Step 1: Investment Portfolio Audit

One of the first things our team looks at during the investment portfolio audit is ETFs and mutual funds, identifying their expense ratios. In some cases, funds with high expense ratios can cause a significant drag on your portfolio.

We look for opportunities to optimize by selecting low-cost mutual funds that target the same indexes as the high-cost funds, by replacing retail-class funds with institutional-grade funds, and by eliminating altogether funds that can be replaced with groups of securities (zero expense ratio).

High investment management fees can also hurt your portfolio's bottom line. Our fees are some of the lowest in the industry (according to the Charles Schwab Benchmark Study), which can reduce the overall costs to your entire portfolio.

Our focus is on your winning over the long-term, not just the short term.

Strategic decisions about where to place high-yielding investments and other tax-sensitive securities can have a significant impact on your after-tax income. During the initial investment portfolio audit, we look to see where we can optimize the placement of your securities between tax-deferred and taxable accounts.

See Step 3: Tax Planning & Preparation for more information.

Your income from your portfolio in retirement can be a significant source of your overall income in retirement. Another key step in the investment portfolio audit is to help you identify your cash flow needs. By doing so, we can work backwards to target an achievable yield that supports your ideal lifestyle in retirement.

See more about a cash flow plan in Step 4: Advanced Financial Planning.