BRINGING CONFIDENCE AND CALM TO YOUR FINANCIAL PICTURE

WHO WE ARE

Twin Robins is a fee-only, fiduciary financial planning and investment management firm. We are built to deliver a boutique, personal service experience coupled with modern technology and robust resources. We are based in the Brookside neighborhood of Kansas City, Missouri. We proudly serve clients all over the country.

  • We help thriving professionals manage their growing incomes and equity compensation.

  • We help families entering retirement develop a tax-efficient income and investment management strategy.

  • We help busy young families get their finances organized so that they can make smart money decisions with their limited time. 

What services do we provide?

  • We build a complete view of your family goals, career ambitions, and finances (everything with a “$” on it). We identify any gaps and optimize your plan together. We maintain a consistent dialogue with you throughout the year so that we can proactively address important decisions before they become financial problems.

  • Every client brings a unique mix of pre-existing investments, employer plan limitations, income sources, tax considerations, career considerations, and experiences with money. Given this, we typically develop a completely customized investment portfolio to match your unique needs. Below is our methodology for building an investment portfolio for our clients.

  • We build multi-decade tax bracket projections as part of our financial planning process. This serves as an incredibly powerful tool to make informed decisions in the short term that can have an enormous impact in the long term. While we do not perform tax prep in-house, we love collaborating with your accountant to deliver the most possible value.

There are two things we never lose sight of when delivering services:

  1. Your resources (income, savings) should support the very best life for you and your family, not the other way around.

  2. Education is empowering.

We encourage clients to prioritize their personal and family goals and help them invest accordingly. We strive to educate on the “why” of our decisions, so that clients feel empowered by the financial decisions we’re making together.

  • Foundationally, we rely on decades of research when constructing portfolios. Market performance in the short term is near impossible to predict with any degree of consistency, therefore, we do not time markets. We put our energy and resources into carefully building asset class allocations that we believe will drive long term results. We weigh these asset classes in accordance with the risk tolerance and risk capacity of the individual clients we serve.

    We believe that, to a large extent, markets are efficient. Where there is efficiency, we try to achieve market-like returns for the lowest price. Where we believe there is evidence of inefficiency or opportunity over the long term, we modify portfolios accordingly. It is important to note that past performance does not guarantee future results.

  • We maintain awareness of both your personal tolerance for risk, and your personal capacity for risk. We will educate and encourage increasing or decreasing your portfolio risk as needed to strengthen your plan over time.

  • Between your after-tax retirement accounts, pre-tax retirement accounts, and your normal taxable investment accounts, we will allocate the investments we select in the most tax-efficient manner. As your investment values change over time, we allocate them in a way that the distribution (funding your lifestyle, charitable giving, estate events) strives to minimize your tax liability.

    We maintain a dialogue with you so that we can proactively harvest losses or gains in your portfolio strategically year-after-year with an eye on the lowest lifetime tax bill.

  • Generally, the cost of an investment product has a significant bearing on its performance over time. We carefully and continuously review each product in our portfolios to ensure that they’re effectively tracking their benchmark indices and that their pricing is competitive with their peer group. We change as needed.

  • What is unique to our approach is that we look at all of your assets when building our managed investment portfolio. We consider restricted stock, real estate, cash balances, active 401k plans, and illiquid investments when determining how to allocate the portfolio we have discretion over. We build a globally diversified allocation, composed of multiple asset classes.

  • Rebalancing is both an art and a science. Rebalancing too frequently can drive up portfolio expense and potentially insufficiently capture market returns, rebalancing too little can skew the risk level in your portfolio. We rebalance strategically over time, every 12-18 months, to maintain our desired allocations while still allowing time for our allocation decisions to “do their work.”

HOW WE INVEST

HOW WE SERVE

YOUR CHALLENGES, OUR SOLUTIONS

Thriving Professionals

We help thriving professionals manage their growing incomes, tax obligations and equity compensation

  • We help you give every dollar of cash flow and every account balance a “job” in service if your personal values. We hold you accountable to what is most important to you. Change is expected, and we help you modify your plan over time thoughtfully at alleviate your stress.

  • Your equity compensation is dissected (whether NQSO, ISO, or RSU, pre or post-IPO), organized according to how it can match your goals, and a tax and a multi-year divestiture plan is developed.

  • We develop an investment strategy for every account with a balance. If it is appropriate for us to manage it directly, we do. If we cannot manage it directly, we’ll review your investment options and deliver recommendations to get you on track. We optimize every dollar on your balance sheet.

