Generally, I get two kinds of questions when people hear what I do: "What’s the market going to do?" and "Know any hot stocks?"

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My honest (and correct) answers never seem to satisfy. To the first, I always answer: "Short term, I don’t know what the market is going to do—and neither do all those people on television who loudly profess to know with certainty. Long term, I imagine it will do what it always has, which is to return 7%–10% per year adjusted for inflation."  To the second question about hot stocks, I always answer: "Since I believe that the market is relatively efficient, and that all information about all stocks shows in the price of the stocks, I have no hot stocks to suggest. However, a diversified portfolio of consisting of stocks, bonds, reit’s & commodities has tended to outperform most other investment choices over time."

Well, finally, I got tired of these questions and decided to put together answers to the question: "What do you do?" Although this list is not exhaustive, I became exhausted just thinking about all the services we provide and stopped at 75.

What we do: Financial planning

• Cares more about you and your money than anyone who doesn’t share your last name.
• Asks questions in order to understand your needs and objectives.
• Helps you determine where you are at present.
• Guides you to think about areas of your financial life you may not have considered.
• Helps organize your financial situation.
• Formalizes your goals and puts them in writing for you.
• Helps you prioritize your financial opportunities.
• Helps you determine realistic goals.
• Studies possible alternatives that could meet your goals.
• Prepares a financial plan and/or an investment policy statement for you.
• Makes specific recommendations to help you meet your goals.
• Implements those recommendations.
• Suggests creative alternatives that you may not have considered.
• Reviews and recommends life insurance policies to protect your family.
• Assists you in setting up a company retirement plan.
• Prepares a financial plan for you.
• Assists in preparing an estate plan for you.
• Reviews your children’s custodial accounts and 529 plans.
• Helps you determine your IRA Required Minimum Distribution.
• Persuades you to do the things you know you ought to do, even if you don’t feel like doing them.

Investments

• Prepares an asset allocation for you so you can achieve the best rate of return for a given level of risk tolerance.
• Does due diligence on money managers and mutual fund managers in order to make appropriate recommendations.
• Stays up to date on changes in the investment world.
• Monitors your investments.
• Reviews your existing annuities.
• Reviews your investments in your company 401(k) or 403(b) plans.
• Reviews your existing IRAs.
• Reviews and revises portfolios as conditions change.
• Guides you through difficult periods in the stock market by sharing historical perspective.
• Helps improves your investment performance.
• Looks "inside" your mutual funds to compare how many of their holdings duplicate each other.
• Converts your investments to potential lifetime income.
• Helps you evaluate the differences in risk levels between various fixed-income investments such as government bonds and corporate bonds.
• Provides you with a written sector-based evaluation of your portfolio.
• Determines the risk level of your existing portfolio.
• Helps you consolidate and simplify your investments.
• Provides you with alternative investment options.
• Provides you with executive services involving restricted stock and employer stock options.
• Provides introductions to money managers.
• Shows you how to access your statements and other information online.
• Shops for top CD rates from financial institutions throughout the country.
• Timely execution of transactions
• Provides access to answers from a major investment firm.

Taxes

• Suggests alternatives to help lower your taxes during retirement.
• Reviews your tax returns with an eye to possible savings in the future.
• Stays up to date on tax law changes.
• Helps you potentially reduce your taxes.
• Repositions investments to take full advantage of tax law provisions.
• Works with your tax and legal advisors to help you meet your financial goals.

Person to person

• Confidentiality in the treatment of personal information.
• Monitors changes in your life and family situation.
• Will call you back and reply to your emails.
• Proactively keeps in touch with you.
• Remains only a telephone call away to answer financial questions for you.
• Serves as a human glossary of financial terms such as beta, P/E ratio, and Sharpe ratio.
• Makes sure that he and his firm provide excellent service at all times.
• Provides referrals to other professionals, such as accountants and attorneys.
• Refers you to banking establishments for loan alternatives.
• Provides you with a chart showing the monthly income from all of your investments.
• Suggests alternatives to help increase your income during retirement.
• Listens and provides feedback in a way that a magazine or newsletter writer does not.
• Shares the experience of dozens or hundreds of his clients who have faced circumstances similar to yours.
• Helps educate your children and grandchildren about investments and financial concepts.
• Holds seminars to discuss significant and/or new financial concepts.
• Helps with the continuity of your family’s financial plan through generations.
• Facilitates the transfer of investments from individual names to trust, or from an owner through to beneficiaries.
• Keeps you on track.
• Identifies your savings shortfalls.
• Develops and monitors a strategy for debt reduction.
• Educates you on retirement issues.
• Educates you on estate planning issues.
• Educates you on college savings and financial aid options.
• Is someone you can trust and get advice from in all your financial matters.
• Is a wise sounding board for ideas you are considering.
• Is honest with you.

Call us for more information and to set up a free consultation…717-509-4521.

All the Best,
Mark A. Vergenes
President & Investment Executive