The core philosophy of our firm speaks to the relationship between money and a good life: wealth is a means to a good life, and not an end in itself. Putting wealth to work requires intentional consideration not just of how to grow your wealth, which is fundamental, but also consideration of how to best use your wealth in achieving the goals you identify as key in living the life you aspire to live.
We apply this philosophy in our client process which is comprised of the below three concurrent steps: planning, investing and coaching.
Planning
Planning entails doing a diagnostic of where you are financially, and creating a roadmap from there to where you want to go in the most efficient way possible. Ultimately, through planning, we're in pursuit of a balance between the future and the present, ensuring we aren’t over-prioritizing one time period at the expense of the other.
We develop a baseline financial plan at the outset of client relationships, revisititing the plan at least annually thereafter and, additionally, when life events inevitably change the direction of our clients' lives. The financial plan is therefore a continuously evolving dynamic, not static, foundation, based on which sound financial decisions are made to maximize the probability of our cleint's achieving the goals they deem important to them.
We utilize RightCapital, a market leading planning software, to facilitate the planning process.
Investing
Informed by the plan, we build and manage evidence-based investment portfolios for our clients.
All portfolios start from the same foundation: our model portfolio. The portfolio follows evidence-based investment methodologies, ultimately being comprised of low-cost passive ETFs implemented using a strategic asset allocation informed by leading research. The model portfolio is then tailored to the needs of each individual client to take into account individual risk tolerance and nuances, like high-basis holdings brought over to our management, and values-led investment preferences (for example, ESG) within which we are able work.
Portfolios are rebalanced continuously using client contributions, dividends and interest, and then semi-annually thereafter to remain in line with the investment plan.
Tax efficiency is front of mind, and tax loss harvesting is performed annually and when market conditions allow; our client portfolios are highly tax efficient as a result.
Coaching
Coaching is comprised of two key components:
Accountability: holding our clients to the plan and the constraints put in place to achieve their goals. We are our clients' accountability partner on their path to financial independence.
Once-off goals: we help in detail when big goals, which are pure numbers in a financial model, become a reality. For example, when buying a home, moving jobs, starting a business, or expanding a family, we are available to talk through the financial considerations to ensure we remain within the bounds of the plan, or update the plan for new goals.
Importantly, through the coaching engagements, we're able to identify where life begins to deviate from the original plan, and we can update the plan to reflect the most up to date known information. Planning is not a static issue but a dynamic process that is informed by coaching.
The above process is achieved iteratively through an initial onboarding process, which takes between three and four meetings, followed by an ongoing cadence of annual planning meetings with additional quarterly checkins and ad-hoc meetings when required for specific issues which arise.
Importantly, within our offering, the industry buzz-words are all covered, including but not limited to:
Financial planning,
Investment management,
Retirement planning,
Strategic tax planning (we do not file tax returns but do advise on tax planning, tax-loss harvesting, charitable giving, estate tax planning, roth conversions, asset withdrawals),
Insurance considerations (we do not sell insurance but do advise on what to purchase),
Estate planning and trusts (we use third party services (attorneys and tech platforms) to implement the required structures),
