Anyone who has invested money knows how complicated and stressful the process can be. Just knowing where, when, and how much money to invest can be unnerving.
Regardless if you run a multi-million dollar corporation or are just looking to build a retirement fund, getting lost in the crowd is easy.
However, that’s not a problem for Henry Woloson, President of Security Financial Management, Inc.
Woloson, 53, a Clarkston resident, is an estate-planning attorney and a registered investment advisor through VSR Financial Services, Inc.
He has worked full-time with Security Financial since 1994. For several years, he worked in Troy before a new office was built closer to home on Dixie Highway two years ago.
Alleviating the worries of general investors is a major concern for Woloson. Having to work with an unstable economy and unpredictable stock market, Woloson wanted to develop a safeguard system for his clients. The end result was Floatfolio LLC, the trademarked system of financial management developed by Woloson and his team.
Floatfolio allows investors to decided on a preset percentage decrease, and whenever a particular stock drops below that mark, the investor is alerted by an automated e-mail message. The mark is determined by the investor and is based on the price of the stock at the time of the initial investment.
However, the system is designed to recalibrate to any increase the stock may gain. For example, if an investor wants to be alerted if their stock prices drop by five percent and the stock goes up significantly, the system automatically sets the alert line at five percent below the highest peak the stock reaches instead of staying at the original investment price.
Woloson used the Floatfolio system internally at his own practice for approximately three years before decided to take the program online. The system can be applied to anyone’s investments, regardless if they’re investing $200 or $2 billion.
‘The reaction has been extremely good because we don’t discriminate on the basis of price,? said Woloson.
Woloson said other brokers have contacted him about the system, and word of mouth is causing demand from out-of-state investors.
According to Woloson, the unique draw to Floatfolio is that the system works simply to monitor and alert, not to automatically sell a stock that passes a warning point. The system works as a watchdog and can help investors protect growth, but the system’s usefulness is not determined by how well a fund is doing.
?(Investors) don’t want us to be moving things for them.They don’t want to give up that control. What they really want is somebody watching their back, so that if something drops they can take the corrective action, and that’s what we do,? said Woloson.’We’re totally impartial, totally objective. We’re not selling anything; we’re just doing the job the client hired us to do. We have no agenda.?
Woloson said taxes and inflation can erode gain on investments, so it’s important that people think defensively, and the Floatfolio system helps them do that.
Early this year, Woloson launched a new Retirement Management, LLC program to assist anyone concerned about their retirement funds. Even though Woloson has done similar work out of his office for several years, the decision to create a new system and go online came in response to expected changes in the way people look at retirement.
‘This notion of retirement being where you sit around and play shuffleboard is really outdated,? said Woloson.
‘Going forward, the reality of it is that people could be retired longer than they could be working,? he added.
Additionally, Woloson said over the next 15 years he’s expecting a large increase in retirees as baby-boomers start to reach retirement age.
Woloson said the biggest concerns of people about to retire are taxes, estate planning, and the possibility of relocation. As a result, retirement suddenly became a process rather than a single event. Woloson said the new system is not a way of providing financial assistance, but a way of assisting individuals in the management of the process.
The sudden influx of concerned retirees is not entirely due to generation size. Using companies like Enron as an example, Woloson said employees have begun to lose confidence in the companies they work for. Fear of corporate bankruptcy has turned people to rolling their money into IRAs, CDs and government securities instead of relying on company retirement plans.
‘Individuals have found that much more comfortable because they’re running the show. They no longer have to worry about what the trustees are doing,? said Woloson.
‘We’ve even presented this to some people who are in favor of privatization of social security. If you stop and think what is the number one reason why people are opposed to the privatization of social security, it’s because you can lose all your money.?
And making sure people don’t lose their money is what Woloson dedicates himself to every day.
When asked what he does for fun outside of work, Woloson’s wife Diane laughed, ‘He works for fun.?
Born and raised in Detroit, Woloson and his family moved from Troy to Clarkston in 1990.
‘What appealed to us was the nice small town atmosphere,? said Woloson.
The couple has two daughters, Laura and Katherine, both of whom are graduates of Clarkston High School and now attend Michigan State University.
Since moving to the area, the couple is heavily involved with the Deer Lake Farms? Homeowners Association, and the entire family is involved with SCAMP. Diane is a retiring board member for the organization, and both Laura and Katherine have worked as counselors.
Woloson added that he and his wife attribute their daughters? success at MSU to their participation in SCAMP and getting good grades at a reputable school like CHS.