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Whether it’s owning your own home, funding your children’s education, or creating a stress-free retirement, a financial plan is considered vital in working towards your goals. A well-grounded and effective plan goes beyond the realm of saving, budgeting, and investing. It also considers other elements of your financial picture, including insurance planning, tax planning, retirement planning, estate planning, and much more.

By understanding the role of financial planning in meeting your short, intermediate, and long-term financial aspirations, you'll be better equipped to control your financial future.

Our Approach to Financial Planning

• Discovering You: Our process begins with a consultative discovery meeting designed to learn more about you and your goals. This is also an opportunity for you to learn more about what we do, and see if we’re a good fit for your needs.
   
• Strategy Planning: Once we learn who you are, we'll start developing your personalized plan. Through our strategy-building process, we’ll create a set of personalized plans – for the short, intermediate, and long-term – that aim to fulfill your overall financial strategy. We use a consultative and iterative approach, so each session brings us closer to the financial objectives we set together.
   
• Implementation: Whether it’s making the right investment decisions, choosing the right insurance plan for you and your family, saving to reach your retirement goals, or creating an estate plan that preserves your legacy; our financial professionals will be right there by your side as you take each step. Through foresight, encouragement, and professionalism, we’ll make sure each step of your plan is implemented.
   
• Review and Support: We’ll laud you at every successful implementation of your financial plan, and help you stay on track to meet your objectives. Through plan reviews, we’ll consult with you and make modifications to your strategies and plans as needed.

Book an initial consultation with one of our financial professionals to create your personalized financial plan.

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If you wish to leave behind a meaningful legacy, be it for loved ones or a charitable institution, you need to put a well-thought-out estate plan in place. Without an established plan, the fate of your estate could be determined by the government, lawyers, or people that don’t have your interests and best wishes in mind.

Having an estate plan is paramount in ensuring your estate is handled according to your wishes. Together with your estate planning attorney, we can assist in drafting documents and reviewing your situation so your estate benefits the people and charities you care about most.

What We Can Do For You

• Will education: We can help you understand how to structure your will so your legal team can create a document that reflects how you want your estate disposed of and distributed. From a simple will to a testamentary will, or joint wills and living wills – our team will help you navigate the complexities of this document so you won’t need to stress over specifics.
   
• Creating Powers of Attorney (POA): Whether it’s to manage specific assets, such as investments, accounts, and real estate holdings, or to help others make health care decisions if you are ill or incapacitated, you need a POA in place to ensure your wishes are followed. A well-crafted POA will also smoothen how decisions about your final arrangements, and those related to your estate, are taken care of once you pass.
   
• Choosing executors: The executors of your estate wield strong powers that determine how your estate is handled upon your passing. We’ll help you understand the importance of choosing an executor(s) for your estate, and what criteria you should consider when appointing someone to discharge this all-important role – especially if minor children/guardians are involved.
   
• Designating beneficiaries: If you don’t choose beneficiaries for your assets carefully, your estate assets might end up in the hands of individuals that you never intended should benefit from them. A well-thought-out estate plan ensures the needs of your dependents are taken care of.
   
• Minimizing estate taxes and probate fees: Taxes, fees, and other levies have the potential to erode a large part of your estate before your beneficiaries see a cent. Careful planning can reduce the impact taxes and fees may have.
   
• Estate protection: Even after you pass, many of your assets – such as long-term investments and property – will likely need protection and management until they are disposed of and their proceeds are distributed to your beneficiaries. In the absence of an estate plan, your assets will likely not receive the type and level of protection those assets require.
   
• Distribute your legacy: Our professionals can support you in synchronizing your estate plans and your will, so your assets are distributed in line with your final wishes.

Schedule a meeting with us to see what an estate plan can do for you.

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^{Our firm does not provide legal advice or services. Please consult your legal advisor or an estate planning attorney regarding your specific situation.}

Everything you do – from planning the education and designations you'd like to acquire, to starting a career& and managing your career progression – is done in the hopes that you and your loved ones can have a better life. But in all your planning, have you remembered to plan for life after work?

