—GBT Wealth Advisors—How We Can HelpYour North Louisiana Advisors

Our Financial Services

Wealth Management

Why Wealth Management Matters

There’s a reason why stories about huge financial losses dominate the news: it’s because they’re as sensational as they are memorable. Whether it’s due to scandal or just the whims of the economy, wealthy people can spend their whole lives accruing one gain after another, only to find it wiped out in the blink of an eye. The right financial professional can not only give you an eagle-eye to keep up with it all, they can give you a solid resource to turn to every time you have a question or concern about what’s next.

Part of wealth management is simply the answer to a practical question: How can you possibly find the time to monitor every last account and asset, let alone act on it? For example, if you own 10 rental properties and one is threatened by a new zoning law, how can you be expected to act before that threat materializes if real estate is just one small corner of your portfolio?

At GBT Wealth Advisors, you’ll work with a team that not only understands your retirement goals, they’ll actively point you in the right direction based on your current portfolio. For example, if you’re planning to finance your grandchildren’s college education, you may want to look into the terms and conditions of different trusts. Or if you’re planning to roll your capital gains into your next major purchase, you can work out whether a 1031 exchange could help you facilitate your dream.

Wealth management isn’t a one-size service. It needs to be tailored to the individual. If you’re looking for experts in Louisiana to carry out that kind of strategic planning, you’ll find real partners who will work with you at every step of the way.

Investing

Why Invest in Investment Management Services?

Financial advisors can do more than organize your portfolio. They can show you where and how to improve, both when you first sign up for the service and as time goes by. Investments are more than just exploring every emerging market, be it a new crypto coin or IPO. Too often, investors can overestimate the value of diversity, leaving their portfolios as confusing as they are unprofitable.

In many cases, a wealth advisor will encourage you to branch out, but to do so in a more calculated way. Other times, you may need to drop some of your investments if they don’t align with your larger financial plans (and, maybe more importantly, your retirement goals). Ideally, you’ll need to have at least a broad understanding of the industries and asset classes you favor, even if you’re prepared to let your financial advisor take the wheel for 90% of the time.

If you’re looking for a professional who can give you the right investment advice, the team at GBT Wealth Advisors can help you figure out not just how to allocate your resources. They can also track your investments and inform you of anything from general market changes to catastrophic events on the horizon.

As we watch fortunes rise and fall, it’s important to understand where you fall in the grand scheme of things. As time goes by, you may need to switch up your investments, so they reflect what you want for both you and for your loved ones. If you’re not sure where to start, it helps to talk to the right experts in Louisiana.

Retirement Income Planning

Retirement income planning largely boils down to what the client is looking for from their retirement. Some people feel comfortable expanding their holdings into different asset classes. For example, you might buy several commercial rental properties and collect rental income month after month. Others may prefer less hands-on ventures, like a combination of Social Security and a healthy pension.

No matter what you’re considering, though, the right retirement advisor can help you leverage what you have to get what you want. How much do I need to retire? This complex question is more than just a nice, round number. When you’ll never be able to perfectly predict what goods and services will cost in the future, you’ll want an expert by your side long before you reach retirement age.

Retirement income planning can go deep into every available revenue stream. Some people might decide to take a passion project in the form of a part-time job, whether that means working in a bookstore or teaching art classes to kids. Others will focus largely on the market, increasing their monthly dividends from every investment.

If you’re wondering how to plan your retirement income, it’s a lot more than hoping you have at least seven figures in the bank. At GBT Wealth Advisors, our safe money management principles can not only give you more financial stability, they can set up a strong enough foundation to weather nearly any storm. With the right partner at the helm of your portfolio, it’s easier to watch the endless economic debates with a little less concern about how it will impact you and your family.

Maximizing Social Security

Why Maximize Social Security?

Even if you were to receive the maximum amount of Social Security every month, very few people can afford to rely on the government program for their retirement. That being said, Social Security can be one of your most valuable assets if you want to diversify your monthly income. If you’re wondering how to maximize Social Security, it starts with finding an expert who can tell you more about the ins and outs behind your check.

When Social Security first started in the 1930s, the rules were fairly straightforward. Today, a myriad of factors can influence how much you receive. This is why you should never base your expectations on the accounts of friends or family — because no career path follows the same trajectory. So, if you fail to account for one of those factors, you could end up leaving tens of thousands on the line. Or, worse, arguing with the federal government for months or years on end to receive the backpay that you’re entitled to.

At GBT Wealth Advisors, we can tell you more about the principles of maximizing Social Security, and how it fits into a larger income strategy. Ideally, Social Security will be just one of several revenue streams that you use to pay for your everyday expenses. If you live in Louisiana, you can start to see how to hold onto your savings for as long as possible, ideally using your reserve funds solely to pay for unexpected emergencies.

Life Insurance

If you’re entirely new to life insurance, it’s easy to separate it into two buckets: term and perm. With a term life insurance policy, you set the expiration date of the policy. You might decide to cover your three children until the youngest turns 21. If you don’t use the benefits, the policy simply expires and you typically can’t recover any of the premium costs.

With a permanent life insurance policy, the benefits will never expire. Your policy, whether it goes to your spouse or your grandchildren, can be counted on to pay for any number of expenses.

Of course, before you lump everything together, it’s important to learn more about the ins and outs of the carrier and the terms of the insurance. If you really want to ensure your family’s security, it helps to talk to a professional who can give you the details of what you can really expect from the policy. For example, some carriers may make extravagant promises only to delay payments to the beneficiaries.

If you’re looking for a boutique retirement firm that can help you navigate it all, the team at GBT Wealth Advisors is here to help. Not only can they give you more information about the general clauses, they can also tell you more about how policies may be able to support your retirement income.

Because some permanent policies act as long-term savings plans, you can potentially tap into your benefits if you have an unexpected emergency or expense. So if your youngest grandchild decides to go to med school and you want to cover their room and board, you may be able to do that without endangering your financial stability.

When you work with the same financial advisor year in, year out, you can develop the kind of relationship that leads to a more productive (and happier) retirement. From life insurance to tax planning, the right professional can protect your portfolio when you need it most.

Investment Management

How Does Investment Management Work?
Investment management is a way to keep yourself on the right track as you get closer to retirement. As people inch toward the end of their careers, it’s a time to evaluate whether your investment strategy is really working for you. Most people interpret this as the pullback of risk, though this is not always the case. For the more cautious people, it may be time to rethink your strategy.
There are a lot of philosophical approaches to investments. This is simply the nature of the markets: It’s impossible to know every category and sector. Investment managers don’t attempt to conquer it all, but instead apply time-tested principles across the board. They offer investment advice that allows you to see the bigger picture, which can make it easier to focus your efforts on the most profitable endeavors.

People may struggle with their investments for any number of reasons. For instance, they may diversify to the point of chaos. Even if it’s profitable chaos, they can quickly lose track of what they have and what they want to do with it. In other cases, people play it close to the chest, only to find their margins were no better than the average savings account. An investment manager reviews your investments, monitors them, and makes suggestions based on the fluctuating markets.

If you’re a casual investor, you may need the services of a boutique financial firm like GBT Wealth Advisors. However, if you want to get serious about your future (and your retirement goals), it might be time to up your game. Investment management gives you the oversight you need to foresee major losses or unrealized gains. Here you’ll find a team that helps Louisiana families grow their wealth so they don’t have to fear every tick of inflation or downturn in the markets.