When can I retire? Do I have enough to retire? What do I need to consider when selling my business? My loved one recently passed, now what? Am I putting my assets in the right places?
These are the questions we hear most often from our clients. We take our role in helping you to navigate these life transitions very seriously. There are many factors to consider when seeking financial planning services for these and other major life events — your retirement lifestyle goals, legacy planning, estate planning, saving for education and weddings, adequate insurance, asset preservation, inheritances and more.
Our financial planning services are focused on helping you reach your financial goals while accounting for risk tolerance and providing adequate retirement income. How do we do it?
Our first step in developing your financial plan is to learn all we can about you. We then present an investment roadmap with your retirement goals and lifestyle needs, while factoring in your assets and liabilities. We want to help you achieve financial freedom to enjoy all the things you’re most passionate about: traveling, pursuing entrepreneurial endeavors, leaving a legacy for children and grandchildren, fulfilling philanthropic aspirations or spending time with family and friends. From here, it’s our responsibility to identify and allocate your investments to help you attain these personal goals.
Once we’ve established your goals, it’s our job to make sure each investment account within your portfolio is properly allocated and maintained with optimal diversification and risk mitigation. Decisions around asset allocation are the most important factors affecting total portfolio volatility, providing over 90% of the factor in volatility*. We seek to manage risk, not returns. We aim to take the appropriate amount of risk in your portfolio to satisfy income strategies and achieve your financial objectives in the long-term.
We approach risk assessment through a four-step investment process that involves goal planning and monitoring; asset allocation; risk tolerance; and ongoing consulting. Our institutional approach to investment management focuses on achieving financial goals by removing emotion from investing and encouraging our clients to withstand short-term market volatility. We believe this approach leads to the highest likelihood of long-term results/success.**
Proper asset allocation is an extremely important aspect of your financial plan. Where are the best places to allocate your assets? It requires a deep understanding of your overall financial goals to understand and achieve optimal asset location. We have the expertise to guide you.
We also help guide the decision making of corporate executives whose personal finances can be as complicated as their businesses’. We make sure their financial goals are aligned with their long-term estate planning goals. We also pride ourselves in providing guidance with business decisions, whether they require support to structure a 10b5-1 plan or need to understand their options with regard to equity compensation.
*Source: “Does Asset Allocation Policy Explain 40, 90, or 100% of Performance?” Ibbotson and Kaplan, Financial Analysts Journal, Jan./Feb. 2000. “The Equal Importance of Asset Allocation and Active Management,” Xiong, Ibbotson, Idzorek, and Chen, Financial Analysts Journal, February 2010. Asset allocation and diversification do not ensure a profit or protect against a loss. All investments are subject to risk and you may incur a profit or a loss. There is no assurance that any investment strategy will be successful.
**The Financial Planning or Consulting services listed are generally those offered under the Wealth Advisory Services Agreement. However, fees and services are customized with each client agreement. For a complete list of fees and available services, please consult the most current Form ADV Part 2A and the Wealth Advisory Services Agreement that you may obtain from your Investment Adviser Representative.
In a fee-based account, clients pay a quarterly fee, based on the level of assets in the account, for the services of a financial advisor as part of an advisory relationship. In deciding to pay a fee rather than commissions, clients should understand that the fee may be higher than a commission alternative during periods of lower trading. Advisory fees are in addition to the internal expenses charged by mutual funds and other investment company securities. To the extent that clients intend to hold these securities, the internal expenses should be included when evaluating the costs of a fee-based account. Clients should periodically re-evaluate whether the use of an asset-based fee continues to be appropriate in servicing their needs. A list of additional considerations, as well as the fee schedule, is available in the firm’s Form ADV Part 2 as well as the client agreement.
Investing involves risk and you may incur a profit or loss regardless of the strategy selected, including asset allocation and diversification.
As a business owner, you want your employees to feel taken care of and we help make sure that happens. In the highly-regulated industry, it’s easy for business owners to misstep. It is important business owners provide adequate benefits that meet the needs of employees as directed under ERISA (Employee Retirement Income Security Act). We also partner with other financial firms to offer 3(21) and 3(38) services to mitigate the fiduciary risk associated with 401(k) plans.
We support our clients’ investments in their own employees by providing general financial guidance to employees. We assist in the enrollment process and help ensure employees understand their options with regard to retirement planning. In turn, we help enable our clients to control the expenses of managing a workforce, reduce long-term healthcare costs and help mitigate liability and risk under ERISA.
When you establish an endowment, it’s equally important both to ensure the endowment business is meeting its fiduciary investment obligations and to ensure the vision for the endowment continues forward despite future personnel changes.
We help our clients establish and manage endowments by developing an investment policy statement to guide all future decision-making processes on behalf of the endowment. Together we determine which investment approach is right for your organization and how the funds can serve as a life source and as a legacy for the entity.
A structured settlement can provide security and comfort to an individual or family that has recently suffered a catastrophic injury or death. FMIA can provide the expertise needed to ensure your long term financial security during that trying time. Utilizing a structure for a portion of an individual’s settlement can provide a tax free income stream for the long term. Future income can be especially important in cases where there are minor children, catastrophic injury or death. FMIA will work directly with legal counsel to ensure that your structured settlement is handled with the same attention to care and detail as the rest of your legal matter and that you find the right solution for your personal situation.
