Our Approach
FWM’s advice is customized for your unique financial situation, with risk management being our core focus. We define risk in a very personal way – the possibility of you falling short of your financial goals. We believe that helping you to lessen the likelihood of financial shortfalls can lead to greater financial peace-of-mind.
FWM’s advice and investment strategies are specifically designed to help you have the money you need when you need it. Importantly, we believe it’s critical to identify financial needs and aspirations not just in dollar amounts, but also to pinpoint when money will be needed.
Achieving Short-term Goals
In FWM’s view, the biggest risk to achieving short-term personal financial goals occurring within the next 1-10 years is not having cash available when it is needed. To minimize this risk, we encourage clients to have appropriate insurance and a “rainy day” fund to protect against unexpected financial drains, and then to build their savings pool as necessary.
FWM invests those short-term savings in our Capital Preservation Strategy. This strategy employs liability immunization to create a customized portfolio of income-producing securities geared toward providing cash when needed. FWM believes the risk of loss is too high to invest in stocks for short-term goals.
Achieving Long-term Goals
In FWM’s view, the biggest risk to achieving financial goals occurring beyond the next 10 years (such as retirement) is not having accumulated enough financial assets to provide cash when needed in the future. To minimize this risk, we encourage clients to build their long-term savings, especially in tax-advantaged plans such as IRAs, 401Ks, HSAs, and 529s.
FWM invests those long-term savings in our Capital Growth Strategy. This strategy uses quantitative analytics to create globally diversified equity portfolios aimed at providing long-term returns that are superior to market averages on a risk-adjusted basis. FWM believes that investing in stocks is by far the best way to accumulate wealth that exceeds inflation on an after-tax basis. Long-term after-tax returns on bonds rarely exceed inflation, and therefore, are not wealth generating investments.
To learn more about FWM’s Capital Preservation, Capital Growth, and Custom Strategies, see Our Expertise.
The FWM Difference
Most advisors ask clients to complete risk tolerance surveys in order to categorize them as aggressive, moderate, conservative, etc. Clients in the same risk category are then generally recommended to invest according to the same “model portfolio”, which typically employs a fixed asset allocation split between stocks and bonds (and sometimes other investments).
This cookie-cutter approach has two key shortcomings. First, clients’ self-assessed risk tolerances can be too low or too high for their own good. Doctors don’t depend on patient self-assessments; neither should financial advisors. Second, model asset allocation portfolios are average solutions for average needs. They are impersonal tools that often gloss over the specific timing of a client’s financial needs. FWM believes that asset allocation models are often too aggressive for assuring that short-term financial goals are funded and too conservative for helping clients achieve long-term financial goals.
Our Approach
FWM’s advice is customized for your unique financial situation, with risk management being our core focus. We define risk in a very personal way – the possibility of you falling short of your financial goals. We believe that helping you to lessen the likelihood of financial shortfalls can lead to greater financial peace-of-mind.
FWM’s advice and investment strategies are specifically designed to help you have the money you need when you need it. Importantly, we believe it’s critical to identify financial needs and aspirations not just in dollar amounts, but also to pinpoint when money will be needed.
Achieving Short-term Goals
In FWM’s view, the biggest risk to achieving short-term personal financial goals occurring within the next 1-10 years is not having cash available when it is needed. To minimize this risk, we encourage clients to have appropriate insurance and a “rainy day” fund to protect against unexpected financial drains, and then to build their savings pool as necessary.
FWM invests those short-term savings in our Capital Preservation Strategy. This strategy employs liability immunization to create a customized portfolio of income-producing securities geared toward providing cash when needed. FWM believes the risk of loss is too high to invest in stocks for short-term goals.
Achieving Long-term Goals
In FWM’s view, the biggest risk to achieving financial goals occurring beyond the next 10 years (such as retirement) is not having accumulated enough financial assets to provide cash when needed in the future. To minimize this risk, we encourage clients to build their long-term savings, especially in tax-advantaged plans such as IRAs, 401Ks, HSAs, and 529s.
FWM invests those long-term savings in our Capital Growth Strategy. This strategy uses quantitative analytics to create globally diversified equity portfolios aimed at providing long-term returns that are superior to market averages on a risk-adjusted basis. FWM believes that investing in stocks is by far the best way to accumulate wealth that exceeds inflation on an after-tax basis. Long-term after-tax returns on bonds rarely exceed inflation, and therefore, are not wealth generating investments.
To learn more about FWM’s Capital Preservation, Capital Growth, and Custom Strategies, see Our Expertise.
The FWM Difference
Most advisors ask clients to complete risk tolerance surveys in order to categorize them as aggressive, moderate, conservative, etc. Clients in the same risk category are then generally recommended to invest according to the same “model portfolio”, which typically employs a fixed asset allocation split between stocks and bonds (and sometimes other investments).
This cookie-cutter approach has two key shortcomings. First, clients’ self-assessed risk tolerances can be too low or too high for their own good. Doctors don’t depend on patient self-assessments; neither should financial advisors. Second, model asset allocation portfolios are average solutions for average needs. They are impersonal tools that often gloss over the specific timing of a client’s financial needs. FWM believes that asset allocation models are often too aggressive for assuring that short-term financial goals are funded and too conservative for helping clients achieve long-term financial goals.