MWM Process

We’ve worked hard to create a process designed to listen to our client's goals and aspirations, gather information, evaluate and recommend solutions, implement solutions and constantly monitor to make sure you are on track for success.  The 3 Phase process is as follows:

 

3 phases

Goal Discovery Meeting

We will spend 45 minutes (in person or virtually) discussing the things that matter most to you and the concerns you have that might prevent your success.  The answers to these questions are different and unique.   We will take detailed notes and inventory of your current assets, liabilities, income and expenses.  Our discussions will direct our path forward through the remainder of our process.

Document Gathering

We will follow up our Goal Discovery meeting with a list of items to gather in preparation for our next meeting.   We utilize secure document management solutions for exchange and also safe keeping of key documents like Wills, Tax Returns and investment statements, for example.  Our next meetings through Phase II of our process will be unique to you.   We may complete multiple reviews in 1 meeting, skip ahead to future meetings, or if any areas aren’t applicable they may be skipped, it all depends on your unique goals, concerns and situation.

Financial Plan and Cash Flow Review

We utilize state of the art financial planning tools to create a cash flow financial plan projecting your future income flows and expense outflows, taking into account your goals and aspirations, where we will discuss 'What If' scenarios using various assumptions.  Your assets and liabilities can be connected through the planning tools which will update values automatically every day, creating a living, breathing balance sheet.  You will be able to have online access and even utilize our secure document storage vault for your important documents.  If you are in the accumulation phase of your life, we will recommend and help you implement a cash flow savings plan.  If you are in the retirement spending phase of your life, we will help you set up an income replacement and distribution strategy that is optimal for you.

Offense:  Investment Portfolio Review

We believe investors deserve a proper return for the risk they are willing to take.  Our job is to determine what risk you are willing to take versus the return you require in order to meet your goals.   We believe wealth is created over time with good financial decisions in all market conditions, not by making big bets on speculative hunches.   We will spend time ensuring 3 major buckets of your portfolio are properly structured:

  • Cash Reserves: 1-2 years of living expenses
  • Growth: Diversified portfolio of growth oriented publicly traded companies
  • Preservation and Income: Combination of fixed income and potential market volatility protection strategies to maximize yield and downside protection

The allocation of your main buckets and the asset allocation within the buckets is 95% of your success and where we spend much of our time monitoring and managing for you.  We’ve partnered with Aptus Capital Advisors, and independent sub-advisory firm located in Fairhope, Alabama, that manages approximately $4.5 billion of assets under management for independent financial advisors.  Founded in 2006, with 7 CFA (Charted Financial Analysts) and a team of portfolio analysts and operations experts, Aptus is truly a large extension of MWM and acts as our firm’s Chief Investment Officer.  MWM has engaged Aptus on an at-will engagement and are unaffiliated, maintaining our separation of duties and independence.  We feel this structure of independence and separation of duties is optimal to help bring the best in-class portfolio solutions together for our clients.

In addition, MWM is not affiliated with any money management, investment or mutual fund company which enables us to truly evaluate all solutions and select those we feel are optimal.   We are not commission based brokers that sell products, except for in the situation where a product, like life insurance for example, is necessary to protect your family.  We view that as a defensive product needed for insurance needs, not to be confused with your portfolio investment needs.

Markets and conditions change from year to year, but generally speaking our portfolio strategies are structured using a combination of exchange trade funds and individual stocks that have been vigorously studied and passing data points.  We utilize Charles Schwab as our primary custodian where we implement our strategies.   You will have secure online access to Schwab, as well as our portfolio performance reporting system to track your personal rate of return versus benchmarks.   And we will meet periodically to review the portfolio allocation and performance, compared to appropriate benchmarks, so you are always aware of how your portfolio has performed.  We truly believe we’ve evaluated and created a process and portfolio management system that’s sophisticated and cutting edge, relevant to current, ever changing market conditions, so you can relax knowing your investments are well positioned and secure for the long road ahead.

Defense:  Life, Health, Disability, Property & Casualty Review

Every well thought out financial plan has to make sure we plan for the unexpected.  As Certified Financial Planners, we are well versed in the landscape of insurance solutions to protect your family from catastrophic events.   We also recognize that insurance products are a specialty niche and require industry experts dedicated only to their profession.   Our job is to identify your need, and to help hire and shop for the best products available, to cover your needs, as cost efficient as possible.  We sit on your side of the table through the selection and implementation process.   And we’ve created a large network of experts that we can introduce if you don’t have a subject expert of your own.

Family Legacy:  Wills, Living Wills, Power of Attorney and Trust Document Review

Times change, elected officials change, and estate laws change.  Most folks are very busy in our personal lives and never get around to making sure your estate planning documents are updated, or even created, as your wealth changes and the laws change.  We’ve partnered with the best local and national estate planning attorneys, and will help you think through the proper structure and design to make sure you direct your wealth in the most optimal and fair way to your family.   For business owners, there are additional conversations that we facilitate as we need to help plan for the next ownership transition and make sure there’s a plan in place to fund the value transfer that may need to take place.   Once documents are executed, we are able to securely store them in our electronic vault for safe keeping and become a member of your estate team to help administer your family’s estate in the most difficult time of need.

Tax Minimization:  Annual Income Tax Projection and Reduction Review

Being a CPA, we are in a unique position to be able to serve our clients in a way that most advisors are not able.  We perform detailed income tax projections for clients so you always know where you stand with the IRS come tax filing time.  We have a specialty niche in the ability to help privately owned business executives understand their incentive stock options and restricted shares and can help project and recommend tax minimization strategies in the event of an acquisition.   If you have a CPA, we are able to help them plan your investments and provide portfolio information for tax preparation and planning purposes helping to make their life easier.  And for the tax compliance preparation needs we are able to even prepare income tax returns through our Moyer CPA Group, LLC services.   Everything we do has a tax perspective in mind, including the coordination of your investment portfolio management process that we manage for you.

Monitor Phase III

The final phase of our process is to constantly monitor the plan and make sure all parts are working in coordination with each other.  As your life changes and your wealth grows so does your overall financial planning needs.   We will get together to review each stage of the process and adjust as necessary, and essentially begin again in Phase I when necessary to reset your goals and overall plan.

 

We hope you enjoyed learning about our process and hope you’ll take the next step.  Call us today to begin the process with a no cost or obligation Goal Discovery Meeting.