Chart your path.

Every new day brings things we expect, and things we don’t. At Bridge, we want you to be ready for both. We will help you draw a financial roadmap to the future you want. A solid plan is one that delivers on expectations and accommodates the unexpected. We help families, business owners, and professionals shape their lives through smart investing, prudent tax planning, and mindful estate preparation. The future is out there. Plan for it, with Bridge.

Family on the Beach

Bridge Wealth Management

To get where you want to go, we have to know where you’re starting. At Bridge, your journey begins with a full appraisal of your assets, liabilities and goals. The more we know, the better your financial plan will be. We’ll ask you a lot of questions, size up your situation, then deliver a detailed roadmap that will guide you through the economy’s ups and downs and the market’s gyrations. History shows that every financial crisis has been an opportunity for those who kept a cool head. The key is to know how much risk you need to take to reach your goals, and how much you can tolerate. Your Bridge roadmap can keep you on track when the road gets rough.

Bridge
Investments

If you have read ‘Why Bridge’, you already know that we do not outsource our client’s investment needs.  Rather we choose to construct our portfolios in-house.  Gone are the days of picking a good company stock and holding on for the ride.  Today the marketplace is more dynamic, and so are your needs.  The Bridge portfolio is anchored in investment disciplines that provide real value.  We focus your portfolio where we can find value.

Diversification: You’ve heard the old adage, ‘don’t put all your eggs in one basket’. Spreading your risk in the marketplace is paramount.  That is why Bridge will always hold a globally diversified portfolio.  All investments are not equal, and making sure you have more than the S&P 500 in your portfolio is necessary.

Active where it counts: The debate between passive or active management continues, as pundits from both sides argue which strategy is best.  At Bridge, we prefer a hybrid approach.  We are passive within the most efficient markets, and more active where there is opportunity.  We don’t paint the investment world with a one-size-fits all brush.

Markets Move: What you do when the markets move is pivotal.  Do you panic, do you stay the course, do nothing?  We make changes when opportunity knocks.  We have a game plan when the markets misbehave, and that is NOT do nothing.  There are moments when investments give us a window of time to take advantage, and unfortunately these opportunities are erratic and unpredictable.  Our portfolio team is always ready.

Taxes Matter: The biggest detractors to performance are fees and taxes that you pay.  Our portfolios are constructed to reduce the tax drag on your investments.  It takes a lot of work to implement our tax-managed strategies, and if your portfolio strategy doesn’t speak to this, you are leaving money on the table.

Intrigued?  Have questions?  Feel free to reach out and dig a little deeper into our investment philosophy.

Bridge Advisory Infographics

A process
truly defined by you.

Personal Goals

Do you want to leave money to your children? Buy a vacation home? Give to charity? Beyond being comfortable in retirement, everyone’s goals are different. We’ll help you figure out how to reach your most important ones. You may be surprised what’s possible when you make a plan and stick to it. Interest compounds, stocks usually go up over time. We’ll help you figure out what’s possible and how to get there.

Retirement

In past decades, retirement meant pensions, Social Security, and savings accounts. It was easy. Now, retirement can be a complicated puzzle. It depends on 401ks, IRAs, annuities, and skillful use of insurance. Our most critical job at Bridge is to make sure our clients use all the pieces available to assemble a safe and prosperous retirement. They’re all out there. It’s just a matter of fitting them together.

Traditional methods for evaluating retirement are changing; we look at retirement in real time with you. We plan and evaluate scenarios before they happen. A retirement plan isn’t a coffee table book to be reviewed just once a year, and our dynamic planning process allows us to make adjustments and stay on track to help you reach your goals.

Investment Planning

A successful retirement requires skillful use of one precious resource: time. We start saving early so we have as much of it as possible. We diversity our portfolios because we don’t know which assets will grow fastest. Those are the basics. At Bridge, we mine your time horizon even better by rebalancing your portfolio at opportune times, not according to a formulaic schedule. History shows that when stocks drop, selling some bonds and buying more equities enhances returns. Markets move. Your portfolio allocations shouldn’t. And, like many investment managers, we like low-cost, passive funds that track stock indexes and bond baskets. But we step out and put money with active managers in special situations, like when we find one with a specific competitive or compelling advantage over their peers.

Diversification means more than diverse assets. You need diverse strategies, too. We like to be active when it counts. We make sure to rebalance portfolios when markets provide opportunities, not on a strict interval schedule as a machine. We also keep an eye on losses, which are bound to happen. Harvesting them for tax purposes can make losses useful over that precious commodity, time.

Cash Management

Part of solid financial plan is having enough cash on hand for emergencies, and making that cash work for you while it awaits an emergency that may never come. We will find you the best interest rates on savings accounts and short-term bonds. We’ll also help you develop a budget so you’ll always have enough cash on hand for unexpected, or spontaneous purchases. Debt is for things like real estate, college, or a car. Cash is best for emergency items that lenders charge more to finance.

Taxes

The tax code becomes more complicated every year. The last rewrite, in 2017, tangled the web even more. To hang on to the gains you make in the market–and to optimize your use of losses–our team pays close attention to your personal tax situation. We build a tax strategy into your portfolio and adapt it when necessary. We’ll work with your CPA and tax professionals if you have them already. If you don’t, our partners at The Accountancy can help. They handle personal taxes, business accounting, bill payment, and real estate matters for clients worldwide.

Estate Planning

Should you start a family foundation? Should you put your life insurance policy in a trust? Estate planning is an art these days, and it’s not just for the very rich. Every affluent person needs a plan. No one wants their estate to end up in probate court. We can help you with all these matters, and more. Estate planning is part of a wealth manager’s job. If it’s not, you’ve got the wrong wealth manager.

Insurance

No financial plan is complete without a thorough review of your risks and your insurance coverage. Insurance is a powerful tool, when used properly. We offers plans from the best companies. We can handle insurance for life, disability, and long-term care, as well as FOR health, property, auto and liability. Being under-insured can undermine the best-laid plans and the best-performing portfolios. We integrate insurance into your plan on day one and review it regularly to make sure it stays right.

Bridge Insurance*

Life is complicated.  Applying for life insurance shouldn’t be.  With our online system you can receive quotes in seconds and even apply online.

* Insurance quotes are provided using BackNine Insurance’s Quote & Apply tool. BackNine is an independent insurance agency and not affiliated with Bridge Advisory LLC. For more information on this relationship please reference Bridge Advisory’s ADV Part 2, which is available here or requesting a copy by contacting our office.