Guide to the First Home Savings Account
February 1, 2023
Worrying about your financial future is hard.
Managing it on your own is even more difficult.
Financial Freedom lets you focus on what matters to you.
…Be free.
Where do you want to go?
To paraphrase The Cheshire Cat in Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland, “if you don’t know where you are going, any road can take you there.” It is important to know the destination before we embark on the journey.
It is entirely understandable that the obstacles you face may spark uncertainty and even fear. This can affect your confidence.
The Financial Confidence Builder will help you overcome those obstacles.
Is it travel, spending more time with family or perhaps having an impact in your community? Is it saving up to buy your first home or perhaps a recreational property to build family vacation experiences around?
Where are you now?
We will help you to understand your current financial situation and coach you in assembling all the information you will need.
Because a financial plan changes the moment we hit the “print” button, our clients prefer our nimble approach where we do our planning live, preferably over a shared computer screen.
These are some of the questions your financial plan should answer:
How will you get there?
Our Progress Planner takes obstacles and challenges and transforms them into step by step solutions that help you move toward your goals.
With each step forward, there is more progress to be made. Together, we will discover new opportunities and continually move forward.
Life changes! Your financial plan must continually adapt to those changes. Pursuing the goals that matter to you will be a lifelong process. Our review process assures that you will have a trusted advisor along the way.
You want to make sure your advisor is working for you rather than out of obligation or incentives from another company. In our portfolio management process, we carefully identify relationships that put our clients interests first.
We are independent and will work in your best interests. Our top priorities are in assuring you have a financial plan designed to give you confidence and a portfolio that gives you the best possible investment experience.
You want to work with people who are qualified to do their jobs.
Our advisors have been qualified to give financial advice in various ways since as early as 1985 and are continually upgrading their capabilities. Both Richard and Matthew are Associate Portfolio Managers and have their Chartered Investment Manager Designations (CIM). Matthew has his Certified Financial Planner (CFP) designation. Richard has earned the following designations:
Richard has conducted many financial educational seminars through the Richmond Public Library and has been a columnist for several years with The Richmond News. Since early 2018, we have weekly communicated our thoughts and tips through our “WealthSmarts” e-letter, a free service for the public designed to improve financial literacy. We also regularly produce the WealthSmarts Podcast.
You want to work with professionals who put your interests ahead of theirs.
We have a serious responsibility to put your interests ahead of ours. This is spelled out in the Fiduciary Duty section of our Conduct and Practices Handbook.
You can reference the Standards and Enforcement section of the Financial Planning Standards Council by clicking here.
With the complexities of financial products always growing, you need confidence that the advisor you work with understands and is qualified to offer what you need. As independent financial advisors we have access to the broadest possible types of financial tools and investment approaches that you will need to achieve your goals.
There are many different investment “locations” that may be a priority for you and we have the ability to meet most of them. For instance:
There are situations that are especially applicable to high net worth investors, such as:
We are licensed to help you with the following specific investment vehicles:
With any service, you expect that there will be a cost. We are willing to pay fees if we feel like we are receiving equal or more value than what we are being charged. We also want to be fully aware of all the fees we need to pay ahead of time.
We only work with clients for whom we can provide value through our Financial Confidence Builder process. We act as advocates in our clients’ best interests, rather than representing any financial institution. In return, we charge a reasonable fee based on a percentage of investments under our administration. We only receive commissions when handling your insurance needs. We hide nothing – if there are any extra fees, we fully disclose them. Please schedule a conversation to discover how we can help you and to learn more about our fee schedule.
One service we provide to the public without any fee or obligation is our “Portfolio MRI” which dives deep into any portfolio you have to evaluate its suitability and to compare the value you are currently receiving with the value we are able to provide.
We understand that our clients all have different preferences for meeting, whether face to face, over the phone, or by Zoom. We offer all of these options and frequently use Zoom and other technology in our interactive client planning sessions.
We don’t like to typecast our clients by occupation, status or age group. Rather, we work with growth-minded families – those whose always see their futures as bigger than their past.
You are unique, with your own set of experiences, so we can honestly say that we have never worked with anyone quite like you. Our training, experience and capabilities allows us to respond to many different challenges and opportunities with our clients.
Clients want to make sure that they aren’t at risk of becoming a number or forgotten. In order to protect the interests of our clients, we generally have a household account minimum of $250,000 of investments under our administration.
We will make exceptions, such as for family and friends of our current clients through referral as well as our own family and friends. Please schedule a conversation to discuss further.
We have no quotas to meet so that we are able to focus entirely on our clients’ best interests, rather than the needs of any financial institution.
Guide to the First Home Savings Account
Important 2023 Money Dates and Facts
End of Year Financial Checklist
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