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necessary jitters.”
He watches the market, but not because
he is a financial advisor. Instead,
his only reason for paying attention to
the daily market activity is because he
knows his clients are doing the same
thing. Longstaff knows some are going
to call. He knows which clients will call
him based on how much the market
fluctuates. And he even has one client
he considers to be a barometer of coming
market activity.
“(It) seems he is absolutely spot on, as
he will always call me when the market
reaches its bottom and after his call, the
We believe that the portfolio and financial
plan should be integrated with
one another, and that by managing
behavior we can increase the probability
of a successful investment experience.
The key to managing behavior is
to have a process for making decisions
regarding the portfolio. Our process is
as follows:
215 W. Fallbrook Avenue; Suite 121
Fresno, CA 93711
www.theplanningcenter.com/Home.aspx
market always moves up. So I look forward
to his call when we have a falling
market,” Longstaff said with a bit of a
knowing chuckle.
The Planning Center offers various
specialized financial planning advice,
including two levels of service: The
Cornerstone Program and the Capstone
Wealth Program.
The Cornerstone Program, as Longstaff
describes it, is “where you learn to
crawl before you walk.” The program
focuses on the needs of younger clients
who do not yet have high net worth
and are just starting their careers, families
and are making large purchases
such as a home for the first time in their
lives.
“This program gets them on the
straight and narrow, allowing them to
get their cash flow straightened out and
start a savings program putting cash in
reserve and begin contributing to a retirement
program,” Longstaff explains.
The Capstone Wealth Program offers
the full suite of advanced financial
planning services such as investment
consultation, insurance coverage assessment,
retirement, education and
estate planning.
That latter one is a topic Longstaff
knows is sensitive with most clients.
“No one really wants to talk about
their demise,” he said. “But it is nice to
know where your net worth is going to
when you leave this earth.”
Or perhaps when leaving a marriage.
Divorce is not the ending of a life, but it
is a death of sorts – the demise of a relationship
that included joint financial
matters. The Planning Center has partners
who have specialized training in
planning for divorce. These extensively
trained individuals keep financial matters
within the appropriate legal scope
as their clients experience a “highly
emotional and highly volatile” time in
their life, Longstaff mused.
“The biggest mistake we as professionals
can make – not just at our firm,
but in a lot of places – is that we somehow
lead ourselves to believe we know
more about domestic law, or any law
for that matter, than we actually do.
And, even worse yet, if we carry that
persona, our clients tend to believe it as
well,” Longstaff emphasized.
He believes he’s been blessed to have
served for ten years – three as President-Elect,
President and Chair – on
the National Board for the Institute of
Certified Financial Planners. Not only
did he build lasting personal relationships
with other financial professionals,
but he traveled the country, visiting
all types of financial planning practices
in the 1990s and picking up plenty of
ideas.
“The biggest benefit it brought back
to our practice and our clients is that it
validated our decision to continue the
conversion of the practice to the fee-only
business model,” Longstaff said. “It
validated the need for that type of unbiased
advice.”
THE SUIT MAGAZINE p.63