Our Service*
You can’t just retire at 62 and suddenly be happy. It takes a thoughtful plan. And an advocate. Someone committed to helping you live your values. That’s what we do.
We take into account not just your financial resources, but also your plans and dreams. We do this with no formulas, expectations or pre-conceived ideas. The only thing that matters to us is that you live as closely as possible to the way you really want to live. And we have the skills to help you do it.
We don’t think of this as wealth management — we think of it as life management. And here are some of the things it contains*:
Retirement strategies
Managing money in retirement is a lot more complex than managing it during your working years. It’s about a lot more than how fast your money is growing. We’ll help you move beyond simplistic retirement calculators and investment products like annuities. Together, we’ll create a workable retirement strategy for getting money out of your nest egg safely and intelligently.
Legacy and estate planning
It’s not much fun to contemplate the death of a loved one. But it’s essential to making sure your assets are transferred according to your wishes and needs. Working with third-party attorneys, we’ll help lead you through the process of creating a wealth transfer plan that takes into account a broad array of estate planning issues and opportunities. These include the use of wills and trusts, optimal forms of property ownership, estate and gift taxes, philanthropy, and strategies for property transfer between spouses and to future generations.
Pro-active tax planning
Too often, tax advisory services are provided on a reactive basis, with the focus on preparing returns. But when returns are prepared after the fact, you lose opportunities to capture added value. We place a tax lens over your financial decisions, not just to minimize taxes but to maximize your after-tax wealth. As part of this year-round activity, we model scenarios over multiple years, coordinating the timing of investment decisions, philanthropic planning, stock option and grant exercise assessments, income and expense patterns, and much more. Working closely with your CPA, we can help you avoid costly mistakes, file accurate returns and save dollars wherever possible.
Risk management
We can make you the best plan in the world, but inevitably reality intervenes. That’s where effective risk management comes in. It’s your one chance to gain some financial control over unexpected events. We look at all the risks you face — property loss, liability, health, death, disability — and determine how best to manage your exposures. Often, you’re in a position to “self-insure”. In other cases, you need insurance or some other structure to avoid or mitigate risks. Whatever the case, we help you design a smart solution, so when the unexpected occurs, you can keep your focus where it’s needed — on the emotional and relational issues.
Financial position
Like the baseline a doctor uses to track your physical health, we use our “financial position” discipline to track your financial health. At the outset, it serves as a starting point for building your plan. Then it becomes an ongoing measure of your progress and susceptibility to negative events. At any given moment, it defines for us — and you — your current financial “truth”, including cash flow, balances, debt and emergency reserves.
Investment planning
Our investment objective is not to beat the S&P 500 or some other index. It’s to get you the rate of return you need to achieve your financial goals and live the life you want to live. We get all your accounts working in harmony in support of a focused goal, whether that is to grow, stabilize or defend your assets. Free from proprietary products and conflicts of interest, we choose from a wide universe of investment vehicles for your portfolio.
*Please Note: The scope of any financial planning and consulting services depends upon the specific requests and needs of the client. The Advocates does not serve as a law firm or a certified public accounting firm. The Advocates does not prepare legal documents or tax returns.