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With the utmost of
integrity, we take great
pride in assisting our
clients in achieving their
financial dreams by
crafting comprehensive,
personalized, and welldefined
plans that are
tailored to their precise
needs and wants.
their clients. In the early years of
the business, transactions were
commission based. As the relationships
developed, he came to
realize clients were seeking more
than a transaction. They wanted
a partnership, they wanted their
own personal CFO. For regulatory
reasons the relationship had to
be redefined as an advisory relationship
or fee for service versus
the old commission for product
design. After additional research
regarding the working of feebased
models, Howes quickly
found out that his inklings regarding
his client’s wants were
verifiable on a national, state and
local level.
“It validated our own thinking,
and so from there we began the
process of transitioning our approach
from a commission-based
relationship to a fee-based relationship,”
Howes said.
In 2013, Sapphire Wealth successfully
increased its client base
by 13.86 percent, with nearly 85
percent of those new clients being
referrals from existing clients.
Howes attributes much of the
firm’s success to the team’s upfront
and earnest approach to
people. It starts with the initial
interview process in which both
he and the potential new clients
are given the opportunity to interview
and evaluate one another.
“It’s our Discovery Process,” he
explains. “It is rather simple. Do our
services align with the goals they are
trying to achieve? Can we meet their expectations?
Do our personalities work
well together?”
“The fit has to be right to weather
storms like the modern day Great Recession,”
Howes said, noting that the
bulk of investors have not forgotten the
trying times of 2008 and 2009. He
explained that the residual effect
was that investors revisited the
true meaning of risk. Many have
moved to more risk-based strategies
for the management of their
portfolios.
After thorough review, Howes
incorporated a more evidence based
philosophy grounded in academic research
into his analysis and has been
introducing, when appropriate, many
of his clients to the services of third
party money managers like the San
Jose, California based company Loring
Ward.
With his focus on preserving the
financial dreams and goals of his clients,
Howes refers to the structure of
his firm as a three legged stool.
The firm itself is the first leg – the
leg that builds the relationship with
the client, recommends and implements
strategies. The second leg is
the broker/dealer with whom the
transactions occur. But more importantly,
Howes explains, the second leg
also serves as an independent compliance
counsel.
“We could do it ourselves, but there
is a bias there,” he said in regard to
self-regulating the compliance procedures
of his firm. “We don’t think it
makes much sense to have an internal
compliance team when outside counsel
is available and has proven to be
effective.”
The third leg is the custodian contracted
by the firm. The custodian is
independent of the firm and the broker/dealer,
adding yet another layer
of support for their clients.
This concept of the three-legged
stool helps Howes sleep well at night.
He knows that even if the unthinkable
should happen to him, his client’s will
not be left without support. Howes’
focus on his clients’ best interest runs
so deep that he has even established
an agreement with another local
wealth advising firm to step into his
role in the event of his untimely death
or disability.
Doing this also allows him to do
what he does best – focus on his clients
and how to best serve them.
One advantage to Howes’ model
is that it lends itself well to allowing
Howes the necessary time to thoroughly
research and analyze wealth
management strategies. Those retired
clients who were with the firm during
2008 and 2009 learned first-hand the
importance of this research. Howes
has long believed in the model of
segmenting a client’s assets once they
achieve retirement. By doing so Howes
strives to create lasting streams of
retirement income while focusing on
minimizing risk. He tells us that one
of his greatest industry successes occurred
when the market collapsed.
This event exposed the true benefit
of the retirement income model he
calls “asset segmentation” or “the
buckets”. During that period, with
the use of client appropriate income
annuities, none of those retired clients
experienced adjustments to their
monthly incomes.
“Like most investors we experienced
losses in the overall portfolio
of these clients, but the great victory
was that they felt no impact on their
incomes.”
That is a success, indeed.
www.SapphireWealthLLC.com
The pathway to your family's financial Security
One Tech Dive Suite 210 Andover, MA 01810 800.385.7640
THE SUIT MAGAZINE p.43