What does it mean to be a fiduciary?
A fiduciary is a person or organization that guarantees the duties of good faith and trust. It is the highest legal duty of one party to another. Fiduciaries are bound ethically to act in their clients’ best interests.
Why should I hire a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™?
A CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ has competency and experience in all areas of financial management. All CFP® professionals have met rigorous qualifications for financial planning by completing courses of study in over 100 integrated financial planning topics. As part of their certification, CFP® professionals commit to high ethical standards and are required to complete continuing education that include a CFP Board-approved Code of Ethics course.
What are the fees for your services?
As a fee-only financial planning firm, the advisory fee includes initial and ongoing financial planning coupled with portfolio management services, and is based on a percentage of your assets we manage. We will re-calculate the asset value as the basis for the fee twice per year, on December 31st and June 30th.
Do I need a minimum amount to work with Montis Financial?
In general, we do not require a minimum dollar amount to provide our advisory services. However, to maintain a high level of service and portfolio customization, the minimum quarterly fee is $2,500, which includes all of our services.
Do you offer by the hour planning?
We currently do not offer by-the-hour planning. Our goal to develop a trusting, long-term relationship that will allow us to deliver personalized advice on an ongoing basis.
What is your investment philosophy?
At Montis, we believe the most important consideration for clients is wealth preservation; therefore, we believe the most important question regarding investment portfolios is “how much risk should I be taking based on my individual goals and needs?” If too much risk is taken, preservation of wealth is threatened. If too little risk is taken, achievement of financial goals is threatened. Our Risk-Based Investing (“RBI”) process is centered around three pillars: (i) portfolio volatility, (ii) returns, and (iii) tax management. Our investment philosophy takes an institutional approach prioritizing management of portfolio risk to most efficiently allocate that risk across a diversified range of investment vehicles, seeking to generate returns as risk-efficiently as possible. Most investors are taught that diversification mainly reduces risk, but with focus on a targeted level of risk as the priority, one can use diversification to increase expected returns while maintaining that intended level of risk. The retail investment management industry is very focused on one outcome – what was the return of a portfolio. We believe there are two equally important concerns (i) what was the return of a portfolio, and more importantly (ii) how much risk was used to generate that return.
Our approach utilizes the principles of Modern Portfolio Theory to design portfolios intended to be well-diversified across asset classes in a tax-efficient manner. We use institutional-share-class mutual funds and exchange-traded funds (ETFs), as well as select private investments, to shift the focus away from the choice of individual securities toward the efficient allocation of capital across a broad range of asset classes.Will you coordinate with my other professionals (CPA, Attorney, Insurance specialist)?
When requested to do so, we are experienced coordinating with your other professionals to help ensure every component of your financial life is working in harmony.
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*Please Note: Limitations. The achievement of any professional designation, certification, degree, or license, membership in any professional organization, or any amount of prior experience or success, should not be construed by a client or prospective client as a guarantee that he/she will experience a certain level of results or satisfaction if Montis is engaged, or continues to be engaged, to provide investment advisory services. The scope of any financial planning and consulting services to be provided depends upon the terms of the engagement and the specific requests and needs of the client. Montis does not serve as an attorney, accountant, or insurance agent. Montis does not prepare legal documents or tax returns, nor does it sell insurance products.