Creative Financial Design's Certified Financial Planners™ are Financial, Life and Wealth Planners who uses risk based asset allocation while managing your investments. What does all that mean to you? We ask clients a series of questions to help us design a financial plan based upon each client's personal dreams, goals, hopes and values. We design an investment portfolio based on each client's risk tolerance level and values.

Most planners believe it is best for clients to ride the markets up and down. We agree with this during normal periods of times. However, there are times when economic conditions signal coming problems. For instance, during the fall of 2006, interest rates signaled the 2008 recession. We started warning our clients about this and began to make changes within clients' investments to protect them. In November of 2007 oil prices signaled more problems were coming and we made more adjustments to protect clients.

That is part of what we think a Wealth Manager does. Sometimes (like in 2006, 2007 and 2008) a portfolio is adjusted to protect against a possible economic downturn. Other times clients' risk levels are adjusted up to help them meet their goals during good economic conditions. Once clients are assured they can meet their goals, it may be possible to lower their risk levels even in good economic times. The trick is to help clients get where they want to be. Trying to always beat the market or pick the best stock sounds good, but no one can do it all the time.