Financial Planning

Thoughtful guidance for the decisions that shape your financial life.

A Broader View

Turning Priorities into a Clear Course of Action

Investing works best when it supports a broader financial plan. We take time to understand your goals, priorities, resources, and long-term objectives before developing strategies tailored to your circumstances.

Planning Begins with the Decisions in Front of You

Financial planning turns broad concerns into specific questions that can be evaluated, prioritized, and revisited over time.

Whether you’re building savings, approaching retirement, or already retired, a clear financial plan can help you make decisions with greater clarity. You may be asking:

  • When can I retire, and how much do I need to save to get there?
  • How much can I spend each year in retirement without running out?
  • When should I start taking Social Security?
  • Should I roll over my 401(k) or other employer retirement plan into an IRA?
  • How can I reduce taxes on my investments and retirement withdrawals?
  • Are my estate plan and beneficiary designations up to date?

Your financial plan connects directly to your investment portfolio, so decisions about retirement income, taxes, and risk work together. We coordinate with your CPA and estate attorney as needed.

Family finances involve more people, more goals, and decisions that affect one another. We help families work through questions like:

  • How much should we save for our children’s education?
  • Is our family protected if something happens to one of us?
  • How can we help our children or grandchildren financially without putting our own retirement at risk?
  • How do we pass wealth to the next generation efficiently?
  • How can we prepare the next generation to manage money responsibly?

When you own a business, your personal finances and your company are closely connected. We help business owners work through questions like:

  • Which retirement plan fits my business best?
  • How do I reduce the risk of having most of my wealth tied up in one company?
  • How should I prepare for an eventual sale or succession?
  • We work alongside your accountant and attorney so your business and personal plans support each other.

We work alongside your accountant and attorney so your business and personal plans support each other.

Nonprofit boards are responsible for supporting today’s mission while protecting resources for the future. We help organizations with:

  • A written investment policy statement the board can approve and follow
  • Management of endowment, reserve, and restricted funds
  • Accepting and handling gifts of stock and other securities
  • Clear, regular reporting for boards and finance committees

Some moments call for a fresh look at your plan. Whether a change is expected or sudden, we help you slow down, understand your options, and avoid rushed decisions. Common transitions include:

  • Retiring or changing jobs, including decisions about your 401(k) or pension
  • Losing a spouse or going through a divorce
  • Receiving an inheritance or other windfall
  • Selling a business
  • Marrying, starting a family, or sending children to college
  • Downsizing, relocating, or caring for aging parents

Areas We Consider

Picturesque view of wavy ocean with lighthouse and rocky formations with plants under blue sky

The Pieces of a Coordinated Financial Picture

Not every client needs every form of analysis. We focus on the areas that are relevant now while remaining attentive to how one decision may affect another.

Financial Position and Cash Flow

Organize assets, liabilities, income, spending, savings, debt, emergency reserves, and education funding needs to establish a clear financial starting point.

Risk Management

Review your exposure to financial loss and how existing life, disability, health, long-term care, property, and liability coverage fits your plan. Where changes may be warranted, we coordinate with your insurance professional.

Investment Planning

Connect goals, time horizon, liquidity needs, tax considerations, risk capacity, and risk tolerance to an appropriate investment strategy, with detailed portfolio management addressed through our investment process.

Tax Planning Considerations

Identify how taxes may affect compensation, investments, distributions, asset sales, charitable gifts, and wealth transfers. Tax advice and filings are handled by your tax professional.

Retirement Savings and Income

Review savings strategies, projected expenses, employer benefits, pensions, Social Security, Medicare, required distributions, longevity, and potential sources of retirement income.

Estate Planning and Wealth Transfer

Review ownership, beneficiaries, gifting intentions, charitable priorities, incapacity considerations, and legacy objectives, then coordinate legal implementation with the client’s attorney.

Values, Behavior, and Life Transitions

Recognize that experience, family dynamics, attitudes toward money, behavioral biases, communication preferences, and major life events can materially influence financial choices.

If one expects to bequeath a portfolio to one’s children and hopes that they will pass it on to subsequent generations, the time horizon for investment planning, for all practical purposes, becomes infinite.

-Clifford Dow, Sr (1936-2025)

Our Planning Process

A Clear Path from Questions to Action

Our planning process moves from understanding your situation to clear, coordinated recommendations.

Learn and Define

Understand your circumstances, priorities, values, and financial information, then identify the goals that matter most.

Evaluate

Review your current course, test assumptions, and compare reasonable alternatives and their tradeoffs.

Recommend and Agree

Develop and explain coordinated recommendations, including their purpose, timing, material effects, and priority.

Coordinate and Monitor

Clarify which professionals are responsible for action, review progress when appropriate, and revisit the analysis as circumstances change.

What You Can Expect

Clear Priorities, Not Just More Information

The scope of each engagement depends on the client’s needs. Our goal is to make complex financial questions easier to understand and help clients approach important decisions with greater clarity.

  • A clearly defined scope, responsibilities, and planning priorities
  • Clearly stated goals, assumptions, and time horizons
  • Discussion of the current course and reasonable alternatives
  • Recommendations explained in terms of their purpose, tradeoffs, timing, and priority
  • Coordination with attorneys, accountants, insurance professionals, and other advisors
  • Periodic monitoring and updates as goals and circumstances change