Working With Us - California Street Wealth Management

Your investments are important. Advisory Services can help them receive the care they deserve.
Your investments can be professionally managed or a Financial Advisor can help you manage them yourself.
Wells Fargo Advisors programs allow flexibility to help you reach your goals.

Managing investments

A lot may be riding on your investments: retirement, children’s or grandchildren’s education, your financial legacy. Your investment plan should get the attention it deserves.

Some investors enjoy managing their own plan. They are confident in their abilities and have the time to research and monitor their investments’ performance.

You’re not alone if you don’t fall into that category. Like many others, you may want to work with a professional by taking advantage of an advisory program.

Using an advisory program

You can save time and have a professional manage your investments when you use the services of an advisory program.

Advisory programs generally fall into two categories. One gives another party the power to make decisions for your account’s day-to-day management. This means you can allow a portfolio manager — in some cases your Financial Advisor — to decide when to buy, sell, and hold investments without consulting you.

Your portfolio manager will make decisions based on a variety of factors:

Your long-term objectives
The time you have to reach your objectives
Your risk tolerance

In the other program, you collaborate with your Financial Advisor. We will provide you with objective advice and guidance based on your needs, goals, and today’s investment environment, to help you make your own buy, sell, and hold decisions.

Fee replaces commissions

So how can an advisory account differ from a traditional brokerage account? One difference is how you pay for the services you receive. In an advisory account program, you generally pay a fee. This is often charged on a quarterly basis based on a percentage of your account’s value. In a traditional brokerage account you would pay a commission for each transaction.

Flexible range of alternatives

You can choose which advisory services program you implement. Wells Fargo Advisors offers an array of programs. You can decide what products you would like to have managed, such as mutual funds, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), stocks, bonds, and commodity-based investments.

We can discuss the programs with you and see what fits your situation – and what makes you feel more confident in helping you reach your goals.

Next steps

Decide if you would like some extra help with making your investment decisions.

Make an appointment to talk with us about advisory accounts.

The fees for advisory programs are asset-based and assessed quarterly in advance. There may be a minimum fee to maintain this type of account. Fees include advisory services, performance measurement, transaction costs, custody services, and trading. These fees do not cover the fees and expenses of any underlying exchange traded fund (ETF), closed-end funds, or mutual funds in the portfolio. Advisory accounts are not designed for excessively traded or inactive accounts and are not appropriate for all investors. Please carefully review the Wells Fargo Advisors advisory disclosure document for a full description of our services, including fees and expenses. The minimum account size for these programs is between $10,000 and $2,000,000.

Everyone could use an estate plan – not just the wealthy.
5 documents are essential for many estate plans.
An estate planning attorney and your accountant will work with your Financial Advisor.

Estate planning: a matter of control

You might associate estate planning with famous people you see in the news. In fact, estate planning could be appropriate for everyone.

Consider your assets: bank accounts, investment accounts, 401(k) or 403(b) plan accounts, house, cars, jewelry, and heirlooms. This is your estate and your estate plan can define what you would like to happen to these assets when you die.

An estate plan can also take care of you as you get older or if you become ill or incapacitated. Being wealthy has little to do with it.

If you don’t make your own plan, your family may be left scrambling at an already difficult time. Bottom line: If you don’t decide, someone will decide for you.

Five essential documents

These five documents are often essential to an estate plan:

Will - Instructions for distributing your assets when you die. You will name a personal representative (executor) to pay final expenses and taxes and distribute remaining assets. Name a guardian to raise your minor children if both parents die.
Durable power of attorney – You give a trusted individual management power over your assets if you can’t manage them yourself. This document is effective only while you’re alive.
Health care power of attorney - You choose someone to make medical decisions on your behalf if something were to happen and you can’t make them yourself.
Living will – Shares your intentions about life-sustaining medical measures if you are terminally ill. No one is given authority to speak for you.
Revocable living trust - You can provide for continued management of your financial matters while you are alive, after your death, and even for generations after.

Why beneficiary designations are important

Beneficiary designations can be an easy way to transfer an account or insurance policy when you die. But if you didn’t complete beneficiary designations, or haven’t updated them, they can cause issues with your estate plan.

Designations on forms are often filled out without much thought – but they’re important and deserve your attention. Beneficiary designations on forms like your insurance policy and 401(k) take priority over other estate planning documents, like your will or trust.

Let’s say you specify in your will you want everything to go to your spouse after your death. But you never changed the beneficiary designation on your life insurance policy and it names your ex-spouse. Your ex may end up getting the proceeds.

Turn to a team of professionals

Making the decisions involved with estate planning may seem overwhelming. It doesn’t have to be. You can start by organizing your important documents.

