The short answer to the question “Why choose us?” is that we put you at the center of what we do.
It’s not about us, our services, our advisors, our experience, our philosophies, and our methods. All of that is important, but our goal is to marshal all that we have to offer in service to and partnership with you. This means that every client engagement is customized to accommodate your values, goals, hopes, dreams, fears, and concerns.
Now, the longer answer to the question, “Why choose us?”
The financial services industry—banks, brokerage firms, and insurance companies—is hundreds of years old, an artifact of Europe that made its way to the New World. Arguably, it has evolved very little, as today it still revolves around the creation and sale of financial products.
Professional Financial Planning
Financial planning, on the other hand, is a relatively new profession, tracing its emergence to the 1970s and the first graduating class of CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ (CFP®) practitioners in 1973.
Unlike the financial industry proper, the evolution of financial planning has been quite rapid. Indeed, it was in 1983 that the National Association of Personal Financial Advisors (NAPFA) was created, the selective association of which TFA is a part, requiring that all of its members act strictly in the best interests of their clients and never accept inherently conflicted sales commissions as part of their compensation.
Yet even within that small community, TFA further sets itself apart. This is because textbook financial planning can often be a dry, disconnected, multi-disciplinary practice that attempts to link investment, insurance, estate, tax, retirement, and estate planning together in a single service. The struggle has been to find the unifying and bonding agent for these disparate parts—and the expertise substantial enough to offer wise counsel across that wide spectrum.
Financial LIFE Planning
The ideal bonding agent for the many parts of financial planning is, you guessed it—you. Your financial plan is built with your plan for life at its center. When you fully understand and articulate what’s most important to you in life, even the hardest decisions are made clear; and when we fully understand what’s most important to you in life, our financial planning recommendations are more effective.
That’s why we practice financial life planning through the Intentional Planning System, a simple method of our creation that our advisory teams employ blending behavioral science and financial planning in partnership with you. It’s truly personalized personal finance.