Values-Based Financial Planning

Our Process

The Freedom Experience is a combination wealth management and life coaching program addressing the unique needs of Motorola executives, so they can make smart choices about their money and make work optional.

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What services should I expect from a financial advisor?

Financial services vary greatly and it's smart to ask exactly what you're going to get for what you pay. You may think you're getting advice, guidance and comprehensive scenario planning when in reality your advisor is simply a money manager. Asking point-blank is the best approach.

For example, we meet with clients three times per year (every four months), it would be appropriate to ask what the agenda is for all the meetings for the next year. Ask the advisor you interview what their specific "client deliverables" are going to be for you and the frequency of your meetings.

At our firm, our Motorola Execs receive all of the following:

1. Annual Update of the Financial Road-mapTM: A clear and concise exercise to organize your finances, align them with your goals, make sure everything is on-track with what’s most important to you and update the plan to ensure that you are making progress toward your goals.
2. Greatest Probability Strategy™ (Your “GPS”). We’ll review your step-by-step plan of action to give advice and guidance regarding actions required to successfully implement your plan every four months.
3. Progress Reports. Every four months you will be given a simple, one-page summary of assets, which is designed to show your progress benchmarked against your goals.
4. Wealth Management. We analyze how your assets are allocated, and manage your money.
5. Income Tax Projection before the end of every calendar year
6. Prepare your Income Taxes each year
7. Estate Planning: Annual check up and full review every five years.
8. Written Plan for every goal
9. Cash Reserves & Debt Management: Annual review of written plan for cash reserves & debt reduction
10. Financial Plan Safety: Annual review of strategies that will increase the overall safety and full review of insurance.

What types of questions should we ask a financial advisor?

Before hiring an advisor, interview several.

Ask for specifics about the types of services and solutions they will offer you once you hire them. You'll know you're in the presence of an exceptional financial advisor if you get that overwhelming sense that they are going to be your "World's Greatest Problem Solver"

Here are some of the specific things we do for our Motorola clients, feel free to use this as a checklist during your interviews with finacial advisors:

• A comprehensive written lifetime financial plan updated annually with the objective of making work optional.
• A plan to determine, whenever you leave Motorola, whether you have enough to retire on or not.
• A plan in place to answer the question: “Should I accept the retirement offer and what I want to do next with the next chapter of my life.
• An analysis of your Motorola 401k to ensure that the investment choices are well-aligned with your needs.
• A well-coordinated stock options strategy orchestrating the three biggest issues:
  Timing, the expiration date of the options (or date when you’ll need money)
  Motorola stock price, a strategy to optimize the price you’ll get for each option
  Taxes, a strategy to reduce and manage (pay for) the tax consequences.
• A specific plan to address where your income will come from whenever you decide to leave Motorola.
• Mechanics of the smartest ways of moving money out of Motorola’s control safely into yours with no tax consequences.
• Specific coaching on every financial decision so you feel you are making smart decisions about your money in all areas like, managing health insurance decisions, helping negotiate major purchases like cars and homes.
• How to increase your overall happiness and measure it over time, to discover specific things that need to happen to stay “centered” on the things most important to you in life.
• Written plan to spend more time doing the things you love
• How to manage your cash so there’s adequate reserves and it’s working hard enough for you.
• The best way to reduce, and ultimately eliminate, debt on a schedule that makes sense to you
• We’ll tell you exact right kinds and amounts of every kind of insurance that exists, or whether you need it at all.
• A written disaster plan to envision what would happen to the business if something were to happen to you.
• Written strategies for every threat, obstacle or danger to the accomplishment of your goals.

How do most financial advisors charge?

Some charge commissions, some charge fees others charge by the hour. This is an area you need to get straight answers to straight questions. Be probing and ask things like, "Other than your fees, what are the internal 'hidden' fees inside the investments you might place me in?"

Keep in mind, unless you are a do-it-yourselfer (who should not be contemplating hiring an advisor), advisors can and should charge in some way for the advice and guidance they give you. As a matter of fact, if it seems their time is "free" to you or very low cost... ask even more questions. You see, your Grandmother was right... "There's no free lunch."

For example, at our firm, we charge a single simple fee which is a percentage for the assets under our management according to a schedule outlined in our Investment Advisory Agreement.

