Our firm has integrated its CPA and Wealth Management capabilities, resulting in shared expertise, greater service, and a unique client experience. Our “one firm” approach provides a resource of skills that ensures all pieces of your wealth management plan are working together in the most tax optimized manner.

Once upon a time retirement happened when a person worked thirty to forty years and then received his pension and social security. Then it was off to enjoy the rest of one’s life without much worry about retirement income certainty. This reality is giving way to the paradigm of having to totally self-fund retirement where retirement income certainty is left to the devices of the retiree. The internet provides a plethora of calculators and other financial information. The reality is that execution of this approach is complicated by the very different investment structure and return requirements of an “accumulator of wealth” versus a “distributor of wealth”. Both strategies must be executed correctly while also being transitioned efficiently over time from one to the other. This is complicated by the eventual mental decline of clients in retirement that makes self-guidance increasingly challenging. Retirements in the 21st century will be longer and more expensive due to advances in health care. A non-smoking couple retiring at age 60 today can expect one spouse to exceed 90 years of age, thus requiring an income steam in excess of thirty years. Despite our current national average age of death in the mid-70s, retirements now need to last longer with more self-reliance than ever before. Clients are healthier in retirement and therefore require more resources to enjoy this phase of their life. Social Security income has become less secure for the younger generations making planning even more critical. More than any other area, sustainable income solutions for retirement require tight tax integration because one can only spend what one gets to keep. The small business owner has even more complications in transitioning to retirement. We specialize in retirement planning for the emerging affluent household and small business owners since they have built wealth in various ways throughout their working lives. This wealth must be transitioned to provide sustainable lifetime income. Our clients have the comfort of knowing how and when this is to be most tax efficiently achieved.

Investment Planning starts with an integrated asset allocation model based on each client’s efficient balance of risk and reward. The model is then customized with a portfolio design process where tax planning, retirement planning and other integrations are layered in. The portfolio design process gives way to an asset management program that meets the needs of the model and its design. Diversification is maximized in each case, not only on the level of investment selection, but also with investment structure and tax design. Each case is unique but through the use of traditional and alternative investment strategies we design and achieve the required results while striving to minimize overall investment risk. Our process is disciplined in its approach and execution. Monitoring, re balancing, and adjusting occur throughout the life of an investment plan. Our clients can achieve the results they need and desire – while sleeping at night – with the reasoned risk they have selected. This balance is the key to our clients’ happiness and quality of life relative to investing. We stay with you when things are going well, as well as when they are downright scary. Our clients are armed with the information they need to avoid making the historically documented mistakes of the so-called “average investor.” We will help get you there and keep you there.

We call it tax alpha! At every level and through every decision, tax planning is considered and integrated so that when the wealth management process yields a taxable result, its result is minimized to the extent legally allowed by the tax code. This result is anticipated and planned for as opposed to being reacted to. We do this through various means including specially designed tax-advantaged investment solutions. But tax alpha is subtly injected into every aspect of a client’s planning needs. As a CPA-centric wealth manager, we have a time-tested tradition of understanding and executing tax planning. We do not send you away to find another advisor to explain taxes. We will not only explain it, we will anticipate it and help you achieve your tax optimized solution each step along the way.

Does your small business have a financial plan? Have you maximized your options in regard to tax deductions? Long the center of a CPA’s center of expertise has been the needs of the small business owner. The experience and process of dealing with the small business environment provides a natural instinct in this area. The planning for the small business owner is challenging as the business and its owner have their own set of goals that must be established, integrated, and balanced. Often the succession planning requirements of the small business owner are very daunting. Every strategy for every small business owner must be customized to the ebbs and flows of that particular business. CPAs have long provided the data knowledge to plan around this changing environment. However, integrating the wealth management plan of a small business owner will enhance the tax optimized approach to achieving the needs of the financial plan of the owner as well as the business. We have many years of expertise in small business issues such as: leverage planning and negotiation, tax planning, compensation structure, succession planning, retirement plan design, buy-sell partner/shareholder issues and much more.

Estate planning means different things to different people. At its most basic level estate planning is making certain that our client’s desires and financial promises are delivered at the client’s eventual demise. At its most complicated level it may include ensuring a financial legacy is built and continued through a family office, multi-generational transfer process through the use of entities, trusts, or other planning techniques centrally managed by a professional process. Whatever it means to our clients, we can be the planning and execution partner to a good tax attorney. We will plan most other roles required to help the client and its counsel understand, design, and execute the customized estate plan. Wealth transfer and tax reduction strategies are at the core of our capabilities as CPA centric wealth managers. Your estate plan should not be put off, rather it should be put together and maintained so you and your family can enjoy life with the knowledge and comfort of knowing things are in order and Uncle Sam’s bite will be minimized or eliminated.

We understand that fulfilling your philanthropic passions can be one of the most emotional and impactful parts of a plan. With our deep understanding of your total financial situation, we will work to maximize the financial opportunities you provide to the chosen beneficiaries and the charitable organizations important to you.

Insurance solutions are often required in the context of an overall, comprehensive financial plan. In the consultative wealth management process, when insurance is required, we will provide a customized solution to each need through our network of consultants and experts. Insurance is a very complicated area whether it be life insurance, disability income insurance, long term care insurance, etc. In each area of insurance we provide access to the resource partners that are some of the top experts in their respective areas. We integrate them into your wealth management plan. Their knowledge of various internal underwriting requirements at many of the top insurance companies in the country gives us an added advantage to finding the best solution for our client’s situation. We don’t represent any particular insurance company, but have access to more than we would ever need to utilize. Whether it’s a commodity type product like term life insurance or a sophisticated estate plan solution, we have the resources and expertise to provide this critical part of the wealth management process.

Whether one works, is retired, or disabled each individual and family must have income to live life and to take care of their needs and promises. In whatever stage of life our clients find themselves, we consider income protection strategies to provide awareness and peace of mind. So often, due to the typical uncoordinated team approach to wealth management, the insurance guy, stock broker, and attorney don’t coordinate at every level to insure the most efficient strategy is in place. Often the insurance guy wants to over insure, the broker doesn’t even consider insurance and the attorney is just retained to do a will and isn’t fully aware of other needs. Income protection ensures that everyone dependent on the family will be provided for -- simple as that. This should be done as cost effectively as possible, and never ignored of forgotten. We give our clients the freedom of knowing what their strategy is, and the knowledge of knowing what risk(s) they are taking.

Debt is often a critical factor in a family’s and business’s financial plan. Often debt can provide a critical leverage element to allow a family to get a home. It can be the capital engine to make small business happen. However, risk management decisions along the way require the professional integration with other goals and priorities. These decisions must be balanced with the need to accumulate, distribute and transfer wealth. The wealth management process can be derailed by poor debt management. Both on the personal and business side, debt leverage must be managed with conflicting priorities such as funding a retirement plan and paying down debt. There is a careful, constant process of managing the very precious monetary resources available between the cash flow requirements of leverage and the funding of accumulation goals. We assist our clients to carefully manage the process of leverage in the context of an overall wealth management plan.

Every family or small business can face unusual financial situations that can affect the overall wealth management process. It can be a disabled family member, a small business with family issues, a divorce, or possibly a financially unstable parent or child. Whatever the situation, as long as we are human, there continue to be special situations that must be integrated into the planning process. As advisors and clients, we must be prepared to deal with, and not ignore or neglect, special situations. We have worked through many a complex situation relative to a client’s wealth management plan. We will continue to be creative, passionate, and diligent in finding solid solutions to any situation they will or could face. This provides the peace of mind that a difficult situation is under control.