Financial Planning Services

We collect and analyze your financial data, and prepare a customized financial plan. Based on the priorities you establish, we may address issues including retirement planning, education funding, charitable giving strategies, tax-saving opportunities, and ensuring that your estate plan is coordinated with your financial plan.

Retirement Planning

Our Retirement Planning services begin with an analysis of your income, accumulated assets, retirement plans, and pension and social security benefits. We approach the question of retirement from two viewpoints: what resources are available to provide income and what lifestyle you are trying to maintain. We help clients to think about their retirement lifestyle: what do you want to do in retirement? How much will it cost? Where do you want to live? Will your expenses increase or decrease?

If you are several years away from retirement, we will look at how your assets will grow up to retirement. You may also be unsure when you can afford to retire, and we can give you guidance in choosing the optimal time. In all our retirement planning work, we strive to be conservative, but realistic. We assume you do not want to outlive your assets but, on the other hand, you also want to enjoy retirement. This is often a challenging balance to attain.

Education Funding

Your child's college tuition could be one of the largest expenditures you ever make. With education costs rising at a rate well above inflation, it is important to plan ahead. We help clients assess how much they need to save and the appropriate investment vehicles to meet their particular needs (such as 529 plans and custodial accounts).

Charitable Giving Strategies

By organizing your giving, you can make it more effective, allowing your contributions to benefit not only the intended charity, but potentially yourself and your heirs. We help our clients gain access to tax-smart, efficient, and flexible philanthropic resources for supporting their charitable goals, such as charitable gift accounts and Charitable Remainder Unitrusts.

Tax-Saving Strategies

In addition to using tax-aware investment strategies, we help our clients identify ways to be tax efficient. Determining the most tax advantageous type of retirement account, and reviewing tax returns to be sure clients are taking advantage of itemized deductions and tax credits are among the ways we add value.

Estate Planning

As part of our financial planning process for high net worth clients, we review the estate planning documents that have been prepared by your estate lawyer to be sure they coordinate with your other financial goals and objectives. We will work with your lawyer to make sure the accounts we establish are appropriately titled and that beneficiary designations are in place and are congruent with the estate plan. We are happy to interface directly with the other members of your estate planning team.