Client Pledge
This is our pledge to you:
Focus
We pledge to focus on your goals and your success. Every client is unique and has specific challenges, goals, and needs.
Simplicity
We pledge to simplify your financial life and to put your mind at ease about all of the decisions – great and small – that affect your financial future.
Plain Talk
We pledge to use straightforward language and ideas and to avoid the jargon and alphabet soup that finance wonks like to hide behind.
Read more about our Client Pledge
Our Customers
Andy – good intentions can lead to bad outcomes
Andy owns a small construction company of about 20 employees. During the recession, he made loans to his company to cover payroll and expenses, including his own salary. But Andy missed something and his accountant didn’t catch it. This turned out to be a costly disconnect resulting in higher taxes and higher spousal support. read more.
Karl – the cost of mixing business and pleasure
Karl was another contractor who also had about 20 employees, but ran his company as a sole proprietorship. He had a large cash balance in his company account, but he carried a lot of high interest loans for trucks and trailers, and also for personal items. The interest on his business items was deductible but not the personal items. So he was paying high interest rates on all that debt without some key tax advantages. read more.
Carla and Cindy
Carla and Cindy are mother and daughter. Carla’s husband had died decades earlier, and Cindy is now her only child and sole heir.
Carla had been bedridden for a few years, and had expensive, round-the-clock care. A CPA had been helping Carla for years, but then his own health faltered and he asked me to step in to untangle the complex financial issues that the family faced. read more.
Our Customers
Andy – good intentions can lead to bad outcomes
Andy owns a small construction company of about 20 employees. During the recession, he made loans to his company to cover payroll and expenses, including his own salary. But Andy missed something and his accountant didn’t catch it. This turned out to be a costly disconnect resulting in higher taxes and higher spousal support. read more.
Karl – the cost of mixing business and pleasure
Karl was another contractor who also had about 20 employees, but ran his company as a sole proprietorship. He had a large cash balance in his company account, but he carried a lot of high interest loans for trucks and trailers, and also for personal items. The interest on his business items was deductible but not the personal items. So he was paying high interest rates on all that debt without some key tax advantages. read more.
Carla and Cindy
Carla and Cindy are mother and daughter. Carla’s husband had died decades earlier, and Cindy is now her only child and sole heir.
Carla had been bedridden for a few years, and had expensive, round-the-clock care. A CPA had been helping Carla for years, but then his own health faltered and he asked me to step in to untangle the complex financial issues that the family faced. read more.
Jim Ward
Jim Ward, is a fee-only Certified Financial Planner®, Estate Planning and Elder Law Attorney, and Investment Adviser Representative under J Ward Financial Services, LLC, a Registered Investment Advisor.
In addition to his J.D. and CFP®, Jim also has his LL.M. law degree, – a post-graduate specialization degree in Estate Planning.
Jim’s diverse background, experience, and interests are why we can offer our clients a true interdisciplinary approach. That means Jim doesn’t suffer from the tunnel-vision that can occur with a narrower field of study of other financial planners or wealth managers.
Why is “fee-only” important? It means that Jim does not receive commissions or inducements from any outside financial services entities. He works for you and you alone.