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Comprehensive Financial Planning
When thinking about financial planning or meeting with a financial advisor, most people think of one thing, and that is investment management. While managing money and investments is an important part of financial planning, it only represents one of the six major components of comprehensive financial planning. Understanding the importance of a comprehensive plan and how each part of the plan works in conjunction with the others is the key to developing a financial strategy that can help you achieve your financial goals in the most effective way possible.
Comprehensive
Financial Planning
1. General Principles of Financial Planning
How much should you save for retirement? How much should you spend on a car or your mortgage? What is the best savings account to use? Credit cards or debit cards? How much should you save for your kids college fund? These and dozens of other personal finance questions all fall under the general principles of financial planning. It is looking at your personal situation and helping you make the right decisions on critical but often overlooked financial decisions to help set up a foundation of success.
2. Risk Management and Insurance
What happens if you get in an accident and you can’t work? What happens if you pass away at a young age? What happens in the case of a major medical event? Insurance planning is about the what ifs of life. Catastrophic events can wipe out your savings and investment accounts rapidly and may leave large financial obligations behind as well. Without proper risk management, all the savings in the world can go away fast because we didn’t prepare for it. Proper insurance planning can help protect your hard earned savings from life’s unfortunate events.
3. Investment Management
Investing can be a daunting task for a lot of people. Working with a professional who understands the complexities of these markets, the investment products, and other considerations can be critical to your long term investing success. Studies have shown time and time again that working with a professional increases investors returns overtime which leads to more financial security.
4. Tax Planning
Taxes for most people is one of if not their largest expense over the course of their lifetime. High income earners can pay close to 50% of their income in taxes depending on the state they live in. Understanding how to lower your tax bill, keep more of your hard earned money for you and your family can be a great way to save more and develop a more secure financial future.
5. Estate & Legacy Planning
You have worked hard, built financial assets over many decades of diligent savings and have built a nest egg that will out last you. This is a great position to be in, but the next question to ask is, where does all of this go one day? Passing assets on to the next generation can be difficult and if done wrong, unnecessarily costly. Proper estate planning can ensure the assets make it to right people and spent in accordance with your wishes.
6. Retirement Income Planning
Saving up a big bucket of money to live off of for 20-30 years can be a scary thought for a lot of clients. Having a solidified income plan is critical for having a successful retirement. Consistent income generation with strategies to get you through inevitable market volatility over the course of many decades is something we specialize in.
FAQ
Why do I need an advisor, can’t I just use AI?
AI is a great tool, we use it in our planning process to aid in providing the best possible solutions for our clients. At the end of the day, you don’t know what you don’t know and without the right inputs, you can get incorrect outputs. Also, AI won’t be there to help get you through difficult market times. These are often times when you want a real person to talk through about what to do with you money when the market is performing poorly.
What if I only want help with 1 or 2 areas of planning?
We can service whatever areas of planning needs that you have. It is not mandatory that we work on areas of financial planning but working with a professional who understands all these specific areas can be important because they can help shine light on areas of your finances that may have issues that you are not aware of.
When should I start working with a financial advisor?
It makes sense to engage an advisor early. Perhaps you only need help with the basics and they can serve you in small ways but as you grow in life and your financial journey, having a trusted advisor can be invaluable in helping evaluate financial decisions.
How do the fees work?
Fees can be charged either as a percentage of assets under management or pay an agreed upon one time financial planning fee.
Are we a fiduciary and what does that mean?
Yes we operate as a fiduciary which means we serve in the best interest of our clients and not our own. We get paid the same regardless of the investments we implement so we have only one goal which is to serve our clients to the best of our ability and help them accomplish their financial goals.