Yes! We believe this is the best and only way to conduct business as a financial professional.
A fiduciary will act as your trusted guide as you get the basics of your financial wellness put into place and as you navigate increasingly complex financial decisions.
Investment companies certainly have deeper pockets, no doubt! Part of that goes into investment research, and a considerable portion also goes into marketing so you are more familiar with their brand than a small independent financial advice company.
More importantly, working with large investment companies generally comes with significant caveats to be aware of. Their professionals frequently will only recommend the funds and investments available by their companies (for example, a Bank of America advisor will only recommend Bank of American mutual funds) without looking outside their employer’s basket of options to make recommendations to their clients. While this investment might be “fine,” it’s also possible that it’s… more expensive to buy, higher fees on an ongoing basis, fewer beneficial features, etc. than a comparable product offered by a competitor. Due to the nature of their compensation and business structure though, they will not recommend the competitor’s products. Moving away from an advisor at a large company can frequently come with a tax bill as you are forced to sell out of their proprietary products to switch advisors, even if it’s not the best fit for you anymore.
Working with an independent professional allows them to shop investments, insurance, and other solutions from ALL providers. This provides lower fees, more robust features (a common consideration with insurance policies), and flexibility and portability should you choose to move on from the advisor in the future.
We leverage both technology and your own time to make personalized financial advice more accessible. Many companies in the industry sell a white glove service – which is great if you would like to delegate the bulk of your tasks and can afford to pay someone to fill out paperwork for you.
We believe there are many people who would like to access the expertise and guidance of working with a financial professional but are willing and motivated to put in the time to tackle many of these tasks on their own. We pass this time savings for our firm back to our clients in an effort to make our customized advice as accessible as possible and continue to fulfill our mission of “Helping 1,000 families live more confident lives through the power of custom financial planning.”
The only thing we sell is expertise and services. There are an abundance of ways to get paid in the financial services industry, but we believe having payment come only from clients removes conflicts of interest. We don’t receive referral kickbacks; commissions from insurance or investment recommendations; or compensation for any other action item we may recommend.
We select products, services, and professionals to recommend because we truly believe they are the best. We have used them before, or (if we didn’t personally have a need for their services), would wholeheartedly refer our own family members to the same goods and services.
Great question! This stance starts with the belief that the value of working with an advisor or planner comes primarily from their selection of investments (mutual funds, ETFs, stocks) and its implementation (placing trades for you).
HOWEVER, at Live + Give our value proposition goes well beyond investing. Indeed, we utilize the same low cost funds that are recommended on most of today’s popular blogs, so your investments are not being dragged down by fees! That said, investment selection is a small portion of the value we bring to your financial life.
We remove a lot of second-guessing decisions from your to do list. We act as your accountability partner to make sure the things you say are important to you, actually get done. We stay on top of current and proposed tax and legal changes from Washington, and when they are announced can quickly filter if this is important, advantageous, or irrelevant to your situation. We work together to avoid surprises come tax filing season and put together a plan for paying any bills due. We discuss the pros and cons of major financial decisions – helping avoid expensive mistakes from uninformed decisions, and optimizing affordability options for those goals you decide to move forward with. We ensure you’re signed up for the employee benefits that will protect you from financial catastrophe, and aren’t paying for the ones you don’t need. We work together to make sure your loved ones will be taken care of – both financial and logistically – in the event something tragic happens to you.
Many clients find that their actual cost savings (taxes saved, creative funding plans, interest earned) far outweigh the expense of working with a skilled professional – to say nothing of the time savings and confidence in knowing someone is looking out for your personalized best interest!
In short – we’re your thinking partner to make wise spending decisions for the things that matter, and identify and leave behind the things that don’t.
