Broker Check

Financial Planning

If you type, "what is good financial planning," into Google, or read the copy on countless financial advisor websites, you'll find descriptions that sound a lot like this:

“Good financial planning helps you achieve your financial goals. It can guide you towards a better understanding of your financial situation and help you make smarter money decisions by considering your current and future needs.”

Maybe they won’t even sound that good. Those are some nice words, and it’s true, that is what financial planning should do for you. What it should not do is act as an excuse for an advisor to charge you a percentage of your investment portfolio every year, which is why I don’t. 

What you get

A plan is only worth paying for if you can act on it and keep using it. So at the end of our work you have three things:

  • A working financial model in RightCapital, built with you, not handed to you. Keep updating it yourself or don't. Either way, you'll understand what drives the results, because you watched it get built.
  • A summary report of where you stand and what I found.
  • A list of recommended actions, in priority order, with instructions for carrying out each one.

Follow-up questions about your report are included in the fee. See exactly what's in your plan.

Who this is for

A one-time plan fits if you want to be sure you're doing the right things, you have the time to carry the plan out, and you're in (or entering) a stable stretch of life where the plan won't need constant revision.

It isn't a foot in the door. Many people don't need me to revisit their plan that often, and that's good. If you'd rather have someone alongside you as life keeps changing, that's a different service, described here.

How it works

Most plans take four to six weeks, depending on scheduling. It's hard to do this well in fewer than three meetings, but that's not a limit. I meet as often as the work needs. That might be two meetings and a lot of email, or five meetings with some of them short.


What the plan covers

  • Retirement income and Social Security claiming
  • Spending you can sustain, and how much cash to hold
  • Investment strategy: asset allocation, and which accounts hold what
  • Tax planning, including year-by-year moves like Roth conversions and charitable giving
  • Insurance review: umbrella, long-term care, health, and Medicare
  • Estate planning, coordinated with your attorney, including beneficiary designations

I give the advice and you do the work, with instructions for every step. I don't prepare tax returns or draft legal documents.

This may not be the right fit if

  • You'd rather have someone make the changes for you. With a one-time plan, I give advice and you do the work: moving accounts, changing investments, filing forms.
  • You're not comfortable making changes to your own investment portfolio or keeping track of your own taxes.
  • Your situation is changing fast and you want a plan that keeps pace with it.

Each of those points to ongoing advisory, which is a different service. It's not a lesser or greater one, just a different fit.

Ready to get started?

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