Wealth Management Service
(An Excerpt from the Five Seasons Financial Planning Form ADV Brochure)
Wealth Management
Five Seasons Financial Planning first conducts an initial interview and gathers data to determine the client's current financial situation, investment objectives, investment time horizon, investment preferences and constraints, need for investment income, tax situation, and tolerance for risk. These various inputs, and any additional client feedback, are then combined into a written Investment Policy Statement. This document then serves as the foundation on which our ongoing discretionary investment management decisions will be based.
As part of the Wealth Management service, Five Seasons also oversees the process of transferring client accounts and/or assets to our institutional custodian, Charles Schwab, and assists the client with any relevant paperwork to achieve this. Asset allocation and investment decisions are then made, in our best judgment, to help clients attain their overall investment objectives within the bounds of the Investment Policy Statement. To this end, Five Seasons dynamically rebalances client portfolios, employs tax management strategies, and utilizes tactical asset allocation on an ongoing basis, and if appropriate.
The Wealth Management service also includes ongoing non-investment financial planning services (e.g. retirement planning and projections, tax minimization strategies, insurance needs analyses and reviews, advice on debt management and education funding, etc.). We begin to address the client’s most immediate or pressing financial planning issues and concerns as the client’s initial investments are being implemented. Over time, as the client’s financial circumstances and objectives evolve, additional financial planning services are furnished when needed or when requested by the client.
At the end of every quarter, Five Seasons provides the client with a position statement on the investment accounts under its management. And semi-annually, we provide the client with a performance report on the investment accounts held at Charles Schwab. Every year, Five Seasons offers a meeting to review the client’s investment accounts, to discuss financial market conditions, to determine if the assumptions underlying the Investment Policy Statement are still valid, and to assess the need to address additional non-investment financial planning issues.
Each client is advised that it remains his/her responsibility to promptly notify Five Seasons when there is any change in his/her financial situation and/or financial objectives for the purpose of reviewing, evaluating, or revising previous recommendations and/or services.
As of JANUARY 2, 2024, Five Seasons Financial Planning manages approximately $104.1 million in assets for approximately 71 client households with about 231 accounts under management. Of this amount, about $97.5 million is managed on a discretionary basis, with the balance being non-discretionary.
Account Minimums
Wealth Management
In offering Wealth Management services, Five Seasons Financial Planning generally requires a minimum initial dollar value of client investment assets under management of $500,000. However, this condition may be waived if the client's financial circumstances indicate that that level will be attained in the near future. Other exceptions may apply to relatives of firm principals, or to relatives of existing clients, or to referrals from existing clients.
Furthermore, if Five Seasons is being engaged to create and supervise a portfolio of individual equity or fixed-income securities (as opposed to mutual funds, exchange-traded funds, and closed-end funds), we may require a higher minimum account size in order to generate an adequate degree of diversification without incurring excessive transaction costs. In this case, the minimum asset level will be dependent on the proposed types of investments (e.g. individual stocks and fixed-income securities versus mutual and exchange-traded funds) and on the diversity and quantity of client assets not under our management.