What It Is
Personal financial planning is an organized system for answering your financial questions and providing the basis for all of your personal financial decisions to help achieve your goals in life.
Having a plan provides direction and meaning to all of your financial decisions and allows you to understand how each financial decision you make affects your life goals - both now and in the future. With a solid financial plan in place, you can adapt more easily to life changes and feel more secure that your goals remain on track. Creating a financial planning roadmap is an essential step in keeping you focused on your long-term goals – despite whatever personal or financial detours may come your way.
What It Covers
Designing a well-rounded financial plan examines your total financial picture and covers:
- Your current financial position
- Cash flow projections and planning
- Strategic investment tax planning
- Education funding projections and strategies
- Investment allocation and portfolio design
- Retirement income needs and strategies
- Wealth transfer and estate planning
- Asset and insurance protection
The Process
Generally, the financial planning process consists of six steps. Each one is a key piece in establishing the foundation for a thorough and comprehensive financial plan:
Goal Identification → Data Gathering → Analysis → Solution Development → Plan Presentation → Review.
- Goal Identification – Identify your specific short and long-term goals, discuss your values and beliefs.
- Data Gathering – Collect detailed information on your current cash flow, assets, investments, liabilities, and other documents specific to your personal financial situation.
- Analysis – Determine if you can achieve your goals based on current assets, time horizons, expected future income sources, tax situation and other factors.
- Solution Development – Identify the actions that you should take to have the greatest chance of accomplishing your goals.
- Plan Presentation – Include possible implementation strategies that may enable you to achieve your goals.
- Review – Provide periodic updates as needed on the progress in achieving goals. Incorporate changes in the client’s situation, resources and goals.
Comprehensive Financial Planning
Includes depending on the client’s situation, any of the specialized services listed. Along with the comprehensive plan, the advisor will work with and coordinate planning with your tax and legal consultants. The planning fee will be determined after a consultation with the client and will be disclosed prior to the start of the process. In addition, we will review and update your plan each year for approximately half of the cost of the initial plan.
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