A focus on helping you grow.

Individuals and Families

You may have some of the following: a business, house, child, 401(k), a forgotten Roth IRA, student loans, aging parents, an influx of cash, a hard to understand benefits package at work, or maybe some combination of these. Basically, all of these items can seem like a lot of puzzle pieces with no clear direction on the big picture.

Financial planning is about putting your puzzle together. This can include analyzing your cash flow, stress-testing your asset allocation for a bear market, adjusting spending and saving rates, and planning for particular goals and concerns. Let’s help you feel more comfortable with your current financial reality, while also planning for both the expected and (more importantly) the not so expected stages of life.

Case Study: Building your financial team

Jessica is a recently divorced, working mom. Historically, she wasn’t very hands on with the family budget and organizing finances. Now that the divorce settlement is finalized, she’s not sure where to start to get her new life in order.

Problem: Jessica never liked the family CPA and doesn’t want to interact with anyone she used to do business with while she was married. She’s looking for a fresh start, but isn’t sure who can help with each item on her financial to-do list.

Action plan: Working with a client during a transition such as divorce requires a thorough checklist. Many things need to be considered including retitling assets, financing a new residence and creating a budget for Jessica’s new life post-divorce. It also means assembling your new team of advisors. We connected Jessica with a new CPA and estate attorney to draw up a will, trust, health care directive and guardianship for her minor children. We provided a full inventory of Jessica’s new financial picture, consolidating everything into a financial plan that included a budget, short- and long-term goals, and an allocation for her newly divided assets to fund her new life.

Takeaway: It’s easy to feel overwhelmed during a major life change, whether divorce, death or even a big job change. Having a qualified team of advisors behind you can make things easier. You can’t know what you don’t know – the right team of advisors can work together to make sure your bases are covered.

This case study is for illustrative purposes only. Individual cases will vary. Any information is not a complete summary or statement of all available data necessary for making an investment decision and does not constitute a recommendation. Prior to making any investment decision, you should consult with your financial advisor about your individual situation.

Corporate Retirement Plans

As independent financial advisors and entrepreneurs ourselves, we understand the challenges business owners often face. We are committed to helping you develop, monitor and manage a retirement plan suited to the needs of your business and the people who make it successful.

As retirement plan advisors, our team can assist you by:

• Evaluating your current plan’s pricing, administration and compliance
• Performing plan-design consulting to help ensure your plan fits your needs as they change
• Assisting in designing an investment policy statement (IPS) to help minimize fiduciary liability
• Serving as the primary contact for all aspects of plan servicing
• Providing ongoing plan reviews
• Managing employee communication and ongoing education, including financial wellness programs

We specialize in providing employee benefit plan services to businesses of all sizes and industries. We can assist in establishing and maintaining a variety of qualified retirement plans, as well as nonqualified deferred compensation plans.

Case Study: Retirement Plan Reboot

Carla owns a successful small business. Three years ago she began hiring employees, and realized she needed to offer a benefits package to attract and retain talent. As a busy business owner, Carla decided to take her payroll company up on their constantly aggressive sales calls to become her retirement plan record keeper and third party administrator. They said bundling all her services would be cheaper and easier.

Problem: Carla never knew what she was supposed to do to stay in compliance with her company retirement plan. She was sent a lot of information from the payroll company, but didn’t understand much of it. Her only line of assistance came in the form of an 800 number. Her employees began asking questions about how much they should be deferring, why there wasn’t an employer match, which investment option to choose and how to read a fee notice. Starting to feel overwhelmed, Carla wanted to find a better solution for both her and her employees.

Action plan: When we work with a new client who has an established plan, we ask a lot of questions to find an optimal plan design. In Carla’s case, she wanted to offer an additional benefit to her employees while also encouraging them to begin saving for their retirement. No one had discussed options for adding an employer contribution to the plan, or an ancillary plan that benefited and retained key employees. We also began offering employee education meetings regularly to discuss retirement readiness. Carla began seeing her employees contribute more to their accounts. With a dedicated advisor to the plan, she also could wear one less hat by connecting employees to us for any plan-related questions.

Takeaway: As your business grows, it’s important to re-evaluate the service providers you rely on. In Carla’s case, taking the seemingly easy route of hiring a payroll company to do more than just payroll was a common but costly mistake. Also, it’s important that company retirement plans are reviewed regularly for pricing and efficiency.

This case study is for illustrative purposes only. Individual cases will vary. Any information is not a complete summary or statement of all available data necessary for making an investment decision and does not constitute a recommendation. Prior to making any investment decision, you should consult with your financial advisor about your individual situation.