Aug 20, 2025 · 28 min · 11 segments
What if your portfolio could evolve with you, like a financial blueprint that updates in real time? Michael Parise sits down with Ben Ludwig of City National Rochdale to unpack what truly…
Yeah, I think there's layers to it, obviously, but at its simplest form, we don't manage products, mutual funds, or model portfolios.
And again, we start with partnering with you, understanding the plan, understanding the client's unique needs, whether it's legacy needs, tax needs, asset protection needs.
Even though we're managing the investable assets, we want to really encompass all of that to make sure the portfolio is in line with what that client needs.
So again, there's layers of it, but we want to use individual stocks and bonds wherever possible.
And when I educate clients on that, the word I use probably more often than not is control.
We have a ton of clients that come to us and they started as investors 10, 15, 20 years ago.
They started using mutual funds, exchange traded funds, all the products that are out there.
And that's served them really well as they were putting money away, saving money and accumulating assets.
But when they start talking to you or another advisor, they're typically accumulated a great deal of wealth.
So the point I always make to these clients is if we can build you a portfolio that's in line with your needs and your changing needs, and it stays fluid with you over time, and use individual securities to have a rhyme and reason behind everything in the portfolio it gives us it gives you as the advisor and it gives the client more transparency and control over making changes going forward whether it's to manage risk manage taxes manage cash flow needs whatever it is that changes in the client's life we have a portfolio that's tailored to them and we can make those changes with more surgical nature if that makes sense As opposed to, and we have a lot of times with clients that are in mutual funds, and I spent a lot of my career looking at mutual fund portfolios.
The dialogue is typically this, it's you have a great portfolio, there's some good products in there, they've served you well, but you have 15 different mutual funds and they own Apple and 10 of them.
And that's not because there's something that's wrong, but that's what you get in the product world.
If we can break down that structure, the best way I explain it to clients is Mr. and Mrs. Jones is the client.
We're building Mr. and Mrs. Jones their own mutual fund where they own the individual securities and there's a rhyme and reason behind everything.
So no matter what gets thrown our way, unforeseen cash flow needs, changes in the market, changes in the client's risk appetite, we can sit side by side with you, really understand how the plan is changing, and the portfolio can move with them more fluidly.
And again, control is the right word, but it gives you more control of everything across the board, including tax management.
Almost like a private mutual fund in structures is kind of what you're building as a private portfolio.
Yeah, I think there's layers to it, obviously, but at its simplest form, we don't manage products, mutual funds, or model portfolios.
And again, we start with partnering with you, understanding the plan, understanding the client's unique needs, whether it's legacy needs, tax needs, asset protection needs.
Even though we're managing the investable assets, we want to really encompass all of that to make sure the portfolio is in line with what that client needs.
So again, there's layers of it, but we want to use individual stocks and bonds wherever possible.
And when I educate clients on that, the word I use probably more often than not is control.
We have a ton of clients that come to us and they started as investors 10, 15, 20 years ago.
They started using mutual funds, exchange traded funds, all the products that are out there.
And that's served them really well as they were putting money away, saving money and accumulating assets.
But when they start talking to you or another advisor, they're typically accumulated a great deal of wealth.
So the point I always make to these clients is if we can build you a portfolio that's in line with your needs and your changing needs, and it stays fluid with you over time, and use individual securities to have a rhyme and reason behind everything in the portfolio it gives us it gives you as the advisor and it gives the client more transparency and control over making changes going forward whether it's to manage risk manage taxes manage cash flow needs whatever it is that changes in the client's life we have a portfolio that's tailored to them and we can make those changes with more surgical nature if that makes sense As opposed to, and we have a lot of times with clients that are in mutual funds, and I spent a lot of my career looking at mutual fund portfolios.
The dialogue is typically this, it's you have a great portfolio, there's some good products in there, they've served you well, but you have 15 different mutual funds and they own Apple and 10 of them.
And that's not because there's something that's wrong, but that's what you get in the product world.
If we can break down that structure, the best way I explain it to clients is Mr. and Mrs. Jones is the client.
We're building Mr. and Mrs. Jones their own mutual fund where they own the individual securities and there's a rhyme and reason behind everything.
So no matter what gets thrown our way, unforeseen cash flow needs, changes in the market, changes in the client's risk appetite, we can sit side by side with you, really understand how the plan is changing, and the portfolio can move with them more fluidly.
And again, control is the right word, but it gives you more control of everything across the board, including tax management.
Almost like a private mutual fund in structures is kind of what you're building as a private portfolio.
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