School is starting, the sun is coming up later and going down sooner. Yes, summer is almost over. We hope you have had a great one.
Here at DWM, we’ve all had a super summer. All of us have taken trips, enjoyed family and friends and found some time to relax.
We’ve also been working diligently on various projects for our clients and DWM. Here are some highlights:
- We’ve helped many clients with personalized strategies and solutions impacting their finances and their lives.
- We’ve added new clients, including some Emerging Investors.
- We added a new team member, Mike Baker, the author of last week’s blog on “free trading apps.”
- We’ve added a new equity owner, Parker Ring, CFP®.
- We’re working on upgrading our website.
- We’re getting ready to prepare even more income tax returns for our DWM clients in early 2026.
It’s been busy and we love it!
Here are some details…
- Helping Clients. Our mission is to partner with our clients by providing strategies and solutions for their finances and their lives. We do this through a coordinated program of planning, tax efficiency and sophisticated investment management. Here are few examples of our work over the last few months.
a. We helped a young client couple answer the question: “Should we focus on attaining financial independence as early as possible or should we enjoy a balanced life as we work towards that?”
b. For our clients impacted by Hurricane Helene, we identified a little-known tax opportunity for victims of a federal disaster. We suggested they claim a casualty loss on their amended 2023 tax return, which we prepared, which led to them ultimately recovering almost all of the federal income taxes they paid that year.
c. For our clients who are business owners, we discussed some of the great tax planning opportunities in the new tax bill signed in early July, including the 100% deduction for research and development expenditures, which can apply to almost any business, including DWM.
d. We helped solve an estate planning issue for a couple, both remarried, who were trying to provide enough cash flow as well as an appropriate legacy for their combined children by suggesting use of a QTIP (“Qualified Terminable Interest Property”).
e. We researched and provided a widowed client with information on travel companies that specialize in “Solo Travelers.”
f. And, overall, we continue to provide all of our clients with peace of mind during this chaotic period knowing that DWM is focused on protecting and growing their money, by using sophisticated investment techniques including buffered holdings, diversification, and other methods.
- New Clients. Most of our new clients are referred to us by existing clients. (Please keep those referrals coming!). In the past few months, we worked with four new clients. Two of these new clients are children of existing clients and are part of our Emerging Investor Program. We love working with families and friends of clients. The Emerging Investor Program is aimed at the needs of the younger generation and includes financial analysis and education, budgeting, 401ks, work benefits and other matters. We don’t charge any fee to the “Emerging Investors” until their assets under management exceed $100,000. All four new clients have completed our proprietary DWM Boot Camp Process which covers goal setting, financial planning, income taxes, investments, insurance and estate planning.
- Our new addition, Mike Baker. In May, Mike graduated with Honors from Clemson University with a degree in Finance and Accounting. He started with DWM in late June. His credentials from Clemson were the prerequisite for an interview and he was selected based on our belief that he embodies the culture and values that are the foundation of DWM. These include commitment, adding value, passion, learning, listening, communication, resourcefulness and a conscientious attitude. We are pleased to report that after 6 weeks with DWM, Mike has demonstrated these values every day and we are very pleased with him.
- Parker Ring, equity owner. Four years ago, Parker was in Mike’s spot, having just graduated with honors from Clemson and starting at DWM. Since then, Parker has demonstrated his ability to really focus on providing value to clients and exhibiting the DWM culture and values every day. He has earned his CFP® (Certified Financial Planner). Most importantly, DWM clients love working with Parker. Brett and I believe that expanding ownership to Parker is good for our clients, for Parker, and for the firm. Parker became a shareholder on July 1, 2025.
- Upgrading our website. As we all know, communication is different these days than it was 5 or 10 years ago. We live in an Attention Economy. Almost everyone is in a hurry and wants quick information. So here at DWM, we are trimming down and repackaging the information. To make it easier to understand the very unique story of DWM, what we do for our clients, and how we do it. We hope to have the new website up and running by September or early October.
- Tax Return Preparation is growing for DWM. As many of you know, I started my CPA firm in Chicago 50 years ago. I’ve prepared and reviewed thousands of income tax returns. When Brett and I started DWM 25 years ago, we decided to focus on wealth management, including tax projections, but we left the tax preparation itself to others. Here again, the world has changed. Many CPAs only want to work for large businesses and some of the other firms haven’t been doing a good job for our clients. After receiving many requests for us to prepare our clients” tax returns, we decided a year ago to do that for DWM clients only. We know our clients better than any CPA firm could and we already have much of the information needed. It’s convenient for our clients and us. Besides, we’re more creative than most CPAs. We prepared a total of 80 returns for 2024, including individual, business and trust returns and will likely prepare 120 or more returns for 2025.
Conclusion: We hope you have had a wonderful summer! Thank you for being part of the DWM family…we love our clients and we love what we do!