Investment
Management

garren_fullGarren AgleDirector of Operations, Financial Advisor

Develop a personal strategy. Should I invest on my own? Do I have enough assets to get professional advice? How much will it cost? The thought of investing can raise many valid questions. Cream City Investments can help you answer them so you feel confident about your decisions.

A place to start is with investment management, one of our most popular services. First and foremost, that process begins with you. Our job is to understand your individual financial goals and risk tolerance levels, and develop an investment strategy that works best for you.

Your risk tolerance is a product of two factors – time horizon and your acceptance of risk in general. We work with you to quantify your risk tolerance and match you to one of eight model portfolios, each having been designed with different risk and return profiles.

Our model portfolios use different allocations of cash, fixed income, U.S. stock and foreign stock to suit varying tolerances to risk. We use mutual funds and exchange traded funds (ETFs) to provide exposure to each asset class. Our objective is to find funds that not only perform well, but more importantly, perform with less volatility than their peers. We do not expect each investment to always “beat the market.” What we do expect, however, is that the portfolio will provide less risk exposure than the broad markets and perform well over the long-term.

Our service to you does not stop with just selecting investment products.

First, we are constantly monitoring each investment to make sure it maintains the characteristics for which we purchased it in the first place. It is not unusual for us to suggest changes to specific investments if their risk and return attributes weaken and we are able to find a more favorable alternative. Second, we recognize that your risk tolerance does not stay the same forever. Therefore, we review it with you periodically to determine whether any changes need to be made to your allocation or specific investments. It is important to get your portfolio right the first time, but equally important to maintain and update it over the long run.

 

Financial Planning

See your financial picture clearly. As you look to the future, you begin thinking about more “global” financial concerns: how much to save for retirement, what college tuition for your children will cost, whether to pay off a mortgage early, etc. We believe that having a written financial plan in place is one of the best ways to provide clarity and guidance to your entire financial picture. Therefore, we encourage all of our clients to work with our CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ (CFP®) professionals to develop their own financial plan using a six step process.

  • Determine the scope of the project.
    Many people are best served by developing a full, comprehensive financial plan. Others may only require more individual goal-focused planning such as college funding or insurance needs.
  • Establish financial goals.
    We will work together to establish and refine your financial goals.
  • Analyze and evaluate your financial status.
    Our CFP® professionals will then consider your current situation and how it relates to the accomplishment of your financial goals. We will identify any potential shortcomings and develop strategies to overcome them and achieve your objectives. Depending on the project, our analysis may include assets and liabilities, cash flow, current insurance coverage, investment or tax strategies
  • Present our recommendations.
    After our analysis, we sit down with you to explain our conclusions and what changes can be made in order to reach your goals.
  • Implement our recommendations.
    Of course, you are free to accept our recommendations or not; they are not proprietary in nature and belong to you. We would be happy, however, to help you implement any recommendations as you direct.
  • Monitor your progress.
    As you work towards your goals, we will periodically check your progress and adjust our recommendations as necessary.

Available Services

  • Investment Management
  • Financial Planning
  • Asset Allocation
  • Retirement Planning
  • Tax Planning
  • College Funding Planning
  • Life Insurance Evaluation
  • Ad hoc projects, including coordination with other professionals
  • Unique situations as they arise

 

Fees

Pay for only what you need. We believe that transparency in fees is a key to establishing trusting, long-term relationships with clients. Our compensation at Cream City Investment Services comes only from clients, not from sales commissions. It means that we are working in your best interests, offering you objective advice and not trying to sell you one product over another to earn the commission. Investment management is generally compensated as a percentage of investments under our management. Other services are available at an hourly rate, with an estimate of time involved provided before any project begins. When you work with Cream City Investment Services you pay for only those services you need. Please contact us for further details.

Fees or Commission: Understanding the Difference

Fee-Based Compensation

  • Compensation based on a percentage of investments under management
  • Hourly rate
  • Independent, objective advice
  • Transparent

Sales Commission

  • Compensation based on product sales
  • Recommendations may be influenced by commission
  • Commissions may be hidden