Unconflicted advice, always in your best interest
We help you create a balanced connection between your goals and finances. We tackle any financial planning concerns that pertain to you and your loved ones.
Fortuna Investors is a completely independent fiduciary. This means that we are legally and ethically bound to act in the best interests of our clients. One would think this is a given for a financial advisor, but unfortunately it’s not. Many advisors work for banks, brokerages, or insurance companies. As employees, those advisors are beholden to the incentives of their employers and the broader investment industry.
Fortuna will always remain fiercely independent, committed to getting better, and committed to our clients. Our clients can be sure that the only reason we ever make a recommendation is because it is in their best interest.
While some of our clients prefer us simply to manage their investments, advising on specific planning issues from time to time, many of our clients receive tremendous value from Comprehensive Financial Planning. In creating a comprehensive financial plan, we help you across many aspects of your financial life including, but not limited to the issues below:
Proper account set up:
The tax code is complex, and you want to have the best account types for your individual situation. We guide our clients on proper account set up to maximize tax and capital efficiency, maintain flexibility and to meet specific goals. Examples include cash accounts, margin accounts, 401(k)s, IRAs, other retirement accounts, 529 accounts, trusts, and Health Savings Accounts.
Net worth and cash flow tracking:
Do you know how much you actually have? We can help show your assets and liabilities in a single view that is easily trackable and forecastable through time, giving you confidence not only in where you are, but where you are going.
Do you know where your money goes? We can help you evaluate your cash flows, not only to help you make more informed decisions about your income and spending, but to identify areas where you might be able to increase efficiencies and keep more of your money.
Navigating your path to, and through, retirement
When can you retire? When should you take Social Security? When do you need to file for Medicare? How can you minimize taxes in retirement? How much do you need to withdraw in the form of Required Minimum Distributions? Should your investment strategy change in retirement? We can create a plan to guide you to and through retirement confidently.
Major life & business changes:
Preparing for and transitioning to retirement is only one of life’s many changes that can be made smoother with good financial planning. We provide advice to help clients through transitions such as changing careers, buying homes, getting married, navigating divorce, and starting or selling businesses.
Leverage & debt management:
When used strategically, debt can be a fantastic tool. When used incorrectly, it can create headache and financial inefficiency.
Are you accessing credit in an efficient and intelligent way? Are you paying too much for your mortgage, business loans, auto loans, or student loans? What debts make sense to pay as slowly as possible? What debts should be eliminated ASAP?
We evaluate this element of your financial life and help you identify opportunities to save money and better your financial position.
Insurance:
Are you paying too much for insurance? Many of our clients come to us over-insured, often because a broker or insurance salesperson sold them too much insurance or insurance wrapped in an unnecessary structure. The salesperson earned a big commission, and it came at the cost of the client.
Alternatively, some clients come to us under-insured. As their families and businesses have grown, their coverage hasn’t kept pace.
We can guide you on ways to use insurance more efficiently, and we can guide you on getting out of policies that are unnecessary.
Insurance is important, but we seek to help our clients only pay for what they truly need.
Fortuna is not an insurance broker, and we are not incented in any way to sell our clients insurance. Rather, we seek to objectively determine adequate coverage, and then help you find this coverage at the lowest cost possible.
Tax minimization strategies:
Are you taking advantage of the tax code?
You want to minimize taxes when you can, and we can help you identify opportunities to do so. From Roth conversions to efficient retirement income distribution strategies, we can help you reduce your tax burden.
Employee benefit maximization:
Are you getting the most out of your employee benefits? From selecting insurance, to maximizing employer matches to retirement accounts, to helping you pick the underlying investments in your company sponsored 401(k), we can help.
Do you receive equity compensation? We can help you navigate this critical aspect of your financial life - helping you maximize this form of compensation while minimizing concentration risk.
Are you a business owner?
So are we! Starting and running a business can be one of the most rewarding and challenging aspects of your life.
We can help you navigate the ins and outs of launching a business - from choosing the right structure, to setting up retirement accounts for your closely held business, to forecasting cash flows and compensating yourself.
Real estate analysis:
Do you own rental property? Thinking about becoming a landlord?
Whether you are an “accidental landlord” or you intentionally pursue direct real estate investment as business, real estate can be a tremendous wealth generator, an inefficient use of capital, a money loser and complete headache, and everything in between.
What is the cash-on-cash return on your investment and is it competitive with other alternatives? Are you taking advantage of the tax benefits associated with your rental property? Selling real estate and interested in the dynamics involved in a 1031 exchange? Thinking about cost-segregation and taking advantage of bonus depreciation? Whatever your situation, we can help you get the the most out of your real estate.
Caring for the next generation:
Do you seek to pass on wealth to the next generation in the most tax-efficient way possible? We can help you make sure that the highest fraction possible is transferred to your heirs. We can also lend an ear when it comes to the more subjective aspects of generational transfer that arise when family businesses and cherished properties are involved.
Do you have children who will one day attend college? We can help you devise a strategy to help make this dream a reality.