Reid Abedeen, Founder of Safeguard Investment Advisory Group, LLC, Tells Retirees the Downsides of Their Retirement Investments – Something That Few Other Advisors Will
CORONA, Calif., June 13, 2013 /PRNewswire/ — Most Registered Investment Advisors wear their independent licenses like a badge of honor, proudly announcing that they have a fiduciary responsibility to only act in the best interests of their clients, rather than recommend products that gain the highest commissions for themselves. And they're right – they are held to a higher legal standard than stockbrokers, or at least cannot directly benefit more from recommending one product over another. But what most Registered Investment Advisors don't tell you is that they are limited, too. A fee-based planner can't offer certain vehicles, which may be better for their clients. To get the best of both worlds, retirees really need a "hybrid planner," who not only has a holistic philosophy of retirement planning, but has the licenses to make that comprehensive vision possible.
Reid Abedeen, co-founder of Safeguard Investment Advisory Group, LLC, didn't like having limitations on how he could help his clients, so he expanded his skill set and his licensing to allow him to go beyond the scope of other retirement planners. To describe what he does, he uses an example of a nutritionist versus the local butcher.
"The local butcher knows everything about meat and how to cook it. But the butcher is not going to tell me, 'You know, you might want to go easy on the red meat – try the fish market down the street and watch your cholesterol.' He sells meat, that's his specialty. If I go to a nutritionist, they'll show me what's best for me, specifically; what I need to do to improve my health. A lot of times when people call their financial guy, they think they're speaking with that nutritionist, when really they're speaking to Lou the butcher."
Abedeen's licenses give him the rare ability to legally offer services as wide-ranging as life insurance, annuities, and investment advice. His company, Safeguard Investment Advisory Group, LLC, also works with an estate planning attorney, a CPA, and a Medicare advisor, for a full complement of services. The goal is to do "pretty much everything that's out there and represent our clients' best interests," which Abedeen says can only be done by looking at the big picture and "analyzing how it all works together." He doesn't believe that fee-based advisors are better than commission-based advisors – both are limited. Abedeen and his advisors use all of their licenses to give their clients the most beneficial plan possible.
One of Abedeen's defining characteristics is that he doesn't shy away from the downsides of different investment options. In fact, at his retirement planning seminars, which he holds at lively venues like TAPS Fish House & Brewery in Corona and Bel Vino Winery in Temecula, California, he focuses on giving a complete picture of the downsides of investments and various retirement strategies.
In an industry in which most planners are trying to sell you something by talking up the advantages of their favorite annuity, stock, bond, or policy, Abedeen stands up in a winery's barrel room to talk to a rapt audience about the risks involved with all of these options.
"We're always told why we should have things, but what's left out is why we shouldn't have things. I teach people what to avoid, and our thought process is that if you understand the downsides, then everything else is gravy," he says.
"Not everyone should have a specific annuity, or mutual fund, or stock portfolio. Plans should be designed on a case-by-case basis. We don't recommend one vehicle just because we've used it in the past. That's where we are unique," he says.
Abedeen's philosophy is built on his processes more than his products, processes which rely on clear communication of goals and a complete picture of current financial standing and future hopes. Whereas other planners will proudly present lists of past successes with a single golden product, Safeguard Investment Advisory Group, LLC custom builds every holistic retirement plan to frame the bigger picture each client has drawn for themselves.
Learn more about Reid Abedeen at http://www.safeguardinvestment.com/