Northwestern Mutual
About
Face it. you can get traditional, low-fee management anywhere, if that is all you are looking for. However, you are a person, not a portfolio. Our clients hire us because we also serve as their guide, their guru, and their guardian.
Guide: we create a workable plan to help you get to your goals. What’s important to you? What do you want to be a part of your life and your future?
Guru: we know retirement issues, and we can take care of details like asset location, asset allocation, tax loss harvesting, etc.
Guardian: we advocate for your future self and remind you that we have already called the plays when the markets turn against you. Don’t just mitigate risks but position yourself to take advantage of them.
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Although it’s difficult to quantify the value of advice, recent studies from Vanguard, Fidelity, Morningstar, and others have all concluded that getting financial advice can add as much as 4% to your potential returns, even after taxes and fees. Advisors help their clients maintain a long-term perspective and discipline. As you near and enter retirement, you simply do not have the runway left to recover from expensive mistakes and abandoning a well-planned strategy can be costly.
Most clients come to us having already done some financial planning, either on their own or with other advisors. However, financial planning strategies in retirement should look different from what you’ve done before. Having spent years accumulating your portfolio, how do you spend it? You may want to weigh the risks that are unique to retirement, and which you may not have previously considered. Some things you can do for yourself. Some things are impossible for you to do.
You’re a good reader and you’ve likely done a lot of research already. While some of what you read sounds great, it’s too good to be true. Sometimes, it is not balanced. Sometimes an idea works, but only in certain situations. Other times, an idea works mathematically, but real people lack the intestinal fortitude to use it and still be able to sleep at night.
Our job is to educate you on the things that are unknown and help you find the best possible solution for your unique situation.
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Frequently asked questions
What is your typical process for working with a new customer?
We begin with an introductory phone call to get to know each other and determine if it's a good fit for us to work together. Often, I can offer a good deal of value and feedback even in this first conversation.
The second step is to schedule time for a detailed conversation outlining your unique goals, objectives, and dreams. We'll look at the financial strategies you are using now, your current account balances, and put together an analysis that reflects your life right now, and how we can get you to where you want to go.
Depending on your goals and complexity, we may need to schedule multiple meetings to review your draft planning analysis, verify information, include different scenarios, and make any updates.
When the plan is completed to you r satisfaction, our team will present your completed financial planning analysis. We will then present the steps for implementation. You may choose to implement it with us, or you can take your plan and implement it elsewhere, however you choose.
What education and/or training do you have that relates to your work?
MBA – Fuqua School of Business (Duke)
CFP® – Certified Financial Planner – requires fiduciary standard of care (CFP Board)
RICP® – Retirement Income Certified Professional (American College)
ChFC® – Charter Financial Consultant (American College) (CFP level with additional Estate planning)
CASL® – Certified Advisor for Senior Living (American College) – Non-Financial issues in retirement
CLTC® – Certified Long Term Care (CLTC Board)
CLU® – Chartered Life Underwriter (Insurance planning)
CIMA® - Certified Investment Management Advisor (expected ----2021)
Series 7 licensed
I usually attend between 10 and 14 conferences and seminars each year to keep my skills sharp and compare planning ideas and best practices with national and international colleagues. Additionally, I am a member of the Retirement Income Industry Association which gives me access to the latest academic scholarship and mentorship opportunities.
Do you have a standard pricing system for your services? If so, please share the details here.
We can be compensated either by Fee-Based Planning, by commission, or by Assets Under Management (AUM). All three are popular models and we will work together to determine what is right for you.
Under the Fee-Based Planning model, you pay us to be your “Interim CFO,” sharing our time and expertise to help you create a plan that fits your goals and lifestyle and creates clarity and structure among all the products and accounts you’ve collected over the years. You are then given a blueprint that you can implement how you would like. This fee is determined by the complexity of your planning, based on the information you provide in our initial conversations.
How did you get started in this business?
I come from a family dedicated to service: dad was a primary care doctor and mom was a medical specialist born in China to Baptist missionaries. I graduated with an MBA from Duke and enjoyed a flourishing career as a C-Level executive in the bourgeoning tech companies of the 80s and 90s. After years in the rat race, I realized that what I really wanted was to join my family’s legacy and have a positive impact on people’s lives and my community.
When markets dropped in 2000, I saw firsthand the impact it has on his own financial situation, but also mom and dad's hard-earned nest egg. Years of careful savings and investing were devastated because they managed their respective portfolios in suboptimal ways.
I joined Northwestern Mutual in 2005 and decided to focus on helping people change the trajectory of their retirements, so that they would not make the same mistakes my parents and I made. For me, managing assets is only part of the equation. Financial planning for retirement is really about having a good strategy to get through any downturns so people can go from being worried about retirement to living joyfully and confidently.
What types of customers have you worked with?
First and foremost, I like to work with nice people who value advice.
Primarily, I work with people 10 – 15 years out from retirement or already retired. They are smart and savvy professionals who do not have the time, knowledge, desire, or confidence to determine and deploy the most effective and efficient strategies to generate consistent retirement income.
Beyond that, I often work with business owners looking for tax smart solutions for transfer/sale of business and retirement. I also do legacy planning for all ages and incomes.
If you are not sure if you fall into one of these categories, please go ahead and contact me. I am always glad to have a conversation, and if we are not a good fit I can refer you to someone who is.