+ Why teachers?

This is my roots. My Mom was an elementary teacher for over 30 years and is still subbing. I was a teacher for 17 years. This is what I know. Being a teacher is a big part of my identity; even to this day.

I also see the huge need for good advice for educators.

Frankly, many teachers are taken advantage of. There are many stories of a teacher getting sold a high-priced product that isn’t in their best interest. Most financial advisors who work with teachers get paid for what they sell, whether it be insurance or investment products. This business model has a higher amount of conflicts-of-interest imbedded. By the way, just because a financial person calls themselves a financial planner or says they do financial planning doesn’t mean they do so in practice. Unfortunately, this is a problem.

Educators have also been neglected by true financial planners. There are not enough fee-only financial planners out there to serve everyone. From a business perspective, many conclude that a teacher who likely has a government pension (i.e. IPERS) and not large dollars of assets to rollover are not worth marketing to. They go after “bigger fish.” Additionally, many firms have large asset minimums, so if you don’t have at least $250,000, $500,000, or more to invest, for example, they will not take you on as a client.

I see this as an opportunity to change that. All I attempt to do is provide the services that I would have wanted when I was a teacher. I am trying to raise the standard of financial advice for educators.

+ Do I have to be a teacher to work with you?

No, you don’t. Many of our non-teacher clients really like the approach and process we take.

If you don’t like teachers, we might have a problem. But, otherwise, if you like what we offer and we are a good fit for each other, we are happy to work with you.

+ Do you help with IPERS?

Absolutely! It is very important that a public school teacher in Iowa understands how IPERS works and how it will impact their family's financial plan.

Decisions around beneficiaries, when to take benefits, and which benefit options to choose are common issues that we help our educator clients with.

+ Are you a fiduciary?

Yes. And unlike some in the industry who wear a fiduciary hat when giving advice on some matters and get to take off the hat when giving advice on others, we at Teacher Wealth are under the fiduciary standard 100% of the time. Feel free to request to see our signed Fiduciary Oath if interested.

+ Do you have an office?

Not at the moment. Not sure if we ever will. I look at this as an advantage, not a disadvantage.

I still value face-to-face meetings, but that doesn’t have to mean in-person. Virtual meeting technology allows us to do the same things that we would do in an office setting, sometimes more efficiently.

It is still important that I see your face in meetings. Keep in mind that most communication is non-verbal and it is key that I can read your body language and you can read mine.

If you are local, we can and will arrange in-person meetings either at your home, a public place like a coffee shop, or a conference room setting can be arranged. Whatever you prefer.

If someone can’t get over the fact that we don’t have a fancy office, we are probably not a good fit anyway. I think this is the future, to be honest, and will be common very soon.

+ What is your process?

Once we determine we are a good fit for each other and we decide to work with each other, we will begin the discovery process.

We strive to get to know our clients better than other firms. This takes time. We have some assessments that help with this. Knowing your story and your values will be the foundation of our advice. The more we know about you, the better we can serve you. This is primarily done during a 60-90 minute meeting and some assessments that you will do on your own. These assessments are not to judge you. Instead, they will allow us to go deeper into learning where you currently are and some of your attitudes and beliefs around money.

Then our goal turns to helping you get financially organized. We will collect all of your financial information. Statements, copies of your will, and tax return for example. Don’t worry, we will give you a list.

Once we have all of that info, we will go back and analyze your current situation and figure out how it matches up with your goals and values and whether you are on track. We will likely find some things to improve on and identify some recommendations.

We will look at your entire financial life. Investments, insurance, taxes, spending, debt, cash flow, estate planning, giving, etc. All of this will be considered in the light of what is most important to you in life - your values and your “why.”

A meeting will be held to review our findings. Our goal is to help you make sense of your finances and show you where you currently stand. We will review some of the recommendations we have and attempt to show you how it will change your long-term path. Together we will outline some action steps to take and create deadlines.

It is important to know that we will try not to overwhelm you. Changing your path is a long-term process. We will identify what the most pressing issues are and begin there. Over time, we will address the things that need to be addressed.

We will help you implement the action items and strategies we identified are worth doing to improve your life. Our job is to be your accountability partner and your cheerleader.

Plus, keep in mind that things will change. Life will happen. Your goals may change. Circumstances will definitely change. This is why it is important to have a long-term relationship with a financial planner who knows your situation and really knows you. We will monitor and assess your progress and deal with things as they come.

We are looking for lifetime clients.

We will meet at least annually to review your situation, but that is a minimum. We want you to reach out to us any time you have a financial decision you are trying to make. Sometimes a question we will ask you will be the difference between making a rash decision and making the best one. It is likely that we will talk throughout the year.

Some years there won’t be much to adjust and other years we will be crucial in helping you deal with something major that life throws your way or a very important life decision.

+ What if we are not a good fit?

Great question! If that is the case, we will do our best to help. We have a network of like-minded financial advisors both local and not. Recommending you to a few other advisors to interview usually can be arranged. After talking to you, we might know exactly the person in our network who is the perfect fit for your situation.

I believe everyone would benefit from having a comprehensive financial planner, but if you seem to need something other than planning advice, we will do our best to point you in the right direction. Maybe that is a book to read or another type of financial person to talk to.

+ How do you get paid?

We are a fee-only firm. So we don’t get paid by commissions. Our only source of revenue is fees paid directly from our clients. There are a few ways these fees can be paid.

Assets under management (AUM) - This is where our fee is directly debited from the accounts that we manage. This is the most common way our clients pay us.

Annual out-of-pocket fixed fees - If the AUM structure doesn’t work, then this can be a solution. These fees are often paid monthly for easy budgeting. This is especially important because we work with many teachers who don’t have many, if any, outside investments. This fee arrangement allows us to provide comprehensive financial planning to these individuals and families.

Unfortunately, some firms neglect educators because much of their retirement wealth is tied up in their pension plan which doesn’t work well with the traditional AUM fee model. These families deserve good financial advice too!

Project-based fees - If we are working on a specific stand-alone project we might charge a fee specifically for that task based on the complexity of the project.

Hourly fees - This is not our normal fee structure, but for some clients, this can be a good solution for their specific situation.