What Makes Us Different?

We think about investments and planning differently.

Most of the "stuff" of financial planning is best executed and maintained systematically and automatically.  Yet your path through the "stuff" may need to be entirely unique.  Your best course may not be another's.  We can tell the difference.  We believe that we have a view of the financial world that is "older" than most in our field.  It is a careful approach but never timid or fearful.  It is steeped in the wisdom of generations of experience and yet embraces the energy and enthusiasm of youth, its new eyes on the world and ideas.  We expend a great deal of time and effort on education (financial & historical), training, knowledge gathering, discussion and observation in order to keep our saws sharp for you.

We operate under a fundamental set of ideals:

• The client's best interest is our best interest.  If we cannot best provide for an individual client's needs we provide references to other advisors or as appropriate, product providers.
• The client's objectives, resources, feelings, opinions and constraints are paramount.
• Communications must be clear, accurate, purposeful and understandable.

We will communicate about our mistakes as well as our triumphs. Our advisory and performance reporting is complemented by separate and independent custodial reporting, (and they'd better match!)
 
What isn't measured isn't achieved.  While financial plans, investment assets, life insurance and annuity contracts, and other financial vehicles are long term in nature, they must all be monitored and measured frequently and consistently.  It is the neglect of small problems over long periods that create failure.  The purpose of frequent and consistent monitoring and measuring is to create growing knowledge.  It is not intended to encourage frequent changes or imply that they are required to manage an asset properly.  Often, too much "management" is why things don't perform.
 
Our results. please review our RFG Communications page for an overview of our investment management results and our perspective and thoughts at different moments in time.  We are proud of these results.  While these will demonstrate our thinking and the performance of our core portfolio management activities, there is no way to spreadsheet the very best results we achieve for our clients.  The most significant results typically achieved for each client are unique to each client, occur and different times and may or may not involve a specifically investment related decision, the event may be a singular issue in their lifetime, but the impact of these unique events, the decisions made and the care and skill utilized in implementation can be life changing, even for multiple generations.