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CNBC names Regency as Number 10 on its List of Top 100 Fee-Only Wealth Management Firms

Chris Comstock

The CNBC Digital editorial team has named Fresno-based Regency Investment Advisors as Number 10 on its list of Top 100 Fee-Only Wealth Management Firms in the United States.

Regency is the only wealth-management firm in California’s Cen-tral Valley to make the list, and is one of only 14 California firms to be included in CNBC’s Top 100 list. CNBC released the list online May 14, 2014.

“At Regency, we decided more than two decades ago that the best way to help our customers invest was not by selling investment products on commission, but rather by building relationships with our customers… by finding a way to be on the same side as the investors,” said Daniel Ray, CFP®, President and Client Advisor at Regency Investment Advisors.

“For Regency, reaching the Top 10 of CNBC’s Top 100 Firms list is

a great validation of all of our hard work on behalf of our clients,” added Stephen Guinn, CIMA®, AIFA®, Vice President and Client Advisor at Regency Investment Advisors. “We are thankful to all of our clients for helping Regency get there.” To create the list, the CNBC team calculated scores for different measures that were weighted according to a proprietary formula and subsequently applied to the Meridian IQ database of all Reg-istered Investment Advisers. These measures included number and growth of assets under management, number of staff with professional designations, number of advisory clients, average account size, client segmentation, years in business and ability to provide advice on insurance solutions.

To learn more about CNBC’s Top 100 Fee-Only Wealth Manage-ment Firms in the United States, visit the CNBC website at http://www.cnbc.com/id/101633740.

With the latter days of summer here, it’s only natural that people start thinking about school. For many, thoughts of the back-to-school season spurs thoughts not only of school supplies and extracurriculars, but also of higher education and the expenses involved, even if their children are still many years away from col-lege.

“It’s only natural that parents think of edu-cation funding at this time of year,” said Chris Comstock, CFP®, AIF® at Regency Investment Advisors. “But honestly, for most investors education funding should not be the first priority.”

Wait a minute. What was that?

“When they arrive your children become your emotional priority, and rightfully so,” Chris said. “The Ameri-can Dream for many parents is that their children go on to college and move into enterprising roles in the workforce, so when kids arrive we have a natural tendency to shift our financial resources toward them and away from our retirement goals.

Education is a worthy goal. But fund your retirement first.“This just illustrates the reality that most investors have multiple goals, and among those might be retirement, education, travel, a dream home, or more,” Chris added. “But from a priority stand-point and out of all of those goals, for most people saving for retirement should remain the top priority.” Wow. You’re sure about this, Chris?

“Yes. It might feel like it’s going against your other goals, but for a number of reasons and while taking all goals into account, most people should focus their financial energy on saving for retire-ment first and foremost,” Chris stated.

Exploring the counter-intuitive

Regency Investment Advisors takes great pride in its holistic approach to financial planning. But when investors are trying to reach multiple goals the concept of prioritization not only becomes important, but necessary. It’s a question of examining each goal and the tools that can be used to reach that goal, and deploying those tools in a way intended to accomplish the great-est number of those goals while preserving flexibility.

August 2014

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Regency Market Commentary: Through July 31, 2014Key Indexes Source: Morningstar

Year to

date

1 yr 3 yr 5 yr 10 yr 20 yr

Annualized returnsDJ Industrial Average – Large Cap 1.20 9.39 13.81 15.54 7.77 10.18

S&P 500 – Large Cap 5.66 16.94 16.84 16.79 8.00 9.53

Russell 2000 – Small Cap -3.06 8.56 13.59 16.56 8.78 9.38

MSCI EAFE – Foreign Large Cap 2.72 15.07 7.96 9.40 7.07 5.33

Barclays US Aggregate – Bonds 3.66 3.97 3.04 4.47 4.80 6.04

USTREAS 3-Month T-Bills 0.03 0.07 0.07 0.09 1.54 2.77

IA SBBI US Inflation 2.18 1.94 1.77 2.03 2.32 2.39For years, the stock market has given investors a smooth, steady ride up, helping them recover from the huge losses in the bear market of 2008 and early 2009.

However, experienced investors understand that markets cannot move straight up forever, and recently, the stock market finally reminded investors that it occasionally hits pockets of turbulence.

This market turbulence can serve as a wake-up call to complacent investors to look at their portfolios and make sure they are posi-tioned in a way they can be comfortable with, no matter how the market moves in the future.

