As a fiduciary financial advisor in Viera, Holland Capital helps you connect your 401(k), brokerage account, workplace benefits, home and mortgage into one retirement plan while you are still working, so the decisions you make now support the life you are building toward. Then the investments are managed to that plan.
Work has gone well.
The 401(k) has grown for years. There is a brokerage account you add to when a bonus comes in. You make benefit choices at work every year. The house is worth more than you paid for it, and there is still a mortgage on it.
Nothing is obviously wrong.
That is part of the problem.
Each piece has been handled on its own. The 401(k) gets one decision. The brokerage account gets another. The mortgage has its own payment. Benefits come around once a year. Cash builds up and eventually gets put somewhere.
Now the numbers are large enough that those decisions affect each other.
Retirement is not close enough that you are counting down the months. But it is close enough that you no longer want to make another five or ten years of financial decisions without knowing where they are taking you.
We start by putting the whole household on one page.
One Balance Sheet Instead of a Pile of Statements
Every account tells you what is in that account.
None of them tells you whether the household is working as one financial plan.
So we write down the whole picture: the retirement accounts, the brokerage account, cash, the house, the mortgage and the other things you own or owe. Then we ask a different question about each one.
What is this money for?
The 401(k) has an obvious connection to retirement. A brokerage account built from bonuses may not. Cash may have accumulated because you wanted flexibility. The mortgage may be on schedule simply because that is how you have always paid it.
None of those choices has to be wrong for the overall plan to need work.
Once the pieces are together, we can see what you are building toward, what each account needs to do and which decisions would change the most. Our retirement planning work builds the plan from there.
Give the Brokerage Account a Job
A brokerage account often starts without much of a plan.
A bonus arrives. You invest some of it. Extra cash gets added later. The account grows, but nobody ever decided exactly what the account is supposed to accomplish.
The question gets harder to leave open as the balance grows.
It may become part of retirement. It may be money for large expenses before or after work ends. It may simply give you flexibility that the retirement accounts do not.
Once we know its job, we can decide how it should fit with the rest of the portfolio instead of managing it on its own.
Taxes are part of that decision too. Changes in a brokerage account can create a tax cost, so we consider that before recommending what stays and what changes. Our guide to reducing investment taxes covers the choices involved.
Stop Making the Work Decisions One at a Time
A surprising amount of the plan still runs through your paycheck.
There are retirement contributions, the choices available inside the 401(k), workplace benefits and possibly other employer programs you have selected year after year.
It is easy to repeat last year’s choices because nothing has forced a different decision.
The plan gives those choices a reason.
We look at what you are already saving, where it is going and what the rest of the balance sheet already contains. Then we can decide whether another dollar belongs in the same place as the last one.
Our guide to Roth contributions and conversions explains two of the choices that may come up as the plan develops.
The aim is not to change things for the sake of changing them.
It is to make this year’s decisions with the whole household in view.
One Portfolio Across Different Accounts
Once the plan is clear, the accounts can stop behaving like separate portfolios.
The 401(k), brokerage account and other investment accounts may be held in different places and have different choices available, but they still belong to the same household.
We write down what the portfolio as a whole needs to do in an investment policy statement, along with how much risk fits the plan and what role each account should play. The accounts are then managed together to that policy, aiming for the most you keep after tax at the level of risk the plan accepts.
Where an investment is held is part of that work too. Our guide to asset location explains why the same investment does not necessarily belong in every type of account.
We start with what you already own. Nothing is replaced simply because it is new to us. If a holding fits the plan, it can stay. If changing something in the brokerage account would create a tax cost, we consider that before recommending the change.
Your workplace account can remain part of the plan while you are still working. Our investment management work connects the investments to the financial plan instead of treating each account on its own.
Working with Holland Capital
Holland Capital Management is an independent registered investment adviser and a fiduciary. M. Chad Holland, CFA, CFP® works directly with clients and is responsible for the planning and advice.
To begin, we need recent statements for your accounts, your benefits summary from work, Social Security estimates for both of you and your last tax return. Anything missing can come later.
We will put the balance sheet together, show you where the pieces already work and point out the few decisions that would change the most. Your CPA, if you have one, keeps the same role and sees the same figures.
The first conversation is free. If there is work worth doing after that, we will define the scope and cost before you decide whether to move forward.
Our offices are in Charlotte, North Carolina and Winter Park, Florida. We work with clients in Viera primarily by video or phone. When an in-person meeting makes sense, we meet by appointment at the meeting center at 3020 West New Haven Avenue in West Melbourne, about 20 minutes from Viera.
For clients whose investments we manage, accounts are held directly at Charles Schwab in the client’s own name. Holland Capital manages the investments but does not take custody of client assets. If a client ever needs in-person assistance from Schwab, the closest branch is in Orlando at 420 South Orange Avenue.
We work with clients throughout Florida. You can see the other Florida communities we serve here.
Our what we do page explains how a planning engagement works.
RETIREMENT ENGINEERING™
The Order Matters
Five retirement decisions and why timing matters.
Frequently Asked Questions
When Should We Put Everything into One Retirement Plan?
When the separate decisions have become large enough to affect each other.
You do not need to know your exact retirement date first. The plan can start while you are still working by showing what you own, what you owe, what you are saving and what each part of the balance sheet is supposed to do.
That gives the decisions you make over the next several years a common direction.
What Should We Do with a Brokerage Account That Has Just Grown over Time?
First, decide what it is for.
An account that began with extra cash or bonuses may now be a meaningful part of the household balance sheet. Once its job is clear, it can be invested alongside the retirement accounts instead of being managed as a separate pile of money.
What Does It Mean That You Are a Fiduciary Financial Advisor?
A fiduciary gives advice based on your interests and the financial plan, not on each account or product by itself.
Holland Capital acts as a fiduciary when providing financial planning and investment advice. Advice to move an IRA or brokerage account under our management would also raise our fee. Whenever a recommendation does that, we say so first.
For a working household, that means connecting the accounts, workplace choices, investments and retirement plan before recommending what should change.
Does Our Fiduciary Financial Advisor Need to Be in Viera?
No. Video and phone calls cover most of it, with your statements shared on screen, and they fit around two work calendars.
If sitting down together would help, we meet by appointment at the meeting center at 3020 West New Haven Avenue in West Melbourne.
Is Holland Capital Management the Right Fit for You?
Start with a 15-minute Clarity Call. We will talk through your situation, what you are trying to solve, and whether working together makes sense.
Photo: Michael Seeley / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY 2.0, cropped.
