Advisor Jeff Powell likes to help guide his clients through the financial markets to achieve their goals—a fact that is reflected in the name he chose for his firm, Polaris Equity Management. "Polaris, the North Star, is the only star that does not change position as time passes, and it has been used for centuries as a navigational tool," Powell notes.
Powell has certainly navigated Polaris to great success. The firm has grown rapidly during the 2000s and provides clients with an internal asset allocation strategy (with approximately $100 million in assets under management) and a long-short hedge fund with millions invested as well.
Powell is familiar with the gamut of investment strategies, mostly due to his past experience working for a large Wall Street firm. And he's put his knowledge and experience to good use. The hedge fund, for example, has significantly outperformed the broader market during the past three years.
That success has been driven by Powell's highly hands-on approach to managing his clients'wealth. "We do our asset allocation ourselves using exchange-traded funds, and the hedge fund is an in-house vehicle," he explains. "My clients are investing with Polaris and putting their trust in me, and we will justify that trust by being ultimately responsible for the results we generate. If there's a decision to be made, I want it to be one that I can make within parameters under my control."
It is Powell's determination to be ultimately responsible for his clients' results that has led him to adopt wealth management, which Powell defines as a process of aligning fundamental values with wealth. It's an important process that too often gets overlooked, he says. "Successful people have wealth and fairly wellthought-out values and priorities. The strange thing is that, for a number of them, they've never put the two together.
For some reason, it doesn't occur to them that their wealth ought to be invested in support of their values. They are apt, as so many are, to see the process of gaining and managing wealth as separate from their value systems. It's an eye-opener when they hear from us how they can bring the two together." Powell says that he sees himself as a generalist within the wealth management paradigm and therefore doesn't specialize in a particular niche. "We work with all kinds of individuals. The constant is that we expose them all to a systemized wealth management process. That includes an investment plan, implementation and regular followup."
When it comes to developing an investment plan, the first step is to figure out the breadth of the investor's current portfolio, Powell explains. After this, a discussion occurs about how to align the portfolio with the investor's values in a quantifiable fashion. Risk tolerance, income needs and return expectations are all discussed to make a determination about how the client's portfolio should match up with his or her stated values and goals.
Finally, a financial road map is developed that spells out an ideal asset allocation for the overall portfolio. Clients can select one of the firm's model portfolios, which include the Flexible Allocation Model, the Benchmark Model and the Fixed Income Model. Or a customized portfolio can be developed if the preexisting models aren't a perfect fit.
As a wealth manager, Powell also goes beyond investments to provide a complete range of financial services. Essentially, he acts as his clients' chief financial officer—organizing such issues as tax, retirement and estate planning as well as accounting and other necessities. Each facet of the implementation strategy is reviewed in conjunction with the appropriate CPA or estate attorney.
This comprehensive approach was developed over time with the help of CEG Worldwide, a wealth management coaching and training firm. "When we came to CEG Worldwide, we believed we knew what we were doing, but we wanted help getting to the next level," says Powell. "CEG Worldwide provided that and more. They've really given us good insight into the overall wealth management process, and our clients have benefited as a result."
Powell says that he has implemented the CEG Worldwide program in his own way, customizing it to fit his practice in much the same way he might customize an investment plan for a client. "We took what seemed right for us, and we've implemented it carefully," he points out. "The result is that we've maintained our uniqueness while providing core wealth management services that build value for the firm and client alike."
For Powell, the core benefit of wealth management is the approach itself, not so much the business implementation. "By building programs around the wealth management model, we are able to provide clients with a values-based approach that truly transcends the kinds of strategies that they are ordinarily offered."
He adds: "What benefits our clients inevitably benefits us as well, if only because we have raised the level of service and trust. For us, the wealth management approach has become a fundamental value and a single, irreplaceable strategy."
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