About Alloy Wealth Management
Alloy Wealth Management is a wealth management firm serving the Carolinas, which focuses on your needs and values in insurance planning, and retirement planning. We are committed to helping pre-retirees and retirees navigate through complicated future planning decisions. Our team works with you to help create a comprehensive strategy with your goals in mind.
A Team of Financial Professionals
At Alloy Wealth Management, we understand finances can be daunting, and decisions for your future can seem overwhelming. That’s why our team is here to help you both understand, and better define, your financial goals. We have the tools and experience to provide services to suit your individual needs. As partners in your financial future, we can help you achieve the retirement you’ve dreamed of.
Retirement Planning
Where will your retirement money come from? If you’re like most people, qualified retirement plans, Social Security, personal savings, and investments all play a role. At Alloy Wealth Management, we’ll help you design a comprehensive plan to help grow, preserve, and protect your hard-earned assets.
At Alloy Wealth Management, retirement planning is one of our areas of experience. In retirement, you will no longer be in the workforce with a regular paycheck coming in. Instead, you will need to find ways to generate lasting income and slowly withdraw money from your retirement savings in a manner which is both tax-advantaged, and won’t cause your nest egg to empty out too soon.
At Alloy Wealth, we work with pre-retirees and retirees to help you create a lasting income plan as well as a tax-advantaged distribution plan for your assets during retirement. At age 70-1/2, RMDs (Required Minimum Distributions) are mandated by the government, even if you don’t need the money. This surprises some people, and sometimes throws them into a higher tax bracket than they ever anticipated. RMDs have strict rules and carry steep penalties if the rules aren’t followed, and we will help you manage that by doing comprehensive tax planning well in advance.
There are many risks when it comes to retirement. Of course, there is what’s commonly thought of as market risk or “risk tolerance.” This is individualized in terms of the amount of risk an individual is comfortable with. We think of it in terms of “what are you willing to lose?” Keep in mind that in retirement, you may not have the time horizon to wait out a market downturn.
There is also inflation risk, where the cost of goods and services keeps rising and eating away more of your retirement savings. Inflation risk needs to be addressed during the retirement planning process.
Another risk we address in your retirement plan is the potential that you might need long-term or nursing care someday, and ways we can mitigate that risk for your spouse and family members.
Finally, when it comes to retirement planning, the question of how much money will you need to have accumulated so you can retire is sure to come up. We will help you answer that “retirement number” question by providing you with a custom retirement plan. We will help you plan for steady income, including Social Security, and help make sure it matches your projected inflation-adjusted expenses, including taxes. That is the key to a more successful retirement.
Also, as part of what we do for every client, we will help you with Social Security filing strategies, based on your family’s actual benefits, ages and familial relationships, using our comprehensive software.
When it comes to retirement planning, Alloy Wealth Management has the experience.
Estate Planning
Effective estate planning enables you to manage your affairs during your lifetime and helps ensure your legacy is efficiently passed on to the ones you love. With a legacy plan, you can outline your healthcare wishes and ensure that they’re carried out – even if you are unable to communicate. You can also designate someone to manage your financial affairs should you be unable to do so.
Alloy Wealth Management founder Mark Henry has experience in estate planning. We work with fee-based attorneys to help create all the legal documents you need, get them properly filed, and then help you compile a written notebook, including clear directions for each document type so that your loved ones and executors know what to do, as well as what your wishes are.
We’ll help you understand the differences between wills and trusts. (Trusts can often help you keep your financial affairs private, avoid probate and transfer the maximum amount of wealth to your heirs, and they don’t have to be expensive.) In addition to estate documents, as part of our estate planning service we will help you analyze what insurance may be of benefit to you in transferring wealth with tax-efficiency.
And remember, estate planning requires ongoing review and updates. We’ll help you get–and keep–your final documents up-to-date through the years in conjunction with attorneys. It’s important to know that your beneficiaries on individual policies and assets take precedence over your trust or will documents, and we will meet with you regularly to help update your estate in its entirety as your family and goals change through time.
When it comes to estate planning, you can count on Alloy Wealth Management.
Investment Management
Investing and investment management should be easy – just buy low and sell high – but most of us have trouble following that simple advice. There are principles and strategies we follow at Alloy Investment Management to help enable you to put together an investment portfolio that best reflects your risk tolerance, time horizon, and goals. Understanding these investment management principles and strategies can help take the guesswork and emotion out of investment decisions.
