As an independent and fee-only (fees only come from clients) Registered Investment Advisor, we can select from a wide variety of mutual funds and ETFs without external monetary influence.

Utilize Vanguard, DFA, Avantis funds, and other no-load and low cost fund providers to build a globally diversified portfolio of stocks and bonds that aims to growth your wealth without market timing or gambling on individual stocks. 

Factor funds provided by DFA and Avantis are actively managed funds driven by strategy and academic research and not based on emotion or a star manager’s “gut feeling”.

Our core ETF portfolio holdings consist of the following choices and customized based on client’s stomach for risk, goals, investment time frame, and existing holdings.

• Core Equity & Annual Expense Ratio

  • VTI - Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF (0.03%)

  • VEA - Vanguard FTSE Developed Markets ETF (0.05%)

  • VWO - Vanguard FTSE Emerging Markets ETF (0.08%)

• Factor Equity

  • AVUV - Avantis U.S. Small Cap Value ETF (0.25%)

  • AVDV - Avantis International Small Cap Value ETF (0.36%)

  • AVES - Avantis Emerging Markets Value ETF (0.36%)

• Core Bond

  • DFCF - DFA Core Fixed Income ETF (0.19%)

  • BNDX - Vanguard Total International Bond ETF (0.07%)

  • STIP - iShares 0-5 Year TIPS Bond ETF (0.03%)

  • TLT - iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF (0.15%)

  • FALN - iShares Fallen Angels USD Bond ETF (0.25%)

*Disclaimer: This is meant for illustration purposes and specific mention of ETFs should not be seen as investment recommendation. Final client recommendations are given after thorough discussion and analysis of client's risk tolerance and investment objective and could be different from the above example.

For clients in retirement, we recommend having two buckets of money to increase your ability to withstand extended market losses. One to invest securely for the next 5 years (or shorter) and another one to invest for long term growth.

Instead of having one large account with 60% stocks and 40% bonds, we may recommend for our clients to hold 5 years of expenses in a risk free treasury bond ladder (for example 20% of their investments) and the other bucket is invested in a higher growth potential portfolio (maybe 75% stocks and 20% bonds).

This example of 20% in a bond ladder and the rest in a 75% stock and 20% bond mix still achieves the same overall mix of 60% stocks and 40% bonds, but most clients now feel much better during extended market losses because they know the expenses for the next 5 years are secured in a treasury bond ladder.

Tax loss harvesting is when we sell some investments at a loss to offset gains you have made in other investments. The result is that you only pay taxes on your net profit.

Tax location is when we place tax inefficient assets, like bonds or REITs, in tax-advantaged retirement accounts and tax efficient assets, like long term stocks, in taxable or Roth IRA accounts.

*Disclaimer: These strategies may not be appropriate for all clients, especially those in lower tax brackets in retirement.

Once we agree on an investment approach that balances your stomach for risk and need/desire for growth, rebalancing aims to keep that balance over the decades.

For example, we agreed on a portfolio of 50% stocks and 50% fixed income.

• If stock markets grow and the stock portion increases to 60% or 70%, so do your potential losses. Rebalancing will sell some stock, leaving only 50% in stocks, and put the excess proceeds into fixed income funds and fill that bucket back up to 50%.

• If stock markets fall, the opposite happens and we will sell fixed income to reinvest the cash into the stock market when values are lower.

Just like how more sleep is a magic bullet that improves your well being and energy levels, rebalancing may help to reduce risk and/or potentially increase your returns as well without the need to gamble on individual stocks or jump in and out of markets.

Fixed share diversification strategy is meant for people who wish to diversify out of their current concentrated holdings, usually individual stocks that has lost money or stocks that have grown significantly, and feel conflicted on when to sell.

It’s common for people who experienced losses to want to hold onto their stock until they recover. This poses a challenge because, unlike the broad stock market, many individual stocks experience permanent losses and never recover from it. This leads to people holding onto their losing position much longer than they should.

For those who are aware that they should have a more diversified portfolio yet struggle with when and how to sell their current holdings, I offer a service where we agree on a fixed schedule to sell their stocks, (e.g. 10% of shares over the next ten months until all sold) and reinvest the monthly proceeds into a managed portfolio of low cost stock and bond funds.

More details are explained in this blog post.

*To minimize conflict of interest and to authorize us the ability to sell on a fixed schedule, we will bill on the assets the clients wish to diversify out of as a part of asset under management.

In fear of running out of money, many people aim to avoid spending principle and either

1. underspend significantly and needlessly reduce their quality of life, or

2. they investing in high interest bonds or high dividend stocks, both of which likely carry higher risk of permanent losses.

I work with my clients to create a plan to safely invest for long term income by aiming for a balanced growth from dividends, interest income, and price growth from stocks.

First, we review our clients’ investments, pension incomes, lifestyle expenses and taxes and then creating a safe withdrawal plan that aims to balance the need for current income and future growth.

We model various Social Security claiming strategies and show our clients which one would provide the highest potential benefits over their lifetime.

We review our clients’ company provided pensions to see if taking the lump sum or annuity makes the most sense. We also advise on whether to take the annuity as a single life or joint life.

We can work with our clients to review low cost Single Premium Immediate Annuity (SPIA) or Deferred Annuity (SPDA) from the open market to see if it makes sense to incorporate these annuity products to increase their secured income in retirement.

By analyzing when your retirement incomes will begin and how much they will be, we could find future years where our clients are in low tax brackets and may recommend our clients to consider the following strategies to minimize their taxes from IRA:

1. Roth IRA conversions

2. Front loading distributions from Traditional IRA/401(k) during low tax bracket years

3. Delay claiming Social Security to stretch out total time under low tax brackets

4. Make Qualified Charitable Distributions for those charitably inclined

As an experienced landlord and property investor, I advise my clients on how to increase their net income and reduce their management responsibilities so they may enjoy the fruits of their rental investments. This advisory service is included free of additional charge for ongoing investment management clients.

The high cost of long term care can put a strain on many families finances. I partner with insurance agencies to review options with my clients to see if buying a long term care insurance policy is the right step to take.

Since we do not earn any additional fees for referring clients to buy long term care insurance, we can act in our client’s best interest when recommending how to best plan for long term care costs.

Since potentially over half of applicant over age of 65 might get rejected from insurance companies, it is important to have this conversation before turning 60.

If buying insurance is not an option available or chosen, I work with my clients to set aside a portion of their long term investments for long term care expenses.

This is the final stage in protecting your legacy and one I find my clients procrastinating on most often. Whether due to superstition over discussing matters related to death in Chinese culture, not knowing how to take the first step, or just inertia.

For clients who have not completed their plan yet, I educate them on the importance of getting it done, remind them each time we review their investments, and meet with an estate attorney with them until it’s completed.

*This is exactly what I did to get my own parents to get their plan done as well…but instead of a friendly professional reminder, I had to nag my parents a lot.

For clients who have had an estate plan done before, they might not truly understand the structure of their plan. We review and go over the summary of their plan and to ensure the existing plan is still aligned with their own wishes.

If it has been over 10 years since you created your estate plan, it’s likely time for an update and review.

During their estate plan review, I remind my clients how their estate plan is structured and encourage my clients to have discussions with individuals or organizations mentioned in their estate plan. This is to make sure those involved are still aware and ready for the responsibilities of being a trustee, guardian, and/or power of attorney.