What to Expect When Meeting With a Financial Advisor

October 28, 2016

As Financial Professionals with over 57 years of combined experience, we get it: planning for your financial future can be scary. You’ve worked hard to accumulate your assets, but you don’t know how to strategically manage them nor do you want to risk losing your nest egg.

That being said, though, working with an independent financial advisor can have immense value, both for today and for the future. A team of professionals, like those at Karnish Financial Advisors, can work with you to establish your short and long-term goals, examine your risk tolerance, and craft a dynamic plan that can grow with you for decades.

What is an Independent Financial Advisor?

When you think of a financial advisor, you probably think of a broker working at a large institution. While this is one type advisor, this is not how our firm operates.

We are independent financial advisors backed by LPL Financial, the largest independent broker-dealer in the country1. This means that we aren’t required to sell proprietary products. Instead, we have access to a wide array of products and cater our strategies to our client's’ unique concerns.

How do Independent Financial Advisors Get Paid?

We supplement our income by offering a mix of fee-based financial planning or asset management, or garnering a commission on products, such as insurance or annuities, when they are suitable. Although we are not currently a total fee-based firm, we are transitioning to this style and trying to limit our commission-based products.

Our practice is largely driven by referrals, and we are grateful when our clients refer our services to their families, friends and colleagues. As a boutique firm, we don’t have the marketing of large, institutional firms. Instead, word of mouth is our main source of growth.

Why Choose Karnish Financial Advisors?

We know that hundreds of thousands of financial advisors advertise similar services and offerings as our firm. But we set ourselves apart by our dedication to exceptional service and care.

We will:

  • Help bring order to your financial life
  • Help you follow through on financial commitments
  • Bring insight from other professionals to help you avoid emotionally driven decisions in important money matters
  • Work with you to anticipate your life transitions and be financially prepared for them
  • Explore what specific knowledge is needed for you to succeed in your situation
  • Help you pursue the best life possible and work in concert with you (not just for you) to make it possible
  • Work with you to create a Comprehensive Financial Plan in order to assist you in addressing your goals and objective.

Our mission is to advise our clients to make the best decisions regarding their need to accumulate, protect, and transfer their wealth. In order to do this, we work hard to understand each client's’ desires and concerns, while committing to provide ongoing services that exceed their expectations.

What We Do

At Karnish Financial Advisors, the cornerstone of our business is the personal level of service that we offer. We offer comprehensive financial planning services and specialize in retirement planning, educational planning, and other long-term considerations.

We believe that through engaging in a deeper level of partnership with our clients, we are better positioned to understand your unique needs, wants, and goals. We treat each client with the same care as our own family and we work tirelessly to assist our clients in seeking to create and preserve multi-generational wealth.

We are also able to work with other professionals, such as attorneys and CPAs, to view a client’s financial picture holistically. We have a wide network of service professionals and are happy to work with a client’s trusted individuals, as well.

What Should I Expect During Our First Meeting?

First off, we want to thank you for taking that very important first step of meeting with a professional. You are doing something important for yourself and your family by meeting with our firm.

Because we appreciate the responsibility of taking on new clients, we want to make our firm a comfortable place of growth and disclosure. During our first meeting, we will never push products or force any recommendations on you. Instead, we will take the time to get to know you and your family, ask you about your current financial situation, discover what is of utmost importance to you, and work together to establish both short and long-term goals. The client-advisor relationship is of utmost importance and we learn as much from our clients (if not more) than they learn from us.

After our initial meeting, we will build a plan that is right for you. We create, monitor, and maintain customized financial plans and retirement strategies for affluent individuals, families and businesses. We believe that through engaging in a deeper level of partnership with our clients, we will be better positioned to understand your unique needs, wants and goals.

Taking the Next Step

At Karnish Financial Advisors, we treat each client with the same care as if they were our own family, and we work tirelessly to assist our clients in seeking to create and preserve multi-generational wealth. Our unwavering commitment to continuous improvement is integral to our ability to adapt to our clients’ evolving needs and the ever-changing financial landscape.

If you would like to get started with your financial planning journey, or have more questions about our process, reach out today at (814) 678-3438 or email casimir.karnish@lpl.com.

1. As reported in Financial Planning Magazine, June 1996-2016, based on total revenue.