How We Work With Clients
How The Process Works
Most people think of financial advisors first and foremost as someone to help with their investments. As financial planners, we certainly do that, but we strive to take a more comprehensive view of a person’s finances. We will help you invest your hard-earned assets, and we will help sort out your retirement, estate and insurance needs. Financial planning is about improving the quality of your life, by setting goals, implementing strategies to get there and thereby removing an entire list of worries that can detract from the rest of your life.
Our initial consultation is free. At this meeting, we’ll do our best to answer your questions and assess your financial situation, and together we’ll decide whether it makes sense to start to develop a deeper relationship. Most clients hire us to manage assets; many also have us prepare their taxes. How we work together is determined by your needs and goals.
The first step is to gather information. We start by defining what your financial goals and objectives actually are. When you begin to define what you want your money to do for you, you start to realize it’s all wrapped up in bigger questions, like: What do I want to do with my life? What kind of legacy do I want to leave my children and/or grandchildren? How can I contribute more to my community?
Next, we’ll gather whatever information we need to help address your issues. This may include investment statements, tax returns, insurance or mortgage paperwork. Then the real work begins. Is it hard work? It shouldn’t be, for you; that’s our job. It will entail your active involvement, especially in setting goals and making decisions. You will need to communicate openly so that we can make an honest assessment of your situation.
Once we’re past the initial phase, we meet regularly with clients to review progress. Some clients like to meet quarterly, others find an annual review satisfactory. Whatever works for you is fine with us.
How We Get Paid
Our goal is to provide quality advice at a reasonable price. Generally, we are paid a percentage fee based on the assets we manage for you; thus, the better you do, the better we do. For taxes and other project-based work, we typically charge a reasonable hourly fee.
Just as important, we strive to select the lowest-cost investments that will meet the need we have identified. In many cases, clients find that our fees, combined with the low expenses of our portfolios, are similar to those of many well-known mutual funds, yet you get our advice and counsel in the bargain.