What is Financial Planning? 

Financial planning involves analyzing your current financial situation and creating a plan to help you achieve a future goal or multiple goals.  It also involves monitoring your financial plan to ensure you remain on track to achieve your goals and updating your plan periodically to account for unexpected changes in your life.    

Everyone has specific goals and dreams.  We can help you create a customized plan to help you achieve your dreams.  Below, please find some common areas of planning we can help you with:

*Investment Planning:  Looking for direction with your investments?  Do you have an appropriate asset mix for your risk tolerance?  Are you on the right track to achieving your goals?  Investment planning plays an important roll in every other area of financial planning and being able to save and grow your money is often instrumental in achieving your goals.  Whether you are saving for a home, college, car, yacht, vacation, or a comfortable retirement, no matter what your goals and dreams are, having an investment plan can help you get there. 

*Retirement Planning:  It is never too early or too late to start planning for retirement.  However, typically the sooner you start planning for your future, the easier it is to reach your retirement goals.  Always pay yourself first.  Everyone has bills to pay, but it is equally important to set aside money from each paycheck to invest for your retirement and your future.  Remember, your children can get loans for college if necessary, but you can’t get a loan to pay for your retirement.

*Philanthropic Planning/Charitable Giving:  Do you have a charity that is near and dear to your heart?  For many people, charitable giving is an important piece of their plan, both for personal, often sentimental reasons and tax reasons.  There are several vehicles and strategies you can use to ensure your charitable donations stretch further for your charity of choice.

*Estate/Succession/Legacy Planning:  For many people it is important to provide for family, friends and loved ones not only while alive but also after they are gone.  This often involves setting up trusts, wills, powers of attorney and other legal documents to provide various types of asset protection, leave more money to loved ones by paying less in estate taxes, and ensure your wishes are being followed long after you are gone.  We will work hand in hand with you and your estate planning attorney to help you determine what is needed and implement the changes once your estate documents have been finalized.  We can also help you find an excellent estate planning attorney in your area if you need one.

*Divorce Planning:  Whether you are contemplating getting a divorce or were recently served divorce papers, having a strategic team on your side including a good attorney, accountant and financial advisor is very important both before, during and after your divorce is finalized.  We can help you through this difficult time and also refer you to an excellent divorce attorney.

*Planning Resulting from Significant Life Changes:  When significant life changes occur, reviewing and updating your existing plan is very important.  Due to the change, whether it be a new job, marriage, divorce, birth of a child, death of a loved one, inheritance or other significant life change, your goals and priorities may change as well, sometimes significantly.  Whether your goals and priorities change, it is important to at least review your plan when a significant live change occurs to reinforce that you are still on the right path to achieving your goal.

*Planning for Widows/Widowers:  Experiencing the death of a loved one is never easy.  When it occurs, some items are important and need to be taken care of immediately, while others can wait until later in the grieving period.  We have extensive experience working with widows and widowers to help them through these difficult periods.  Let us focus on your finances so you can focus on more important things.

*Insurance Review:  We do not sell insurance and but can provide you with unbiased advice and recommendations on existing insurance policies or new policies you are considering.  We work hand in hand with you and insurance professionals to make sure you are getting the coverage you need at a reasonable price.  We are always on your side and can help protect you against being sold an insurance policy that is not in your best interest.

*Tax Review:  Taxes are taken into consideration in all areas of financial planning because taxes affect us all and play an important roll in planning.  We review your accounts to see that you are investing in a tax efficient manner, review your tax return and can help provide direction regarding actions that could create a taxable event.  We are not certified accountants and do not file taxes, we team up with your CPA to help you make decisions that are tax efficient and in your best interest.

*Employee Benefit Planning:  Whether you are starting a new job or need help choosing the best investment options for you from the 401k plan options available, we can help.  Does your company match your 401k contribution?  If so, then did you know it is important to at least contribute up to the match amount?  If not then you are essentially throwing away free money.  Does your employer offer a pension option?  We can help you make the best decision for your unique situation.

*Education Planning:  College is expensive, and college costs increase annually at a rate that is well above the current inflation rate.  This basically means that college costs are expected to continue to become more and more expensive very year.  If one of your goals is to help your children pay for college, it is important to start early to invest in your children's future.  The sooner you can start saving for college for your children, the better.  We can help you create an annual investment plan for your child using vehicles such as a 529 plan,  while they are still in diapers.