Blog

Listen to the Podcast Here: 1. Introduction to Migration Wealth Management

Migration Wealth Management

Introducing Migration Wealth Management (MWM), a fee-only wealth management firm founded by Drew Feutz, CFP® and Jeremy Crocker that specializes in providing financial planning and investment management to people in their 30s and 40s!

Your 30s and 40s are a pivotal time in your wealth building journey.

Unfortunately, those in this stage of life have largely been ignored by the wealth management industry. We want to help change that.

What Does Fee-Only Mean?

The term ‘fee-only’ describes the way in which Migration Wealth Management is compensated. According to the National Association of Personal Financial Advisors (NAPFA), “There are three basic ways in which financial advisors are compensated:

• Through a commission-based model
• Through a commission & fee model
• Through a Fee-Only model”

As a fee-only wealth management firm, MWM charges a fee for our services directly to our clients and that’s the only way we ever get paid. We never sell products, never receive commissions, and never receive kickbacks for referring clients to other professionals.

The intent behind working in a fee-only manner is to provide fee transparency (clients can see exactly what they pay and how it is calculated on their invoice), to minimize conflicts of interest that result from receiving commissions on financial product sales or receiving kickbacks from referral partners, among other potential conflicts, and to align our interests with our clients’ interests.

As fiduciaries, it is our duty to always put our clients’ bests interests ahead of our own.

Rather than seeing someone as the next transaction, we are focused on building long-term relationships with clients where we have the opportunity to help them with all aspects of their financial lives.

Why Start Migration Wealth Management?

Jeremy

Prior to starting MWM, I worked at a large financial services firm that focused on selling a specific product that I didn’t necessarily believe in. My incentives were aligned around selling that product to clients, no matter their situation, and I felt that it often wasn’t in the clients’ best interest.

I quickly realized that there had to be a better way to help people. I wanted to be sure that the advice that I was offering was always in the best interest of the client, rather than always having to sell them a product just to earn a commission. There was no incentive to provide robust financial advice outside of using it as a tool to make a sale. I wasn’t happy with what I was doing.

Working as a fee only planner gives me the opportunity to offer unbiased advice without the conflicts of interest that were present where I previously worked. Additionally, owning my own firm along with Drew allows me the freedom to provide financial planning the way that I believe is the right way and that is valuable to clients’ lives.

Drew

I worked at a firm similar to how we have structured MWM for nearly 8 years, starting there as an intern, working part-time in college, and starting full-time once I graduated. However, I always kind of knew that I wanted to do my own thing and it got to a point that I wasn’t happy where I was, which led to the idea to start my own firm.

In the book The Psychology of Money, Morgan Housel writes about the value of having control over your time, which is a point that really resonates with me.

He writes:

“Use money to gain control over your time, because not having control of your time is such a powerful and universal drag on happiness. The ability to do what you want, when you want, with who you want, for as long as you want to, pays the highest dividend that exists in finance.”

As I was nearing the end of my term with my previous employer, the ideas of having control over my time and having the freedom to do what I want and to do financial planning and investment management how I think is best continued to push me out the door and into entrepreneurship.

Something else that pushed me to make the leap was hearing stories of other entrepreneurs that I had the opportunity to interview on the Circle City Success Podcast. As I continued to hear more and more stories of those who made the leap and who stressed the importance of doing so if you feel it’s right for you, the thoughts intensified in my mind.

Finally, I wanted to create the opportunity to work with a group of people who are often ignored by our side of the financial services industry, or who often are expected to receive lesser quality of service if a firm has a secondary model for them.

Why the Name Migration Wealth Management?

We went through a lot of names.

A. Lot.

Choosing the name for the firm was probably the most difficult part of the whole process for us. It felt like every time we agreed on a name that we liked, we found that it was already being used, that the website domain wasn’t available, and/or that the social media profiles weren’t available.

The idea for using the word ‘migration’ came from Jeremy who is an outdoorsman who enjoys hunting and fishing. He and his brother enjoy spending time together waterfowl hunting, which is naturally where the came from while brainstorming company names.

After thinking over it, we decided that we liked the name Migration Wealth Management. A migration is a journey that many animals and people to make to get to a better place.

And that’s really our goal – to help our clients on their journey to a better place in life.

What Is Migration Wealth Management’s Core Focus?

Migration Wealth Management’s core focus is to create long—term relationships that change lives by providing ongoing financial planning and investment management services to people in their 30s and 40s.

What Is Wealth Management?

Wealth management means helping clients with all aspects of their financial lives.

We think of wealth management as a simple equation that looks like this:

Wealth Management = Financial Planning + Investment Management

Rather than only focusing on investments as many people may think a wealth management firm would, we start with creating a financial plan that serves as a guide and tells us how a client’s investment portfolio should be managed.

Financial planning comes before investment management in this formula for a reason. It’s impossible for us to know how to invest a client’s money if we don’t first know what their goals are and what their entire financial situation looks like. The financial plan provides guidance on how the portfolio should be invested.

Financial Planning

At a high level, financial planning includes gaining an understanding of where a client is in life both financially and personally (your current situation), figuring out where they want to go (identifying their goals), and determining the steps needed to get there (recommendations and action items to achieve those goals).

