Focus on what’s important.
We help you develop and maintain perspectives and sightlines to your plan.
Perspectives help cultivate ways of thinking about and understanding things and sightlines help develop clarity about what lies ahead.
These helpful primers, books and blogs can help you think about situations and problems in more wise and reasonable ways. They can help you develop longer-term perspectives and sightlines to withstand the shifting winds of short-term thinking. They can help you bypass camouflaging distractions and help you stay focused on the key issues that matter most to the long-term success of your plan.
We help you develop and maintain perspectives and sightlines to your plan.
Perspectives help cultivate ways of thinking about and understanding things and sightlines help develop clarity about what lies ahead.
These helpful primers, books and blogs can help you think about situations and problems in more wise and reasonable ways. They can help you develop longer-term perspectives and sightlines to withstand the shifting winds of short-term thinking. They can help you bypass camouflaging distractions and help you stay focused on the key issues that matter most to the long-term success of your plan.
Shortfall Risk is the Greatest Risk to Retirement Success The greatest risk to retirement success? For most of us, it’s shortfall risk …
Retirement Distribution Planning May Help Minimize Your Overall Tax Expenses If you’ve diligently saved and invested throughout your working years, congratulations! You’re …
Better Asset Location Strategy Helps Lower Your Tax Exposures Asset location strategy helps punctuate the old adage, “It’s not what you earn, …
Investing lessons from the pension world help us to focus on the critical importance of matching our long-term retirement liabilities with proper …
Investors who examine the mathematical benefits of a dividend-growth strategy may not look at investing in the same light again.
CONSIDER EVERYTHING
5 Insights on the Fed, Election, and Volatility in Q4, September 30, 2024
How Geopolitical Conflicts Impact Markets and the Economy, September 27, 2024
How Tax Proposals and the Election Impact Investors, September 17, 2024
How Middle East Conflicts Have Historically Impacted Markets, September 9, 2024
3 Investor Lessons from the Summer’s Market Volatility, September 3, 2024
How Presidential Elections and Economic Policies Affect Investors, August 19, 2024
How Corporate Earnings Support the Market Rebound, August 26, 2024
How Carry Trades and Market Fragility Impact Investors, August 12, 2024
Perspective on the Magnificent 7 and Valuations, June 27, 2024
How to Invest for Retirement Amid Market Uncertainty, June 22, 2024
Portfolios of high quality dividend growth stocks have fulfilled the need for a steady, sustainable and rising stream of income capable of keeping pace with inflation for decades. This is especially appealing of course for those who are building a portfolio of investments to sustain them for decades in retirement. The income from dividend growth
If you have a child with disabilities, it is crucial to set money aside for the child’s future. At the same time, you need to consider your child’s access to public benefit programs such as Medicaid and Supplemental Security Income (SSI), as well as state benefit programs and state and federal taxation. The two major
Among the costs of caring for a dependent with special needs are the fees for professional advice. Some families are tempted to save on these costs by setting up a plan on their own. This can be attractive because so much information is available online, free of charge. Because low-cost platforms and templates abound, it
There’s a great bumper sticker out there that reads: “Organized people are just too lazy to search for stuff.” The quip gave me a laugh when I saw it a couple of years back while sitting at a traffic light. To some of us, the idea of being organized seems humorously far-fetched – and more
Participating in the Social Security system may seem like a decision-free exercise: You pay in during your working years, and then you receive monthly payments when you retire. The fact is that you may have a fair bit of control over the amount and timing of the benefits you receive. First, your benefits are calculated
The retirement landscape is changing quickly, and it’s not a pretty picture. According to a recent survey conducted by Harris Poll on behalf of Northwestern Mutual, today’s earners expect to work longer than previous generations – and not necessarily by choice. What’s more, a strikingly large percentage of workers expect that they will never retire
The boxer Mike Tyson famously said that every fighter has a plan until he gets punched in the face. Tyson was referring to his opponents in the ring, but he might as well have been talking about investors. Too many investors ditch their carefully-laid plans when they get slammed by the market. Impulsively acting out
Saving enough for retirement is something to be proud of. But even if you’ve bucked the trend and amassed a good-size nest egg, it’s critical to have a sound strategy for withdrawing your money. Living large early in retirement could cause you to run out of money in your later years, after all. On the
