Financial Coaching with Raph
HOW IT WORKS
- This website was created to provide you with all the necessary resources to invest without incurring any additional costs and align your portfolio with best market practices.
- That said, I understand that sometimes individual sessions are very helpful. Based on my readers’ feedback and demand for coaching sessions, I have created this service.
- We can perform the sessions in English, French or Polish. Investors are based all around the World. We adapt the session to your background and level of technical knowledge.
- We offer one-hour sessions, but in case you would like to focus on a few short questions, we also do offer 30-minute calls.
- As part of the service, we will point you to additional internal and external reading materials targeted to your specific needs.
- We consistently receive excellent feedback from individuals opting for coaching.
Here is the full analysis
What is financial coaching?
We empower you to manage your Own portfolio
You become Skilled and informed.
My goal is to make you independent, based on sound investment principles, my professional experience, and evidence from academia. I provide guidance on best market practices, and empower you with knowledge and show tools to use to succeed. The fee is only related to educating, expanding and supporting your financial success.
But What You do with your money is completely up to you.
However, I do not provide financial advice. I do not provide securities recommendation, sell any investment products or take away responsibility from your investing. In plain language – I won’t manage your money.
But I am also not affiliated with any Asset Manager. I only guide you in your best interest, unlike some financial advisors that often receive incentives from Asset Managers. In Europe, these retrocession fees are very common. The payments are often done discreetly and are not disclosed to you – the client – although they use client funds to pay the fees.
What I can and cannot do for you
we provide coaching, not financial advice
We provide Financial Coaching. A Coach is:
We do Not provide financial advice. A Financial Advisor:
- Trained but not regulated
- Skilled at reviewing your overall financial situation and goals
- Able to help you develop a financial plan to achieve those goals
- Happy to discuss the pros and cons of various financial products but can’t recommend a specific one for you
- Going to charge for their time
- May provide generic ETF Tax optimisation guidance, but no other tax/legal advice
- Is regulated
- May provide Specific securities recommendations
- May sell investment product
- May Provide tax or legal advice
- Is going to charge a fixed or management fee, typically 1.5-2% of their client’s assets with initial fees on top
- May be conflicted, as he may receive commissions from Asset managers
We provide Financial Coaching. A Coach is:
- Trained but not regulated
- Skilled at reviewing your overall financial situation and goals
- Able to help you develop a financial plan to achieve those goals
- Happy to discuss the pros and cons of various financial products but can’t recommend a specific one for you
- Going to charge for their time
- May provide generic ETF Tax optimisation guidance, but no other tax/legal advice
We do Not provide financial advice. A Financial Advisor:
- Is regulated
- May provide Specific securities recommendations
- May sell investment product
- May Provide tax or legal advice
- Is going to charge a fixed or management fee, typically 1.5-2% of their client’s assets with initial fees on top
- May be conflicted, as he may receive commissions from Asset managers
Who is the session with?
raph - An Experienced investment professional
The sessions are currently exclusively held with Raph, the founder of the website.
Raph has a 15-year experience in the Asset Management Industry. He worked for some of the most prestigious names in the financial industry in London and Paris. He managed multi-billion Multi-Asset portfolios and led Special Situation projects in multiple jurisdictions, including during the Global Financial Crisis and the European Debt Crisis. Raph holds an MSc in Financial Engineering and is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA).
Who is the session FOR?
Beginners or Advanced investors from any country.
Most coaching participants come from the EU or the UK. But we have consistent demand from all around the world. We provided coaching sessions to individual investors stretching from Guatemala to Japan. We adapt to your level of knowledge and complexity of your portfolio, whether you’re a beginner or a more experienced investor. We explain Golden-retriever-style portfolio management to School Teachers, or Banker-style Factor Investing to PhD University Professors in Engineering.
HELD Coaching SessionS
Format
We offer a couple of session formats: 1-hour sessions, where we draft and validate an agenda with you to make sure we prioritise the topics to your needs, and 30-minutes Q&A calls – to cover urgent questions you may have. Sessions may be held in English, French or Polish.
30-Minute Q&A Sessions
1-Hour Coaching Calls
- Available to Beginners and More Advanced Investors
- You Submit Your Questions before the call
- We Hold A Coaching Session
- Available to Beginners and More Advanced Investors
- You Submit Questions And/OR Spreadsheets For Our Review before the call
- Based on your inputs, We draft An Agenda And validate with you to prioritise topics correctly
- We Hold A Coaching Session
- We Prepare a Follow-Up Document With Additional Reading
30-Minute Q&A Sessions
- Available to Beginners and More Advanced Investors
- You Submit Your Questions before the call
- We Hold A Coaching Session
1-Hour Coaching Calls
- Available to Beginners and More Advanced Investors
- You Submit Questions And/OR Spreadsheets For Our Review before the call
- Based on your inputs, We draft An Agenda And validate with you to prioritise topics correctly
- We Hold A Coaching Session
- We Prepare a Follow-Up Document With Additional Reading
Pricing
One-hour sessions cost €237, while 30-minutes Q&A sessions are charged €147. For clients in the UK, we are required to additionally charge VAT. If you have any doubts, or any coaching-related queries, please contact [email protected].
