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Our financial planning and tax services help clients keep their finances in the best condition possible.

The tax and financial planning process start with the client’s goals. Our analysis, resulting recommendations, and ongoing monitoring have a singular focus of meeting your family’s financial objectives and helping you make good financial decisions, no matter what the market or life throws at you. Our excellent reputation as financial planners comes from our exceptional technical expertise, the high level of service our team delivers and our dedication to continual improvement for those we serve.

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REAL FINANCIAL PLANNING

SPECIFIC TAX PLANNING & ADVICE

INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT

ONGOING AND PROACTIVE MONITORING

With our firm, your vision for your family is supported by truly independent experts.

We work best with people who want...

To minimize the amount of time and attention they spend on business and financial news, preferring instead to focus on living a great life and letting experts discern the newsworthy from the noise.
To engage a team of experts who can sift through the deluge of rules, regulations, product pitches, and financial information to identify what is relevant to them.
To have experts who work solely for them, NEVER for a sales commission.
To have advisors who believe eliminating conflicts of interest is superior to merely disclosing those conflicts.

REAL FINANCIAL PLANNING

When we see that someone made a bad financial decision, we can usually trace the problem back to a lack of a plan, a bad plan, abandoning a good plan, implementing a sound plan poorly, or failing to revise a plan as needed. Our clients should not have these deficiencies. Do you know if you are on track to reach your goals? You will with us.

Here is an example of what we often see. A potential client has printouts of some beautiful charts and access to a slick online dashboard. Basic numbers have been collected, entered into software to produce a plan, and investments bought. Yet the client does not feel their financial affairs are in order or their financial goals are being met.

The problem is that the “plan,” whether obtained through some sort of an advisor or done themselves, is little more than an exercise in using financial software. We know firsthand that technology, although wonderful for some things, cannot do everything. Personal finance is personal, not just complex. Superficial planning, like plugging numbers into software to kick out a proposed portfolio structure, is inferior to real planning.

With real planning, the information gathered is broader and deeper. It covers many areas of a family’s financial life. It understands why families have the goals they do. It adapts to changes and seeks tactics that support the strategies. Real planning is supported by technology, driven by wisdom, and born from expertise and experience.

SPECIFIC TAX PLANNING & ADVICE

Many advisors are in the investment or insurance sales business, paid by a third party to put clients’ money in certain investments. While making money on an investment is important, good tax planning helps you keep more of your earnings.

When working with a brokerage firm, insurance company, or bank, chances are good that somewhere in the fine print is a disclaimer like this… “XYZ firm does not provide tax advice. See your tax advisor for details.”

We don't just provide tax planning, we provide tax advice and we stand by it. Since tax advice is so important, our staff includes two CPAs and six Enrolled Agents, the highest credential awarded by the Internal Revenue Service itself, giving them unlimited practice rights representing taxpayers in matters before the agency.

INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT

We are investors, not speculators. We manage investment portfolios but do not “play the market,” try to time the market or otherwise gamble with our clients’ money. Our investment approach is grounded in academic research and backed by decades of empirical evidence. We do not invest based on anecdotes, hunches, or the predictions of pundits.

We are free to recommend any strategy or investment if we believe it is in our client’s best interest. Moreover, we proactively seek what is best on an ongoing basis. Most other advisors are restricted to investments and products that pay their firm to sell to customers. Even the discount brokerage firms do this and pepper their systems with hidden fees.

ONGOING AND PROACTIVE MONITORING

We continually ask questions and monitor changes which need to be incorporated into our planning work. For example, how do economic, political, market, or tax code changes impact each client’s strategy? Are there tactics that should be stopped, started, or modified?

Monitoring failures are common at many financial services firms. We have lost count of the number of times we have heard, “I never hear from them” or “Why didn’t my current firm tell me that?”

This disconnect is often present when an "advisor" is paid for sales. Once the sale is done, they are gone, off to find the next sale. We do not sell products. We find our clients the best products for their needs.