Knickerbocker Advisors™ Inc. offers fee-only investment counseling, comprehensive financial planning, trust and estate services, and wealth management for clients throughout the world. Our goal is to increase our clients’ financial well being for years to come. We accomplish this with a comprehensive Wealth Management approach. By analyzing your entire financial picture, we can help structure a solid long-term plan in which all of your finances are working together, in a holistic fashion, for you.
We can offer our comprehensive financial planning and investment counseling services either separately or as Wealth Management which combines these in a holistic fashion while also providing implementation of financial planning goals and recommendations.
Investment Counseling services offer the management of your financial assets, which are held in safekeeping custody at an independent trust company or third party discount broker. Each client establishes an investment policy, which directs our management of the portfolio.
Trust and Estate services are offered to individuals and families typically in conjunction with National Advisors Trust, in order to offer individualized, cost-effective, and comprehensive fiduciary services to you and your family on a multi-generational basis.
National Advisors Trust Company, FSB (“National Advisors Trust”), an independent Federally-chartered Trust Company, was created by financial advisors in order to offer effective Trust solutions aligned with each client’s personal and financial circumstances with the fiduciary responsibilities of a Corporate Trustee. With this arrangement, we are able to offer cost-effective Trust solutions using only the individual components that are necessary and beneficial for our client’s circumstances. National Advisors Trust of South Dakota, Inc. (“NATSD”) offers the advantages of South Dakota Trusts which offer unparalleled privacy, no state income tax, and the ability to establish and maintain dynasty trusts. In recent surveys, South Dakota has outranked states like Delaware, Alaska, etc. as a situs for these types of trusts.
National Advisors Trust and National Advisors Trust of South Dakota are wholly-owned subsidiaries of National Advisors Holdings, Inc. The shareholder advisor firms are not permitted to own more than a ten percent (10%) ownership interest in the company.
Although National Advisors Trust or National Advisors Trust of South Dakota serves as Trustee, Knickerbocker Advisors™ Inc. continues to serve as your primary advisor and investment manager. This ensures that fiduciary matters are conducted in a matter sensitive to your unique family needs and are consistent with your long-term goals and objectives. If you have an existing Trustee relationship, Knickerbocker Advisors™ and National Advisors Trust can coordinate the management of your estate with the continuity of independent corporate Trustee services.
With special arrangement, most Independent Trust Companies can be used as Trustee instead of National Advisors Trust.
National Advisors Trust offers administration, compliance and management for:
- Irrevocable Trusts
- Living or Intervivos (Revocable) Trusts
- Testamentary Trusts
- Marital Trusts
- Charitable Trusts
- Minor’s Trusts
- Irrevocable Life Insurance Trusts (ILIT) and many other types of Trusts
What is Comprehensive Financial Planning?
Comprehensive financial planning is the comprehensive analysis and implementation of a financial plan that is designed to help your assets work at their maximum potential to meet your financial goals. We divide financial planning into the following key areas:
- Cashflow and Tax Planning – Our analysis will establish whether you are saving enough to meet your goals, investing enough of your assets, and keeping enough in a cash reserve. We examine whether you are taking advantage of appropriate tax breaks and tax-deferred vehicles such as IRAs, Profit Sharing QRPs (formerly Keoghs), 401(k)s, 403(b)s, defined-benefit and other pensions.
- Investment Management – After assessing your individual risk and return preferences, we customize an investment plan to help meet your long-term financial goals with your investable assets. We structure a diversified portfolio with a broad mix of investments (i.e. stocks/bonds/other) appropriate to your individual circumstances. We utilize state of the art portfolio management software and we continuously monitor your portfolio to keep it working for you.
- Retirement Planning – It is estimated that once you retire, you will need about 80% of your pre-retirement income to maintain your standard of living. For most people, pensions, 401(k)s and social security are nowhere near enough. Put this together with longer life expectancies and you have one of today’s greatest financial risks: outliving your assets. Together we will develop and target a plan to help you reach a comfortable retirement. As retirement approaches, we will develop an appropriate method of distributing proceeds from retirement accounts.
- Estate and Trust Planning – Estate taxes can total over 50%. We will help you and your estate and tax planning attorney develop a well-crafted estate plan that properly directs your legacy towards those you love and/or your favorite charities, and also steers your maximum allowable assets towards your succession goals rather than towards taxes. We will ascertain whether or not your assets are favorably positioned and correctly titled and whether or not you should have a trust.
- Education Planning – Education costs are growing faster than inflation. Planning early and well enables you to provide your children with a good education without risking your own retirement.
- Risk Management/Insurance – Protection against catastrophic loss can be achieved with appropriate utilization of life, disability, long-term care, homeowners and automobile insurance. Remember, as fee-only advisors we do not sell or promote any insurance products. Rather we can help determine an appropriate level of coverage.
Comprehensive financial planning is a valuable tool in analyzing your entire financial picture and ensuring it works for you. Not every aspect of financial planning will necessarily apply to every client. We begin by focusing on your priorities first, analyzing additional areas over time. And since life circumstances often change, we update your analyses as needed.
