Those may not be terms that you know anything about right now. This may be because many financial planners and wealth managers focus only on investment accounts. While managing your investments and planning for retirement are very important and a large part of what we do here at Acorn Financial, your investments are not the only thing that matters.
 
As comprehensive financial planners, it is also our duty to review the entire financial picture. One area that a lot of people tend to skip over is estate planning.
 
Having a well thought out estate plan can be the difference between ensuring your wishes are effortlessly and fully executed upon your passing or leaving your family with a very complicated puzzle that may take months or years to piece back together.
 
Take a look at these articles about the importance of a good estate plan:

Get ahead of your estate planning
10 Things Estate Planning Can Do for You

-Eric P. Scruggs, CFP

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tel. 703.293.3100        

Acorn Financial Services Announces Its Move to Reston, VA

Reston, Va., October 16, 2014 – Acorn Financial Services announces its move to 1875 Campus Commons Drive, Suite 100, Reston, Virginia.

“We have greatly enjoyed all of our years in the Fairfax office and we are looking forward to this exciting new phase in the growth of our organization.  We are moving into a new, larger office space that will accommodate Financial Planners, Estate Planning Attorneys, CPAs, and Insurance Specialists.  This move to an upscale, modern office space will enable us to better serve the planning needs of our clients as we continue to grow our team”, says James Gambaccini, managing partner at Acorn Financial Services.

Over the past few years, the number of financial advisors in the firm has grown substantially.  Collectively, Acorn Financial Services takes a holistic approach to organizing and simplifying their client’s goals and objectives.  At Acorn Financial, team members are dedicated to working in their client’s best interests and they are committed to maintaining open communication with their clients at all times.  They provide proactive, high-level service and consistently deliver advice that is suitable, unbiased, and timely.  They strive to deliver quality service to develop trust and to use their knowledge and experience to create value.

ABOUT ACORN FINANCIAL

Founded in 1996, Acorn Financial Services is a comprehensive financial planning firm now based in Reston, VA.  The firm takes a holistic approach to organizing and simplifying client’s financial goals and objectives.  Employing a highly customized process, the firm aims to thoroughly understand the complexities of each client’s unique situation and how all of the pieces fit together.  The firm is founded on three core principles: 1) Maintaining honest, transparent, and open communication; 2) providing proactive, high-level client service; and 3) Consistently delivering advice that is suitable, unbiased and timely.

October 2014 marked the beginning of a new chapter for Acorn Financial Services. The group officially relocated their main office to a newly built space in Reston, VA.  The firm has grown substantially over the past few years and the move to a larger space solidified the team’s ability to better meet the needs of their financial planning clients.  The new office space and the additional team members have equipped Acorn Financial to continue to provide holistic planning services designed to organize their client’s goals and objectives.

The move to the new office also coincided with the organization’s Annual Oktoberfest event. With over 100 clients in attendance the event was a terrific success and a wonderful introduction to the new location.

Friday, August 22, 2014 – Article by Hilary Johnson.
James Gambaccini was recently quoted on a Reuters article on How Investment Advisers can win DIY clients.

The pre-retirement phase of clients’ working lives is the primary focus of most financial advisors. But it is possible to build a thriving practice in the retirement income planning market even after clients stop working.

Here is James Gambaccini’s approach to retirement income planning as illustrated in the Financial Planning article Specialized Practice: Retirement Income Planning.

WealthManagement.com/Aug 21, 2014

James Gambaccini is featured in this Wealth Management article, Niche Play.  Advisors who target a niche, often one based on a particular profession, often stand a better chance of growing a business. Printed article on REP Magazine will hit stands late September.

This summer, Acorn Financial Services had the pleasure of having 4 sets of extra hands to help us migrate to “the cloud”… It wasn’t always fun and games, our lovely interns had the tedious task of scanning & labeling endless folders, moving furniture, picking up lunches, stuffing envelopes and updating our new database.  On the rare days that things were slow around the office, we all shared stories over lunch…and sometimes, they even got to participate in fun activities outside the office (Bowling, Nats Games, Golf Outings, Yard Sales and go-kart racing).

