Wealth Management Blog | WrapManager

Rethink your Retirement Strategy with Goals-Based Wealth Management

Posted by Gabriel Burczyk | Founder & CEO

April 17, 2018

Rethink your Retirement Strategy with Goals-Based Wealth Management

An axiom you hear often in the financial world is that “every person’s financial situation is different.” That’s undoubtedly true. What you don’t hear often enough is that every person’s financial goals are different. Goals often tend to get stripped down and over-simplified in the planning process. For example, having a goal of “long-term growth” or “to retire at 65” is useful, but it is not specific enough to build a comprehensive plan around.

The end result is that over-simplified goals often result in over-simplified retirement plans.

Goals-based wealth management is designed to help investors avoid the over-simplification trap. The idea is try to be as specific as possible about each outcome you want in retirement. Just about everyone wants long-term growth. But does everyone want a mountain home in Colorado and to help with the down payment on their grandchildren’s homes? Probably not. Digging into the details matters, and usually reveals quite a lot about what your goals really are for retirement. Once you’ve made a list of goals that’s unique to you, your financial advisor can work backwards to make sure your investment plan addresses each one head-on.

Why High Income Earners Can Still Benefit from a Budget

January 23, 2018

A high-income earner can benefit from a having a budget much like a professional athlete can benefit from having a personal trainer – even though the extra help and attention may not be completely necessary, it can serve to make a good situation even better. Much better. Consider that, simply put, two goals of closely maintaining a budget are to: Minimize waste Maximize efficiency Isn’t that what everyone wants when it comes to your hard-earned dollars? Let’s start with minimizing waste. One of the first steps in creating a budget is to itemize each and every monthly expense you incur. Mortgage payments, insurance, cable and internet, phones, memberships, subscriptions, utilities, food, entertainment, and so on. When was the last time you sat down and closely scrutinized all of these expenses? Doing so could very well reveal fat that needs trimming. [+] Read More

Navigating Your Finances Through Divorce

January 22, 2018

There’s really no way to sugarcoat it – though relationships are often filled with love and beauty, they can also be complicated and sometimes difficult to sustain over time. In recent years, January has earned the dubious honor of being nicknamed “Divorce Month,” as analysis of divorce filings between 2008 and 2011 revealed a spike in divorces in January through March.1 Life changes like divorce or separation almost always call for major financial adjustments, which can often feel like insult to injury. But it doesn’t have to be that way – working with your financial advisor can help you work through the process professionally, and can also prevent emotion from sifting into financial decision-making. That’s key to eliminating some of the financial consequences of divorce. [+] Read More

Fair Weather Money Manager Fan? What Data Tells Us about Short-Term Investments

September 27, 2017

Just about every sports fan knows the joy of rooting for your favorite team when things are going well, when the wins pile up. But the opposite can also be true – in those years when your team is “rebuilding” (which is really a euphemism for losing all the time), it’s easy to jump ship and wait it out elsewhere. If you think sports fans are fickle or “fair weather,” investors arguably take it to an entirely new level. The research firm DALBAR tracked how often investors “switch teams,” or how often they move from mutual fund to mutual fund and/or strategy to strategy. They collected some fascinating data in the research process, and we’ll dig into their findings below. [+] Read More

Do Men and Women Invest Differently?

August 15, 2017

There are countless studies out there trying to answer questions about how – and why – men and women invest differently. Do men tend to take more risks? Are women better at committing to a long-term strategy? Should advisors take different approaches with men and women as a result? A comprehensive study performed by Merrill Lynch offers a somewhat surprising, but also no-nonsense explanation when it comes to finance and investing—men and women aren't all that different. Human beings, no matter what their gender, all share a common trait that can affect how we make investment decisions – our emotions. On the other hand, the strengths of a good investor, such as patience, analytical attention to detail, and long-term focus are common across both men and women. In this post, we will take a look at some of the findings of Merrill Lynch’s research paper, titled “Women and Investing: A Behavioral Finance Perspective.” Perhaps the most important finding of them all, however, comes straight from the lead researcher and Head of Behavioral Finance at Merrill Lynch Wealth Management, Michael Liersch: “What should really drive investment decisions are your financial priorities, and those are very personal. They have nothing to do with gender.” [+] Read More

12 Ways to Define the Investment Goals that Matter to You

July 13, 2017

Being a prudent saver and a savvy investor can help you accumulate the assets you need for retirement. In some cases, that can mean a formula as simple as saving 20% of all your lifetime earnings and hiring a trusted adviser to build you a diversified investment portfolio. But for those who want to take the planning process a step further, it can be beneficial to define the investment goals that matter to you. This exercise can provide you clarity to answer not the question of how to save and where to save, but why to save. [+] Read More

Relationships Strengthen Your Financial Plan

February 8, 2017

If you were asked to give only one answer to the question, “What do you think is the most important quality in a healthy relationship?” what would you say? Our answer: communication. There are, no doubt, other important and necessary qualities in a healthy relationship, like trust, honesty, and commitment to a common goal or end. But it all boils down to the ability to communicate freely and openly. Good communication means being on the same page and working as a team, which in turn makes problem-solving less difficult – and maybe even fun. Think about instances in your workplace or with your spouse/partner where strong communication made everyone happier, more confident, and more productive. There are probably a lot of breakthrough moments that come to mind! Why wouldn’t the same strengths of communication apply to financial planning? Well, they do. [+] Read More

Use Goal-Based Investing to Invest with Precision

December 28, 2016

There is an emerging concept in health care known as “precision medicine.” According to the National Institutes of Health, “precision medicine is an emerging approach for disease treatment and prevention that takes into account individual variability in environment, lifestyle and genes for each person.” In other words, instead of treating an illness with a blanket, ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach, every individual is viewed as unique—which means their treatments are customized. [+] Read More