Services

Strategies Developed to Address Your Needs Today, Tomorrow, and for the Future

How We Help You Address Your Financial Challenges:

Nancy finds that today many people are good savers and investors. The issue for future lifestyle needs is more about income than about the dollar value of assets. Assets can be depleted through taxation, market volatility, lack of protection from stock market corrections, divorce, or other factors. We work with clients to help create strategies to generate reliable lifetime income. Nancy works side-by-side with each client to develop an individualized, comprehensive roadmap geared toward achieving financial independence. We look at your entire financial picture from all angles, including accumulation, distribution, and wealth conservation, to help you achieve what matters most to them. Running out of money before you run out of time is a very real possibility in today’s world, and our mission is to help you avoid that fate. We accomplish this by employing powerful financial planning strategies that are straightforward and uncomplicated.

Investment Management

Together, we’ll review your current investments and create an individualized portfolio that makes the most sense for your unique needs and goals and tolerance for market risk. Volatility is a natural characteristic -the DNA of the stock market. Meeting with you frequently, we review and evaluate your investments and ensure you remain aware of the benefits and risks of different investments. Decisions and changes can be made as necessary based on your lifestyle and any changes to your plan. There is a difference between market volatility and market risk. The reason stocks go up and down (volatility) is that the business cycle and the economy go up and down. As the business cycle and the economy go up, the stock market goes up. The cycle and the economy may eventually reverse.

There are three approaches to market risk:

(1) You can eliminate market risk and eliminate your opportunity for substantial gain) by not investing in the stock market. Many people try to eliminate the stock market risk by investing in real estate or commodities. Real estate can also be volatile, is not very liquid and has a lower potential return than the stock market. Commodities are even more volatile than the stock market, require a great deal of expertise to invest in and have a lower potential return than the stock market.

(2) You can use products that enable you to enjoy gains from the stock market while not putting your money at risk of loss

(3) You can manage market risk by managing your emotions during the extremes. This is much easier said than done and research shows that the majority of investors tend to buy when the stock market is high and sell when it is low. I can help you avoid making these mistakes.

Tax Reduction Strategies

We help you look ahead when you barely have time to look up, focusing on tax efficiency. Taxes could take away more of your income and your net worth than virtually any other factor. A comprehensive review of your tax return can help us shed light on opportunities available to help reduce the amount of money you lose to taxes. We work directly with your tax professional to develop a comprehensive tax strategy that is tailored for you. We’ll make recommendations including, but not limited to, tax-advanced investments and staying up to date on new tax laws that can affect your finances. Most retirement accounts are tax-deferred, not tax-free. That means that when you take that money out, you could be taxed at your highest income tax rates. You and I have been told for years that when we retire, our income tax rate may be lower. However, that is only sometimes true. This creates a tremendous drag on the income produced in your retirement plans. Our experience provides you with opportunities to stay tax diversified. We can provide you with proven strategies to help reduce taxes on withdrawals from your retirement accounts. Would you rather pay taxes on the seeds (the money going into your retirement accounts) or the harvest (the large amount of money coming out of your retirement accounts)?

Income & Distribution Strategies

As the economic environment changes, we will analyze the growth of your current portfolio and suggest adjustments as needed. We’ll implement these recommendations using proven financial planning strategies. We will also analyze your income needs both now and for future years and will develop a plan to help you safely generate the required amount of income. Our recommendations are designed to fund your preferred lifestyle. We can also review the distribution options available for your employer retirement plans and IRAs and show you how to minimize taxes on withdrawals from retirement plans.

Family Wealth Strategies

Being prepared for the unexpected is especially important as we prepare for retirement and while we are retired. We work one-on-one with you to analyze your current estate plan and to address any concerns you may have. Then we can establish the process necessary to ensure that both you and your loved ones are taken care of. In the words of Mahatma Gandhi, “Plan as if you are going to live forever and live as if you are going to die today.” We’ll review your long-term care needs, make sure you have your beneficiaries' designations in order, and deal with asset titling. We are not legal professionals, but we would welcome the opportunity to work with your estate planning attorney to optimize results. We can also advise you on how to transfer assets to loved ones and family members in a way that minimizes or avoid taxation to increase your family’s wealth.

