Financial Planning
Discover
Design
Action
What is Financial Planning?
Financial Planning is a means to organize and understand your financial life. Our lives are filled with questions, and a quality financial plan should help answer the core questions we all ask. What do I have? What can it do for me? How do I increase the probability of achieving my goals? How do I protect against risks? How do I prepare for when I am no longer able to make decisions? How do I benefit those I leave behind? A few common topics are listed below, but those most relevant to you will be based on your unique goals and situation.
Wealth Accumulation
Working towards specific goals, we help create and implement a strategy to save for the future. Saving involves both asset allocation and asset location. What are the best risk-appropriate investments, and what account types are most appropriate to hold such investments? How best can your employee benefits and retirement plan be utilized to achieve your goals? What if you are self-employed? After your plan is designed and implemented, we adjust it over time based on changes in your life and the market environment.
Tax Strategies
We take a proactive approach to taxes. It is important to be strategic in managing capital gains and losses, contributing to tax-advantaged accounts, and capturing available tax credits and deductions. We seek to understand your anticipated marginal tax bracket in the current and future years. This enables us to make prudent adjustments to both the plan and portfolio to facilitate tax efficiency now and in the future.
Risk Management
Managing risk is an essential component of every financial plan. Risks extend far beyond the risk of your portfolio declining. As part of the planning process, we consider a variety of risks, which include inflation risk, longevity risk, survivor risk, sequence of returns risk, liquidity risk, health risk, and market risk. We also discuss the appropriate use of insurance (life, liability, disability, long-term care, etc.). Deciding how you will address the risks present in your plan is a personal decision. There is no “one-size-fits-all” when it comes to risk planning, which is why our team dedicates time to discussing the risks that concern you most and have the greatest chance of derailing your plan.
Estate Planning Analysis
A well-built estate plan can reduce the stress and confusion around key medical and financial decisions around significant life events. Furthermore, accurate beneficiary designations and estate documents help you control who will inherit your assets and when. Cornerstone Wealth partners with estate planning attorneys to effectively coordinate implementing of each client’s estate plan.
Retirement Income Strategies
At the heart of retirement planning is the distribution of accumulated assets. Where and when assets are sold in a portfolio has a tremendous impact on the sustainability of portfolio withdrawals (referred to as a sequence of returns risk). Our approach aims to create stable monthly income throughout retirement and reduce the need to sell investments during periods of significant market volatility.
Charitable Giving
Whether you want to give during your life or intend to leave money at death, charitable giving strategies can have a significant impact on the dollar amounts that go to your family, the charities you care about, and not the IRS. Utilizing certain charitable strategies (qualified charitable distributions, donor-advised funds, charitable remainder trusts, etc.), we help you achieve the greatest financial benefits for you, your heirs, and your preferred charities.
Tell Me More
“I can trust the Cornerstone team to do the right thing with our money so we don’t have to worry about our financial situation in the future.”
The statement was provided June 19, 2022 by Bruce & Denise A. who are clients. This statement may not be representative of the experience of others and is not a guarantee of future performance or success. For additional reviews, search us wherever local businesses are reviewed.
Meet an Advisor
We look forward to hearing your questions and discussing how we can be the best partner for you!