- High earners come in many forms including attorneys, authors, business owners, dentists, doctors, entertainers, entrepreneurs, key employees, professional athletes, etc. Generalized investment advice is often inapplicable to high earners who are in unique situations. Our team will help you utilize your unique situation to your advantage.
- High earners are not only more targeted by investment professionals, but they also often have fewer people in a similar situation with whom they can freely discuss their financial situation. High earners are often pitched complex instruments and options that do not provide better results when all factors are considered. Whether it is private placements, private equity opportunities, annuities, hedge funds, limited partnerships, commodities, trading on margin, or Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs), we can help you navigate complex financial instruments to ensure the products complement the rest of your financial portfolio.
- We know that wealth often follows an increase in financial complexity and High Earners therefore often face pressure from increased exposure to expenses, taxes, and other risks. High earners also often have unique assets such as intellectual property rights, shortened high earning career expectations, an uneven cash flow, or concentrated stock positions, options, or grants. We can help you diversify from concentrated positions, hedge unique risks, and navigate tax issues.
- Increased earnings can equate to increased spending. Expensive purchases, such as antiques and collectibles can become even more costly if not correctly financed. Furthermore, these purchases can often require additional maintenance, upkeep, or other recurring expenses that can drain your budget.
- High earners may be ineligible for tax qualified plans or accounts due to income limits. If you are deemed a “highly compensated employee” your employer’s 401(k) plan can limit your contributions. We can help you assess other options such as safe harbor plans.
- Additionally, we can help you assess options such as a backdoor Roth IRA or a Roth conversion. This strategy allows you to pay taxes on the funds now and live tax free in retirement. The backdoor Roth IRA is a popular tool for high earners, but many advisers do not fully analyze the tax implications of this strategy. We perform a full analysis to ensure you are not just simply being taxed now while you are in the highest tax brackets when you could be in lower brackets when you retire.
- We also utilize investment vehicles with tax advantages that often benefit those in the highest tax brackets. Substantial tax savings can offset a nominally lower return since the net or overall return is greater once taxes are considered. Whether it is a health savings account, municipal bonds, ETFs, or some other tax advantaged investment vehicle, we can independently determine the ideal financial instruments for your individual circumstances.
- We strive to protect your wealth from the unique risks that accompany it. Whether you are a professional or a business owner, we incorporate your business/professional insurance risks into your financial plan since plaintiffs often target those with the deepest pockets. Our in-house legal knowledge affords you the comfort of assessing risks from experience representing both plaintiffs and defendants in litigation.
- Earning more often equates to the ability to save more and therefore needing to incur less investment risk to meet your goals. Other advisors are often reluctant to invest high earners in less aggressive portfolios due to the fear that another advisor will sell you on chasing higher returns. Similarly, other advisors may encourage you to be more aggressive since their fee is tied to the growth in your assets. Our plans prioritize your goals and work towards achieving them regardless of fee structure, and they do not encourage you to take unnecessary investment risk if your needs can be met with a safer option.
- When allocating your savings and investments, we develop a plan to ensure your assets conform to financial institution and investment protection limits, such as those imposed by the FDIC and SEC. Please note that this protection may apply when the relevant firm fails financially and is unable to meet its obligations, and it does not protect against losses from losses in the value of your investments.
- Many advisers do not offer you more in their ongoing, comprehensive plans than you would get by engaging them to construct a financial plan for you annually. For example, an annual rate of one percent (1%) on one million dollars ($1,000,000.00) of assets under management equals ten thousand dollars each year ($10,000/year). If you can get the same service by purchasing a $5,000 financial plan each year and then paying for any other needed services a la carte or hourly, you could be achieving significant annual savings. We review your fee with you annually to ensure that you pay a fair price for advice and services we provide you.
