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Important
Questions That You Should Ask a 1. What is the personal financial advisory firm of Pollock Planning
Associates? Pollock Planning Associates, Inc. is a personal
financial planning firm registered with the Securities and Exchange
Commission as a Registered Investment Advisor under File Number
801-27115. It consists of Steven Pollock
working as needed on a contract basis with clients. It is the policy
of our firm that all individuals providing advice to clients hold a college
degree and also the designation of CFP®, CPA or equivalent. 2. What is a Registered Investment Advisor? An
Investment Advisor is a fiduciary who has a duty of undivided loyalty to its
clients and must deal fairly and honestly with them. Any person or entity that holds itself out
as a financial planner must be registered. A Registered Investment Advisor is
a representative of the client. 3. What does Pollock Planning Associates sell? Sound
financial planning advice regarding taxes, investments, insurance, pensions,
retirement, estate planning and general financial matters. 4. Whom do we serve? Individuals including business owners. 5. Who can benefit most from our services? Anyone
who has financial, tax, investment, or estate issues to attend to, or who
wishes to plan prudently for his or her financial future. Furthermore,
persons who desire a higher, more sophisticated level of financial planning
services may find our program appealing and helpful. 6. How much money do you need to start a financial program? There
is no minimum dollar requirement. We recognize that people with few or no
assets have as much need for financial planning as those with ample assets. 7. What is a financial plan? An in-depth review of your
financial situation, taking into account your goals and objectives and focusing on income tax planning,
asset management, estate planning, risk management, educational planning and
retirement. The plan analyzes and recommends ways that you can achieve your
financial objectives. 8. How much do we charge for planning services? Our
financial planning fees are determined by the client’s income (exclusive of capital
gains), assets, and the complexity of their situation. Most fees
range from $2,000 - $12,000 for our standard open-ended retainer. 9. Do we offer money management?
Yes. But we reserve the
right to select accounts. Assets may be managed by directed portfolios under
a limited power of attorney, with the client retaining custody of all funds. 10. Are the fees tax deductible? Yes,
our fees are potentially deductible. Section 212 of the Internal Revenue Code
permits an itemized deduction for tax and/or investment advice in the
miscellaneous section of Schedule A.
This deduction is now subject to a 2% floor of Adjusted Gross Income. Clients who own their own business, have a
farm or rental property, or who buy and sell investments may also be able to
deduct a portion of the fee on the corresponding schedule. 11. Do we sell financial planning products, such as investments,
insurance, or tax shelters? No. We are fee-only planners. Products
must be purchased from other sources. We will suggest investments that can be
made without paying commissions. Clients’ funds are custodied with 12. When we develop a financial planning program together, are you
obligated to purchase the recommended products? Often,
the products that we recommend to our clients are the same products we
purchase for ourselves, but you are never obligated to purchase any
recommended product. In fact, you are
encouraged to shop for the best available product. 13. Do we only provide complete programs? No.
Although comprehensive financial planning is likely to be most beneficial, we
can limit our advisory services to your specific needs, such as tax analysis
or estate planning. 14. Do we provide legal services? No,
we are not lawyers and cannot prepare legal documents. 15. For what type of securities do we provide advice? While
the core of our clients’ holdings are in no-load
mutual funds, we provide advice on exchange-listed securities and government
and corporate debt securities. 16. What methods are used to analyze investments? We
do not use technical analysis or charting.
Our client portfolios are globally diversified with a weighting
towards small and value stocks. We
take a passive approach both to the management and rebalancing of client
portfolios and the selection of funds within them. Many of our investments are in “index-like”
funds. While these funds do not
attempt to track public indices such as those designed by Standard &
Poor’s and Russell, they are created to capture the returns of a particular
asset class. Our
main sources of information are financial newspapers and magazines, research
materials prepared by others, annual reports, prospectuses and filings with
the Securities and Exchange Commission. 17. Do we guarantee investment performance? No. Every investment contains some degree of
risk. 18. How do you select
investment companies and managers? As described above,
many of our clients’ assets are invested in passively managed index-like
funds. In the situations where we do employ active mutual fund management,
we look for portfolio managers with consistent, long-term, excellent track
records in a particular investment style.
Typically, we like managers who are owners of a management company and
who are not very good at marketing.
What we mean by this is that, generally, we like to look for portfolio
managers that do not have hundreds of millions or billions of assets being
placed under their management annually.
Portfolio managers, especially mutual fund managers that are well
marketed attract too many assets that tend to hold down performance over
time. For example, many of the
Fidelity and Vanguard funds are large, bloated with assets, and invest in
large stocks. Consistently, most of
their funds underperform the S&P500 especially over longer periods of
time. This is especially true of small
stock strategies. We also believe that we
are investing with a manager. In other
words, we are selecting managers, not the actual mutual fund or management
company. Therefore, if a manager
leaves a fund or management company, it is not unusual for us to follow that
manager. 19. What does
discretionary control mean? Discretion means having the ability to trade on
your account without your permission.
This does not mean that our firm has custody. Custody means that we have possession of
your funds. 20. What makes
Pollock Planning Associates different from other financial advisory or
brokerage firms? We take great pride in the degree of personal
service that we provide. We maintain
close, often personal, relationships with the clients that we serve. We are in a position to provide advice on all aspects of a client’s finances while at the same
time assisting them with the implementation
of our recommendations. Our service initiatives are designed to be
unparalleled. No detail of a client’s
finances is overlooked. Reviews of employment
contracts, real estate leases, wills, trust agreements, stock option
agreements, casualty, health and life insurance, non-qualified deferred
compensation agreements, private investments, retirement plan documents…these
are all routine at PPA. We have
frequent interaction with a client’s other advisors such as actuaries,
accountants, attorneys, bankers, insurance agents, and employee benefits
specialists to ensure that everyone is working on behalf of the client. Brokerage firms and money managers don’t
supply this level of “high touch” service. 21. Will client information be kept confidential? Absolutely. 22. When a plan is completed, what then? Since
financial planning is an on-going process, it should not end with the
preparation of the initial plan. We
will provide you further service in implementation, monitoring, and
management of the plan. Beyond this
stage, we normally reach a planner-client relationship which leads to
periodic revisions and updates of your plan as personal and economic
conditions change. This work is
normally done on a retainer basis. 23. How do I get
started? Give us a call and we will see if we can be of
assistance to you. An initial
interview at no obligation would be arranged if the phone conversation
indicates that there is a good fit between the prospective client’s needs and
our ability to fill those needs. Only
if the prospect has financial concerns for which we can provide a helpful
service would we proceed to prepare a fee estimate for consideration. |