How Can You Afford NOT to Have a Financial Advisor?

You tend to hear a lot about the fees financial advisors charge, but very little about the advantages and cost savings that getting good, solid advice provides. The advisors at Mossbarger Deimling Moler Financial Strategies Group (MDM Group) of Janney Montgomery Scott LLC are committed to making sure their clients experience the value of top-notch financial consultation.

“The single biggest value we provide that can be mea-sured in dollars and cents is the counsel and advice we provide people during the worst of times. We keep our clients from making catastrophic mistakes when markets are tough,” says Jeffrey A. Mossbarger, senior vice presi-dent/wealth management and accredited asset manager specialistSM (AAMS®) for MDM Group.

Drawing from his 32 years of experience, Mossbarger believes that people tend to make emotional investment decisions, and at the wrong time, to boot. A Vanguard study shows that financial advisors can add 3 percent per year in returns on clients’ investments.(1) “One client called us on March 9, 2009, sure the market was going to go to zero,” Mossbarger says. “We coached our client to follow the plan we had designed for him, allowing him to navigate the turbulent market.”

Good advice from MDM Group is not limited to which stocks, bonds and funds to invest in, however. They ana-lyze and evaluate each client’s current financial resources and situation by examining investment cash flow, net worth, insurance policies and tax projections, identifying concerns as well as opportunities. From that point, they develop a disciplined, balanced plan to help clients reach their goals.

“It’s our client-centered relationships based on trust and performance that differentiates us from other finan-cial firms,” says Drew G. Deimling, vice president/wealth management and investing planning strategist, MDM Group. “We believe a disciplined, balanced financial plan is the foundation for our clients to live the lives they want to live.”

The team embraces the role of being many families’ chief financial officer. Although every company has a CFO, most families with both parents busy managing their ca-reers and raising children, do not. A family’s finances and the funding of future goals might go unsupervised for several years. MDM Group helps high-wage-earning cou-ples successfully plan how to afford their dreams, whether they include vacation homes or comfortable retirements. The MDM Group takes its role as wealth managers earnestly. Christopher A. Moler, vice president/wealth management, earned the Certified Financial PlannerTM (CFP®) designation, which required extensive training and experience. He understands the complexities of the changing financial climate and is committed to making recommendations in clients’ best interests.

“We want to help more people realize how much more successful they can be, how they can achieve the retirement of their dreams, or how much more money they may one day leave their children, when they get our solid, fact- based advice.”

Further examples of how strategizing with MDM Group makes a difference:

• Social Security Planning/Advice

One of their widowed clients planned to wait until she retired at age 70 to apply for Social Security. Before work- ing with MDM Group, she was not aware that she could apply for her survivor benefit at age 66 while letting her personal benefit continue to grow.

• Tax Efficiency in Retirement

One high-income-earning client wanted to make Roth IRA contributions, but his income exceeded the appli- cable income limits. He followed the team’s suggestion to follow a “Backdoor Roth” strategy, making a nonde- ductible traditional IRA contribution and then converting to a Roth IRA. This allowed the client to avoid both Roth IRA income limits and Roth IRA contribution limits, which ultimately gave him the benefit of tax-free withdrawals in retirement.

There are no cookie-cutter strategies for their clients, the MDM team maintains, noting it takes time and knowledge to understand and navigate clients’ unique scenarios.

Rounding out the team are Lisa E. Willhoite, registered private client assistant, and Lydia M. Armstrong, private client assistant. Willhoite coordinates client meetings and reviews and plans the team’s client events, and Armstrong assists daily with transfers of funds, check disbursements, IRA distributions, new accounts, updating records and other administrative matters.

Mossbarger Deimling Moler Financial Strategies Group is located at 8044 Montgomery Road, Suite 415, Cincinnati, OH 45236. For more information, call 513.914.2320, email mdmgroup@janney.com or visit www.MDMGroup-Janney.com.

(1) https://advisors.vanguard.com/VGApp/iip/site/advisor/researchcommentary/article/IWE_ResPuttingAValueOnValue