Are the complexities of accumulating and managing your wealth overwhelming? Brook Capital helps individuals bring order and clarity to their financial life.
You have unique goals and dreams. There are many complex areas that must be considered and managed in order to achieve them. Proper planning and implementation are the keys to your success, and Brook Capital is here to help you along the way.
Financial Plan
We never create one-size-fits-all plans. Our advisors spend hours in conversation with each client, understanding your unique situation, needs and goals in order to create financial plans that are tailored specifically to you.
We start with an initial meeting for us to get to know you and you to know us. We do fact-finding, diving into the holistic aspects of your life, including your financial and personal goals along with your time horizon for major life changes. This is followed by a risk analysis that helps us determine your unique tolerance for risk. Based on all of these factors, we prepare a life-cycle earnings and investments projection to give us a sense of your long-term financial trajectory, subject to various sensitivities. All of these things together inform the personalized investment portfolio and plan that we recommend for you.
Each step in preparing your plan is done in partnership. We never dictate investments or pressure clients to choose one plan over another. We expect your continued feedback and dialogue as we prepare a financial plan that will grow, change and adapt with you.
RETIREMENT
With increased lifespans, fewer traditional pensions, and questionable social security, it's more important than ever before for an individual to take responsibility for their own retirement. Your retirement period could be one third of your life and may take more resources than you think to maintain your desired lifestyle. Fortunately, there are options out there for you to take advantage of:
Employer-Sponsored Savings Plans
Many employers offer a tax-deferred savings plan, such as a 401(k), SIMPLE IRA, SEP IRA, Profit Sharing, or others. Taking full advantage of this ability to grow your money without being taxed on it is extremely important, particularly to receive any matching funds offered by the company.
Individual Retirement Accounts
Outside of a company plan, you also have the ability to contribute to your own tax-advantaged IRA account. These can be either the standard tax-deferred variety or a Roth type account.
Other Accounts
There are many ways to invest for retirement other than 401(k)s and IRAs, and different strategies that go along with each one. The most important thing is to have a cohesive overall strategy for all of your retirement assets, making sure all of your accumulated wealth is working together in concert towards the same goal.
While retirement may seem like a long way away, the earlier you start, the easier it'll be to get there. Once you've finally reached retirement, it's important to make sure your money not only lasts, but also continues working for you. Contrary to what most people believe, your retirement plan doesn't end when you start retirement. As your retirement progresses, conditions and markets will change. By updating your Financial Plan, we can adjust your allocations and tweak the plan to help you remain as steady as possible throughout your retirement.
portfolio
Management
We believe successful investing involves time and discipline as well as a carefully selected balance of investments. As your financial consultant, one of our roles is to help you assess your needs and long-term goals and then work with you to build and manage a suitable investment portfolio.
Some standard investment philosophies include buy and hold investing for the long term, diversifying into different equity asset classes, and regular rebalancing. These ideas have had success in the past measured over long periods of time, but short term volatility as experienced in the 2000-2002 and 2007-2009 periods have shown that this strategy alone may cause painful drops in portfolios.
With this in mind, we have developed additional strategies that may address this issue.
We believe that investors are looking for investments that not only are in line with their risk tolerance, but also adapt to market volatility. Our solution offers a diverse group of portfolios at various risk levels, designed to be fully invested in good markets but adjust to more defensive positions (including going to cash) in severe downturns.
We use a logical, systematic approach to investing rather than relying on emotion. While there is no certainty that any investment or strategy will be profitable or successful in achieving investment objectives, we believe that this active strategy provides investment agility, regardless of market conditions.
INSURANCE
One of the first steps in the financial planning process is to make sure you are protected in the case of unforeseen events. What will your family do if your well-planned financial strategy is still in its earlier stages?
The types of insurance you may need for protection will depend on the specific needs of you and your loved ones. We will explain the many different types of insurance, the benefits and drawbacks of each, and help you determine what types of insurance policies best suit your needs. Because your situation is unique, we'll tailor your plan to protect what is most important to you.
COLLEGE FUNDING
With the media regularly reporting on the skyrocketing costs of higher education, providing for your children's college can be a daunting task. We can help you assess your needs and implement a college investment strategy tailored to your specific situation. There are many investment options available, including 529 college savings plans, Coverdell education accounts, and accounts in the name of your children.
One of the most overlooked aspects of planning for college savings is the impact that funds in each type of account will have on the financial aid formulas used by almost every school. As part of the planning process, we will help you take steps to receive as much outside assistance as possible, in addition to what you've saved.
TAX EFFICIENCY
Without proper planning, taxes can be a significant drain on your investment growth. We can help you choose appropriate account types and investment strategies that balance your need and desire to grow your wealth with your need to minimize the drain of taxation of your investments.
* Note that we are not tax advisors within the definition of US Treasury Department Circular No. 230.
RETIREMENT INCOME
The final piece of the retirement puzzle, after you've accumulated resources throughout your life, is to implement an appropriate withdrawal strategy. This is extremely important, so that you neither run out of money nor live more frugally then you need to. There are also many tax minimization strategies that can be employed, so you get to keep more of what you've earned. We will work with you to position your assets for the dual goals of providing a regular income to you and attempting to continue to grow for years down the road.
SOCIAL SECURITY
For many individuals, Social Security will be a significant source of income during retirement. Choosing when and how to file for Social Security can be a daunting and confusing task. Brook Capital has the tools and expertise to help individuals and couples optimize their Social Security filing to target the maximization of their lifetime benefits. Choosing the optimal filing strategy could potentially provide hundreds of thousands of dollars in additional lifetime benefits.
ESTATE PLANNING
For those who have accumulated assets throughout their life and wish to pass them along to their family or others when they are gone, proper estate planning is very important. Some of the considerations include:
Estate Taxes
Estate taxes can deplete a significant portion of your total estate, sometimes even requiring the forced sale of homes and businesses just to pay them off. A comprehensive plan may minimize estate taxes and allow for more of your assets to pass on where you want them to go.
Probate
Probate is the process that transfers legal title of property from the estate of a person who has died to the heir of that property. It usually ties up property for months, sometimes even a year, and can deplete an estate's value due to legal and court fees. Properly set up accounts, powers of attorney, wills, and trusts can help eliminate the probate process and ease the frustration for your family and other heirs during a particularly difficult time.
Expert Assistance
While Brook Capital can help you develop your overall plan and strategy, we will also work with the appropriate specialists, including estate attorneys and accountants.