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Unraveling the World of Financial Products

Relationships Built Upon a Foundation of Knowledge

The most important thing in our business is our relationship with our clients. One of the ways we work toward this ideal is to provide educational opportunities. We help to broaden our client’s understanding of wealth management in several ways including client meetings, our newsletter and also in our educational seminars. We’ve hosted several seminars over the past two years including:

  • Political implications of the 2012 election
  • Saving for your children or grandchildren’s education
  • Am I going to outlive my money?
  • In-depth retirement planning

Our most recent seminar was: Unraveling the World of Financial Products.

Over the years several products have been developed by Wall Street to sell to the everyday investor. In our most recent seminar we opened the door on the make-up and uses for different types of financial products. We covered mutual funds, life insurance and annuities. We talked about why someone should or should not own one of these products, and what investments might be used inside of them. Here is a recap.

Mutual Funds

Mutual funds are made up of stocks and bonds. Some funds have all stock, some all bonds, and then some funds have both. People use these funds to achieve diversification without having to come up with a lot of money to invest. For some people mutual funds might make sense depending on their overall investable money.

Life Insurance

Life insurance is not an investment. Many people have been sold life insurance as an investment, when the truth is, it serves as protection from a life event. In many cases it can serve as protection from the death of an income earning person. Many families use it to make sure a spouse or other family member will be able to maintain their economic lifestyle should one of them pass. At times it might be used to cover estate taxes by setting up an irrevocable life insurance trust. The mistake you want to avoid is buying insurance in place of investing.

Annuities

Finally we covered annuities. Annuities are very complex instruments that utilize investments and even insurance to try to give someone a steady stream of income throughout their lifetime. Over the years we have found annuities may not serve the best interest of our clients. If you’re thinking of buying them, we highly recommend that you ask us to review the prospectus before you make a purchase.

For more explanation on these products or to speak with us about any other topics concerning your financial life please give us a call (904-273-9850).