Wealth Management, Redefined: A Personal Approach from DeLeon Wealth

At DeLeon Wealth we believe Wealth Management can be distilled down to three broad categories – your life, your wealth, and your legacy.

To have a true understanding of who you are and what is important to you, so much more is needed than basic portfolio management. Your Financial Advisor should have a deep understanding of your life both on and off the balance sheet to provide you with the comprehensive wealth management and advising that is needed in this day and age.

YOUR LIFE

Your Life is so much more than simple portfolio management. While market risk is addressed through prudent portfolio management, protecting your family and your assets begins with having the proper insurance in place. DeLeon Wealth does not sell any products; however, we are well versed in the insurance space. Clients receive a comprehensive review that outlines their current coverage, allowing us to effectively identify any gaps and reduce coverage if needed. This review includes everything from property and casualty coverage, employer provided coverage, and life insurance products.

Paying for college tuition can be one of the largest expenses you incur early on in life – by saving early you can create a foundation for your children or grandchildren. Whether this means opening a 529 education account, establishing a UTMA (Uniform Transfers to Minors Act) account, or a combination of both – we provide you with a framework about the benefits and drawbacks of each as they apply to your unique situation.

Building wealth and working towards the ultimate goal of retiring and enjoying life with your loved ones is at the heart of financial advising; however, traditional firms overlook one of the largest underlying factors to all of this – your health span. While the US spends nearly twice as much as other countries on health and well-being, we continue to have some of the worst health outcomes and highest levels of preventative chronic disease. Placing a focus on longevity in conjunction with a client’s wealth span, allows us to help clients make more intentional decisions around their health span. These services include connecting them with longevity specialists, creating health focused client groups, partnering with specialists to identify underlying causes that may be resulting in higher premium costs, and so much more. We work with our clients to create a plan that can enable them to live healthier, longer, and enjoy the wealth that they work so hard to accumulate.

YOUR WEALTH

Your Wealth is such a complex area and can mean something different to each person. From the perspective of your balance sheet, DeLeon Wealth takes an approach to wealth management that removes emotions from the decision-making process. Many others take the approach of assessing a client’s risk tolerance through a questionnaire and utilizing this as the basis for investment decisions – we believe that this approach is outdated. Through a traditional risk questionnaire, we are not able to identify outside forces that may be impacting someone’s propensity for risk. Instead, we take a fact-based approach by assessing your risk capacity. With a deep understanding of your income, expenses, and spending habits, we can identify whether you are a net saver or a net spender. From here our portfolio modeling is done similar to how a pension fund is built, keeping ample assets in short duration holdings to meet your withdrawal needs while optimizing the rest of your portfolio for long duration growth. In an attempt to mitigate tax hits and ensure we have a deep understanding of your entire picture; we work hand in hand with your CPA to make proactive tax planning decisions throughout the year. Beyond working with your CPA, we are actively reviewing your portfolio for opportunities to reduce your tax burden. Investing can create taxable events which is why we not only focus on asset allocation but also asset location. Asset location focuses on minimizing tax liabilities and maximizing after tax returns through the placement of specific holdings in accounts with varying tax treatments. Understanding your tax picture, cash flows, and future goals helps us prepare for your retirement.

YOUR LEGACY

Your Legacy is something that can be hard to talk about; however, it is crucial to sound wealth management. Proper Estate Planning is at the top of the agenda for every client. With an ever-changing legal landscape, it is important to stay on top of changes in your state and understand how they can impact the ultimate transfer of your wealth. We are not estate planning attorneys, but we work directly with your attorney or specialists from our network to ensure that your legacy is protected and set to transfer in accordance with your wishes. For many of our clients, succession planning is a key piece to their plan. As your Advisors, we have a deep understanding of both your personal life and business, allowing us to provide you with comprehensive insights into how this decision can impact your future planning. Whether succession planning means selling your business entirely, passing it down to the next generation, or exploring other options, our team helps work through these scenarios and connects you with specialists who can help execute your preferred succession plan. Some clients exclusively gift to their children and families, while others engage in giving through philanthropic endeavors. As your estate grows, giving while you are still alive can significantly reduce the estate tax due upon your passing. It is important to have a team who understands your approach to giving and can optimize solutions that align with this approach. For some families this means taking advantage of the annual gift tax exclusion or working with your Estate Planning attorney to establish Trusts for more complex approaches. If you are philanthropically inclined, we look to establish a Donor Advised Fund (DAF) and build an intentional giving strategy that not only helps you identify and support the causes that align with your values but also give in a way that can help optimize your balance sheet.

At DeLeon Wealth, we take a comprehensive approach to Wealth Management that aims to help you build the Life, Wealth, & Legacy that you envision.

We hope this article helps articulate what Wealth Management means to our Firm. If you are curious about what a client relationship looks like or would like to learn more about anything we mentioned, please don’t hesitate to reach out to our team directly at info@deleonwealth.com.