FAQ & Case studies
FAQ
Below are some of the most frequently asked questions. If you have any other concerns, don’t hesitate to reach out to us at [email protected]:
The sessions are available for any Global Investors in either:
- English
- French
- Polish
We are still brushing up our German and Japanese skills!
A significant part of our clients are professionals in the Tech sector, Lawyers or Doctors that want to avoid costly mistakes when investing.
We also coach 25-30 year old young professionals that want to maximise assets for early retirement. We also have a large group of entrepreneurs that e.g. receive large lump sums after selling their company and want to invest it in financial markets. We speak to Crypto millionaires that want to reduce their risks.
Finally, some of our coaching clients are in their 40s or 50s and want to set up customised, income-producing portfolios or create Bond ladders for their retirement.
Most of the coached investors are in the 25–60 year old range.
Beginners often ask us:
- Asset Allocation – What investments do I need to take into consideration for e.g. Taking a Sabbatical, buying a House or saving for Early Retirement?
- Investing Timing – I fear that investing a lump sum in this market may have a negative impact on my returns. How can timing of buying ETFs affect my performance?
- Brokers – What are the pro and cons of investing with a Bank? Why should I diversify brokers? What are the safety risks? What are the different fee types charged by brokers and how to reduce them?
- Risks – What are some risks of portfolio diversifiers like Gold or Crypto?
- Avoiding Extra Costs – I have shortlisted a few ETFs, can you help me to compare them before I decide which one to buy?
- Benchmarking – What are educated investors doing in a similar situation to mine?
We are flexible. For example, answering some of these questions could help you avoid very costly mistakes:
- Challenging My Portfolio – Here is my portfolio – what am I missing? What could derail my strategy?
- Living Off My Portfolio – I am investing for a specific goal e.g. Early Retirement, what is the research saying about e.g. the amount I need to have accumulated, how much can I withdraw annually? What are some calculators available and how to run them? What are the assumptions/shortcomings of these models?
- Accelerating My Understanding – What are inflation linked Bonds? How are they different to Nominal Bond ETFs? What makes them outperform? Why do some investors add small cap value stocks to their portfolios? I want to exclude Tobacco companies from my portfolio – what are my options? How to apply Factor Investing?
- Portfolio Maintenance – How can I diversify my investments? What is historically highly correlated so that I can consider removing it to keep my portfolio simple? How do I perform rebalancing? Does frequency matter?
- Reducing Risks & Broker Pro/Cons – I want to understand the risks of investments – what are the different measures and how does it impact me? What are the risks of different types of brokerage accounts?
- Comparing Equivalent ETFs – I have certain constraints in my tax-wrapper and can only select certain funds (e.g. I live in France and limited to specific synthetic ETFs). Which ETF characteristics should I pay attention to?
No. We do not provide financial advice, and Stock selection is not part of this service.
Some considerations are included below. For more details, consult your regulator’s website.
A financial coach is:
- Trained but not regulated
- Skilled at reviewing your overall financial situation and goals
- Able to help you develop a financial plan to achieve those goals
- Happy to discuss the pros and cons of various financial products but can’t recommend a specific one for you
- Comfortable working with anyone, whatever their situation
- Going to charge for their time
A financial adviser is:
- Regulated and authorised by the regulator to recommend specific products to clients or is independent and able to offer ‘whole of market’ solutions
- Often, going to charge a fixed or management fee, typically 1.5-2% of their client’s assets with initial fees on top.
We are proud to say that our coaching service has empowered a number of clients to reconsider their financial advisers’ offerings. From our clients’ feedback, in a number of cases, clients were overcharged, and offered unsuitable products, often due to conflicts of interest. However, this is not a rule. The best choice between a financial coach and adviser depends on an individual’s unique circumstances, including their financial literacy, time availability, comfort with managing their finances, and complexity of their financial situation.
Get a list of questions, and we can go through them in detail during the session. I understand that every investor will have different needs, and that’s why I tailor my session completely to the individual’s requirement.
So whether you want to discuss your existing portfolio, gain the knowledge and skills to start investing, or simply have some specific questions you would like to ask me, a coaching session will be a good choice for you.
We offer a couple of session formats:
- 1-hour sessions – For those sessions we draft and validate an agenda with you to make sure we prioritise the topics to your needs. You will fill out a form after payment.
- 30-minutes Q&A calls – to cover urgent questions you may have. We will request the questions you want to cover.
We offer a couple of session formats:
- 1-hour sessions – For those sessions we draft and validate an agenda with you to make sure we prioritise the topics to your needs. You will fill out a form after payment.
- 30-minutes Q&A calls – to cover urgent questions you may have. We will request the questions you want to cover.
Yes, if you opt for the 1-hour session, you will receive a document after our call with recommended reading related to your specific questions.
It may take 2-3 weeks to find a suitable slot in periods of high demand. However, we try to accommodate your needs and try to find a slot suitable for both of us as soon as possible.
Yes, some of our coaching clients have shared reviews on Google.
