Comprehensive fee-only financial planning with no product sales

All planning and consulting services of Ken Doll / The Financial Mentor are fee-based. The Financial Mentor follows an hourly fee scale for consulting services, beginning with the initial consultation with a new client.

Primary service areas include financial plans, projections of cash flow and capital growth, implementation, assistance with selecting service providers, and ongoing mentoring updating strategies.

We ensure the clients understand:

• Our consulting and mentoring services are provided on a fee-only basis from client payment only.
• The Financial Mentor does not accept or solicit compensation from any investment, legal, or accounting firm they introduce to the clients for needed services.

The Financial Mentor works with clients first by helping clients understand the issues – ‘knowledge’.

Our ‘advice’ provided applies the knowledge to client needs we have identified – step two.

But advice is recognizing that the services of investment counsel, legal counsel, and tax professionals will also be needed, in most instances, to complete the total solution for the client.

Thus step three – ‘the introduction’.

The Financial Mentor / Ken Doll do NOT make referrals to firms and professionals to provide services or advice required by the client. We have found by experience it is more effective to make a personal introduction to each firm they recommend to the clients.

Our introductions come from in-house research and experience in dealing with the firms and individuals we recommend to help the clients complete their financial planning goals. This way ensures both parties are fully aware of the issues and ready to work together in starting the task, following their appointment.

Ken has met and worked with a wide range of firms and professionals who have been able to help other clients in areas critical to their financial security. These relationships have been developed, fostered and built over many years to provide our select clients with premium access to the high quality expertise they require.

During the financial planning project these introductions could be included, for example:

• Wills and estate planning lawyers
• Tax and business accounting CPA’s
• Business coaches and valuation experts
• Discretionary portfolio management firms
• Advisory investment service firms or licenced advisors
• Insurance professionals
• Cross border tax advisors
• Divorce and family law mediation specialists
• Professional executors and trust advisory

It is the client’s wealth and their desire for future financial security that matters.

We invest time learning how the client and their family identifies the financial needs they can achieve by working with The Financial Mentor.

We gather all financial data and client profile data needed to craft solutions for future financial security.

We identify qualified professionals who can help our clients with critical needs, such as legal advice, tax and accounting services, risk and wealth management.

We believe qualified professionals can be best identified by our office as a client advocate, more effectively than if our client tries to make contact directly via the internet and social media. In this approach, often key information is not accurately presented or easily accessed, and client engagement is the marketing intent of social media information.

We place high value on intangibles that matter, such as ethics, qualifications, philosophy, experience, track record, service cost, client communication, and empathy.

As a Financial Mentor, we use our financial services knowledge, experience, education, and training to prioritize client concerns, quantify long-term financial goals, and the roles clients want to delegate or retain in managing their wealth.

The process could be compared to an independent audit of services, intended to match service results to client identified holistic needs.

This introduction process applies to selecting new qualified, experienced professionals and firms for needed services such as portfolio management, financial planning, estate and tax planning.

From our client meetings we develop a short list of candidates we think can meet client needs and all related parameters. We provide the clients with background on the firms and individuals, with our assessment of suitability, before any client interview is undertaken.

This is not “speed dating”, as we are helping clients enter a long-term relationship with the firm they will choose after our research and interviews are completed.

We provide selected firms a Request for Proposal, detailing client profile and needs. Each firm then makes their presentation to our client and The Financial Mentor on their proposed services and benefits.

The clients must select at least two firms to make service presentations to them. We attend as observers and participants, helping the client gain a full understanding of what services and benefits they will gain from each candidate.

Following presentations, we assist clients in assessing the proposals and selecting the firm they want to work with in the future. Further information is collected as needed from each firm.

As The Financial Mentor we remain impartial in the evaluation process.

It is the clients selecting the most suitable candidate, and it is always challenging.

We assist our clients in terminating present business relationship, an exercise most clients do not find comfortable. However, we have experience in making this a professional transition from one firm to another in an orderly, cordial, and professional manner.

We manage the transition and start-up work required to begin the new relationship, including asset transfers to the new service firm.  This includes reviewing the Investment Policy Statement and other management documents that reflect the client needs.

We use a similar approach in ensuring clients get the best professional advisors needed for estate planning, tax planning, and financial planning services.

We provide these services based upon 25+ years plus of working around the investment industry, the trust industry, and with the legal and accounting professionals in Western Canada.

We have learned some clients have difficulty giving up the role of managing their own investments. Often it is because the client finds it challenging to trust better qualified professionals to do a cost-effective job of this work.

We help clients to recognize they are still going to be involved with their investments, more in the role of management rather than security selection and timing etc.

We provide more detail after our initial client meetings as to the criteria used in assessing firms for discretionary portfolio management as well as for advisory management firms, where the client will be more actively involved in changes made to their portfolio.

We work to understand what each investment management firm can offer our clients,  including people, process, products, pricing, performance, and reporting. This knowledge helps our clients in making their selection of their next investment manager for the future.

Clients will still play an active role in discussions on funding plans, required withdrawals coming out of accounts, tax planning and any unique cash flow needs in the future.

We spend time with clients identifying how to make their investments tax effective going forward.

The Financial Mentor / Ken Doll’s initial client work is the preparation of a Financial Plan and Cash Flow Projection. The financial plan provides the analysis of the current circumstance and the recommended actions needed to help the clients meet their goals. The supporting cash flow projection confirms the impact on cash flow, capital growth, taxes and estate planning values, over a lifetime.

The Financial Mentor provides a fee-based option for clients to access – including:

1. implementation of report recommendations
2. interviews and assistance on soliciting and selecting service providers
3. periodic reviews of investment services and performances to agreed-upon benchmarks
4. updates to estate planning documents and
5. plan and projection revisions to changed circumstance.

When the Consulting Engagement Agreement is signed, Ken will provide a secure way to collect key financial documents during the initial fact-finding process. This is combined with initial meetings and discussions to better understand all the issues at hand and determine what your financial goals and objectives are.

At all times – Ken Doll, The Financial Mentor, recognizes it is the clients money and goals and we are working together as a mentor to you, our clients in designing the best solution and steps to follow for achieving your financial security.

Our client engagement begins with a written Consulting Engagement Agreement on client needs and goals, services to be provided, the cost of service and the payment options. Our clients always have the option to end the services following notice.

Please email me to set up a time to discuss what you are seeking, and I will help you get there.

After our initial contact I advise the information we need, and how we can collaborate with you as your Financial Mentor.

As a financial planner, I follow the steps of financial planning: