Financial, Family, and Business Planning
We strive to make an impact in a number of ways at Weatherly – there is an inseparable connection between how much we learn about clients and the relevance of our advice. Creating a financial plan is an important component and serves as a roadmap to success. Taking into consideration our clients’ current financial situation, goals and aspirations, and using well thought out and reasonable assumptions, we seek to create a plan that is specific yet fluid – a plan that’s progress-driven in the short term and adaptable to long term changes in environment, goals or opportunities.
It is important to have a financial plan but even more so, sticking to it during times of volatility can be critical. Having a plan built with accurate information and conservative assumptions takes into consideration periods of volatility and makes our clients long-term goals a priority.
Assumptions Used in the Planning Process
When we onboard new clients, we generally request a financial profile, including but not limited to:
- Overview of investible and real assets
- Annual expenses – both discretionary and non-discretionary
- Income sources and target retirement dates
- One-time liquidation events, like business or real estate sales
- Liabilities
- Family and business priorities and values
- Goals such as paying for education, real estate, vehicles, retirement or philanthropy
Developing Flexible Recommendations and/or Alternatives
When creating a financial plan, we want to provide a framework and allow for flexibility for goals and life expectations to change and evolve. We typically create a base case as well as 2-3 alternative scenarios to show how small changes in your plan can have a large impact on the success and tradeoffs in achieving objectives.
- Base case: We take your current situation and project if maintaining this course of action will result in a successful plan. If assets are sufficient, what is your safety margin?
- Alternative Scenarios: Whether the base case scenario succeeds or illustrates a need for adjustments, we typically show how various changes in the plan can affect the outcome. Some of these scenarios are things you can control while others are simply out of your control:
- Longer life expectancy
- Utilize primary residence for additional equity
- Increased/decreased living expenses
- Family and business priorities and values
- Additional gifting
The assumptions and scenarios can lead to specific recommendations – but we don’t want to disregard the tax implications of implementing different strategies. Our team is equipped to make our clients’ financial goals a priority while combining tax optimization with growth opportunities. By adding alternative scenarios, we go beyond your base case, and plan for potential risks and tax liabilities that may arise and cause clients to pivot or adjust their plans.
Retirement Planning
The financial plan often reveals the answer to the common question – “when can I retire?” Often, there is something in between working full time and retirement, such as part time work, consulting or teaching. We provide clients with resources to do what they ultimately wish to focus on while determining what is financially feasible. There are several considerations – like business structures and retirement plans for the self-employed – that we review for each specific client to continue to build assets and defer taxes while working. We also provide analysis on where to pull funds from most efficiently in retirement.
Business Planning
Business owners live two often intertwined lives, their own and their business’s. We view the process of creating, growing, establishing and ultimately exiting a business similar to the different stages of a human’s life cycle. Just as a person’s interests, motives and actions differ as they progress from infancy to the later stages of life, the considerations that businesses face vary from start-up to maturity. As in life, business owners need to nourish and develop their craft while utilizing internal and external experts, leveraging technology, focusing on innovation and leading their team into the future.