Mission & Values
MISSION
Retirement Investment Advisors, Inc. commits to be the company worthy of helping people achieve financial stability for life.
CORPORATE OVERVIEW
We believe that every client has a unique situation, and that clients' needs vary. Our financial professional's role is to provide our clients with greater financial independence and confidence in their investments by helping them make smart, well-informed decisions about their investments and retirement plans. Retirement Investment Advisors, Inc.'s investment strategy is to enhance our clients' successes by creating individualized, dynamic portfolios that can help optimize returns and reduce volatility. We are strategically working with quality investment management firms to execute the details of each client's personal plan.
DEFINING SUCCESS
Retirement Investment Advisors, Inc.'s management understands that success requires more than spreadsheets, rates-of-return and quarterly reports. Success is about more than choosing the hottest investment or gaining the highest return over a 12-month period. Long-term success means something different to each client. To some, long-term success means earning solid growth while reducing taxes. To others it may mean achieving financial stability in retirement. Success also may mean reducing investment fluctuation and risk while earning market returns. Whichever definition of success a client chooses to pursue, our financial professionals seek to mold that client's objectives and expectations with our experience and resources to help them achieve their distinct financial goals and objectives.
PHILOSOPHY
Retirement Investment Advisors, Inc. firmly believes that being consumer debt free is the starting place for financial stability, and we practice what we "preach." When working with clients, we believe the most important service we can provide is helping them organize and make sense of their financial affairs. Many of the people who come to us have financial portfolios that were put together over a period of time with no real plan and no follow-up monitoring. The result can be a hodge-podge of investments that do not work together and may not even be appropriate anymore. Our financial management philosophy consists of the following:
WRITTEN FINANCIAL OBJECTIVES
If you don't know where you're going, how will you know when you've arrived? The development of written financial objectives helps to provide a road map for initiating a financial management program and can play an important role in the monitoring of the progress. Personal objectives such as the need for liquidity, growth, current income, retirement income and safety should be carefully considered and documented before embarking on a financial management program. These objectives should be re-evaluated on a regular basis throughout a person's lifetime.
DISCIPLINE
We believe having well defined financial objectives allows you to be more disciplined in your approach to financial management. We also believe discipline is very important, especially when the markets are moving up and down on a day-to-day basis. We use a disciplined approach that helps you make rational decisions.
FORWARD-LOOKING ASSET ALLOCATION²
Typically people make investment management decisions based upon what has happened in the past. They choose the top-performing money manager for last year, for example, without regard to how that particular type of investment is likely to perform in the future. The asset allocation model we use first allocates assets among the three main investment categories--stocks, bond, and cash--and then seeks to maximize the opportunities in sub asset classes. By using this approach, we can often enhance long-term returns while reducing portfolio volatility.
MONITORING
Ongoing, objective monitoring of the financial management plan is important in order to spot signs of trouble. Sometimes goals and objectives change, individual asset characteristics change, investment managers change, the market outlook shifts, or performance starts to fall off for one reason or another. In order to recognize conditions which may call for a change in your financial management strategy or a portfolio manager, the whole process of financial management should be monitored on a constant basis.
LONG-TERM OUTLOOK
Current events typically cause the financial markets to react on a daily basis. It is therefore important to maintain a long-term outlook in order to help avoid making impulsive decisions that can undermine long-term objectives, including the time horizon in which they need to be achieved.
VALUES
We believe high professional standards and adherence to the following values have enabled our firm to build and maintain long-term client relationships over the past fourteen years.
OBJECTIVITY
Retirement Investment Advisors, Inc. organization operates on a "fee-only" basis. We are here to serve you--objectively and independently. As fee-only advisors, we accept no commissions, soft dollars, or finders fees. Our main source of compensation is you. We typically prosper when you prosper, and we typically suffer when you suffer.
When appropriate, we put our clients in contact with legal and tax specialists who can assist in implementing the strategies we suggest.
UNDERSTANDING CLIENTS' NEEDS AND GOALS
Well developed listening skills enable our financial professionals to understand clients' needs when they express their concerns. In our opinion empathy is an important attribute in a financial professional.
RESPOND TO INQUIRIES QUICKLY AND EFFECTIVELY
We are committed to going the extra mile to resolve every inquiry or problem quickly and efficiently.
ANTICIPATING CLIENTS' CHANGING NEEDS
Our financial professionals recognize that our clients' needs and lifestyles evolve over time as they reach milestones such as marriage, children, career achievements, retirement and the unfortunate loss of a spouse. We take the time to understand their changing needs so that we can provide solutions appropriate to their distinct situation.
TREAT CLIENTS WITH RESPECT AND DIGNITY
Our goals are to have such integrity that it is apparent to the clients we service and come to be valuable to them so they will continue to be clients for years to come.
2Diversification and asset allocation do not protect against the loss of principal due to market fluctuations. They are methods used to help manage investment risk.