning tool where clients can link external accounts including assets, liabilities and checking accounts to monitor changes to their financial plan, budget and advisor recommendations. This tool also has a secure feature where we can share documents like tax returns and estate planning documents in a secure personal cloud file.
No longer will you receive a one time plan; this is truly a working document that updates daily.
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We are available for anything you need, whether it's a custom quote or just some information on different policies for you and your family. Don't worry, your information stays private--we don't sell to those annoying call centers.