We would like to take this opportunity to thank them for the hard work that they put in over the summer.  Our youngest intern, Dillon Foley will be a Freshman at Wake Forest University (NC), Evelyn Rivera (Patty’s sister) & Sahar Zamani (Heela’s sister) will be starting their Sophomore year at Northern Virginia College and our oldest intern, Delaney Besecker will be starting her Senior year at St. Joseph’s University (PA). We are sure going to miss you guys!  Best of luck this year, we look forward to hearing about your new experiences.

We wanted to take this time to provide you with a brief refresher on market cycles.  With the total U.S stock market and international markets up more than 193% and 124% respectively since their lows of March 2009, patient long-term investors — like you — certainly have much to celebrate.

While strong bull markets like these can have a major impact on your portfolio, one of the biggest determinants of the success or failure of an investment portfolio — in our experience — is simply this: emotions.

As this Cycle of Market Emotions chart illustrates, it is all too easy to let emotions guide how we react to market movements. Exuberance or panic can cause us to buy high or sell low — and thereby potentially compromise, even derail, our long-term financial plans. Sadly, we can’t predict the future, and were skeptical of those who try. But since 1926, we’ve seen down markets in America (as measured by the S&P 500) occur about 27% of the time.¹ And this isn’t necessarily a bad thing.  Periodic market declines are the necessary and normal price of successful investing. You can’t earn the long-term historical returns of global markets without experiencing some ups and downs along the way. To state the obvious, if there was no risk, there’d likely be no return. Our role as your Advisors is to help you manage through bear and bull markets and keep you on track towards what matters most — achieving your long-term goals. We work with you to do this in at least three crucial ways: •   Rebalancing your portfolio periodically so it stays aligned with your goals •   Making sure emotions and short-term thinking don’t compromise your future •   Not trying to outguess markets We would like to set aside some time for us to go over any questions you may have. We’d also like to review how you are doing in terms of your wealth plan and investment portfolio, as well as your progress towards your goals. We want to make sure you are well positioned, no matter what the markets are doing. As always, I encourage you to call us at (703) 293-3100 if you ever have any questions or items you want to discuss further or if you want additional perspective on your portfolio and why we invest the way we do.

CRSP data provided by the Center for Research in Security Prices, University of Chicago. The S&P data are provided by Standard & Poor’s Index Services Group. MSCI data copyright MSCI 01/2014, all rights reserved. Cycle of Emotions Chart created by Loring Ward 01/2014.  ¹There were 24 down calendar years out of the 88 total calendar years tracked by the S&P 500. 24/88 = 0.2737.

Contact: Eric P. Scruggs, CFP^®
Phone: 703.293.3100

ERIC P. SCRUGGS BECOMES LATEST CFP® AT ACORN FINANCIAL

For Immediate Release

ERIC P. SCRUGGS, CFP^®, Financial Advisor at Acorn Financial Services in Fairfax,VA has been authorized by the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards (CFP Board) to use the CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ and CFP^® certification marks in accordance with CFP Board certification and renewal requirements. Mr. Scruggs has worked at Acorn Financial Services since 2012 and is responsible for comprehensive planning and analysis to help clients achieve their goals.

The CFP^® marks identify those individuals who have met the rigorous experience and ethical requirements of the CFP Board, have successfully completed financial planning coursework and have passed the CFP^® Certification Examination covering the following areas:  the financial planning process, risk management, investments, tax planning and management, retirement and employee benefits, and estate planning.  CFP^® professionals also agree to meet ongoing continuing education requirements and to uphold CFP Board’s Code of Ethics and Professional Responsibility, Rules of Conduct and Financial Planning Practice Standards.

CFP Board is a nonprofit certification organization with a mission to benefit the public by granting the CFP^® certification and upholding it as the recognized standard of excellence for personal financial planning.  CFP Board owns the certification marks CFP^®, Certified Financial Planner™ and federally registered CFP (with plaque design) and CFP (with flame design) in the U.S., which it awards to individuals who successfully complete initial and ongoing certification requirements.  CFP Board currently authorizes more than 69,000 individuals to use these marks in the United States.  For more about CFP Board, visit www.CFP.net.

abc News/July 16, 2014
James Gambaccini is featured in this abc News article, 5 Money Saving Tips for Exchanging Currency.  Headed overseas for summer vacation? It’s easy to get hit with extra fees and expensive exchange rates when switching currencies.