Retirement isn’t the goal. Financial independence and peace of mind are.
Retirement is not an endpoint; it’s a fresh start and an ongoing journey. It’s our job to make sure you’re financially stress-free to choose whatever path makes you happiest.
Our Planning Approach
Our primary job is to help you live richly by marrying the process of managing lives and managing money. This means that the first thing we do is understand the myriad number of possibilities ahead of you, based on your stated goals. We then explore a range of scenarios to understand the inevitable trade-offs and choices that you may need to make along the way.
Following this, we:
Create custom plans for your custom goals
Your situation, values, habits, and goals are specific to YOU.
That’s why our financial plans and investment strategies are tailored to each client.
√ No generic formulas.
√ No cookie-cutter templates.
Help you retire on YOUR terms
Retirement planning is in our DNA.
We’re here to help you retire on schedule AND make sure you can maintain your lifestyle through your full retirement – no matter where your retirement journey leads.
Provide ongoing advice and support
We only have one focus. You.
We’re always available to our clients for all of their financial questions and decisions. Never struggle with a tough financial situation or decision. Just pick up the phone and give us a call or send us an email.
Retirement planning can be daunting.
We’re here to help.
In the absence of a paycheck, after decades of working, feelings of trepidation about how it’s ‘all going to work’ in the next chapter are perfectly normal.
With longer lifespans, fewer company pensions, increasing health care costs, and thousands of investment products/solutions, it’s important to find a retirement planner who understands the unique dynamics of retirement and can provide a clear process, unbiased council, and consistent support.
Ibello Wealth Management is here to be your experienced, objective, and reliable ‘steady hand’ helping you navigate through your retirement journey and all the wonderful life events and transitions that will occur.
Just some of the
questions we answer for our clients
Do I have the right amount (and types) of insurance coverage to protect myself and my family?
What do I need to know regarding Medicare signup and mitigating costs?
When is the optimal time for us to claim Social Security?
What are the most tax-appropriate investment and withdrawal strategies when I retire?
What underlying investments and risk allocation should be considered across my various accounts?
What are the best planning strategies to preserve our assets and loved ones from a possible long-term care event?
When the invariable ‘down’ market occurs, how might this affect my investment allocation, retirement modeling and our ability to maintain our desired lifestyle?
“What is the most important feeling one can have when they speak of the person who handles one’s entire family’s financial future? That word is Trust. Through Nick’s diligent oversight and strategic insight, we feel confident and at ease with our financial planning and growth both in the short term and for the long term. Nick’s commitment and expertise have made a lasting difference in our lives, giving us peace of mind and a strong foundation for the years ahead, for both my wife and I, as well as our children. Nick’s guidance has been invaluable in helping our family plan for a secure future, and we truly appreciate his thoughtful approach to every decision.”
– MB & AB
How we’re different
We focus on helping you understand the impact of each decision so that you can make a confident decision.
We help you
understand why we do and do not do things.
We offer strategy options for each topic in question and provide council on the tradeoffs of each along with a professional recommendation.
If we need to loop in outside experts like tax accountants, estate planners, realtors, or elder care experts, we quarterback it all on your behalf.
Making money is the easy part…
For some people, making money is the easiest part. All of our clients acquired skills in one or more areas that led to their talents being in very high demand.
They work, or have worked, at companies that provided healthy financial compensation for them and their families over their employment tenure.
Managing their finances and navigating life from a financial planning and long-term perspective, on the other hand, tends to be the more challenging part.
Sample questions we answer
- What happens when you have a family that depends on you to be the steward of the household finances?
- What happens when you wake up every day with 1 million and 1 things to do, none of which include personal financial planning or management?
- What happens when you have a liquidity event that’s a once-in-a-lifetime chance for you and your family to build generational wealth, but you can’t emotionally detach from the decision because of all the hard work that you’ve put into your company for the last 10 years?
- What happens when you run into complex planning or tax topics like QSBS, split state exercise of equity, incentive stock options, alternative minimum tax, foreign earned income, founder’s stock, 83(b) election, etc.?
- What happens when the stock market crashes 20% in one year and you’ve never experienced any sort of bear market in your adult life?
- What happens when your aging parent starts to develop dementia and you have absolutely no idea how to navigate the long-term care facility space or Medicare/Medicaid?
- What happens when you go through a heartbreaking divorce and you’re now buried in legal fees and financial disruption?
