Services: What We Do
Transform Your Finances
As your wealth management advisor, we go beyond your portfolio to add value. We have found there are 13 wealth management issues that are critical for you to achieve success through each phase of your financial life. We aim to provide value in each of the areas that are important for you, including such topics as; retirement planning, estate planning, tax planning, education, and family support, risk management and insurance planning, planning for incapacity, charitable giving, and more.
Retirement Planning
In our financial planning process, we strive to ensure all of our clients have peace of mind. This is not simply a matter of creating a perfect portfolio. We have found there are important philosophical, psychological, and emotional elements at work as well. Our Financial Castle educational program is designed to help eliminate your financial stress and give you peace of mind through any stock market downturn.
Retirement planning with our fiduciary advisors focuses on both the total size of your nest egg and income planning to ensure that you continue to grow your wealth through retirement. Our holistic approach to retirement planning looks across your entire time horizon and ensures that your money is protected and growing from now through your retired years.
Portfolio Management
The S&P 500 has historically returned about 10 percent per year, doubling your money every seven years. Other wealth management advisors try to outperform the market, leading to asset allocation decisions that, statistically, don’t consistently pay off. According to Standard & Poor’s, a whopping 94% of professional stock pickers have underperformed the S&P 500 over the past 20 years. That kind of result can leave you with below-average returns and unnecessary taxes.
Our financial advisors don’t try to outperform the market. We use index funds designed to align your stock returns with the market. Our method of wealth management can also significantly reduce your fees versus active mutual funds and keep more of your money working for you.
Income Planning
Income planning for retirement is one of the most crucial factors of long-term wealth management. Retiring without a plan for ensuring that your after-tax expenses are covered by after-tax income can leave you in an unfavorable position. Proper income planning helps to make sure that you can live the life you want on a monthly basis while avoiding a high tax bill.
Our wealth management advisors will help you work through a retirement income strategy that matches your lifestyle, while also maintaining a healthy financial situation. This includes planning for various sources of income including investment income, social security, IRA and 401k distributions, and any other income sources that you have built up over time. This critical step will help you go confidently into retirement without having to generate new income sources.
Tax Planning
“Anyone may so arrange their affairs so that their taxes shall be as low as possible” – Judge Learned Hand
Financial planning goes beyond simply trying to maximize gains to your portfolio. We use the principle of asset location and create a tax-efficient withdrawal strategy to help minimize your taxes as much as possible. This is all done in coordination with your CPA or tax advisor to ensure we’re working towards the common goal of helping you succeed in meeting your financial goals.
We also utilize a powerful income strategy for retirees that may significantly reduce your tax bill compared to the traditional dividends-based strategy. This is the subject of Jonathan’s book, Income on Demand – Master Your Retirement Portfolio, Ignore the Market, and Leave the IRS Weeping. This book details our approach to investment and tax strategies and how you can keep more money in your pocket, regardless of your tax situation or time horizon.
Financial Planning
There are many benefits of hiring a fiduciary financial advisor. Ultimately, financial planning is about having an educated, trusted professional who can take the burden of research and planning off your hands and collaborate on a wealth management plan for the present and the future. Financial planning includes many different components, including those detailed above.
Our approach to financial planning is to first understand the current state of your finances and the goals that you have for the future. From there, we work together with you to build a plan for your portfolio that takes into consideration your income, tax burden, investment allocation, and even your mindset. Ultimately, the outcome of working with a certified financial planner is peace of mind knowing that you are on the exact path that you want to be on.
Schedule Your Consultation Today
If you would like to learn more about any of these services or explore our integrated approach to wealth management, we would love for you to contact us. We will talk through your situation, tell you more about our approach and determine if Farnam Financial is a good fit for you.