Our Philosophy
Everything is integrated; nothing in isolation
No financial decision should be made in isolation. Making a decision to act in one area of your financial situation may have an adverse impact on others. We believe that knowing all of the potential consequences of each decision is the only way to give you the confidence and comfort necessary to take action in line with your goals and objectives.
Our holistic approach considers and integrates all areas of your financial life. This enables you to see the total relative impact of making one decision over another. It all comes together through our comprehensive financial planning approach.
Prevention and protection
It can be very difficult to recoup losses from a financial mistake. We believe it is more important to prevent mistakes by considering all of the potential ramifications of any decision than to immediately choose the option that appears to be best if considered in a vacuum. This is no different than a doctor asking for your family health history, your current medications, and checking for allergies before writing a prescription.
Is it good, and is it good for you?
With us, there are no model portfolios, no generic assumptions, and no boilerplate advice. While it is common practice to make recommendations based on population averages, we instead recognize that no one is perfectly average. Our advice and recommendations are validated by consistently addressing and answering two questions: is it good, and is it good for you? Our guidance is of course based on specialized knowledge, but it is more importantly based on you.
We don’t just manage money; we do more, much more
To identify what is good for you, we need to know you. Your financial plan is built on your specific financial situation following our time-tested Path to Achieve Process for developing your plan.
The analysis of your financial information is extremely detailed. We don’t take estimates and ranges. We collect actual statements from cash accounts, brokerage accounts, tax returns, insurance contracts, estate documents, loan notes, and much more. Oftentimes, the devil is in the details, and we want to make sure no mistakes are made. The rigorous analysis of your financial situation is married with our specialized knowledge of and experience in the complexity of financial decisions, tools, and products.
We don’t work for you, we work with you
Our clients are intelligent, successful people looking for a partner. By partnering with you, we will know as much about your financial situation as you do. Not unlike a company CFO consulting with the CEO on all financial matters, we work together on all of your financial affairs, whether it be tax preparation, major purchases, or other critical decisions. We are in a natural position to do so since we will be familiar with all of your finances. And just like in business, it is not uncommon for us, as the CFO, to bring our ideas to you, the CEO, as well.
Long-lasting partnerships are built on trust, confidence, and personal connection. Meet our financial planners. We do not charge for time spent to get acquainted, so call us or come into the office for a conversation.
Our compensation is not based on transactions
Compensation for our advice and services is fee-based, taking into account your working capital and income, not your transactions. We feel removing this conflict of interest is important to maintain the integrity of our advice and recommendations. You will never feel like you are on the clock and we have no incentives to sell you anything. Our compensation structure is aligned with our fiduciary responsibility to you.
While most people prefer to consolidate their accounts with us, you are by no means required to custody your assets through us and you are free to use other financial firms throughout our relationship.