Our Services

At Meridian, we create financial plans and investment portfolios grounded in a thorough understanding of your life and goals, backed by objective, low-cost, and a diversified selection of investments.

Whole Life Financial Planning

Financial Planning Processes financial-planning

Clarifying your path begins with a highly detailed personal financial plan.

In order to build that plan, we’ll walk through three steps together to:

  1. Help you to clarify your values and goals to understand where you want to be in the future.
  2. Examine your full financial picture (assets, debts, income, etc.) to get a clear picture of where you are now.
  3. Build a custom financial roadmap representing the clearest path to that future.

As we go, we’ll work with you to strategically integrate all your financial resources – assets, income and advisors – along that path.

After your financial plan is built, our team will implement and monitor it to help keep everything on track. We will accomplish this by:

  • Creating a comprehensive set of financial statements, giving you a clear picture of your available resources.
  • Monitoring and rebalancing portfolio allocations to keep your investments aligned with your risk tolerance and long-term goals.
  • Checking in with you regularly to make adjustments as needed. Just as your life changes over time, your plan is a living document that can change along with your circumstances, values and goals.

Underpinning your plan is a close attention to safeguards, using insurance and estate planning techniques to keep you and your loved ones protected should the unexpected occur.

We can also recommend and work with other professionals, including your CPA, attorney, and insurance agent, to implement your plan and monitor for needed course corrections.

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Investment Management

Financial Planning Process - Investment Management investment-management

Our smart, diversified portfolios are built to optimize your returns for long-term success.

Drawing on Nobel prize-winning research and prudent investment theory, we’ll build a smart, diversified portfolio that aligns with your goals and timeline and puts the dimensions of return to work for you.

When we manage your investments, you get a team of experts who will:

  • Manage your portfolio with an eye to minimizing expenses and mitigating tax impact, letting you keep more of what you earn.
  • Study the markets, track economic trends and prudently manage your portfolio’s risk, all to help you weather potentially volatile investment environments and stay on track with your master plan.
  • Monitor your portfolio for unanticipated results, taking new economic data into account.
  • Match your portfolio’s realized returns against your financial plan and meet with you to review progress, discuss life events, and revise the plan to reflect these realities.

Once those yearly meetings have occurred, we then chart a course for the year to come, reallocating your portfolio as needed to keep your accounts aligned with your requirements.

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The Meridian Approach

Our structure and method of operation are a rarity in the industry: client-centered and transparent to the highest degree. We are:

Independent Financial Planning Process independent

Independent

Only the partners own Meridian Financial Partners – no one else. We never have a reason to push one product, fund or strategy over another. We’re not under corporate pressure to raise revenue or steer you toward “in-house” investment research, and our advice is objective and unbiased, intended solely to achieve the best solution for you.

Financial Planning Process Fee Only fee-only

Fee-only

We are paid only by our clients (no commissions or hidden compensation), and the cost of our service is completely transparent. We avoid potential conflicts of interest by eliminating commissions and mutual fund fees. As a result, our clients have no forced lock-up period. If for any reason you no longer need or want our services, you’re free to leave with no financial penalty. And because there’s no incentive to make a quick sale, fee-only advisors can provide carefully considered financial advice.

Building Assets Financial Planning Process fiduciaries

Fiduciaries

Fiduciary is an industry term used to describe the highest standard to which your relationship with a financial advisor can be held. In fact, as a fiduciary, it is our legal responsibility to act in clients’ best interest at all times.

In addition to the requirement to put clients’ interests ahead of their own, we take pride in our obligation to serve clients with loyalty and care.

We use Charles Schwab as our third-party custodian of client assets – think of them as the piggy bank where your assets are held. Schwab has been serving independent advisors and their clients for decades, affording access to in-depth research as well as virtually any investment vehicle you could want. And they carry not just the standard SIPC $500,000 per-account protection, but an additional $600 million of supplementary insurance through Lloyd’s of London and other insurers.

