Professional Relationship & Services

---

Initial Consultation is Always Without Charge – the only way for both of us to know if working together makes sense.

---

Relationship:

As a fee-only investment advisor I work for you and only you. I receive no commissions, payments or compensation contingent upon the purchase or sale of financial products or plans. I have a fiduciary responsibility to provide unbiased advice without conflicts of interest and to do what is in your best interest.

The third-party custodian advantage - unlike some advisors recently in the media, I do not work on undisclosed commissions, hidden fees, create my own statements or have access to withdraw your funds. An independent third-party custodian - Schwab, Fidelity or Vanguard - in most cases, holds your funds, issues your statements and mails the statements directly to you – helping to safeguard your money while also lowering your expenses.

---

Services:

• Financial Planning
• Investment Portfolio Management
• Company Retirement Plan Management and Advisement
• Retirement Planning
• Education Planning
• Wealth Preservation
• Business Asset Transfer
• Charitable and Gift Planning
• In-depth Investment Assessments
• 401(k), 403(b), 457, IRA, Pension Plan, and Non-Retirement Investment Account Advice

---

Financial Planning: “The Five Pillars”

Coordination of the five pillars of financial planning:

1. Investments
2. Cash Flow
3. Insurance
4. Estate*
5. Tax*

* Working closely with your tax and legal advisors as needed. 

---

Investment Management: “The Three Prong Approach”

A Custom Portfolio – the blueprint - create the portfolio that is right for you, for your needs, for your time horizon, for your risk tolerance, and you won’t have to worry about what is going on in the stock market.

A Strategically Allocated and Monitored Portfolio – constructing and monitoring the portfolio called for by your custom blueprint – a diversified investment portfolio combining different assets in varying proportions and always with an eye to lower expenses and better performance. Your specific portfolio reviewed in detail at least monthly.  

Cash flow – not just pre-retirement contributions and spending, but upon retirement, appropriate withdrawal rates and inflation adjustments are critical to your financial well-being. Monitoring and making small tweaks can be virtually irrelevant in day-to-day spending yet in total, serve to avoid huge financial crises.

Some of the investment vehicles utilized: No-load (no-commission) Mutual Funds, Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs), Stocks, Bonds, Treasuries, Bills, Notes, Certificates of Deposit (CDs), and Money Market Accounts.

---

Practice Precepts:

The Prudent Man Rule

All that can be required of a trustee to invest is that he shall conduct himself faithfully and exercise a sound discretion. He is to observe how men of prudence, discretion and intelligence manage their own affairs, not in regard to speculation, but in regard to the permanent disposition of their funds, considering the probable income, as well as the probable safety of the capital to be invested.

Justice Samuel Putnam 1830

Informed Consent

Disclosure of information by the professional such that the client is able to understand his or her situation and options, and complete unhindered freedom for the client to choose from, or refuse options.