How we help you plan for success, what to expect:
The financial planning process is an in depth look at a client’s financial needs, goals and issues. The work done with the client and the planner sets the stage for the greatest possibility for the client to reach his or her financial goals in the near and long-term.
Following the Certified Financial Planning Board of Standards process, we help develop, implement and monitor a comprehensive strategy with a series of meetings and discussions where we analyze a client’s current situation, review their financial needs, goals and issues and outline specific steps to help the client achieve their goals.
Focusing on goals and objectives, investments, tax issues, insurance needs, wills and estates and retirement planning, we have developed an eight-week process that has helped our clients get the work that they need to get done to help them have confidence and clarity for their financial future.
Items addressed include:
- Goals and Objectives
- Retirement
- Education
- Travel
- 2nd home
- Weddings
- Caring for loved ones
- Investments
- Efficiency
- Appropriateness
- Interrelations of investments
- Applicability to the client’s goals and needs
- Tax
- Efficient strategies for managing taxes in retirement
- Tax management during working years
- Tax strategies for business
- Tax strategies for the self-employed
- Insurance
- Life
- Long term care
- Disability
- Property and casualty
- Liability
- Wills and estates
- Wills
- Powers of Attorney
- Health Care Directives
- Trusts
This eight-week process is generally broken down into four 1 to 2-hour meetings held every two to three weeks. The meetings are scheduled ahead of time with a clear agenda that is developed by the planner and the client based on the client’s immediate needs and most pressing issues. While the focus areas of each meeting will change, depending on the needs of the client, a typical eight-week process looks like this:
Week 1-Meeting 1: Identify the client’s needs, goals and issues. Establish the client and planner relationship, identify and agree on responsibilities of each party.
Week 2: Gather information required for the analysis. Responsible Party: Planner (Primary) and Client
- Investment Statements
- Income and expense information
- Wills and other legal documents
- Life, property and casualty, Long-term care, liability, disability and other insurance documents
- Tax returns
- Retirement plan documents and statements
- Pension statements
- Social Security Statements
- Mortgage and other debt statements
- Etc.
Week 3-Meeting 2: Review information supplied by the client to ensure mutual understanding and agreement among all parties. Re-affirm or re-establish priorities of needs, goals and issues.
Week 4: Identify potential issues, risks and develop solutions to meet objectives for the client’s immediate focus or issue. Responsible Party: Planner(Primary) and Client
Week 5-Meeting 3: Present findings for the client’s immediate focus or issue. Present strategies to fulfill needs, help achieve goals and address issues. Discuss implementation and monitoring of strategies. Responsible Party: Planner(Primary) and Client
Week 6 and 7: Identify potential issues, risks and develop solutions to meet objectives for the client’s secondary focus or issues. Coordinate with other professionals, i.e. CPA, Attorney, etc. Responsible Party: Planner(Primary) and Client
Week 8: Present findings for the client’s secondary focus or issues. Present strategies to fulfill needs, help achieve goals and address issues. Determine implementation and monitoring of strategies and responsibilities. Responsible Party: Planner(Primary) and Client
Meetings can be held in person, via web meeting, or conference call. All material is available on-line via a secure personal financial website that can be accessed by the client 24 hours a day, 7 days per week.
