Fiduciary - Charlotte Financial Planning & Advice

Category: Fiduciary

Who Is Best to Manage Your Money?

As an investor, you are faced with hundreds of decisions on where to get your investment advice. Here’s a nice breakdown between advisors and brokers that can help steer your decision making process.

The infographic below refers to advisors using the acronym “RIAs” which stands for Registered Investment Advisors.

NorthStar Capital Advisors is an RIA. Note that we have no minimum investment requirements so we win Round 4 below as well! We hope this information will help you understand the role that we play in helping our clients.

(Click on the graphic to enlarge for easier reading)

20 People You Don’t Want to Invest With

Identifying what does NOT work is often a great process for narrowing your list of options of what you should do. In that spirit, here’s Ben Carlson’s list of 20 people you wouldn’t want to invest with:

1. People that are unwilling or unable to admit their limitations.

2. People that are consumed by ideological or political beliefs when making investment decisions.

3. People that are unwilling to say “I don’t know.”

4. People that don’t learn from their mistakes.

5. People that blame external forces for their failures.

6. People that are unable to effectively communicate their process.

7. People that make guarantees about the markets in the future.

8. People that are more interested in selling you a product than creating a beneficial long-lasting client relationship.

9. People that try to invest in the markets as they “should be” instead of how they actually are.

10. People that are more worried about what others are doing instead of focusing on their own process and goals.

11. People that take the markets personally and let their emotions drive their decisions.

12. People that assume “trust me, I got this” is good enough in terms of explaining their strategy.

13. People that believe in conspiracy theories and think the system is out to get them.

14. People that are more worried about sounding intelligent than actually making money.

15. People that obsess over the market’s short-term movements.

16. People that would rather take you golfing than help you solve your problems.

17. People that make you feel like they’re doing you a favor by letting you invest your money with them.

18. People that try to dazzle you with 200 page pitch books.

19. People that are more worried about gathering future clients than taking care of their current ones.

20. People that tell you what you want to hear instead of what you need to hear.

Source: AWOCS

Putting Clients Second (!?!)

Although the following makes reference to politicians and political decisions, it’s not meant to be political. The intent is to inform you and to help protect you and your family’s best interest.

Today the founder and former chief executive of Vanguard, John C. Bogle, penned an article in the New York Times. It starts off:

THE Trump administration recently announced that it intends to review, and presumably overturn, the Obama-era fiduciary duty rule that is scheduled to take effect in April. The administration’s case was articulated by Gary Cohn, the new director of the National Economic Council.

Mr. Cohn, most recently the president of Goldman Sachs, called it “a bad rule” and likened it to “putting only healthy food on the menu, because unhealthy food tastes good but you still shouldn’t eat it because you might die younger.” Comparing healthy and unhealthy food to healthy and unhealthy investments is an interesting analogy.

The now-endangered fiduciary rule is based on a simple — and seemingly unarguable — principle: that in giving advice to clients with retirement funds, stockbrokers, registered investment advisers and insurance agents must act in the best interests of their clients. Honestly, it seems counterproductive to go to war against such a fundamental principle. It simply doesn’t seem like a good business practice for Wall Street to tell its client-investors, “We put your interests second, after our firm’s, but it’s close.”

To learn more, see Mr. Bogle’s article and The Freedom To be Fleeced — How Donald Trump Made Financial Hustles Great Again

It’s easy to get lost in the details and let our minds glaze over, but what you should know is very simple:

An advisor that is a fiduciary has a legal obligation to put your best interests first, always.
Most people think that all or most advisors are fiduciaries (WRONG!).
Most purveyors of financial products and services are NOT fiduciaries. They comply with a much lower “suitability standard.”
To assure you and your family are getting the most trustworthy care, always ask your advisor or financial salesperson the following:
“Are you a fiduciary? Are you always acting in a fiduciary capacity when working with me?”

When we formed our advisory practice many years ago we purposefully chose to be a fiduciary because it’s the right thing to do. Incredibly that ethos is counter-cultural in financial services. It’s bemusing to watch the delicate public-relations dance and contortions that many big institutions are making around or in avoidance of doing the right thing.

Giving the Gift of Financial Planning

A Lifetime of Financial Knowledge Wrapped Up in a Bow

Stuck for ideas on what to give newlyweds, graduates, or new parents for Christmas or Hanukkah? Consider something nontraditional this year that will last a lifetime and never go out of style: a visit with a financial planner.

Giving someone a financial planning consultation is a unique way to show you care, and it can help set up a loved one for a successful financial future. Newlyweds, graduates, and new parents all are at the start of a new phase of their lives. A financial planning gift provides them with something that may last for decades.

Those experiencing life’s transitions will also face financial challenges. Whether it’s learning to budget as a couple, understanding retirement plan options at the first job after graduation, or starting to think about paying for college, many important financial decisions await young people today. You can help by putting financial planning front and center.

Maintain the Wedded Bliss

Money and finances are among the top issues that cause marital discord. A financial planner can help strategize for a happily-ever-after financial life. A good planner will spend time talking to the couple, helping them determine their mutual financial goals. There are so many topics a financial planner can help with, including: managing household expenses; reviewing assets, debts, and credit reports; creating a budget; discussing future goals and creating mutual goals such as buying a home; analyzing benefits; updating wills; and reviewing insurance coverage.

Help Graduates Start Right

Once the diploma is hanging on the wall, it’s tempting for new grads to overspend, racking up credit card debt and a new car loan when what they really need to be worrying about is paying down student loans and planning for retirement. A gift of financial planning can help a new graduate establish short- and long-term financial goals and develop a budget to meet those goals. A financial planner may also help the grad deal with the new challenge of filing taxes and make recommendations on how to allocate investments into 401(k) or other retirement savings vehicles.

Bringing Up Baby, or Babies

The government estimates that a middle-income family will spend more than a quarter of a million dollars to raise a child until he or she is 18. New parents will benefit by working with a financial planner to figure out how much money they’ll need to raise their child. A financial planner can help them create a savings safety net, create and stick to a budget, advise about life insurance and wills, and talk about saving for college.

Purchase a financial planning gift certificate for someone you care about and know you’ve made a lasting contribution!