CLIENT resources

River Wealth Advisors' Currents Newsletter

The advisors at River Wealth are committed to enriching investors by sharing their insights and understanding of the market by regularly publishing the quarterly Currents Newsletter.

INSIDE THIS ISSUE - SUMMER 2019

River Views: Sharing Our Perspectives on the Market
So Much More Than Investing
Good Things Come in Threes
Leadership in Our Community
Our Commitment to Giving Back
Here’s What You Said
Track the Performance of Your Investments On-The-Go

Feedback from our 2019 Client Satisfaction Survey tells us that while our clients appreciate our typical recap of market changes and impact on investments from the previous quarter, you are more interested in understanding River Wealth Advisors’ position and investment strategy as it pertains to what is happening in the market. We heard you and have developed a communication plan to supplement our in-person investment review conversations to keep you more connected to market events that could impact your portfolio, as well as provide you greater insight into how we manage your investments to drive long-term financial growth. Here’s what you can expect going forward:

• Expanded access to our assessment of market conditions and the range of forecasts analysts and economists are anticipating

• Our analysis of material market changes posted to our website and pushed out through the client portal, including insight into how these changes might affect current investment strategies being pursued at River Wealth Advisors

• Our analysis of periodic investment fads and the peril of chasing returns

• Outreach to specific clients when a significant activity occurs within their portfolio

With nearly five months now behind us in 2019, we are generally seeing stabilization across the global economy, despite the uncertainty surrounding trade. The U.S. economy is particularly strong, with continued low interest rates, low unemployment numbers, and earnings beating expectations. We have recovered from the latter half of 2018 and the U.S. government shutdown in early 2019, and are looking for ongoing economic stability in the months to come.

Our Investment Committee meets monthly to review target portfolio allocations, comparing our strategies to benchmarks, such as Standard & Poor’s 500 Index. We increase the frequency of these meetings when the markets are more tumultuous.

As we do with each of your portfolios, we constantly assess market risk and appropriate allocation to most effectively seize growth opportunities within our investment strategy. Our overall investment strategy is grounded in diversification, which allows us to develop models promoting different global stock/bond mixes based on your risk tolerance. We also look for opportunities within markets to diversify risk, based on market and economic conditions. For example, investments in consumer staples, energy, and utilities are normally more stable when the economy weakens. For the individual, it’s all about the right mix of equities and fixed income for the stage of life you are in and what your objectives are. We work hard to make the best decisions within these broad asset classes to build portfolios suitable for the economic environment, while keeping our eye on the ultimate prize – long-term financial success.

There is one thing we know with certainty; markets will change. They will go up, down, stabilize, and repeat, not necessarily in that order. Our commitment to you remains to mitigate unnecessary risk, not react emotionally to the market, and position you to achieve your financial goals. It is the “how” and “why” that sets us apart from others in our industry, and these are important components you should understand. We are ready to share.

Bob Caplan and Ed O’Gorman deploy their market expertise every day to manage our clients’ money and help make dreams become reality. But they don’t stop there. In fact, that is just the beginning of what our clients can expect from working with River Wealth Advisors.

We recognize that our clients are at various stages in life with different needs and objectives. Investing is just one piece of a more complicated puzzle. Tax consequences need to be considered whenever money is moved, gained or gifted. Trusts, estates, wills and changes in marital status also are all significant pieces in that puzzle.

Or, what if you find yourself recently widowed or divorced and you are facing major financial decisions you never had to make before? We are here to help make sure you are not being taken advantage of on major purchases, home repairs or other large decisions you find yourself needing to make.

The best service we can deliver to you is through a team approach. Our internal team works closely together on your account, sharing best practices and ensuring all activities meet our strict compliance standards. Additionally, by working with your other professional advisors, like your attorney and accountant, we are able to see the full picture, which in turn allows us to provide the most informed guidance and tax benefits.

Call us at 717.888.9830 if you have questions or would like for us to set up a meeting with your other professional advisors.

Ever heard the adage that good things come in threes? Well, we can attest to that being true!

To continue to elevate our service model and add capacity as we grow, River Wealth Advisors welcomed three new members to our team in April. We are pleased to introduce:

Everyone at River Wealth is involved with client service, so you can expect to interact with our new team members when you have questions or call in with requests.

“Trust” was a characteristic many of you identified in our recent 2019 Client Satisfaction Survey as a distinguishing factor for River Wealth Advisors. Upholding your trust is paramount as we manage your wealth to help you achieve your life objectives. This is what drives us, and we are pleased to know that we are engendering trust across our relationships.

We conduct a client satisfaction survey to learn how we are performing in relation to your expectations. Your candid feedback is an important part of how we measure our success and provides insight into how we can improve. Anything below 100% means we have opportunity to do better, and we take this seriously. As a result of the more than 100 responses we received, here is what you can expect more of going forward:

• Ensuring you know about all of the services we provide

• Better communication about the investments in your portfolio

• More timely communication about our perspectives on the market and any operational changes

• Expansion of our digital presence

Please note: as part of our efforts to “go green” and in response to feedback in our recent client satisfaction survey, we will be discontinuing the printed version of our newsletter. Future editions will be posted to riverwealthadvisors.com and distributed electronically. Please call us at 717.888.9830 to share your email address if we do not currently have it on file.

*Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards Inc. owns the certification marks CFP®, Certified Financial Planner™ and federally registered CFP (with flame design) in the U.S., which it awards to individuals who successfully complete CFP Board’s initial and ongoing certification requirements.

IMPORTANT DISCLOSURE INFORMATION: Please remember that past performance may not be indicative of future results. Different types of investments involve varying degrees of risk, and there can be no assurance that the future performance of any specific investment, investment strategy, or product (including the investments and/or investment strategies recommended or undertaken by River Wealth Advisors LLC [“River Wealth”]), or any non-investment-related content, made reference to directly or indirectly in this commentary, will be profitable, equal any corresponding indicated historical performance level(s), be suitable for your portfolio or individual situation, or prove successful. Due to various factors, including changing market conditions and/or applicable laws, the content may no longer be reflective of current opinions or positions. Moreover, you should not assume that any discussion or information contained in this commentary serves as the receipt of, or as a substitute for, personalized investment advice from River Wealth. Please remember to contact River Wealth in writing if there are any changes in your personal/financial situation or investment objectives for the purpose of reviewing/evaluating/revising our previous recommendations and/or services, or if you would like to impose, add, or modify any reasonable restrictions to our investment advisory services. River Wealth is neither a law firm nor a certified public accounting firm, and no portion of the commentary content should be construed as legal or accounting advice. A copy of River Wealth’s current written disclosure brochure discussing our advisory services and fees continues to remain available upon request or at RiverWealthAdvisors.com.