Your Financial Team
Take a moment and think about how your financial team works with you. Almost all insurance agents, financial planners, asset managers, accountants and attorneys work independently of one another and most fail to communicate with each other when advising you. Does this sound familiar? Many on your team derive all of their income from commissions they receive from the products they sell you. Often times you receive conflicting advice from your team because of how they are paid or the self interests they serve. How are you as a client supposed to make sense of this conflicting advice and who should you trust and rely upon? At the Optimal Financial Group we do not sell anything nor do we derive any commission based income. At the core of our value system, we only recommend what is in your best interest, not what might be simply suitable or worse yet, inappropriate. By integrating the various professions within one organization, we are able to engineer every aspect of your financial life and ensure that you getting the absolute best advice. And by placing a high emphasis on coaching and mentoring, we ensure that you achieve peak performance in your financial life just as an athlete does when properly coached and guided.
Working with “Financial
Planners”
How do you work with those who call themselves “Financial Planners?” First, you
must identify how your advisor is paid.
Do they receive income from commissions on life insurance, stocks,
bonds, or mutual funds. If so, then they are not financial planners, they are salesmen. These life insurance
salesmen and stock brokers are cleverly disguised as “advisers” and “planners”
in order to encourage you to purchase their products. A true financial planner
is paid like a lawyer or CPA and receives a fee for professional advice. A true
financial planner doesn’t try to sell you anything, and doesn’t make a
commission off of the advice that they give.
Working with “Asset Managers”
Individuals that manage your investment capital often fall within the financial planner category and they are typically called stock brokers, money managers, or representatives. Most asset managers are not trained to actively manage an investment portfolio according to your tolerance to risk or based upon current market and economic conditions. Most are trained as salespersons. If you use any of the major brokerage firms, then you are working with salespersons who have strong financial incentives to keep your portfolio within their family or brand of investments and funds. The best asset managers are fee based fiduciaries who are held to a higher professional standard and have a legal obligation only to recommend only what is best for you. Almost all fiduciaries work independently and receive no underlying financial incentives from the investment platforms they recommend.
Problems with CPAs and Accountants
How often did your accountant communicate with you during the last twelve
months and have they taken the time to design and implement a tax mitigation
strategy? If you have not received
on-going coaching and guidance then your accountant is like most professionals
in this field who focus on compliance activities and have a historical
emphasis. With these type of
accountants, the only advice you normally receive is at tax filing time and the
communication often centers around how much you owe or are receiving as a
refund. At the Optimal Financial Group we have completely separated the tax
planning function from the tax preparation activities. All of our clients go through a
comprehensive planning process where every aspect of the tax plan is properly
engineered and implemented.
Moreover, our team of CPA’s and tax attorneys provides on going guidance
and advice throughout the year.
Dealing with Bankers
Most clients develop relationships with bankers that last a lifetime. They are a first choice anytime there
is a borrowing or investment need.
For many business owners, the cost of capital is one of the largest
expense items on their income statement.
This line item gets the least amount of attention because it is a cost
that you little control over. We
advocate a competitive lending process that is third party administered anytime
our clients have borrowing needs.
By working with hundreds of lenders throughout the country we are often
able to find the most favorable borrowing terms and conditions for our clients
which allows us to reduce the cost of borrowing for them. Any by using us as a third party
negotiator you are able to maintain that banking “friendship” for a lifetime.
Your Insurance Agent
Insurance is an essential aspect of everyone’s financial
life and serves to insulate you from risk of loss. Insurance is the first line of defense in a sound asset
protection plan. All insurance
agents are paid a commission from the products they sell. As a result, the tendency within the
insurance industry is to recommend those products that generate the highest
commission for the agent. These
insurance products include whole life contracts, variable life policies, and
permanent investment products such as fixed and variable annuities. As a rule of thumb, the entire first
year premium on an insurance contract is paid out to the selling agent as a
commission. On fixed and variable
annuity sales, these commissions approach 7.5 percent of the assets sold into
these contracts. No wonder why you cannot get your money out of these plans for
5 or more years. The best insurance agents are those that work with the entire
financial team to determine the insurance need and then have the ability to
price the products across multiple carriers which ensures that you are getting
the lowest possible insurance cost.
Investments offered by insurance companies carry higher underlying fees
and the choices are limited to the family of products that the agent
represents. As part of our
planning, we analyze your insurance needs, audit your existing policies and
find the best and lowest cost carriers.
The Attorney You Want
You want an attorney that is a problem solver. Most attorneys are trained by their
firms to “earn a fee” by spending as much time as possible analyzing,
researching and writing. These
activities while often required so represent you receive an undue emphasis and
only serve to increase your cost and their earnings. The best lawyers only research an issue once, they apply
common sense to a situation and they suggest either business, financial,
mediation, or settlement solutions rather than always following a standard
lawyer track of litigation or worthless letter-writing. You want a lawyer who is innovative,
quick, responsive, and uses modern technology to save time and money. When it comes to selecting a lawyer to
represent you as part of your financial team it is imperative that you select
an attorney that has a background or specialty in taxation.
Selecting Your Team
Choosing your team is one of the most important decisions you will make to safeguard your financial future. Consider our value proposition that emphasizes an integrated approach to engineering your financial life and compare it to the advice and guidance you have been given. Listen and speak to the hundreds of clients who have gone through our planning process and continue to work with us today. Contact Us for a complimentary consultation to see how we can help you.
Call us at 866-966-4923, or email us at info@theoptimalfinancialgroup.com.