Upticks: Our Services with Cory Bittner, CRPC®

By Jake Falcon on July 7, 2022

I want to make sure our clients and potential clients fully understand everything we have to offer at Falcon Wealth Advisors, so I asked our Co-Founder and COO Cory Bittner, CRPC®, to join me on Upticks to discuss what we do for our clients and how our costs are applied. Clients choose to work with us to enhance their financial literacy and explain exactly what their financial plan means to them. This is our purpose at Falcon Wealth Advisors. A summary of my conversation with Cory is below. 

Jake: When I meet with potential clients, I tell them we do two primary things at Falcon Wealth Advisors. The first is financial, retirement and tax planning. The second is investment management.

When a client hires us, the first thing we help them with is financial organization. Can you talk more about that?

Cory: We ask new clients a series of questions to determine what they have—old 401(k)s, IRAs, etc.—and where they’re located. After we have this 360 degree view of a client’s financial life, we can give better advice than if we only were seeing part of the picture.

Jake: Believe it or not, a lot of new clients don’t have a complete inventory of all their financial accounts and how they’re set up. Once we have that inventory, we plug it into our financial planning software, which allows us to see exactly how accounts are invested and allocated. During this process, we are often able to help people set themselves up for long term success from a financial, retirement and tax planning perspective. This is step number one when we welcome a new client.

Sticking with financial planning, can you talk about some of the open-ended questions we ask clients?

Cory: I’ll ask you one of them right now, Jake. If you woke up at 6 a.m. tomorrow and were retired, how would you spend your time? To really do our job well, we have to understand what’s important to clients.

Jake: It’s difficult for me to say, as being a fiduciary wealth advisor is my passion and purpose. But regular readers know I love spending time with my wife, traveling and golfing.

I often ask clients why money is important to them. How would you answer that?

Cory: Money can provide opportunities and security.

Jake: Opportunities and security are pretty fundamental on the hierarchy of needs. I won’t drill down further today, but I do these exercises with clients so that we can align their financial plan with what’s important to them.

Some other questions include, “What does a perfect retirement look like?” and “What are you looking for in a fiduciary wealth advisor?” These are the types of questions that allow us to connect with clients on deeper levels. We don’t want to be brokers who only have a transactional relationship with clients. We want to help guide our clients as life changes.

And customized advice is important. Two clients could each have $3 million, but if they have completely different priorities, their financial plans and the advice we offer should not be the same.

Both Cory and I are Chartered Retirement Planning Counselors, which is a designation not every advisor seeks and attains. From a retirement planning perspective, can you talk about some of the topics we discuss with our clients?

Cory: Sure, they include retirement accounts, Social Security, Medicare, Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs), Roth conversions, pensions, life insurance … we could go on and on.

Jake: When to turn on Social Security is a big one. It’s an important decision and one clients haven’t had to make before. But we have had thousands of meetings over the years on these subjects and that’s a benefit of working with a fiduciary wealth advisor who is legally required to act in your best interest.

And it’s worth noting that rules, regulations and common practices around many of these topics are ever changing. We stay abreast of these changes and share information with clients, allowing them to make the most prudent decisions possible.

Cory: An example of this is the SECURE Act of 2019, which changed the age at which RMDs take effect, the way beneficiaries inherit retirement accounts, and more. This is an example of legislation that impacts all retirees and will for years to come, and it’s our job to learn about it and understand what it means for you. We look to be proactive and plan accordingly.

Jake: Let’s now talk about tax planning, which we’re doing at a deeper level than ever. Can you talk more about this?

Cory: Yes, we have invested in new software that allows us to scan our clients’ tax returns directly into it. The software will then generate a report that shows opportunities for clients to potentially improve their tax situation in the short and long term. It also allows us to look at how certain financial decisions—like selling company stock or buying a second home—will affect your tax situation.

Jake: This software is a game changer for our clients. Our team of financial planners can walk you through the analysis that is developed from your tax return, review its observations and explore the opportunities it suggests.

I should note that while we are not tax advisors, we do have the skills and tools to work in concert with your CPA to help you lower your tax liability. Our tax planning capability is a huge value add for our clients, but I’m proud we are not raising costs for our clients even as we grow our tax planning capability.

Cory: It’s a great time to work in our field because there is new and interesting technology that becomes available seemingly everyday. This tax planning software is an example, and also an example of our commitment to our clients.

