Our Retirement Planning Process

1) Discover – Seek First to Understand

A thorough understanding of your needs and goals is key to the creation of your comprehensive wealth plan. We take the time to listen, ask incisive questions, and gain insight into your life and the things that matter most to you.

2) Analyze your Starting Point

In this part of the process, we gather all relevant documentation and thoroughly review your financial and estate resources.  We will find the answers to important questions such as:

• Do you have written goals?  Less than 3% of the population has written goals, we will help you move into the 3% category.
• How much are you saving each year?  Setting a savings goal will improve your odds of success.
• Do you have a budget? All truly wealthy people have a budget, if you don’t we will help you build one.
• How are your assets currently distributed?  Most investors do not understand their portfolio.
• What is the current level of risk associated with your portfolio?  In our experience investors are often more risk averse than they realize.
• How are your assets titled? In 90% of cases we review investors’ assets are improperly titled relative to their estate plan.
• Do you have a will, trust and power of attorney?  Even when investors have these documents they are often outdated and in need of updating.

3) Advise and Implement

We offer thoughtful and insightful recommendations tailored to your goals and resources. We work with you to evaluate all options so that you can decide which choices are right for you. We then act to ensure that your overall plan is implemented. We excel at assembling all your advisors and subject matter professionals to ensure everyone is on the same page and working on your behalf.

At this point in the process, our focus will be on:

• Developing written goals.
• Identifying obstacles to your goals.
  • What can prevent you from achieving your goal?
  • How do we remove or control this obstacle?
• Developing a budget.
  • If you are still working, set a savings goal.
  • If you are retired, set a spending goal.
• Constructing a portfolio aligned with your goals.
• Matching spending rate to resources.
  • Many people expect more from their portfolio than it can provide. We are experts at helping you understand what is sustainable.

4) Monitor and Evolve

• Risk tolerance, health, employment, economies, tax laws and markets all change.  We contact our clients quarterly and stay on top of these variables.
• No financial plan is static.  All plans need to be adjusted over time.  Our process includes ongoing planning updates to make sure that you are on track for your goals.