  • Oftentimes, company withholding guidelines (and payroll software quirks) can result in substantial underwithholding as your income and bonuses grow. We review paystubs, tax returns, and equity compensation plan documents to develop a withholding strategy to reduce your tax bill surprises. We love partnering with your accountant to execute this plan.

  • We help our clients plan for “work optionality.” Creating a savings and income plan that we can turn on to support your sabbaticals, career changes, or early retirement ambitions.

  • Home Purchase Planning, Debt Prioritization, Student Loan Repayment, Employer Benefits Analysis, Retirement / Work Optional Planning, Charitable Giving, Estate Planning, Insurance Planning, Cash Flow Planning

Retirement Focused

We help families entering retirement develop a tax-efficient income and investment management strategy

  • We often see client incomes peak in their 50s, drop in their 60s, and rise again in their 70s with the onset of RMDs. With these peaks and valleys, tax planning is critical. We devise detailed, annually reviewed strategies to defer your taxes in the highest brackets, and pay taxes in your lowest brackets with the aim of having the lowest lifetime tax bill.

  • Despite what the internet might say, there isn’t a black and white answer to this question. We build a complete view of your finances, goals, incomes and expenses before sharing the impact of delaying versus taking Social Security. We’ll work together to make an educated decision you’re comfortable with.

  • Potentially. Medicare’s I.R.M.A.A. (Income-related Monthly Adjustment Account) often catches those earning high incomes heading into retirement off guard. IRMAA is effectively a surcharge based on a 2 year look-back on your reported income. Those that have saved significant pre-tax dollars in retirement accounts need to thoughtfully look into the future at their expected required distributions to determine the impact it might have on their Medicare costs. We do this for every client, and help determine if strategic Roth conversions can alleviate IRMAA while simultaneously optimizing for taxes.

  • We collaborate with you to position your savings thoughtfully across pre-tax retirement accounts, after-tax retirement accounts, and taxable investment and savings accounts. Once in retirement, we draw income strategically from these accounts to reduce your tax bills and create your new “paycheck.” Getting this right is an important way to extend your savings in retirement.

  • We’ll build out your complete retirement plan, then showcase side-by-side how the different pension options play out. Again, there are no universal answers to this question! It is a highly personalized decision that we want to empower you to make with confidence.

  • Building your work-optional lifestyle, Investment Management, Roth Conversion Analysis & Execution, Home, Vacation Property Purchases & Sales, Debt Review, Tax Efficient Charitable Giving, Family Gifting, College Funding, Estate Planning, Comprehensive Insurance Planning

Busy Young Families

We help busy young families organize their finances to make smart money decisions with their limited time

  • We quite literally & personally understand. We’ve designed the Twin Robins process with efficiency in mind. We are focused on progress over perfection, and over time we chip away in small, manageable pieces at your financial plan.

  • We operate as an accountability partner, and impartial, well-informed view to help you stay on task.

  • We understand - as part of our process, every dollar gets a “job.” We work together to make progress over time.

  • We work together to build a practical, flexible, tax-focused college or trade school savings program. Higher education may undergo significant changes over the next 20 years - we plan finances accordingly.

  • Insurance is an extremely important financial planning topic for young families. We review every policy you currently own and make recommendations to fill any gaps we identify. At Twin Robins, we do not sell insurance products and we cannot be compensated for any insurance products discussed. Given this, we play the role of objective consultant to the process - a refreshing, impartial view with your best interests in mind. We can help you quote policies through our network of third party brokers, or are happy to collaborate with the insurance representative you already use.

  • Tax Strategy, Home Purchase Planning, Debt Prioritization, Student Loan Repayment, Employer Benefits Analysis, Equity Compensation Review, Retirement / Work Optional Planning, Charitable Giving, Estate Planning, Insurance Planning

THE FLIGHT PATTERN

STARTING YOUR FINANCIAL PLAN

Discovery Conversation

During the conversation, we’ll learn more about you, your family, and why you’ve reached out. We’ll take time to answer questions you may have about our firm and how we serve our clients. If we mutually agree we are a good fit to dig in more, we’ll start the data gathering process.

Data Gathering

After we’ve set the stage with the discovery conversation, we pivot to data collection. I’ll provide a link to input data digitally & link accounts, as well as a list of soft copy documents to upload. We will create a robust, complete picture of your finances in the Twin Robins portal.

Evaluation & Plan Building

This step is largely on the Twin Robins team. We read, line-by-line, through every inputted data point and uploaded document. We look for opportunities to better align your finances with the goals you’ve shared with us. We develop a robust set of recommendations and organize them according to an easy-to-digest, actionable schedule.

