Wealth Management

What is Wealth Management and how does it compare to other financial services?

The financial advisory industry contains countless iterations of services, products, and professionals. The title of an advisor and how they define their services are important, but there is no consistent rulebook for how different services are defined. This results in a lot of confusion when someone is looking for financial help. Two financial advisors with the same title might offer two vastly different suites of services; one may specialize in tax and financial planning, while the other manages investments for their clients directly.

The term “Wealth Management” is a broad term that encompasses multiple services. It is generally a suite of services that are geared towards the needs of high net worth clients. It is a consultative process whereby the advisor gleans information about the clients’ wants and tailors a custom strategy utilizing appropriate financial services. The most common application of wealth planning is a combination of comprehensive financial planning and investment or portfolio management. These two services often go hand-in-hand and the financial planning process informs and guides the investment process.

Wealth Management is different from other financial advisor services in a number of important ways. First, it is usually performed by an advisor who charges a fee instead of an advisor who takes a commission for selling a product. These “fee-only” advisors are often also held to the fiduciary standard, which requires them to act in the best interests of their clients at all times. Commission based advisors generally sell a product that addresses a specific need of the client, versus a fee-only advisor who provides comprehensive wealth management. Wealth Managers also often focus on financial planning. Planning generally includes retirement cash flow planning and planning for specific goals such as college expenses, weddings, new home purchases, etcetera.

In conclusion, wealth management refers to a comprehensive approach to financial services for private clients. Wealth managers are often held to a higher standard of practicing than are other financial advisors as they offer planning services and investment management for their clients. Other financial advisors who are not wealth managers generally only offer a subset of the services that wealth managers provide as a full service.

What Makes us Different

Individual investments and markets fluctuate over time. As professionals, our job is to enable you to make informed financial decisions using the full complement of resources at our disposal. This process provides a framework for making decisions collaboratively and monitoring the outcome of those decisions over time. Each step involves interaction between our team, the client and outside professionals if needed.

Empathy

We take the time to actively listen and understand you and confirm what we hear.

Fiduciary

We put you before us. We negotiate for you, not against you.

Experience

With over 150 years of combined experience this isn’t our first rodeo. Even with this experience we aren’t a bunch of old codgers wedded to yesterday’s solutions.

Fee-Only

We receive one clearly aligned fee and accept no commissions or other third party
fees that could sway our recommendations.

Execution

Knowing what to do, how to do it and when to do it are three separate skills. Intelligence defines these skills and experience hones them. He who makes the fewest mistakes wins.

Our Offices

Fiduciary Financial Advisor & Wealth Management