Turn to a team of trusted professionals, including your financial advisor, an estate planning attorney, and your accountant. They know the questions to ask and can help you avoid potential pitfalls.

If you currently don’t have relationships with an attorney and an accountant, we can make some recommendations. We can also discuss our role in the planning process and how you can get started.

Next steps

Make an appointment with us to talk about your estate planning goals.
Start gathering your financial documents.
Check the beneficiary designations on your financial and investment accounts.

Trust services available through banking and trust affiliates in addition to non-affiliated companies of Wells Fargo Advisors.

Wells Fargo Advisors and its affiliate do not provide tax or legal advice. Please consult with your tax and/or legal advisors before taking any action that may have tax and/or legal consequences. Any estate plan should be reviewed by an attorney who specializes in estate planning and is licensed to practice law in your state.

You have many options for investing.
Investments should work together to help you accomplish your financial goals.

Types of investments

Part of the investment planning process is making investment choices that fit your investment strategy. Those investments should work together to help you accomplish your financial goals. We’re dedicated to providing you a wide range of investment products and services to help you meet them.

As an investor, you have many options. Common types of investments include:

Stocks - An investment giving you partial ownership in a company based on the number of shares you purchase. Stocks tend to fluctuate more in the short term, but may perform well over time.
Bonds - An investment that functions as a loan to a government or institution in return for regular interest payments. Bonds can provide more stability than stocks, even though bonds have historically provided lower returns than stocks.
Mutual funds - A fund allowing you to pool your money with others in a professionally managed portfolio. Mutual funds offer diversification through a mix of investments, such as stocks or bonds.¹
Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) - A basket of securities traded throughout the day — just like individual stocks — on a national stock exchange. Like mutual funds, you purchase shares of an overall fund rather than individual investments.¹
Annuities - A contract between you and an insurance company requiring the insurer to make payments to you, either immediately or in the future. You make contributions to the annuity for a guaranteed income stream.²
Brokered certificates of deposit (CDs) - Brokered CDs are issued by banks, purchased in bulk by securities firms and sold to clients. Investors do not receive physical certificates for their brokered CDs, but instead receive a periodic account statement detailing their CD holdings.³ Brokered CDs’ market value may fluctuate over time.

Contact a Financial Advisor to learn more about the types of investments to consider for your portfolio.

Next steps

Understand the variety of investments available.
Talk with your Financial Advisor about investment choices.

¹Investment returns may fluctuate and are subject to market volatility, so that an investor’s shares, when redeemed, or sold, may be worth more or less than their original cost.

²Variable annuities are long-term investments appropriate for retirement funding and are subject to market fluctuations and investment risk. Guarantees are based on the claims-paying ability of the issuing insurance company. Guarantees apply to minimum income from an annuity; they do not guarantee an investment return or the safety of the underlying funds.

³Generally, CDs may not be withdrawn prior to maturity. CDs are FDIC insured up to $250,000 per depositor per insured depository institution for each account ownership category. CDs may be issued by out of state institutions.

Insurance is valuable for employees and owners.
Owners get to retire, too.
You can begin planning now for retirement, selling your company, or the event of your death.

Wells Fargo Advisors provides products and services, available through your Financial Advisor, that help you manage your assets and plan for the future.

Customized products and services for business owners

We are committed to helping you maximize the success and profitability of your business. Our specialized products and services can help give your business the cash flow and support it needs to thrive.

Some of the services we offer and can assist with include:

Employee benefit plans and packages

A competitive employee benefit package helps you attract and keep employees, regardless of the size of your company.

Business owner life insurance

As a business owner, it’s important to consider both replacing the income your family depends on, and also providing funds to pay off business-related liabilities.

Funding a buy-sell agreement

If your business has more than one owner, you need to understand the risks you may face if one of you dies unexpectedly. A buy-sell agreement sets up how ownership of the business may be transferred if one owner dies.

Key person life insurance

Proceeds from this type of business insurance can help offset the loss of sales your business would experience or expenses it may incur if a key person dies.

Succession planning and business exit strategies

It can be helpful to start the succession planning and exit strategy process many years in advance.

Selling a business: There are many options to consider in both the sale and how you will generate income after the sale.
Transferring the business to a family member: There are a variety of succession planning strategies you can use to transfer the business to a family member

Next steps

Make an appointment with us to talk about your business needs.
Talk with your family or partners about insurance or succession planning.
Check the beneficiary designations on your financial and investment accounts.

Insurance products are offered through nonbank insurance agency affiliates of Wells Fargo & Company and are underwritten by unaffiliated insurance companies.