Financial Planning

Having a financial plan provides you with an understanding of where you are today and direction for where you want to go in the future.  A financial plan may help protect  you from some financial risks and, most importantly, a financial plan help can give you more confidence by knowing that your money is efficiently working for you toward achieving your goals and aspirations. 

Goals-based financial planning is a method that allows our clients to save for multiple financial objectives across various time horizons.  Throughout our process we will work with you to help define you and your family’s goals, prioritize them and determine the optimal manner for funding them.  Examples of Goals could be saving for retirement, college education for children or grandchildren, funding the purchase of a second home or making sure your family is protected in the event of premature death.

With goals-based financial planning a person’s plan is not managed as a individual portfolio with the sole objective of earning a return.  Instead, the plan is broken into sub-portfolios that are dedicated to achieving a person’s individual goals.

In goals-based financial planning- risk, performance and growth are not measured solely against volatility, benchmarks and returns; they are measured by the progress a person is making toward attaining their respective goals.

Defining Goals 
The first step in financial planning is defining your goals and your priorities.  This process gives you an opportunity to think deeply about what you want from life, when you want it and what you might need to do to get there — it provides you with a greater clarity of purpose.  Your advisor, on the other hand, gets a better understanding of your current financial picture in the context of your wants and needs, allowing them to create and execute a financial plan that is unique to you. 

Creating the Financial Plan 
Once your goals have been defined, your advisor can begin developing your financial plan.  Each goal will receive its own dedicated funding of assets.  The optimal asset allocation* for each goal is determined by the goal’s profile, your risk capacity and time horizon, and how it interacts with potentially competing financial objectives.  Protecting your income and assets is also a key consideration in the creation of your financial plan to ensure that any unforeseen financial risks do not derail your plan entirely.  These types of protections are generally provided in the form of insurance. 

Executing the Financial Plan 
There are three fundamental parts to executing a sustainable financial plan and all three keep you, the client, at the center: Discovery, Definition, Implementation and Maintenance of your plan over time.  Maintaining the plan’s alignment to your goals requires a trusted relationship.  This relationship is central to the goals-based planning philosophy because the plan is meant to be fluid, changing as life changes.  To do this effectively you and your advisor need to communicate with each other.  You must keep your advisor abreast of any life or goal changes and your advisor must track the progress you are making toward your goals, recommending adjustments when needed. 

*Asset allocation does not guarantee a profit or protect against a loss.

Let us help you achieve your life’s ambitions through the creation of a goals-based financial plan. 

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