PWA's financial planning service works with you to collect a large quantity of pertinent financial data, identify your goals and values, and ultimately report back a statement of your current financial condition as well as a SWOT (strengths / weaknesses / opportunities / threats) analysis. It suggests some alternatives as to how you can achieve the previously identified goals (or modify them where unrealistic), and creates an action plan that will be used to make and track progress toward your goals through the year. The financial planning offering utilizes the components of the PRETIRE program as follows:
Planning & Goal Setting - Determines your goals and needs while establishing your current financial position. Develops and delivers an initial action plan with specific steps to implement the PRETIRE program. See the Planning & Goal Setting component of What We Offer for additional detail.
Risk Management - Analyzes the events that pose threats/risks to your financial plan and determines how those risks can be managed through insurance, avoidance, reduction or acceptance strategies. Determines your risk tolerance.
Employee Benefits - Reviews your existing employee benefits and the way you are using them. May suggest shifts in the use of these benefits as required to meet the overall plan.
Tax - Reviews your previous year taxes to understand your current tax situation. Suggests tax deferral / avoidance techniques where possible to reduce the overall tax burden.
Investments - Determines the returns required to fulfill your goals/needs. Develops an asset allocation that will target those returns without taking on excess risk.
Retirement Planning - Analyzes retirement needs based on client goals. Suggests implementation methods using employee benefits (or self-employed retirement plans), retirement accounts, and savings plans.
Estate Planning - Determines necessary documents and procedures that you should put in place to handle the decisions that will need to be made after death and the distribution of your assets to loved ones. Depending on the amount assets, this could include the establishment of gifting and estate plans to minimize the effect of estate taxes and ensure your wealth is bequeathed as you wish.
The financial planning service is intended for all clients. Whether you want PWA to assist in its implementation or you want to try to implement it yourself, generating the plan is always the starting point.
Following the signing of a planning agreement, you will be required to complete a data and risk questionnaire and to gather information about your family, assets, insurance, benefits, and estate. You will then meet with your advisor for an information gathering session that will provide the basis for the inputs into the financial plan. Your advisor will analyze your situation, contact you for any additional questions, and prepare your plan. He will then deliver your plan and schedule a meeting with you to review it. Both that review and the information gathering session can be done via conference call or in person.
PWA will send your data and risk questionnaire after you sign a planning agreement. When the data we request is ready for review, you will schedule a review meeting with your advisor. After the review, plan generation generally takes between two and six weeks depending on the complexity of your situation. When complete, your advisor will schedule a review with you.
Generating a financial plan is a necessary first step in managing your personal finances. Without the plan, you can do everything right without ever doing the right things. It's like trying to piece together a ten-thousand piece jigsaw puzzle without a picture on the pieces. You end up jamming things together that look good at first, but weren't intended to fit with the rest of the puzzle. When you let PWA create your financial plan, you allow us to help you envision the picture and detail the steps that will make it a reality.
For clients who will participate in an asset management program with PWA, and who have at least $1,000,000 in assets to manage at the start of the engagement, this financial plan service will be free of charge. In all other cases, the service will be provided on an hourly basis for $50 / hr. The number of hours required to complete the plan will depend on the complexity of your situation. An estimate of overall cost will be given to you during the initial consultation, but generally averages from $500-$1000.
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