You’ve earned enough money to consider hiring an advisor to help you preserve it and continue to grow it.

A forty-year-old doctor and his wife came to us with several questions. He had for a long time handled his own investments, and had accumulated over $1 million. He enjoyed the process of choosing mutual funds and individual stocks, but found himself with less and less time to devote to that process. He also wondered if he might be neglecting issues concerning his overall financial picture, including taking care of his family if something were to happen to him; planning for his retirement; the legacy he would leave for his children and grandchildren; and whether he was handling his money with the best possible tax efficiency.

We first conducted a financial planning exercise to flesh out his and his wife’s goals and to pinpoint all of the issues that required consideration. We then prepared an asset allocation appropriate to his and his wife’s tolerance of risk, especially in light of current investment conditions. After performing a further tax analysis, we were able to establish the best way for the couple to access their funds with maximum tax efficiency. We also referred the couple to an experienced Trusts and Estates attorney to begin work on a comprehensive estate plan to fit their financial picture.

You’re just starting out, wondering how to save and invest for retirement, and for your children’s education.

A married couple in their early 30’s came to us with several questions.

1. They wondered about the best way to save and invest for their retirement.
2. They wanted to explore accumulating money to fund their 8-year old daughter’s education.
3. They wondered how best to handle their parents’ intention to make sizable gifts to their daughter.

We did a financial plan setting their goals for retirement, with targets for savings and for asset allocations in their 401(k) plans, after-tax IRA’s and taxable accounts. For their daughter, we helped the couple establish a 529 plan to pay for college.

The couple’s parents wanted to gift substantial amounts of money to their granddaughter, but neither her grandparents nor her parents wanted the girl to have access to those funds before she turned 35. We thought a children’s trust, rather than a Uniform Transfer to Minors Act account the appropriate solution, and referred the family to an experienced Trusts and Estates attorney to draft the trust documents.

You’re well along and starting to think about when you can retire, about estate planning, and about the legacy you will leave.

A married couple in their mid-50’s came to us with several questions. They had founded and recently sold a business, netting them $30 million. They had three adult children and two grandchildren, and had simple wills which had been drafted 30 years before, at the birth of their eldest child.

Before addressing how to invest their newly- acquired funds, the couple wished to revisit their estate plan, with several goals foremost in mind.

1. At their deaths, they wanted to avoid having their estate settled in a public probate process.
2. They wanted to minimize estate taxes while crating a legacy for their children and grandchildren.
3. They wanted to establish a simple fund from which to make charitable gifts.

We referred the couple to an experienced Trusts and Estates attorney to work with us advising them on their plan and to create all of the documents.

The plan began with the creation of living trusts, through which the couple’s estate would be administered outside of probate. The couple were eligible for a combined $23.4 million exemption from estate tax, but the remaining $6.6 million of their new assets, plus two retirement accounts and their home left them with $9 million subject to a 40% Federal estate tax. We recommended gifting the 401(k)’s to several of their favorite charities upon their deaths, and the creation of generation-skipping trusts. The trusts named their children as income beneficiaries, with the trusts’ principal eventually passing outright to their grandchildren in equal shares.

For the remaining $2 million, we recommended a donor-advised fund from which the couple could make charitable gifts in addition to the amounts granted from their 401(k)’s at their deaths.

You’d like to do a financial plan, but you want to work with more than a financial planner. You’d like advisors who understand the intricacies of planning, but who also understand the art and science of investing. You want more than just a pie chart allocating your assets among a hodgepodge of mutual funds.

The time had come for a couple in their mid-40’s to do a financial plan. They had been handling their own investments for years, and had accumulated over 20 different funds in various regular and retirement accounts. They confessed to having no idea

1. what their actual asset allocation was,
2. how well their funds had performed against a reasonable benchmark, and
3. whether their funds fit together in a coherent way.

We first constructed a solid financial plan, led by the Certified Financial Planner on our team. At that point we looked at restructuring the couple’s accounts. We then consolidated their five traditional IRA’s into two: one for each of them. We did the same for their various regular taxable accounts.

We recommended simplifying their investments using two core stock models, one more growth-oriented in style, and one more value-oriented. The investment process for that model involved a hedging discipline which had reduced the strategy’s volatility, and we explained the workings of the hedging discipline in plain, comprehensible terms.

It was decided to use the growth-oriented model in the taxable accounts and the value-oriented model (which entailed more turnover) in the IRA’s to minimize capital gains tax.