Beyond the desire of our clients to have their investments professionally managed, people come to us because they’re facing an inflection point: the death of a loved one, a divorce, a job loss or change, an inheritance, retirement, etc. These situations inevitably lead to money being involved, and it’s around these financial pain points where we do our best work for clients.
Here are five ways we added value to a client’s financial life in the last month:
- A client was buying a new house and had pieced together funds from two brokerage accounts by depositing checks from each to his main bank account. He had notified his bank that these funds were for a house closing on a particular date, but the bank had put a hold on the funds, even though both checks had already cleared. This put a wrench in the house closing plans on the day of closing. Our team went to work, gathering wire information, the amount needed for closing, as well as the client’s signature, and within a couple hours had initiated a wire that allowed our client to close as scheduled.
- Earlier this year, a client of ours lost a dear relative, who left our client with a sizeable tax credit. By working with the client’s accountant, we were able to help our mutual client convert part of their IRA account to their Roth IRA, which moved these monies from taxable to tax-free upon withdrawal.
- Being community-minded is very important to P&A, so a natural extension of this is helping our clients be philanthropic. In the last month, we have helped several clients give to charitable causes through the use of their donor-advised fund, which we’ve written about before. Using appreciated securities rather than a checkbook to give to charity has many benefits, including reducing your taxes and stretching your charitable impact.
- A husband and wife in their 40s wanted validation they’re appropriately balancing the need to save for the future while enjoying the present. They have three kids who will be leaving the nest in 10 years, so one of their goals is to maximize their time with them while also saving for their future educations. This couple has also been contemplating the purchase of their dream home. By walking these clients through our 30-minute Finding the Balance process, we helped them to define their savings targets related to their retirement and education goals, while also showing them they could afford to buy that dream home.
- A client who (in our opinion) had been taken advantage of by a previous advisor came to us with 90% of her investment assets in illiquid securities. These go by the names of variable annuities, private placements, and non-publicly traded REITs. Each had high fees, lock-up periods, and steep penalties, limiting our client’s ability to access these monies. Our team thoroughly investigated each of these investments before presenting the client with our recommendations.
Each of us faces financial decisions every day, some of which are much bigger than others. The P&A approach to helping clients is to make the complex simple. So what financial pain points can we help you with?
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