1. Strategy & Answers: What do you want from your money…in lifestyle, legacy, and peace of mind? That question leads to better answers in all aspects of a financial plan. Our process helps you develop strategies and then make well-informed decisions about the integrated parts of your personal enterprise. Some clients realize they can afford a certain retirement goal. Others move forward with a family or charitable gift, helping loved ones and reducing tax exposure. Some learn they were taking too much risk or their estate plan needed updating.
  2. The Behavior Gap: This is the difference between what the investor should have earned and what he actually earned. Statistics reported by Dalbar and Morningstar show a persistent 2% to 5% gap in returns. Why? Investment advertising and basic human nature lead investors in the wrong direction. You can’t predict where the stock market will go, but you can control your own behavior. Having an adviser like us (who owes you a fiduciary duty) can make all the difference in closing that gap.
  3. Portfolio Design: Investors are commonly under or over-diversified. Our expertise, skepticism, and independence from products enable us to design unique client portfolios with an elegant degree of diversification. Our portfolios have a precise combination of asset classes, investment styles, and product types; without being overly complex or expensive. If our clients can accept marginally-higher equity exposure because of a well-designed portfolio and ongoing coaching, and with lower costs, then they are likely to earn improved returns over time.
  4. Tax Efficiency: Most of the world’s wealth is in tax-exempt pensions and endowments. They can ignore taxes. For private clients who pay taxes, taxes do matter and are rather controllable. Our work in asset-location, tax-loss harvesting, tax-sensitive rebalancing, and tax-efficient cash sourcing can improve your after-tax results. Our tax backgrounds allow us to contribute to the income tax planning process throughout the year; so we can effectively translate portfolio tax efficiency concepts into actual tax savings.
  5. Product Selection: The investment marketplace is sophisticated and skilled (at selling). We are experts at buying investments. Our manager and product selection process emphasizes experience, stewardship, style-purity, turnover, tax-efficiency, peer-group excellence, and costs. We use a heavy dose of low-cost index funds along with small doses of low-cost actively-managed funds. Research shows that low cost is the single most reliable predictor of future performance.
  6. Analysis & Rebalancing: The process of returning a portfolio to its target allocation is a clear way to add value. Buy low, sell high. Systematic analysis and rebalancing requires technology tools and adviser effort. It requires skillful judgments about how much allocation drift to allow and how often to rebalance. Rebalancing can trigger taxes and transaction costs; so it needs to be handled with care. Our integrated approach, work ethic, and tax sensitivity shine in this area, especially during periods of high volatility.
  7. Leadership & Action: Leadership, action, and taking care of the details are the critical missing ingredients in many advisory relationships. We get hired to fill that leadership gap and to establish the Personal CFO role. We make complicated financial systems easy to live with, helping you fully enjoy your wealth…in lifestyle, legacy, and peace of mind.