Graham Capital Advisors, a boutique financial services firm, makes retirement easy by offering the best of financial strategies through a variety of investments and insurance products and services, helping retirees make the most of their golden years.
“We leverage our longstanding experience and reputation in financial services to take the stress out of retirement planning,” says David Graham, founder of Graham Capital Advisors.
Its dedicated team of estate planners, financial advisors, insurance experts, and attorneys are members of the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors. Leveraging its reputation, the team at Graham Capital currently manages over half a billion dollars under insurance and asset management for clients seeking assistance in planning their retirement. The company expects to handle over a billion dollars of client assets in the next five years.
The Trifecta for Retirement Planning
There are three critical requisites Graham Capital relies on to create a well-defined retirement strategy—preparing essential legal documents for asset preservation, comprehensive future planning and judicial investing.
There are numerous legal documents an individual must manage post-retirement to protect their assets in case of incapacitation. A living trust, power of attorney, healthcare proxy, nomination of a conservatorship, guardianship, and the list goes on. Rather than seeking help from a generalist attorney whose primary job is get a load of documents signed by the client, those considering their retirement should consult an expert with in-depth understanding of estate planning, elder care law and asset preservation. Documents need to be prepared in accordance with state-specific laws and regulations.
Graham Capital’s attorneys help clients draft legal documents tailored to their situations and preferences, safeguarding their aspirations. They assist clients in understanding the pros and cons of different legal documents and healthcare directives to minimize taxes, fees and liabilities that could reduce their retirement savings. Clients can rest assured their legal documents are consistent with their state’s laws.
Along with all the necessary legal documents, there are potential risk factors like inflation and market volatility that clients need to consider when creating an effective retirement plan. They also need to have a comparative idea of the pros and cons of different benefit plans.
Graham Capital often engages with clients who walk into the office with boxes full of unopened mail and statements, not able to manage their income and expenditures or knowing how to use their 401(k), IRA, profit-sharing, or any other retirement benefit accounts. They consequently fail to decide on the best strategies to draft an effective financial roadmap.
In these instances, Graham Capital’s comprehensive future planning services—deemed the second pillar of retirement planning—come into play.
It enables clients to gauge the risk propensity of socio-economic factors and subsequently adjust their lifestyle and expenses to stay ahead of all uncertainties.
A well-crafted retirement plan, however, can fall apart without a sound investment strategy. This is precisely why the company abides by a distinct investment philosophy to target opportunities that add value to a client’s overall portfolios. For Graham Capital, ‘The first rule of investing is ‘do not lose money.’ The second rule is not to forget the first rule.'
Driven by this belief, the team offers prudent investment advisory services to generate attractive returns for its clients while minimizing unnecessary risk.
We leverage our longstanding experience and reputation in financial services to take the stress out of retirement planning
For instance, investing money in companies with activist shareholders is one of Graham Capital’s prime investment strategies. When a large shareholder is apprehensive of a company’s management tactics, excessive cash burn, or other problems that must be addressed to add value, they may flag their concern and demand immediate change that benefits their position, such as a sale. Investing in organizations with these shareholders allows Graham Capital to achieve a discount on the company’s value in sales.
Another distinguishing investment strategy is the acquisition of short-term debt instruments—typically maturing within 36 months—in the form of senior bonds or exchange-traded debt. These short-term maturity investments are relatively less susceptible to the same interest rate variability as long-term debt instruments. Often forming the bedrock of client portfolios, Graham Capital puts copious amounts of effort and energy into investing within this asset class. It looks for underfollowed companies that represent great value to its bond investments, compared to expensive mutual funds that subtract a substantial sum from overall returns.
While building client portfolios, it frequently opts for merger arbitrage, a market-neutral, event-driven investment strategy that relies on the successful completion of mergers and acquisitions. Whenever an acquisition is announced, the target company’s stock trades below the acquiring price due to uncertainty surrounding the deal. The Graham Capital team can quantify and qualify those uncertainties to determine whether there is value in the prospective position.
Further accentuating the level of Graham Capital’s investment advisory services is its ability to divide client investment portfolios among different asset categories like stocks, bonds and cash. Through strategic asset allocation, it aims to achieve a balance between risk and rewards based on an individual’s goals, risk tolerance and investment horizon.
The common rule of asset allocation by age suggests that a 60-year-old investor would hold 40 percent equities and 60 percent fixed-income investments in bonds, annuities, or other safe assets.
For instance, in the case of target date retirement funds, women live nearly five years longer than men, on average, and end up needing more money in retirement.
This is where annuity contracts like FIAs come into play. Considering it a valuable addition to an investor’s asset allocation strategy, Graham Capital goes beyond traditional asset allocation options to provide a level of downside protection that can be useful for clients looking to balance risk and rewards in their retirement lives.
Upholding Self-Governance
Graham Capital operates independently without relying on guidance, advice, or monetary support from banks, brokerage houses or insurance companies.
Every other day, there are television or radio shows where representatives of investment advisory firms offer insights on financial planning. In reality, they are loyal to the banks and insurance companies that pay them.
-
Being passionate about our client's best interests helps us provide the highest quality fiduciary guidance
Contrary to this approach, Graham Capital holds a round table discussion where its group of estate planners, advisors and analysts, along with the chief investing officer, assess client needs, preferences and circumstances. It also walks the client through their financial standings, offering a comparative view of their income and expenditure. Based on these factors, Graham Capital’s financial advisors, insurance professionals, estate planners, and attorneys get together to review their profiles and reckon with the recommendations of each member. Once the team achieves complete unanimity at the end of this discussion, it starts drafting an investment plan tailored to the client’s objectives.
“Being passionate about our clients’ best interests helps us provide the highest quality fiduciary guidance,” says Graham.
Knowing that a stock purchased a month ago may not hold its value, it invests client money by considering all the socio-economic factors, guaranteeing their financial security.
Communication is another key element of Graham Capital’s services. Every month, it provides private original commentary through a monthly letter, which explores the current events of the period, giving clients an in-depth view of its decisions.
The Legacy Carries On
Having helped hundreds of families check off their post-retirement list, Graham Capital is determined to help many more.
It is looking to broaden its expansive client base spanning the length and breadth of Florida, opening offices across Tampa, Sarasota, Washington County and Port Charlotte.
Excited to walk beside its clients for the rest of their life journey, Graham Capital Advisors is committed to valuing and preserving the assets they’ve spent a lifetime earnings. It is ultimately redefining retirement planning as a means to attaining financial prosperity through exemplary fiduciary guidance.