We provide comprehensive wealth management, which means that our goal is to help our clients with all aspects of their financial lives. Some of the main areas that we dive into with our clients include:

• Define & refine financial goals
• Cash flow planning
• Debt paydown prioritization
• Retirement planning and savings
• Insurance and risk management planning
• Tax planning
• Education planning
• Employee benefits optimization
• Estate planning

Investment Management

If the financial plan is where we start as a guide to our clients’ journeys, investment management acts as support to the journey. We manage all of our clients’ investment accounts in a way that is aligned to help them achieve their financial plan.

While most financial services firms ignore clients’ employer-sponsored retirement plans (401K, 403B, 457, etc.), which can often be the biggest investment asset for people in their 30s and 40s, we manage these accounts for our clients as a part of their overall portfolio.

Our investment philosophy is one based in evidence. What does that mean exactly?

We don’t try to time the market, we don’t purchase individual securities, we follow a rules-based strategy that tells us when it’s time to trade, rather than trading based on intuition or predictions, and our portfolios are diversified among many characteristics.

What Makes Migration Wealth Management Unique?

We think that there are a handful of things that make Migration Wealth Management unique and that set us apart from the crowd.

Comprehensive / Holistic Financial Planning

First, we provide comprehensive and holistic financial planning. What does that mean? We help you with all aspects of your financial life, rather than just focusing on one or a few. Doesn’t everyone say that? They might, but the difference is that we do it.

We Specialize in Working with People in Their 30s and 40s

Another unique point about MWM is that we specialize in working with people in their 30s and 40s. There are too many firms who want to work with pre-retirees and retirees, or who will take on any client that they can sell something to, but our goal is to provide truly exceptional client experience and wealth management value. We focus on the 30s and 40s crowd because we enjoy working with them, we love seeing the difference we can make in their lives today and in the future, and we want to grow alongside them as they go through life.

We Manage 401(k)s (And Other Employer-Sponsored Retirement Accounts)

We manage 401(K)s and other employer-sponsored retirement accounts a part of the overall portfolio. Most financial services firms simply ignore their clients’ employer-sponsored retirement accounts because it’s complicated to incorporate into a portfolio, there can be a lot of compliance involved, and they cannot make money doing so. We have taken the time and resources to tackle this issue because we see how valuable it is to help clients with what is often their largest investment account.

We Provide Tax Planning

We provide tax planning. Tax planning is different than tax preparation. Tax preparers often serve as compliance professionals, ensuring that what happened last year is reported correctly to the IRS. Tax planning means that we are helping identify tax strategies for the future. Many financial services firms say that they provide tax planning. Unfortunately, their version of this often comes in the form of selling some sort of financial product such as permanent life insurance. In fact, they often do not even request to receive a client’s tax return. Ask yourself, “How can someone provide tax planning if they have never requested and reviewed my tax return?”

We Have a Limited Number of Client Spots

We have a limited number of client spots. While we have not nailed down the exact number of clients per advisor that we will limit ourselves to, this is something that we will continue to home in on. Right now, we think the number is around 60. Why is this unique? At many other financial services firms, you may be one of hundreds or thousands of an advisor’s clients (seriously!).

What Does the Process Look Like if I’m Interested in Becoming a Client of Migration Wealth Management?

The first part of the process of becoming a client of Migration Wealth Management is to get to know each other. Of course, we want to know about your finances, but before we get to that we want to know about you. We’re never pushy and don’t want you to ever feel uncomfortable. We take some time to get to know you and your situation and determine if we’re a good fit to work together. If not, then we’re happy to refer you to another resource that might be a better fit.

Once we’ve decided that it makes sense to work together, the next step is to schedule a Get Organized Meeting. Many people in their 30s and 40s have never worked with a financial planner before and need a little help getting organized. We understand that and want to do our part to make it easy on you by walking you some of the more difficult parts of data gathering. After our meeting, we’ll leave it to you to finish the data gathering process and provide us with the rest of the information that we need to create your financial plan.

What Is Migration Wealth Management’s Service Model? What Should I Expect if I Become a Client?

Once we have all of the information that we need, it’s our time to shine! We dive in deep, develop your initial financial plan, and schedule your Initial Financial Plan Review Meeting. During our Initial Financial Plan Review Meeting, we review where you are, your goals and where you want to go, and recommendations and action items for bridging the gap between the two. This includes ensuring that you know what tasks we will take care of and what tasks you must take care of yourself.

From there, we onboard your investment accounts, implement portfolio recommendations, and enter into our ongoing wealth management cadence!

A Financial Plan isn’t a one-time event. A Financial Plan is a living, breathing, and adaptable set of strategies. It is an ongoing process that evolves as your life changes. Our ongoing relationship includes 2 Financial Planning meetings per year, investment portfolio management by us, and on-demand meetings as needed. Financial Planning needs don’t only happen during our scheduled meetings. No question is too small, too silly, or too dumb. We’re here for all of your financial needs.

A migration is a journey to a better place. We’re here to help you on yours.