Our Services
Working together with our clients, we create a blueprint for financial sustainability and growth.
Are you Ok?
We begin by seeking out a comprehensive understanding of our clients' finances - where they currently stand and where they're going. We have generations of expertise in risk assessment and mitigation, and our clients have benefited from our experience for nearly 70 years.
We start by carefully examining everything in our client's life with a dollar sign attached to it. We pay careful attention not just to their current financial situation, but also looking to the future to address your goals, aspirations, fears, and concerns to assess the risks and opportunities ahead of you. We give our clients a tool to visualize various future scenarios and trends to see the impact that changes, market forces, and competing decisions can have on our clients and their family's well being. Through on-going re-evaluation we track our client's progress toward their goals. No matter what happens throughout your life, you'll always have a pulse on your financial health.
It's More than Wealth. It's Your Legacy
Careful estate planning and asset protection is important at any level of wealth. Factors can change at federal, state and even local levels. Each of these governing bodies can play a role in a client's estate and the impact that taxes may have on their heirs.
It is essential to assess your situation in several high-risk scenarios: the death of you or your spouse, significant legal judgment, divorce, or a serious health issue. Using your current financial condition, documents, insurance, and family situation, we analyze the impact of these events on your estate taxes, cash flow, income, wealth transfer and family dynamics. We then collaborate with you and your advisors to build and implement a comprehensive strategy that works for you and your heirs. No matter what the future brings, you'll have a plan in place.
Risk Matters
For many of our clients, it's critical that their money is working efficiently and in a prudent, sustainable fashion.
First, our independent approach of Investment Analysis and Management requires an in-depth understanding of your entire financial situation. We continue by applying our proprietary Discretionary Wealth Analysis in order to assess the appropriate amount of portfolio risk while still achieving the goals that are important to you. The optimal asset allocation is then developed using the most recent academically supported, mathematically-based methodologies to maximize the opportunity for returns within each risk level.
The final stage involves building a portfolio structure that is strategic in its asset allocation, yet responsive to market volatility. Never has this need to be nimble been more on display than over the last decade.
See more at sentinus-am.comFire Drill
Business owners embody the true essence of the entrepreneurial spirit. They strive to understand every aspect of their business and are often looking for the next opportunity to grow and diversify. It's been their passion and often the source of their wealth. As a result their businesses become an extension of themselves and there is a real fear of relinquishing control in a manner that is not on their terms.
Business owners essentially have three options available to them upon exiting their business: keep the business in the family, sell it to outsiders or liquidate it. Liquidation is generally the default. We create a fire drill aimed at answering the question of what happens to the business in the event of a myriad of stress scenarios, including premature death, disability and retirement. It's often eye opening. The effect of these stresses on revenue, expenses, benefits, employee retention and profits give you an accurate overall assessment of the total impact on your business. This process uncovers issues and opportunities, improves communications with other members of the business and family, and can help identify next generation leadership in order to address the complexities of choosing the correct option for your closely held business.
An Arrow in Your Quiver
Insurance is a unique financial tool employed by most individuals. However, many insurance portfolios have been accumulated over a long period of time, for various reasons and from different companies and agents. Many times these policies are out of date or have conflicting tax, beneficiary and ownership considerations that can prove detrimental to the original intent of the protection.
The bottom line is that insurance is a financial tool. Nothing more, nothing less. There are times when it makes sense to transfer risk from your family to the insurance company and there are times when it makes sense to self-insure. In every case, however, a client should know their options, especially as their needs and resources change over time. As is the case with most tools, insurance properly applied in a customized and creative manner can provide exceptional benefit to a client situation, but when used without care, can prove to be an expensive liability.
Enlightened Self Interest
After answering the critical questions of "Am I okay?" and "Is my family okay?" many clients may ask, "Is my community okay? They ask this question not only because of their strong desire to benefit a worthy cause but because their estate and income tax situations are frequently altered in a positive manner. This enlightened self-interest can help develop a legacy.
The spectrum of charitable strategies available to clients ranges from straightforward annual gifts, sophisticated trust structures, to setting up family foundations. A careful examination of your objectives and a complete financial picture can help match the right approach for your personal situation.
