Our first meeting with a potential client is an interesting experience.  Whether they are already working with someone or not, they almost always have an expectation of the questions they think we’ll ask:

• How much money do you have?

• What types of accounts do you own?

• How much money do you make?

They are often surprised that these questions rarely come up in the first meeting.

It’s not because the numbers aren’t important.  Of course they are.

They’re just not where we want to start.

Have you ever had incorrect expectations with an upcoming event?

Maybe it was that family vacation that wasn’t on the top of your bucket list, but you booked it because everyone else wanted to go.  It just so happened to be the vacation that also booked some fantastic core family memories - leaving you surprised and thankful you went.

Sometimes the experiences we expect and the experiences we actually have are very different.

Those are the feelings we want our first-timers to experience with us.  We want them to feel heard, understood, and valued.  We want them to leave thinking differently about what a relationship with a financial advisor could look like.

Because that doesn’t happen when the focus is on your money.  

It happens when the focus is on you. 

Your values.  

The people most important to you.  

The impact you want to have on them.

Knowing your financial life is important, but more important is what you want it to do for you and the people you love.  

The numbers can tell us what you have.  They can’t tell us what it’s for.  That requires a conversation.

At Tandem, we begin with your most important values and work to weave them into the conversations and decisions that follow.  Because an investment account, business, piece of real estate, or retirement plan has very little meaning by itself.

Its meaning comes from what you hope it will allow you to do.

Maybe that’s creating freedom, or taking care of family, or building something that lasts beyond you, or giving generously.

That’s why we don’t believe financial planning begins with money.

It begins with you.

Because if it’s not about what’s important to you, then what is it really about?