What We Do

In Medieval France, noble households often assigned the management of domestic affairs to the seneschal. Acting as the manager and the protector of the estate, the role of the seneschal was to serve and advise the owner, always placing his master’s interests ahead of his own. Today, the English language equivalent of seneschal is steward. Like the medieval French seneschal, we truly do see ourselves as stewards of our client’s estates with a fiduciary duty to put their interests first. Our name says it all.

IT STARTS WITH YOU

What are your financial goals? What are your life goals? Even before we begin any kind of financial analysis or planning, we take time to listen to your story. Based upon your priorities, we build a complete financial profile for you. After exploring and clarifying your long-term goals, we’ll begin a comprehensive information-gathering process that brings your financial picture into focus.

STRATEGY DEVELOPMENT

Our next step is to compile and analyze the information gathered in the initial phase of our work together in order to create a composite picture of your current and future financial situation. Using long term financial modeling, we project your future cash flow and net worth and draw some preliminary conclusions about the feasibility of achieving your long-term goals and provide you with a preliminary assessment, including a simple statement of indicated strategic directions.

Plan Implementation

Based on our preliminary assessment and recommendations, we develop a written action plan to accomplish your goals. We support you in taking action – coordinating with your attorney, accountant, broker or insurance agent – to implement the plan. We provide quarterly financial updates and meet with you to monitor your progress towards your goals. We also provide continuous support in response to questions or issues that arise between quarterly reviews.

Annual Review

Each year on the anniversary of your engagement with Seneschal Advisors, LLC, we conduct a comprehensive review of progress toward your goals. Changes may have occurred in your thinking, your life’s circumstances, or in the financial markets. We review everything that has changed, analyze the progress to date, and update your action plan accordingly. Most importantly, we celebrate the successes you’re experiencing as you align your financial decisions with your life goals.

Client Communication

We report out quarterly, keeping you up-to-date on your financial plan and progress, meet and engage with you regularly, and outline next steps toward achieving your short and long term goals.

IT STARTS WITH YOU

STRATEGY DEVELOPMENT

Plan Implementation

Client Communication

We report out quarterly, keeping you up-to-date on your financial plan and progress, meet and engage with you regularly, and outline next steps toward achieving your short and long term goals.

Annual Review

And then we do it again!

After we communicate your plan's performance with you, we re-evaluate your strategy and implement any necessary changes, beginning the process again.

Planning for Life’s Transitions

Psychologists tell us that going through transitions are stressful. The death of a spouse, a divorce, or retirement can be so emotional that good decision-making can and is compromised. Our focus is to inform and educate you to help you make good financial decisions under conditions of uncertainty and avoid mistakes.

Retirement / Financial Independence

Financial independence is the foundational goal of financial planning. Without it you are not likely to be able to accomplish other important life goals. Our process is designed to show you the way forward to a retirement that is financially secure and personally rewarding.

INHERITANCE

Sudden wealth can be a blessing. Or, in some cases, it can be a curse. As in dealing with other transitions in life, knowing what to do and understanding how our decision-making is sometimes compromised by sudden wealth can help you take the important steps to make your inheritance a true blessing.

Death of a spouse

The death of a spouse is one of the most stressful transitions in life. At a time when you are most vulnerable you must face important and difficult decisions. Few of us have the emotional strength to make important decisions in the midst of grieving the loss of a spouse. Our goal is to walk with you through this difficult period, guiding you through the maze of decisions you need to make and around the inevitable obstacles you face.

Divorce

Like the death of a spouse, a divorce is among the most stressful transitions in life. Moreover, it is a unique transition with its own set of financial issues and decisions that most people find themselves ill-equipped to address without help. We can help you navigate the complex financial landscape of divorce, taking some of the pressure off of you when you need it the most.

Business Succession

Business owners are a different breed. They spend the better part of their lives taking risks and investing capital in creating an enterprise that is a part of themselves. When it comes time to retire the issues faced by a business owner are unique and much more complex than for a non-owner. How do you realize the wealth you have accumulated in your business? Will your future financial independence be truly independent of the business? How do you incorporate what is good for the business into an estate plan that is good for you and your family? These are some of the questions that we address when dealing with the transition of ownership of a closely-held business.

Managing Family Wealth

Wealth management is a family affair. It is a comprehensive undertaking that pulls together all of the diverse pieces of financial planning: Cash flow, risk management, investments, and estate planning. And, because it is comprehensive by nature, it is also complex. Our Comprehensive Wealth Management service brings all of these individual planning areas together. We help you build a custom plan and implement it in collaboration with your other professional advisors.

PORTFOLIO DESIGN & OVERSIGHT*

Portfolio management is a two dimensional process. Unfortunately, too many investors focus only on one dimension: Return. Our portfolio design process is grounded in modern portfolio theory and focuses on optimizing the trade-off between Risk and Return. We work with you to define an asset allocation policy to achieve the return that you need to reach your long-term financial planning goals while taking the least risk necessary. Moreover, we help you implement and monitor your portfolio on an on-going basis to make sure you are on track.

ASSET PROTECTION / RISK MANAGEMENT

Risk is an ever-present factor in financial planning. Ignoring it or wishing it away can be hazardous to your wealth. Some of the best-laid financial plans can be undone by unexpected risks. To help you address and deal with the risks to your financial security we “stress test” the plans that we help our clients develop. As a result, you are able to make informed decisions about how much risk to assume and how much to lay-off to an insurance company.

LIABILITY MANAGEMENT

Many people have accumulated wealth through the prudent use of leverage. For those who have, financial planning becomes as much about managing the liability side of the balance sheet as about managing assets. Knowing when and how to refinance or restructure debt, and reallocating assets to secure or pay-down debt is part of our Comprehensive Wealth Management service.

CASH FLOW MANAGEMENT

Liquidity is integral to financial planning. Without sufficient cash flow it is not likely that other important goals will be achieved. We help you deal with the necessity to plan in advance for cash needs and develop a plan to meet them efficiently and tax effctively.

TAX PLANNING

While we are not an accounting firm, we do incorporate tax planning into our Comprehensive Wealth Management service. Our goal is to integrate the multiple pieces of your financial plan so that in combination your income tax costs are managed.

ESTATE PLANNING

Traditional estate planning is focused on what we don’t want to happen – taxes – rather than on what we do want to happen – preserving and passing on wealth. The potential for preserving wealth through multiple generations lies in tying it to something larger than money itself. We help you put wealth in the context of a shared purpose – creating a sense of family legacy – and develop the plans to achieve that purpose while minimizing transfer taxes.

*Please remember that different types of investments involve varying degrees of risk, and there can be no assurance that any specific investment will either be suitable or profitable for a client or prospective client's investment portfolio.

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