OUR PASSION FOR PEOPLE AND PLANNING

At The BF Wealth Management Group, we provide a planning-based approach whose depth and breadth clearly distinguishes our practice and the enduring benefits that clients can enjoy.

As active listeners, we will encourage you share both where you are now in life, and the destination you desire to reach. By empowering our clients through empathy to feel confident in their decisions, our goal is to become your “go-to” resource and sounding board for a vast range of circumstances and decisions. 

We recognize that your life experiences and attitudes toward wealth are unique. That’s why we don’t make assumptions. Instead, we make time to appreciate who you are, how you think, and what’s on your mind. First, however, we will decide together if we’re a good fit for you, and vice versa. Given our highly personalized, multi-faceted process, we want to be sure you can benefit from it.

In early discussions with you (and your spouse or partner) – and over the course of our relationship – we will listen and ask questions: “Tell us about yourselves and your family. When you look at your financial plan, do you think you’ll have enough for what you want?  Is more coming in now, or going out? Where do you call ‘home’ now, and later? What’s your experience managing money? What’s working and what’s not? Why are you here – and why now? How can we help?”

Here are the goals we hear most often from clients. Perhaps yours are similar:

• Retire without compromising their lifestyle or worrying about outliving their income.
• Play a positive role in the financial lives of children and grandchildren.
• Care for parents if and when they need it.
• Leave a meaningful legacy to families and worthy causes that hold up under scrutiny for tax efficiency and achieving long-term success.

In addition to your goals, we will look for “holes” in your financial picture – areas that might not be as developed as they could be. We will ask about your trusts, wills, and other important provisions. Estate planning is another area in which we focus intensely and have extensive skills. When appropriate, we coordinate closely with clients’ CPAs and attorneys to “marry their goals” with tax-minimization and estate planning strategies that allow for optimal results.

Only after these critical steps, will we ask about – and examine – your investments and other assets. We will also analyze your personal and professional liabilities, how you manage debt, and opportunities for you to improve cash flow.

Our clients’ achievements have led to wealth and opportunity. It is incumbent upon us to help manage both, responsibly and in the most respectful manner.

WHAT CLIENTS CAN EXPECT

We believe that your financial success and personal satisfaction are predicated on our ability to cultivate an intimate understanding of your situation, mindset, and motivations. Our process must begin with you.

As a client of The BF Wealth Management Group, you can expect that we will:

• Be authentic, intentional, and transparent. We are fact-driven and want you to be the same.
• Serve your best interests. We will apply a fiduciary standard and act as a responsible steward of your wealth and wishes. 
• Plan for the worst and hope for the best. Why? Because we cannot see around investment corners, your health, longevity, future inflation, interest rates, and taxes. Accordingly, we are conservative in crafting a strategy that addresses your expectations as well as what you don’t expect. 
• Explain what actual outcomes look like. Going beyond spreadsheets and simulations, we will illustrate real-world scenarios and discuss them with you. 
• Talk to you regularly. Most conversations with clients revolve around their families. We will answer your questions and address your less obvious concerns. The more we ask, the more we know. 
• Prepare you in advance for key decisions and try to prevent you from making abrupt financial decisions at the wrong time – especially during periods of volatility or personal difficulty. 
• Do our best work as your needs grow in complexity. We enjoy rolling up our sleeves. The more you ask us to do, the more value we can deliver. 
• Serve as long-term financial allies – standing with and behind you when you need us most. Our ability to serve and desire to help are at the foundation of our offering. It is our intention to become an integral part of your financial life and the financial lives of your family.  
• Travel to see you – across town or across the country.  While we utilize WebEx and Zoom, send emails and call clients every day, we find that face-to-face conversations give us the best indication of their comfort level and confidence.
• Strive to optimize both sides of your balance sheet – assets and liabilities. With real-time knowledge of your full financial picture, we can offer suggestions for decisions like purchasing a home, buying vs. leasing a car, and ways to leverage debt. We also offer easy access to Bank of America for residential and securities-based lending solutions, and can incorporate solutions for managing day-to-day cash flow using checking and savings accounts. 
• Leverage the award-winning research of Merrill and Bank of America, as well as external sources. We will build and manage your portfolio using strategies that incorporate equities, bonds, ETFs, mutual funds, and alternative investments* based on your risk tolerance, liquidity needs, time horizon, short- and long-term objectives, and market conditions. At every opportunity, we will explain your investment allocation, what you own, and why.

*Some or all alternative investment programs may not be in the best interest of certain investors. No assurance can be given that any alternative investment’s investment objectives will be achieved.

*Institutional Investor magazine announced BofA Global Research as one of the Top Global Research Firms in 2022 based on surveys held throughout the year. The magazine creates rankings of the top research analysts in a wide variety of specializations, drawn from the choices of portfolio managers and other investment professionals at more than 1,000 firms. BofA Global Research is research produced by BofA Securities, Inc (“BofAS”) and/or one or more of its affiliates. BofAS is a registered broker-dealer, Member SIPC, and wholly owned subsidiary of Bank of America Corporation. Learn more about the methodology at Institutional Investor. Rankings and recognition from Institutional Investor are no guarantee of future investment success and do not ensure that a current or prospective client will experience a higher level of performance results and such rankings should not be construed as an endorsement.

Our Approach

Here are the goals we hear most often from clients. Perhaps yours are similar: 

• Retire without compromising their lifestyle or worrying about outliving their income.
• Play a positive role in the financial lives of children and grandchildren.
• Care for parents if and when they need it.
• Leave a meaningful legacy to families and worthy causes that hold up under scrutiny for tax efficiency and achieving long-term success.

In addition to your goals, we will look for “holes” in your financial picture – areas that might not be as developed as they could be. We will ask about your trusts, wills, and other important provisions. Estate planning is another area in which we focus intensely and have extensive skills. When appropriate, we coordinate closely with clients’ CPAs and attorneys to “marry their goals” with tax-minimization and estate planning strategies that allow for optimal results.

Only after these critical steps, will we ask about – and examine – your investments and other assets. We will also analyze your personal and professional liabilities, how you manage debt, and opportunities for you to improve cash flow.

Our clients’ achievements have led to wealth and opportunity. It is incumbent upon us to help manage both, responsibly and in the most respectful manner.