Warren Buffett once said, “The only value of stock forecasters is to make fortune tellers look good.” At this time of year – when media outlets are brimming with forecasts and market predictions for the 12 months ahead – it’s wise to heed Buffett’s advice. Just look at Wall Street’s dismal record in divining the
The great Satchel Page, who played professional baseball until age 59, once asked: “How old would you be if you didn’t know how old you are?” There’s no doubt many of us remain young at heart throughout our lives. Unfortunately, our bodies follow a different script: In retirement, we can count on our healthcare needs
Better Asset Location Strategy Helps Lower Your Tax Exposures Asset location strategy helps punctuate the old adage, “It’s not what you earn, but what you keep.” Part of investing more successfully is structuring your investments to help minimize your overall tax exposures. That’s no easy feat, given exposures to federal and state income taxes, the alternative minimum tax, capital gains tax, the surtax on investment income, Social Security tax, Medicare tax, estate and gift tax, generation-skipping transfer tax and the corporate tax. With such an array of taxes waiting to be levied on your investment returns, it’s easy to see why taxes should rank highly on your list of risks to be understood and managed, along with “market crashes,” and the panoply of other investment risks. The negative impact of taxes on your investment and wealth management strategies can meaningfully reduce your after-tax returns and increase your shortfall risk. A study published in the April 2020 Journal of Finance found that it is relatively easy to avoid destroying value for taxable equity mutual fund investors by managing investment taxes. While that particular study involved taxable accounts and mutual funds, taxes are a matter that all investors will have to contend
Investing lessons from the pension world help us to focus on the critical importance of matching our long-term retirement liabilities with proper long-term investment assets. Investing Lessons from the Pension World Help Us Generate Better Retirement Expense Estimates Asset/liability matching originated in the pension world. Pension managers are responsible for meeting specific objectives, namely, paying specific amounts of retirement benefits to a specific number of individuals at specific points in time. To meet their ongoing “liabilities,” these managers must invest their assets carefully to earn the necessary returns, while taking the least risk possible. As of 2013, liability-driven investing was practiced by more than half of U.S., U.K. and Canadian corporate pension plans, according to research from The Brandes Group. Its use has more than doubled since 2007 ‒ an indication that the 2008 market crash forced many funds to adopt more prudent investment approaches. Increasingly, asset/liability matching and liability-driven investing are making their way from pensions and other institutions into the world of individual and family investors. The practices fit neatly into goals-based wealth management. Rather than investing with the simplistic goal of “beating the market,” goals-based investors thoughtfully determine their financial objectives. And then they translate those goals
You May Not Believe It Until You Read It, But It’s True. The shocking truth about index investing is that reality can be very different from theory. Index investing funds are wildly popular with Americans: As of year-end 2021, “passive” equity and fixed income index funds managed total net assets of $5.7 trillion, according to Statista.com. As passive investments, index investing funds are supposed to closely track the performance of a market benchmark such as the S&P 500 index. Fund management has no need to actively make investment choices. But as we’ll explain, passive index investing can be very different between theory and reality. Vanguard Group founder John Bogle launched the first index investing fund for investors in 1976, and his book Common Sense on Mutual Funds convinced a whole generation that active management was a loser’s proposition after fees were deducted. It’s widely understood that index investing funds and other passive investments own the same underlying stocks consistently, with changes being exceedingly rare. But the truth is that passive investing is a misnomer, at best – and is misleading at worst. Let’s look at funds based on the S&P 500 index, such as the Vanguard 500 Index Fund and
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Scottsdale, AZ 85254
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Wealth Management
Chandler, Gilbert, Mesa
Speak with a Chandler
Financial Advisor
(480) 542-2900
Wealth Management
Phoenix, Peoria, Tempe
Speak with a Phoenix
Financial Advisor
(602) 245-2900
Wealth Management
Scottsdale, Paradise Valley
Speak with a Scottsdale
Financial Advisor
(480) 951-2900
Wealth Management
Tucson, Oro Valley
Speak with a Tucson
Financial Advisor
(520) 636-2900
Wealth Management
Prescott, Sedona, Flagstaff
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Northern Arizona
Financial Advisor
(928) 272-2900
Copyright © 2005-2025 ICW Investment Advisors LLC, a Delaware limited liability company. All rights reserved.
Copyright © 2005-2025 ICW Investment Advisors LLC.
A Delaware limited liability company.
All rights reserved.
