Today we’d like to introduce you to Cynthia Legault, CFP(r).
Cynthia, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
In 1996 I started Financial Navigators as a 401(k) provider search firm after working 15 years in the financial district of Boston at banks, insurance companies, mutual fund companies, KPMG, and Buck Consultants. In 2005 the firm expanded to provide asset management and one-on-one consulting services after adding 2 partners whom I met at Merrimack College while attending the Certified Financial Planning Program in 2004.
12 years later and the firm employs 8 people (5 women and 3 men) in the Boston area, New Hampshire, New York and Georgia. We are an entirely virtual firm and all staff work from their homes and client sites. Our 4 financial advisors and 4 staff split our time 50/50 between individual investor clients and the consulting we provide for large corporations, non-profits and unions.
The consulting side of our business is our Niche and differentiates us from most other Investment Advisors. We have individual clients for whom we provide investment advisory services and financial planning but we also cater to our corporate clients who hire us to provide annual, hourly meetings with any employee who decides to utilize our services. These services are employer provided, allowing employees to attend at no cost. I often tell people that I am a “Retirement Psychiatrist” because of the intense, personal nature of these meetings. We have found that drilling down to the core needs of individuals and their spouses allows us to provide recommendations that are tailored to their needs. We act in a Fiduciary Role for the employer and this allows them to provide investment advisory services to employees by qualified, independent advisors.
Our Investment Advisory business for individual investors has grown steadily over the years, never from a single cold call, but from developing close personal relationships with the employees of our consulting clients who ask us to help with their investments.
We Custody through Fidelity Investments and use a flexible lineup of funds from Dimensional Fund Advisors (DFA), PIMCO, Fidelity Investments and a variety of other companies. In the end, we have close relationships with all of our clients and they know us well from a professional and personal standpoint.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Our only struggles are against other investment advisors who are not Fiduciaries, have not properly disclosed fees and present their products to the everyday investor as “a great deal”.
We have always been an open book when it comes to the fees we charge. Our fees are clearly listed on the front page of the statements our clients receive, we do not use funds that charge loads (additional expenses to purchase funds) and all of the funds we use are among the lowest management fees in the world. We have always acted as a Fiduciary which means we put the needs of our clients ahead of our own. We never have sales contests to obtain new business and only add new clients with whom we strongly believe we can enjoy a long and fruitful relationship. Life is too short for strained relationships. Hence, our retention rate for clients is extremely high.
Financial Navigators – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
Any company can make money if they have a good product or service but the difficult part is in retention of staff and clients. Hiring and training is costly and time consuming.
As we are a professional firm, all of our employees have previous experience and need to be mature, responsible individuals to be trusted to work on their own at home. This doesn’t mean they go unsupervised as we still work closely on Skype or FaceTime instead of using a conference room or the phone. We find our productivity is much higher than an office environment and allows employees to have greater flexibility in their work schedules while eliminating commuting time and costs. The entire firm meets every other week on Skype to coordinate company-wide initiatives.
The majority of our clients are medical professionals (physicians, nurse practitioners, physician’s assistants, nurses and medical related staff). Our clients have spent decades perfecting their profession allowing little time to learn about investing and financial planning. We find they appreciate our expertise just as we do when we go to a doctor or hire a professional in another field.
Our entire firm culture understands the needs of family for both our employees and clients and the results of our growing business and employee/client proves that our model works.
What is “success” or “successful” for you?
We see success in two segments. First is having the privilege to employ people and provide personally rewarding jobs. Second is to help our clients meet goals that are important to them, whether it’s saving for retirement, getting children through college, paying for that dream wedding or caring for elderly parents. Our firm’s success has come through focusing on these two very basic items. Granted there is a lot of work that surrounds this, but any day we can make someone happy that feeling pervades the firm.
We had to sacrifice a lot in the beginning to earn this success, but we’re not greedy, we were willing to work hard to make both our employees and our clients happy.
Pricing:
- Our typical individual investor should have at least $500,000 of investable assets (not including employer retirement plans)
- Asset accumulators, typically over age 35, should be adding investments of $3-5,000 per month to accounts outside of their employer retirement plans and do not require the minimum asset level above.
- Our annual fees for assets over $1 million are .8%, under $1 million are 1%. These fees are charged to client accounts monthly
- Fees for our one-on-one consulting services are negotiated with employers but we typically charge an hourly fee plus expenses which are modicum of what most consulting firms charge.
Contact Info:
- Address: Paula Gorman, Marketing and Scheduling Manager
Financial Navigators, Inc.
11 Scott Road,
Littleton, MA 01460 - Website: www.financialnav.com
- Phone: 877.846.8792
- Email: info@financialnav.com
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