Financial Planning for Individuals |
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We specialize in working with baby boomers and retirees to
help them protect their investments while yielding a 4%-7%
rate of return.
We coach you along the way while allowing you to remain in
the driver seat. We will never make any changes without
getting your approval and explaining why we are making
certain recommendations.
Once you become a client, we will take you through a process
(about 90 minutes) where we will educate you regarding the
universe of non-stock market investments. Our philosophy is
that, if we clearly explain how an investment works so you
can understand it, then you are intelligent enough to decide
if it should be somewhere in your portfolio.
We recognize that no two people are alike and this process
helps us to work together to customize your financial plan.
By the time we are done, we will come up with a diversified
portfolio designed to make sure you never run out of money
in retirement.
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Financial Advice & Consulting |
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Do you wonder if you have enough income to retire or when
you should begin taking Social Security? Are you concerned
about how to protect your finances from the risk of the
stock market or how to safely earn more interest than at the
bank? These are the type of questions we answer for our
clients every day.
But we dig deeper. Most people don't know how to get true,
non-biased advice. They want to work with an advisor who
will give them the truth, not a salesman who is looking to
make a fat commission on the investments they recommend.
This is why we are fee-only. Depending on the size of your
portfolio, our fee ranges between .5% and 1.5% per year of
the assets we are managing for you. If your portfolio earns
6%, you'll keep 5% of it!
What's exciting is that we include all of your analysis with
that fee. We will develop a financial plan to make sure you
never run out of money, review your existing insurance
policies to make sure you're not under-insured, design a
strategy to lower your taxes if possible, evaluate your
IRAs, 401(K)s and other retirement plans, help you set up a
Living Trust if you need one, evaluate your Medicare needs
and even analyze the best way for you to maximize your
Social Security.
When we are done, we want to know that there is virtually
nothing that can stop you from a successful retirement!
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Retirement Planning |
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The decisions you make in retirement will often be the
difference between success and failure. Since many of these
decisions are irrevocable, it is critical that you get them
right the first time. Making right decisions about when to
take your Social Security income and what order to begin
receiving income from your retirement accounts can mean a
difference of hundreds of thousands of dollars over your
lifetime. We will help you navigate the dangerous waters of
retirement so you reach your destination successfully.
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Portfolio Management |
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We specialize in the universe of non-stock market, income
producing investments. These investments range in risk from
extremely safe to moderate and are designed to protect your
principal while producing a 4%-7% yield.
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401K Rollovers |
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Contributing to a 401K or other employer retirement plan
makes sense as you build up your nest egg during your
working years, especially if your employer also contributes
to it on your behalf. Once you retire though, it usually
makes sense to transfer that money into an IRA (referred to
as a 401K rollover) for two reasons: 1) You will reduce your
fees which often range from 3%-4% and; 2) you will have more
investment options since 401Ks are limited in what they can
offer. Furthermore, there are no tax consequences or penalties as long as you do this correctly.
However, most employees don't know that, if you're over 59
1/2, most retirement plans allow you to transfer those funds
to an IRA while you are still working! You can reduce your
fees, increase your investment options but still continuing
to contribute to your current plan as you always have. This
is called having your cake and eating it too.
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Insurance Planning |
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When it comes to auto and homeowner's insurance, most people
do not have enough coverage. The maximum liability that most
auto policies include is $250,000 for a single person. If
you hit someone and severely injure them or worse, do you
think that $250,000 of coverage will be enough or will they
probably sue you for millions of dollars? The insurance
company will write them a check and you will owe them the
difference. This is why it is critical to own an umbrella
policy- it gives you a million dollars or more of extra
coverage for only a couple hundred dollars per year. By
the way, we don't sell auto insurance, homeowner's insurance
or umbrella policies- we have no financial motive for
reviewing your policies. But, because it is the right thing
to do, we won't let you leave without promising that you
will contact your insurance agent right away. You are only
one accident away from losing your life savings if you don't
have enough insurance.
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Annuities |
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Annuities can be a powerful income planning tool or they can
devastate your retirement. There are many types of annuities
and the differences between them are dramatic! Some protect
your principal and others do not. Some have very high fees
and others have no fees. When you purchase an immediate
annuity, you lose your principal forever. When you purchase
a deferred annuity, you can get your principal back anytime
although there may be penalties. We have specialized in
annuities for nearly fifteen years and are extremely
familiar with these differences. We offer a complimentary
review of your annuity statements- most people whose
statements we review do not understand how their annuities
really work.
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Estate Planning & Trusts |
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If your real and/or personal property exceed $150,000, then
you probably should have a Living Trust. In California, if
you exceed the limits, your estate will have to go through
probate before getting to your heirs. Unfortunately, the
process is both time consuming and expensive and could
become a nightmare. The purpose of a Living Trust is to
eliminate probate and make sure your assets go where you
want them to go. Setting up a trust is quite easy if you
work with a professional who is familiar with the process.
Furthermore, there are other important documents that are
critical when you need them. For example, do you know that,
because of the privacy laws that went into effect in 2004,
it is illegal for doctors to give medical information about
you to anyone else- including your spouse and adult
children? Doctors can go to jail or be fined for violating
these laws! Unfortunately, you would never find out about
this until a bad situation occurs. Our attorneys have helped
thousands of people get all of their important documents in
order. And, because we refer them often, they offer a steep
discount to our clients. We don't have any financial
incentive for recommending estate planning documents to our
clients. It is the right thing to do and we try to make our
clients' lives simple by being a one-stop shop for their
financial and estate planning needs.
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Tax Planning & Mitigation |
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Retirees and financial planners alike frequently overlook
one of the most basic, but critically important, aspects of
a retiree's financial plan- strategies to implement a tax
efficient portfolio. Not having a tax efficient portfolio
could be costing you thousands or tens of thousands of
dollars of lost income each year. This is so important that
we offer tax preparation services for our clients in our
office. We have an Enrolled Agent who has specialized in
preparing individual and corporate tax returns for over 30
years. Best of all, if you're a client of our firm, or if
you're 55 years or older, we will prepare your personal
return for a flat rate of $79.95! If you have a business,
the flat rate is $250 which is less than most tax preparers
charge for individual returns. Doing tax returns is not a
profit center for us. We do it because it is the right thing
to do and makes our clients' lives easy by having a one-stop
shop.
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Investment Management & Advice |
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Are you a saver or an investor? A saver is someone who is
conservative and primarily concerned with protecting their
principal. They want to earn a decent interest rate but not
at the risk of losing half of their retirement nest egg when
the market crashes again. They are not trying to get rich
but they don't ever want to ever be poor. On the other hand,
investors want to take that extra risk by speculating in the
stock market. They don't mind watching their portfolio go up
and down dramatically in the hopes of earning double digit
returns. If you're an investor who wants to take a lot of
risk with your retirement, quite frankly, we may not be the
best firm for you, at least for the investments that you
want to be aggressive with. However, if you're conservative
and want to maximize your income and investments throughout
your retirement, then we may be the perfect fit. Ironically,
we've reviewed thousands of statements from other firms over
the years and I frequently find that many savers portfolios
are set up as if they are investors. You don't want to find
out if you're invested too aggressively the next time the
market crashes!
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