Our Story
We promise honest financial guidance and crystal-clear financial awareness.
Our Story
Benchmark Wealth Management has been serving the greater Memphis area since 2000.
Nancy Knous began her financial career in 1985 as an advisor with a Memphis firm. While developing her ideas about the financial market, she kept an eye on her goal of educating clients and preparing them to weather any market. In 2000, Nancy branched out on her own and joined LPL Financial. Eager to adopt LPL Financial’s focus on independent advice and objective research, Benchmark Wealth Management was born.
Today, Benchmark Wealth Management offers financial planning, wealth management, trust services*, and insurance solutions. Our team serves clients by encouraging financial awareness and delivering the message of change, hope, and peace with the desire to help you “live like no one else so later you can live like no one else.”
*LPL Financial Representatives offer access to Trust Services through The Private Trust Company N.A., an affiliate of LPL Financial.
What makes us different?
We believe and practice "people before profit" every day.
Our approach to helping you is…you. Your dreams and your values.
We don’t believe in the “one-size-fits-all” approach. We think this is one of the scariest approaches to investments, life insurance, financial planning, and anything that concerns your money and your future.
Whether you prefer a “hands on” or a “hands off” portfolio, we can help.
Our Investment Philosophy
At Benchmark Wealth Management, we understand the importance of having a long-term financial plan, a plan that efficiently keeps you on track to meet your long-term personal investment goals, regardless of changing market environments.
Long-term view of investing
- We are not, nor do we aim to be, market timers. We believe in a buy-and-hold strategy, which keeps assets in the market regardless of transitory ups and downs that we expect over time. Historically, markets rise long term; by remaining fully invested rather than holding cash on the sidelines, we are poised to capture the long-term gains. While we stay invested for the long term, we will make adjustments to client portfolios commensurate with changing market conditions.
Invest in asset classes
- We aim to reduce market risks by diversifying portfolios through asset class investments. Our portfolios are built around large growth, large value, large blend, small and mid-cap, international, and occasionally bond asset classes. This approach allows us to adjust portfolio percentages by asset class as changing economic conditions occur over time.
Utilize quality Mutual Funds
- We aim to minimize complexity and optimize congruency by investing in a limited number of mutual fund families with a long-term track record of success. Our criteria for determining eligible fund families are strict, and we routinely evaluate how each maintains these standards over time. While these mutual fund families may not always beat market averages in any one given year, they have delivered solid, consistent historical returns through many types of market environments.
Limited Individual Stock Ownership
- We do not suggest individual stocks to clients, as individual stock analysis is not our focus. If a client wants to own a certain stock, we will offer our professional opinion and suggest entry and exit points, but we do not actively manage the stock holding.
Monitoring of Portfolios
- We continually monitor our portfolios, and we share their year-to-date performances with our advisors in a weekly Investment Meeting. The meetings keep us in touch with how our portfolios are performing relative to overall market benchmarks, and they update advisors on the latest economic conditions. Additionally, they provide a framework by which we adjust clients’ portfolio asset class percentages when changing market conditions warrant.
*All investing involves risk including loss of principal. No strategy assures success or protects against loss.
OUR RANGE OF Services
With all of our services, we take a people-first approach.
Everything we do is designed to help you pursue your dreams and preserve your values.
We offer services for Retirement Planning, Cash Flow Strategy and Planning, Estate Planning, Education Planning, Debt Reduction Planning, and Savings.
We offer a diverse group of non-proprietary securities which we cater to your values and philosophy.
We understand that implementing a new plan means uprooting an old one. For that reason, we will also assist with paperwork and navigate the transition with you.
We offer services for IRAs, Roth and SIMPLE IRAs, 401(k) and 403(b), Standard Pension Plans, Simplified Employee Pensions (SEPs), and Municipal 457s.
We’ll be here to assist you with the paperwork and navigating the transition from your old plan to your new one.
Our life-focused services include Life Insurance, Disability Insurance Planning, Long-Term Care Planning, Estate Planning, and much more.
Financial Foundations is our series of FREE – once a month – personal financial workshops. From conquering debt to saving for your future, these workshops will help you pursue your goals.