How It Works

The LifeWorks Way is simple in its design but personalized to meet you where you are and where you want to go.

Establish the relationship, get to know what's important for you. Decide if there's a fit.

Complementary phone call or visit to review what we are offering is what you are looking for. We will discuss our philosophy, our process, our style of working together, expectations, accountability, and fees. We call this our “hands-on-top-of-the-table” approach.

Gather all quantitative and qualitative data

If we mutually decide to go forward then we send you our unique LifeWorks ™ Information Collection Binder which will help you collect and organize your life and financial records for our entry into your holistic financial plan.

Analyze your current position.

Prior to our first meeting we take the material and data you have sent us and create a draft plan to review when we come together.

Develop a plan for success.

Our first meeting will review the completeness of the FP draft, your short term and long term life goals and life values. This will help us integrate your life and financial needs into one co-created holistic plan.

Create a timeline and implement the plan

At our follow up meeting, we will make commitments to the plan. Additionally, we will set priorities and establish timelines.

Monitor the plan for progress and adjust for changes.

Subsequent meetings will have two components: review of progress to date and action steps going forward. We will create these together.

We have a number of proven effective financial and life tools to assist you in your process. However, we cannot do it for you. This is where we build in each of accountabilities. What does each of us need from the other to be successful?

We want to build a long term relationship based on mutual respect, trust and a deep understanding of what is at the core of our clients.

Fees for Services

LifeWorks is a fee-only financial planning firm. We sell no products nor take any commissions for referrals.

We provide 3 separate services and are compensated as follows.

Financial Life Planning: Annual retainer engagements start at $3,000 for a typical couple planning process.
Asset Management: Fees are based on 1% of your total invested assets under management.
Tax Preparation: Individual return preparation starts at $225.

Investment Philosophy for Assets Under Management

LifeWorks believes in a passive investment philosophy through the use of Dimensional Fund Advisors index funds.

Dimensional Fund Advisors

Founded in 1981 DFA applies academic research on capital market behavior to the practical world of managing investment portfolios. Board members and consultants include some of the nation’s most distinguished academic theorists, including Eugene Fama, Kenneth French, Roger Ibbotson, Donald Keim, Nobel laureate Merton Miller, and Myron Scholes.

Dimensional Fund Advisors manage over $150 billion and serves over 200 corporate, government, college endowment, and charitable clients. DFA offers its low-cost institutional mutual funds to individual investors through an exclusive network of selected investment advisory firms. As one of these advisors, LifeWorks plays a key role in educating clients about asset class investing, developing portfolio allocations, and helping them maintain the necessary discipline to ensure long-term success. Dimensional Fund Advisors does not distribute its funds through direct marketing or conventional broker/dealer firms.

Investment Philosophy

Dimensional’s approach is firmly rooted in the belief that markets are "efficient" and that investors’ returns are historically determined principally by asset allocation decisions, not market timing or stock picking. All portfolios employ a passive strategy designed to capture the return behavior of an entire asset class. DFA has no economists forecasting business cycles or interest rates, no investment strategists shifting allocations between stocks and bonds, and no analysts searching out "undiscovered" stocks.

While conventional index managers also employ this passive approach, DFA differs in several key respects. Dimensional funds do not necessarily track popular market benchmarks, but are designed to capture separate dimensions of worldwide returns which are accompanied by independent sources of risk. These dimensions are identified by rigorous academic research, often conducted by one or more of the leading financial economists with which DFA maintains a relationship.

All DFA funds are "no-load" funds. DFA also places great emphasis on minimizing trading costs. Unlike conventional passive managers who replicate an index in mechanical fashion, Dimensional funds employ a sophisticated equity block trading strategy that improve total return.

Risk vs. Reward

Dimensional Fund Advisors focuses only on market dimensions where research documents a reward for risk taken. As a consequence, DFA offers no strategies investing in long-term bonds, non-investment grade debt, or "growth" companies since research has failed to identify attractive risk/return characteristics for these asset classes.