Our Flat Fee Planning Process

Fit Meeting

We’ll get to know each other and determine if we are a good fit to work together. We’ll chat about what you hope to gain from a flat fee planning engagement, your initial vision for retirement, and what is most concerning to you.

We’ll then chat about our process and how we can craft a plan together that will give you the confidence to rock your retirement. There is no commitment for this chat. It’s simply a chance for you to find out if this is something right for you. We won’t ask for a decision during our first session.

We will schedule a follow-up chat to allow you time to think it over and contemplate more questions. At the second session, we’ll see if you are interested in moving forward. If so, great! If you need more time to think it over, or you are not interested, that’s ok too! This is a big decision, and we want you to feel comfortable that you made the one that is best for you.

Gather Info

Before our first session together, you’ll gather information that will help us create the right plan for you.

• We’ll ask you to jot down your values. The plan we create together must be centered on those things most important to you.

• We will then ask you to list out your dreams and goals (your needs, wants, and wishes).

• We’ll ask you to identify any concerns you have. Don’t worry; we’ll help coach you here to make sure we capture what you are worried about.

• We’ll want to create an inventory of your assets so that we can assess how they match up to your dreams and goals.

Making Your Plan Feasible

Our first objective is to create a feasible plan of record. We’ll discuss and cast your vision of retirement, put numbers to it, and make an initial assessment to see if it’s feasible. This stage of the planning process is expected to take one to two sessions.

Output: Feasible Plan of Record

Making Your Plan Resilient

Once we’ve created a feasible plan, we’ll want to assess your plan’s resilience. We’ll subject it to a series of stress tests to see what might happen if you encounter some of the most challenging risks you may face in retirement (market downturn at the start of retirement, someone passes early, you live longer than expected, and more). We will then identify steps to help mitigate those risks. Our goal here is to make your plan as resilient as possible. This usually takes one or two sessions.

Output: Resilient Plan of Record

Optimizing Your Plan

We’ll then focus on optimizing your plan. During our meetings, we’ll discuss funding strategy and optimization opportunities to ensure distributions from your assets are aligned with the timing of your goals. We examine opportunities to increase tax efficiency and create an investment allocation that is aligned with your risk tolerance and your plan’s goals. We will then review drafts of your plan, along with the action checklist, until you are comfortable with the details. Expect the optimization stage of the planning process to take up one or two sessions.

Outputs:

• Optimized Plan of Record

• Draft Retirement Policy Statement

• Draft Success Checklist

Review

During the next 60 days, you’ll have full access to our planning software and your plan documents with the ability to adjust and assess additional “what-if” scenarios.

60-Day Follow-Up

After you’ve had sufficient time to review your plan, we’ll discuss any final questions, help in any areas you’re feeling stuck, and update your plan accordingly.

Outputs: Updated and Finalized Plan Documents