What it is like to work with Us
Well you would probably not be reading this if you were 100% satisfied with your current financial advisor.
The outline below summarizes the typical profile of clients we work with. If you feel this describes you, we would love for you to contact our firm for an initial interview.
1. You may be with a big firm and you know you are a little fish so you were trying to talk to the head advisor.
2. You are with an insurance advisor who thinks all problems can be solved with insurance products.
3. Maybe your advisor left and you were given a new advisor who may be too inexperienced.
4. You know we have been in a 10 year bull market, but your account is not keeping up.
5. You are concerned that you are going to outlive your money.
6. Maybe you are doing it yourself and you are tired of this, you have better things to do with your time.
A Taste of Real Financial Planning
Every client has a unique personality and story; the people we work with also have very strong similarities.
Here's a look at the typical clients we are currently servicing:
• Our clients are already retired or are approaching retirement (within 10-15 years).
• Our clients consider themselves to be conservative. This means they are much more inclined to protect what they have while generating a decent return to live off of without having to take an extra amount of risk.
• Our clients do not watch CNN all day, every day, and let daily swings in the market affect their long term financial plan.
• Our clients realize that there is more to life than money. They take pride in spending time with their families, volunteering for the community, and living each day to the fullest.
Our Approach
I am a fee-based Certified Financial Planner™ professional who proudly acts as a fiduciary for my clients. This means I have a legal obligation to put clients' interests far before my own in all recommendations I make.
Each client goes through our step-by-step process named The Financial Road Map.
Within this process, we get to really know our client's story inside and out. We help them identify the strengths, challenges, and opportunities they have in achieving their financial goals.
Clients will also get access to the latest account monitoring technology, which allows 24/7 access to all of their accounts, aggregated into one user-friendly platform –no more logging into several different online accounts to see the balances of all your investments.
We believe that our clients deserve the latest technologies, so we are constantly exploring and investing into new platforms. Because of this, our planning approach tends to be more proactive than the typical financial advisor role with which most people are familiar.
Upon completion of our process, the client will receive a custom financial plan, as well as an investment strategy that is unique to them.
These plans are primarily built around major life events, with retirement being the most common one.
The Way We Communicate
As is hopefully evident by my blogging activities, I communicate regularly with clients via technology (email is my preferred communication method). You can also keep track of me on Facebook.
My experience is that it is very difficult for financial advisors and investment managers to actually perform their job if they are on the phone or in meetings all day, every day.
The rest of my days are spent doing research and producing more valuable content that will benefit my clients.
I, or someone on my team, visit with each client 4 times per year, and we provide unlimited email support between meetings.
Many of our clients are local to The Villages, Florida, but many are from all over the United States, and we can work together virtually.
Under this arrangement, we use web conferencing (like Skype), phone, and email to regularly communicate.
To ensure that my time is best spent handling the essential client issues, our firm has built a support system that takes pride in customer service. Our staff is trained to always put the client's needs first.
If you're the person that feels the need to be constantly on the phone with their advisor directly, then we probably aren't going to be the best option for you.
It has been my experience that phone conversations without a clear “plan of attack” often deviate from what my primarily role is: helping my clients achieve their goals.
That is very different from having a scheduled phone appointment where we have a specific list of talking points that we need to address on that call. Those calls are highly efficient, and are strongly encouraged.
How to let us help you
For those interested in working with us, we came up with a simple process. This process is called using The Financial Road Map.
Here is a brief rundown of our process:
#1: The Discovery Call – This is where we learn more about your current situation and your exact financial goals. We'll look into your current strengths, opportunities, and challenges in you reaching those goals.
#2: The Recognition Factor – We will deliver your goals in a format that will help you better understand where you currently stand and what needs to be done to do to get there.
#3: The Simplified Data Solution – By using SAI's Wealthscape feature, you'll be able to access all of your accounts in one place.
#4: The Financial Road Map – This is where we deliver the results of your comprehensive financial plan. We can help you identify any tweaks in your portfolio that need to be made today in order to have a positive impact on your portfolio going forward.
#5: After Action Review – A couple weeks after we deliver the plan, we schedule a follow-up meeting to see what questions you have on the plan, and to see if you need any further assistance implementing our recommendations. (In almost all cases, the planning fee is just $600, and comes with a 100% satisfaction guarantee. If you aren't satisfied, you pay nothing).
For clients who want ongoing help managing their investments, fees are based on a percentage of assets under management.
There are some cases where the client is in need of an income guarantee or insurance for estate planning, commissions may apply.
Our investment management services are competitive, and we do our best to make sure that our clients keep more of the return. If interested in these services, feel free to contact us, and we'll explain more in depth on how to proceed.
Please take note that we never take custody of the assets. We always use a third party custodian (SAI) to execute our trades and produce our client statements. That means there will always be a record produced for any transaction we do.
What we do for our Clients
Most importantly, I feel that clients and their advisors should get along and work together as a team. Good financial planning and investment management doesn't work overnight. It takes time, patience, and trust.
I have structured my work and services in a manner that gives clients personal attention and financial management support. I know there is always room for improvement and still I strive to get better at what I do each day. My uncompromising promise is to take the thousands of hours of research I do each year and leverage it to benefit those who place their trust with me and my firm.
Due to advancements in technology, I'm happy to work with investors all over the United States. We have wonderful live web-based virtual meetings that allow me to work with clients in a very personal manner despite being hundreds or even thousands of miles apart.
If you've never thought about working with an advisor virtually, I think you'd be pleasantly surprised at how easy, efficient, and enjoyable it can be. If you live near or around Central Florida, I'm more than happy to meet you at my office personally.
Could we work together, maybe?
After reading above, if you'd like to have a conversation about working together, I'd be happy to invest 30 minutes of my firm's time in getting to know you and your financial goals better, and help determine if there's value I can provide in your life.
I do all of our initial appointments via phone and/or office meeting if you are local. To set up an initial meeting, have your questions answered, and to see if we could be a good fit, just email or call us to set up a time that is best for you. (Click here - to go to our contact page)
Not ready to schedule an appointment? No problem!
You can always ask us any question on retirement. We do our best to respond to questions via email within 24 hours, and while we can't guarantee we will be able to help everyone, we sure will try and do our best to at least get you the answers you need so you don't make a long term commitment to the wrong financial product you might later regret.