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ABOUT US
ABOUT US
Brian Skrobonja founded his company Skrobonja Financial Group, LLC in 1993 to serve the specific needs of select individuals. He recognized early on in his career that the financial services industry was broken finding that it was more focused on product sales than offering clients a holistic panning solution. He wanted to do things differently and formed a Multifamily Office model to offer a comprehensive approach for fulfilling his clients financial planning needs.
Already Retired
Our clients who are already retired usually have investable assets over $100,000.
Estate Planning
Our generational estate planning clients usually have a good relationship with their family and have investable assets over $500,000.
Investment Management
Our investment management clients usually have assets in excess of $250,000.
Business Owners
Our business owner clients usually have well-established businesses and have positive cash flow.
Approaching Retirement
Our clients approaching retirement are usually within 5 years from actually retiring.
Conservative Clients
Our clients consider themselves to be “conservative.” They are more inclined to protect what they have while generating a modest return.
Financial Planning
Our financial planning clients usually have over $25,000 saved and are regularly saving $1,000+ per month outside of 401(k) type programs.
Family First
Our clients realize that there is more to life than money. They spend time with their families, help out the community and live each day to the fullest.
Team Players
Our clients tend to view us as part of their team and trust our recommendations.
ON THE FLIP SIDE OF THIS, WE FIND OUR CLIENTS…
- Do not follow markets all day and let daily swings in the market affect their long-term financial plan.
- Do not call us wanting to buy a stock that their co-worker told them about over lunch.
- Do not continuously seek ways “to do something better” and poke holes in their current plan.
- Do not let one bad day in the market derail them from their long-term financial goals.
- Realize that we are professionals and are compensated for our time and advice. When presented with our fees and potential program charges, our clients simply know that we are looking out for them and do our best to minimize expenses.
- Do not second guess our recommendations or let outside influences or opinions derail our planning. (They know we have their best interest top of mind).
OUR MULTIFAMILY OFFICE MODEL
A multifamily office model is an organized collaboration of professionals who work synergistically to serve clients with a wide range of services that delivers a higher level of support than the typical financial advisor who only sells investments.
In place of rehearsed sales presentations, fancy charts and touting of investment performance used by other firms to sell investments, we work with you to consider your entire financial situation before making any recommendations.
Of course, we will ultimately provide a tailored investment allocation for you that is suited to meet your needs but, investment recommendations are only part of what we can deliver to you. There are many other considerations such as cash flow, taxes, debt structure, insurance, legal, social security, pensions, big ticket expenses, income planning, generational planning, retirement planning, college planning, long term care planning, risk management, sequence of returns risk, inflation, mortality, and investments.
We know through experience that a financial plan goes way beyond picking investments and average rates of return which is why it is so important for you to choose the right financial planning firm to help guide you through these important decisions.
“ My promise is to take the thousands of hours of research I do each year and leverage it to benefit those who place their trust in me and my firm. ”
Brian Skrobonja,
Founder & President
OUR COMPENSATION
Since financial advice can mean different things to different people, we tailor programs that we believe are best suited for your unique situation. Before we make any product or service recommendations, we first seek to fully understand your entire financial picture including your goals and aspirations using our BUILD Wealth System™.
Once we understand where you are and what you are trying to do, we then determine what is needed to provide you with the level of support you need for what you are seeking to accomplish. It is then – and only then – that we can outline exactly how we would be compensated for assisting you.
Depending on your needs, this may include a planning fee for your plan design and management fees or commissions for the implementation and oversight of the plan.
- Our signature BUILD Wealth System™ comes with a $995 enrollment fee.
- Our Asset-Based Management Fee is 1% and is applied when our third-party money managers manage investment assets and includes our daily monitoring system.
- Our Commission Structure varies depending on the type of program being used. As an independent financial advisor, we work with many Financial Institutions who offer hundreds of financial products and come with a variety of different compensation arrangements. We review with you the fees and charges once specific products are determined suitable for your unique situation (simply too many to list here).
We understand the importance of transparency of charges and fees. That is why we make it an important part of our conversation when we are developing a customized plan for you. As always, our initial conversation is free of charge.
OUR PROCESS
Each client we invite into our firm, goes through our proprietary BUILD Wealth System™ that is designed to identify the strengths, challenges, and opportunities they have to enable us to customize a customized approach for achieving their financial goals.
Upon completion of our process, our client will receive a customize financial plan, as well as an investment strategy that is unique to them. These plans are primarily built around life events, such as retirement, big-ticket purchases and expenses, wealth transfer, risk management, succession planning (for business owners) and asset protection.
HOW WE COMMUNICATE
We communicate regularly with clients via technology (email is preferred). You can also keep track of us on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. I, or someone on my team, will visit with each client once per year and provide unlimited email support between meetings. I am available for scheduled phone calls to help my clients achieve their goals. Those calls are highly efficient and are strongly encouraged.
Many of our clients are local to St. Louis, Missouri, but we also have many clients all over the United States whom we work with virtually. Under this arrangement, we use web conferencing, phone and email to regularly communicate. Geography is not a factor in how we serve our clients.
To ensure that my time is focused on handling essential client issues, our firm has a fantastic support staff that takes pride in customer service. Our staff’s motto is “Make sure the client is taken care of,” which means they always put our clients’ needs first.
My experience is that it is very difficult for financial advisors and investment managers to actually perform their job if they are on the phone or in meetings all day, every day. Because of this, I block off 2 1/2 days per week to handle client meetings. I also have multiple team members who are able to take care of client needs as they arise. The rest of my days are spent doing research and producing more valuable content that will benefit my clients. If you are the type of person who feels the need to be constantly in direct contact with their advisor, then we probably aren’t going to be the best fit.
MANY OF OUR CLIENTS ARE LOCAL TO ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI, BUT WE HAVE
MANY CLIENTS ALL OVER THE UNITED STATES WHOM WE WORK WITH VIRTUALLY.
HOW TO KNOW IF WE ARE THE RIGHT FIT
Most importantly, I feel that clients and their advisors should like one another and work as a team. Good financial planning and investment management doesn’t happen overnight. It takes time, patience and trust. I’ve done the best I can at structuring our services in a manner that gives clients personal attention and complete financial management support.
We offer nearly every financial product and service available and have close working relationships with attorneys, CPAs, mortgage and insurance professionals along with industry-leading investment managers.
I know there is always room for improvement and we strive to enhance our capabilities every day. My promise is to take the thousands of hours of research I do each year and leverage it to benefit those who place their trust in me and my firm.
Due to advancements in technology, I’m happy to work with investors all over the United States (as briefly mentioned above). We have a wonderful web-based virtual meeting program that allows me to work with clients in a very personal manner despite being hundreds or even thousands of miles apart.
If you’ve never thought about working with an advisor virtually, I think you’d be pleasantly surprised at how easy, efficient and enjoyable it can be. If you live near St. Louis, I’m more than happy to meet you at our location personally.
LET’S SEE IF WE ARE A GOOD FIT
If you’d like to have a conversation about working together, I’d be happy to invest 20 minutes of my time getting to know you and your financial goals to determine if there’s value I can provide in your life. To set up an initial meeting, have your questions answered and see if we could be a good fit, just use the button below.
NOT READY TO SCHEDULE
AN APPOINTMENT?
No problem! You can ask us any question on retirement. We do our best to respond to questions via email within 24 hours, and while we can’t guarantee we’ll be able to help everyone, we do our best to at least get you the answers you need so you don’t make a long-term commitment to a complicated financial product you might later regret.
Ask a question using the form.