If you fail to plan for life after work, all the effort you’ve put into your working life may be jeopardized, and you may be left with more questions than answers. And an ill-prepared retirement is bound to be one filled with financial stress and chaos, instead of life-enriching experiences and freedom.

How We Can Help

Retirement planning shouldn’t start at retirement; it should start well before. We take a long-term view of your financial wellbeing to help create a life after work that is as well-planned as your life while working.

• Understand your goals: Through an intensely personalized approach, we discover what your retirement goals are. Whether it’s travel, a new hobby, or spending more time with the people you love, we’ll help you strive for your ideal retirement.
   
• Analyze your current position: To plan a meaningful retirement, you need to know where you currently stand. We’ll help you build an in-depth financial inventory to use as part of our retirement planning process.
   
• Develop your plan: We’ll work with you to create a retirement plan that aims to address them. When we’re done, you’ll not only have a better understanding of your investments, and what you need to fund your retirement lifestyle, you’ll also be better equipped to handle any shortfalls.
   
• Implement your plan: As you move closer to retirement, we’ll work with you to ensure the plans are implemented in a phased and orderly manner. The goal of our retirement planning approach is to make your transition to retirement as seamless and stress-free as possible.
   
• Support you in pension and benefit decisions: We’ll be here if you need advice on Government or Employer pension and benefits: when to apply, how to apply, what to do with your funds, and much more.
   
• Partner with you in retirement and beyond: A long and fulfilling retirement takes multiple facets of your financial picture into consideration: health care, long-term care, insurance, legacy planning, and charitable giving. Our financial professionals will be here for you when you need advice in any of these areas.
   
• Provide ongoing reviews: We’ll continue to review your retirement plans, and consult with you about any changes or updates needed to address your evolving retirement lifestyle needs.

Ready to take the first step in creating your plan for life after work?

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Growing a business is a difficult undertaking today as business owners must confront a myriad of tax laws and regulations while trying to effectively create products or services, manage their employees, develop and cultivate clients, and do so profitably.

Often times business owners are too absorbed in their business to tend to their own financial needs, and they may also overlook key planning considerations that could help their business grow and prosper. Also, the livelihood of a business owner can be imperilled when unexpected events occur that adversely affect the bottom line of the business.

Business Owner Needs

Retirement

For many business owners, their business is their primary retirement asset. After many years of building a successful business they expect to convert it to an income for retirement by selling it. If they are relying upon the business as their sole means of retirement they run the risk that it may not attain the value needed to produce the needed income.

Businesses can fail. Businesses can lose value in certain economic cycles. The timing is not always right to sell a business. Many times the true value of the business lies in the talents and good will of the business owner who won’t be around to run the business after he retires.

Business owners today must prepare for retirement with the same level of diversification recommended for any retirement plan. Business owners have access to a number of qualified and nonqualified retirement plan options that can provide a cornerstone for their retirement income needs.

Business Succession

When a business partner dies, the business loses a valuable asset and could suffer in the short term. The long term issue for surviving business owners is whether the business can survive when the partner’s family members show up for their interest in the business.

For the families of business partners, the business interest is often their biggest asset and they become the rightful owner of that interest at the death of the partner. They will want to receive their share of the business, either in direct compensation or through their participation as an active partner in the business.

If the surviving partner does not have the capital to compensate the family for their share, their options are limited and not very attractive. A business succession plan can provide for the orderly transfer of the business interest from the deceased’s family to the business.

Key Employee Protection

One of the more devastating events a small business can suffer is the loss of a key employee. Often times it’s a key employee who brings a special talent to the business and is responsible for much of the success of the business owner. The loss of such a valuable asset could set the business back for a period of time, and at tremendous cost, while the business owner seeks to find a replacement, if one can be found at all.

In financial planning, we are taught that it our most valuable assets – our home, our ability to earn income, our cars – should be insured against an unexpected loss. It’s no different for business owners as the loss of a valuable business asset could imperil the business.

