Frequently Asked Questions
From an earnings perspective, multiple studies have shown higher net returns for people working with a financial advisor. You can check out some of the findings on Morningstar, Vanguard and Russell Investments.
There are a few reasons for statistically higher returns for people who work with a wealth manager. Part of it is that working with a financial advisor takes the emotion out of money decisions. We help our clients set and stick to strategies that are data-based and have the best chance of helping them meet their goals. We’re your voice of reason when the market decides to get volatile.
Another reason people working with a wealth manager are more likely to see higher returns is that a personal relationship with an advisor results in strategies that are personal to you. Once a relationship is established, your advisor knows you, your situation, your challenges, your goals, and your full money picture. We’re not just plugging a few numbers into a calculator built to serve a generic public. We’re looking at your finances and life holistically and helping you structure a financial plan that is specifically tailored to help get you to where you want to be.
Probably not as much as you think! The fees for working with a wealth management advisor at Granite depend on several factors, including your goals and how much money you want to invest. As a general rule of thumb, our clients pay between 0.50% and 1.00% of the total money they have invested with us.
For example, if you have $500,000 invested with us, you can expect to pay around $5,000 per year. For most of our clients, the fees they pay to work with us are significantly less than the value they receive.
Typically, the clients we usually work with have at least $500k in investable assets. However, we sometimes make exceptions, especially when it comes to friends and family of current clients.
We work with many different types of people at various life stages and with varying goals. Our clients range from millennials navigating changing careers and growing families, to successful business owners, to those passing along or inheriting multi-generational family legacies. What they all have in common is that they want to make the most of the one beautiful life each of us has. Our clients want to plan for a good life for themselves and their families and understand that money, and the way it is managed, is a significant driver of that.
Many of our clients first reach out to us because they are approaching challenges or goals that they want help planning for.
To put it simply, if you want to be a good steward of your money—for yourself, your family, and future generations—and would like the help of a knowledgeable and caring professional who understands you and your unique goals, we would probably be a great fit.
When you’re looking for the right financial advisor for you, approachability and trust are major factors to consider. Choose an advisor who makes you feel comfortable, and with whom you can be open and share your entire financial picture. Your advisor should be an excellent listener and ask you questions about your goals, stage of life, challenges, and dreams. Look for someone who explains concepts in an approachable, understandable way.
You should never feel judged when working with an advisor. We’re not here to hand-slap or act like we’re the smartest people in the room—we are here to give you financial confidence and help you use your assets to meet your goals! Ideally, with the right advisor, you walk away from each conversation feeling more comfortable and confident in your finances, your goals, and yourself.
Granite Wealth Management’s advisory services and fees are structured so that when we make an investment or place a trade on your behalf, it’s because it’s what’s best for you financially, not what’s best for our bottom line.
You have come to the right place. Not having a lot of time to spend managing finances is actually a smart reason (among many others) to hire a financial advisor. Although some of our clients like to be very hands-on, many of our clients approach us because they don’t have the time (or experience or confidence) to give their finances as much attention as they would like.
A lot of due diligence goes into making sure you’re in a great spot financially, and we strive to do that for you. When you hire Granite, you are essentially outsourcing management of your finances to us so that we can help manage them in a way that moves you toward your goals. And that helps give you more time to actually enjoy the life we are helping you create.
People often think the process of working with a wealth manager is going to be difficult, time consuming, or expensive - and it really doesn’t have to be any of those things. At Granite, it is our goal to make investment planning and wealth management as approachable, comfortable, and rewarding as possible.
Here’s what the process typically looks like when we start working with a new client:
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First, we will set up an appointment to get to know one another and assess fit.
We’ll talk about your financial and life goals and challenges, address your concerns, and answer any questions you might have. Expect us to do a lot of listening, in our first meeting and all others. The meeting can be in-person or virtual - whichever is most convenient for you - and it is a chance for us to learn about you, your family, your hopes and dreams, and what you want your money to do for you.
