Mystic ― Ready to expand his financial-planning business, Ben Fuchs was thinking about Fairfield when it was suggested he consider southeastern Connecticut and the pool of potential clients from major employers like Electric Boat and Pfizer.

After looking at locations in New London and Groton, he settled on a certain village on the Mystic River.

“Why would I want to go anywhere but Mystic?” Fuchs said Friday, having recently opened a Fuchs Financial office ― his fourth in Connecticut ― at 47 Water St. on the river’s west bank.

The business’ other offices are in Middletown, West Hartford and Middlebury.

Fuchs Financial provides retirement planning and wealth management services to some 500 clients around the state, many of them baby boomers who have retired or are nearing retirement, according to Fuchs, a certified financial planner and a certified private wealth adviser.

Fuchs, 42, began working in real estate investing in Arizona in 2003, and spent time with an insurance company and another retirement planning firm before founding his own business in 2019.

“We don’t have any (portfolio) limits,” he said. “Some of our clients have almost nothing. We’ll take on a client so long as we think we can help.”

Fuchs said many of his clients have been “good savers” who don’t know what to do with their savings while others simply want a second opinion, a service Fuchs Financial offers free of charge. The firm doesn’t shy from providing tax-planning advice, as some of its competitors do, Fuchs said, though it doesn’t get involved in tax preparation.

“Everyone wants one extreme or the other,” he said. “They just want annuities or they just want stocks and mutual funds. It’s ridiculous. It takes a balance. It makes a difference what kind of (retirement) income you need and how much you want to leave behind. Because you need $4,000 a month now doesn’t mean that’s what you’ll need in the future.”

He said people often lack an understanding of Social Security benefits, including when best to take them and how they’re taxed, and some have “way too much” invested in funds that don’t grow with inflation or in the always-risky stock market.

The key to advising clients, he said, is having honest conversations with them.

Fuchs Financial’s website, www.fuchsfinancial.com, features links to booklets on such topics as “Tax-Saving Strategies,” “Social Security Basics,” “Strategies for Small Business Owners,” “Tips to Retire: Annuities” and “Estate Planning.”

The firm’s staff, which numbers nearly a dozen, includes four financial advisers whose credentials include a total of of seven professional designations.

“We approach every client from a team perspective,” Fuchs said. “That’s what I think is a big point of difference for us.”

Fuchs, who regularly dispenses financial advice on Connecticut TV and radio stations, currently appears Sundays on Channel 8 prior to the start of ABC’s “Good Morning America.”

b.hallenbeck@theday.com