Feel Good about Your Finances with Fiduciary Advising Focused on You By Caroline Wetzel, CFP®, CDFA®, AWMA®
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ou know that incredible feeling of relief and hope you feel when something important in your life is finally taken care of? Working with my fiduciary team can bring you that same peace of mind regarding your financial planning. Here is one couple’s story that illustrates how working with our team can provide you with that comforting wave of relief that comes with knowing you are financially secure. Planning Your Financial Future Melissa and Mike are in their early 60s. Lifelong savers who had lived within their means for decades, Melissa and Mike had built up substantial assets through deliberate choices over time. When we first met, Mike had already retired from a successful career in business, and Melissa wanted to retire from her medical career. However, Melissa worried about how things like longevity, inflation, and deteriorating health could erode the strong financial foundation she and Mike had created. While Melissa and Mike had worked with a couple of stockbrokers for years on their investments, decisions such as when Melissa should retire, which Social Security
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claims strategy made the most sense for them given Mike’s pension, and whether they could be more tax-efficient with their finances were topics that Melissa and Mike hadn’t discussed with their money managers.
I understand what is most important to our clients and bring to them the many and varied capabilities of our experienced, nimble firm to develop their financial plan, manage their investments, and provide ongoing advice with their best interest as our top priority. “Quite honestly,” Melissa said, “I don’t want to talk with them about these things. They’re not fiduciaries or financial planners.” Mike added, “Don’t get us wrong. They’ve done a good job investing our money. It’s just that now we both need something more than returns. We need to know that the right people are thinking about our different financial opportunities so that we don’t have to. What does working with your team look like?”
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I shared with Melissa and Mike that when clients work with me, they benefit from a fiduciary team of financial professionals with different skill sets who share a passion for their success. Through Melissa and Mike’s conversations with me, I understand what is most important to them and bring to them the many and varied capabilities of our experienced, nimble firm to develop their financial plan, manage their investments, and provide ongoing advice with their best interest as our top priority. Coordinated Care to Cover All Bases My training has been primarily in financial planning; some teammates have specialized in investing and others focus on account administration. When required, our team partners with third parties, including carefully vetted investment managers, independent insurance brokers, and clients’ attorneys and tax preparers, to deliver financial plans that align to their estate plans. Melissa and Mike welcomed this coordinated care around their finances. Within weeks, they transferred their investments to our management, and we began our collaboration.