Client Services & Communications

Life doesn't take a break, so I make myself available seven days a week by phone or email to help you navigate the unexpected issues that can arise. We also provide a quarterly newsletter to help keep you up to date on the most current financial management strategies. Depending on your needs and your financial situation, we may have quarterly, semi-annual, or annual reviews to remain on top of your finances and adjust your road map as needed. We also offer regular reports and financial service events to maintain and optimize our client relationships. We want you to have a great experience working with us!

Retirement Planning

You should ask yourself two crucial questions:

1.) What do you NEED your retirement income to do? Most people say I need it to cover my basic living expenses. Human needs are very basic: food, shelter, etc.

2.) What do you WANT your retirement income to do? To have a high-quality life, we work to help our clients fulfill not just their needs but also many of their wants. Many people plan your income out to age 100+. We tend to underestimate life expectancy. Nowadays, it is not uncommon for people to live past age 90, so if your retirement savings are only planned out until then, there's a chance you could find yourself short on the necessary funds to get you through the rest of your life.

How We Help

SETTING ATTAINABLE GOALS FOR THE LIFESTYLE OF YOUR DREAMS.

Developing a process to provide financial independence for the years ahead.

WE WORK WITH YOU EVERY STEP OF THE WAY, FROM ACCUMULATION TO DISTRIBUTION TO CONSERVATION; WE ALSO PLAN FOR THE IMPACT OF INFLATION. Milton Friedman, the Pulitzer Prize economist said, “Inflation is taxation without representation.”

Nowadays, people are enjoying longer lives than ever before. However, longer lives require that our resources have to last longer. The cost of living and the cost of health care are steadily climbing. Through payroll deductions, we pay into Social Security and Medicare throughout our working careers. Unfortunately, more money is being paid out in benefits than is being collected and so the systems are running out of money. To keep Social Security and Medicare solvent, benefits may be reduced in the future, and we need to plan for that.

Social security was initially meant to supplement corporate pension plans—not replace them. In the 1980s, over 60 percent of American workers, including many working for corporations, had pensions by 2020, only 18 percent were covered by guaranteed pensions (Schroeder, 2022), and many of those were government workers (i.e., schoolteachers, government workers, and Congress) and relatively few people employed by private industry had guaranteed pensions.

We have been told to focus on accumulating our pile of assets. As a result, many but not all people are good savers and investors. Unfortunately, our future lifestyle could depend on our future income, not our assets. Our assets can be decimated in an unexpected stock market decline (as we saw in 2000-2002, 2008-2009 and in 2020), lost in a divorce, or lost in bad unprotected investments (a bad real estate deal, bad stock market investments or in cryptocurrency).

We need to develop effective ways to provide income for the lifestyle of our dreams in the 21st Century. Remember: The only person you can trust to care for your older self is your younger self.

We need to adapt and develop effective ways to save for the future. To maintain our desired lifestyles and long-term financial well-being, we encourage individuals, business professionals, medical professionals, and small- to mid-size business owners to take an honest look at their finances with us to determine the best approaches for saving, investing and spending. This way we can set realistic and achievable goals.

We work with you every step of the way, from accumulation to distribution and conservation, to address what is most important to you and give you the best plan possible for pursuing your desired result. The last thing anyone wants to face when they should be enjoying their senior years is financial uncertainty. That’s where the Strategic Wealth Advisor, Nancy Hite, can help with her proven and straightforward strategies. Nancy’s motto K.I.S.S. (Keep it simple, sweetie), avoids the use of complex and confusing jargon. When you can easily understand the road map to financial independence, you’ll have much less stress and more success in following it.

Our financial roadmap can include a comprehensive review of your taxes, estate, investments, current and future income, and loss prevention strategies. We coordinate with your estate planning attorney and your CPA to create a holistic approach to planning your financial future that considers each piece of your financial picture. All our recommendations are made in your best interest as a standard of the fiduciary process. The recommendations for each client are different because everyone’s financial situation is different. We work strategically and holistically to plan your financial roadmap for the rest of your life. Knowing that life changes, your roadmap may have to adjust periodically

GETTING STARTED

Our approach to delivering financial services that are personalized and effective always begins and ends with you. We start the process by listening to you, discussing your lifestyle, goals, family, and financial situation. Through a consultative process, we then use all the information about you both financially and personally to construct and implement customized money management strategies. The plan we develop can address your needs and goals and provide answers for your most complex financial questions.

