Our Process

Critical to any relationship you may have with an investment professional is the process of engagement. It is easy to have misunderstandings or omissions of important information regarding your expectations or the assumptions held by the professional that can create difficulties in the future. Therefore, we have a process of engagement that we believe can minimize the possibilities of error.

The process is flexible. For example, instead of three meetings, you can ask for us to email or mail our disclosure documents (1) and Advisory Agreement to you in advance. We will also be glad to provide you with a form for you to list your investment objectives and respond to risk tolerance statements. If you provide us with statements from your existing investments as well as signed copies of those documents, it is possible to accomplish the initial two meetings in a single interview, either in person or electronically.

Normally we do not charge an hourly fee for our client meetings or conversations, rather we prefer to be compensated by an annual percentage of the assets we manage, normally around one percent or less, plus an annual retainer fee. Our proposed fees will be disclosed in detail in the Investment Advisory Agreement.

Initial Meeting – Introduction to The Personal Wealth Coach

• We normally have an initial meeting for which there is no charge. While an in-person meeting is ideal, we are very willing to meet via internet conference, physical mail, telephone, or under certain conditions, via email (2). In that meeting you are given our official disclosure documents and a copy of our Agreement as well as an explanation of how we plan for and manage investment portfolios as well as an estimate of what we would charge for our services.

Either prior to or during that meeting you are provided with a form that can assist you in organizing your goals and objectives. On that form are ten statements to which we ask you to respond numerically from one to five. Those responses give us a basis to access your ability to handle market risk, or in other words about how much decline in value you can handle during a downturn.

During that and any subsequent meetings or communications we encourage you to ask any and all questions you may have about what we do, how we do it, and what expenses are involved. We believe in complete transparency and sincerely enjoy your involvement in our process to the degree you desire.

Second Meeting – Goals, Objectives, and Existing Investments

• If you find the terms of the Agreement and our statements in the disclosure documents acceptable, we ask you to sign the Agreement. Your investment advisory representative (“IAR”) will also sign and provide you with a copy.
• We  receive statements or descriptions of your current investments and/or value that you wish to invest as well as the objectives and goals you have for those investments on the form we provided. This can occur in a second meeting or in the form of either email or telephone discussions.
• Your IAR will ask questions about your goals and you will be given the opportunity to discuss them in detail. He or she will spend as much time as is necessary to assist you in determining what it is you want to accomplish and what risks and portfolio behavior is likely to be seen in your portfolio.

Third Meeting – Presentation and Review of your Investment Policy Statement

• Your IAR will prepare an Investment Policy Statement (“IPS”) for your approval. The IPS will include relevant information about your circumstances, your goals, your estimated market expectations and risk tolerance, and the initial asset allocation and specific investments that will be used in your portfolio. You are asked to review and approve the IPS. The basic elements of your IPS will be the governing guidance for your portfolio until you elect to change your objectives or your circumstances change. We will also provide you with the Schedules to your Investment Advisory Agreement listing the specific accounts we will be managing and the fees we propose to charge by account for your approval.

While we can and probably will make adjustments in your asset allocation and the underlying investments, all those changes will be made with the intent of accomplishing the goals and objectives set out in your IPS. If you do have a change in your circumstances or goals it is critical that you let us know as soon as possible so that we can adjust your portfolio’s design to accommodate those changes.

Ongoing Review and Modification

• A member of our firm will review your portfolio allocations at least quarterly, and you are encouraged to schedule annual reviews with your IAR. If a year or more goes by and you have not requested a review, we will contact you to determine if your circumstances or goals have changed and if you would like to have a formal review. If you choose to not have a formal review we will provide you with a report advising you on the status of your portfolio.
• If you have any questions about your portfolio or about the design or plan we have created for you, you are encouraged to contact us or schedule a meeting to get answers. Within reason we do not charge extra for additional meetings or conversations.