This is a process that we tailor to your specific circumstances, but it is built around these core actions:
Understand Your Goals and Priorities – the first step in developing your financial plan is to understand what’s important to you and where you want to concentrate first. While we have a professional responsibility to identify any gaps or risks in your financial life, what matters most is what matters to you.
Collect and Organize Your Financial Data – we can help you collect and organize this information, which will include doucments like tax returns, investment statements, estate planning documents, and group benefits information, etc. With your personal financial dashboard that we provide, you can aggregate all of your financial information in one place, making it easier for you to see, understand, and update all aspects of your finances in one place.
Provide Recommendations – with a clear understanding of what you have today and what you’d like to accomplish, we’ll address all aspects of your wealth including investments, taxes, estate planning and insurance. We will explain every recommendation in the context of how it helps you address your goals.
Implement – hiring an architect to design a house is wonderful and the vision of what it will look like is exciting. But they are only plans until a contractor builds the house. The same is true with your financial plan; you only get real value from your plan when you do something. Whether it’s reallocating your investments, updating the beneficiaries on your retirement account, or changing your group benefits elections, we are your partner along the way to make sure things get done.
Coordinate – we coordinate the services of your other professionals such as your accountant, estate planning attorney, and insurance agent to manage all parts of your financial picture. This is critical in making sure nothing falls through the gaps because you thought someone else had taken care of it. Our clients tell us this is one of the most valuable things we do for them.
Monitor & Update – we realize that life changes. Sometimes it is the big things, like new jobs and babies. But sometimes it’s the little things, like wondering how to finance that renovation or whether you should sign up for the health insurance with a Health Savings Account (HSA). That’s why we always say that whenever something comes up (and it does not have to be directly financial), we want to know. We’ll determine if and how this impacts your finances, so that your plan and our recommendations always reflect your reality today.
Relieve Stress, Not Create It – we hate navigating phone trees and hearing the automated voice on the other end say they didn’t understand us. We don’t think you should have to do that either. We pick up our phones and answer our emails. We’re accessible and available, because we want to relieve stress, not create it.
