Looking for White Rhino Business? We’ve rebranded to AssetPRO!

Located in the iconic Galleria area | 3040 Post Oak Boulevard Suite 1150 Houston, Texas 77056

Best Financial Advisor and Tax Planner

The best approach to ensuring we win our lifetime financial game, is to be sure we won’t lose, before we even get started.

Philosophy Highlights

FOCUS ON TRANSFERRING RISK

We perform an in-depth analysis into your Human Life Value, Financial Obligations, and Legacy Goals. From there we focus on the transfer of that risk through the use of insurance products. This helps the conversation focus on the reality that risk management is just as much a mathematical conversation as it is a personal one.

USE A LIFETIME APPROACH

As you move through your life, the wants and needs of it will change. We modularly design our strategies to be everything you need today, everything you might need in the future, and ensure there is a plan and protections in place to accomplish the optimal level of risk management in each life phase.

AVOID WASTEFUL EXPENSES

Proper risk management strategies avoid wasteful expenses. There are dozens of companies that provide different products, with different benefits & features - all entirely dependent upon things like age, health, and income. We take the time to thoughtfully curate a strategy that is the best fit for you.

DESIGN A WIN-WIN STRATEGY

Normally in risk management conversations, it's usually a zero sum game. In short, either you or the insurance company will lose money in the end. There are numerous ways to build strategies that provide benefits during your lifetime, protect against the unexpected, and self-complete at the end.

Overview

Misinformation is an intrinsic component of financial decision-making. If any aspect of finances carries the weight of this the most, it’s risk management. We live in an age of spin, where even in the face of mathematically superior information it becomes difficult to know what’s true.

In order to have a meaningful conversation around risk management, it’s important to truly distinguish what is hoped to be accomplished through any risk management process. The reduction of potential personal liability in the event something financially adverse occurs. Where we believe risk management experts, insurance agents, and the industry in general gets it wrong, is thinking a one-size-fits-all approach should be taken when considering the transfer of personal risk. Risk management is equally two components, personal and financial. Our philosophy is focused on obtaining ideal protection benefits that are clearly understood, financially beneficial, and stripped of anything unnecessary. 

There is no “magic bullet” to the risk management dilemma. We teach our clients to understand that by using this approach, they’re building a sustainable balance sheet that can focus on growth strategies because of it’s resiliency. We utilize an innovative approach to hand-crafting risk management strategies that allows client plans to unfold and come to live as their life does.

Core concepts within our philosophy

Core Strategies We Implement

Who Is the best fit for our philosophy?

The best fits for our philosophy are those who understand that despite the emotional “weight” of carrying protection costs. They believe their family and their business has a right to the same life they would have had anyway, even if they don’t also make it to the finish line. 

tenants of risk management

This concept is known as the Human Life Value (HLV) concept of risk management. There are many methods of determining the appropriate amount of risk protection, but anything other than the HLV method – is discussing perceived vs. real risk.

Explore further in this hypothetical scenario created for illustrative purposes.

Human life value is determined using brackets of age, and income. This value is then multiplied by the remaining years left available to work until age 65.

  • A 30-year old making $100,000 would have a HLV of approximately $3,500,000.
  • A 50-year old making $250,000 would have a HLV of approximately $3,750,000.
  • A 60-year old making $400,000 would have a HLV of approximately $2,000,000.

This concept ultimately focuses on reality. If any of these individuals were to pass away, they would never be able to produce income again, obviously. That lost income is the Human Life Value, and should not only be protected from the perspective of life insurance, but also be protected from a disabling event, whether permanent or temporary. There are many opportunity costs when it comes to money, and a lot more pitfalls than are obvious.

  • Example: Person A (a doctor) gets in a vehicle accident, and misses work for 9 months. In this accident, Person B (an attorney) is badly hurt and misses work for a year.
  • Person A is found at fault for the accident, and despite having disability insurance from residency, it didn’t keep up with the doctor’s $400,000 salary costing them over $200,000 in lost wages.
  • Person B, after being badly injured and missing work as a trial attorney for a year lost over $300,000 in income and decides to sue.
  • Person A is found guilty, losing $200,000 of their personal income, as well as being obligated to pay the attorney for his lost wages $300,000.
  • Due to the event, Person A incurs missed opportunity in their income ($200,000 lost), and missed future opportunity from cash flows (likely wage garnishment arrangement greatly inhibits wealth building potential) by being required to pay the attorney $300,000 for the lost wage.
  • The $500,000 total loss from the event can never be used to build wealth. Assuming a 6% rate of return, that money would have grown to nearly $1,200,000. 

This scenario, and many others like it occur regularly. On our journey as financial guides, we’ve discovered people seldom regret the things they did do, they regret the things they didn’t.

There are many nuances to risk management, and risk management products. It’s arguable that this is the most widely contested area of this industry – Risk Management, or Insurance Type. This hotly debated area is primarily around the discussion of whether a term or permanent life insurance solution is the best course of action. The real answer is, it depends on several factors and ultimately should end up being something that has been customized to your needs, rather than prescribed. Ultimately, the reality is that Americans just do not understand insurance products outside of what is marketed to them, or they heard at a cocktail party that one time. These decisions are personal, and shouldn’t be compared to things other people do.

When encountering individuals, business owners, executives, physicians, and dentists in our business we seldom come across anyone who does not have a “way of thinking” about risk management strategies. The truth is that no single strategy works all of the time. No single strategy could ever be applicable to all people. The issues caused by “group-think”, “bandwagon behavior”, and other cognitively biased behaviors are most rampant here. 

We’ve been through them all: Dave Ramsay, White Coat Investor, Infinite Banking Concepts, Become Your Own Bank (BYOB), and more.. Total adoption of the belief that any of these are a “magic bullet” to financial success is a recipe for disaster, resentment, and disappointment. 

  • Whole Life strategies have their place in individual lives because of the duration of the death benefit, and tax benefits – and yes, those benefits could very well outpace any investment portfolio, especially if you’re untrained in avoiding adverse financial decision making.
  • Variable/Index Universal life strategies have their place as well. The difficulty we see with these is that we remove the fixed nature of the return in the contract for a variable one tied to the performance of the stock market indices which requires hedges against volatility to be sought in the investments instead which can be a slippery slope.
  • Term life insurance was originally invented to hedge against short-term business risks. It’s affordability created opportunity for Americans to find new personal use for the product. The majority of our strategies have term insurance as a component, many times because these inexpensive policies can be used to lock in a favorable health rating. This type of policy can typically be converted into a permanent type at a later date in the future.

We often encounter people who feel as if the only way to “win” the risk management game is by dying. We can appreciate how that wouldn’t feel much like winning, and when the thought of someone else winning at your expense arises – important conversations are dismissed.

You don’t have to “die to win”, there are many ways to design and implement risk management strategies that work well, are affordable, and provide living benefits like access to cash, asset protection, tax advantages, and more. 

You can utilize an insurance contract to help your business grow, retain important employees, protect your business from loss, and even help with taxation of your estate. 

Our favorite Warren Buffet quote applies strongly here. It’s also important to remember that not all products are created equally, even ones of the same type. Each insurance company has a particular unique selling point, or nuance in their contracts that enable them to conduct business in alignment with their goals while providing benefits to individuals. Just like any company, some are better than others. 

It’s understood there are costs for risk management strategies, your health and age are big factors in that price. Ensuring that you’ll truly receive value from your strategy not only if something bad happens is a great way to improve your financial stewardship.

ready to see what we can build for you?