OUR SERVICES

Polaris Investment Advisors LLC's primary goal is to provide unbiased, honest and accurate financial advice. We are an independent firm, beholden to no one but our clients. Our compensation comes only from our clients and only so long as we continue to provide the service and excellence they expect. We put our client’s interest before our own, and work for them to find the answers they need while paying close attention to their costs, performance and the preservation of their wealth.

Within our client base are both institutions and individuals. The former can expect an enhanced level of reporting and accounting, as required by their boards and auditors.

For our individual clients, we provide a suite of services which can include Retirement Income Planning, guidance with their transition from work into retirement, analysis and recommendations with financial decisions about insurance or real estate transactions, tax advice, tax preparation and trust and estate planning.

Both receive the same disciplined investment management. Our portfolios match our client’s risk tolerance with their income needs, with an emphasis on minimizing risk. All accounts must comply with our proprietary investment models. These models are created to harvest the global economy with the least risk for any level of expected earnings. Big or small, client accounts are tested regularly against their models and periodically rebalanced to maintain tight standards of quality control. Our clients always know how they’re doing and how much risk is involved, because both are reported quarterly with meaningful comparisons to well-known benchmarks.

We welcome your interest in our firm and encourage you to read on into our website and call us for a confidential complementary consultation.

Investment Management

Polaris Investment Advisors manages client accounts using a process similar to that employed by pension consultants and the managers of endowment funds. Pension consultants help their clients construct portfolios to fund the pension payments they make to their pensioners. Endowment funds usually make similar distributions to fund charities. Both avoid speculation and focus on controlling risk and providing cash flow. Polaris has the same focus.

We begin by constructing model accounts, where different investment types are chosen to receive parts of our client’s accounts. We hold stocks for growth, bonds for income and cash for safety. Growth allows our clients to fund cost increases over time. Income pays for expenses today, and cash is used to avoid selling our investments during times of trouble. How much we hold of each determines how much risk a portfolio contains. We call this “risk profile” our “Investment Policy.”

With this overall investment “Policy” in place, we staff our portfolios with top rated money managers; usually in the form of mutual funds. Each is an expert in their investment type, such as Real Estate, Growth Stocks, or Bonds. We carefully scrutinize our managers to see how they have done in past markets, both up and down, review their ethical policies, understand their corporate culture, employee tenure and experience and apply our judgment to determine the likelihood they will continue to succeed for us.

A properly structured account should always have something that’s working and something that’s not. This is what’s meant by “balance.” It gives us someplace to look for our distributions no matter what cycle the investment markets are in. We call this process; “Harvesting the Global Economy.” It means we earn what the world economy has to offer, subject to the risk each individual client can bear.

Once a client’s account is structured and funded, it’s compared routinely against its model and rebalanced periodically. Models are changed slightly over time as market conditions warrant. When a model is changed, all the accounts using that model are changed. Large or small, all clients receive equal treatment.

Despite all this attention to minimizing risk, it cannot be completely eliminated. As we saw in 2002 and again in 2008, there are times of extreme duress when selling is so intense that we cannot convert our investments to cash at reasonable values. At such times, we must rely on our existing cash balances to fund our withdrawals. Understanding the process helps clients become comfortable that our accounts are designed to bend without breaking.

We are happy to meet with you to discuss how investment markets behaved during these times, how we did, and what level of risk would be appropriate for you.

Financial Planning

We provide Financial Planning services to our clients so they can enjoy the peace of mind of knowing they are on a path of financial security. We help them understand what level of spending is sustainable with a reasonable level of confidence, structure their accounts to support their withdrawals, and warn them of financial mistakes that could jeopardize their future.

When a client retires, they go from accumulating investments (typically in their 401k) to withdrawing funds to live on. This can be a dramatic change. It initiates a completely new risk; the risk their accounts can be depleted. It also amplifies the downside of stock market declines because withdrawals compound these losses. Since most clients are used to their accounts supported by regular contributions, many are unprepared for these amplified downward fluctuations. A more risk adverse investment policy is needed.

In addition, at retirement, clients are often faced with moving huge sums of money between accounts, dealing with esoteric benefits like options and restricted stock, and selecting distribution schemes for their pensions. With such big decisions comes the possibility of big mistakes.

To address these risks, Polaris Investment Advisors creates a Retirement Income Plan. In such a plan, we take inventory of all retirement benefits and devise a tax smart strategy to harvest their value. Next, we match a client’s spending needs against available sources of income, such as Pensions or Social Security. Shortfalls are made up through withdrawals from their IRAs or Investment accounts. The ultimate question is; does the client have enough assets, if managed prudently and productively, to live out their life in financial security?

A well-developed plan is a benchmark that can be used throughout retirement to:

Determine the ability of a portfolio to support planned withdrawals.
Compare planned withdrawals against actual withdrawals, quickly identifying budgetary problems before they become severe.
Illustrate the need for Life or Long Term Care Insurance.
Illustrate strategies to minimize income taxes.
Provide the basis for a well-structured Estate Plan.

Our Retirement Income Plans become the framework for prudently and effectively utilizing the resources our clients have built up over their working careers.

Tax Services

Estate Planning

A well planned estate is a gift to you children!

Polaris Investment Advisors helps clients understand and envision what they leave their heirs. Whether it’s about their medical care as they age, or to help them achieve the desired distribution of their wealth when they pass away, spelling it out in an estate plan is essential.

We know it’s unpleasant to think about our own demise. We like to compare it to bringing an umbrella to the picnic. We know if we have it, we probably won’t need it, but if we leave it behind, it very well might rain! Our well planned estate gets one more hassle taken care of, leaving us free to enjoy the rest of our life.

Through numerous devices such as wills and trusts, we can avoid the cost of probate, minimize death taxes, protect our heirs from lawsuits and divorce, and keep our private financial affairs out of the public realm. With Long Term Care Insurance, medical care directives and a living will, we can fund our own custodial needs and tell our loved ones our wishes for our final days.

Polaris Investment Advisors works with many local estate attorneys and insurance agents to be the coordinator and interpreter for these services. We understand and recognize the needs, recommend a basic set of solutions and follow up to implement the legal work when it’s complete.

Institutional Services

With a long, strong finance and accounting background, Polaris Investment Advisors is comfortable reporting to committees and auditors. We utilize robust and timely Portfolio Accounting Systems to create the performance, transaction, asset allocation and other reports you might require. We are comfortable presenting and educating your board about what we are doing and why.

Through our custodian; Fidelity Investments, we provide cash management services, bonding, custody, DTC, EFT and wire transfer services, FOREX transactions, access to global trading floors, tax reporting, and an extensive inventory of fixed income securities. Similar arrangements are available at other custodians, if required.

If you have any special requirements, call us to discuss them. We are not averse to tailoring your services to meet your needs.