Our Process
Over 90% of our new clients are introduced to us by existing clients. When a client believes we may be able to help someone they know, we are often just copied in an email, and the process begins. An initial no-cost, no-obligation, one hour meeting is arranged at our offices, and we suggest certain documents to bring so that your time is respected and productive.
We follow a specific process with every client. We believe this process helps us deliver the most effective financial solutions to the unique challenges that each client presents.
Our process can be best described as a four-part perpetual system: Explore/Discover/Achieve/Preserve
EXPLORE:
In your initial meeting, we have a few simple objectives. We want to know what you really want your money to do for you. The best way to do this is to ask certain questions. We have a specific set of questions we ask all clients, and we are often told "I've never been asked that before." Our questions are purposely designed to help our prospective clients to easily articulate what they really want their money to do for them and their families, today and into the future. By the end of our first meeting both the prospective client and the advisor will have a good idea of whether there is a good fit between their needs and our skills, and a decision is made whether to work together.
DISCOVER:
Over the next couple of weeks, we will gather any outstanding data to enable us to create a meaningful draft plan. Our plans are different than most in the industry, in that we will focus on maximizing your actual spendable income – your “lifestyle number”’ if you prefer – after-tax, after saving, after inflation, and for your whole life. This is what financial planning should be all about, we believe: making the best of your circumstances.
ACHIEVE:
Once your draft plan is prepared, we call you to meet for a second time. In this meeting we go through the assumptions used in the plan , such as income, inflation, rates of return, etc. The resulting outcome from these inputs is your key number – we show you your after-tax, after-savings, after-inflation lifetime spending power - starting today. This is a very powerful and if I may, liberating thing to know. We identify exactly how much of your income needs to be saved and where, and make a specific investment and asset protection plan that achieves this number with minimal risk. You will receive a specific action plan – a set of behaviours (usually saving) that maximize the chances that what you said you wanted from your money is actually achieved. In this meeting we set up the mechanism to implement these financial behaviours. We will ask you how you want us to stay in touch with you – how you would prefer to see us work together to get the goals of the plan achieved. You are now a client.
PRESERVE:
As the months and years roll by, we keep your plan and the associated financial behaviours valuable and real by keeping it current – it has to reflect your current circumstances. We reach out to our clients at least quarterly and meet annually to review their plan. As the circumstances of your life change, your plan changes with you. As life changes and financial issues arise, we are your resource to optimize these circumstances. Marriages, divorces, births and deaths in your family, changing homes, changing jobs, and your vision of retirement all require a financial response. Sometimes better investment options, strategies, tax implications, or other suitable opportunities become appropriate. We monitor your portfolio closely, but since frequent investment changes are almost always detrimental to real-life results, we rarely change course on your investment plan unless your circumstances have changed. Sometimes, you just need an opinion or help with a complex financial assessment, such as comparing the pensions between two different job offers. We are there when you call and happy to help.