A Whole New Perspective on Investing
A Whole New Perspective on Investing
The traditional path to saving and investing has been to focus on the future (retirement) and rely solely on numbers and return on investment (ROI). Instead of focusing exclusively on your return on investment (ROI), we shift our focus to your Return on Life (ROL).
Are you getting the best life possible with the money you have now? Is your money being used to improve your life? Our approach to life planning is a way to improve your life and provides you with peace of mind.
We offer a new alternative to managing wealth by combining active financial planning and intentional accountable investing. Our unique life-centered financial planning approach is intended to guide you each step of the way towards maximizing your Return on Life (ROL) and reaching your full potential. We change the way people think about money. We believe that money is not an end; it’s a means to a meaning. When you see things differently, you’d be able to see greater possibilities.
Investors face a dizzying arraying of investment choices. Do they buy stocks, bonds, or commodities? Within stocks, is it growth or value? Should the bonds be investment grade or more speculative? Will commodities be more efficient via ETFs or futures? Begin combining these various options and the possibilities are limitless. Investment management is a complex, time-intensive and dynamic process that requires professional expertise and constant attention.
For many millennials, your twenties and thirties are a time to find your way- and to at least start positioning yourself for future success. Regardless of your current situation, you have the power to control your finances. When we work with you, your goals in life become the lifeblood of everything we do for you. We act as your “personal finance trainer” guiding you to financial health, and money as a tool to live a life fueled by enjoyment and passion. Life is short. Start living your life on your own terms now!
Santa Monica Wealth Management, LLC was founded as a fee-only financial planning and wealth management firm with a focus on delivering a unique experience that far surpasses the industry standard.
Santa Monica Wealth was launched on the belief that people deserve professional comprehensive financial advice without the fear of being sold a product they do not want or need.
We do not receive commissions, rather, clients pay a fee for objective financial advice. We never earn a commission for selling you a product, so you don’t have to worry about the conflicts of interest that can arise in that type of relationship.
We believe that money should not be at the heart of our relationship. That’s why whatever we do, we design it only for you based on your unique situation.
Founder and Portfolio Manager
I started Santa Monica Wealth Management, LLC to bring a unique alternative to the traditional wealth management approach to those who need it most. After practicing public accounting for a number of years with the largest CPA firm in the world, I decided to get into the investment management business.
When I started in the investment management business, I worked at one of the largest investment firms in the country. I can’t count how many times clients and prospective clients asked me, “How do I get paid?” At the risk of putting them to sleep, I would at least attempt to explain our 18-page compensation disclosure booklet. The result? My clients told me they greatly appreciated my attempt to provide transparency in an extremely nontransparent business. My clients trusted me and that was the most important thing to me. However, I also suspected my long-story explanation wasn’t making sense to them and they were always a little skeptical of that fee structure model.
When we say fee-only, we mean fee-only. PERIOD.
Get more assurance that our advice comes with a fiduciary oath because we receive no commissions, referral fees, or any other hidden fees.
Isn’t life more than just numbers and spreadsheets? Intentional Life Planning should also be more than numbers and your personal rate of return. Intentional Life Planning is a holistic process that helps you live the life you want to live in connection with your values.
Many firms don’t add a real value to their clients. The traditional school of financial advice can be summed up in “Here’s your plan. Trust me, 30 years from now you’ll be really thankful you did this.” Like “spend less, save more, invest in these funds” kind of thing.
You could always be saving more, investing more, and spending less. But does doing so make you feel any happier?
If you’re fixated on “having enough money,” then your plan, and the life it provides you, will be stuck in a cul-de-sac. You’ll find yourself trying to justify every financial decision as you circle around and around wondering if you “have enough.”
The challenge is how we can use the money we have to get a better Return on Life (ROL). That’s why it’s so important we focus on Return on Life right now. After all, what’s the point of having money and not getting a life benefit from it?
There is no greater freedom, and no greater wealth, than living the best life you can with the money you have.
With our unique accountable investment management, when markets fall, we want you to know that we’re all in this together. That is why we waive our monthly management fee anytime your account value falls below the previous month end value.
Long-term success requires discipline, patience, and the ability to look beyond the short-term noise that drives the day-to-day fluctuations in the financial markets.
Investors too often concentrate on the potential upside of an investment while failing to take the appropriate steps to protect their downside. Risk management cannot be overlooked.
We manage our clients’ money based on the underlying principle that it doesn’t matter what returns you earn if you give it all back in the next market correction.
We begin our process by learning about your investment objectives and your current portfolio in an initial meeting. How have your past experiences shaped your tolerance for risk? What is the time horizon for the investment portfolio? What are your expectations from an independent advisor like us?
We also explain to you our investment philosophy and our current strategy, so that you understand how we operate and what we think.
