FINANCIAL PLANNING

What exactly is “financial planning”?

Financial planning takes a holistic, big picture view of you, your lifestyle, and your financial needs and priorities. Without this broad approach, it’s like trying to see out a window with the curtains half-closed. You need the full view to understand and make the right decisions about every aspect of your finances.

What does a financial plan include?

A comprehensive financial plan covers every area of your financial life, from investments and real estate to insurance and retirement planning. There are a number of financial planning areas that a comprehensive financial plan may take into account:

• Financial Management: Your current and projected future financial position, including cash flow (the balance of what you’re earning, spending and saving), budget and net worth.
• Insurance and Risk Management: Strategies to minimize your exposure to unexpected financial loss due to death, health issues, property damage, business and other risks.
• Investment Planning: Managing your investments based on past experience, attitudes, objectives, times horizon, risk tolerance and need for income.
• Retirement Planning: A plan for your post-employment financial well-being, comparing your desired retirement lifestyle with retirement assets, planned savings, expected sources of income and return on investment.
• Tax Planning: Your current and future tax obligations and strategies to minimize or defer taxation on personal and/or business income.
• Estate Planning and Legal Aspects: Estate planning includes arranging for payment of expenses and obligations after your death, as well as transfer of your wealth and other assets to successors as specified in and outside your will. Legal aspects cover your legal rights and obligations, including spousal and child support obligations or entitlements, third party obligations, shareholder, partner or trust agreements, and powers of attorney or mandates.

Source: FP Canada

Our Process is as follows:

1. Find out what your family’s dreams, hopes, goals, and desires are.
2. Benchmark your current financial reality.
3. Co-create the required strategies and plan that will enable you and your family to achieve your dreams, hopes, and desires in the time frame you have selected.
4. Execute your specific strategy in the following five key areas:
   • retirement and cash-flow strategies,
   • investment management,
   • tax planning,
   • insurance and risk management, and
   • estate planning.
5. Use a detailed checklist-driven, step-by-step process to ensure nothing is missed in the execution of your plan; and
6. Provide an on-going annual review of all aspects of your strategy and plan to make sure they remain aligned with what your family wishes to accomplish over time.