Granite Ridge Wealth Advisors, LLC ™

Managing Director - Registered Representative

(646) 357-3030
DVolkman@graniteridgewealthadvisors.com

Objective advice without a preset agenda

Through the many ups and downs of our financial lives, we attempt to balance living life to the fullest while saving for our future. The problem is we don’t know how much we will need when we get there or exactly when that time will be right. Saving towards goals of educating our families, experiencing life cycle events and celebrating the fullness of the older generations, are just some of the things we live for. Having the discipline and stamina to endure personal employment challenges through recessions and hard times or financial struggles that can happen in families, investing in the global markets can either add positively to those issues or aggravate them for the worse. Then throw in health uncertainties into the mix, and one could think that planning for our future might be impossible.

Well it isn’t an impossible task. The core ingredients we need to make a successful financial journey are deploying the right set of strategies, tactics, tools, a well thought out plan and an advisor with the right vision and training to make proper decisions. My role as the family financial advisor for my clients is to help them map out a course and travel with them through the years, providing advice and consulting on the various financial decisions they will need to make. The highly tailored and comprehensive approach to this process is done with a special sensitivity and understanding that couples don’t always think alike, and for individual investors, some of whom may have lost a loved one, the financial planning process can be daunting or even scary. Assisting in removing the fear from the process and teaching my clients how to be better financial stewards is a lofty goal and the sole purpose of my practice.

Making it to the top of a huge mountain isn’t an impossible feat if you have a well thought out climbing plan, trained expertise, and guide to get you there. Building a proper financial plan requires a holistic approach, an objective perspective, extensive independent research and a clear understanding of the investor’s feelings regarding the investment process. There are many things to consider and understand about how complicated issues relate to each other on a global scale. The components that need to be evaluated to construct a proper plan are having a scientific approach, flexible design parameters, careful measurements of market volatility, market data, industrial and social trends, interest rates, inflation, risk management, sequence of deposits and withdrawals, taxation of investment and earned income, and accounting for potential investor fatigue. An experienced financial advisor can pull everything together, make an assessment, and like a doctor, create a treatment plan, in hopes of helping the client step forward on the path toward their new financial future.

What separates successful investors from the rest are three simple components: The right financial professional, a well thought out plan, and using the best available investment strategies. In addition, the investor must have an open mind to using certain investment tools, because there are many in the financial industry that have spoken harshly about some types of investment products out of context and application. There are circumstances in which using traditional tools in a variety of situations can solve a series of issues for a client. Many people will not consider the use of some investment tools because they heard in the media that “those are bad”. In reality, a blanket statement against almost any product is improper. There are circumstances in which almost any investment strategy might be suitable or even ideal to solve a specific issue for a client, if it is structured correctly within an overall plan. That basic fact is not discussed very often so some clients may be prejudiced against the use of an investment tool, when it may be just the thing to help them accomplish one of their goals. Another issue is an investor should consider the tax consequences of a strategy as it is just as important as investment returns for a given set of risk. It isn’t what you make that matters. It is what you keep in the end that does. We will help you figure out what is right for you. That is just part of the experience you will discover by working with an experienced financial advisor.