State of the Firm: 2022

By Siller & Cohen on March 3, 2022

To our valued clients, 

We hope you enjoyed a happy and healthy New Year with your family and friends. As you know, in January of 2021, Siller & Cohen transitioned from Lincoln Financial Group to Hightower Advisors. As just over one year has now passed since this transition took effect, we wanted to summarize some of the changes and opportunities that are now available to you. 

Before doing so, we want to express our sincere gratitude for your continued trust in our firm. As you know, we made this change because we strongly believe it will substantially improve our ability to serve you and your families for years to come. That said, we are greatly appreciative of the patience and support you offered us over this past year as we underwent our transition. 

Below, we have summarized many of the enhancements that are now available through Hightower. 

Our Investment Research Team 

Hightower offers a robust and experienced investment research team, which is well respected in the financial marketplace. The team is headed by Stephanie Link, Hightower’s Chief Investment Strategist & Portfolio Manager, and Michael Farr, Hightower’s Chief Market Strategist. Both Stephanie and Michael regularly appear on CNBC to share their market and investment insight. They provide us with regular updates about the constantly evolving domestic and global macroeconomic landscapes, and they are available to answer our questions and help us design asset allocation and investment solutions for you. 

Competitive Financing Through Fidelity 

Because of Hightower’s size and prevalence in the wealth management landscape, Fidelity offers extremely competitive margin loans on Hightower advisory accounts. 

For those of you not familiar, a margin loan is a loan that is secured by the investments in your account. No underwriting or due diligence is required because the loan is fully backed by those investments. The amount you can borrow is dependent on the total value of the securities in your account. 

The interest rate offered is variable and based on the underlying Federal Funds Rate. Current rates are around 1.25% for loan values between $0 and $2,000,000, and may be even lower for amounts borrowed above $2,000,000. 

Hightower Trust Company 

Hightower has received conditional approval to convert its Texas-based trust company into a nationally chartered trust company, Hightower Trust Company. The trust company will provide corporate and administrative personal trust services to support your planning and wealth transfer needs. More specifically, these services include: 

• Discretionary investment management. 

• Custody and escrow services. 

• Agency services such as administrative support to other fiduciaries, principals of partnerships, LLCs, and other legal entities. 

We are excited to now be able to operate under one roof, combining our investment advisory services with personal trust administration, record keeping, and tax reporting. 

Private Equity Offerings 

Through Hightower, we are pleased to offer direct access to a wide array of private equity funds and opportunities. These are investments that are not available to the general public nor most retail investors. In addition to providing access, Hightower’s research team conducts thorough and ongoing due diligence on all managers and provides us with a comprehensive understanding of their unique advantages, opportunities, and risk profiles. The team also stands ready to evaluate additional offerings as we request them. 

Financial Planning 

Our new financial modeling software carries with it many upgrades, including new reports which we have found very useful for understanding and evaluating portfolio longevity. 

These reports summarize on a year over year basis your total net cash flow and, if portfolio distributions are required, the percentage of the portfolio that is withdrawn each year. This is another way of understanding the level of “stress” your retirement spending is putting or will put on your portfolio and gives us a strong basis for decision-making. 

Note: Many of you may find these reports helpful when evaluating making gifts during your lifetime to loved ones or charities. We can easily stress-test your personal financial longevity under different gifting scenarios, allowing you to make more informed decisions and remain comfortable that you can maintain your desired lifestyles while beginning to share your wealth with future generations or causes that you find meaningful. 

Operations 

We are now pleased to offer DocuSign on almost all account related paperwork. For those of you who haven’t used this yet, DocuSign allows for electronic signatures through your email, eliminating the need for printing and scanning or mailing of forms. We hope this makes things easier for you whenever signatures are needed. 

Of course, if you prefer not to use DocuSign for any reason, we are still happy to email or FedEx paperwork to you for signatures. 

Coming Soon: Additional Family Off ice Services 

Hightower continues to work on building out additional Family Office Services. This will allow us to provide further solutions and even greater coordination between your personal financial planning, investment management, estate planning, and business planning. 

We will keep you posted as these offerings become available. 

Conclusion & Team Update 

We hope you have the opportunity to take advantage of the enhancements summarized in this letter, as well as any additional services that we add in the coming months and years. In conclusion, we thank you again for your continued trust in us and our firm. It means the world to us. 

We want to leave you with two personal updates from our team. 

In order of birthdays . . . 

First, congratulations to Alba Mitaj and Marin Lelcaj on the birth of their first child, Ella Lelcaj, born November 13th, 2021. 

Second, congratulations to Nick and Nicolle Strang on the birth of their second daughter, Penelope Logan Strang, born November 19th, 2021 (pictured above with her big sister, Alessandra). 

Cheers to you both and your growing families! 

We look forward to a happy, healthy, and productive 2022 with you all. We hope to speak with you very soon. In the meantime, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us if there is anything we can provide or help with. 

If you would like to download the PDF, please click HERE