Q
What is financial planning?
Financial planning is the process of creating a plan to align your resources with your goals. Often, this process is completed with the support of a professional financial planner.
At Affiance Financial, financial planning means following our comprehensive financial planning process, the Affiance Advantage™, to:
- Identify Financial Goals
- Conduct a Financial Analysis
- Implement Your Financial Plan
- Construct an Investment Portfolio
- Create a Safety Net
- Plan a Legacy
- Hold Regular Financial Checkups
Learn more in the Our Process section of our website.
Q
What services do you offer?
Our comprehensive financial planning services are tailored to your unique needs. Depending on your situation, they may include:
- Financial goal planning
- Cash flow planning
- Investment planning
- Retirement income planning
- Tax planning
- Education planning
- Risk management
- Estate and legacy planning
Learn more in the Services section of our website.
Q
Do you offer investment management?
Yes. Investment planning, including managing your investments – or investment management, is offered as part of our comprehensive financial planning services.
Q
How do you charge for your services?
In most cases, we charge for our comprehensive financial planning services through an Assets Under Management (AUM) fee. This fee is a percentage of the total value of the investments we manage on your behalf. The percentage starts out higher and reduces as your investments grow. Our AUM fees are negotiated case by case, not to exceed 1.5%.
Q
Do you have a minimum investment account size?
Our investment portfolios are best-suited for accounts over $250,000.
Q
Do you offer a free consultation?
Yes. We are always interested in connecting with new people who might be a good fit for our comprehensive financial planning services. Schedule a free, 30-minute call with an Affiance financial planner today.
Q
Are you a fiduciary?
Yes. As a Registered Investment Adviser (RIA) we have a fiduciary responsibility to act in our clients’ best interest. Additionally, “Act as a Fiduciary” is one of the six core values we rely on to guide our business decisions and drive our day-to-day interactions. Acting as a fiduciary is more than a regulatory obligation, it defines us.
Q
What are your qualifications, licenses, or designations?*
Affiance Financial is a Registered Investment Adviser (RIA) registered with the SEC. Additionally, our financial planners are registered representatives of Private Client Services, which is registered with FINRA.
Our financial planners are licensed to provide investment advice, including holding their Securities Industry Essentials® (SIE®) certifications, Series 7, and Series 66.
Several professional designations are held among our team of financial planners. These include the CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER® (CFP®), Certified Private Wealth Advisor® (CPWA®), and Behavioral Financial Advisor (BFA™) designations.
Q
What is a CFP® professional?
A CFP® professional is a financial planner that has earned the designation of CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™. This designation is earned by meeting rigorous standards in education, examination, experience, and ethics. CFP® professionals commit to serving as a fiduciary, acting in their client’s best interests at all times.
The Affiance Financial Team currently has six CFP® professionals:
Q
What is your investment philosophy?
Our investment philosophy is: We are not bullish, we are not bearish, we are process.
We use systematic processes to guide our investment decision making – to help take the emotion out of investing. We rely on our disciplined processes to provide well-designed, tax-efficient, globally diversified investment portfolios that suit our clients’ individual needs.
Q
Where will my accounts be held?
Our client accounts are custodied, or held, at Charles Schwab. All clients have a login to the Charles Schwab online platform.
Q
Will I have online access to my accounts?
All Affiance Financial clients have a unique and private login to view and access their accounts through the Charles Schwab online platform.
Additionally, Affiance Financial clients have access to our Client Portal, powered by Black Diamond Wealth Platform. This provides online access to personalized portfolio information, investment reporting, and document retrieval including Client Meeting Notes – your Plans of Action, Schwab account statements, and Schwab 1099 tax documents.
*Registration as an investment adviser is not an endorsement of the Company by securities regulators and does not mean the adviser has achieved a specific level of skill or ability.
