Business Profile: Financial Asset Management Corp., Chappaqua
There’s a lot more to planning your financial future than picking the right stocks or mutual funds.
In an era when there are more products to choose from and the decisions to be made have become increasingly complicated, handling finances and planning for the years ahead have never been more important.
Led by principal and senior financial planner Scott Kahan, Financial Asset Management Corp. makes sure its clients have the personalized attention they need to not only manage and grow their portfolio, but to make certain it is consistent with their goals, lifestyle and temperament.
For Kahan, a Chappaqua resident, it’s about helping people make the right decisions for themselves and their families.
“The idea of being able to help people, and when clients come in and we do a data gathering and they bring all their documents, people tell me when they walk out they feel better right from the beginning because they left all the worries on my table, and we can help them,” he said.
Kahan, a 30-year professional who founded Financial Asset Management in 1986, said his practice provides the road map for where a client wants to go. Not only are there a full range of investment products, but Kahan, part of a team of four professionals, makes sure that each client is protected with the proper insurance, including life and disability coverage, estate documents and the critical three- to six-month emergency cash fund on hand.
He’s aware that financial planning is an emotional issue. But it’s more about managing lives, not money, he said. Two families could have seemingly identical circumstances but based on myriad factors could have very different strategies devised for them.
“That’s the financial planning process and that’s financial planning, sitting down with somebody,” said Kahan, whose firm manages about $150 million and has offices in downtown Chappaqua, which opened in September, and Manhattan. “What are your goals? What are your objectives? When do you want to retire? Do you want to pay for college for your child? Do you want to buy a house? Whatever they are, both short term, intermediary and long term.”
Kahan said he wants his firm to be held to a higher standard. Registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Financial Asset Management’s fee structure isn’t based on the common arrangement of roughly 1 percent of a client’s assets. Instead, clients pay a retainer fee that is based on their net wealth, not including real estate, and that fee is locked in for three years.
Under the more conventional fee structure, there could be a conflict of interest, he said. For example, for a particular client who is buying a house it may be the correct decision for them to make a larger down payment, but that would affect the planner’s commission.
Kahan, a Syracuse University graduate, briefly worked for an insurance company out of college, but disliked what he saw. In the 1980s, financial planning as a career was still in its infancy, and many planners and firms were steering clients to investments that weren’t necessarily in their best interests.
“I never wanted to work for a big firm because what I saw was it was all about what I’m selling, and it was not about what was right for the client,” Kahan said.
In 1986, he started Financial Asset Management in Manhattan. Today, there are a vast amount of choices, including mutual funds with varying fee levels, exchange traded funds and all sorts types of alternative investments. Throw in the volume of information available at everyone’s fingertips and how people reacted to the 2008-09 market implosion, and there’s bound to be confusion. But Kahan hopes to take the intimidation level out of planning.
“(Financial) planning is a process to get from one point to another in life and all the stops along the way,” he said.”We help clients make the right decisions.”
Kahan’s Chappaqua office is located at 26 S. Greeley Ave. You can reach Financial Asset Management Corp. at 914-238-8900 or visit www.famcorporation.com.
Martin has more than 30 years experience covering local news in Westchester and Putnam counties, including a frequent focus on zoning and planning issues. He has been editor-in-chief of The Examiner since its inception in 2007. Read more from Martin’s editor-author bio here. Read Martin’s archived work here: https://www.theexaminernews.com/author/martin-wilbur2007/
