Retirement Plan Consulting

The retirement plan landscape is changing rapidly; you deserve a partner who will be with you for the long run.  We take a refreshing approach to consulting.  Our independence as a Registered Investment Advisor allows us to remove the inherent conflicts of interest that exist at the large banks and insurance firms.  Our fiduciary practice and mindset seats us on the same side of the table as you and your employees.  We combine practical advice and institutional-caliber tools with industry best practices to improve your employee outcomes and protect you, the plan sponsor from the ever changing environment.  Our services include:

• 3(21) and 3(38) Fiduciary Services
• Investment plan menu design
• Creation of the Investment Policy Statement
• Record-Keeper & Third Party Administrator (TPA) RFPs
• Use of independent providers to reduce conflicts of interest
• Proprietary research, monitoring, and reporting
• Participant education
• Risk based asset allocation and model portfolios
• Performance Reporting

ERISA Disclosure

Investment Portfolio Management

Partnering with our business owners and executives, we build lasting investment portfolios by drawing on the vast expertise of our team as well as institutional-caliber portfolio and risk analytics.  Each person has unique needs, challenges, wants, and desires.  We co-create portfolios with you by taking all facets of your life into account.  Our investment portfolios are built for the long term, with consideration for needs of the short term.  Our investing tenets guide our decision making at every turn:

• Long-Term Investing: We co-create an investment policy statement with you and set a long-term strategic asset allocation that serves as the basis for all investment decisions
• Risk Management: Unlike other consulting and advisory firms, we don’t believe that volatility necessarily equals risk.  We define risk as the permanent loss of capital.  As such, we focus on downside risk and the perils that come with large losses.
• Endowment Approach: We believe in a total return approach to investing.  Income investing can be a great marketing tool but in reality, many clients are better off creating a reasonable spending policy and receiving gains from a combination of capital appreciation and income.
• Objective Advice: Our Consultants and in-house research team pride themselves on providing objective, conflict-free investment advice.  With no proprietary products and no affiliation with asset management firms, we are free to pursue the best interest of our clients.

Financial Planning

There are many moving pieces when it comes to your personal financial life.  Add a business on top of that and you’re looking at a very complicated financial picture.  In complex circumstances such as this, an organized financial plan that builds, protects, and sustains your legacy is critical.  Having gained a deep understanding of your goals from working with you through the organization and data gathering process, your CIC team will develop a plan that lines up with your wishes and complements your central source of wealth: your business.

As your business grows and matures, we will continue to work with you to ensure your plan evolves as well.  With knowledge ranging from cash flow and debt management to insurance and tax planning, you can feel confident that your CIC team will be ready to answer questions and alleviate your concerns.

When it comes time to retire or separate from your business, we’ll address succession goals and put a transition plan into place. Having experienced this kind of change with our clients many times before, we’re able to prepare you for the decisions and challenges that may come with your individual situation.

• Insurance Review: If you already have insurance, your CIC team can review your current policies for red flags related to your risk exposure.  If insurance is needed, we, in conjunction with your insurance advisor, can help you understand what type of protection may be appropriate for you and your business.
• Corporate Benefits Review: Having reviewed many benefit packages for clients in the past, your CIC team has the experience needed to understand and explain even the most complex situations and answer any questions that may arise.
• Succession & Estate Planning: Partnering with you and your attorney, Your CIC team will develop an exit planning strategy that complements your succession wishes and overall financial plan.
• Charitable and Intra-Family Gifting: If you are charitably inclined or interested in passing wealth to your loved ones, your CIC team can help facilitate the most efficient ways for you or your business to gift to the individuals, organizations, and communities that you cherish.
• Retirement Planning & Projections: Your CIC team will help you define and prioritize your retirement goals as well as address the array of saving vehicles that may be available to you.  Once goals are established, we can run projections and talk through the tradeoffs that come with adjusting key variables.  These variables include, but are not limited to, retirement age, expected annual spending, and current savings rates.
• Concentrated Stock & Diversified Portfolio Management: Many executives and business owners have company stock or business assets that make up a large portion of their net worth.  If this is the case for you, your CIC Team will be sure to manage your CIC portfolio in such a way that creates an overall portfolio allocation that matches your risk tolerance.

Concentrated Holdings

There is an old saying, “Fortunes are made through concentration and are kept through diversification.”  Your wealth that’s concentrated in a single asset is both a blessing and a curse.  CIC’s considerable expertise and experience can help you preserve and grow your wealth through concentration management strategies such as:

• Gifts to Family: Our clients often enjoy seeing their wealth passed on to the next generation and concentrated positions create an opportunity to accelerate that transfer of wealth. We can help you brainstorm ways to execute these gifts, either outright, in trust, through family limited partnerships, or other transfer methods.
• Gifts to Charity: If you feel strongly about leaving a charitable legacy, utilizing highly appreciated or concentrated holdings can be a powerful way to fund this goal. We can facilitate intra-life transfers to donor-advised funds, private foundations, charitable trusts, or directly to your favorite charities.
• Disciplined Divestiture: Over time, business owners and executives accumulate concentrated wealth by nature of their position. For those who want to manage their portfolio risk in a more traditional way, we implement tax-conscious diversification plans while coordinating with any deferred compensation and observing trading restrictions when necessary.
• Derivative Strategies: If you feel strongly about maintaining your exposure to a specific company, we can design an investment plan to offset the corresponding risk associated with your position. The use of derivatives, such as buying put options or selling call options, can be an effective way to achieve a lower level of portfolio risk while leaving your holdings intact.

May we help your family and you keep what you’ve earned?

Business Exit Planning

You have spent years building a successful enterprise and now it is time to think about what happens when you exit. Who will take over? How involved will you be? How many more years until you transition out? Your CIC team will partner with you and your other professional advisors to walk through the exit planning process.

• Internal or third-party transfers
• Charitable or intra-family gifting
• Estate & tax implications
• Business continuation planning

Recent Liquidity Event

An influx of cash can be overwhelming to manage. You may be unsure of how best to balance cash needs and preserve what you and your family have built. Your CIC team can help you navigate these scenarios with confidence.

• Sale of a business or real estate
• Deferred compensation
• Stock options or restricted stock
• Severance package

Organization

Many of our business owner and executive clients share two common traits – a lack of time and the need to stay organized.  It’s for that reason that we dedicate a leather bound binder, called the Family Organizer, to each of our clients.

The Family Organizer is intended to be a collection of your most important financial documents.  These documents include Corporate Benefits, Tax Returns, Insurance Policies, Cash Flow analysis,  Net Worth statements, and other important documents.  This gathering provides the basis for developing overall financial strategies and making appropriate investment recommendations.

The Family Organizer will be kept safely at our office in a protected room to ensure your personal information remains secure, private, and available for each review.

Family Office

For those who are juggling a career, family and community obligations, CIC offers a comprehensive family office service: your outsourced “CFO”. Your CIC team will handle your family’s financial needs with the utmost care and professional diligence.  Services include:

• Cash flow forecasting and monitoring
• Income tax review and strategies (in coordination with your tax advisor)
• Estate Planning and Wealth Transfer (in coordination with your attorney)
• Education Planning and Family Gifting
• Multi-generational planning & education
• Risk Management and Asset Protection
• Investment Management