Unique challenges and opportunities
As a practicing attorney or law partner, you have some unique challenges and opportunities. Learn how Oliver Wealth helps professionals like you create a more confident financial future.
Getting On Track
Meet Matthew. Matthew is a Senior Associate at a medium-sized firm. His wife, Maria, a Human Resources Manager, has taken time off to care for their two young kids. Between long hours and family life, there’s little free time for thinking about future financial strategies. Still, they both wonder what they should be doing now to set them all up for a secure future.
Matthew’s earnings are strong. He contributes to his 401(k), but it seems that lately, the money left over goes out as fast as it comes in. Between paying off remaining student loan debt, mortgage, child and car expenses, they struggle to put more money away. They seem to be paying a lot of taxes and wonder if they can save there. All of these factors make them both feel disorganized financially, which adds stress to their busy lives.
When they first met with Oliver Wealth, their OWM advisor worked with them intensively upfront to create a comprehensive financial plan. This plan helps them to feel more organized and less stressed and creates a clear plan of action. Over time, their advisor helped them optimize various areas of their financial lives:
- OWM helped them refinance their student loan debt with a private lender, saving them significant amounts each month.
- They worked on identifying ways they could save on taxes, which included establishing a spousal IRA, health savings account and a 529 college savings plan. The savings from these moves were used for additional long term investments, so they could get compound interest working in their favor.
- It was discovered that their investments were overly concentrated in large-cap stocks. Their investments were restructured to better diversify their holdings.
- Their OWM advisor analyzed their insurance needs and helped them adjust their policies so they were not taking too much risk (or overspending on too much coverage)
- They worked together to create an estate plan so that everything was in order in case something happened to Matthew or Maria.
- Now they meet quarterly, either in person or by phone and review the couple’s entire financial status. They discuss the market and changes are made to help ensure their investments stay in line with their risk.
Protecting What You’ve Built
Meet Yolanda. Yolanda is a partner at a large firm. She has two grown sons who are starting families. She enjoys a very strong income, although it can vary dramatically over the year. Since she’s so busy with her duties as a partner, however, she rarely has time to think about her personal future. She keeps most of her investments in mutual funds through a broker who doesn’t call her unless she calls him.
When Yolanda first came to Oliver Wealth, she was looking for help with investments. She had gotten hit hard in 2008 and didn’t want to lose all her recent gains during the next bear market. Her OWM advisor worked with her initially to develop a financial plan and found many areas where she had some blind spots. One was estate planning. There were opportunities for her to protect assets, which is vital in case of excess liability in malpractice suits, and at the same time save on taxes. She also wanted to leave a legacy for her family and for the dog rescue nonprofit she’s involved with. She worked with another lawyer once and he laid out a strategy but left it to her to implement, so it never got put in place.
Gradually, her advisor helped her work on these areas of her financial life:
- First, they worked together to prepare a comprehensive financial plan that mapped out her future goals and a path to achieve them. It included taking a sabbatical and a future time where she would transition to working part-time.
- They worked on identifying ways she could save on taxes and achieve her goals.
- Since asset preservation was more important to her than continued accumulation, they worked together to restructure her investments. They lowered her risk level overall, which allowed her to continue to get conservative growth but help avoid big drawdowns during market declines.
- They revisited the estate plan. Some adjustments to strategy were made, but once she approved it, her OWM advisor coordinated with her attorney to get it implemented successfully.
- Now they meet quarterly, either in person or by phone and review her financial status. Recently, they held a meeting that included her sons to update them on her estate plan, and also to allow her sons to start focusing on their own financial planning, too.
The person and personal story depicted are fictitious but the scenarios summarize financial situations and considerations that clients may face.
