That's the question you've got to ask yourself. It would be easy to say we're the best and leave it at that, but everyone feels they are best. You need to focus on what makes us different.
We won't tell you that we're better because we care (which we do) or that we work hard (which we also do). Anyone can say that. What I can tell you is that a sound investment strategy is a portion of your financial success. Yet many people focus almost all of their efforts on investments, ignoring the remainder of their financial situation.
For example, if you had a great return on your portfolio - say 15% per year, but paid the average taxes on that return, you'd earn less than 10%. Or if your net worth is over $3 million dollars, up to 75% of any gains will be eventually eaten up by death taxes. What's the point of making a killing in the market if Uncle Sam is going to be the ultimate beneficiary?
That's where we come in. Don't get us wrong. Investing is important and we spend considerable time monitoring your investments on a daily basis. But we have seen too many cases of another planner or stockbroker costing a client thousands of dollars because they focused solely on the investments .
Practically every client of ours goes through the financial planning process at a cost of $500-$1,000. Unfortunately, "financial planning" is a vague term you may not understand. To many people I have met, it means focusing on investments. To us, it means taking a broader view. We look at the following areas of your financial life.
| 1. | Income Taxes | ||
| 2. | Retirement Income | ||
| 3. | Estate Planning | ||
| 4. | Protection/Long Term Care | ||
| 5. | Investments |
Our objective is to see if there's anything wrong with what you are doing in those 5 areas. If there is, we tell you and let you know how to fix it. We don't give you a computer generated, cookie-cutter plan with vague recommendations. We custom write every single plan to keep it simple and focused on your situation. In as little as one or two meetings, you know what's wrong, what that means to you, and how to fix it. It's that simple.
Now comes the important part: executing the plan. You can know what's wrong with your situation. You can even know how to fix it. But if you never lift a finger to follow through, you'll still wind up with big problems.
With every single financial plan that we write, we stick with you to help you get back on the right financial track. That means working with you during subsequent meetings to help you make sure all those things we discussed get taken care of.
It's no secret that we get paid to manage money or broker insurance for our clients. But we allow you, the client to decide if you would like us to take care of these things for you, or if you would like someone else to do it, or if you would like to do them yourself. Our major concern is not who handles your business. Rather, we care that it is being done correctly. And you will be hard-pressed to find that anywhere else. .
For more information regarding our services, or to set up an introductory meeting with Dennis O'Keefe, CFP, contact Donna Medeiros at (800) 453-3209 or E-mail her at Donna@successfulmoney.com