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In the event both parties decide that there is a fit, we enter the discovery phase.
This is the ‘financial’ and data gathering part of the process, where we get a better sense of your full money picture—assets, liabilities, income sources, obligations and, best of all, what you really hope to accomplish, which we help you quantify.
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Once we understand your holistic money picture and what you want your money to do for you, we will make recommendations and walk you through your plan.
These are personalized, tailored recommendations for a practical, achievable plan that helps put you on the right track to meet the goals that are important to you. This step also involves us doing a detailed modeling of financial possibilities and giving you a clear idea of how much you can spend today while still meeting your long-term goals. No two clients are alike, so no two clients have the same plan. Most of our clients walk away from this particular step feeling calmer about their finances and optimistic about what they are able to achieve in both the near and long-term.
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If you feel great about your plan and recommendations, Granite will implement the recommendations.
One of the best parts of having a financial advisor is that we strive to do all of this for you. We not only help provide you with financial confidence, we also take the tactical execution of your investment plan off your plate (if that’s what you want). If there’s anything specific you need to do, we will give you clear instructions.
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Once your plan is in place, we will assess and review progress to make sure we are meeting or making progress toward your goals.
If not, we reevaluate and change course. This review process can happen as often as you like. Some clients do this on a quarterly basis and some feel good about yearly progress meetings. Either way, we pride ourselves on being reliably reachable and approachable. If you want to check in about anything regarding your finances, a human will always answer the phone here at Granite.
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As we continue working together, we will keep listening to your goals and updating your plan to make sure we are accommodating them.
Your goals will change as the years go by, so wealth management is an ongoing relationship and process. We really enjoy being there for our clients and helping them live their fullest possible lives across life stages, changes, challenges, and achievements. We are honored to help our clients with such a significant aspect of their lives. For many clients, we are there with them, helping them manage their finances and make the most of their money, until the day they pass on their assets to people or causes they care about.
No goal is too big! Because we approach our investments with a long-term view, we usually find ourselves in a position to empower our clients with goals that exceed their expectations.
Our clients have all types of goals. Here are some common examples of immediate, medium-term, and aspirational or long-term goals we help clients plan for:
Immediate goals:
- Pay off the mortgage.
- Pay off debt.
Medium-term goals:
- Buy a beach house.
- Travel every year.
- Start a business.
- Take the family on a big trip.
- Become a millionaire.
- Pay for your children’s education.
- Pay for a wedding.
- Help my children understand the value of wealth and inheritance.
Long-term or aspirational goals:
- Retire early.
- Plan to take care of your parents.
- Leave a philanthropic legacy.
- Pass on a certain level of wealth to your children.
- Avoid excessive estate taxes.
- Protect your money in retirement from inflation erosion and taxes.
These are examples of goals we commonly hear from clients, but don’t be deterred if you don’t see your own goal on the list. We are here to help you move toward anything you’d like your money to do for you - let’s talk about what you’d like to achieve.
This is a question we are always happy to hear people ask. Money can be an uncomfortable or taboo subject for many, even within an immediate family. But talking about money with your family is important.
The way we like to think about it at Granite is that involving your family in financial conversations is a gift you give them. Getting everyone on the same page can make a huge difference for your shared goals, and can also make things much less stressful for your spouse, partner, or children when you pass away. Helping families not only grow and pass on wealth, but also talk about it in a productive way, is one of our specialties and focus areas at Granite.
In terms of timing, in a new client relationship we would want to engage with you first and listen to you and your concerns. If you and your spouse or partner share money, we would bring them into the conversation as soon as possible; however, as we personalize services and plans for every client, timing of family involvement happens on a case-by-case basis.
For our clients’ children, our approach depends on their age. We often provide our clients with educational pieces and materials that they can review and share with their children. If a client’s children are grown, we may recommend bringing them into the conversation about their parents’ finances or their family’s legacy, and we are skilled at facilitating those conversations.