Equities, as measured by the S&P 500, have performed well year-to-date with a 5.66 percent return through July. While this cer-tainly falls short of the 32 percent gain for the S&P 500 in 2013, we feel it is a more normal environment for equities.

For other asset classes, 2014 has been a different story. While com-modities, real estate, bonds and emerging market equities were a drag on returns last year, they have made positive contributions in 2014. Real estate and emerging market equities gained 12.68 percent and 8.19 percent year-to date, respectively. Bonds, both taxable and municipals, have turned the 2013 frowns upside down with 3.66 percent and 6.18 percent returns through July.

Volatility reaching lows

Another curious note about market per-formance over the past 6½ years is the decline in volatility as measured by the Chicago Board of Options Exchange Mar-ket Volatility Index or VIX. The chart at right shows the dramatic increases in the third quarter of 2008 and the summer of 2011. But, we also notice a decline since 2011 to historic lows.

According to analysts at J.P. Morgan, measured volatility is reaching lows not seen in three decades. They say:

At the level of the overall indices within the market, the dispersion of returns between different stocks was the lowest we have seen in almost 30 years. This benign environment was

supported by unmistakable signs of a reacceleration in the U.S. economy, with both macro data points and anecdotal evidence from a host of company management teams all con-firming the trend.

From an economic perspective, the outlook is continuing to improve. The GDP report for the second quarter was better than expected with headline GDP growing 4 percent. Additionally, the first-quarter contraction was revised to a considerably smaller con-traction. Employment growth continued with 209,000 jobs added in July, a bit lower than the 298,000 for June.

The Federal Reserve is continuing to taper its quantitative easing (QE) program, reducing it to $25 billion monthly as of August 2014. Expectations are for an interest-rate increase to arrive in mid-2015. While we know a rate increase is inevitable, we believe the Fed will be both cautious and measured.

Markets will always go up and down. Due to this fact, it is imper-ative investors focus on the long-term and allow Father Time to smooth the short-term fluctuations. At Regency, we focus on long-term performance and diversify our portfolios across multiple asset classes to help our clients reach their goals in the most pru-dent manner possible.

Past performance is not indicative of future results and inherent in any investment in the market is a possibility of loss

Chicago Board of Options Exchange Market Volatility Index (VIX)

Source: Morningstar

August 2014

Marion Karian set out to fill a need.

A genetics nurse working the maternity ward at Valley Medical Center in the mid-1970s, Marion would see families filled with joy and anticipation over the arrival of a new child. But she would also bear witness to families experiencing grief and despair, because their child had been born with a developmental delay or a disability. Back then, such children were referred to as “children with exception-alities,” and typically, families of such children were sent home, left to secure their own resources and find their own paths under difficult and emotional circumstances.

Marion knew instinctively that those parents needed more support than just the medical care the hospital provided. They needed to overcome despair by sharing their experiences with other families on similar journeys. They needed access to pro-fessionals experienced with the “exceptionalities” their children faced. And they needed to find ways to work past the limits placed on them by the arrival of a special-needs child.

So Marion approached Valley Medical Center administration and asked if they would devote some space for a support group she was putting together for these “exceptional parents.” The administrators agreed, and Exceptional Parents Unlimited came into a humble beginning.

From Tens to Thousands

It started small, initially serving a small group of fewer than 10 families of children with Down syndrome. But nearly four decades later, that support group called Exceptional Parents Unlimited has evolved into the EPU Children’s Center, an organi-zation recognized as a national leader in providing and promot-ing comprehensive, family-centered early childhood interven-tion services. EPU provides these services dealing with a wide variety of special needs to more than 4,000 families annually.

“Marion never intended to open up her own organization, or to become the Executive Director of a nonprofit agency,” said Kathleen Price, Development Director for EPU. “But over the last 38 years and in direct response to needs expressed by the diverse communities we serve, EPU has grown. Today we run six different community programs -- really vital community pro-grams for parents and families of all cultures who would be less likely to receive that help without us.”

The EPU Children’s Center is not simply a referral network, or a clearinghouse for services. And it’s no longer strictly about developmental challenges discovered at birth. “When EPU started we were an organization meant to meet the needs of children born with developmental delays or disabilities,” Price said. “Today we go into homes and we see a multitude of cri-ses -- poverty, domestic violence, food or housing insecurity,

EPU Children’s Center: Growing organically, by community requestmalnourishment, neglect, drug abuse -- all environmental fac-tors that are just as devastating in creating developmental delays in the brain of a young child.”

