As a comprehensive financial planning company, TAM Financial seeks to be the place our clients can turn with questions about anything relating to their financial health and well-being. Questions may involve a wide range of topics—from mortgages and refinancing to insurance to retirement and estate planning and more. While the most visible part of our job is direct and active management of our clients’ investments, our responsibilities reach well beyond that. We have helped clients to prepare living trusts, develop wills and estate plans, determine the best method of education funding and much more. The goal here is to transfer the work of making and keeping money to TAM Financial; as our client, you can then spend your time enjoying the fruits of your labors.

Any investment program should be based on a foundation of a comprehensive personal financial plan. This includes a wholesale review of your current situation with respect to insurance (life, health, disability, liability, long-term health, auto and home), retirement (what do you need and how can you get there), estate (wills, advanced medical directives, health care powers of attorney, etc.), educational funding (if any) and housing. Much of this work could be accomplished by our clients themselves—if they were willing to invest the many hours required. But that’s not how they are choosing to spend their time, and that's where TAM Financial can help.

With respect to asset allocation and managing assets, the key is to help identify a client’s market objectives. Do you want to avoid market risk and simply make sure your money keeps pace with inflation? Or, are you willing to accept a certain amount of risk in order to outperform inflation and/or the market as a whole? There is no right or wrong answer here; it all depends on the personal philosophy and the defined needs of the individual client. Is your money working for you or against you? If taking the risk necessary to outpace inflation causes you to lose sleep, is it worth it?

TAM Financial will develop an Investment Policy Statement (IPS) that will serve as a broad guide for your portfolio. This document will be developed closely with you, as it identifies risk tolerance, time horizon and other investment issues that will be important for both you and TAM Financial to understand, and to agree on.

   
   

TAM will meet with you to discuss our analysis and will provide you with a preliminary draft copy of our recommended strategies. You will be given an opportunity to concur with the preliminary recommendations or suggest modifications. Following agreement on your personal financial goals and the strategies to be used to achieve them, we will provide you with a finalized version of the plan.

TAM works to mitigate investment risks for our clients’ portfolios. TAM Financial will often utilize a strategy that involves selling “covered calls” or puts to create cash flow from option premium income.  As with stock ownership in general, the use of options involves risk and is not suitable for all investors.  Prior to signing an Investment Policy Statement, clients will acknowledge having received and read "Characteristics and Risks of Standardized Options" by the Options Clearing Corporation (OCC).

   
   
At TAM Financial, we focus on developing a diverse portfolio for you. Diversity can help protect against the roller coaster rides of the market. We also like to minimize the use of mutual funds, because we believe that over the long run the two percent or so in annual expenses that many funds charge can often be too high a price. There are appropriate situations for mutual funds (such as international stock and bond funds where reliable information is harder to get), but we generally avoid developing a portfolio around them unless a client specifically requests that we do so. For someone who is comfortable with using only mutual funds, we recommend an alternative to the traditional "assets under management" structure.  Most people who insist on using only mutual funds can save money in the long run by hiring a financial planner for a few hours to develop a recommended asset allocation based on a specific time horizon and risk tolerance, and returning on a quarterly basis for a review. 
 
 
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