At Fiduciary Wealth Management, we have more than 20 years of experience specializing in helping families secure their financial future through personalized, comprehensive financial planning. Our ultimate goal is to offer people financial peace of mind and confidence in our abilities and advice.
While every client’s situation is unique, we want to share how we recently helped a new client—we feel like many of you can relate. The following case study example provides insight into our process and the types of analysis we provide at FWM. We hope Dr. John and Jane Smith’s* story will show you how our proactive process, services, and strategies can make a difference in your life too.
A Little About The Smiths
Recently, Dr. John reached out to us for a review of his entire investment portfolio and financial situation to help him get a better understanding of where he was headed and what he was missing. He was interviewing other CFP® professionals in the area and asked for our opinion on his situation, curious about how we could help. His main goal in reaching out was to find a trusted Certified Financial Planner (CFP®) who acted in a fiduciary capacity to help him get his affairs in order. Dr. John’s primary concern was to make sure that Jane and his son were taken care of if something were to happen to him.
Bringing It All Together
During our review process, we take a look at all outside holdings and consolidate all accounts into one snapshot report so we can see the big picture clearly. At FWM, we have invested in technology that allows us to perform in-depth analysis on client holdings, allowing us to dig into mutual fund and ETF positions to check performance and allocation weightings within the entire portfolio.
We then give our clients and prospects access to an online portal which updates account values periodically. It’s especially helpful for those who have multiple investment accounts, 401(k)s, or other assets scattered among different companies. When you can see all the details together, it provides a complete view of their financial situation and their progress toward their goals.
Here’s an example of what our FWM client portal looks like and the types of different accounts that can be consolidated:
Looking Back
At FWM, we also use technology that allows us to look at back-tested data to see the strength of a current portfolio. In this particular example, we looked at how Dr. John and Jane’s portfolio would have performed in each of the market downturns listed below. This type of analysis is incredibly helpful when trying to determine an individual’s true tolerance for risk.
Looking Forward
Although investment and allocation analysis is an important step, financial planning is at the core of every relationship we have. In the Smiths’ case, they had saved a significant amount of money over the years and their retirement projections looked promising. But planning involves more than just an account’s balance.
When we construct a financial plan for a client we take into account many factors that are often overlooked, such as fees being paid to advisors, CPAs, or other professionals, capital gains distributions, and tax-efficiency of the overall portfolio. One of the biggest questions we get from prospects that walk in our door is, “Which accounts should I pull from and why?” Our financial planning software updates federal and state-specific tax codes every year to ensure we project cash flows as accurately as possible.
Oftentimes, after analyzing a client’s financial plan, we can suggest scenario changes within the plan to show how they could potentially increase the probability of a successful retirement through Monte Carlo analysis. Simple things like a modified withdrawal strategy or allocation shifts can have a significant impact on the plan results. We can also show how changing monthly spending amounts in retirement can affect long-term net worth projections. When clients or prospects see these results, they can easily see what needs to change and what needs they must address.
The image below shows our retirement projection analysis which allows us to change multiple conditions to show how they affect retirement cash flow positively or negatively. We give all our clients access to this planning tool and it’s available as an app as well. It can be particularly helpful when, in times of increased market volatility, clients want to know their retirement plan is still on track. The difference in probability of success shown below is a result of a slight reduction in monthly income withdrawals from the portfolios.
How We Helped The Smiths
Dr. John and Jane decided to come on board with the FWM family, and we are so grateful for the opportunity to help them. They now have an advocate on their side, an experienced financial planner who understands their financial situation, goals, and concerns, and who can help them plan for every aspect of their retirement, including investing and tax planning.
A few weeks ago, Dr. John called in wanting to shift a small percentage of his equities to fixed-income assets due to the positive market returns we’ve seen this year. Because of our software and all the data we gleaned from their accounts, we were able to easily pull a report to show him where it made the most sense to make these changes.
This is a powerful and impactful exercise and can be incredibly helpful in investment management. To use a cliche, the left hand now knows what the right hand is doing, and this will benefit the Smiths for many years to come. We hope this case study example is helpful and helps you understand how a financial planner may be able to help you.
It’s Your Turn!
At Fiduciary Wealth Management, we would love to take a look at your financial situation to see if our process and strategies could help you maximize your probability of a successful retirement and secure financial future.
If you’re experiencing a situation similar to the Smiths or face an entirely different need, I encourage you to reach out to us. We would be happy to evaluate your situation and share how we can help. Schedule a phone call now!
About Rocklin Senavinin, CFP®
With nearly 20 years of experience in the financial planning industry, Roc has dedicated his career to helping individuals live comfortably in retirement and enjoy the assets they have spent their career building. He is co-founder of Fiduciary Wealth Management, a fee-only registered investment advisory firm in Little Rock, Arkansas. As a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ professional, he has advanced training in the holistic process of creating a personal financial plan that addresses a person’s comprehensive needs for the short and long term. To learn more, connect with Roc onLinkedIn or visitwww.fidwm.com. If you have questions, feel free toschedule a phone call using this link.
DISCLOSURES
The views expressed represent the opinions of Fiduciary Wealth Management, LLC and are subject to change. These views are not intended as a forecast, a guarantee of future results, investment recommendation, or an offer to buy or sell any securities. The information provided is of a general nature and should not be construed as investment advice or to provide any investment, tax, financial, or legal advice or service to any person.
This presentation is of a selected client’s portfolio, and represents a portfolio based upon that particular
client’s specific goals and objectives. Portfolios are individually managed, so no inference should be drawn by present or prospective clients that managed accounts will achieve similar performance in the future. The
purpose of this sample report is to present an example of reports that Fiduciary Wealth Management provides to clients.
Investing in securities is speculative and carries a high degree of risk. You should carefully consider your
investment objectives, potential risks, advisory fees and expenses before investing. Past performance is not an indicator of future performance and investment results may vary.
Additional information about Fiduciary Wealth Management, LLC is also available on the SEC’s website at https://www.adviserinfo.sec.gov/Firm/284324.Please call or email with questions.
Software providers used in the examples include YHLSoft, Kwanti Analytics and RightCapital.
*Names changed to protect identity.