Founder of Great Point Wealth Advisors LLC, Connecticut-born Peter Disch has been recognized by Forbes as a Best in State Wealth Advisor since 2019. With over 22 years of experience in the industry, Disch is motivated by simplifying the financial world for his clients. We asked him to shed some light on the world of investment.
How important is simplifying the investment process for your clients?
Simplicity is the other side of complexity. My view of wealth management is that a lot of financial advisors like to complicate things because it makes them feel like they’re more valuable and causes the client to rely on them more. Unfortunately, this self-serving approach creates more questions and doubts for clients.
Our whole thing is about instilling confidence in our clients. We want them to feel totally comfortable in our process and what we’re doing. We have attempted to remove 90% of the complicating factors and just focus on that very small percentage of things that actually matter in personal finance.
How do you help your clients understand the process?
I’m truly their fiduciary, which means that I have to hold my clients’ interests higher than my own. I was actually a finance major in college, and so I almost take a classroom approach to the education that I give to my clients. Part of my job is helping them understand what the risk looks like in their portfolio and explaining about diversification.
Our management style means the portfolio is always going to rebound, it will never go to zero. We are proactive in communication during market turmoil so they know what’s going on and can ask questions. I see education as part of my fiduciary duty, as well as staying abreast of trends, products, and the market itself so I can provide the best possible service.
What advice would you give to someone with investments or wanting to invest?
Match your risk level to the timeframe of your specific expenditure. A lot of people get this wrong. Say you have a lump sum and want to buy a house in a few years. It is not advisable to invest in equities with that money because the market goes up and down and no one knows exactly what is going to happen. There are so many factors that affect it.
I tell my clients they don’t want to be a puppet of the market. For longer-term funds such as your retirement plans, an equity-heavy investment portfolio is appropriate. There are a lot of different things between these two points but this is the spectrum we are working with.
What is the biggest mistake people make when investing?
Selling low. When the market crashes and the value of the portfolio goes down, a typical response from the investor is to want to sell and get out. This would be turning a temporary decline into a permanent loss. It’s like seeing something at a store for 20% off but deciding to return and buy it later when it’s more expensive.
During March 2020, many investors wanted to sell because of the price drop. But I advised my clients not to and just a few months later things were on the up again. No one ever knows what the equity market is going to do in the short term. It could lose 40% or even 50% at any time for any reason. But we do know that over six or seven-plus years, it basically always goes up.
How do you decide which direction to guide your clients?
We are advisors in the truest sense of the word, in that we are advocates for our clients alone. My team does not have sales incentives for certain financial products and they don’t work on commission. This means our clients can rest assured that we will always guide them in the right direction with no hidden agenda on our side.
Many other firms are essentially salespeople because the advisors are personally rewarded if they push certain routes. That is partly why I wanted to found my own business so I could help clients make the best decisions for their own situation and then implement them on their behalf. Impartiality is key for offering the most suitable way forward.
To find out more about how Great Point Wealth Advisors LLC can help you manage your money in an impartial way with fee-only financial advice, visit their website.