- What happens when you have your first child and immediately start worrying about how you are going to send them to college or pay for private school/child care in a major city?
- What happens when you decide that you are absolutely burned out at work and your highest priority becomes how you can take a year off (or maybe be done forever) just so you can maintain mental sanity and physical health?
- What happens when you are laid off suddenly due to an unannounced workforce cut, you are only a few years from when you wanted to retire, and you have no idea if you are still going to be okay or if you need to go back to work?
- What happens when you find out your parents have been working with a scammy financial advisor for years, and the retirement accounts are tied up in various bad financial products? And they’re about to retire and live off a fixed income for the first time and have nowhere to turn because they’ve always been given bad advice?
Living the life you want without any help or advice? That’s the hard part.
Our Investment Approach
A Shared Philosophy. Your Peace of Mind.
An investment approach is a set of guiding principles that shape our approach to investing.
It acts as a blueprint, helping us make consistent and informed decisions and includes beliefs about market behavior, investment strategies and products, asset allocation, and risk management.
Our investment approach has been cultivated through a combination of exhaustive academic research and years of hands-on/real-world experience managing client portfolios. It consists of three components: our core beliefs, investment principles, and investment philosophy.
Core Beliefs
You, our client, are at the center of all we do
Our responses to your questions, requests, and needs are to be timely, clear, precise, and merit/data-backed
The investment planning process should be educational, rewarding, and inspiring
Investment Principals
An ongoing investment research process to both select and monitor investment choices, ensure an well-researched asset allocation, and reinforce our capital market assumptions
Investment Philosophy
Simple Beats Complex:
Trying harder does not guarantee better results
Control What You Can Control:
Does this MATTER and can I CONTROL it
Invest For Real Returns:
The only returns that matter are the ones after tax, inflation, and fees
Be Risk Intelligent Not Risk Adverse:
Seek to manage risk, not avoid it
Both Efficient and Inefficient Markets Exists:
Not all asset classes should be treated equally
Proper Diversification Aims to Maximize Risk-Adjusted Returns:
Why diversify? Because winners rotate.
Prioritize Mutual Funds & ETFs over Stock-Picking:
“Basket investments” may provide built-in diversification from the start
Have a Long Term Vision But Ensure a Margin of Safety:
Hope for the (long-term) best but prepare for the (short-term) worst
Market Timing Presents More Risks Than Opportunities:
Attempting to time the market may lead to missed opportunities, regret, and indecision
Investment Fees are Important in Portfolio Construction:
Over time, minimizing expenses tends to maximize performance
Account Management
Advisory Fee
Implementation of our investment portfolios are accomplished using a fee-based advisory platform. This allows for us to provide the value and flexibility necessary for highly customized portfolios.
Advisory means we help determine the investment strategy, monitor the portfolio within established guidelines, and make changes based on client goals and/or changes in their situation. Our team is compensated based on a percentage of the assets we manage.
We might seem like every other wealth manager who:
- Manages investments
- Helps you prepare for retirement
- Assists with tough financial decisions
- Creates custom a custom plan for your custom goals
But we’re different – where it matters most.
Wondering how it works?
Let us show you…
- What the process looks like
- What you can expect if you work with us
- Answers to frequently asked questions
- How to get started
What’s stopping you?
I want to get my finances in better shape before I see a financial advisor.
We get it. Everyone wants to tidy up their house a bit before the housekeeper arrives or improve their health on their own before they see a doctor or specialist.
But, as you age, your financial situation only gets more complex – and every decision makes a bigger more lasting impact. The sooner you get on track, the easier it will be to reach your goals, and the more confidence you will have in your retirement trajectory.
We’re here to help you get where you want to be – as easily and quickly as possible – no matter where you’re starting from.
I’ve had bad experiences with advisors before. I don’t want to get locked into anything I’ll regret.
Our clients are never locked into ANYTHING. It’s always simple and free for you to leave.
And our introductory call? There is no sales pitch and no pressure. It’s JUST for you to get a feel for who we are and what we do. And we think you’ll see the difference right away. We’re not focused on growing our business – we’re focused on YOUR growth.
I think I’m doing okay on my own.
You very well may be doing a good job managing your own finances! But no matter how competent and knowledgeable you are, we live and breath this every day. Even a decision that sways 1% in the wrong direction can make a large impact over decades. Don’t you want the validation that your money is working as hard as it possibly can for you?