Frequently Asked Questions

Links to Questions:

What is a Get-Acquainted Meeting?

Hegarty Advisors, LLC will do a one hour, free Get-Acquainted Meeting with prospective clients. We will explain our approach and the services we provide. We will answer questions the client may have about our services and philosophy. In return, we ask the client to provide a quick summary of their objectives and current approach to their personal finances. There is no charge or obligation for this meeting. Clients can come alone or as a couple.

What type of services do you provide?

Financial planning is a comprehensive evaluation of a client’s current and future financial state by using currently known variables to predict future cash flows, asset values and withdrawal plans. The key defining aspect of financial planning is that through the financial planning process, all questions, information and analysis will be considered as they impact and are impacted by the entire financial and life situation of the client. Clients purchasing this service will receive a written or an electronic report, providing the client with a detailed financial plan designed to achieve his or her stated financial goals and objectives.

The client always has the right to decide whether or not to act upon our recommendations. If the client elects to act on any of the recommendations, the client always has the right to affect the transactions through anyone of their choosing.

In general, the financial plan will address any or all of the following areas of concern. The client and advisor will work together to select the specific areas to cover. These areas may include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Cash Flow and Debt Management — We will conduct a review of your income and expenses to determine your current surplus or deficit along with advice on prioritizing how any surplus should be used or how to reduce expenses if they exceed your income. Advice may also be provided on which debts to pay off first based on factors such as the interest rate of the debt and any income tax ramifications. We may also recommend what we believe to be an appropriate cash reserve that should be considered for emergencies and other financial goals, along with a review of accounts (such as money market funds) for such reserves, plus strategies to save desired amounts.
• College Savings — Includes projecting the amount that will be needed to achieve college or other post-secondary education funding goals, along with advice on ways for you to save the desired amount. Recommendations as to savings strategies are included, and, if needed, we will review your financial picture as it relates to eligibility for financial aid or the best way to contribute to grandchildren (if appropriate).
• Estate Planning — This usually includes an analysis of your exposure to estate taxes and your current estate plan, which may include whether you have a will, powers of attorney, trusts and other related documents. Our advice also typically includes ways for you to minimize or avoid future estate taxes by implementing appropriate estate planning strategies such as the use of applicable trusts.
  We always recommend that you consult with a qualified attorney when you initiate, update, or complete estate planning activities. We may provide you with contact information for attorneys who specialize in estate planning when you wish to hire an attorney for such purposes. From time-to-time, we will participate in meetings or phone calls between you and your attorney with your approval or request.
• Financial Goals — We will help clients identify financial goals and develop a plan designed to reach them. We will identify what you plan to accomplish, what resources you will need to make it happen, how much time you will need to reach the goal, and how much you should budget for your goal.
• Insurance — Review of existing policies to ensure proper coverage for life, health, disability, long-term care, liability, home and automobile.
• Investment Analysis — This may involve developing an asset allocation strategy to meet clients’ financial goals and risk tolerance, providing information on investment vehicles and strategies, reviewing employee stock options, as well as assisting you in establishing your own investment account at a selected broker/dealer or custodian. The strategies and types of investments we may recommend are further discussed in Item 8 of our firm’s Form ADV Part 2 brochure.
• Retirement Planning — Our retirement planning services typically include projections of your likelihood of achieving your financial goals, typically focusing on financial independence as the primary objective. For situations where projections show less than the desired results, we may make recommendations, including those that may impact the original projections by adjusting certain variables (e.g., working longer, saving more, spending less, taking more risk with investments).
  If you are near retirement or already retired, advice may be given on appropriate distribution strategies to minimize the likelihood of running out of money or having to adversely alter spending during your retirement years.
• Risk Management — A risk management review includes an analysis of your exposure to major risks that could have a significantly adverse effect on your financial picture, such as premature death, disability, property and casualty losses, or the need for long‐term care planning. Advice may be provided on ways to minimize such risks and about weighing the costs of purchasing insurance versus the benefits of doing so and, likewise, the potential cost of not purchasing insurance (“self‐insuring”).
• Tax Planning Strategies — Advice may include ways to minimize current and future income taxes as a part of your overall financial planning picture. For example, we may make recommendations on which type of account(s) or specific investments should be owned based in part on their “tax efficiency,” with consideration that there is always a possibility of future changes to federal, state or local tax laws and rates that may affect your situation.
• Tax Planning Strategies — We provide guidance on choosing benefits with a new employer or during open enrollment. This includes benefits such as the right health insurance and deductible, retirement contribution, health savings account, flex spending, disability, long term care and more. We help manage the client’s full portfolio to include employee’s retirement accounts to properly diversify and maximize reward for a given level of risk

What does it mean to be an independent, fee-only advisor?

Hegarty Advisors, LLC is an independent, fiduciary, fee only advisor with an office in Garden City, NY. Therefore, we sell no product or accept commissions from other financial service firms in order to minimize conflicts of interest. We only recommend investment vehicles and financial products that are most suitable for the client. By being independent, Hegarty Advisors, LLC can select or recommend any product from the market place with low costs that meet the client’s needs. As a fiduciary, it’s our legal obligation to make the client’s needs the priority. Hegarty Advisors, LLC is compensated at a flat rate by the hour or a percentage of assets under management. We only get paid by clients directly. For example, other brokers or wealth managers may receive compensation for selling a certain insurance plan or mutual fund, we do not. We will analyze the client’s holistic needs and assist them in purchasing the right product in the most efficient and cost effective way. Our independent practice allows us to deliver un-compromised and unbiased advice that always has the client’s best interests in mind.

