OUR SERVICES
INDEPENDENT ADVICE
Chartered is an independent registered investment advisory firm. That means we are not affiliated with or controlled by any outside firm or organization. All the advice we give you comes straight from us, not from the directives of a parent company.
Why does this matter? Because we’re an independent firm, you don't have to wonder if there’s some larger corporation behind us setting sales quotas or pushing products. Instead, we are ultimately accountable to you - our clients - for the advice we give and the service we provide.
RETIREMENT PLANNING
Your Retirement, Our Help®
Whether you're already retired or thinking about a future retirement, there's a lot to consider and many potential pitfalls. For nearly two decades, we've been helping clients make the transition from a regular paycheck to a long-term income plan.
The Working Years
During the early and middle years of your career, retirement may be the last thing on your mind. However, this is a great time to cultivate habits that will serve you well into the future. Avoiding unnecessary debt. Making a budget and sticking to it. Building up an emergency cash fund. Saving regularly to a retirement fund. Diversifying and rebalancing your investments on a regular basis. If you can build these habits early, they’ll pay dividends for the rest of your life.
Pre-Retirement
In the three to five years before you retire, it’s time to get serious about making definitive plans. Projecting your retirement expenses. Evaluating Social Security optimization strategies. Acquiring pension estimates. Reallocating investment portfolios for a shorter time-horizon. These are just a few of the things that require attention before you decide to retire.
Retirement
Once you’ve retired, there’s still plenty to be done. You’ll need to review and revise – or possibly create – a budget for both recurring and one-time projected expenses. If you haven’t started Social Security income, you’ll need to determine which election strategy is best for you. Your investments should be reviewed regularly to make sure they’re still aligned with your goals. You may even need to consider developing a whole new plan depending on how well your current plan is working.
No matter where you are on the road to retirement, we can help you plan for your financial future.
INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT
We focus first on how each investment in your plan is supposed to function. Then we get down to business monitoring and managing those investments for performance.
Evaluation
The first step is evaluating the purpose of the investment. What’s it for? When is it needed? What kind of return is required for it to fulfill its objective? How much volatility is acceptable? A range of possible investments may be considered based on the answers to these questions.
Placement
After careful evaluation of suitable options, a choice is made about where to place the assets. This may be a single product purchase. It may be several products or perhaps a managed advisory account. What’s important is that the product or strategy matches the stated objectives and risk parameters.
Management
The nature of the investment determines what kind of management program is most appropriate. For instance, a managed account requires continuous supervision, while certain annuities require annual evaluation of allocation options. The key is to make sure the management program fits the investment strategy.
Re-Evaluation
Sometimes products or strategies that were appropriate in the past may not be as suitable as currently available alternatives. Though one should be very careful when considering a wholesale change in investment strategy, at times it may be a wise choice. For this reason, regular re-evaluation of products and strategies is an important dimension of a successful investment management program.
As part of our commitment to quality service, we help you through all four phases of investment management.