All of us have experienced buyer’s remorse at some point in our lives. We’ve heard that voice in our heads asking us if we really need to buy that $1,000 watch or if we had just held onto our old car for one more year rather than splurging on a new one. It’s the kind of feeling that can be overwhelming in its experience. What we must understand is that it is a completely natural response to a world that is full of uncertainty, confusion, and chaos.
In the world of today, wealth plays an important role in our lives. From dawn to dusk, from lifestyle to entertainment, everything has a specific price to it. No wonder most of our daily efforts are directed towards accumulating and saving wealth. Contrary to popular belief it is not greed that drives us, but an idea of providing a good quality of life for ourselves, our families, and our future generations. It is therefore important that the wealth we earn and save should be taken care of properly and professionally.
This is where wealth managers come in – to provide us with the best possible advice and direction in order to take care of our wealth portfolio. This is why it is crucial to consider hiring experienced professionals. They chalk out our financial standing, analyze our financial strengths and weaknesses and segregate our finances to better position us in meeting our current financial needs and long-term goals.
To do that, a wealth manager has to put their clients’ goals ahead of their own. For Nicholas Sergio, Founder & Chief Investment Officer at Banyan Wealth and Financial Advisor with Raymond James, lack of clarity has never been a problem. For him and his team, it starts with understanding what their clients actually want. “We examine our client’s financial health and then tailor their portfolio to meet their desire to live the life they love. Our WHY Wealth Building Process™ begins with understanding their “why” in life – having a transparent discussion about their unique needs and both short- and long-term goals. With this understanding clearly defined, we collaborate with them to develop a personal financial roadmap that we implement and refine over time as their life matures and changes,” says Nick while describing their approach.
This year, the world has changed immensely — the way we live, the way we look, the way we work. For someone with long-term financial goals, the steady stream of information about the chaos this pandemic has inflicted upon us has left many disillusioned. Never before have we experienced stress this expansive and threatening. But when we factor in a global health crisis, it adds emotional and physical stress and removes many coping mechanisms. Losing our hobby or a familiar routine is enough to provoke panic and a sense of grief, but nothing is as profound as the loss of connection with other people, of all the nuance and support of in-person interaction. For Nick and the Banyan Wealth team, it was important to alleviate some of their clients’ stress. “Through the pandemic, we made the choice that we were going to remain open and be available to provide comfort and investment knowledge. Our goal was to have our clients take care of their families and their health while we took expert care of their financial well-being. Seven days a week for months we were available to lend our comforting voices and knowledge.”
At a time when making a decision as simple as seeing a friend feels a lot like being forced to choose between your physical and mental health, removing the added stress of financial uncertainty became a priority for the wealth managers at Banyan Wealth. “Besides never closing and having our clients experience some normalcy in their daily lives through uninterrupted access to our team, we were able to continue servicing our clients and discuss their portfolios in light of deep market dislocations. With our access to over 40 years of data for every major historical disruptive market event, we felt well positioned to make timely and educated investment decisions. It was our job to filter out the pain throughout the world and focus on our client’s financial well-being. We spent hours upon hours educating our clients on the difference between a transitory event like the Pandemic and a structural event such as the Financial Crisis. We evaluated response times and stimulus breakdowns between the two events and how markets may respond in the coming months and years. It was important to us that we provide such knowledge and education to our clients in an effort to provide much-needed clarity, comfort, and calmness in an otherwise chaotic and dark period for everyone,” says Nick when describing his team’s response.
“We examine our client’s financial health and then tailor their portfolio to meet their desire to live the life they love. Our WHY Wealth Building Process™ begins with understanding their “why” in life - having a transparent discussion about their unique needs and both short- and long-term goals. With this understanding clearly defined, we collaborate with them to develop a personal financial roadmap that we implement and refine over time as their life matures and changes”
Wanting more, that’s Why
Starting a business, before anything else, requires passion. There is a passion all around us, just waiting to be expressed. Sometimes, that passion comes from looking at existing businesses and thinking about how they could be improved. For the passionate, today’s best is tomorrow’s baseline. It is this passion of wanting more, to do a better job, to provide the best service that is something that makes entrepreneurs wake up in the morning. For Nick, it was this want, this desire to give more to his clients that made him choose the long and arduous path that is wealth management. “I started this business to break away from the mediocracy that is often delivered to clients; the constant product pushing, salesmen-like approach to wealth management that is so pervasive in the industry. I wanted to deliver more, deliver better, and operate a wealth management practice where mediocracy was a dirty word. My goal from the onset was to provide a care-based wealth management and financial planning experience that was truly client-focused and tailored to their needs – one that they deserve. Banyan Wealth was founded on this vision. One that wasn’t clouded in overly complex terms and investment ambiguities, but with a simple and clear commitment to empowering our clients with the experience, tools, and knowledge to live the life they love. Delivered without compromise and precisely aligned with their financial vision of tomorrow,” elucidates Nick.
Why? Because the future is important
One lesson that all of us have been taught in the past year is that the future remains uncertain. As wealth managers come up for air after an immensely volatile year, it would be advisable for them to pay heed to the challenges they will need to face in the future. The current digital wealth experience is simply not meeting the expectations of today’s investors who want holistic, on-demand, and integrated financial advice.
In addition, a generation of younger clients who are used to getting a taxi with the touch of their phones wants the same experience out of their financial advice. It’s got to be an on-demand, multichannel engagement, without losing the human touch which investors desire. Technology is not a panacea, nor is AI a replacement for human engagement. “We are living in a technology revolution that’s reshaping the world around us. At Banyan Wealth, we are focused on delivering a better digital experience while also maintaining the highly personal experience our clients have come to expect from us. There’s a delicate balance that needs to be maintained between the two experiences. Clients will always want to hear a live voice, a voice of reason and calmness, whether in person during an office visit or on the other side of a Zoom session, phone call, or next tech innovation. Investing is an emotional experience and we are here to provide the confidence and calm that our clients want, regardless of what platform they prefer,” says Nick while describing how Banyan Wealth is ready for the future of wealth management.
Fulfilling dreams, that’s Why
Contrary to some politicians and philosophers, there is nothing inherently bad or evil about accumulating and increasing one’s wealth. It can give us confidence, improve our energy, and most importantly, make us more effective. As more of our needs are taken care of, we begin to think of how we can help others. Not only helping others, but our example of helping can rub off upon others and encourage them to do the same. “Our aspirations are very simple – to build on our success while always keeping our client’s needs and goals in mind. To continue to evolve as a wealth management and financial planning firm and to deliver a transparent, honest, and better client experience – empowering our clients and their families with the ability to live the life they love,” finishes Nick.
Empowering ourselves and others, that is what wealth is.
Banyan Wealth is located at 11 Wharf Ave C-2, Red Bank, NJ 07701 (732-747-8540). Securities offered through Raymond James Financial Services, Inc., member FINRA/SIPC. Investment advisory services are offered through Raymond James Financial Services Advisors, Inc. Banyan Wealth is not a registered broker/dealer and is independent of Raymond James Financial Services.
