Financial planning, investing and related tasks

Before you can invest intelligently, you have to establish your personal context. That’s the power of your personal financial plan. We make it rich and personal, so that your investment strategy is equally customized and nuanced.

Planning starts the moment we begin speaking with you. The process helps give concrete expression to everything that’s important to you. These are a few of the many questions we ask — and answer — together with you.

• What you value most in life
• What kind of lifestyle you want
• When you want to retire
• If you’re already retired, what you plan for your future
• How you want to fund your kids’ or grandkids’ education
• How much risk you’re comfortable taking on
• What philanthropic causes you want to support
• What kind of legacy you want to leave

Throughout, we keep our eye on another critical, ever-changing variable — how much cash you need.

Planning is ongoing. Behind the scenes, we’re always striving to minimize your tax burden, stay on top of rule changes that can impact your situation, and capitalize on new planning techniques you can benefit from. At Heritage, our planning is meticulous. The clarity and control it gives you are invigorating.

Once we’ve completed your financial plan, we build an investment strategy tailored to the amount and type of risk you want to take on, the level of returns you’re targeting and the liquidity you need.

Here are some of the principles we use to guide our investments:

• We allocate your assets strategically between global stocks, bonds, alternative investments and cash
• We diversify your portfolio, with the goal of maximizing return and minimizing risk within the stated objectives
• We invest for the long term, favoring low-cost investments and keeping a watchful eye on taxes that can eat up returns
• We search relentlessly for investment opportunities, including alternative vehicles, that have potential to generate solid returns, even in down markets

Like everything else we do for you, our investment process is exceptionally rigorous. Our team of investment specialists conducts painstaking due diligence on every investment vehicle we recommend. We use discipline and sophisticated technology to monitor your investments. We rebalance your portfolio strategically to make sure it remains aligned tightly with your objectives. We rebalance tactically when market opportunities appear. And we communicate the results clearly, so you’re always apprised of where you stand.

There’s a lot of connective tissue between planning and investing and the rest of your financial infrastructure. We get directly involved in it all. We don’t just theorize or make strategic recommendations and walk away — we help you execute, down to the fine details.

The degree to which we follow through is a fundamental difference between us and most other wealth managers you’ll meet:

• We review your estate plan together with your estate attorney
• We work closely with your accountant, review your tax returns every year, and contribute to year-end tax planning
• We analyze your insurance coverage, including homeowners, auto, life, disability and long-term care
• We help coordinate your philanthropy and identify the best ways for you to give to your charities of choice
• We oversee debt refinancing and help coordinate bridge loans for real estate transactions.
• We help you monetize real estate, business interests, hard assets, artwork and more.

If you need expert resources in any of these areas, we’re happy to make recommendations from our network of trusted professionals. We serve as the nerve center, coordinating everything and facilitating crisp communication so nothing falls through the cracks.

There are many different levels of wealth management service. Ours is as meticulous and hands-on as it gets. Every single detail matters. You can rely on our constant vigilance today, and for perpetuity.