Comprehensive Financial Planning

 

Our third service level is comprehensive financial planning. In addition to investment management and retirement planning, this service level includes: 

  • Estate planning 

  • Tax strategies 

  • Insurance planning, including life, disability, long-term care, and property and casualty  

  • Employer benefits  

  • Education planning 

  • Budgeting and cash flow 

At least one meeting a year will be dedicated to a deep dive into one or more financial planning topics. Together, our advisors proactively determine which financial planning topics should be reviewed.  

Some advisors only provide deep, detailed financial planning at the beginning of the client relationship. As with retirement planning, we monitor your financial plan by reviewing each area every few years, or more frequently as needed. Life changes, and so should your financial plan. 

The Importance of Having a Financial Plan 

In today's uncertain economy, financial planning has become increasingly important. With an overwhelming number of options for saving and investing, managing your finances can be difficult. 

Creating a financial plan helps you see the big picture and set long and short-term life goals, a crucial step in mapping out your financial future. When you have a financial plan, it's easier to make financial decisions and stay on track to meet your goals. Working with a Certified Financial Planner™ professional can give you confidence knowing you have a plan in place designed to help you reach financial success. 

We recommend estate planning approaches based on your situation. Trusts are better for some clients, while beneficiary designations may suffice for others (and be cheaper).   

Our estate planning schedule organizes all your assets, not just the investments, and ensures you have the titling and beneficiaries set up correctly, per your desires and your attorney’s instructions. We review your trust documents, your wills, your powers of attorney from a financial planning perspective.  We have also reviewed client’s prenup agreements prior to getting married. 

If you desire, we can accompany you to meetings with your estate planning attorney, to help with what needs to get done. 

What is our Comprehensive Financial Planning process? 

Our Comprehensive Financial Planning and client relationship management process is designed to enhance your financial foundation to help you enjoy greater freedom and independence during your retirement. After we gather all your financial information, our team works with you to design a plan to organize and manage your finances, achieve your goals and enjoy your life. 

Our Comprehensive Financial Planning process can help you: 

  • Have a comprehensive plan for your retirement with sufficient income objectives 
  • Have organized and diversified investments 
  • Be aware of your dangers and have a plan designed to deal with them effectively 
  • Have a complete estate plan with strategies in place to manage risk 
  • Stay on track by working with a financial planner on a consistent basis 
  • Feel that your goals are achievable 

Comprehensive Financial Planning process can help you address these important questions: 

  • Is my spouse prepared to handle our finances if something happens to me? 
  • Do I have an adequate, current will, trust or estate plan? 
  • Do I need long-term care insurance? 
  • Do I have enough replacement income in case I become disabled? 
  • Am I over-weighted in my company's stock? 
  • Am I saving enough for my child’s education? 
  • Is my current amount of life insurance enough to cover my family’s expenses? 
  • Am I paying too much tax? 

What Insurance do you need? 

  • We are a fee-only firm and do not sell insurance for a commission. However, we will review your various insurance policies and provide recommendations.   
  • How much life insurance do you need now?  If you have a policy with a big premium and it’s time to renew, we check if you need to renew it or is it time to cancel?   
  • Do you need more disability coverage?  When you’re closer to retirement, can you drop that disability? 
  • Long-term care insurance – how much coverage should you get?  With the recent huge price increases in this area, we’ve worked to help clients trim the benefits where possible to help mitigate premium increases.   
  • We review your property & casualty policies, to pinpoint any holes in coverage, most of which are inexpensive to fix.  
  • On all of these, we help you get quotes from various sources and work with you to evaluate the quotes.   

What other services do you offer? 

We review your employer’s benefits, so we can make sure you take advantage of what your employer offers.   

We help with cashflow and budgeting needs for those clients who need it. For example, if you’re refinancing a mortgage, we can help you compare options. 

We recommend how you can best save for college for your kids; there are many options, some of which save on taxes.  We manage the investments in those accounts.  You’ll know how much you need to save each year based on the colleges you have in mind.