by Christine Graf
Clifton Park-based Hedley & Co., CPAs, provides tax and accounting services to individuals and small and mid-size businesses. Founded by Kevin Hedley, a CPA with 30 years of experience, the firm also offers Internal Revenue Service and New York State Department of Taxation and Finance representation to clients.
HK Wealth Management, the financial planning arm of the business, focuses on a wholistic approach to financial planning offering investment services, retirement planning, insurance, estate planning and how this all integrates with the clients tax situation.
“For regulatory purposes, the businesses have to be separate, but they work in tandem,” said Matthew Burnell, Financial Advisor at HK Wealth Management and tax accountant at Hedley & Co., CPAs. “For most of our investment clients, we also prepare their taxes. We’re more than just a broker doing their investments.”
According to Burnell, HK Wealth Management prepares comprehensive financial plans that are tailored to the specific needs of each individual client.
“We work with individual investment accounts and retirement accounts. We run some smaller 401k and retirement plans for local businesses, and we also help with estate planning as well as a small amount of life insurance.”
Depending on the size of the account, financial advisors meet quarterly, semi-annually, or annually with clients. In the interim, advisors are always available to answer questions.
Although the majority of HK Wealth Management’s investment clients are also Hedley & Co. tax clients, the company also provides investment services to clients who have their taxes done elsewhere.
“Usually, what will happen is that we will meet with a client and see if it’s a good fit based on what they need,” said Burnell. “Often, the person is retiring and wants to roll over a 401k or a 403b from their employer. Many times, they will be interviewing a few different advisors, and what we do is lay out a proposal for what we would do for their investments.”
For clients who enlist the firm to mange their investments, HK Wealth Management does not charge for meetings or to offer advice. For individuals who manage their own investments but are looking for investment advice, the firm charges an hourly rate.
While some people are successful at managing their own investments, Burnell said many individuals could benefit from an outside perspective that HK Wealth Management is able to offer.
“I’ve seen instances where people’s portfolios are very aggressive for their age, and they are concerned about the large swings in their investments when based on their age, They are looking to generate income and their allocation may need to be adjusted. That’s somebody who could probably use our help. We offer free consultations, so it never hurts to come in and have a conversation.”
“Typically, the people that we are able to help the most are the people that don’t want to invest the amount of time it takes to read and learn about investing or need help organizing their finances,” he said. “They just want somebody to do it for them.”
As a general rule of thumb, the company’s fees are based on a common model which is approximately 1 percent of assets under management. This percentage declines for those who have multi-million dollar investment accounts.
On the tax side of the business, Hedley & Co., CPAs prepares individual, business, estate, and trust tax returns. The firm also offers bookkeeping services to small businesses.
“Our specialty is small businesses,” said Burnell. “We’re a smaller company. We have ten employees, and everyone works in tandem. If you come here, you will know who we are. You won’t be talking to a different person every time. You will know the person who is working on your return.”
For more information, visit hedleycpa.com and www.hkwmg.com