How We Do It

“To accomplish great things we must first dream, then visualize,
then plan… believe… act.”

Alfred Armand Montapert

 

Comprehensive Planning

People come to us for a variety of reasons. They may be concerned about having enough money for retirement, handling their investments or managing a complicated tax or estate planning issue. For most of our clients, all are focal points. At the outset of a new advisory relationship, we take clients through a comprehensive planning process. Our approach is to enlighten through analysis and educate with a strong grounding in academically researched investment concepts. Strategies are formulated when we overlay the goals, circumstances and specific needs that drive the planning process.

The objective of our comprehensive planning process is a shared understanding of the numerous moving parts of your situation, the challenges and opportunities. Understanding brings confidence which is critical in sound decision making. Of course, this is just the beginning. By its very nature, financial planning is fluid and changes in our lives create the need for an ongoing process of reviewing goals and tracking progress. This is why we meet regularly with clients to update their planning as changes occur.

 

Our Process

We follow a proven process to develop your financial plan.

DISCUSS YOUR FINANCIAL GOALS

Our first step is to gain an understanding of what you wish to accomplish in your financial and personal life. We ask questions about you, your family, your work, hobbies, passions, goals for retirement, views about wealth, spending patterns, investment objectives, and charitable intentions. Some people have thought these areas through in great detail and others hardly at all. Since personal wealth planning is about using wealth to achieve personal objectives, it cannot be effective without establishing reasonably articulated goals. This discussion is to challenge you to think about your future more deliberately and deeper than ever before.

CREATE YOUR FINANCIAL ANALYSIS

After the discussion, our analysis begins. Using financial modeling software, we evaluate your current financial standing, make reasonable assumptions about your future income and expenditures, take into account your age and risk tolerance, and predict probable investment returns. We factor in tax implications. The end product is a thorough, comprehensive financial projection. With this forecast, we can assess whether or not your current standing will result in the achievement of your financial goals. If it won’t, we will advise you on what must be done to make your goals achievable.

How do we do it? We make certain “what-if” calculations to help illustrate your financial situation. If it appears you will achieve your goals, we may lower the assumed investment returns to show a “worst-case” scenario, or we may increase your assumed expenditures to show you how much you can afford to spend without outliving your wealth. On the other hand, if it looks like you are not on track to meet your goals, we will change the income and/or expenditure assumptions to show you scenarios where you will succeed. In some cases, we may suggest a reassessment of your goals.

It is at this stage that our multidisciplinary approach begins to show its value. The financial planning results will not be meaningful or useful unless each component—investment, financial, tax, legal/estate, and insurance—is properly factored in and all assumptions are reasonable. We analyze your investment portfolio and make recommendations consistent with your goals. We discuss appropriate tax, charitable, and insurance issues and strategies. We review your estate plan and recommend any appropriate changes. Important decisions are far too often made in isolation, without considering the whole picture. We don’t let that happen. Members of our team bring their specific expertise to your plan. We work together with you to ensure the plan is truly integrated, and the interrelated inputs and assumptions are accurate and valid.

AN IMPLEMENTATION SCHEDULE AND ONGOING WEALTH MANAGEMENT

After we plan, we implement. This again is where many in our industry fall short. With a plan in hand, we oversee an Implementation Schedule . We ensure your plan actually happens. We track the events to make sure you are satisfied and all parties continue to carry out the agreed upon next steps.

The overall process often raises questions, sometimes leading to revisions to your comprehensive plan. This is a good thing: A financial plan is meant to be a “living” document serving as a basis for making informed financial and personal decisions. It can be changed as your circumstances change.