Nationwide
Virtual
Chandler
Gilbert
Mesa
Phoenix
Peoria
Glendale
Scottsdale HQ
Paradise Valley
Carefree
(866) 617-2900
(480) 542-2900
(602) 245-2900
(480) 951-2900
Located in the heart of North Scottsdale
Scottsdale Rd & Frank Lloyd Wright Blvd
16427 N Scottsdale Rd, Suite 350
Scottsdale, AZ 85254
Nationwide
Virtual
(866) 617-2900
Chandler
Gilbert
Mesa
(480) 542-2900
Phoenix
Peoria
Glendale
(602) 245-2900
Scottsdale HQ
Paradise Valley
Carefree
(480) 951-2900
Tucson
Oro Valley
Green Valley
(520) 636-2900
Prescott
Cottonwood
(928) 222-2900
Flagstaff
Sedona
(928) 272-2900
Located in the heart of North Scottsdale
Promenade Corporate Center
Scottsdale Road at Frank Lloyd Wright Blvd.
Easy access from the Loop 101 or SR-51.
Nationwide
Virtual
(866) 617-2900
Chandler
Gilbert
Mesa
(480) 542-2900
Phoenix
Peoria
Glendale
(602) 245-2900
Scottsdale HQ
Paradise Valley
Carefree
(480) 951-2900
Located in the heart of North Scottsdale
Promenade Corporate Center
Scottsdale Road at Frank Lloyd Wright Blvd.
Easy access from the Loop 101 or SR-51.
Tucson
Oro Valley
Green Valley
(520) 636-2900
Prescott
Cottonwood
(928) 222-2900
Flagstaff
Sedona
(928) 272-2900
We combine intellectual capital with critical thinking and detailed analyses across the 10 allied disciplines of wealth management to create whole-system thinking and integrated strategies that address your needs.
This is complex work with a multitude of variables that can produce opposite results. It’s a workspace in multiple dimensions. We are educated, trained and experienced for this work.
We manage the support systems and processes across
100 tailored personal wealth management workflows.
In each role, we contribute differently as you look to us with different needs at different times. Most often, we contribute simultaneously across all capacities in differing degrees.
As leaders, we provide motivation and direction. As counselors, we help remove barriers. As advisors, we provide technical advice. And as managers, we carry out process.
Taken together, we are always working to position you in your place of greatest potential.
What makes plans work is saving and capital growth. The playing field is arrayed with no shortage of obstacles that conspire to impair both saving and capital growth.
Whatever or whoever the conspirators are, capital growth is paramount. Forces outside and within your control must be well-managed.
We tailor and manage your investment operations to help reduce unforced errors and mistakes and compound your long-term, after-tax returns.
Tax-planning and strategy may offer opportunities to minimize and optimize your tax expenses. The time for tax planning and strategy development occurs at the beginning, not at the completion of an investment or tax year.
We provide guidance focused to your unique situation and help you exercise care to engage in tax planning that is flexible enough to help you respond to changing market conditions, tax law changes and unexpected outcomes.
We prepare informative studies that help you see if your assets and investment strategies are on track to successfully support your dreams and desires and sustain you without an earned income for as many as 30 to 40 years in retirement.
As you approach retirement, we help you see beyond this hard-earned moment in time, spot hidden risks, map a path and contribute our experience and resources to help you reach your goals.
We help you understand your current level of risk exposures and help identify personalized solutions that seek to help protect the risk-exposed areas of your financial life.
We review how your assets are titled to maximize your protection in the event of a lawsuit or other claims.
We help coordinate your business and personal insurance with your employer-provided benefits to help avoid any gaps or overlaps in coverage and help integrate your insurance policies with your estate plan.
We help you budget and manage expenses to reduce debt, increase savings, improve your long-term investment compounding rate, and fund your important life goals.
We offer a responsive and operational framework to help you meet less predictable, hard-to-monitor short-term expenses while meeting ongoing financial commitments and tracking to your short-term, intermediate and long-term objectives.
Cash management is a key component of liquidity management. It includes the efficient management of your cash flow, investments and cash reserves in order to achieve your overall financial objectives.
As inflation remains high with high interest rates, we help you deploy your cash flow and cash positions to earn higher interest rates.
Liquidity and cash management also involve managing the risk of short-term financing and making sure cash is available when needed.
We help you recognize that planning for the retention and transfer of your wealth is far more than numbers on a balance sheet and minimizing estate transfer taxes.
Your wealth also comprises your family and its health, education, life’s experiences, knowledge, relationships, mental and physical fitness, values and spirituality.
We help you express the conscience and wishes for what you have and leave behind and the constitution of privileges and responsibilities to guide all concerned.
We help you explore the motivations and develop and articulate the benefits, framework, discipline and communication of contributions you wish to make to communities that extend beyond your family.
We help you discover, establish and affirm the values, beliefs, attitudes, preferences and priorities for your contributions to your chosen communities. Then we help you with the ongoing management and administration of your philanthropic assets and endeavors.
