Special Advertising Section
Q: How should people select a financial advisor?
A: Our belief is you should choose someone you like, that you could work with long term. You want someone who will be knowledgeable, objective, and independent. You need to look at how that person gets paid and what services they offer. What’s their approach? Their qualifications? Who stands to benefit from the products they’re selling? If the answer is clients, then they’re acting as a fiduciary, and that’s what you want. That’s how we operate at HF Advisory Group.
Ray Hobson, CFP®, HF Advisory Group
Q: More women are finding themselves in the role of breadwinner or family CFO. Does what they seek in an advisory relationship differ from the traditional wealth management experience?
A: Yes! These are bright, capable women. They are seeking a trusted partner, not someone to dictate what to do. They look for exceptional accountability and communication from their advisor.
Are there particular challenges women face in managing their finances?
Women are busy! When it comes to finances, they want an advisor to help simplify their lives and provide them peace of mind so they can focus on what they do best.
Lyn Dippel, JD, CFP®, Principal & Senior Advisor, Bay Point Wealth
Q: Why do I need a good CPA now more than ever?!
A; Historically, anyone that owned a business or was an investor could predominantly benefit from engaging a good CPA. Times have changed in the past couple of years and now majority of individuals might be missing out tremendously by not at least consulting with a CPA. As the accounting world evolves, a good CPA grows with it, adopting new technologies, skills, and best practices to better serve you and help you get the latest tax benefits. Whether it’s implementing newly introduced credits and deductions, helping you reduce the adjusted gross income to qualify for more tax breaks, or completely restructuring your financial and tax blue print; that’s all in the scope of work of a good CPA and it all starts with proactive planning.
“Its’s not what we don’t know that prevents us from succeeding, it’s what we know that just ain’t so that is our greatest obstacle” –Josh Billings
Marina V. Painter, CPA, Ally Tax Group, Inc.
Q: How do I make my money work for me?
A: While continued saving in a traditional savings account is needed for your short term goals and emergency spending; a longer, more disciplined approach can help you to truly build wealth. Investing on a consistent basis gives your money the chance to grow at rates not seen in savings accounts in recent history.
The S&P 500 index dates back to the 1920’s and has returned a historic annualized average return of 10.5% since its inception in 1957 through 2021. That time period has seen good markets, it has seen bad markets and it has seen ugly markets. However if you invested on a consistent basis, you have the potential for your money to grow faster than if it were in a savings account because of higher rates of return and compounding of your assets.
While I am not telling you to match your investments with the index, choosing the investments according to your goals and risk tolerance is key. Wealth building truly takes time, discipline and not trying to time the market. Once you have all that wealth built, then you can truly live off of it.
Indices mentioned are unmanaged and cannot be invested into directly.
Elizabeth Bennett, CFP®, MBA, Chesapeake Financial Planning & Tax Services, LLC
Q: What makes your firm unique?
A: Our most unique offering is personalized 401(k) account management for individuals. This service helps clients manage what for most is their largest retirement asset—and we do so for a low monthly subscription fee—think Netflix for your employer retirement plan. We want to help investors fully utilize the tools they are given at their workplace, in order to help them efficiently plan for their retirement. We strive to make financial planning very approachable in an industry that can sometimes feel like quite the opposite.
Gregory Ostrowski, CFP®, CRPC®, BFA™, Managing Partner, Scarborough Capital Management
Q: How Can Financial Planning Help Me?
A: Long term life goals require a road map! A Financial Plan developed by a Certified Financial Planner (CFP®) professional can help you create a personal budget, control expenses, and develop and implement plans for retirement, education, and/or wealth protection. A CFP® professional can also offer expertise in risk management, including strategies involving life and long-term care insurance, health insurance, tax planning and managing your asset portfolio based on your goals. Establishing a financial plan not only make good sense but it offers you peace of mind and confidence to be able to reach your goals.
Chris Parks, CFP®, LPL Financial Advisor, Wye Financial Partners
