Faqs - O'Reilly Wealth Advisors

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: How does OWA help me?

Our company helps people make smart decisions about their money so that they reduce stress, increase their life-long financial security and enhance their overall peace-of-mind and happiness.

Q: That sounds impressive, how do you do that?

We help people make the connection between what is really important to them and their financial goals. This is a unique approach in the industry, yet so relevant. It's a powerful process. Here are two questions to consider -- can you answer yes?

Have you had a conversation with a financial advisor regarding your life goals and tied that in to your financial goals?
Do you have a financial plan for your family that:
- you are actually executing,
- is a living document
- is regularly reviewed for progress toward your goals?

Everyone should do this whether on their own, or under the guidance of a trusted advisor like us.

Q: No, we haven't done that. How can you help us be more diligent about acting on our financial plan?

You're not alone and it's never too late to do. One of the missing pieces in the industry is providing motivation and excitement so a family initiates a financial plan and then acts on their financial plan long term.

Have you noticed that any serious athlete hires a coach? When you were in school, remember how much more you learned and enjoyed a subject when the teacher/professor made it relevant, fun and exciting?

That is what we do in our practice starting from our first meeting. Once you have what's most important to you in life guiding your financial goals and behavior - the motivation is naturally provided. It is very powerful approach. It's humbling for us at O’Reilly Wealth Advisors to learn what's most important in our client's lives. And it's an honor and a responsibility we take seriously.

Q: How do you get started with your customers?

The first meeting with our clients is very important. It includes both spouses if married and takes about one-hour. In that first meeting, we lead you through a process where we discover your values about money and life, your future financial goals and your current financial reality. We place this information on a Financial Road Map. We describe this resulting Road Map as the Gift of Clarity.

At the end of this meeting, we both decide if it makes sense to work together. If so, we put that commitment to go to the next step in writing and make the next appointment. If not, you walk away with the Gift of Clarity.

Q: How much does that cost? What would I be committing to?

If we decide to work together at the end of the first meeting, you would be committing to hiring us as your trusted advisor and paying for the initial plan to begin bridging the gap between your current financial reality and future goals.

The cost will vary depending on the complexity of your situation and will typically be in the range of $2,500 to $10,000. Long term, if you hire us to implement the plan, our fees are primarily asset fee based. Asset fee based advisors charge a percentage of the assets under management with a sliding scale that reduces as the asset size increases.

Before you make the decision to hire us, we will provide you with a complete disclosure of fees.

Q: I am interested. What can you tell me about your credentials and years in the business?

Our team has collectively over 400 years experience in managing assets, financial planning, insurance, estate planning and tax planning/reporting. We represent the crème de la crème of the industry.

In addition to my financial experience, I have run global companies for years, including managing teams of professionals and managing complex global projects with P&L responsibility.

At O’Reilly Wealth Advisors, our primary expertise is as a Values-Based Financial Professional, knowing the experts, and managing them in creating & delivering a comprehensive financial solution for you. It is a powerful business & service model that only the very top financial advisors across the country are using.

Q: I am interested but what if I am not comfortable bringing all my financial documents to the first meeting?

We understand how you feel. Choosing an advisor is very important. You are welcome to keep your financial documents under wrap until we arrive at that part of the Financial Road Map meeting. If you are not comfortable bringing out the documents, we'll talk at that time and decide what to do.

We won't be able to create a financial plan without your current financial documents because that establishes your current financial reality -- our starting point. In order to give you good advice to achieve your future goals, we need to know the starting point.

Q: I am interested but I what if I prefer to turn over only part of my assets initially?

In my role providing financial coaching and advice I look at myself as a doctor. If a doctor writes a prescription or undertakes an operation on a patient without complete knowledge and control, it would be considered malpractice. It is the same with me.

In order for your financial future to be guided properly, all of the components need to work in harmony moving toward your ultimate financial goals that support what's important to you in your life time, and even your legacy beyond death.

Q: I have been working with Joe Professional of "Big Brokers San Diego", why should I change advisors and isn't that a big hassle?

If you feel "Joe" is doing a great job for you and he truly cares about the fulfillment of your life goals, then we wouldn't suggest changing. As an independent registered investment advisor, we have advantages over a large firm like "Big Brokers".

First, we have the luxury of being truly client-centric. We are not incentivized on selling any particular products, or reporting to a branch manager and having to balance the requirements of the branch manager to those of our clients. We are not being pushed to meet the weekly or monthly sales goals. We build our business through referrals which only works if our current clients are happy.

Second, we control the quality of all the services we offer. We have created strategic alliances with top independent providers of specific financial services required to meet your goals who are also client-centric. For example our asset manager has excess to investments that typically only people and organizations with billions of dollars have access.

Third, being small, our expense overhead is lower. We are more nimble, responsive and provide high value. The paperwork to move your assets is routine and we will help you. But first steps first. Before any moves are made, we facilitate a Financial Road Map meeting to establish initial clarity of your Values, Goals and Current Financial Reality.

Fourth, as you have read elsewhere in the web site, as an RIA, OWA is a fiduciary. Broker/Dealers are not fiduciaries.

If we decide to work together, a comprehensive plan must be developed by our independent CFP (certified financial planner) providing several top priority implementation steps to move you towards your desired goals.

Q: Is your practice made up of a particular type or size of client?

Yes. Choosing clients is a very important aspect of our practice. In order to provide our clients comprehensive services, we need to choose clients with certain attributes.

Q: I heard that ABC stock is really hot, can we work together quickly and make that our first move?

It sounds interesting, yet our approach is different. We have a proven successful process and team in place. Everything we do focuses on the realization of your life goals by achieving the corresponding financial goals. Our investment style is based on time proven and tested principles.

We work with a highly respected CEFEX-certified fiduciary investment advisor, Lindner Capital that together with OWA, follows strict processes according to fiduciary standards. Our advisor has access to a leading institutional asset class family of investment funds, DFA that typically only accepts accounts in the order of many millions/billions of dollars --where the largest investors with the "smart money" invest their money.

As a part of our process for investing your assets, we will complete a risk tolerance profile together which leads to the creation of an Investor Policy Statement (IPS) detailing all aspects of your investment goals, risk tolerance and strategy. This IPS will be reviewed at least every year to ensure that all of our assumptions about your investment requirements still apply. The IPS covers the investment of your liquid assets - we still provide and require a regularly updated comprehensive financial plan that projects and provides insight into your entire financial picture looking out many years in the future.

Q: You seem to be as much a coach as a financial advisor. How does this work in the long term?

Money is a means to an end, not an end in itself. That said, money is a necessary tool to accomplish what you wish to accomplish in your life.

There is a field of study called "behavioral finance". A lot of books have been written pointing out that investor behavior has a much larger impact on investor success than what stock you pick or the latest Dow Jones figures. It is true.

For example, many folks panic and sell at the wrong time. Or make impulsive decisions to buy a stock based on a casual comment from an acquaintance. Or chase mutual funds/stocks based on their latest one year or three month performance. Or move money from a solid fund or stock because of a temporary setback. Or try to time the markets, or gamble to achieve short term gains.

So many folks see stock market downturns as a negative when in fact, for the long-term committed investor; they are a fantastic opportunity to invest more.

It is important to establish what's important to you in life and the resulting financial goals and financial plan to get there from here. But you need motivation and encouragement along the way to keep to the plan, and modify the plan as your life circumstances change.

We are here to do that for you, and we are available for questions that you may have. We will meet 4 times per year according to the situation and your desires. As we monitor progress to plan, we will let you know if you are falling short of your commitments. We will help you avoid the typical mistakes that investors make.