Financial planning should help you make better decisions. It should not make you feel like you are being sold something.
Many of the people who contact us have already sat through a meeting that felt like a pitch. So before we ever speak, here is how this firm actually operates, in plain terms.
The work starts with your decision, not with a product
We do not start with an investment product and work backward to justify it. We start with whatever decision is actually in front of you.
That decision looks different for almost everyone who calls. Recently it has meant:
- Designing and setting up a 401(k) plan for a company, or fixing one that has drifted
- Exit planning ahead of the sale of a business
- A second set of eyes on a portfolio someone already owns
- Reading an annuity contract that was handed to a client, and explaining what it really does
- Building a retirement income plan around Social Security, pensions, required minimum distributions and the accounts a family has accumulated
- Deciding when Roth conversions make sense, how much to convert, and what the tax consequences look like
- Working through estate and beneficiary structuring so accounts, trusts and the broader estate plan fit together
- Deciding which accounts to draw from first in retirement and how that choice affects taxes over time
- Equity compensation and deferred compensation decisions with real tax consequences attached
We call this planning, for lack of a better word. In practice the work takes the shape of the question. Some of it is a single decision made well. Some of it is a full picture built out over years. What matters is that the work is defined before it starts, so you know what you are getting.
What fiduciary means here
The word gets used loosely, so here is what it means in this office, specifically.
- Advice is given based on your interests. That is a legal obligation we hold, not a marketing line.
- You are told how we are paid before you agree to anything.
- Conflicts are named out loud rather than buried in a document you will not read.
- You do not have to move any assets to receive advice. Planning work and asset management are separate decisions, and you can do one without the other.
We are licensed to provide insurance solutions. When insurance is genuinely part of an answer, we can evaluate options from multiple insurance companies rather than starting with a single carrier or product. If you buy insurance through us, we may be paid a commission by the insurance company. We tell you that before you buy, and you are free to buy it somewhere else. Insurance is never the starting point and it is never required to work with us.
How we are paid
There are two arrangements, and you will know which one applies before you hire us.
Ongoing investment management. When we manage assets for you, the fee is based on the assets we manage and is billed on a stated schedule. There is no commission attached to the investments we manage, and no product sale sitting behind the recommendation.
A defined piece of work. For everything else, we prefer a single fee for the engagement, agreed in advance. One scope, one number, no meter running. We can bill hourly when a situation genuinely calls for it, but most people would rather know the figure up front, and so would we.
Either way, the scope, what you will receive, and the fee are agreed in writing before you become a client. We do not present a fee after the work has started.
Who we tend to work with
Most of the people we work with are approaching retirement or already in it, and have accumulated enough that the decisions in front of them carry real consequences. Taxes, investment risk, retirement income and insurance stop being abstract once there is something substantial on the table.
They tend to be executives, business owners, physicians, founders, engineers, attorneys and accountants. People who are capable of understanding their own finances and would like someone to think it through with them properly.
Not everyone needs ongoing investment management, and we will tell you if you do not. Sometimes the honest answer is that you need one decision looked at carefully, not a permanent relationship.
What a first conversation looks like
Fifteen minutes, by phone or video. There is nothing to prepare and no documents to gather.
You tell us what prompted you to reach out. We ask enough questions to understand the situation. Then we tell you whether we can help, and what kind of engagement, if any, would make sense.
Nothing transfers. There is no paperwork, no account opening and no commitment of any kind attached to that call.
Where we meet
Our offices are in Charlotte, North Carolina, and Winter Park, Florida. We also have access to professional meeting space across the country when an in-person meeting makes sense.
In practice, we have found that most of our work is done remotely. Video and phone are usually more practical, particularly when clients, spouses, attorneys, accountants and other professionals are not all in the same place.
When meeting in person is the right thing to do, we arrange it in advance at a location that works.
What happens next
If there is a fit, we put the scope, the deliverables and the fee in front of you before you decide anything. You will know exactly what you are buying.
Sometimes the right answer is that your situation is already in good shape, or that what you actually need is an attorney or an accountant rather than us. If that is the answer, we will tell you.
The point of all of this is the same from the first call onward: fewer surprises, clearer decisions, and staying grounded in the plan.
