Planning your Return on LIFE as Well as Your Investments

“Whether your bucket list isalready completed, or as a busy woman, you need help doing so; congratulations, you’ve cometo the right place,” exclaimsDebra L. Morrison, CFP®, MS, AEP, owner of Empowered Retirement, Inc., a Registered Investment Advisor (RIA) in New Jersey.

“Because we recognize money as a TOOL, it’s imperative to know what it is that will make you happy and fulfilled. What is it that the ‘tool’ called money will buy for YOU?” queries Asta Sanders, CFP®, Morrison’s seasoned colleague.

“Yes, we handle the expected life circumstances such as analyzing your optimum retirement date, Social Security and Medicare benefits, strategizing to lower your Required Minimum Distribution and effectively diversifying your portfolio, aiming to provide lifetime income. We’re passionate about helping you design a rich-with-meaning life, while safeguarding you to weather life’s unexpected circumstances.”

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Seasoned financial coaches for high-net-worth women (and those who love them) in 17 states, Morrison and Sanders practice financial planning that is truly life-centered. “Our mission is to give you an excellent return on your life; building a bridge between your ‘means’ and your meaning,” explains Morrison, a TEDx speaker, international motivational speaker, Amazon best-selling author, and Certified Grief Coach.

We’ve never heard anyone utter on their death bed. ‘I wish I would have beaten the Standard & Poors more quarters!’ Yet, too many investors, and even CFPs®, focus singularly on investment returns. Instead, we help clients visualize their unique purpose-filled lifestyle and bring their investments into congruence with their vision.”

Morrison and Sanders begin by helping women identify where they are now, because not knowing causes undue stress. “It’s a bit like the experience of having a medical ailment, undergoing myriad tests, only to have the results come back inconclusive. Without a diagnosis, effective treatment can’t be planned,” explains Sanders. “Similarly, whether we discover that you have adequate or too little or too much money to fund your dreams, isn’t it good to identify that sooner rather than later, so you can implement appropriate action steps?”

Most often women do have enough money to achieve their goals; they simply aren’t confident that they do, which too often can cause them to take “uncompensated risks,” in their quest for an ever-elusive ‘number’. Empowered Retirement, Inc.’s approach includes financial testing to reveal what each client’s number should be and provide salient answers to their questions.

“We find it so rewarding for women to finally ‘get’ money. After explaining it logically, we invite them to dream up goals and estimate the timeline and cost of each goal. Then they can experience their money paying for those time-specific goals, creating poignant, lifetime memories that some never thought possible.

Boutique Service

Creating forward-thinking, purpose-filled and energized clients takes a tremendous investment in time. So, Morrison and Sanders are very picky about whom they work with. “We’re looking to earn the trust of successful women who want to live an untethered life, financially speaking, willing to delegate the ongoing tasks of tax minimization, asset allocation, rebalancing, asset location, and decumulation through time-tested strategies as well as unprecedented attention to details.

Empowered Retirement’s client relationships generally span several decades. For seniors, they provide analysis and oversight of the transition from home ownership into adult communities. In addition, they provide various degrees of protection if they detect any slippage in their clients’ physical mobility or mental acuity.

“We strategically select a few new clients each year, whom we can serve with the same integrity for which we’ve been known for 60+ years,” says Sanders. “Robots can’t deliver this personal, compassionate service.”

Empowered Retirement Inc.’s preferred client is a successful professional woman (and those who love them) for whom Morrison and Sanders can make a significant difference. Sometimes just a pivot or two in a client’s current financial plan can be a game-changer, resulting in what Morrison calls “groups of zeroes” of savings and, more importantly, allowing them to pursue their dreams and leave lasting legacies.

Investigating each of those pivot points is a specialty of Empowered Retirement, Inc. Morrison and Sanders doggedly seek out innovative solutions, many of which offer income tax efficiency. For example, a recent client saved $253,000 in capital gains taxes, implementing the firm’s savvy outside-the-box strategies.

“Every decision has a ripple effect. In this case, selling assets may have solved one problem yet would have resulted in an expensive tax exposure,” Sanders explains. “We’re well trained and experienced with how taxes, Social Security, investments, and Medicare impact each other. Wouldn’t you prefer to entrust the navigation around financial & income tax complexities to professionals rather than suffer the negative consequences of sleepless worry?”

Morrison and Sanders’ expertise and innovative thinking have also been proverbial lifesavers for many investors who hadn’t prepared for unexpected changes. “We commit to prepare rather than repair, yet we rarely encounter a mistake that is unrecoverable,” adds Morrison, a NAPFA- CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER® and former co-host of CNNfn’s “Talking Personal Finance with Stuart Varney.”

Money as Energy

Empowered Retirement, Inc. does everything possible to ensure clients are invested in adequately diversified portfolios which historically provided safety as well as capital appreciation potential, so their clients can buy inflated-priced goods and services throughout their lifetimes.

Morrison and Sanders are compensated via a completely transparent fee. They sell no products, earn zero commissions or referral fees, eliminating those conflicts of interest. When they act as client investment advisers, they do so in each client’s best interest. Each client’s goals determine both the requisite actions and what types of assets are best suited.

“We believe that the energy of money can, and should, be routed to each client’s goals and dreams,” concludes Morrison. “Our attention to minimizing investment and tax expenses is key, since what you don’t pay out in commissions or excessive income taxes can instead remain and compound inside your investment portfolio.”

Please remember that past performance may not be indicative of future results. Different types of investments involve varying degrees of risk, and there can be no assurance that the future performance of any specific investment, investment strategy, or product (including the investments and/or investment strategies recommended or undertaken by Empowered Retirement (“IA Firm”), or any non-investment related content, made reference to directly or indirectly in this article will be profitable, equal any corresponding indicated historical performance level(s), be suitable for your portfolio or individual situation, or prove successful. Due to various factors, including changing market conditions and/or applicable laws, the content may no longer be reflective of current opinions or positions. Moreover, you should not assume that any discussion or information contained in this article serves as the receipt of, or as a substitute for, personalized investment advice from our firm. To the extent that a reader has any questions regarding the applicability of any specific issue discussed above to his/her individual situation, he/she is encouraged to consult with the professional advisor of his/her choosing. We are neither a law firm, nor a certified public accounting firm, and no portion of the newsletter content should be construed as legal or accounting advice. A copy of IA Firm’s current written disclosure Brochure discussing our advisory services and fees is available upon request. Please Note: If you are a IA Firm client, please remember to contact IA Firm, in writing, if there are any changes in your personal/financial situation or investment objectives for the purpose of reviewing/evaluating/revising our previous recommendations and/or services, or if you would like to impose, add, or to modify any reasonable restrictions to our investment advisory services. IA Firm shall continue to rely on the accuracy of information that you have provided.

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