We are experienced in investment management, and we’ve lived and worked through many market cycles–including 2008. We understand how to mitigate stock market risk while benefiting from bull market growth.
You see, it’s not “will there be” a market downturn, it’s “when” there will be a market downturn. Stock market downturns are inevitable, and that’s why there has to be a clear strategy for your portfolio to help protect your principal during down-market cycles, especially when it comes to retirement planning.
Insurance Services
A sound insurance strategy can help protect your family from the financial consequences of challenging life events, and insurance can still provide one of the most tax-advantaged methods to transfer wealth when it comes to estate planning. Our insurance services include personal insurance, liability insurance, and life insurance.
Insurance has come a long way in the last decade. In addition to traditional life insurance term and permanent policies to protect loved ones against unexpected life loss, there are new products and policies designed to help cover other types of risks in a tax-advantaged manner.
As a completely independent firm, we have access to nearly every carrier and every kind of insurance, and we compare features and premium prices so that we know we’re making recommendations based on solid numbers. We read the fine print when it comes to policy terms and conditions. So, whether it’s term or permanent, whole or universal, annuity or life, we will do the research to help you manage risk while potentially achieving other financial objectives.
New insurance policies, annuities and/or riders can create lifetime income in retirement, provide guaranteed* returns, provide for spousal transfer, cover long-term care expenses, protect against disability, allow tax-free wealth distribution to heirs and much more. We’ll do the homework and see what type of insurance may fit into your financial plan.
When it comes to insurance services, you can count on Alloy Wealth Management.
*Guarantees are provided based on the financial strength of the insurance company providing the policy. Some insurance companies have been in business and paying claims since the turn of the 20th century.
Fixed Indexed Annuities
A Fixed Indexed Annuity (FIA) combines the traditional value of guarantees, with the opportunity to earn more interest than a traditional deferred annuity. Its main feature guarantees that your money will never be lost, or go down in value, and your gains are locked-in each year. It is sometimes called a “safe money” product because it’s backed by the financial strength of the insurance carrier guaranteeing safety, income, liquidity, and tax advantages.
The interest earned on an FIA can be substantially higher because it ties the interest (return) to an external market index. In fact, this product was developed as an alternative to traditional savings vehicles because of its ability to provide greater returns. Fixed indexed annuities are useful for those who are adverse to risk in the stock market.
At Alloy Wealth Management, we sometimes recommend them as part of a balanced portfolio when it comes to investment management and retirement planning services. However, it’s important to know that a fixed indexed annuity is not an investment, it’s an insurance product. A fixed indexed annuity is a contractually guaranteed transfer-of-risk strategy, and a non-correlated asset.
Please note: A Fixed Annuity should not be confused with a Variable Annuity. Variable Annuities are securities, sold by prospectus, and you can lose your money because you carry the risk of its performance. A Fixed Indexed Annuity is not a security, and therefore, your principal and earnings are guaranteed to never lose value as long as the insurance carrier is able to pay claims.
* Fixed Indexed Annuity payments and guarantees are dependent upon the claims-paying ability of the insurance carrier.
When it comes to Fixed Indexed Annuities, you can count on Alloy Wealth Management.
Tax Planning
As a part of a comprehensive financial approach, we offer tax strategies and tax bill management to our clients. Some taxes can be deferred, and others can be managed through tax-efficient investing. With careful and consistent preparation, you may be able to manage the impact of taxes on your financial efforts.
Some people are surprised to find that they owe taxes in retirement. Some even pay taxes on Social Security! That’s why tax planning is imperative for the retiree, and at Alloy Wealth, we strive to keep you in the lowest tax bracket possible every year. In order to do that, we have to take a look at what qualifies as “earned income,” and we have to take money out of your nest egg in a tax-advantaged manner.
When it comes to qualified money, like 401(k)s and traditional IRAs, RMDs (Required Minimum Distributions) come into play at age 72. You have to start taking money out of these accounts following strict guidelines, and that has tax implications. We have specific strategies that we use to help reduce withdrawals and tax liability.
When it comes to tax planning, you can count on Alloy Wealth Management.