According to Certified Financial Planner, Amy Salo, “In order to grow wealth, people should become habitual savers. Once that process has started people should develop and maintain a consistent savings strategy and seek assistance to learn how to protect and preserve this wealth.”  Salo is the Executive Vice President and head of the Wealth Advisory Group, an agency of The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America®, (Guardian) the 155-year-old mutual life insurance company. 

“We know that in accumulating wealth, if you run the numbers, your rate of return will never outpace a healthy increase in savings, and so we want to focus on enhancing a person’s or a family's or business’s ability to save money,” says Salo, who has been a speaker at many industry events, including the Leadership and Management Program (LAMP) at the  annual conference for General Agents and Managers Association (GAMA). GAMA is a financial industry association serving the professional development needs of more than 8,000 field leaders in the insurance, investment and financial services industry. Its members recognize their critical role in finding, building and inspiring the next generation of top performers who will, in turn, lead the industry into the future.

Deeply rooted in Salo’s strategies for helping clients reach their financial goals are these four core principles that guide her firm: accumulation, protection, enhancement and preservation of wealth. Accumulation refers to the basic technique of consistent saving. Protection is a formidable planning tool, enabling prevention of future losses and also potentially saving valuable time that lost money would have needed to compound. “Without proper protection in place, you are practically starting from scratch even if you suddenly realize an excellent rate of return,” Salo warns. A good rate of return cannot recover lost wealth, and so that is why protection is a “really integral part of planning.”

Salo also explains how she and her team enhance their clients’ wealth by “digging into cash flow, looking at how money is being spent.” The firm’s staff continuously reviews its clients’ finances in an effort to implement strategies that could meet or exceed their clients’ goals. This careful evaluation is the beginning process for building long term wealth for the client and for future generations.

“We want to understand what the desired outcome may be for a family, or for the person who generated that original wealth – and then tailor a plan that allows them to live the very best life today, take advantage of the growth that they experienced, but also provide future generations, causes or organizations, the strongest foundations possible for the most optimal way to transfer or transition that wealth forward,” Salo states emphatically.

Wealth Advisory Group utilizes The Living Balance Sheet® to help their clients meet their goals. The Living Balance Sheet® displays a client’s financial holdings based upon information and valuations provided directly by the client or by electronic feeds from the client’s financial institutions.  Salo characterizes this tool as “a game changer” for her firm. The Living Balance Sheet® is “an aggregation tool that will connect to just about every financial institution in the country.” Each of the firm’s clients are assigned their own unique website that includes a vault for their own confidential documents. These sites are linked to all of the clients’ financial institutions, allowing the client and financial representatives access to all of their accounts ranging from savings to retirement plans to mortgages and other insurance products.  Having this snapshot  of accounts enables each client to have a team of specialized advisors constantly reviewing the daily progress of their financial plan.

These experts can review a client’s financial life all on a single page.  Each team member, within “30 seconds” of answering the phone, can access that information and assist each caller from an informed perspective.

According to Salo, her long term goal is to positively meet the needs of all current and future clients by providing them with the financial security how, when, and where clients prefer.

For more information, visit: www.wagroupllc.com

The Living Balance Sheet® (LBS) and the LBS logo are registered service marks of The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America (Guardian), New York, NY. © Copyright 2005-2015, The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America

The Living Balance Sheet® displays the financial holdings identified by the client based upon information and valuations provided directly by the client or by electronic feeds from the client’s financial institutions.  Valuations provided by electronic feeds reflect the most current information provided by the financial institution as of the date and time noted, but can reflect valuations from an earlier date and time.

Amy Salo is a Registered Principal and Financial Advisor of Park Avenue Securities, LLC (PAS), 355 Lexington Ave., 9th Fl., New York, NY 10017, 212-541-8800. Securities products and advisory services offered through PAS, member FINRA, SIPC.  Financial Representative of The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America (Guardian), New York, NY. PAS is an indirect, wholly owned subsidiary of Guardian. Wealth Advisory Group LLC is not an affiliate or subsidiary of PAS or Guardian.  
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