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Nuts and Bolts of Investing |
The first steps
we take are all about communication: initial "getting to know each
other" conversations, review of your NI Social Questionnaire (which
give both you and your advisor additional clarity about your
priorities), and deeper follow-up discussions about you and your
needs.
Don't be
surprised if we ask some probing questions about you. It's really
important that we learn as much as we can about your goals, hopes and
fears, work and family situation, traumatic experiences with money
when you were a little kid...you might tell us things that even your
best friends don't know about you! All this is important
information that we use to design an investment strategy that is
right for you.
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Beach Lover's Guide to Asset Allocation |
Because every
investor is unique, we take an individualized approach to each
client. At the same time, we've learned that investors tend to
arrange themselves in clumps along a risk spectrum ranging from
ultra-cautious to super-aggressive. We have designed 5 model
portfolios that correspond to these risk levels. (See Inside NI
Portfolios to learn how we do this). These model portfolios are the
starting point for our financial advisors to create customized
portfolios for every client.
Each of our
models utilizes Asset Allocation to assure that we provide a broad
range of diversification, and therefore maximum safety at each level
of risk tolerance. Asset Allocation is the practice of dividing
investments among a variety of securities categories including
various types of bonds and stocks. In general, higher risk
portfolios will be weighted toward more investment in the volatile
stock market, while lower risk portfolios are oriented more toward
savings and bonds that do not fluctuate in value much if at all.
Still, all portfolios include a healthy mix of assets to assure
proper diversification.
This can sound a
bit dry, so when we wrote Investing
with Your Values we came up with a
playful way to visualize the choices:
The Beach Lover's Guide to Asset Allocation
Picture yourself at a beautiful sandy beach on a warm, sunny day. The surf is up. The gentle beach represents conservative bond investments. The lively surf represents volatile stock investments.
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Our Approach 