Jake: I want to talk about how each of our 700+ clients have access to our 14 person team at Falcon Wealth Advisors. You essentially have us on retainer—we don’t charge by the hour or charge commissions. Whether you need to meet with me, or someone from our Financial Planning, Research & Trading or Operations Groups, you have a team working for you. And we’re proactive, checking in with clients multiple times a year.

We don’t charge additional money for financial, retirement, or tax planning. Our costs are based on the capital we manage. The amount you pay for us to manage your investments covers everything we offer. Some wealth advisors would charge separate for all of this, but we value simplicity and transparency. Clients don’t pay us an investment fee, but rather an advisory fee.

Can you talk about how our investment strategy differs from many other advisors, Cory?

Cory: I first want to note the investments in your portfolio are there to fuel your financial plan. That’s why we start with your plan.

As far as managing investments, what separates Falcon Wealth Advisors from other advisors is that we don’t use any investment products. We don’t use mutual funds or exchange traded funds, and we don’t sell annuities. Instead, we buy individual stocks and bonds for our clients’ portfolios (and we execute options strategies for some clients).

Jake: This is indeed a big differentiator. I believe I read that only about 10-20% of advisors in the country take our approach and eschew financial products. We previously used these products, but we became tired of their hidden fees, underperformance, and not being able to control the investments.

We use individual stocks and bonds for a number of reasons. We want our clients to hold us accountable for the portfolio’s performance and we want to have control over those portfolios. Our model is also more transparent, and can often reduce both the number of fees clients pay and the amount in fees. Because we don’t use third party products, our clients don’t have to worry about paying fees to third parties.

In regards to how we invest our clients’ money, we use an asset allocation strategy we studied at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. They’ve been teaching this strategy since the 1950s. We believe it’s tried and true.

After your money is invested, Cory and I work with our Research and Trading Group to monitor all the stocks and bonds in your portfolio so that we can aim to buy low and sell high. And this team has access to high-powered research tools, which help us make decisions. We believe in active portfolio management and taking advantage of opportunities as they present themselves.

While industry rules don’t allow us to publicize the details of our performance, I’m pleased the portfolios of most of our clients are outperforming the overall stock market this year. This isn’t possible if you own an index fund, because your performance mirrors the index itself. Rather than waive the white flag during times like these, we invest in education, technology and a strong team.

Cory: If we simply purchased index funds or mutual funds for clients, I wouldn’t feel like I was adding much value. If you want to own those products, you can buy them on your own. You don’t need to pay an advisor to do that for you.

Jake: And that’s where the value we add comes in. For any individual investor to do what we do at Falcon Wealth Advisors, they would have to pay approximately $25,000 annually for the Bloomberg research tool we have access to and pay more for  all the other institutional research we receive. They would need trading software that can rebalance portfolios—also not cheap. And they would need to invest in their education so they can do this 40+ hours a week like us. Unless you truly love managing your portfolio—and are adept at it—I would argue it’s a lot easier and more efficient to work with our team of 14 at Falcon Wealth Advisors. Your retirement savings is too important to treat managing it as a hobby.

Let’s talk about our costs. As I mentioned, our cost is a percentage of the capital we manage for you. Charging in this transparent manner is in line with our fiduciary duty, which is to act in your best interest. And it means that the better your portfolio performs, the better we do, as we make more money when you have more money. We are incentivized to help optimize your investments, whether it’s through tax planning, financial planning or the performance of your portfolio.

Cory: Yes, and while the dollars clients pay us are based on their investments, what they’re paying us for is so much more. It’s our advice, planning capabilities and everything we’ve talked about today.

Jake: There are some years clients need us more than others, like when they retire or when they turn 72 and have to navigate Required Minimum Distributions. I think there is a lot of value in having us on retainer, because life is unpredictable. When things pop up, our team at Falcon Wealth Advisors is ready and able to help you make important decisions.

Thanks so much for joining me, Cory. If you want to learn more about our capabilities, our team and how we can be a partner for you through life’s stages and changes, please contact me today. You can reach me directly at Jake@falconwealthadvisors.com.

Clients choose to work with us to enhance their financial literacy and explain exactly what their financial plan means to them.

 Hightower Advisors, LLC is an SEC registered investment adviser. Securities are offered through Hightower Securities, LLC member FINRA and SIPC. Hightower Advisors, LLC or any of its affiliates do not provide tax or legal advice. This material is not intended or written to provide and should not be relied upon or used as a substitute for tax or legal advice. Information contained herein does not consider an individual’s or entity’s specific circumstances or applicable governing law, which may vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction and be subject to change. Clients are urged to consult their tax or legal advisor for related questions.