Which Level of Service is Right for Your Investments?
Investment advice is our specialty at Five Seasons Financial Planning. Because different people have different needs, we offer you a variety of service options when it comes to your investments:
Investment Advice by the Hour
If you prefer to implement our recommendations yourself, we provide advice on your investments and/or asset allocation on an hourly basis as follows:
· Clients may implement our investment recommendations themselves. This may entail completing the paperwork required to open an account or accounts at a discount broker (we provide contact info and instructions for several of them). We would also suggest that the client check to see that any assets transferred to new accounts arrive as intended, i.e. that nothing gets lost in transition, that there are no unintended liquidations, and that retirement holdings end up in a retirement account and taxable holdings end up in a taxable account. Finally, the client is responsible for placing the orders to implement our recommendations and verifying that they are filled correctly. This option is obviously the least expensive, since there is no time commitment on our part.
· Clients may engage Five Seasons on an hourly basis to implement the investment plan for them. Basically, we will perform any or all of the steps outlined above at our usual hourly rate. Once the initial investment allocation is in place, however, the onus is on the client to monitor their accounts and to re-engage Five Seasons periodically when market conditions or financial circumstances change.
Assets Under Management
Clients who wish to delegate the ongoing supervision of their investment assets may engage Five Seasons to manage their accounts on a discretionary basis. In addition to
performing the initial implementation described above, Five Seasons will also create a customized investment policy statement with the client’s input, continuously monitor client accounts, re-allocate them when market conditions dictate, and provide periodic reviews. In this case, fees will be based on assets under management and levied as described in our Form ADV Part II. Assets must be custodied at Ameritrade Institutional.
While this option will result in higher fees because of its time-intensive nature, the potential benefits to clients are numerous:
1. Client accounts under our discretion can be re-allocated in a more timely manner when market conditions warrant it, when opportunities arise, or when a client’s circumstances change. This re-balancing may be accomplished by shifts between asset classes or possibly between individual securities, subject to the constraints laid out in the investment policy statement.
2. With assets under management, we may incorporate individual stocks or bonds into the investment mix, again subject to the constraints outlined in the investment policy statement. We don’t feel these investment recommendations would be appropriate for our hourly clients, since they would have to monitor these individual investments themselves.
3. Since assets under our management will be custodied at Ameritrade Institutional, clients may receive access to investments unavailable to retail investors or to institutional classes of mutual funds with lower expenses.
4. As described above, an indispensible step in the AUM process is creating an investment policy statement in conjunction with the client. This document will serve as our investment game plan, and will reflect a client’s ability and willingness to tolerate risk and each client's personal preferences and constraints regarding various asset classes. As such, it will serve as a touchstone to provide guidance and discipline when markets become volatile. Clients may also find the mere process of creating an investment policy statement to be educational and enlightening.
5. Five Seasons will help you to open your account at Ameritrade, will ensure assets are transferred properly, and will implement the initial investment allocation.
6. With investments under our supervision, we may be able to cater to a client’s individual tax situation by harvesting capital losses or postponing capital gains.
7. Our AUM clients will receive a periodic review of the markets and their personal situation to ensure that the investment policy statement is still appropriate. Again, clients may find this review process an educational experience.
For a more complete description of our investment advisory service options, please click on the "Contact Us" button in the menu on the upper left-hand corner of this site and request a copy of our Form ADV Part II.
For more information about our approach to managing investment assets, click on the various links under "2. Investment Mgmt" in the menu.