Strategies for every Stage in your life

Because people are living longer today, the possibility of going 30 years without a paycheck takes careful planning and disciplined investing. We can help you with every phase of planning for your retirement. During your working years, the accumulation phase, we’ll develop and monitor a wealth accumulation plan based on your specific goals and objectives. As you approach retirement, the pre-retirement phase, we’ll assist you with critical decisions regarding retirement plan options, Social Security and tax planning. Then once you are retired, we will determine tax-efficient income and wealth transfer strategies designed to help you in retirement.

There is more to your life than simple transactions and returns. Similarly, there’s more to financial planning than just a portfolio and a retirement strategy, so we look at planning through a wide lens and develop strategies designed to pursue your short- and long-term goals.

Our objectives are to preserve your wealth, achieve a reasonable rate of return, and counter the erosive effects of inflation and taxes. We know that a proper asset allocation among cash, equity, fixed-income securities and alternative investments can be an effective way to pursue investment goals. We believe the formula for investment management should include the key components of skilled investment research, long-term planning and a well-managed professional relationship.

We can help you develop, implement and monitor a retirement or benefit plan that suits the needs of your business, as well as those of your employees. In addition, we can provide valuation analyses for businesses and ESOPs, as well as help you find appropriate insurance coverage for your company. For business owners seeking the most appropriate exit strategies, we can help you value your business, assess the tax implications and position your company for sale.

When you are devoting all your attention to running your business, finding the time to think about the future is difficult, but important nonetheless. After all, you want your business to succeed after you've moved on, and you want the people important to the business to enjoy continued success.

A business succession plan helps you address and resolve many important considerations. Should you transfer ownership to family members or employees or perhaps an outside party? Shouldn’t you have an orderly plan in place in the event of an incapacitating health event or death? How can I pull money out of the business in a tax-efficient manner? We can sit down with you and create a succession plan designed to help maximize the financial potential of your business, addresses all the details necessary to build a succession plan designed to work for all parties involved – especially you.

Whether it’s providing income for a spouse, educating children or grandchildren or leaving money to your favorite charity, proper estate planning can help ensure that your assets accumulated over your lifetime are preserved for the use you have intended. We can offer financial strategies designed to help efficiently manage the transfer of wealth from one generation to the next, and mitigate related tax issues.

Philanthropy can bring personal satisfaction, enabling you to support causes and organizations that matter most to you. It can result in significant tax advantages, as well – including income tax deductions, reduction of capital gains taxes, and lower estate taxes. We can help tailor a charitable giving plan for you that can include a charitable trust, donor advised fund, private family foundation, community foundation or outright gift.

Bonds can play an important role in a well-diversified portfolio. They can provide predictable income and, most important, relative preservation of principal.* Also, bonds may help minimize overall volatility. In determining a suitable allocation of bonds to your portfolio, we will consider factors such as your investment time horizon, risk tolerance, need for income and future goals.

* If held to maturity, subject to issuer credit risk. If sold prior to maturity, you will receive the then-current market value, which may be more or less than your initial investment.

There is an inverse relationship between interest rate movements and fixed income prices. Generally, when interest rates rise, fixed income prices fall and when interest rates fall, fixed income prices rise.

We believe in the appropriate use of alternative investments as a source of reduced portfolio correlations, especially in times of market instability. Depending on the circumstances, our portfolio may include allocations to long-short equity funds, event-driven funds, distressed debt investments, managed futures and private equity.

Alternative investments involve specific risks that may be greater than those associated with traditional investments.

We believe a comprehensive financial plan must consider and prepare for the unexpected – such as accidents, illnesses and disability. Our team helps you think ahead and consider different scenarios, then prepare contingency plans to help address them. We understand that while risk cannot be eliminated, it can and should be mitigated. Our risk management services include life insurance, annuities, long-term care, disability insurance and liability insurance.