“The needs in families are changing and becoming deeper, more complicated, more multifaceted, and more urgent,” Price added. “From Marion’s humble support group, EPU has grown organically to meet those needs.”

With a staff of more than 100 therapists and early childhood specialists, EPU is a direct provider of “hands-on services -- edu-cation, training, parent support groups and transportation cov-ering the more than 6,000 square miles of Fresno County,” Price said. “Additionally, we provide these resources for 10 counties throughout central California. We’re one of six National Par-ent Centers of Excellence, and we’re unique in that all of these resources for families are under one roof.”

Sources of Support

The EPU Children’s Center campus (located at First and Gettys-burg in Fresno) provides services to approximately 800 children and family members each week, all at no cost to the families. So how does EPU accomplish all of this? In addition to receiving support from First 5, Fresno County, the Central Valley Regional Center and other agencies, EPU also seeks out donations of pro-fessional expertise through in-kind relationships, and has sev-eral standing volunteer committees that help spread the word about EPU’s community work.

EPU also supports itself through community outreach and through its annual signature fundraiser, the Fiesta de los Niños. Open to the public, the next Fiesta is scheduled June 20, 2015, at the Park at Park Place at Palm and Nees in Fresno. “It’ll be our 25th annual Fiesta, and we’ll bring together dancers from Ballet Folklorico, our one-of-a-kind silent and live auction, and a traditional Spanish dinner for a beautiful celebration along the river bluff under the stars,” Price said.

So what does the future hold? “Our mission is big and our impact is deep, so we’ll continue to address the changing needs of families in Fresno County, especially as those needs become more complicated,” Price said. For more information or to get involved, visit the EPU Children’s Center website at www.epuchildren.org or contact Development Director Kath-leen Price at (559) 229-2000 or kprice@epuchildren.org.

From time to time FOCUS 360 will include profiles of people and organizations making a dif-ference in our community. It is not known whether those pro-filed approve or disapprove of Regency Investment Advisors or its advisory services pro-vided. This article reflects the opinions of those interviewed, and should not be taken as a request for you to donate to any particular organization.

Marion Karian

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Take the goal of education, for example. For many, implementa-tion of a 529 plan is a great option that can provide tax advan-tages when saving for educational expenses. But taking a holistic approach to one’s financial life means recognizing the limitations of the tools available. “A 529 is designed for education only, and as a result cannot be utilized for other goals without incurring penalties,” Chris said. “That doesn’t make them a bad tool at all, mind you, but it does mean their flexibility is limited, and as such an investor with multiple goals wouldn’t want to make the 529 their first priority.”

Chris believes that with a holistic approach, investors can take fuller advantage of the tools and strategies available while still preserving flexibility. “For most people, prioritizing retirement saving simply preserves more flexibility, and can perhaps provide a better result overall in your financial picture than focusing early on education.”

For many, one tangible example of that “better result” appears in their company’s 401(k) plan. “For those who have a company match in their 401(k), it can be to their advantage to maximize their contributions to that plan to maximize the match and build the balance earlier,” Chris said. “A higher balance earlier in any sort of retirement account helps the individual to take advan-tage of the time value of money and the effects of compound-ing. The sooner an investor can accumulate enough assets to feel

confident about their primary goal, the more flexibility they will have in reaching those secondary goals.”

Finally, even with a cohesive strategy in place, it’s always possible that some circumstance can come along that prevents an indi-vidual from funding the pursuit of multiple goals. Chris said that this possibility makes it even more important that people make saving for retirement the priority.

“Let’s face it. If all else fails, there are still plenty of ways to fund a higher education – student loans, scholarships, 529s funded by grandparents and other relatives, and more,” Chris said. “But with retirement, there really is no backup. There’s no such thing as a ‘retirement loan,’ Social Security benefits are quite limited, and with the shift away from pensions we really need to make sure we’re setting aside for our future needs.”

A Matter of Focus

To Chris, the question boils down to a matter of prioritization. “If funding your child’s education is one of your goals, then of course we’ll take a holistic approach in incorporating that into your over-all plan,” he said. “But if you really want to put your children into the best position, you want to prioritize your goals so that you are financially independent in retirement. By doing this, you can give your children one of the greatest gifts you can give to your children: ensuring they can devote their own assets toward their own goals.”

For more information, or a look at how Regency can help you to reach multiple long-term goals, contact your Regency Advisor at (559) 438-2640.

Continued from Page 1:Education is worthy, but retirement should come first