Investments

At Dempsey Weiss, our team of experienced wealth managers and legacy professionals brings a well-balanced, stewardship-centered approach to financial planning. We provide individual investors, small businesses, and nonprofit organizations with quality financial advice and a well-balanced, common sense approach to strategy and implementation.

By providing financial guidance with integrity and expertise, we believe we can impact the lives and financial well-being of you and those you cherish. Get in touch today to learn more about what makes us uniquely suited to serve as your financial partner.

Knowing where you stand can offer great peace of mind or may cause your to change how you spend, save, invest and protect your assets. Your Retirement Plan includes recommendations regarding the allocation and management of assets earmarked for retirement, your savings rate, and social security options.

To determine if you are on track, we discuss your plans and dreams, expected income needs in retirement, and life expectancy. We discuss your comfort with changes in value of your overall portfolio (i.e. volatility) and your budget habits.

To learn more about how we can help you plan for retirement, click here. (no link)

A Comprehensive Financial Plan describes your financial situation in detail, including your financial assets, goals and objectives, challenges, preferences, and investment time frames. We will review your situation in depth and creates a “blueprint” of approaches you will implement together to help ensure you achieve your life goals. These approaches are described in your Financial Plan document.

Once the Financial Plan is in place we work with you to implement, monitor, and update your Plan, as needed. Plan modifications may be required when major life events occur, such as, retirement, births, marriages, deaths, divorce, health issues, large purchases or sales, etc. that may affect your financial situation. We stay in close contact with you to stay abreast of your dynamic financial life.

Your Plan may include strategies to replace your salary during retirement; budget properly (spend and save); educate children/grandchildren; pass along your assets during your life and after death (estate & legacy planning); manage your investments; and protect your assets from undue risks (among other items).

We not only take the time to fully understand your needs and investment objectives but we also spend a considerable amount of time educating our clients on the investment strategy being employed in their portfolio, risk/reward trade off of each investment holding, and the performance of their portfolio versus the applicable benchmark.

We conduct regular, ongoing investment review meetings where we contact you to setup the meeting. These periodic meetings allow our clients to better understand how their assets are being managed and it also provides us with the opportunity to assess if there have been any changes in our client’s circumstances that would prompt us to change the asset allocation of their investment portfolio.

Funding a college education for your children or grandchildren is an investment that will pay dividends for a lifetime. We provide you with the estimated average tuition and fees for private or public colleges or for specific colleges and discuss the college experience you envision for the child. With your vision in mind, we review your accounts that have been earmarked to pay for college, potential financial aid, and/or scholarships. Based on your goals we assess whether there are any gaps in your saving and/or investment approach and recommend changes to your strategy. When your student is about to enter college, we will assist you with the Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) application process.

It is important to invest early and often due to the ever increasing college costs. According to the College Board, the average cost of tuition and fees for the 2013–2014 school year was $30,094 at private colleges, $22,203 for out-of-state residents attending public universities, and $8,893 for state residents at public colleges. Inflation of college expenses is unpredictable. It was 2.9% for in-state tuition and fees for public four-year colleges in 2013-2014, 4.5% in 2012-2013 and 8.5% from 2011-2012.

We will provide guidance to help you (and your spouse/partner) to ensure that your life, disability, long term care, property & casualty and health insurance coverages are sufficient to cover your risks and achieve your goals. The primary objectives are to help protect your assets, cover extraordinary costs, and provide for your heirs. We will consider your current coverages and consult with you regarding any needed modifications.

Estate Planning helps to ensure that your assets are transferred to your beneficiaries before and after your death, consistent with your wishes. Dempsey Weiss will review your retirement needs, insurance coverage, real estate holdings, investment assets, trusts, and other assets. We will work closely with you and your estate attorney to implement a personalized Plan with some or all of the following objectives:

• Protect your assets from high long-term care costs and provide for your family should you become disabled of die.
  
• Maximize the value of your estate by minimizing potential taxes, death, and other expenses.
  
• Ensure estate settlement process will be as simple and efficient as possible for your executor/executrix and/or trustee.
  
• Ensure that your assets are transferred to individuals and organizations you choose.
  
• Make gifts of assets to beneficiaries during your life to reduce your taxable estate.
  
• Ensure that you have an updated Last Will and Testament, Healthcare Proxy, and Power of Attorney.
  
• Ensure that you have updated beneficiary designations and financial institution Power of Attorney documents in place.
  

Taking a “family office” approach, we seek to develop a deep understanding your family situation, your financial objectives for your family members, potential conflicts and concerns, and requirements for family member financial education. If possible, we like to get to know your family members and/or your Executor/Executrix personally, to help foster optimum communication with major events occur.

Our commitment to our clients is demonstrated through successfully pursuing professional designations. The Chartered Life Underwriter (CLU) and the Chartered Financial Consultant (ChFC) designations mean that we have met rigorous education, examination and ethics requirements. Moreover, we have the expertise that can only take place from practicing a profession. We have helped navigate clients through all kinds of economies, markets and seasons of life. One of our first statements to a new client is, “we want to understand your financial goals and your financial fears.” Many advisors focus on the assets. We focus on “real life in an ever changing world” with an emphasis on assets.

We are able to provide our clients objective counsel and recommendations through our affiliation with an independent broker dealer. Our broker dealer does not place expectations on us to provide certain investment options manufactured by particular investment intermediaries. This allows us to tailor investment solutions specific to our client’s needs. Our statement of objectivity is simple, “we will always put your interests before our own.”

Many advisors will only accept a client that has several hundred thousands of dollars in investable assets. Our business model allows us to work with investors with smaller investable assets. We believe the smaller investor is entitled to highly competent advise.

We work with clients that have several millions to clients that are working hard to grow a retirement fund or a college savings plan.

Our approach to financial and investment planning is different from many other firms. We use our discipline of many years in the insurance industry to help build a client’s portfolio using risk management tools, while still providing investment opportunities to help them reach their goals. We also work with you to help coordinate your retirement goals with other concerns such as estate and legacy planning.

Our mission is to provide unparalleled service and unsurpassed value to our clients on a timely basis and in a manner that highlights our pursuit for excellence. Our purpose is to do our utmost to help you identify and reach your financial and investment planning goals. We will walk with you every step of the journey.

Securities offered through American Portfolios Financial Services Inc. Member: FINRA, SIPC. Investment Advisory products/services are offered through American Portfolios Advisors Inc., a SEC Registered Investment Advisor. Dempsey, Weiss & Associates are independent of American Portfolios Financial Services Inc. and American Portfolios Advisors Inc.

Have any questions about your financial future? Jack Dempsey and Dave Weiss Sr. will provide you with free, unbiased advice. Just get in touch!