Process
Persistence can produce dramatic results. Each step towards reaching a destination requires consistency and discipline. We’ll walk you through the steps required to work towards your financial goals.
Bringing it All Together
In order to promote a successful outcome, we spend time with you up front and encourage you to collaborate with us in the development of your financial path forward. This may require several initial meetings and information exchanges, and later periodic followup reviews. Open communications are encouraged so that we stay abreast of your changing financial situation. You can expect us to regularly ask you questions, request updated documents, and make revisions to any changing needs or goals.
As your life evolves, we’re here to help you make sure you can still get to where you want to go.
Goal Review
At our first meetings, we will discuss your current financial situation and your goals. Clients are asked to provide financial documentation in order for us to determine where we can add value. This usually includes tax returns, paystubs, investment statements, and estate and insurance documents. We’ll provide you with a questionnaire about your assets, debt, expenses, investing experience and tolerance for risk. A collaborative process is utilized that encourages you to be involved. Congruent to this process there may be paperwork necessary in order to open, transfer, or adjust accounts. By putting in the time up-front, we hope to build a long-term relationship that is more likely to produce outcomes that meet your needs.
Financial Analysis
After gathering information about your finances, we will analyze the data in order to develop an acceptable strategy given your current finances and goals. This may require revisions and corrections to make sure we have obtained all of the necessary information.
Strategy Development
There is not always just one way to reach a destination. After analyzing your finances, we will provide strategic alternatives that may be more likely to get you where you want to be. This step may include education on the risks of investing, your personal tolerance for risk exposure, as well as an evaluation of your capacity or need to take on risk. This could include discussions with other professionals such as your attorney and accountant, to consider any need to create trusts, education accounts, or just ways to round out your legacy plans. At this stage we will also address whether tax-aware strategies might be recommended in order to minimize tax liabilities.
Plan Implementation
After a strategy has been agreed upon, we will provide a road map outlining the most prudent way forward. This may include a new recommended asset allocation for your investments we will manage, as well as how your other financial areas such as your 401(k) should be adjusted in order make sure all of your assets work in concert.
Progress Monitoring
Regular monitoring of your financial situation is a big part of what we do. In addition to monitoring and rebalancing accounts and providing quarterly statements to our clients, we also will stay in contact with you as new laws come into effect that are pertinent to you, or to check if there are any changes to your finances. For some clients this may include tax-minimization collaborations with their accountant on issues such as capital gains, loss carry forwards, retirement contributions and distributions, or company stock options.
Staying Up-to-Date
To ensure that any well-planned strategy continues to meet one’s needs, it may be necessary to periodically revisit topics, clarify or adjust goals, and adapt to any changing circumstances. Personal, professional, and macroeconomic events can appear as hurdles to reaching one’s target, but we’re here to help weather those storms and help you get to a place where you’re comfortable even in the most worrisome times.
We want to be there for you when you need help.