What It’s Like Working With Us

Step 1: Discover

Most advisors start working with a client by discussing strategies that they use, whereas we discuss strategies that can work for you. We start above the horizon, which means asking thoughtful and intentional questions about your short- and long-term goals, dreams, and priorities. Together, we’ll work to pinpoint your objectives and paint a clear picture of your vision for the future before we discuss how to get there. Once we know what you want and need, we dip below the horizon to look at what strategies could best help you achieve those dreams and satisfy those needs. This is where we move into the stage most other financial planners begin with – getting into the details of your income taxes, investment portfolios, future income strategies, estate planning, and more. Through decades of experience and positive results, we have found that this proven process helps clients best to have a clear picture of their financial goals and priorities before any decisions that can impact their future are made.

Step 2: Create

In this stage, we dive into strategic planning to create a road map to help you work toward your goals. The process allows us to curate a creative and individualized combination of strategies and then provide the ability to implement them proactively. This allows you to make intelligent decisions about your personalized investment portfolio and financial plan comfortably. The recommendations we make serve to help ensure that you can make the right decisions at the correct times and have a strong enough financial foundation to handle changes in the investment market, the economy or your life. With ongoing communication, we then help make sure your plan is continuously staying on track and is modified as needed to help you pursue both your long- and short-term goals.

Step 3: Implement

Most clients have difficulties implementing decisions when they don’t fully understand how those decisions help them achieve their goals. We have found that the key to achieving financial growth and independence is directly related to a thorough understanding of your financial mission, vision, and goals. This understanding allows you to skillfully manage your financial situation over time as the economy, your life, or your goals change.

Step 4: Manage Results

Result management allows you to feel confident about the outcome of your financial roadmap. Over time, we tailor this plan to the way you work best so that we can proactively and effectively initiate, implement, and monitor your long-term plans successfully. The benefits of such a close working partnership are the assurance that we’re continuously listening to you and the ability for us to discuss and make appropriate changes to your financial plan as needed, rather than waiting to make changes until after your financial plan has veered too far off course. Our unique approach to our working relationship with clients has proven its effectiveness over the decades.

BENEFITS OF CHOOSING AN AIF® DESIGNEE

WHAT MAKES AIF® DESIGNEES DIFFERENT?

How can you tell if the investment advice you’re receiving is really in your best interest? Unless your financial advisor understands and follows a fiduciary process like Nancy Hite, CFP, AIF does, you can’t be sure. Often, many investment professionals, might not have the experience or training required to prepare them for their enormous responsibility.

Fi360 is accredited by the American National Standards Institute for the AIF® Designation, making it part of an elite group of accredited designations for financial professionals who are Fiduciaries.

Only Accredited Investment Fiduciary Designees have been explicitly certified for their ability to follow a fiduciary process with their client’s best interests at heart. As a fiduciary, Nancy Hite is legally required to put YOUR financial interests above her own. She must always do what is in your best interest. Most investment professionals and insurance agents are NOT fiduciaries and do not have to put your financial interests above their own. This is why non-fiduciaries are allowed to engage in practices such as selling you high-commission or high expense products. You can take comfort that Nancy Hite, CFP, AIF, does not engage in that type of behavior.

Some of the attributes that differentiate AIF® Designees from other financial professionals include the following:

Experience

Designees must provide documented industry and educational experience to qualify for the designation.

Education

Designees must complete the Accredited Investment Fiduciary® (AIF®) Designation Training, which covers the Prudent Practices® for managing fiduciary assets for wealth, nonprofit, and retirement clients.

Examination

Designees must pass an examination to prove comprehension of the Prudent Practices® and their ability to act in the best interest of clients.

Ethics

Designees adhere to a Code of Ethics and Conduct Standards that are committed to a higher degree of industry professionalism.

Continuing Education

Designees commit to keeping their knowledge and skills sharp by completing annual continuing education requirements.