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Frequently Asked Questions

We offer financial planning as part of our ongoing investment management practice. Any person seeking financial peace of mind or looking to match his or her financial actions and resources with personal goals can benefit from our services. We provide financial planning and advice to clients from all income levels.
Our services can help you plan for:

  • Retirement: When will I be financially independent? How much will I need and how do I get there?
  • Taxes: How can I reduce my taxes?
  • College: What is the best way to save for college? How much should I save?
  • Budgeting: How can I reduce debt or save more?
  • Insurance: Do I need life, disability or long-term care insurance? If so, how much and for how long? Investments: What are the best investments for me?
  • Estate Planning: How can I make sure my estate is handled the way I would like?
  • Special Goals: What is the best way to financially plan for and finance that new home, special trip, gift or other goal?
  • Financial Check-Ups: How is my plan proceeding? Do I need to make any changes?

A wealth manager or financial advisor who receives a personal or monetary reward for recommending a specific product to a client faces an inherent conflict of interest, which means he or she cannot be 100% objective and unbiased. Yet the majority of financial advisors in the United States sell financial products for which they receive a commission. Their business model requires them to steer their clients to a specific group of products.

As a fee-Only financial planner, Meridian is not influenced by commissions, and the only compensation they receive is from the client. As a result, they’re able to base their recommendations on one thing: the best interests of the client.

At Meridian, the cost of our service is completely transparent, and we are paid only by clients. We receive no commissions or mutual fund fees, avoiding potential conflicts of interest. With no commissions or hidden compensation, our clients have no forced lock-up period. If for any reason you no longer need or want our services, you’re free to leave at any time, with no financial penalty. And because there’s no incentive to make a quick sale, fee-only advisors can provide carefully considered financial advice, recognizing that financial decisions mustn’t be made hastily or in a vacuum.

Meridian Financial Partners is a fiduciary to its clients. A fiduciary is someone in a position of trust and confidence that must place the interests of those he or she serves ahead of their own.

In fact, an important question you may ask when considering a financial planner’s services is: Do you follow the fiduciary standard? The answer to that question can provide insight into the planner’s approach to clients. While the law is not entirely settled on whether a financial planner must serve in a fiduciary capacity, Meridian believes they should. Our CFP® financial advisors embrace this role and the responsibility of always placing the client first.

At Meridian Financial Partners our compensation is 100% transparent, so you know exactly what we make and the value we provide.

All services are offered as a percentage of assets under management (AUM) and are billed monthly, in advance. It’s that simple. We receive no other forms of compensation from anyone. We work ONLY for you.

Note: The advisory fee is paid monthly, in advance, and the value used for the fee calculation is the gross value as of the last market day of the previous month. Our fees range from 0.25% to 1.00% depending on investable assets. Each month we will multiply the value of your account by your annual fee, then divide by the number of days in the year times the number of days in the month to calculate your fee that month.

In calculating the market value of a client’s assets, assets allocated to cash or a cash proxy, such as a money market account, will be included in the calculation of assets under management. Once the calculation is made, we will instruct your account custodian to deduct the fee from your account and remit it to Meridian Financial Partners.

It is critical—for your protection and our own—that all assets are held with independent, third-party custodians. Note that, unless we arranged otherwise, all non-employer-related accounts for which you choose to grant Meridian trading authority are held at Charles Schwab & Co., Inc., a registered broker dealer.

Your money is safe in the hands of this multi-billion dollar entity, which is separate from Meridian, creating checks and balances. Schwab has extensive experience serving the needs of independent advisors and their clients, affording access to in-depth research as well as virtually any investment vehicle you could want. And they carry not just the standard SIPC $500,000 per-account protection, but an additional $600 million of supplementary insurance through Lloyd’s of London and other insurers. Your employer accounts, including 401(k), 403(b), Deferred Compensation, etc., remain with your employer-directed custodian but we are happy to assist with asset allocation planning on these accounts.

Our services are designed to enable us to work with any client that wants to build a strong financial future. While our Investment Management services do have a minimum fee of $1,200 per year, we do not limit clients based on their current circumstances. Instead, we focus on your financial potential and how committed you are to working together to build wealth and achieve your goals.

For those early- to mid-career professionals just getting started, we offer our Grow with Meridian program, which is ideal for those with less than $150,000 of assets to invest.

Our advisors are ready to meet you! Set up a stress and worry-free consultation today. Visit the Get in Touch page to request a meeting.

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Is there something Meridian can clarify for you? Help is just a phone call or email away. Call us at (540) 878-5416, or use Calendly to schedule a meeting with one of our advisors today!

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