--Rick Fein, CFP�
--Registered Investment Advisor
--Independent Financial Planning
--Second Opinions
--We offer independent financial planning and second opinions on investment plans and retirement plans. What makes our service unique is we do not sell investment products or manage assets; we provide independent recommendations that clients can readily implement, or assess versus their existing portfolios. We offer background and experience with proven alternatives, free of commisions and sales incentives.
--Instead of picking stocks, chasing after winning mutual funds, or timing the market, we focus on asset class investing and strategic asset allocation as the route to optimal long term returns. The foundation for this is a vast amount of academic and industry research.
--Financial advice from brokers, banks, and financial advisors can be conflicted due to product commissions, loads, third party fees, asset under management fees, and hidden incentives.
--We also offer perspective on the least talked about part of investing, the cost of investment plans. We explain these costs (fees, loads, AUM, etc) and why they are critical, including comparing the cost of any existing or potential plan to our recommended plans.
--When needed, we offer a personal financial analysis covering investment planning, retirement planning, and estate planning.
--We service clients on a flat fee or hourly rate basis.
II. What We Don't Do
--We do not sell investment products. We provide independent advice not widely available from sellers of investment products.
--We do not pick individual stocks. Multiple studies indicate it is more critical to focus on strategic/tactical asset allocation and market segments to achieve optimal returns.
--We do not personally benefit from our recommendations through commissions or third party fees.
III. Contact Information:
Name: Rick Fein, CFP�, Cincinnati, Ohio
--26 years Corporate Finance experience, Procter & Gamble
--30+ years investing experience
--Registered Investment Advisor
--Degreed in Finance, Magna Cum Laude, University of Cincinnati
--College For Financial Planning, CFP Professional Education Program, Denver, Colorado
--Financial Planning Association (FPA)
Email: [email protected]
Office Phone: 513-231-4268
Home Phone: 513-231-4254
--When it comes to the retail investment industry, there are few other professions where the service provider's interest is so different from the client's. While investors seek to minimize fees and commissions, it's in most brokers' best interests to maximize these expenses. Many brokers and financial consultants are salespeople, rather than advisors working in the best interests of clients.
--It's not timing the market, it's time in the market and where in the market. It can be very rewarding to harness the power of the markets by owning a cross section of market segments that are not highly correlated, through strategic asset allocation.
--Independent studies have shown that the vast majority of portfolio performance is determined by asset allocation (how your portfilio is allocated among large cap stocks, small cap stocks, micro stocks, value/growth stocks, foreign stocks, REITS, bonds, etc), rather than the individual stocks owned.
--Costs are important, rarely understood, and often hidden. Seemingly small differences in fees can be critical. For example, an investment of $100,000 earning 8% annually over 20 years and incurring 2.2% in fees and hidden costs will grow to $299,900. The same investment incurring 0.2% in fees/costs will grow to $449,600. Many advisors charge investment management fees of 0.5% to 1.9% per year on invested funds. All mutual funds have expense ratios that reduce investor returns, many ranging from 1.0% to 2.0% per year. Taxes and trading add further to investment costs. These costs are not always well understood by investors.
V. Observations From Respected Thought Leaders in Finance:
"There are two kinds of investors, be they large or small: those who don't know where the market is headed (short to medium term), and those who don't know that they don't know. Then again, there is a third type of investor-- the investment professional, who indeed knows that he or she doesn't know, but whose livelihood depends upon appearing to know." William Bernstein, Ph D, MD, author of The Intelligent Asset Allocator and The Four Pillars of Investing
"Most investors, both institutional and individual, will find that the best way to own common stocks is through index funds that charge minimal fees. Those following this path are sure to beat the net results (after fees and expenses) delivered by the great majority of investment professionals." Warren Buffet, Famous Investor, Chairman Berkshire Hathaway, 1996 Letter to Shareholders
"After taking risk into account, do more (portfolio) managers than you'd see by chance outperform (the market) with persistence? Virtually every economist who studied this question answers with a resounding no." Professor Eugene Fama, Professor of Finance, University of Chicago, Graduate School of Business, one of the top financial economists in the world. 2001
The U.S. stock markets performed very well in the 1990's.Yet the average investor did not fare as well.The typical equity fund investor averaged only an 8.5% annual return during 1991-2000. During the same period, the annual return of the S&;P 500 was 17.3%. The average investor consistently underperforms as a result of excessive turnover. Investors do not follow an investment strategy long enough to allow it to work. DALBAR Inc Study, 2001