Our Services

Osgood & Associates provides the following quality services to our clients:

COMPREHENSIVE FINANCIAL PLANNING

Your financial situation is comprised of a number of interrelated moving parts. Unlike many other firms, we provide a comprehensive and holistic approach to financial planning. Our review of your financial goals and objectives will typically include such areas as estate planning, retirement, investments, insurance, stock options and other employee benefit plans, cash flow modeling, income taxation and education funding. Our financial plans are designed to provide specific advice and action steps that can be implemented either through our firm or your existing professional advisors.

INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT

As an independent Registered Investment Advisor, providing high quality wealth management services to our clients is the mainstay of our firm. By accepting only asset-based fees for investment management rather than commissions, our firm remains completely objective in rendering investment advice and services to our clients. The overriding principle which guides all of our actions is our responsibility to our clients. Stock brokers, commission-based financial planners, and other purveyors of financial products are often faced with tremendous pressure to first serve their own needs or the needs of their employers. True objectivity is what our clients demand and that is exactly what they get. Our independence enables us to select world-class partners in the joint duty of managing our clients’ money. O&A concentrates on our clients’ financial planning issues and the allocation of our client’s assets, and sub-contracts the duties of individual security selection to partners that range from global powerhouses like Nuveen and Goldman Sachs to specialty boutiques like Lotsoff and Awad.. In addition, our ongoing relationship with institutions such as Fidelity Investments enable our clients to enjoy substantial economies of scale in asset trading and custodial services. O&A’s clients are considered “institutional” clients with these partners, and we strongly believe that the combined breadth and cost effectiveness available from this method of building balanced, global portfolios is unmatched by any single service provider.

RETIREMENT PLANNING

Retirement can be a stressful time for many individuals, as they make the transition from the working to the non-working world. Many decisions must be made prior to retirement, including planning for such items as company retirement plans and annuities, IRA rollovers, nonqualified deferred compensation, stock options and restricted stock, and health & life insurance needs, not to mention the all-important question of “where will my paycheck come from now?”. We are experts at planning for this important life event, and can assist you with the important decisions that must be made both before and during retirement.

ESTATE, TRUST AND GIFT PLANNING

The current U.S. estate and gift tax system is quite complex. For many affluent individuals, the estate tax will claim a large portion of their net worth upon death….for some types of assets the effective tax rate can climb as high as 80%! Failure to adequately structure your estate plan can drastically reduce the portion of your wealth that will ultimately benefit your heirs. Some individuals are surprised to discover that their estate is large enough to trigger death taxes, as the current estate tax system includes some not-so-intuitive assets such as insurance proceeds, survivorship annuities and personal residences as part of an individual’s taxable estate. We are experts at implementing time-tested estate tax reduction strategies for our clients, utilizing instruments such as revocable and irrevocable trusts, charitable and family gifting plans, and family limited partnerships. We have strong relationships with a number of local estate attorneys to provide our clients with the appropriate legal documents at discounted fees.

TAX CONSULTING AND COMPLIANCE

Income taxes are the single largest expense that most high net worth individuals face. Further, the maze of ever-changing tax legislation and mandatory compliance proves to be a confusing headache for many affluent individuals. Unlike many other firms that shy away from tax advice, we feel that taxes are an integral part of your complete financial picture and as such must be monitored and controlled as much as possible. We therefore provide extensive tax planning and high quality tax compliance services to our clients on a regular basis.

INSURANCE PLANNING

Insurance needs vary by individual, and must be addressed in any well-designed financial plan. As Group 1 licensed insurance providers, we can assist you with obtaining cost-effective life, health, disability and long-term care insurance. We feel that being able to provide quality insurance products to our clients from a number of competing carriers ultimately results in our clients obtaining the best coverage to satisfy their risk management needs. Providing low-cost insurance coverage is certainly incidental to our practice’s major focus of providing financial planning & investment management services. We view our primary role in this area as planners and facilitators only, and strongly encourage our clients to shop around for the best available coverage. We are NOT insurance salesmen! We DO NOT and WILL NOT push insurance products on our clients.

Whether your needs fall into all of the above categories or just one, our team of dedicated professionals are available to assist you with your financial needs. Our team of qualified professionals includes individuals with many highly regarded professional designations, including Certified Public Accountant (CPA), Certified Financial Planner (CFP®), and Personal Financial Specialist (PFS).