How do you establish a relationship with an understanding advisor? Someone who is experienced and knowledgeable, who understands what’s important to you – your goals and dreams, your history and current situation? When you have an opportunity, an emergency, or one of life’s big transitions, it can help cut through the complexity to have someone who can give “in context” advice. We have a process to offer this kind of relationship.
When we work under a Financial Planning Agreement*, we use our Pathfinder Process™.
This begins with careful and very thorough qualitative and quantitative process with you. Our objective is:
- To understand what is most important to you in life, and how these values relate to money.
- To clarify what goals you may have that need money on time to realize.
- To understand other goals that may not take money to accomplish, but that lack of financial security would make less attainable.
- To develop a clear and complete understanding of all factors in your current financial situation.
- To appreciate your attitudes and experience about financial risk and reward.
We start with The Insight Builder and Vision Enhancer™, in-depth conversations that allow you and allows us to assess whether there's a good fit between our capabilities and your needs. We'll look at your life - past, present and future. Though there is no charge for this meeting, we believe there is significant value in the clarity of the overall picture this may provide.
If we agree to go ahead, working under the Financial Planning Agreement, we will collect details of your financial life. Right now: What's the current reality? What have you done so far? What are your current arrangements? What are you funding, saving, investing now?
Drawing from what we learn in these steps, we produce and present The Strategic Itinerary™, your personalized and custom written initial strategy. We address your concerns, your goals and dreams, and chart a course to help you get from here to there. We include a checklist of recommended actions.
At The Strategic Launch™ we implement those steps we have agreed to take immediately. These may involve adjusting existing arrangements, conferring with your attorney or tax advisor, or putting new financial products or services in place.
Other steps may need further consideration, take time to implement, or need to be phased in. Our Client Care Commitment™ is all about this kind of follow-through, as well as providing prompt, personal service and attention to your requests. Our standard is to stay in touch, get to know you well, and think of you when something new comes along that may help you or affect you.
Though we will be in regular contact, once a year we will have a formal update we call The Systematic Status Review™ where we visit your whole situation again, learn what's new and what's changed. We will discuss the status of all of our ongoing projects together, as well as the important things in your life. Any changes we suggest will be presented in detail, and a written annual review is prepared for you to add to your Strategic Itinerary™.
We go a long way toward developing this relationship during the first months and year, and as we go through this cycle together for several years, a deeper and better Understanding Advisor Relationship™ develops.
