Our Strategy
Our investment philosophy is one of balance and flexibility. We believe that the use of active management investment strategies is the wisest approach to conserve assets and maximize their growth. Our investment universe is comprised of more than 3,000 no-load and no transaction fee mutual funds.
Our business is not only the careful crafting of customized diversified investment plans, but also implementing them with efficiency and with sound investment and fiduciary principles. We design each strategy to achieve an appropriate balance considering the individual risk tolerance, liquidity need, and short and long-term goals of our clients.
Our varying portfolio management services are based on the client`s current needs and are designed to handle the transition of any investment changes when a client`s situation or objectives change as well as when new opportunities arise.
It is an enormous responsibility when a client entrusts us with their retirement assets, their children’s college fund, or their life savings. We call it “serious money” and we take our responsibility seriously. Our total dedication and focus is on providing the best money management possible.
Fee-Only Investment Management
What is it?
Fee-only investment management is the newest and most attractive way to pay for professional money management and is the type of arrangement recommended by many leading financial writers and experts.
Rather than paying sales commissions for brokers to sell you products, you pay instead a reasonable fee (often 1% or less annually) based on your account value. The fee-only advisor does not charge commissions. He is interested in growing your account and providing long-term service.
Unfortunately, not many advisors will agree to work on a strictly fee-only basis. At RFM Financial Solutions, LLC, fee-only is the only way to work with clients.
Why is it better?
Reasonable cost
The only fee from RFM Financial Solutions, LLC is normally 1/2% – 1% per year of your account value. Smaller accounts are billed on an hourly rate. Compare that to regular commissions from stockbrokers of up to 1% on every stock trade and up to 6% on mutual funds.
Stockbrokers may also have hidden charges such as 12b-1 fees or surrender fees on mutual funds, surrender fees and bloated internal expenses on annuities, and heavy markups on products like unit trusts or bonds.
The basic difference is this – the commissioned stockbroker makes a living by charging you commissions. The more they charge, the more they make.
On the other hand, as a fee-only advisor, our compensation is a flat percentage of your account value. We don`t make a single dollar from commissions, trailers, or markups.
Aside from gaining new clients, the only way our income grows is if your account grows. Period. Your objective is our objective.
Safer for the client – Have you ever worried about the following?
Whether a trade has been recommended to you because it paid your broker?
Worried that a broker might “churn” your account for high commissions?
Worried that a sales contest, pressure to move inventory, or the end of the brokers` commission month were really behind a broker’s recommendation?
Have you been leery of hot tips and “great stories,” when brokers call you?
Do you get the impression they are interested in sales but not a high level of continuing service?
More objective
RFM Financial Solutions, LLC is completely independent. It is not owned or controlled by any parent investment firm. It accepts absolutely no money in the way of commissions, markups, prizes, promotions, or marketing money. Nor does it accept soft dollar arrangements to steer clients or trades.
Research is gleaned from dozens of independent sources like Morningstar, Centerpiece, Schwablink, Standard & Poors, Dow Jones, Bloomberg, etc.
The only source of income for the firm is fees from clients. And, rather than hiding fees in a prospectus, an invoice detailing the fee computation is mailed to you every quarter. You can`t get any more above-board than that.
Emphasis on service
Our interest is building a service business based on long-term client relationships. Everything can be custom-tailored to a particular clients needs or wishes. The frequency and nature of client communication is strictly up to the client. It costs no more for exceptional service.
Better performance
We recommend no-load mutual funds. These are mutual funds available for no sales charge and no surrender fee. There are thousands of them and include many if not most, of the best-performing funds available – names such as Janus, Vanguard, Fidelity, T. Rowe Price.
In addition, many funds on which you would pay a sales charge to buy from a broker we can buy for you with the sales charges waived because our firm is an institutional investor.
It has been our experience that clients do better overall using mutual funds than individual stocks and bonds. Not only is the performance better for most clients but clients generally also pay less in taxes.