Optimizing Your Finances

Our process to serve you

We focus on serving individuals and families over fifty as a retirement planner and Registered Investment Advisor. We work with you to help clarify and define your objectives, get organized, explore possibilities, analyze tactics, implement the right strategies, and monitor and adjust over time. And, we do this as a fiduciary. This means that not only do we act in your best interests at all times, but that we have a legally binding requirement to do so!

We start with a brief 10-15 minute call to make sure we’re in a position to help. If we’re well suited for what you need, we’ll schedule a no cost/no obligation meeting to drill down further and identify the full scope of work to be completed.

We’ll follow that by sending you a detailed proposal outlining the tasks we’ll complete and the initiatives we’ll take on to bring you financial clarity. If you decide to work with us, we’ll move forward with our full retirement planning process to put you in a position to achieve your goals!

Our Process

The Seven Steps We Take

Our Services

What We Have To Offer

Retirement Income Planning

Moving to income generated by your savings is the biggest step in transitioning away from work. We specialize in guiding our clients through the process, and no detail is too small.

You’ll learn whether you’re saving enough, spending too much, withdrawing too fast, or invested in a way that’s dangerous to your long-term financial health.

We’ll stress test your plan against a series of shocks, such as entering retirement at the start of a recession or getting hit with unexpected medical bills.

Our goal is to poke and prod and find ways to bankrupt you while it’s still theoretical and on paper. We’ll spend time creating your clear vision to a clear financial plan.

Investment Management

We believe portfolios should be built to maximize your chances of meeting your objectives, not to outperform an arbitrary benchmark.

We’ll help you construct a portfolio that optimizes your risk/return profile and minimizes the tax liabilities on your investments.

We use stocks, bonds, mutual funds, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), mutual funds, and closed-end funds (CEFs) when constructing portfolios. We’re vigilant about costs and try to minimize them wherever possible.

Tax-smart investing is part of our tax-mitigation process, and we will implement tax loss harvesting plans, capital gains mitigations techniques, and asset location tactics to squeeze as much juice out of your portfolio as possible.

Social Security Optimization

We work with you to determine the optimal time to claim social security. This means exploring how your other income streams, such as rental income, pensions, dividends, and IRA distributions to name a few, impact your overall planning and taxes before turning on the social security tap.

We also factor in health conditions, personal preferences, spousal benefits, and survivorship issues when calculating the best time to claim.

Tax Analysis

It’s possible to pay more tax in retirement than you did while you were working if you aren’t careful. We work with your tax professional to help minimize and avoid taxes wherever possible.

We help keep the IRS at bay by:

  • Providing an annual tax return analysis
  • Model lifetime Roth Conversion strategies
  • Ensure income streams are coordinated in concert and timed correctly.
  • Charitable giving and estate planning tactics
  • Optimize the location of certain kinds of investment property.

Workplace Benefits Evaluation

We’ll consult with you on your workplace benefits so that you can take full advantage of what your employer is offering.

Together, we’ll navigate your company stock options, ESOP, ESPP, medical coverage choices, supplemental executive retirement packages, and even review the fine print on your 401k.

Attending the summary meeting once a year during annual enrollment may not always be enough. We comb through the details so you don’t have to.

Insurance Analysis

Full disclosure: we are a fee only firm that makes no money when you buy a policy. We don’t offer insurance, which means you don’t need to worry about us recommending something you don’t need.

Our goal is to ensure you have no gaps in coverage first and foremost. Minimizing and reducing your costs comes next.

We regularly review the following types of insurance:

  • Life
  • Long-term care
  • Home, Auto, and Liability
  • Disability Income
  • Health

Leaving a Legacy

You want to know what will happen to your money after you are gone. Your money should flow to the people you love and the causes you care about when you pass. Doing it efficiently takes planning. We’ll have discussions like “should I write a will or trust?”, “How do I combine values and wealth to create a lasting legacy?”, “Does my legacy align with my vision?”

Still On The Fence?

Enjoy A Complimentary Gift From Us!