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Investment Planning |
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As financial planning professionals, we use our technical skills and knowledge to help you get a handle on complex financial issues. We take the time to understand your goals and tolerance for risk, in order to better assist you in finding an investment strategy that's right for you.
We provide comprehensive financial life planning, including advice on the following matters: Investment Planning, Income Tax Planning, Estate Planning, Retirement Planning, Insurance Planning, and Special Situations. These components should be considered both individually and together when thinking about your financial security. Financial life planning helps clients get a handle on virtually every aspect of their financial lives. It is the process by which a highly trained comprehensive financial planner helps an individual realize his or her vision of life, including the financial, time-management, and environmental goals of that fulfilled life. These issues affect everyone. Take the first step in planning your financial future by calling us to get started.
Investment planning is the process of examining your short- and long-term goals and determining how your current assets and future savings will achieve your objectives. Investment planning considers your tolerance for risk, your time horizon, and your mix of taxable versus tax-deferred assets.
Diversification is the key to reducing risk in your portfolio. This means that although a big loss in one asset class (such as large-cap U.S. stocks or emerging markets) will diminish your returns, your exposure to a variety of other asset classes will increase the likelihood that you will experience gains in some areas of your investment portfolio.
Liquidity planning attempts to balance your cash-flow needs with specific investments. For example, for your short-term needs, invest in assets that are less volatile and can be easily converted to cash, such as money market funds and short-term bonds. Assets earmarked for your longer term goals may be invested in more risky investments that have a history of higher returns.
At its heart, tax planning is the process of paying the least amount of tax that you are entitled to pay (tax avoidance). Tax planning also includes cash flow analysis, savings strategies, and the establishment of an emergency fund. Some examples of tax planning include the following three concepts:
- Pre-paying your state taxes. This strategy should be helpful for individuals living in states with high income tax, such as California. It can be of benefit for those who do not fall into the Alternative Minimum Tax system, which disallows the deduction for state taxes.
- Exercising stock options over several years to keep you in the lowest possible tax bracket for all years.
- Bunching your itemized deductions into one year, a helpful trick if you don't have enough to itemize in one year. For instance, you may want to pre-pay two years of your church or synagogue membership dues in order to get a double deduction in the first year.
Estate planning focuses on protecting and preserving your assets. Components of estate planning include instructions to take effect in the event of your unexpected incapacity or death, specific bequests to family, friends, or charity, and minimization of estate and income taxes. Estate planning is often the hardest of the five areas of financial planning for people to address, since it deals with a person's mortality and other somewhat unpleasant issues. However difficult these issues may be, this area is crucial to consider for those who have children, a spouse, an aging parent, or other dependents. If you are charitably inclined, you can incorporate some creative estate planning to give a portion of your assets to your favorite charity, while giving yourself some tax breaks on the gift while you are alive.
When do you want to achieve financial independence and retire? Retirement planning includes setting goals for your retirement date, projecting your living expenses and income, and then implementing and monitoring your investment plan. It also includes maximizing the benefits that your employer offers, such as pension plans and tax-deferred plans, like 401(k)s. If you are self-employed, such special retirement savings vehicles as profit-sharing plans and SEP IRAs are available. Planning for your retirement also means looking at the tax and cash flow consequences of distributions from your tax-deferred savings plans, as well as Social Security, the multitude of IRAs, stock options, employee stock-purchase plans, and deferred compensation.
Insurance planning, also known as risk management, is the concept of using insurance to protect your assets in the case of a catastrophic loss. In planning for your insurance needs, you don't want too much insurance (over-insuring) or too little insurance (under-insuring). You want to make sure that the big risks that could harm your health or wipe out your savings, such as damage to your home from floods or earthquakes, are covered through insurance.
Consider insurance coverage for your health, as well as your home, its contents (whether you are an owner or renter), cars, boats, jewelry, and business assets.
You may have a need for other insurance coverage. Long-term disability provides income protection if you are disabled. In the event of your death, life insurance provides a payment to a chosen beneficiary. Umbrella insurance covers catastrophic losses. Long-term care insurance will pay for part or all of your care in the event you are incapacitated.
Special situations encompass unique goals, decisions and timing in a client's life. It may include fulfilling philanthropic goals, understanding and managing employee benefits, college education planning, or stock option planning.