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Investment Planning

 

With so much conflicting advice in the news, online, even from friends and family, making sound investment choices is difficult.  Not only are you trying to make decisions based on the current market and economic reality but also in the context of your unique investment timeline and goals. It's been our experience that investors are looking for more than just portfolio performance.  They are interested in Fee Transparency, investment choices and a plan. 

 

Our fundamental belief is that investment planning should always be done in the context of the overall construction of your wealth plan.  It's a vital component to the development of your investment strategy.

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At Humphries Wealth Group, putting together an investment strategy, without understanding your overall financial and personal goals is like putting the cart before the horse.

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Knowing your WHY is extremely important and tends to be an anchoring force of the whole strategy.   We can then build a portfolio that supports your goals.  Have you asked yourself the following questions?

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  • At what age would you like to retire?

  • How much you'd like to travel in the future? 

  • Will you be helping kids or grand kids with University costs?

  • Is your plan to leave an inheritance to your family?

  • Do you want to be able to buy a cottage or pass down a cottage?

  • Any big foreseeable expenses coming up in the next 5, 10, 15 years?

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Our view is that a proper investment strategy is never done in a vacuum isolated from the goals you are trying to achieve.  Our strategy is centered around your goals.  Once the goals are established, our customized and comprehensive investment services provide clarity on such questions as:

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  • What kind of return do I need to achieve to fund my financial goals?

  • How do I strike a balance between the level of risk that I feel comfortable with and the level of risk that I need to take to accomplish my objectives?

  • I pay too much tax! How can I structure my portfolio and my financial circumstances to reduce the taxes I pay?

  • I'm confused about investment fees. Is there a service that is transparent on fees and clearly separates the cost of investments from the cost of advice?

  • I am retired and concerned about market risk. How do I invest in order to get a decent yield while at the same time not exposing my portfolio to excessive risk through my retirement years?

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Step One - You need to have a plan. In other words, before we start managing a portfolio/investment strategy, we work with our clients to put together a plan that looks at the intersection points between a number of areas, including; retirement planning, estate planning risk management, tax planning, transition planning, and having a clear understanding of our clients personal circumstances, goals and concerns that they would like to have addressed.

 

As we work through the planning priorities, we help our clients to have clarity on what returns they need to achieve on their investment portfolio to fund their goals.

Investment Planning Humphries Wealth Group

Let's take a look at the steps in our investment strategy process:

Step Two - Identify Influencers -  The second step in the process, is to understand how a client's previous investment and financial experiences have come to inform their default approach to investing. Some of these experiences are helpful and other experiences will get in the way of you achieving your investment goals. We believe that customized planning and education are critical to the process of making informed and high probability decisions.

 

Step Three - Layout your plan - Once we have crafted a plan and taken into account how a client's experiences inform how they approach investing, we then prepare a personalized Investment Policy Statement (IPS). The IPS is a plan for YOUR portfolio. This plan deals with many important areas, including:

 

  • Confirmation of the level of financial risk you are comfortable with.

  • Any short-term liquidity needs that you have that will be funded from the portfolio (vehicle upgrade, new roof, vacation, etc.

  • Any ongoing income needs from the portfolio

  • Investment time horizon

  • The return goals for the portfolio and the level of risk attached to the portfolio.

  • Tax strategies attached to the portfolio.

 

Click the following link to download a sample *Evolution IPS

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Step Four - Build According to Plan Specs -  Once we have arrived at step four we have done our homework, and we are ready to start using investment securities to build a portfolio uniquely blended to be consistent with your investment risk tolerance and your unique wealth planning objectives.

 

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Our securities brokerage platform provides us with a full range of investment options for every client situation. Investment options could include:

 

  • Professionally Managed Fee-Based Accounts

  • Mutual Funds

  • Exchange Traded Funds (ETF's)

  • Individual Stocks

  • Individual Bonds and Mortgages

  • Real Estate Investment Trusts (REIT's)

  • GIC's/Term Deposits

 

A client's unique goals, time horizon, and risk temperament will have a large influence on the mix of investment solutions used to construct the portfolio.

 

Fee for Service - We manage portfolios and provide on-going wealth planning advice using a fee for service model. This model provides fee transparency, accountability and is customized to the client's situation. 

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Step Five - Ongoing Review and fine Tuning -  Over the medium to long-term, this is the most important part of the process - ongoing reviews and fine-tuning. Over time, capital markets will change, your goals will shift, and there will be tax changes that can affect the structure of your portfolio. Because of this, it's critical that the portfolio is reviewed on a regular basis and adjusted as needed.

 

Gardening is an excellent analogy for the investment process. The garden starts with establishing a great bed, quality seeds, and the necessary nurturing to ensure gardening success. It's the same way with your portfolio. Having a plan, and doing the research, establishes the right foundation. Choosing the investments for the portfolio is like selecting seeds for your garden. You want quality to improve the probability of investment success.

 

Along the way, you need to weed the garden,  prune and harvest growth. It's the same with your portfolio. Weeds will pop up in the form of economic downturns and market fluctuations. And from time to time, some investments may need to be replaced by other investment options that hold more promise for the portfolio. Eventually, your discipline and patience are rewarded with profits. From time to time your profits need to be harvested (protected) and reallocated to crops (investments) that provide better value.

 

Looking for a second opinion? We would be happy to review your portfolio and offer ideas on potential areas for improvement. Feel free to reach out to us for a free consultation. Contact us 

 

 

*   ®Evolution is a registered trademark of CI Investments Inc

 

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