Guiding Beliefs and Values
The right focus makes all the difference . . .
We care about your values, your passions, and what makes you unique.
We believe it is important to step back and think about what is most important to you in life. You may be spending too much time and money on things (either out of habit or to keep up appearances) that don't mean that much to you. You may be working a lot of hours with a lot of stress doing something you don't enjoy. You may find that you wouldn't change a thing. Our goal in helping you do this is to see if there are changes you can make to give you more time and money for the things you care most about. Money is a means to an end.
The founder, Lisa Woodside, gave up her corporate career to create a more balanced life to do more of the things she is passionate about and enjoys. Her goal in creating this firm was to help others do the same thing.
We would rather have great relationships with a small group of clients that we have a real connection with than spend our time growing and managing a large practice.
We do not take the "easy way out" by picking a few mutual funds that outperform their benchmark, using the typical "cookie cutter" asset allocations for people nearing or in retirement, or by sticking you in a variable annuity - which many brokers will do in order to reduce their risk and time commitment.
We are very skeptical of what comes out of Wall Street. We are constantly looking for new and better ways to deal with the challenges our clients are facing during this "perfect retirement storm".
Earning and keeping our client's trust is very important to us. You have to trust someone to agree to let them move you more to cash and safer investments when risk is high or to invest you more in investments that help maintain your purchasing power after a major market decline. We can't do what we do without trust.
We believe that especially during volatile markets it is important to communicate frequently with our clients and to spend more time educating them and coaching them. We work very hard for our clients because active risk management is more time consuming than a buy and hold asset allocation which is rebalanced and tweaked twice a year. Retirement income planning is also very time consuming.
We don't judge our clients. It is their money. Everyone has to decide the trade off they want to make between living life fully today and saving enough for tomorrow. Our job is to "think outside the box" and find creative ways to help them pay for the things that are important to them and to make sure they make informed decisions
We believe that being independent and accepting no commissions or referral fees is important. We are independent fee-only financial planners and registered investment advisors. This gives us more freedom to do what is best for you, instead of what is best for our broker or firm. But at the end of the day, it all boils down to people. We put your best interests first even when it costs us fees. This may mean recommending you shift 20% of your portfolio when you near age 70 to a fixed annuity. It may mean telling you that a real estate investment you are considering is the better option or paying off your house. Most brokers and investment advisors will tell you the same thing – they have your best interests at heart. Ask them for examples.