By Raymond D. Minkus
Performance and experience are undoubtedly key ingredients to choosing a financial manager but there is a parade of other elements which in the aggregate are as essential to finding the right advisor compatible with your goals and persona.
Less measurable, softer traits mentioned by those seeking successful relationships with their financial resources include trust, detail and communication. Among other features sought by clients are ease of onboarding and access to information. Clients also look for an advisor who has a general sense of caring and genuine interest in their lives, often beyond just their financial concerns and inclusive of their extended nuclear family.
Ben Young, founder and owner of Astute Wealth Management, has nearly two decades of experience with managing the financial interests of the company’s expanding client base. He and his growing staff strive to meet and exceed all of the aforementioned elements.
As Ben explains, there is one more factor that stands out and that is important when long-term investing. The driving principle supporting that reality is known as “behavioral investing” which is pinned to minimizing investor emotions subject to rapid buy-sell urges during nearly every market twist. Behavioral actions come into even greater play during the truly dark days when steep market drops negatively impact portfolio value.
Astute Wealth’s approach, as authored by Ben and practiced every day, is a well-crafted blend focused on long term performance supported by all of those forementioned traits.
Follow the verbatim input from several of the Astute Wealth clients. Three interviews were conducted to obtain a rare insight into client perspectives about the decision-making process and the establishment of the and continuing relationship between client and manager. Only first names are used in the narrative.
Christian and Cheryl
Christian and Cheryl are a retired married couple who have placed their trust in Ben and Astute Wealth for more than five years.
“We met Ben through my brother,” said Cheryl. “My dad passed away in 2015 and my mother had dementia so that’s when I assumed responsibility for my mom’s, estate.”
Cheryl explained that between her mother, herself and husband Christian they had accounts with another financial institution, but didn’t have any personal representation or somebody they could talk to.
“Ben coached the basketball team that some of my brother Rob’s kids were on.
So, he recommended him because he felt that he was a great guy, honest and straightforward. And that personal referral obviously was important,” said Cheryl.
“I’m a pretty conservative guy so I did research on that before we got more involved,” added Christian. “I did some background on him and felt confident enough with the information that I was able to take a chance because you never know any financial advisor until they’re proven.”
Christian classified his investment style as conservative. Cheryl stated she is willing to take more risks.
“When we started with Ben, there wasn’t a ton of money until we sold my parents’ house and then that added a considerable chunk. So, we started out with a smaller amount. The way we look at the funds we have now is legacy money. It’s not for us to just consume. It’s money that we want to grow and be able to pass down to our children and our grandchildren. So as far as risk goes, it is not about us. It’s about generations,” said Cheryl.
Christian added, “The thing I liked about Ben is that he was, engaging. I felt that he had a genuine, invested interest by spending time with us together. Real planning, not just ‘this is what I think you should do’ but actually explaining why. Explaining risk. Mapping out investments. He would ask us for our opinion, but also he would give us reasons why he thought these were good investments and balancing our portfolio.”
“I thought Ben was truly interested not only in doing the best he could as if it were his own money. I think that’s really important because I feel that he’s making investments, understanding us the way that we are.”
“He assesses our risk tolerance and doing the best to match the investments the way that his expertise knows is best for us, but also to help reassure us and the decisions that he’s recommending and then getting our buy. He wasn’t just doing it. He was explaining everything in pretty good detail.”
Christian (and Cheryl) have learned to trust somebody with their finances after years of dealing with much larger, less connected investment firms.
“There’s always risk and reward and there’s also risk and failure. You find you eventually have to get to a point where you have some faith, right? I’m not a trusting person by nature. And I trust Ben as much as is humanly possible for me to trust another human being,” Christian concluded.
MICHELE
Michele is married, retired and working with Ben and Astute Wealth for several years. She mostly relied on taking care of her financial investment by herself prior to engaging Astute.
“Ben came recommended to me through my sister-in-law. I was hesitant because of not knowing him. And the experience I had with a past attempt with a financial advisor was you never heard from them, Michele began.
“My husband and I interviewed Ben and he was very reassuring,” she said.