1.25% of the first million dollars
0.95% for the next two million (2-3m)
0.75% for the next two million (3-5m)

In addition to our fee, the investments we utilize (EX: mutual funds), will have their own internal 'hidden' fees. We use low-cost no-load funds and ETFs, but this is an issue we want up-front and fully disclosed for clients to understand. Be sure you have this type of conversation with your potential advisor.

What type of Motorola Exec can you help most?

The client we serve best looks like this:

• MOTOROLA EXECUTIVE: An executive over age 50 and who has been with Motorola at least 15 years.
• THEY ARE FINANCIAL DELEGATORS: Our community of clients is comprised entirely of financial delegators. They appreciate, and are willing to follow, the advice of an expert.
• THEY ARE PASSIONATE ABOUT GOALS: All of our clients are passionate about their desire to accomplish their goals. They realize that achieving those goals requires both money and planning.
• THEY ENJOY SIMPLICITY: Our clients enjoy the simplicity, freedom, and peace of mind that comes from having all their financial assets under the watchful eye of a single trusted advisor.
• THEY VALUE OUR WORK TOGETHER: Our community of clients is comfortable with our fee structure. We charge a percentage of assets under our management, according to our fee schedule, with a minimum fee of $12,500 per year. Our services are of greatest value and most suitable for a family with a multi-million dollar net worth.
• THEY FOCUS ON WHAT’S IMPORTANT: Our community of clients values our relationship. By delegating, they can focus their valuable time and energy on those things in life that are most important to them.
• THEY CAN HANDLE THE TRUTH: Our clients want to hear the truth from us regarding their financial situation…no matter what.

I'm interviewing several advisors, who can I trust?

Trust is an interesting thing… it is both earned & given. It’s a requirement of any meaningful business relationship… any relationship.

I can speak with authority about the process we have created. First we complete your Financial Road-map™ in our initial meeting. The reality is that highest purpose of that meeting is to determine if it will be a good fit for us to work together or not. If after an hour, things seem like they are working well, it will be obvious to both of us. If things are not going well, it will be obvious to both of us. My process for that meeting is designed to determine if we can establish a relationship where we trust each other.

Can I do business with you, Mark?

It depends (let’s not get ahead of ourselves).

The process that has benefitted my corporate clients is outlined in the landmark book Values-Based Financial Planning. If you are a Motorola executive and meet our ideal client profile why don’t you let me send you a copy of the book? Just e-mail me, go to my website or order the book yourself online (it will inspire you).

If the concepts described resonate with you, we can schedule a mutual discovery meeting to better understand you? We’ll invest an hour to complete your financial road-map. It’s the first step.

We have completed hundreds of financial road-maps for affluent individuals who meet our ideal client profile and we have seen how this exercise can literally change the lives of those who invest the hour to go through the experience

What Financial Services Do Motoral Execs Want and Need?

It depends, working with an advisor is not for everyone. Some Motorola people are do-it-yourselfers... some are financial delegators. For those who can delegate and are willing to follow the advice of an expert, working with an advisor is an option.

Our clients receive comprehensive financial & life Planning as well as asset management. What that means is that we manage your money, we coordinate all your advisors & make sure they’re working in harmony, we do your taxes, we review and create your estate plan, we give advice on cash flow and debt, we advise you on the right types and amounts of insurance for your situation, and we negotiate for the best deals for all your cars, and orchestrate all the arrangements, to make it easy for you.

Our clients meet with us every four months with four simple agenda items; we review your step by step plan of action to measure your progress benchmarked against your goals, we ask you to update & review a life satisfaction survey to help create a positive vision of your future, we give specific advice and guidance on ways for you to make smart choices about your money and increase the probability that you will accomplish all the things you decide to do.

So, How do you help Motorola Execs?

David Devonshire’s job as Motorola’s Chief Financial Officer is guiding the plan to get the business from where it is now to where they want it to be financially.

Our firm acts a Personal Chief Financial Officer (Personal CFO), focused on coaching you to making smart choices about your money in order to guide the plan to accomplish the things in life that are most important to you.

The result is:
- Reduced stress
- Increased life-long financial independence, and
- Enhanced overall peace-of-mind & happiness.

What I do for a living

I founded a firm in 1987 to help coach people in making smart choices about their money so they can accomplish their goals for the reasons that are important to them.

