Financial Planning
This is the head, the heart, and the hands of our business: where advanced technicals and years of experience meet your close and confidential personal relationship with an advisor, all wrapped up in project management that leaves you with a to-do list that’s not just better but shorter.
A personal relationship to organize and optimize your full financial life
Your financial life is complex and interconnected
Ten years ago, your financial life wasn’t such a tangled web and a blog post here or there could solve your problems. Today, you’re surrounded by technicals and tradeoffs – and who has the time? Financial planning – and your long-term relationship with an advisor – brings all this together, not with plug-and-chug templates, but with a thought partner, analyst and coach all in your corner
Our hope is that after you work with a planner
Alignment, not Annoyance
You and your spouse are on the same page about where you’re going, why, and what it will take to get there
Clarity, not Clutter
When you think about your financial accounts, you have that same feeling of peace as when you see an Instagram picture of an especially well-organized and labeled pantry
Calibration, not Ambiguity
You can confront major life decisions with numbers, not vibes
Strategy, not Surprises
April proceeds as expected, rather than holding your breath for the hammer to fall
Cheering Section in your Front Row Seats
Financial wins can be delicate to share even inside otherwise close friendships. On your best days, celebrate and explore opportunities for someone along for your journey
Logistics for Your Lows
On bad days, you have financial protections in place, and a partner for logistics
Compare our rigorous approach to other firms
Our planning includes
-
Values and Goals
We can’t talk about “how” until we talk about “why.” Inspired by research-backed psychology principles, we place a conversation about values next to a deep conversation about your goals.
-
Cash Flow Analysis
We analyze three months of transactions to understand how and why money flows in and out of your household.
-
Investments Review
Distinct from the investments we manage on your behalf, we invest in your education about how investing works – to the level of your curiosity – and review 401(k), HSA, 529 and other accounts outside our management but within your financial life.
-
Retirement and Scenario Projection
We start with your baseline (what if you didn’t change any behaviors?) and then can dig into your scenarios: could you afford to take a year off for travel or childcare? If you upgraded your home, could you keep your current condo as a rental or do you need to sell it? What combination of spending and savings could put you as work-optional at 55? This is our most-repeated analysis as it lives and breathes next to your life’s changing circumstances.
-
Insurance Review
You’ve built something incredible; it’s worth the dollars and tricky paperwork to protect against unlikely catastrophe. We look at each of your existing policies across life, homeowner’s, liability, disability, engagement rings and more; make sure your protections and payments match your needs; and recommend solutions against gaps. We hope you sleep a little easier.
-
End-of-Life Planning
Our approach is rooted in education and practical protections. Our financial planning fee includes document generation for wills, trusts, powers of attorney and more; we can also prepare you to work with an attorney if your situation is more complex. We also have a series of Google Docs journals to help you document the practical side of your affairs management, including documentation for your online life and more.
-
Tax Planning
Regardless of whether you elect our optional tax filing services, we provide tax planning, including analysis of your tax return, Roth projections, projections for stock sales and more.
Any-Time Access
We believe in planning, not a plan.
Workplace launches a new benefit? Your job changes? You’re expecting a child (yay!), or you need to make a tricky claim on insurance? Want second eyes on an RSU sale or to “do the clicks” for a rollover? For questions big and small, you have someone in your corner.
More about our financial planning process from our blog
How would this apply to your unique life?
Our proposal process includes an hour with a financial planner – at no cost to you – in which we review all your accounts and give you a custom one-page summary of where we suspect “hot spots” in your financial life.