During your initial year with The Family Firm, we will complete a series of meetings with you to organize, understand and undertake comprehensive management of your financial activities.
The meetings are structured to teach us about you, your goals and needs. They will also address your financial questions and concerns, and provide you with the information you need to make critical decisions about your financial life. You will receive written documentation of each session.
Our goal is to answer every question and concern through an interactive process that links all the disparate aspects of your financial life into a comprehensible whole. Although we have a set structure for the process, we strive to be sensitive to your needs and can rearrange the order of the meetings to address a pressing issue requiring immediate attention.
Your Family Firm Financial Advisor will be your primary contact person and will participate in each meeting. Nathan Gendelman, The Family Firm Director of Investments, will also participate in relevant meetings. Your Financial Advisor and the Director of Investments work closely together throughout the year to develop and implement our advisory activities on your behalf. Your team also includes a second Family Firm Financial Advisor who will support in the delivery of our services to you. These three professionals make up your Family Firm Advisory team.
Each meeting will last approximately ninety minutes. Our goal is to complete the first three meetings within three months and to schedule the fourth meeting after your sixth month with The Family Firm.
MEETING ONE: Overall Financial Security and Big Picture Perspective
Using the comprehensive data you will have provided to us prior to this first meeting, we will present and discuss our perspective on your overall financial picture as well as on your concerns such as achieving or maintaining long-term financial security, simplifying your financial life, or coordinating financial decisions. This process requires constructing initial financial statements which become “markers” for measuring year-to-year progress towards achieving your financial goals.
Our financial analysis includes:
- A comprehensive and integrated summary of all your assets and liabilities.
- An initial summary of all your annual income sources and expenditures by category. This summary enables us to review and plan for current and future savings and expenditures.
- An initial analysis of your current and future taxable income, deductions, and tax brackets. This enables us to understand your tax situation and help you to plan for maximum tax savings and efficiencies.
- Long-term and retirement projections. Our goal is to provide you with a firm understanding of your current financial situation and of how much you need to save if you are pre-retirement, and how much you can spend each year if you are already financially independent. We create multiple “what if” scenarios so that you also understand how changes in the assumptions we use impact the long term. For example, you may want to understand the consequences of early retirement, buying a second home, or family gifting.
- We will review with you, illustrate options available to you, and make recommendations concerning all other issues applicable to your situation such as contributions to or withdrawals from retirement plans, education planning for children or grandchildren, charitable gifting, home purchases or repairs, career changes, employee benefit options, and so on.
MEETING Two: Investment Plan and Portfolio Recommendations
We will review the basic tenets of proper portfolio management.
We will present your investment plan and, based on our initial analysis of your current portfolio, our specific recommendations about how to invest the funds in your portfolio. Our advice will consider your short and long term goals, tax considerations, existing investments, cash flow needs and the cost of implementing recommendations.
It would not be unusual for us to have a “give and take” with you concerning the specific recommendations. Only after we reach a consensus on an investment plan do we begin implementing that plan on your behalf.
MEETING THREE: Risk Management and Estate Planning
We will review your various insurance policies from automobile to long-term care to life insurance. We will comment on the quality and cost of the existing coverage as well as make recommendations for termination or additional coverage where necessary.
We will review your current estate plan with you to confirm that it meets your goals and objectives for your family. If changes are necessary, we will attend any meetings involving your estate planning attorney and work closely with her to implement these changes. If you need to engage an attorney, we will assist you in selecting the appropriate individual to work with you.
MEETING FOUR: Review, Followup and Looking Forward
This is a meeting to both recap and look forward. We will review any pending financial planning issues discussed during your first three meetings and answer any questions. We might review with you specific items such as how to read your investment reports and what to anticipate as we implement the investment plan. Finally, we will discuss what you should expect from us as we move forward together.
ASSESMENT INTERVIEW:
We want your feedback on our progress to date towards your initial goals, and recommendations you have as to how we might improve our process or service.
We will conduct a telephone assessment interview with you after your first year with The Family Firm. We appreciate your time and honesty in giving us your feedback.
