When my kids were younger, my wife and I learned a few valuable tactics to communicate with them when we needed them to do something. A simple example is when we were visiting a fun place, such as a park or a friend’s house, and the time to leave was approaching. We would tell them something like, “We are going to be leaving in 10 minutes, pick one or two final things to do so you don’t miss doing something you wanted.” Another example, as many young parents well know, is the time to begin getting ready for bed. We would apply the same rules and set the expectation that they will soon need to brush their teeth and get their pajamas on so they could get a good night’s rest.
My point in describing these things is that we found out early on the importance of setting clear expectations for the future and how the process would work to make sure everyone understood what was required. We also learned how we could achieve more positive, consistent outcomes by aligning our expectations.
In the same way, it is important to describe the expectations of how we communicate with our clients on an annual basis, including scheduled meetings, ongoing education, periodic deliverables, and our overall service model. If you are a current client, I hope this leaves you with a picture of the “ideal” relationship we hope to have with you. If you are a prospective client, my goal is to leave you with an idea of what to expect when deciding on whether to work with us.
Why Describe The Process?
As a financial planner of almost 14 years, I’ve seen multiple iterations of “the process” by which I worked with clients over a medium-long time period. Some of these processes were given to me by firms I’d worked for, others were ideas from colleagues, and others I came up with myself based on my personal experience.
In any case, I found that being able to clearly articulate this process to prospective clients was important as they wanted to know what to expect once they committed. Equally as important to being able to describe what the process was, is being able to articulate why we do things the way we do.
The main reason for an ongoing financial planning process is that holistic financial planning itself isn’t a one-time event, it is also a process that is ongoing and ever-changing. With all of the many complexities that are involved in our financial lives, there is simply no “set it and forget it” strategy. Note—I’m referring to holistic financial planning here, not just an investment management strategy.
The second reason for an ongoing process is because creating a process up front takes the guesswork out of the equation later on. We all, myself included, gravitate towards natural human tendencies and can get caught up with distractions, excuses, and forgetfulness. A defined process helps to keep everyone involved on track and accountable.
Before we go into the details, I’d like to point out that the majority of this post is focused on our ongoing planning process. However, if you’ve never worked with us before, we’ll first start with a condensed summary of our onboarding process so you can understand how this initial period works.
Initial Discovery Meeting
This meeting is fairly self-explanatory, but it deserves a basic summary. By taking time to set aside a meeting to understand your situation and financial needs, we can mutually decide if our services are a good fit for what you are looking for in a Financial Planner/Client relationship. We will ask a few general questions and some more specific questions in the hopes of getting the best possible idea of you and your unique situation without spending unnecessary time in the process.
Once we’ve gathered enough data to make an informed decision to move forward, we begin our Onboarding Process. Note—if you’d like more details about this meeting, please reach out to us and we’re happy to provide them to you!
To make things easier to understand, we created a visual of both our onboarding and annual planning processes:
Phase 1 – Onboarding
Once they make the decision to move forward, most people ask the question, “what’s next?”. Just like with our annual planning process, we will also follow a repeatable process that prevents guesswork from creeping in.
Our team has designed and developed our onboarding process from the ground up, so we are very familiar in using it to help our clients get started working with us. When we designed this process, we wanted to be effective and efficient in how we collect and deliver appropriate information to our new clients. However, we also wanted our process to facilitate an enjoyable, collaborative experience that is intuitive.
Another feature of our onboarding process is that all of the signatures and data gathering are completely digital, so there is no need to wet sign or mail anything back to us. As seen above, our standard onboarding process typically involves 2-3 meetings over the course of 2-6 weeks. This is driven primarily by availability of both the client and the planner, as well as gathering all of the appropriate data.
Our initial meetings include a Get Organized Meeting, Goal Exploration Meeting, and the final Plan Presentation Meeting. These meetings can be done in person, over Zoom, or on the phone. At the end of the onboarding process, we will provide prioritized action items, next steps, and any other appropriate recommendations.