How much does it cost?

Clients have two options to pay Hegarty Advisors, LLC for their service:

• Comprehensive Advice and Investment Management — Hegarty Advisors, LLC will provide comprehensive services including financial planning, tax advice, saving for college, insurance analysis, advice on major financial expenditures, and manage client’s financial portfolio. For these services, we charge a fee based on the Assets Under Management.
• Financial Planning — Hegarty Advisors, LLC will provide services at an hourly rate of $400 to provide a financial plan or advise on a specific financial decision

Where are the meetings?

Hegarty Advisors, LLC is located in Garden City, NY at 1461 Franklin Ave. We can meet in the office at any convenient time including weekday nights and Saturdays. If it’s more convenient for the client, the meeting could be at their home, office, or location of their choice. We prefer a meeting in person and we will travel but we could also do a conference call.

What is Hegarty Advisors, LLC investment approach?

We primarily practice passive investment management and not active management. Passive investing involves building portfolios that are comprised of various distinct asset classes. The asset classes are weighted in a manner designed to achieve a desired relationship between correlation, risk and return. Funds that passively capture the returns of the desired asset classes are placed in the portfolio. The funds that are used to build passive portfolios are typically index mutual funds or exchange traded funds.

Passive investment management is characterized by low portfolio expenses (i.e. the funds inside the portfolio have low internal costs), minimal trading costs (due to infrequent trading activity), and relative tax efficiency (because the funds inside the portfolio are tax efficient and turnover inside the portfolio is minimal).

Hegarty Advisors, LLC investment approach starts out with avoiding procrastination. There is not a substitute for time as compounding allows money to grow exponentially not linearly. The approach is characterized as investing in the right asset classes that are suitable for a client’s time horizon and risk profile, reducing costs by utilizing passive investment products with very low expense ratios, minimizing taxes by using tax saving vehicles, holding certain assets in certain types of accounts, trading less often, and being disciplined to avoid behavioral mistakes. Hegarty Advisors, LLC is also a proponent of methods such as dollar cost averaging and periodic rebalancing of a client’s portfolio in an effort to maximize return potential for a level of risk. Only in special cases would we advocate active management. Active management involves a single manager or managers who employ some method, strategy or technique to construct a portfolio that is intended to generate returns that are greater than the broader market or a designated benchmark. We generally do not find the reward of active management to be worth the cost and risk.

Where are the assets kept?

Hegarty Advisors, LLC primarily uses Charles Schwab as the custodian of the client’s assets. Charles Schwab does not charge Hegarty Advisors, LLC to hold the assets nor do they currently charge any annual account fees or commissions on ETF trades. Clients will have access to their account at any time thru Schwab.com.

What are your credentials, licenses, certifications, and affiliations?

I have an MBA from Johns Hopkins University and a BS from the United States Military Academy.

Kevin is a registered Investment Advisor Representative in the State of New York, CRD # 5110292.

Before starting Hegarty Advisors, Kevin provided financial advice and consulting services for almost twenty years. He started his professional career as a management consultant at PRTM (bought by PricewaterhouseCoopers) where he consulted with Fortune 500 Corporations, the Office of Secretary of Defense, and the U.S. intelligence community including the National Reconnaissance Office and Central Intelligence Agency given his Top Secret Clearance. After management consulting, he advised institutional equity investors at Deutsche Bank for over a decade. He was promoted to Managing Director in less than ten years and was the Head of New York Sales before leaving for UBS. At UBS, he held multiple roles including the Head of New York Advisory with responsibility for specialty sales, corporate access, domestic and international sales in New York. As an equity sales manager and a Chartered Financial Analyst charterholder at Deutsche Bank and UBS, he provided advice to the largest money managers in the world and helped bring dozens of companies to the public markets including GM, Alibaba, Hilton, FitBit, and Avago. Kevin passed the Series 7, 24, and 63 exams.

Prior to Consulting, Kevin served in the U.S. Army as a Captain in the Infantry branch. As an Airborne Ranger qualified officer, he held multiple leadership positions with the 1st Battalion, 8th Regiment of the 4th Infantry Division and the 3rd Infantry Regiment (Old Guard). While in the Old Guard, he was selected for the additional duty of a White House Military Social Aide for President George W. Bush.

Kevin was commissioned into the United States Army upon graduating the United States Military Academy. At West Point, he was the captain of the lacrosse team earning All Patriot League honors for three years, and was selected to play in the North-South College All Star Game.

Kevin is proud to be a member of the National Association of Personal Financial Advisors (NAPFA), Financial Planning Association (FPA); and the Garrett Planning Network (GPN), an international affiliation of independent, fee-only financial planners dedicated to making competent, objective advice accessible to all people.

How do Hegarty Advisors, LLC provide advice?

Hegarty Advisors, LLC will provide a detailed presentation with charts and graphs to the client. We review the presentation in person with the client to answer any questions. We are also available for calls at the client’s convenience or will respond to emails with his advice on specific topics. We will provide quarterly updates to the client consisting of a portfolio statement and a phone call or a meeting to discuss.

How often do Hegarty Advisors, LLC provide advice?

We are available at any time to answer client’s questions when Hegarty Advisors, LCC is managing the client’s assets. Clients should expect to hear from Hegarty Advisors, LLC at a minimum once per quarter but is always available if the client has a specific topic or wants additional advice. For hourly paying clients, we will schedule an appointment or call.