Broker Check

Wealth Management Services

Philosophy

We work through three phases of life style investing:  

The first is accumulation, where we help a client based on their risk tolerance, and the goals in their Life Style Financial Plan.  We are focused on growth and we look for opportunities to buy low and sell high with an emphasis on equities.  Within five years of retirement, we start to transition into our retirement income phase.  

The second phase is retirement income, where we transition our thought from accumulation to distribution.  Our primary focus changes more to cash and bonds, so we can reduce volatility in our distribution accounts.  We still have a secondary focus on growth and equities (buy low and sell high), depending on each client’s goals in their customized Life Style Financial Plan.  

Then we transition into the clients’ third stage of preservation and wealth transfer or estate planning.  This is the area that differs most for clients and ends up being the most customized.


Platform

We use third party institutional managers.  We like third party managers because we feel it removes us from most of the “herd” mentality of fear and greed that hurts most investors in retail mutual funds.  We use AssetMark as our main custodian and platform for third party managers.  AssetMark provides around thirty different wealth managers each with multiple different strategies.  Because of this platform, we can provide a mix of ETF’s, individual stocks, bonds and mutual funds.


Investment Mix

There always seems to be an argument between financial advisors about whether an active management style (picking specific investments and usually at a higher cost), verses a passive investment style (picking an index that flows with the market and usually at a lower cost) is better.  Because of the flexibility of AssetMark, we are able to have a combination of both.  This allows us to reduce costs in certain areas, be more customized to a client’s Life Style Financial Plan, and make changes depending on the three phases: accumulation, retirement income, and wealth transfer.  The majority of our client portfolios are in individual stocks for active management and ETFs. Some EFTs are actively managed and some are passively managed.


Due Diligence

Every quarter I review performance of our universe of portfolios.  I not only look at the main mix of portfolios that we use for our clients, but I also look at other portfolios for comparison and to learn more about how different portfolios perform in different markets and economies. For example, we track 5 asset mixes based on risk.  We also track another 3 asset mixes that are tax efficient based on risk.  Most asset mixes have a bench mark and about 6-9 portfolios.  That means we are tracking about 60 different portfolios and only consider the top two in each asset mix to use with our clients.  We also add in a specific client portfolio for each asset mix to see if the performance being recorded matches up with actual client performance after all fees.  That brings us to about 70 different portfolios that we track and review each quarter.

The Four Pillars of Thompson Financial Transitions (TFT)

I. Education

  • Doing videos on financial topics (financial planning discounts available in the videos)
  • Posting YouTube videos to break down the financial topics into smaller pieces
    • Facebook
    • LinkedIn
    • Thompson Financial Transitions website

II. Investment Management*

  • Third Party Institutional Moneymanagers
    • ETF Models- An ETF itself is passive, the portfolio strategy is tactical
    • Mutual Fund Models- Active investment style
    • Quarterly Performance Reporting
    • Account Size
    • Less than $50,000 will have a $15 quarterly account fee
    • $50,000 and above does not have a quarterly fee
    • $1,000,000 and above can have dedicated portfolio managers
  • Quarterly due diligence on portfolio performance
  • Client website to view all financial accounts, performance reports, and financial plans
  • Retirement income planning software

III. Financial Planning*

  • If a client has less than $50,000 in assets with tft then they will be charged the full fee.
  • If a client has $50,000 or more in assets with tft then they will be charged half the fee.
  • If a client has $100,000 or more in assets with tft then we waive the financial planning fee.
  • Implementing financial goals and concepts to see your big picture
    • Balancing spending and income
    • Retirement budget for everyday spending
    • Hobbies
    • Long term care planning
    • Social security maximization
    • Retirement income planning
    • Being prepared for financial pitfalls with “what if” scenarios
    • Retire earlier, retire later, purchasing a second home, selling a business
    • Market down turns, inflation, risk management, premature death, health

IV. Relationship

  • Spending time with our clients to get to know them and their family
    • Referral dinners
    • Website training events
    • Client hosted events
      • Golf, tennis, cooking classes, wine and food pairing

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