(pictured l to r: Karen Brown, Adam Meinrod, Paula Mathis, Chris Leeper, Lisa Mercado & Judy Smith)
Describe your practice.
From the time a client walks through the door, he or she understands that our entire focus is on solving the financial issues and concerns that keep them up at night. At the heart of each client relationship is a customized plan and an investment strategy that adapts and helps provide certainty in an uncertain world. We feel there are three components that differentiate our practice: an adaptive investment strategy that can effectively mitigate market risk, income distribution expertise and our proactive service model.
Describe your customer service model.
The Meinrod & Leeper philosophy is based on effective communication, understanding and trust. Customer service is an essential element in achieving each of these strategic objectives and we strive to build that rapport and trust by personalizing each client’s experience with our team of professionals. Our six-member team provides what we like to refer to as a “Ritz Carlton” experience. Proactive client communication, reviews, educational and social events are all a part of our structured service model. As we like to say to our clients, “there is no one without your last name who will care more about your financial success than us.”
What is your investment philosophy?
Our investment philosophy is based upon a foundation of systematic and disciplined rules-based investment processes, which puts less stock in standard financial models and more emphasis on a “weight of the evidence” approach. We employ a tactical allocation approach that takes a range of indicators into consideration in order to help define which way the investing winds are blowing. Investing without using these indicators is very much like tying the rudder of your ship with no real map and ignoring the winds and currents that affect your true course and ability to reach your destination as planned.
Do you offer financial planning?
Financial planning is a lifetime process. Each of the steps of the process we take a new client through is continually reviewed with our existing clients. We are always looking for changes in our clients lives that may require an adjustment of the overall financial plan or a specific component of it. Changes may be required because of retirement, employment issues, additions to the family or even the death of a family member. Our philosophy of regular communication enables us to identify and respond to changing needs of our clients.
Describe your risk management philosophy.
Effective risk management is of paramount importance to our firm. The bottom line is that we don’t like to lose money and have developed a philosophy that strives to maximize risk mitigation for our clients. In our opinion, retiring at the wrong time (poor economic and market conditions) is the single greatest threat to a retiree’s lifestyle. Our adaptive portfolio process manages this risk in the same way that people manage the change of the seasons, from summer to fall to winter; the layers are put on as conditions change, offering protection from the elements, only to be taken off when conditions are favorable.
Chris Leeper, CFP • Senior Vice President, Investments
Chris Leeper has spent the last 17 years helping individuals and families achieve their financial goals. Chris graduated from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro in 1993 with a bachelor’s degree in business. Chris is a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER,™ member of Raymond James Chairman’s Council, and was named in 2007 as one of the “Top 40 advisors under 40” in On Wall Street magazine.
Adam Meinrod, CFP • Senior Vice President, Investments
Adam Meinrod earned a Bachelor of Science degree from the United States Naval Academy in 1986, majoring in economics. He began his career in the financial services industry in 1993 after serving 7 years as a Naval Aviator. For the past 17 years, Adam has specialized in working with families and individuals to achieve their retirement and investment goals. Adam is a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ and member of Raymond James Chairman’s Council. As an active member of the community Adam currently serves on the board of the MaliVai Washington Kids Foundation and mentors a young student through MWKF and the Take Stock in Children Foundation.
Raymond James & Associates, Inc., Member New York Stock Exchange/SIPC 1301 Riverplace Blvd., Suite 1638, Jacksonville, FL 32207 • Tel. 904.858.4097 • meinrodleeper@raymondjames.com
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