I named the firm Concert Financial Planning because I wanted something that was relevant to my personality and that also tells a story. I’ve played guitar since I was 9 years old and formed my first and only band at age 13. 25 years later, I still play with the same guys when time permits, and I’ve expanded my instrumentation a little bit to bass guitar and keyboard. Music is my passion outside of the office.

A concert is also a great analogy to explain what financial planning is about. Follow me here: In a band, the attention is often given primarily to the singer, and maybe a savant guitar player. The key is that the attention is paid to the person on stage that is the most flamboyant: the clothes, the moves, the voice that a concertgoer can relate to. The voice is the most human of all the instruments on stage.

Off stage, the singer is the moody, volatile, self-damaging personality that gets all the interviews and may destroy the band at any moment. It’s a potential train wreck that we can’t take our eyes off of, but an academic analysis of all bands in existence would show that the singer rarely does irrevocably go off the deep end. Society just fixates on the small percentage that do lose it.

The singer is the investment account in the context of financial planning. The media darling, the investment account is the volatile, headline-grabbing focal point for all the attention that gets paid to financial matters. Entire TV networks, magazines, podcasts, and social media accounts are devoted to dissecting everything there is to dissect about investments, and a whole lot of stuff that isn’t even there.

Here’s what you will hear in the financial media:

“Is this the big one?”

“This is the largest loss in 6 days!”

“I have the secret to investing that is always profitable! And instead of making vast sums of money by trading from my laptop on a beach on my own private island, I am wearing a suit and tie trying to convince the masses to buy my knowledge via this product. Don’t worry – the secret won’t get out and the anomaly I’ve found will last forever!”

It’s all bullshit. A doctor that tells patients to eat right and exercise to lose weight will never get an hour of daytime tv to espouse that simple yet true advice. The guy that has the magic pill or device gets the platform. My free advice: Listen to the advisor that tells you to live within your means and to have a strategy for saving. Don’t listen to the guy on TV that doesn’t know anything about you.

Back to the concert analogy: With a few but notable exceptions, a singer going a cappella would not sound as good as they do with the rest of the band playing their respective parts. If somebody sings without accompaniment, every slight miss is painfully obvious.

But if the singer is doing his or her thing amidst the guitars, bass, drums, keys, backing vocals, etc., then the missed notes aren’t as noticeable. The overall experience is so much more rewarding for everybody involved. The sound is fuller, and the beauty of hearing imperfect people come together to make amazing music has a real impact on all of the participants. And it is true with the investment account. It will never be perfect, but surrounded by complementary facets of your financial life it will become far less critical to the overall show.

Financial Planning is the act of getting the band together to make all of the aspects of your financial life work together…in concert. We coordinate specialists like a conductor so that all of the various aspects of your finances are working together.

Yes, it involves managing your investment account. But it also involves strategies around taxes, debt, insurance, trusts, and wills. It involves planning for how to spend money when the paychecks go away in retirement, planning how to spend money now, kids’ education, allowing yourself to take that trip, quit that job, raise those kids, start that business, attract employees, and so much more.

Some of it we do in-house (designing investment portfolios and managing them), while in other cases we work with tax advisors, insurance brokers, estate planning attorneys, etc. for their specific expertise. We attend those meetings and get on those calls so that you have professional advice in your corner, unbiased by commissions or an employer’s interests. We don’t take commissions and we always work in your best interest (seriously, legally).

Just like every show is different (even with the same setlist), every individual’s experience with planning will be different because we are all planning for different things and starting from different places. And planning can feel magical too. Imagine coming home after that tough day and being able to put it in perspective: No matter how bad it is, you are better off than you would have been had you not decided to get your financial life in order so that you can better withstand the problems that life throws your way. And when the amazingly wonderful things happen in life, you can enjoy them without guilt or hesitation. You are confident and secure.

Our mission at Concert Financial Planning is to give you the confidence and security you need in order to relax and enjoy your life. We don’t give you permission, we give you advice. And we want you to have a little fun with it! You may strum a guitar in our office, or we may go see a show together. You won’t find us in a suit behind a mahogany desk, but we do hope the chairs are comfy.

As the Founder and CEO of Concert Financial Planning, I can’t wait to help you form your own band and craft your own concert; we’ll play for the crowd that is most important to you, and their applause will be rewarding like nothing else.

Matt Smith, CFA®, CFP®, CIMA®, CAIA®

Founder and CEO

Get in Touch: Contact@ConcertPlanning.com

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