If you would like to engage our services, we’ll draft your investment policy statement that outlines your objectives, our responsibilities. It will define the acceptable range of exposure to each asset class and the targeted rate of return for the portfolio.
Then we will start implementing our recommendations to align your account holdings with our investment strategy. We monitor and adjust your account holdings on a consistent basis, measuring performance and comparing results to targeted rates of return.
What we offer is more like a partnership. You can rely on us as somebody who’s there more as a coach than as someone telling you what you should be doing.
We understand that you may also be burdened with a staggering amount of student debt and have had difficulty finding a job or boosting your salary during and after the Great Recession. All those factors mean that the conventional financial wisdom that worked for older generations may not work for you anymore.
Traditionally, financial firms have emphasized the management of assets. But the average young professional, just starting to ascend the corporate ladder, won’t have much. Unlike those firms; instead of telling you what you have to do, we ask you the right questions, brainstorm with you so you can solve the problem yourself.
What we do is kind of like what a coach would do for a team. You still are the one who gets to run the ball into the end zone, we’re just the one who is helping strategize different plays to get you there with budgeting, investment management services, and debt repayment plans.
We give you the freedom to choose and tell you it’s OK even though society says you have to pour everything into your 401(k) to retire well. We believe that there are other ways to get you there.
Most financial advisers will set you up to live the life you want at 60, but traveling at 30 is very different from traveling at 60. Living the life that you love may mean following a way that society doesn’t say you should go. We want to meet YOU, not your bank account.
When most people think about financial planning, they immediately think of investment management or “wealth” management. The problem with that is then you might think, “If I don’t have investments or wealth, do I really need a financial planner?”
Comprehensive financial planning is about so much more than investments. Every day you make decisions that affect your financial life with respect to budgeting, large purchases, employee benefits, insurance, and savings. Our holistic approach is customized for your own unique situation according to your personal issues, needs, insights, and goals.
A fiduciary is a person who has a legal obligation to put your interests above their own. If they fail to live up to this standard, they can be sued or prosecuted or both. Most people working in the financial industry are not fiduciaries. By definition, that means they are not required to do what’s in your best interest. They are brokers selling you whatever they could just to generate more commissions. Santa Monica Wealth Management, LLC has chosen to operate as a true fiduciary. How would you feel working with someone who legally obligated to act in your best interests?
It means the only way Santa Monica Wealth Management, LLC makes money is through a fee that we negotiate with you ahead of time. We do not sell financial products and do not accept commission of any kind. Any fees we ultimately receive are paid just by you. No commission, no third-party payments, 100% independent. 100% transparent. We think that puts us on the same side of the table as our clients.
NO. As a fee-only financial planning and investment management firm, our only source of income is from clients. This is to prevent conflicts of interest and allows us to act in a fiduciary capacity 100% of the time we are working together. That’s not the case with many “advisors”. Many of those salesmen/brokers are paid (via commission) every time they sell you a financial product. Your benefit is not the broker’s priority. They just want to sell you as many products as they can (whether or not those products do well doesn’t matter, they already got paid). You can check the FINRA website to see if you work with a broker or a pure fiduciary.
Once we determine the appropriate steps to implement your financial plan, then we work together to find services and products that fit. As an independent financial planning firm, our goal is to find providers that offer superior value and transparency. We seek to find the best solution possible at the lowest available cost. We work with insurance, legal, and tax providers that we believe in. There are times when we have to rely on other people. We have no choice because they have expertise that we need but do not have.
Annual meetings are a requirement for being a client. However, we prefer more frequent contact. Our ability to offer high quality advice is directly related to how connected we are with your life. In practice, quarterly check-ins help keep the relationship proactive, instead of reactive.
You can contact us as often as needed, we are always available and ready to answer questions or meet with your personally.
Most advisors you meet with are typically going to focus on your financial assets- what you have and where it’s invested. Your accounts and your amounts. Their primary focus for is your Return On Investments (ROI).
Our focus instead, is on WHO YOU ARE. Your story, your history and experience with financial issues, your present situation and future considerations.
Our philosophy revolves around maximizing your Return On Life (ROL) vs. your Return On Investment (ROI).
Our life-centered planning model helps you achieve the best life possible with the money they have.
Much of the Return On Investment (ROI) is not within our control. We can diversify investments, but we cannot control how the markets perform or how global events affect the markets.
Life happens. But no matter what happens, or whatever life throws your way, the Return On Life (ROL) model helps you cope with the unexpected.
It’s important to balance your ROI with your ROL.
We help you moving toward using money to live the best life possible with the money you have. Are You Maximizing Your Return on Life? Are you managing your money in a way that improves your life?
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4500 Mercantile Plaza, Ste. #300 Fort Worth, TX 76137