Strategy Session

We present the complete summary of plan observations and your personalized action plan to you and your partner. Everything is collaborative - we solicit your feedback and modify the strategy as needed. We agree to the actionable plan, understanding it is very likely to change (sometimes immediately). We pivot and revise and make progress.

Action

We’ll work together to execute the plan, accountable to your plan goals. You’ll feel more confident and empowered as we go.

Continuous Care

Your life is busy and your plan is written in pencil and not ink. We can and must always be adapting your plan to each change that comes your way. We have a structured ongoing care process that seasonally addresses each critical aspect of your financial picture.

This process ensures multiple calls and meetings annually. You are expected to reach out any time a big life event is underway, so that we can lend our support.

  • Plan & balances refresh, goals check-in to ensure we’re on track, annual income & required distribution planning, career planning

  • Investments, cash flow update, tax planning & coordination with your tax professional

  • Insurance & employer benefits, estate planning, year-end tax planning, Investments

GET STARTED

OUR PEOPLE

Tom Kaminski

Founder / Financial Planner

I founded Twin Robins after 17+ years of work in the personal finance industry.

My professional career started in 2007 on a trade desk with a national brokerage firm, helping new clients consolidate their accounts, and analyze and place their own self-guided trades. As my job titles changed and responsibilities grew, I eventually earned the opportunity to manage a region of the brokerage firm’s large independent Registered Investment Advisor clients. This was a formative stretch of my life as it exposed me to the power of independent, comprehensive, fiduciary advice.

Once it was clear that my future was in financial planning, I started building skills, consuming coursework and accumulating relevant credentials. I have earned the CRPC® (Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor) and CFP® (CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™) designations to better myself in service of my clients. One of the best parts of this profession is that the learning is never done.

Twin Robins was founded very thoughtfully with my clients and my family in mind. I’ve been married since 2010 to my wonderful wife and we have been blessed with two perfect daughters. My career and my life have taken me across the Midwest, from Omaha to Chicago to the Brookside neighborhood of Kansas City, where I now reside. This journey has included home-buying, job changing, child-having, refinancing, car-buying, sleep-not-having, and on and on. I carry with me a high degree of empathy and lived-experience for the families I serve.

Prior to my professional career, I received a degree in business and a co-major in studio art from Creighton University. I have been a board member of the Kansas City Financial Planning Association (FPA), and am the most “okay” soccer coach of the neighborhood 3-5 year old team, the Dragons.

Learn more about my professional designations and affiliations below.

FIRM VALUES

  • Competency and Professionalism 

  • Compassion and Kindness

  • Proactive By Design

  • Authenticity

PROFESSIONAL DESIGNATIONS, AFFILIATIONS & PARTNERS

As an XYPN advisor, I adhere to strict fiduciary standards and carry the CFP®. XYPN is the only turnkey advice and planning platform that makes it possible for fee-for-service financial advisors to build the independent firm of their dreams with complete autonomy. Tom’s XYPN profile can be found HERE

Tom is a CFP®. For 50 years, CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ certification has been the standard of excellence for financial planners. CFP® professionals have met extensive training and experience requirements, and commit to CFP Board's ethical standards that require them to put their clients' interests first. Tom’s profile can be found HERE

Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards Center for Financial Planning, Inc. owns and licenses the certification marks CFP®, CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™, and CFP® (with plaque design) in the United States to Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards, Inc., which authorizes individuals who successfully complete the organization’s initial and ongoing certification requirements to use the certification marks.

Tom serves on the board of the Kansas City Financial Planning Association. Financial Planning Association® is the leading membership organization and trade association for CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ professionals and those engaged in the financial planning process. His profile can be found HERE

Chartered Retirement Planning CounselorSM , or CRPC® program, is a designation program for financial professionals. This program enables experienced advisors, who are focused on retirement planning for individuals, define a “road map to retirement.” There is a focus on clients’ pre- and post-retirement needs, as well as issues related to asset management and estate planning.

CRPC™, Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor™ logo are certification marks or registered certification marks of The College for Financial Planning Institutes Corp. in the United States.

The National Association of Personal Financial Advisors (NAPFA) is a leading professional association of Fee-Only financial advisors—highly trained professionals who are committed to working in the best interests of those they serve. Tom's profile can be found HERE

Fee-Only financial advisors are small business owners, shareholders, and employees compensated for their time and expertise in comprehensive financial planning and investment management. They are not representatives of brokerage firms or insurance companies, and never make commission or kickbacks. Fee-Only advisors work only for you under a crystal clear fee structure and fiduciary oath. View Tom's profile HERE

Get started with Twin Robins, today.

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