Daily trading, managed and monitored by our onsite CFA® professional, means that every dollar you invest is put to immediate use. Because we trade on a daily basis, we can react quickly to the moving parts in your portfolio and keep more of your cash invested.

Tax-efficient Rebalancing is how we maintain the right ratio of stocks and bonds in your portfolio while minimizing the tax hit. Because performance of stocks and bonds fluctuates, we can use new deposits to keep your portfolio focused on the optimal outcome. This differs from “static” rebalancing where existing holdings are sold, which can create a tax liability.

Strategic withdrawals means we’re thoughtful about the tax implications when you need to cash out an investment. We’re able to maintain the proper mix of stocks and bonds in your portfolio while minimizing the tax impact when you request a withdrawal from your account.

Many investment firms try to minimize taxes, but personalized tax management can be challenging if your advisor does not have complete visibility into your overall net worth and cash flow. Your taxable investment accounts (like a brokerage account where you hold mutual funds or ETFs) will incur gains over time as your investments appreciate in value. Those gains are known as short term gains (appreciated investments that you’ve owned for less than a year) and long-term gains (investments you’ve owned for more than a year).

As we make adjustments or changes to your account, we review any trades that might cause a taxable event, and assess other opportunities to improve your account performance without incurring the impact of capital gains taxes. As an example, we could make customized trades with new cash flow to rebalance your account without selling off appreciated stock, or make in-kind donations from your account instead of using cash for charitable donations. In some cases, it could make sense to sell off securities that are currently lower than when you purchased them, incurring a loss. By replacing them at the same time with a security with similar upside potential, we can maintain diversification without trying to time the overall market. No matter how we proceed, your advisor will review any significant taxable event to ensure that changes to your accounts are always thoughtfully implemented.

A retirement plan is one of the most proactive ways to reduce and defer taxes, and to attract the best employees. This could mean a SIMPLE IRA, Safe Harbor 401(k), profit sharing plan, cash balance plans or other pension plan designs. It’s important to get advice from someone who is not incentivized to sell you a retirement plan. In many cases, the timing and type of plan you establish will either accelerate your growth or hold you back. We will provide an independent voice of reason to help you understand all the options available in the marketplace—not just the ones available through a single provider.

As technology and service models change, the best-of-class retirement plans also change. We can work with your existing provider to enhance the investment selection and design of your existing plan, or we can recommend a more optimal solution with a new servicing partner that might be a better fit for your situation. The optimal design is often different for each practice. Every year, we’ll collect a new practice staff census and analyze your retirement plan to see if we can increase your tax deductions. This is particularly important as your collections and personal income reach new levels and higher tax brackets.

As your net worth and liquidity increase, you can borrow against your own investment accounts. As your accounts grow, margin lending can be done at very attractive interest rates which may allow you to pay off loans with less favorable interest rates, like practice debt or student loans, without having to liquidate any of your investments or stop them from compounding. The margin loan can be paid off with your regularly scheduled contributions while your investments continue to grow. This strategy is advanced and requires very detailed communication with your advisor, but for some dentists it can be a very powerful way to eliminate debt and avoid unnecessary capital gains taxes on investment accounts.

When making charitable donations, many of our clients make in-kind donations. By taking highly appreciated stocks, ETFs or mutual funds and donating them directly to the 501(c)(3) of your choice, you can reduce the capital gains you would eventually pay during retirement. Instead of paying charitable contributions with cash, you can work with your advisor to strategically review your account for opportunities to donate your shares. Ultimately this can increase the effective return inside of your portfolio, as long as you replenish securities with the same amount of cash you would have paid to the charity.

As an independent registered investment advisor, we aren’t limited to the investment styles, products, or companies we recommend. Although we have preferred partners that fit many of our investment philosophies (low-cost, broad diversification, and factor-based investing), we have clients with unique preferences or circumstances whom we accommodate alongside our core philosophy. As your income and wealth increase, you’ll likely unlock more investment preferences and interests. We believe that a low-cost portfolio of Dimensional, Vanguard, SPDR, or iShares mutual funds or ETFs, serves as an essential core to your overall asset mix, and for some people that may be all they ever choose to own. But if your final retirement portfolio contains a much more diverse set of investments, including real estate, individual securities, bond ladders, private placements or even an investment in your family burger franchise, you can count on our guidance to help make sure it all comes together within the context of a balanced, liquid and diverse strategy.

We’ll help you understand when the timing is right for you to explore private investments as part of your financial strategy, and give you access to an array of alternative investments—such as private equity, real estate, and venture capital—that fit your unique timelines, needs, and goals. And if you have an investment opportunity you want us to review, we can help you with that too.