Our process begins with discovery: a simple conversation between you and a financial advisor, where we evaluate your existing financial situation; gather information regarding your income, expenses, assets, and liabilities; learn about your lifestyle, aspirations, and concerns; and evaluate your risk tolerance. Discovery is important and does not boil down to a simple questionnaire. It's integrative and comprehensive. We want to get to know you - not with abstraction, but with specificity - so we can help you build a solid financial plan that will stand the test of time for you and your family.

What level of income do you require in retirement? What major expenses do you have over the next several years? What are your most important lifetime goals? Do you worry about inflation? What level of risk are you comfortable taking in your portfolio? Will you have enough money to fund an important intra-generational wealth transfer to your family? How do we best achieve these goals?

These are the types of important questions we seek to answer. While we recognize that there are as many answers as there are individuals, we also understand that you need specific solutions.

This is why we take the information we learn about you in discovery, combine it with our deep understanding of financial markets, and build highly customized investment plans - optimally structured with a mix of stocks, bonds, and alternative investments (if appropriate) -  to achieve your financial objectives. We then model investment returns across thousands of investment scenarios to evaluate your odds of success. We show you how these different economic scenarios can impact your financial objectives; what large draw-downs mean for your portfolio; and how negative outcomes may affect your long-term results, after taxes, fees, and inflation. We believe this process is far more transparent and superior to that used by most financial advisors.

Our process, however, does not end here, as your circumstances are always changing. This is why we are constantly re-discovering, re-analyzing, and re-evaluating your situation to identify opportunities that can enhance your long-term financial well-being. We also strive to educate you throughout the entire process: helping you understand why we make the specific investment recommendations we do and showing you the unbiased, peer-reviewed research that backs up our claims. We incorporate all aspects of your financial life into this process, working with your tax, estate, insurance, and risk management advisors to ensure that we develop a truly holistic wealth management experience. This is all then memorialized into a written investment policy statement - a road map to your financial future -  which outlines your detailed investment plan, along with our responsibilities and fiduciary obligations, and serves as an important reference guide during periods of market stress.

If you would like to learn more about our financial planning process and/or are interested in developing a customized plan to help achieve your goals, please contact us today.