It depends on your needs. We will share a form with you to best structure your questions so that you get the most out of the session. For a number of our readers, that gets them past their immediate concerns with investing. But we can proudly say that even more often they come back for more sessions, once they realise that the opportunity costs of not getting a session – through higher expenses or mistakes later in their journey – far outweigh the nominal cost paid for a session.
We use Google Meet. A link will be shared ahead of the session. We can also accommodate other videoconference services if you have a strong preference. A couple of sessions were also conducted via phone.
Beginner Case Study - Felipe from Argentina
Felipe works for an American Firm, but he’s based in Argentina. Due to the lack of tax agreement between his country and the U.S., he chose to invest through UCITS ETFs. That brought him to us, in order to understand how to invest most cost-efficiently.
Felipe was looking to understand how to determine the right amounts of Stocks and Bonds in his portfolio. Raph provided ways to look at Asset Allocation, explained broker counterparty risk, especially given his location, and Value vs Growth Stocks diversification. Felipe was able to understand ETF regulation in Europe and how he can reduce withholding taxes, and what are realistic expectations for long term portfolio returns based on his asset allocation. We also discussed risks of Cryptocurrencies and how Gold fits into his overall portfolio. Felipe also learned how he may be able to live off his investment portfolio in a couple of decades, and how he can simulate simple scenarios through online tools.
Impact: The session allowed Felipe to increase diversification, make his portfolio more robust, reduce taxes and Broker counterparty risk.
Felipe also set up an account to buy a property. However, in the next couple of years inflation may erode his savings, and he wanted to understand the trade-offs of putting money in a savings account and short-term Bond ETFs. He was also concerned about the fluctuation of currencies. We also discussed how deflation and inflation can affect the value of his long-term portfolio that he set up after our first session.
Impact: Immediate returns due to moving cash to interest yielding financial products. Understanding of Bank vs ETF counterparty risk. Felipe also has more knowledge about potential impact of deflation and how rebalancing benefits his simple, yet efficient portfolio.
Experienced Investor Case Study - Victor from Belgium
Victor works for a Silicon Valley’s top Tech firm, but he’s based in Belgium. His net worth was very concentrated in his employers’ company shares. He also had a very inefficient pension fund and was looking to optimise Broker selection. Raph suggested to Victor numerous options to allocate funds in a way that is in line with best market practices while reducing his costs in the long run. Use the below toggles to get a feel of what Victor achieved throughout the sessions.
Raph reviewed the portfolio, asset allocation and pointed to potential weaknesses that may derail Victor’s Early Retirement plan. We discussed how much can realistically be withdrawn from the portfolio during retirement, limits to the historical models, like the 4% rule, and what can be done to make the plan more resilient. Victor works in the Tech sector, and recently sold his vested shares, which accounted for the vast majority of his net worth. Equipped with academic evidence and data from the session, Victor decided to deploy the lump sum in pre-determined amounts over a number of months through diversified ETFs. Raph also provided objective (not personalised) guidance related to ETF selection from tax perspective. Personal taxes were not discussed, as they are out of scope. We also briefly discussed Bond ETF selection, whether setting up a Bond ladder is worth the efforts, and the pros and cons of Small Cap Value Factor Investing.
Impact: The session potentially accounted for significant long-term savings given tax and fee reduction, and likely a more robust portfolio to certain shocks.
After reviewing follow-up materials from the first session, Victor was equipped with the knowledge to deploy the funds. He shortlisted seven Brokers in Belgium and asked Raph to provide information on them. Prior to the session, Raph circulated a document showing a comparison of fees and some objective considerations related to safety. Victor decided to pick two of them based on his own research and inputs from the session. One of them didn’t offer a Global ETF amongst the cheapest option, which was Victor’s preference. Raph provided a few candidates that can be used to replicate such exposure, at low cost.
Impact: Broker cost considerations, including hidden fees like custody, may have saved considerable amounts in the long run.
Prior to being in the Tech sector, Victor worked for an institution, where some of his retirement funds are now locked with a specific provider. Unfortunately, the available funds are only active. The selection is complicated, as it includes mutual funds with changing strategies, benchmarks, high fees, and asset classes and strategy implementations (e.g. based on target volatility) that Victor is not familiar with. Victor and Raph discussed criteria to narrow down the candidates, and accounting for Raph’s inputs, Victor was able to instruct the pension provider which funds to buy. He also voiced certain concerns related to these funds, that Raph highlighted during the session.
Impact: The session likely accounted for significant long-term savings in fees, and a possibly better match with Victor’s needs.
What HAPPENS NEXT?
- Read the Terms & Conditions – Please ensure you have read and agree to our coaching terms of service.
- You proceed with booking – Proceed with the below coaching request form and payment.
- You fill out the Information Form – After payment, you be redirected to a form that will inform us of your needs and your questions.
- We schedule the session – We typically review your request within 3 working days. We will then contact you to arrange a coaching session at a convenient time and request any additional details, if needed, to prepare the agenda for the session.
- We agree on the agenda – We will circulate the agenda, typically, 24h to 48h before the session in case you want to modify any topics or reprioritise the questions.