Buying life insurance coverage on a key employee makes good business sense. The amount of coverage should be enough to cover the costs of recruiting and paying a replacement, loss of earnings to the company, any redemption of stock or a salary continuation plan arrangement with the surviving family.

Executive Compensation

In a small business setting, it could take years to find or develop the executive talent needed to build the business to the next level. Executive talent is hard to come by, and it is even more difficult on the business when it walks out the door in pursuit of another opportunity.

When key executives are presented with a strong monetary incentive package, they are more likely to stay and utilize their talents where they feel appreciated and appropriately rewarded. Structured incentive plans can help keep key executives in place and motivate them to higher levels of performance.

Plans such as Nonqualified Deferred Compensation, Executive Bonus, and Split Dollar Life Insurance are life insurance based plans that enable the business to offer current and future benefits to their key executives in exchange for their continued service for a specified period of time.

For more information on Business Owner Planning, please contact us today.

When entrepreneurs start a business, the last thing on their minds is succession planning. Most business owners spend a lot of time – as they should – on Operations Plans, Marketing Plans, Capital-spending Plans, Maintenance Planning, Staffing Plans…and more. But what about Succession Planning? Wouldn’t you like an orderly “exit” from the business, once it’s time for you to take a back seat?

Why Business Succession Planning Is Important

You’ve built your business through sweat, toil and tireless effort. For most entrepreneurs, their business operations represent a legacy that they’d like to leave to the next generation. And what would happen to the business in the event that you are suddenly incapacitated – is there someone reliable that can step into your shoes? Have you thought about the customers/clients that depend on the goods/services your company provides – who would service their needs if you are not around?

More importantly, given that many loyal employees count on working for the business long after the owner has passed, it makes sense to ensure someone with the proper vision for the business succeeds you.

Without a proper succession plan in place, family strife and internal (company) politics would threaten the future of the firm as a going concern. In some cases, companies without sound succession plans find themselves being pushed into bankruptcy or receivership.

There are far reaching repercussions for not having a well-thought-out succession plan. Unfortunately, all of them are not too pleasant for the business, the business owner, his/her beneficiaries and the employees working for the company!

What We Can Do for You

Simply put, our Business Succession Planning service provides business owners peace of mind – the kind that comes from knowing you are well-prepared to relinquish control of the business on your own terms. And we do that by ensuring that the stewardship of the business passes into hands that are designated and approved by you - the business owner.

But succession planning is not just about designating a particular individual or group to step in after you’re gone. Our Business Succession Planning team lays out a comprehensive process for identifying, screening, grooming, and ultimately transitioning ownership to your designated successor/s when the time comes.

Here’s a preview of what our Business Succession Planning service covers:

• Strategizing succession: Helping you identify the ideal succession strategy based upon any number of “end game” objectives that you have in mind: Maximize sales proceeds. Minimize tax implications. Create a lasting legacy. Assure a comfortable retirement.
• Building succession plans: We’ll consult with you about possible succession strategies: Pass the business on to your next generation? Hand it over to designated/trusted employees? Have professional management teams from outside step in and take over? Sell the business to a competitor and pass the proceeds to your heirs? Go public, leaving it up to the Board of Directors to deal with the company’s future?
• Understanding the impacts: Together, our Succession Planning experts will walk you through all of the legal, financial and tax implications for each of the various succession scenarios proposed. This impact analysis will help you determine which of the succession approaches makes best sense for you and the business.
• Identifying successors: Depending upon which strategy you choose, we’ll work with you to identify a list of skills and qualities needed in your successor. This phase of our Succession Planning often results in recommendations for training or mentorship well in advance of your exiting the company.
• Multi-disciplined advice: In the event that the plan involves selling all or part of the business, our experts will work with a team of advisors, including Financial experts, Accountants, Insurance Agents, Realtors and Estate Planners to determine a fair and equitable valuation for the business.
• Relationship-building: Finally, we’ll work with you to establish a comprehensive timeline for key milestones within the plan. And because our service is based on a long-term relationship, we’ll continually monitor and consult with you as your succession objectives evolve or change.

Contact us today to learn more about succession planning as a business owner.