What to expect during Financial Planning Process?
Our first priority is helping you take care of yourself and your family. We want to learn more about your personal situation, identify your dreams and goals, and understand your tolerance for risk. Long-term relationships that encourage open and honest communication have been the cornerstone of my foundation of success.
Financial planning can be personal, for a family or business. The two guiding principles of ascertaining goal s and developing strategy to tackle those goals remain constant. Along the road planner might engage in a variety of topics and tasks. While they vary from client-to-client financial planning topics are generally considered as:
- Developing general money managing principles – such as cash flow and debt management. Providing a sound planning roadmap begins with understanding your cashflow. It is impossible to make any sound investment recommendations without having a clear picture of how money is being spent. Another critical component is debt management. Gaining a pulse on how debt is being managed will help devise a plan that factors in your credit history and overall financial decision-making preferences.
- Risk Management – One thing is for sure -life is filled with a series of unexpected events. That’s why it is important to consider potential risks and protecting the assets what you have gathered thus far. Even the most well-intended plans can crumble in a second when faced a sudden disability, long-term care need or death. Part of planning means knowing the possibilities that could threaten your financial future.
- Investment Planning – Building and protecting what you have worked so hard to earn is critical to the pursuit of your goals. How do you take a complex idea and create a plan that makes sense to you? We work with you to alleviate some of the mystery and help you develop an understanding of some core principles of investing. This process develops a plan that focuses on your long-term goals, time horizon, risk tolerance and planned outcomes.
- Retirement Planning – The ability to retire in financial dignity is becoming a top concern for many. In fact, you probably want to know the answers to questions like: Will I be able to retire at my desired age? What will my lifestyle be like? Can I really expect to enjoy my golden years? And what about the growing threat of a dwindling Social Security funding? The first step in addressing this growing concern is obtaining a clear vision of how you define retirement. In other words, what are you hoping to achieve? Identifying these desires gives a starting point for determining the level of assets needed to fund that vision.
- Education Planning – One of the most neglected areas of personal finance is education funding for children. As higher education cost continues to soar, the thought of funding a college education can seem futile to many. Considering these facts, it may be surprising to learn that education funding is actually one of the easiest financial hurdles to overcome. It is without question education savings plans can be confusing, and it is important to understand how your savings will affect your child’s or grandchild’s ability to qualify for financial aid, as well as implications for your income, gift and estate tax situation.
- Estate Planning – The last thing you want is to leave your family in a position of making important decisions during an emotionally fragile state. Without having a plan in place, families left behind find the government assuming authority of assets and dividing them as they see fit. To make matters worse, the government is then able to inherit a lofty tax portion of those assets, leaving family members to collect whatever may be left. Ultimately legacy planning is what ensures that your wishes are upheld at the time of your passing. While legacy planning is a complex and emotional subject, it is one of the most critical discussions to have for a number of reasons.
- Tax Planning – Every financial decision you make has tax implications. Comprehensive wealth management approach to investing helps you make choices that yield healthier financial and investment decisions. Well planned and carefully honed selection of tax strategies include:
- Minimizing taxes on capital gains to protect investment value
- Identifying the most advantageous distribution of Social Security benefits
- Applying both annual and long-term strategies to reduce taxes so more money can grow tax-free
- Planning for the most effective distribution strategies to minimize impact of taxation
- Focusing on tax mitigation for estate and legacy planning
Investments are subject to market risks including the potential loss of principal invested. Asset allocation does not assure or guarantee better performance and cannot eliminate the risk of investment losses.
