Taxes, Insurance, and Portfolio Planning at Morris Retirement Advisors

Retirement planning is one of the most important investment phases in the lifetime of any person, and there are several important issues that are often missed in the process.  Some of these issues include less-glamorous factors like investment insurance and taxes but the fact that they are often neglected makes them no less important.  In order to successfully structure your retirement portfolio, you need to find a retirement advisory that can help you plan in these areas.  One of the fastest-growing names in the sector is Morris Retirement Advisors, which has shown a stable track record in all of these areas.

Morris Retirement Advisors (MRA) offers solutions for:

1. Financial Planning
2. Wealth Management
3. Taxes
4. Insurance

Investment Solutions for Retirees

MRA offers 5 basic service plans for clients based on differing needs:

1. Wealth Management: A basic investment management solution allowing investors to select and automatically invest from a list of risk-based model portfolios. Expensed as a fee-based investing plan wherein customers are charged a wrap fee on percentage of assets managed. Tax planning and preparation with an in-house accountant/CPA is also offered for an additional fee.
2. Wealth Management and Basic Financial Planning: In addition to the services offered by the wealth management basic plan, this plan offers basic financial planning solutions including Budget, Cash Flow, Net Worth Projection and Analysis, Cash Management Strategies, Retirement Planning, Goal Tracking and Education Planning. A Digital Wealth Management Portal offering a consolidated view of all the client’s in-house and external accounts is also provided. Insurance solutions are also available as additional commission based solutions.
3. Wealth Management and Advanced Financial Planning: Aimed at career professionals and business owners with emerging wealth, this plan offers advanced financial planning solutions like Executive Benefits, stock option analysis, Estate and Legacy Planning along with Tailored Goals based wealth planning in addition to the services offered by the above plans.
4. Wealth Management and Complex Financial Planning: This plan is tailored for pre-retirees and retired clients looking to preserve, grow and distribute their wealth across generations. This plan offers Retirement Income and Distribution Planning in addition to the services offered by the above plans.
5. Customized Solutions for Business Owners: Offers solutions for business owners customized to their business needs. The wealth management solution allows clients to select and automatically invest from a list of risk-based model portfolios. Financial planning services include Complimentary Tax Assessment, Executive Benefits Planning, Key Person Retention Strategies, Quarterly Tax Filings, strategic planning for board of directors, Employee Benefits (retirement, life, health, etc), Succession Planning, Entity Formation and Use Evaluation, Estate and Legacy Planning. Insurance solutions are offered as additional commission based solutions.

Broad Approaches to Wealth Management

MRA’s wealth management approach focuses on helping clients understand and manage investment risk, as well as increasing their chances for goal achievement. The portfolio return expectations of clients are set using risk rather than return, which is generally preferable for a long-term outlook.  The investment risk is quantified using a risk number. The risk number is determined using Riskalyze, a cutting-edge technology that identifies acceptable levels of risk and reward. Individual client portfolios are also stress-tested for a variety of stock and bond market scenarios.

MRA maintains multiple model risk portfolios that are used as the basis for implementing a client’s investment plan in the Wealth Management Program. The models range from income, conservative, moderate, moderately aggressive and aggressive. Each portfolio has varying degrees of asset categories and is reviewed with the client prior to implementation and periodically thereafter. The Wealth Management program can be summarized as follows:

Financial Planning for Retirees and Pre-Retirees

Investment advice offered by MRA is tailored for each client to address his/her financial goals, objectives and risk tolerance and structured in view of any outside investments held by the client, considering each investment’s effect on the client’s total portfolio. The financial planning services offered are:

• Personal budgeting and cash flow
• Personal financial statements
• Life, disability and long-term care insurance consulting
• Investment due diligence, management and portfolio construction
• Financial independence planning
• Estate planning and wealth transfer
• Education and specific goal/need planning
• Foundation management and charitable giving
• Business investment analysis and succession planning

The Financial Planning program for every client has 4 stages:

Proven Investment Strategies

MRA maintains multiple model portfolios that are used as the basis for implementing a client’s investment plan. Portfolios are comprised of Core (traditional asset allocation) and Explore (tactical asset allocation) investment themes. MRA’s Investment Committee meets monthly to review investment policy and strategy. 

During the investment committee meeting, there is a review of each investment model that may result in tactical adjustments to each model determined by market and economic conditions. The committee also reviews core recommendation list of investments, analyzing each individual asset class that supports the investment models.  In the video below, we can see how Morris Retirement Advisors is redefining what it means to plan for retirement:

Here, we can see that MRA investment strategies work because they employ the following analytical criteria to select the funds and securities in its recommended portfolios:

• Past risk-adjusted performance and expense ratios relative to other investments within the same asset class having similar investment objectives
• Consistency of performance and rankings over time
• The historical volatility and downside risk of each proposed investment
• Consistency of investment style and tenure of the portfolio manager
• How each investment complements the others in the portfolio
• Economic conditions and comparisons to other investment opportunities

MRA re-evaluates portfolios using fundamental and tactical analysis each quarter, and rebalances them as necessary. For portfolio risk assessment, the company utilizes its sophisticated software services that provide risk management analytics for investing. Based on the risk metrics of each portfolio, these strategies can limit exposure to volatility and enhance your returns over the long-term.  These are strategies that have been tested over time and can be tailored to the needs of the individual.  For more information, visit MorrisRetirementAdvisors.com.