“Look, if you’re not happy, try me for a year. If you’re not happy, you can pull your money out. You don’t have to stay with me,” she recalled a conversation with Ben. “He was just very upfront and easy to talk to and that’s what I like.”
Michele classifies herself as a conservative investor and is appreciative of the positive results she has achieved working with Ben and Astute.
“I am willing to take a little bit of risk understanding that the market goes up and down
and you can’t watch it every minute. I understand you must be in it for the long haul and have diversity,” Michele said.
“Ben has picked up on my attitude. My husband is a little more conservative than me. He says I’m edging on being willing to take a little bit of a risk. Ben usually explains everything. And I’ll be like, okay, we can try that and see how it goes,” she continued. “But I feel like he offers it and if we want to try it that’s fine. But if we don’t, Ben’s okay with that too. I never feel pressured.”
“And the office itself and the staff support group, they parallel to what I’ve experienced with Ben,” said Michele. “I know they’re busy with a lot of clients, of course, but I can send an email and get a prompt response – or they will respond with a phone call if it’s quicker and easier.”
Michele appreciates that the office staff is always accessible and very willing to help.
Michele recalled her experience onboarding with Ben when first transferring her accounts to Astute.
“I was organized enough that I had statements and stuff. But if it was just a matter of needing an account number, they would do the research and get the paperwork that was necessary to make all the transfers. That made it very easy to get everything verified or the paperwork for us to fill out and they would take care of that.
“I guess why I felt confident to go with Ben was he could talk on my level. Everybody has a different understanding of the financial markets. If I have questions, I never feel like it’s too stupid to ask. Ben makes sure that I’m understanding the answer. So, I appreciate that sometimes with other financial people talking above me and I just felt like, like I was wasting their time. You know, probably because they had clients with so much more money or something. But you know, Ben is very down to earth,” Michele concluded.
Manuel and Sandra
Manuel and Sandra are first generation Americans, both being the children of immigrants. The couple is now retired. They were a client of another firm for about 30 years before the relationship transferred several years ago to Ben and Astute.
“We trusted Arnie (our previous advisor). We had been with him for a long time. We knew that he had to retire at some point and when he mentioned he was selling the business, then we figured he’s probably passing it on to somebody reputable because he had high standards,” Manuel explained.
“The transition from Arnie to Ben was really smooth. It just felt really natural. We knew he was not just handing this business over to just anybody. We knew that he really cared. Arnie brought Ben in on a few meetings — one was a big group meeting and then the other was when we had an individual consultation with Arnie before he retired and Ben was in on that.
“So, we got comfortable with him. But Ben has gone above and beyond. He explains things well. He presents us with ideas that we didn’t initiate in order to better manage our investments. He does the research and finds out the laws how they’re changing, that sort of thing,” he said.
Manuel added: “I think in our younger days, we were, more risk averse because we didn’t have as many funds, and we didn’t really understand the process very well because we both grew up in very humble homes. Our parents were immigrants and they started from the bottom. We pretty much generated our own wealth for the most part.”
Manuel and Sandra have become more aggressive in recent years despite their depression era mentality. It has been an interesting transition for both, especially Manuel who was one of nine children.
Sandra concurred, offering insight into her own upbringing as a child of immigrant parents living month to month if not sometimes day to day.
“It was easy to get comfortable with Ben,” said Sandra. “There we became more creative, built even more of a trust and confidence in talking to him. He’s always made it very easy to ask questions. This is especially helpful as even though we had been with Arnie for years, we’re still learning in many ways.”
The transition involving the onboarding was smooth, confirmed both Manuel and Sandra.
“We’re people. We’re not accounts. And that really comes across. He’s really interested in that sense of people and what we want to do with our money. You know what, what goals we have and so forth,” added Sandra.
Both Manuel and Sandra shared their satisfaction with the quick and complete response to their communications. Ben and Astute respond to their emails and text messages quickly when they have questions.
“We’re not totally savvy as far as the investing world, but when we need to do some major transaction, like purchase a home, or do something else large, he’s been very helpful. He’s given us different scenarios and options,” Manuel contributed.
“We’re not extravagant. A lot of our wealth is directed towards our children, our grandchildren and charities. We’ve always been involved in the community with non-profits and donating, in that sense, and Ben has been very supportive. “
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