What is the process of becoming a client?
Please make a connection through our website, and we will reach out to schedule a call. The first call, if you decide to move ahead, is simply to get to know each other and see if we are a good fit. We have found that good chemistry needs to fit first and foremost.
If there is mutual interest to move to the next step, we then start the process of building a financial plan.
Once we start our process of building a financial plan and portfolio of investments, it can take a few weeks. For investment portfolios, we will closely examine your current investments and implement these into your proposed strategy as much as possible. Almost all of our clients come to us with an existing portfolio. We believe it is in the best interest of the client to do our best to use these investments when feasible or at your direction. We are also open to clients who have opinions on what they want to own, or don’t want to own, within their portfolio.
Due to our personalized service, there may be times when we have a waitlist to onboard new clients.
If we are not the right fit, for whatever reason, we would be happy to make an introduction to another firm that we believe does terrific work.
How does working with Sieben Wealth Planning differ from working with one of the big investment firms?
We have built our firm to have what we consider the best-in-class partners. Fidelity is our primary custodian, and clients are blown away with how much easier it is to do simple tasks like open an account or move money. We hear that our coordination of your service with their technology is a big improvement over many of the massive wealth management firms.
In the background, we have technology partners that make your experience of accessing financial plans easier and more intuitive. Another advantage of being an independent firm is that we are always on the lookout for new and better solutions that our clients would appreciate. If something better comes along, we can quickly adapt it within our solutions.
What is your Investment approach?
We believe your investment portfolio should be linked to your financial plan. The vast majority of our clients come to us with existing positions. We do our best to incorporate these positions into clients’ portfolios as much as we can when requested or to be tax-smart.
For fixed income, or bonds, we prefer a very conservative approach. We generally avoid long-term maturities and favor short to intermediate duration and high credit quality, solutions. We generally use individual US Treasury bonds, individual state-specific municipal bonds, and some open-ended mutual funds.
For equities, we prefer individual stocks and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) that are low-cost and tax efficient. Our typical portfolio would have exposure to US and non-US equities. We do have opinions on individual stocks and like to include these long-term positions for those who are interested.
For aggressive growth, we have a variety of options including individual stocks, tax-efficient ETFs and separately managed accounts (SMAs). Our preferred aggressive growth is an all healthcare portfolio. This strategy is not for everyone as it has high volatility and higher than average management fees.
What is Custom (or Direct) Indexing?
We’re excited about custom indexing—it's a strategy where you own the individual stocks of an index instead of investing in a mutual fund or ETF that tracks it. This gives you more control and flexibility over your investments, allowing for better tax and charitable planning opportunities.
Think of it this way: instead of owning a fund with a bundle of stocks, you own the individual stocks yourself. This means you can adjust your portfolio by including or excluding certain stocks to better fit your goals and preferences.
For example, if you already have a large holding in one stock through your job or a long-term investment, we can help you avoid overexposure. It’s all about customization and managing your wealth more efficiently.
Minimum account size is $100,000 and the investment expense for this strategy starts at 0.15%.
Do I have to live in Minnesota to work with you?
No! Many of our clients live outside of Minnesota. We have meeting space in the Minneapolis metro for those who like to meet in person, and we also meet by Zoom or phone.
What are RIAs and how are they different?
As an RIA, or Registered Investment Advisor, we are registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and adhere to a fiduciary duty of providing objective advice at all times. No exceptions.
Most investment and insurance firms are ‘dual-registered’ so they can alternate between working in your best interest as a Registered Investment Advisor and working in a suitability arrangement as a registered representation of a broker-dealer. In this capacity, a dual-registered representative can sell products that are ‘suitable’ and earn a commission.
This inherent conflict of dual registration is unfortunately common in our industry and one of the reasons why we left our former firm. We would advise being very careful with firms and advisors who operate in this opaque ‘dual-registered’ world of different standards and loyalties first to the companies whose products they sell.
Why choose an independent planning firm rather than an investment or insurance firm that says they do planning?
We help clients articulate a financial plan to better help them achieve their goals and growth their wealth. As your life becomes more complicated, choosing to work with a firm that can deliver high-level planning and investments will save you time, help you make more informed decisions, and ultimately grow your wealth.
Part of your financial plan is having a terrific portfolio of investments that are aligned with your goals and retirement income.