At this point, it is mutually agreed upon as to when the next meeting will be. Since each plan is as unique as the person it represents, there is no one-size-fits-all approach from here. Typically, there are anywhere from 1-3 follow up meetings following the Plan Presentation Meeting to help accomplish some of the high priority action items. If there are multiple high priority items, there could be additional meetings, phone calls, and/or emails.
Once the onboarding process is concluded, we will then proceed into Phase 2: our Annual Planning Process.
Phase 2 – Annual Planning Process
As the visual above shows, there are three main components that make up our annual planning process: scheduled planning meetings in the Spring and Fall(Strategic Planning Meetings), Quarterly Deliverables, and Ongoing Education.
Annual Meeting #1 – Spring Strategic Planning Meeting
To begin, let’s start with our first Strategic Planning Meeting of the year(Spring). Due to tax season and the general freshness of the new year, finances are typically on the forefront for most people during this time. In this meeting, we cover taxes(you guessed it) from the previous year, risk tolerance assessment of investments, and current year tax planning including withholding, strategy, and planned taxable events.
Since current year tax planning stems from the previous year, we like to start with the previous year to create a scenario to build from. Many tax events are perennial, including retirement contributions, quarterly withholding payments, and dividends/interest income. Since many of our clients make charitable gifts, we also help to plan out a charitable giving strategy that is tax-efficient and tailored to their current year tax situation.
Risk tolerance review is another ongoing topic that we like to discuss at a minimum of every other year. It is a common misconception that a portfolio’s risk should be adjusted based on the market. However, a much more prudent way of achieving investment success is to adjust based on personal changes, not market conditions. Examples of these types of changes include employment, income(up or down), retirement, health, relocation, or other major life events. Evaluating risk in this way ensures that our investments are tied back to our lifestyle, not on the emotions that can be triggered from market uncertainty.
Perhaps the biggest part about our Spring Strategic Planning Meeting, and all of our meetings for that matter, is the ability to address anything that comes up outside of the “normal stuff”. This can be anything from family history with money, to job uncertainty, or how to communicate to your kids about money. As a comprehensive financial planning firm, we welcome the opportunity to help you navigate these “ancillary” topics. If they are important to you, we want to know what’s on your mind and if we can help, no matter how big or small the topic is.
Annual Meeting #2 – Fall Strategic Planning Meeting
Our second scheduled meeting of the year lands in the Fall. We like to schedule in this timeframe, as the summer high has typically worn off and a sense of normalcy and routine has returned for most. While we understand this can still be a busy time for some, there are still many benefits to meeting in this time, as it allows us to plan for the rest of the year with ample time to implement any changes or adjustments.
While the Spring carries the ongoing topic of taxes, the Fall is a little less consistent, so we like to cover a few topics on a rotating basis instead of every year. The two topics we typically cover during the Fall are Estate Planning(even years) and Property/Casualty Insurance(odd years). While these topics are important, we find that they don’t need to be covered every single year and every other year allows for a more effective review cadence.
During our Estate Planning review process, we act as a second eye over your estate plan, looking for inconsistencies or gaps between your goals and your estate plan documents. Some of the documents in a standard estate plan include a Living Will, Living Trust, Medical/Financial Powers of Attorney, and Advance Medical Directive. While we are not attorneys and don’t prepare estate plan documents, we can help to act as a guide to get to where you want to go and who you need to talk to.
During our Property/Casualty Insurance review, we will go over the documents that protect your biggest assets. The loss of a large asset can create an enormous financial hit to a family, so we want to make sure there is adequate insurance to cover the risk of such an event occurring. We will review your policies to assess if your deductible, out of pocket max, coverage value, and riders are included in your policy and how to adjust your policies if they are not. This can also be used in reverse if there are additional policy features that aren’t needed and can be removed to save money on premiums.
The Fall also presents an opportunity to review important year-end tax deadlines, such as intra family gifts, charitable donations, and Required Minimum Distributions. As I mentioned previously, charitable giving is one of our specialties, and meeting during the Fall allows us to combine many of these strategies into one to make it the most effective.
When and How: The Nuts and Bolts of our Process
Now that we’ve discussed what we cover during our Strategic Planning meetings, we will now discuss when and how we meet. Here is a general timeline of Spring and Fall “SPM Season” as we like to call it.
