Wealth Management

You have goals for your future; probably more than one. They m ight be about the lifestyle you hope to lead in retirement. Or a child’s education. There might be a charitable cause you hope to support more fully, or a hobby you’ve yearned to pursue. Or perhaps you’re just not quite able to articulate your goal. But we bet you have one, nevertheless. Understanding what’s really important to you is at the heart of how we’ll begin to build the kind of relationship you expect. Step by step, in a way that is very personal, very open and very focused on your hopes and dreams and goals.

Wealth management is very straightforward.

From the affluent individual’s perspective, wealth management is simply the science of solving/enhancing his or her financial situation. From the financial advisor’s perspective, wealth management is the ability of an advisor or advisory team to deliver a full range of financial services and products to an affluent client in a consultative way.

Theoretically, a wealth manager can provide every single financial product in existence. In reality most wealth managers specialize in services and products they feel most comfortable with.

A further defining quality of wealth management is that it is delivered in a consultative manner. By being consultative, wealth managers are truly client-centered. A good wealth manager meets a client without any presupposition about what financial products or services are appropriate for that affluent individual.

While it is common for a wealthy individual to be sitting with a wealth manager to address a particular need (investment management, say), the consultative wealth manager’s overriding objective is to understand the person and find out what’s important and why. Then the wealth manager is able to bring in the appropriate experts and provide the appropriate financial products.

Retirement & College Savings

You’re cruising along at 35,000 feet when the cabin suddenly losses pressure. Yellow oxygen masks deploy from the ceiling, begging to be used. You start reaching for the lifeline but your child sitting next to you screams for help. What’s your next move?

If you follow the preflight safety instructions, you put on your own mask before assisting others, no questions asked. After all, it’s difficult to help others if you don’t help yourself first. This seems straightforward when we’re flying through the sky, but a recent report from T. Rowe Price reveals that it becomes cloudy when we’re on the ground, handling money, as an alarming number of parents are putting their own retirements at risk in order to fund their children’s college expenses.

Nine out of 10 parents believe their children will attend college, and since college typically arrives before retirement, the majority of parents feel like they should put money toward that first and save for retirement after. In fact, 49% of parents are willing to delay their own retirements to pay for their children’s education, while 74% feel guilty they won’t be able to provide more financial assistance. Overall, 63% are concerned about their children having enough financial resources to attend college, the most commonly cited concern besides health care costs.

Naturally, parents want to take care of their children first, but past experiences may be hindering the financial decision-making process. The report finds that 63% of parents believe they took on too much student debt themselves, and 79% want their children to worry less about money while in college than they did. Just over half of the 2,000 American parents in the study say they would take on at least $25,000 in debt to fund their children’s education, with 9% saying “whatever it takes.” Yet 66% of parents are still paying down their own student loans.

Finding a balance with your money is a crucial part of personal finance. Saving for retirement does not have to be mutually exclusive from saving for college.

Cash & Credit

In my investment advisory programs, you generally pay an asset based fee, charged quarterly in advance, based on the total value of the assets in your account at the end of the previous quarter. Unless otherwise noted, the asset-based fee generally covers investment consulting and certain brokerage services provided by FinVertex, as well as the external or internal investment management fees. However, the asset-based fee does not cover expenses paid within any exchange-traded funds or mutual funds you may own.

You may select from our comprehensive suite of managed account programs, which are designed for various levels of investment experience and sophistication, with asset minimums that start as low as $5,000. Depending upon the program, your investment advisory account may include stocks, bonds, money market funds, mutual funds, exchange-traded funds and cash. You can establish investment advisory relationships for your retirement or trust accounts in addition to your personal investment accounts. If you select one of our Non-Discretionary advisory programs, your Financial Advisor will provide investment advice, but you will retain decision-making authority over your account.

FinVertex offers financial planning services through LifeView® Advisor and LifeView® Personal Wealth Advisor. Using these tools, your Financial Advisor can assist you with the evaluation of your financial goals and help you develop an investment strategy to meet goals such as planning for retirement, funding an education and insurance planning. FAs have the option to charge a minimum of $250 and up to a maximum of $5,000 per client.

FAs who hold one of the following professional designations: Certified Financial Planner (CFP), Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA), Chartered Personal Wealth Advisor (CPWA), Chartered Financial Consultant (ChFC), Certified Trust and Financial Advisor (CTFA) or Family Wealth Director (FWD), may charge up to a maximum of $10,000 if assets in a LifeView Plan a re over $5MM.

Stocks, Bonds & Mutual Funds

Fresh off Wall Street’s worst week in four years – one that saw the Dow Jones industrial average lose 10 percent of its value and the Standard & Poor’s 500 index slip below the magical 2,000 barrier – I have two words of advice for gun-shy investors.

Don’t panic.

“We’re starting to get some calls, as should be expected,” says Erik Jensen, president and founder of Jensen Wealth Advisors in Palm Desert, California, and a registered principal with LPL Financial. “We empathize with them; nobody likes seeing drops like last week. However, we recommend they keep a long-term perspective, understanding that corrections are the norm, not a calamity.”

Sure, last week may have felt like a calamity if you were watching your portfolio shrink by the hour. But there were tell-tale signs – after riding an extraordinary bullish market since 2009, Wall Street had been essentially trading sideways until this month. Then the market’s softening became a full-blown meltdown Thursday and Friday.

Wall Street’s darling stocks – the tech sector – were among the hardest hit. Netflix (ticker: NFLX) lost nearly 16 percent; Apple (AAPL) and Facebook (FB) were both down nearly 9 percent and Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) fell 7.7 percent.

“While investors should avoid panicking over short-term movements in the value of their long-term investments, the recent volatility ought to serve as a wake-up call to re-examine risk and stress-test your portfolio against the possibility of further declines,” says Kurt Rossi, president of Independent Wealth Management in Wall, New Jersey. “Be especially careful if you were like many investors that were pushed into taking on higher risk investments due to the low-yield environment. Consider reviewing the compatibility of your portfolio and your financial planning goals, making changes to your investments if the two are out of alignment.”

Wealth Management