How We are Different – Part 2 (Our Advice)

Offering great financial advice is the most consistent way to add significant value for our clients. It is this value to our clients that drives our passion for the field of financial planning.  We take great strides to stay at the forefront of planning techniques by investing heavily in the best technology and the best people.

Like many firms, we call ourselves comprehensive financial planners, as we look at all aspects of our clients’ financial picture. This includes retirement planning, estate planning, tax planning, risk-mitigation planning and investment management. However, we go well beyond basic financial planning. A few areas where we differentiate ourselves from other advisors include:

Tax Planning: We work closely with our clients’ CPAs to build truly advanced tax-strategies. Tax planning is one of the “low-hanging fruits” available to maximize client wealth. We use top-of-the-line portfolio rebalancing technology to build and maintain tax-optimized portfolios while performing tax efficient and risk-appropriate withdrawal strategies.

Furthermore, almost all families that we work with experience stages of higher and lower income. It is also common for these families to have years with higher tax deductions or significant capital gain events. These variations create great income tax planning opportunities. By knowing you and your ongoing situation we are able to anticipate these year-to-year variances allowing us to build multi-year tax projections. This long-term outlook can help us implement advanced planning strategies that can result in significant tax savings.

Estate Planning: Our passion for financial planning extends into advanced gift and estate tax planning strategies. We also work closely with our clients’ estate attorneys on the up-front implementation and the ongoing administration of these strategies. In addition to implementation, we also focus on educating our clients on all estate planning matters. However, what separates us is that we look at all aspects of estate planning. We believe that many advisors spend too much time preparing the assets for the beneficiaries and not enough time preparing the beneficiaries for the assets. Before implementing any strategies, we work with you and your family on the softer side of estate planning. In addition to building a plan that saves estate taxes and protects the assets, we want to help you create a thoughtful plan that thinks about the long-term well-being of the beneficiaries as well as the legacy that you want to leave. A properly executed estate plan is not a stack of paper that is drafted and then forgotten in a filing cabinet. Instead, it is a continuous process of communication and education so that when the time comes, future generations will be ready for the responsibility that awaits them.

Technology: We place advanced technology at your fingertips. This technology helps organize and simplify your life by providing an electronic vault for all of your important financial documents. We also have technology that creates “what if” scenarios in a client’s retirement plan. Furthermore, this technology can automatically track spending and savings, which are critical components to financial planning. Finally, this technology can incorporate your outside assets (such as your company sponsored 401k plan) into your overall asset allocation, making sure that all of the your assets are working together.

Being different has never felt so good. Connect with us to learn more about how our differences can lead to your successes.

Please click here for important disclosure footnotes.