- Notification Email – 2-3 weeks before SPM Season begins – reminds clients of our process, general structure, rotating topic covered(Fall), and documents that we will need sent to us.
- Pre-Meeting Questionnaire – 1-2 weeks before SPM season begins—a link to our online questionnaire with 5-7 questions, including:
o General feelings towards financial situation/goals
o Risk Tolerance Questionnaire
o Tax Return Upload
o P&C Insurance Statements/Estate Plan Documents Upload
o Any additional topics you’d like to discuss with us during our meeting
o Link to Scheduling Calendar
Our general timeframe for SPM season is 5-6 weeks, beginning the week after tax day and ending the week before Memorial Day(Spring). Our Fall meetings are usually scheduled from mid-October through the week before Thanksgiving(Fall).
Quarterly Deliverables: Keeping Your Plan on Track
Beyond our Spring and Fall Strategic Planning Meetings, we provide customized quarterly insights and updates to keep your financial plan running smoothly. We want to keep you updated and informed on your financial progress, but we know you don’t always have time for a dedicated meeting.
To accomplish this, we tailor and compile quarterly deliverables to provide you with the necessary information and updates in your financial situation. The following is the general structure for our deliverable topics:
- Q1: Tax Letter– A detailed summary outlining key tax documents needed for your tax preparer.
- Q2: Tax Report Review – A post tax-filing summary of your tax return to identify planning opportunities and potential adjustments.
- Q3(odd years): Beneficiary Review– Ensuring your assets are assigned to the right beneficiaries.
- Q3(even years): Asset Analysis – A summary of your overall net worth, including investments and tax location.
- Q4(odd years): Estate Plan Review- Assessing and updating your estate planning needs to reflect any life changes.
- Q4(even years): P&C Insurance- Evaluating your insurance policies to ensure adequate coverage and appropriate deductibles.
- Year-End: Income Report – A breakdown of your total taxable investment income, including capital gains, interest, and dividends.
Ongoing Communication & Education
In addition to our scheduled meetings and quarterly deliverables, we also provide ongoing education through our blog, quarterly newsletter, and quarterly webinars. We cover a variety of topics throughout the year, including economic news, tax law changes, social security updates, charitable giving, and more.
As always, we are happy to go into more details during our one-on-one meetings or at any time throughout the year if you would like more information for your specific situation.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why only meet during set times?
As much as we’d like to meet with every single one of our clients every month, it would simply not be feasible or productive. Many factors, including work schedules, personal demands, family obligations, or just general busyness tend to push us all towards less frequent interactions.
However, just because we don’t meet as often doesn’t mean that they are less important. On the contrary, we believe that by purposely condensing our meeting seasons into a shorter timeframe, we create a greater sense of importance and desire to “get it done”. This sense of importance is two-fold, both for our clients and for us as well. For our clients, they know that they can expect to put forth a little bit of effort at the same time, and nothing takes them by surprise. For us, it allows our team to spend dedicated time and focus on providing the best possible outcomes for our clients, knowing that this season is specifically for that purpose. Our team can then use time in our “off seasons” to work on projects and initiatives that further expand our services and value to our clients.
What if We Can’t/Don’t Want to Meet during the Pre-Defined Periods?
The answer to this is simple. We are flexible. If you have other demands and you can’t make the time we’ve set aside, we are happy to work around it. Our main goal is to give our clients an open avenue of communication that you know is always available. We also understand that there may be seasons that are more hectic than others. However, we have generally noticed that our clients generally tend to revert back towards our structured schedule in the long run.
Can I just call you if I want to talk?
Absolutely! We want to hear from you, especially if there’s something on your mind. Please pick up the phone if you want to chat with us. However, we’ve found that most concerns that stem from fear or uncertainty generally decrease over time as we follow our process. Just as a dentist proactively monitors your teeth for potential risks, our process helps prevent “financial cavities” from growing into bigger issues.
A Proactive Approach to Financial Success
By following this structured annual process, we ensure that your financial plan evolves with you. This ongoing partnership provides clarity, confidence, and strategic planning at every stage of life.
Ready to experience our process? Schedule your Discovery Meeting today!
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