Solitude Canyon Investment Advisors

Fee Only Financial Planning Solutions

If you've left a previous job, you might want to consider closing your old 401k account.  Usually, 401k plans have a small selection of substandard mutual funds to choose from.  Typically, these mutual funds offerings have below average returns, high fees and almost never include alternative investments which can often boost your returns.  We can take your old 401k and move it into a Rollover IRA, which allows you to invest in a wide variety of investment options such as individual stocks, Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) and 20,000+ mutual funds.  This broad selection allows us to transform your old, poorly constructed 401k into a properly diversified investment plan, while maintaining the important tax deferral benefits your 401k offered.

If you're a do-it-yourself investor, it never hurts to get a second opinion.  We'll let you know if your current mix of investments is appropriate, analyze your portfolio to determine if it is properly diversified and give you a list of suggestions to hopefully improve your investment returns.  Ideally, investors will assess the health of their portfolios at least once a year and after significant life changes such as marriage, divorce, having children, switching/losing jobs or coming into a substantial inheritance. 

If you're feeling uneasy about the results your current financial advisor is providing, we can provide you with an objective analysis.  Unfortunately, there are far too many unscrupulous financial advisors who push their clients into products that generate high fees for the advisor but are completely inappropriate for the investor.  Red flags include an advisor putting an IRA inside a variable annuity, selling variable annuities to seniors and purchasing mutual funds with sales fees. If you think you (or a loved one) are being taken advantage of, contact us immediately. 

More Americans than ever are relying on financial investments to carry them through their retirement years.  Pensions, once a common source of retirement income, have become quite rare.  Today, 401k plans, IRAs, stocks and bonds are primary sources of retirement income for retirees.  That's why it's vital to have a comprehensive retirement plan in place while you're working.  We will help you determine the cost of retirement, how much money you will need to save and what retirement options are best for you.  After generating your unique retirement plan, we invest your savings in investments that will give you the opportunity to retire and live the lifestyle you've become accustomed to.

Proper planning is essential to ensure you are able to pay for college when your student is ready to enroll .  We explore a variety of options to help clients fund their children's education.  This may include 529 plans, Coverdell Education Savings Accounts, custodial accounts,  and other parental investing plans.  Due to the rapidly escalating costs of tuition, special attention is given to cost projections utilizing various inflation rates.  Moreover, we have the ability to identify in-state and out-of-state tuition rates and housing costs for universities across the country.  After anticipating all costs, we determine a savings schedule that will enable our clients to achieve these educational goals. 

Being an independent small business ourselves, we are acutely aware of the issues facing small business owners.  In particular, the need for financial solutions that are tailored to your specific needs, flexibility, and a minimum of paperwork, cost and hassle. To meet those requirements, we have an array of retirement plan solutions.  Which plan fits best depends on your objectives and business organization, so we work closely with small business owners to determine the plan that will best meet your requirements.  Below is a list of the small business retirement plans available:

• SEP-IRA (Simplified Employee Pension IRA)
• SIMPLE IRA (Savings Incentive Match Plan for Employees IRA)
• Standard 401k (Traditional and Roth)
• Individual 401k (Traditional and Roth)
  

Because we do not receive commissions or revenue-sharing agreements from any mutual fund companies, you can be certain that the investments we recommend for a retirement plan are chosen because they are the best investments available and not because they are better for the advisor. If you are thinking about starting a retirement plan or would just like an evaluation and comparison of your current plan, we would be happy to discuss it with you.