The clients we serve are Motorola executives.

Our program is a combination wealth management and life coaching program addressing the unique needs of Motorola executives, so they can make smart choices about their money and make work optional.

Get Clarity on All Your Benefits and Choices

PROBLEM: I don't understand all of my Motorola benefits and have a few questions.

SOLUTION:
· Discuss your issues with a competent financial advisor who is an expert in Motorola’s benefits plan.
· Discuss your specific issues, needs, goals with an outside expert in Motorola benefits for specific insights, advice & guidance as to how the rules affect your individual situation.

Effectively Getting Control Over Your Retirement Money

PROBLEM: I don’t understand the “mechanics” of moving my money from Motorola’s control into my control, safely and without tax penalties.
· IRS rules provide for substantial taxes and penalties if rollovers are not correctly executed
· Paperwork and rules are confusing and require substantial time and research to complete correctly
· Irrevocable decisions start 60 day window to properly set up accounts and complete paperwork correctly.

SOLUTION:
· Hire an experienced financial advisor who understands the Motorola rules and paper work who can guide you through the separation process with a minimum of time and hassles.

How to Make Ends Meet if I Work for a Lower Income

PROBLEM: Not sure how to "supplement my income" from my options & retirement plans if I decide to leave Motorola but continue working elsewhere.

SOLUTION:
1) Establish the proper sequence of accounts to withdraw from as you need funds.
2) Set-up systematic withdrawal plan
3) Determine if you should utilize Internal Revenue Code exception to withdraw money before you turn 59 ½.
4) Coordinate the timing of your distributions to minimize your taxes

Determining Where Your Income Will Come From

PROBLEM: When I leave Motorola, I'm not sure if I have enough income and where it will come from.

SOLUTION:
1) Identify all assets and income sources
2) Run projections showing the maximum income you can pull from your accounts without running out of money.
3) Create a tax strategy to optimize tax savings by determining which of your accounts to pull money from first

The Best Stock Option Sell Strategies

PROBLEM: My Motorola stock options aren’t coordinated with my personal financial needs:
1) Timing
a. Options expiration dates vs. stock values
b. Dates when I need money
2) Motorola stock price strategy
3) Income tax strategy


SOLUTION:
1) Develop an individual option sell strategy and timeline

Determine if Your Investments are Appropriate

PROBLEM: Not sure my 401(k) investment choices are appropriately for my situation.

SOLUTION:
1) Establish future retirement dates and income needs
2) Run projections of future expected results of your current allocation (including likely future contributions) with best and worst-case rates of return.
3) Establish appropriate asset allocation and contribution amounts to fill any gaps in funding identified

Why am I doing this blog?

I’ve been helping affluent clients make smart choices about their money and accomplish their most important goals for almost 20 years now. I have built a business up from scratch to an internationally recognized firm with affluent clients worldwide and guided it successfully through a multimillion-dollar sale and became a partner in the firm that acquired me.

So, I’m not only a director of a nationwide wealth management firm, I’ve been there. I’m an executive who left a company with a tidy sum and was faced with doing all the things necessary to create the greatest probability that will I accomplish my goals for the reasons that are important to me. As a partner at my firm, I looked at our Chicago office being directly across the street from Motorola’s headquarters and decided that, since there are many executives facing this issue, our firm would be come the world’s greatest problem-solver for Motorola executives and began to find ways to serve that community of people.

How To Determine Where Your Income Will Come From

PROBLEM: When I leave Motorola, I'm not sure if I have enough income and where it will come from.

SOLUTION:
1) Identify all assets and income sources
2) Run projections showing the maximum income you can pull from your accounts without running out of money.
3) Create a tax strategy to optimize tax savings by determining which of your accounts to pull money from first

Should I Accept the Retirement Offer & What Will I Do Next?

PROBLEM: Don’t know if I should accept the retirement offer or what I should do with the next chapter of my life.

SOLUTION:
1. Determine what you really want to do in the next chapter of you life
a. Retire and never work again
b. Downshift to a less stressful work situation and pull as little money as possible from my qualified plan
c. Work full-time at a new business or job
2. Determine what you can afford to do
a. Determine current assets and sources of income
b. Run three financial planning scenarios:
a) Best case
b) Worst case
c) Likely case