Eliminate errors – You are a bright person, but the demands of your career, family, and outside interests make staying on top of complex financial decisions problematic. You can make a great decision if you have identified all the material factors and properly weighted them. If you miss one though, mistakes can happen, and the costs can be big. Replacing losses with after-tax dollars makes overcoming them more difficult. We use our knowledge and experience to steer you clear of errors.
Reduce fees – Since our role is to effectively navigate the financial services world for your benefit and be held accountable for after fee performance, we work to eliminate layers of fees for you, not subject you to more through affiliated firm offerings.
Maximize available options – We fully evaluate and utilize the best tools available to the executive for enhancing/protecting net worth. This includes all benefit plan programs and outside investment options.
Optimize Corporate Wealth-building Benefit Plans – Having served corporate executives for years, we are well-versed in benefit plans and options. We have developed sound strategies for effectively making them work for you. As most are tax advantaged, they have additional power to build wealth. But they also have risks and restrictions that require a well-thought-out, strategic approach that also accurately considers complementary “outside” options. We integrate those investment options into building tax-efficient, holistic portfolios. We also assist you with each new benefit election.
Sound, Effective Investing – Our view is that maximizing performance over time is best achieved by: “taking risk when risk is likely to be rewarded, preserving principal with positive returns when it isn’t”. We are willing to accept that we will under-perform in periods of runaway exuberance, but will very likely outperform in difficult periods.
While we believe this is a maximizing approach for investing, it also affords less anxiety with lower overall exposure levels. This is likely to be especially effective in the future given the future outlook after an extended period of above average returns.
We own what we recommend – We identify assets that will satisfy our client’s investment objectives from an expansive universe of choices. Then we research them extensively. Those we select, and recommend, we buy ourselves. We satisfy the spectrum of conservative to aggressive clients by selecting among our specific choices and managing allocations. That way, our client’s investments are always in sight.
We keep you informed – We interact with our clients pro-actively as circumstances dictate (for example – stock option exercise discussions, upcoming benefit elections, opportune investment repositioning, etc). We also conduct regular reviews as your schedule and interest allow. Our quarterly newsletters keep you aware of economic factors and our view of opportunities and risks.
Our Compensation – Our advisory clients pay us a fee. The fees are negotiated based on complexity related to time and assets under management. Normally, in early stages, while helping clients make good financial decisions, and building wealth through careful utilization of company benefit plans, a fixed fee will predominate. Later, when asset values grow and have flowed to outside accounts, percentage of assets fees are more common. We think you will find them modest relative to value.
