An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. It is an old saying, and one perhaps even tritely overused in society. Apply it to the financial world though, and that pound of cure should more accurately be increased to a ton of cure – curated precisely for avoiding loss – specifically loss of value in retirement portfolios.

Preventing that kind of loss is what drives the work of Cubby Bice. He is the president of Bice Wealth Management, based in Mooresville, N.C.
“I tell my clients I am a preventer,” Bice said.

To explain what that means, he brings up the analogy in the recent hit movie “Taken” starring Liam Neeson. His character must rescue a somewhat estranged daughter from kidnappers. The daughter asks him where he was when she was growing up and her father tells her that he was a preventer – someone who stops bad things from happening yet rarely, if ever, comes out from behind the scenes.

Bice made the comparison that, similar to foiled plots of terrorism, people outside of counter-terrorist circles are only informed after the fact. He noted that plots to blow up gas lines running underneath JFK Airport, attempts to take down the Brooklyn Bridge, a scheme to fly an airplane into the Golden Gate Bridge and more – have all been thwarted by preventers.
“All of those were prevented, and when you read about them in the newspaper, you might think about it for a day, but you move on,” Bice said. “When you think about 9/11, which did occur, and its devastating impact, you don’t move on so easily.”

Bice believes the concept carries over into the financial world and the work of his firm in particular. He said that his biggest successes are the ones in which that most people have no idea he was even involved.

Yet this protective approach does not indicate a lack of communication with his clients. Bice is highly committed to a constant dialogue with the client families served by his firm. He sends a weekly market review email newsletter detailing his thoughts and reactions to market activity in the week just completed, along with his expectations and predictions for the coming week. Changes in the tax law, moves within the economy or political activity with economic implications, all prompt Bice to write a white paper that he sends to every client. Each quarter, clients receive updates on their account activity as well as tax law reviews. He uses a systematic schedule of two to four face-to-face meetings per year to stay informed of what is happening in the lives of his clients and to keep them up-to-date on the status of their accounts.

He isn’t just serious or religious when it comes to client communication: he’s committed – and Bice expects the same from his clients. And he isn’t afraid to end his relationship with clients who don’t take this level of commitment seriously, either. “I have had to fire clients who do not take the responsibility of being informed about their finances seriously enough,” Bice said. “They may have said to me, well, everything is okay, you are doing okay and I don’t really need to meet. That is just not acceptable for this firm. This is not something that you can just set on autopilot.”
When all the emails, mailing and meetings are tallied up, Bice said his clients are receiving at least 100 touches per year from his firm. Some of those touches are friendly check-ups and others are reality checks.

Bice gives an example of a client saying that he or she would like to retire in ten years. He then gives the client specifications of what they have to do financially speaking – including giving up their daily trip to the drive-thru coffee stand and other seemingly insignificant minor luxuries. This level of detail creates a tally with impact. It’s the tough truth he is providing, but it also provides a solid platform on which clients can make informed decisions and set realistic expectations, even if they don’t always get a warm and fuzzy feeling after hearing Bice’s advice.
“They might say to me, ‘Well, I don’t really want to do that,’ ’’ Bice relates. “So then I have to tell them that we might have to redefine goals because they cannot have both.”
This is where Bice’s philosophy that money is not one’s wealth enters the picture. Instead, Bice believes that time is one’s wealth, and that money is simply the tool allowing choices to be made regarding how to spend that time pursuing the passions of life.

“What we at Bice Wealth Management endeavor to do is help our clients live a life of passion by helping to refocus the client on what is important to them in their life,” Bice said. “They are doing those things that make them want to get out of bed in the morning.”

Learn more regarding Bice Wealth Management online at www.bicewealth.com