Investment
Management

We’re a wealth management firm, so you probably think we make it all about the money. But we’re not like most wealth management firms. We make it all about you. To us, the goal isn’t just to have more money. The goal is to have enough money. Enough money to do everything you want in retirement.

Let’s talk about your goals in retirement. Do you want to travel the world? Relocate to be near your grandchildren? Support charitable causes that are important to you? Whatever your goals are in retirement, your money is simply the tool to make it happen.

More money alone will not make you happy. Having enough money to do everything you want…we think that will.

That’s why, at Ogorek, it all starts with a financial plan. Once we know your goals, we build out a plan to reflect what your ideal retirement looks like. How much will you need to draw on your savings? What major expenses are likely five and ten years out?  We plan for the future so you don’t have to.

Once we have your plan, your portfolio is then built to serve your plan. Asset allocation, investment selection, tax mitigation strategies, you name it. We don’t employ any cookie cutter strategies here. Your investment portfolio is custom-built to serve your plan, and help you reach your goals.

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Your asset allocation (your portfolio’s mix of stocks and bonds) is among the most important drivers of both your future return potential, and the amount of risk you are taking. Most financial advisors will determine your asset allocation simply by looking at your age.

We think this one-size fits all approach completely misses the mark.

You see, there are two kinds of risk for retirees, and both are equally important:

• The risk of losing money
• The risk of losing the purchasing power that your money represents

You’re familiar with the risk of losing money, having lived through the Dot-Com Bubble, the Great Financial Crisis, and COVID-19: stocks don’t always go up, and can fall 20-30% or more in a short amount of time.

It’s the risk of losing purchasing power to inflation that most people ignore: avoid the stock market altogether, and your portfolio won’t grow enough to offset the effects of inflation during retirement.

Your age simply gets at the risk of losing money. You’re 65, and therefore you should lower your exposure to the stock market to avoid a big loss. But what about the risk of inflation eroding your purchasing power? That should worry you too.

At Ogorek, we determine your custom asset allocation in three important steps:

1. Risk Tolerance
   Our risk tolerance questionnaire tells us about your general attitude towards risk. Will you panic if the market falls? How much downside risk are you willing to take for the potential for large gains? This is all about getting to know you, and how you think.
2. Risk Capacity
   During this next step, we look at your ability to tolerate a short-term loss in your portfolio. Generally, the higher your guaranteed sources of income (Social Security, pensions, annuity payments, etc.), or the lower your expected draw rate, the more risk you can take. Investment-only advisors don’t offer this step, because they can’t.
3. Plan Success Rate
   In this step, we attempt to answer probably the most pressing question on your mind: will I have enough? Here, we run your plan projections through more than 10,000 stock and bond market simulations, both for level of returns (including bear market scenarios), and sequence of returns (stock market corrections early in your retirement, or later on). Which asset allocation results in the highest probability of success for your plan? The answer may surprise you.

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The term “overview effect” was coined in 1987 by author Frank White to describe the intense awe astronauts feel when viewing the earth from space. Astronauts report viewing the earth as incredibly “fragile” and have been documented to see the earth (and life itself) differently upon their return, wanting to protect the earth (and all its inhabitants) at all costs.

While we all can’t be astronauts, the pandemic may be the “earth from space” moment for the rest of us. Emerging from our homes and seeing the world (and life) in a “fragile” new light, many of us are feeling a greater desire to do good than we did before.

According to Morningstar, U.S. sustainable investment funds received $21.5 billion in net flows during the first quarter of 2021, breaking the previous record of $20.5 billion set in the fourth quarter of 2020, and more than double the same quarter a year-ago (prior to the pandemic).

But what are sustainable investments, exactly? The term “sustainable” is typically thought to refer to the environment (i.e. reducing carbon emissions or water consumption), but can include other areas too, such as promoting gender equality or reducing tobacco/alcohol exposure. The truth is, whatever your values (including religious-oriented views), we can craft an investment strategy made just for you. At Ogorek, we offer portfolios that are 100% “sustainable”, including individual bonds and stocks, mutual funds, and exchange-traded funds.

But what about the financial implications? Will you have to sacrifice higher returns to do good? Absolutely not. In fact, sustainable stock funds on average beat the overall stock market in 2020, and over the last 3, 5 and 10 years.

If you are ready for your “earth from space” moment, contact us to learn more about our custom sustainable portfolios. At Ogorek, we value your values.

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Pre-retirees and retirees are told they have one option when it comes to generating income: bonds. But does that still make sense today?

Consider that bonds are currently paying their lowest level of interest in history, with rates near 1.5%. At that level, you will earn just $150 in interest for every $10,000 you invest in government bonds. That’s no way to build wealth over time, and in fact, that won’t even keep pace with inflation.

Are we saying to give up entirely on bonds? Of course not. Bonds continue to play an important role in your portfolio, reducing volatility in downturns, and providing an opportunity for periodic rebalancing.

But there’s another often overlooked source of income available: High Dividend Stocks. Our proprietary high dividend stock model built for pre-retirees/retirees invests in large U.S. companies that have a history of paying dividends, and raising them. The portfolio currently pays a dividend yield of 2.5% and has exhibited significantly less volatility than the overall stock market.

High dividend stocks aren’t bonds, and will fall when the stock market falls. However, we believe allocating a portion of your account to high dividend stocks will increase the income potential of your portfolio in the near-term, and generate higher returns over the long run.

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