FINANCIAL PLANNING
..............................................................................................................
Comprehensive financial planning typically encompasses a number of critical areas, including retirement planning, estate planning, insurance, tax planning, investment management, cash management and budgeting. Depending on client needs, it may also include education funding, charitable and planned giving, trust management and planning for long-term care.
Planning for the future can seem overwhelming at times to a client because there are so many options to consider. However, if the client starts by answering some basic questions, they will create a foundation on which to base their financial planning decisions.
Our role is to sit down with our clients and go through these questions so that, together, we can understand where the client wants to go financially and how they can best get there.
Personal financial planning helps the client reach those goals through the development and proper management of their financial resources.
Financial planning is not a product... it is a process. With the assistance of a planner, clients may use specific financial products, such as insurance or equities, but only as ends to accomplish the goals they have established.
The financial planning process is a series of steps taken to help clients accomplish their goals. A qualified financial planner, such as a Certified Financial Planner professional, will first gather and analyze data about a client's income and expenses, taxes, insurance coverage, retirement plans, wills, trusts, investments and other information pertinent to the overall financial situation.
The planner will then help the client set realistic goals, identify key financial issues concerning these goals, and prepare a list of recommendations and alternative strategies for achieving these goals. Each strategy, from tax planning to investments, will be recommended in the context of other strategies to achieve the optimum overall results.
Once the client has decided which recommendations to follow, the planner will help them implement those decisions. The last step in the financial planning process is to periodically review and, if necessary, revise the plan.
Some of the questions that we use to understand our client's goals include:
First, what are the client's goals in areas like lifestyle, retirement, saving for college education and their health care?
Second, when do they want to reach their goals?
Third, what steps have they already taken toward achieving their goals?
Fourth, how do they feel about taking investment risks for a potentially higher rate of return?
And finally, how involved do they want to be in monitoring their progress toward their goals?
